Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Genesis Chapter 4 - The Consequences of Choices

Let’s take a look at the First Family of the Bible. The first created man and woman, Adam and Eve, procreated with God and gave birth to two sons, Cain and Abel. Cain was a farmer and Abel was a shepherd. They both brought offerings to the Lord, but God did not accept Cain’s sacrifice. However, He looked on Abel’s with favor. Could it be that Abel gave his best, and Cain offered only leftovers? Because of his jealousy, Cain killed Abel. God punished the world’s first murderer by sentencing him to wandering the earth. However, God put a mark on Cain so no one would kill him. After that Adam and Eve had another son named Seth.

Here we are only in the fourth chapter of the book of beginnings and we already have a murder. It doesn’t take long for sin to fester and boil over. What began with a wrong choice for Adam and Eve has now cost them the life of their son. We never know how far reaching will be the results of the choices we make.

Before Cain had committed murder God warned him, "Sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it." Those are good words for us to give heed to. There will always be the temptation to sin as long as we walk this earth, but with God’s help we can overcome that temptation.

God does not want us to choose evil, but to choose Him. He gives us nudges along the way that He is there for us. Only when we become determined to have our own way, as Adam, Eve, and Cain had done, do we become mastered by sin. We need to count the cost of our choices before we so willingly and thoughtlessly make them. Each choice has a consequence and an outcome. What price are we willing to pay for the choices we make?

Saturday, April 26, 2008

Genesis Chapter 3 - The Sorrow of Self Will


We are only in the third chapter of the first book of the Bible and we already have temptation and sin to deal with. satan did not waste any time in taking a leading role in this play. God had graciously made man and woman in His image so that He could have fellowship with them. He gave them everything to enjoy, and only one rule to obey. Obedience to that one rule would mean happiness for everyone, but Adam and Even discovered that disobedience to that one rule brought unbelievable turmoil into their lives. They now knew fear, guilt, shame, and evil. Because of that knowledge they would also know death. How sad they gave in to the tempter so easily and lost all that they had cherished. Here’s how it happened:

The serpent tempted Eve and she gave in to her sensuous desires. She then enticed Adam to join her, and he also gave in. They ate fruit from the tree that God commanded them not to eat from. Only one tree in the whole garden was forbidden…and they could not resist. They thought it would make them equal to God, knowing good and evil. Notice how cunning satan is in his deceit. Being like God did not seem like a bad idea to Eve, but in essence she was choosing to be her own god. She would be able to make her own choices, with no one to stop her. The other method satan used on Eve was to make her focus on the one thing she did not have, and she overlooked all that she did have. It would be good for us to make note of the ways of satan so that we do not fall for his traps. We need to check our motive for the things we do, and we need to focus on the positives in our life, not the negatives.

Because of their sin, God cursed the perfection of the world He had created. The serpent would crawl in the dust and be hated; the woman would have pain in childbirth; the man would have to toil hard to provide food; and humanity would return to the dust from which they were created. The pain of death, both physical and emotional, was the ultimate curse. The rest of human life would be affected by this one act of disobedience. No longer would anyone come into the world perfect and holy, but rather we are all born with a sinful nature. Jesus Christ, conceived by the Holy Spirit, is the only one ever born without the bent toward doing evil.

Another part of Adam and Eve’s punishment was banishment from the Garden of Eden. This was to keep them from eating of the tree of life. If man ate from that tree he would live forever, but that privilege was surrendered by his punishment of death. Oh the sorrow of disobedience to God…the cost is so great. Pleasure for a season is far too expensive of a price to pay.



However, there is good news. We must remember that God is also a God of forgiveness. When we do disobey, we may still have to suffer the consequences, but we can be forgiven and someday be delivered from this world of sin to live with Him forever. This forgiveness is available to us because of the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ. His blood is the only price that will cover our sin. In God’s omniscience He already had another plan in mind to redeem mankind. God is love, no doubt about it.

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Genesis Chapter 2 - The Love Gifts of God

A day of rest…doesn’t that sound good? God knew how essential to man’s well being that a day of rest would be. Therefore He provided for it when He created the seventh day. He had been at work all week creating the world and all that was in it, but on the seventh day He rested.











God made this day of rest a holy day, a day set apart from the other six. If God needed to rest, how much more we feeble human beings need to do the same. The hectic world we live in today could easily push us over the edge if we do not schedule that one day out of the week to set apart all other activities and give our bodies, minds, and souls a day of peace and refreshment. Do yourself a favor…follow God’s leading and take a day of rest. You earned it. You need it. Go for it!



God has many ways of displaying His love for man. After He created the most beautiful garden on earth, He placed His first human being there to enjoy it all. Adam could walk among the trees that were pleasing to look at, and also produced very tasty food to eat. He could sit on a river bank and watch the water flow so gracefully through the garden...water that was also fun to play in. What a lush surrounding God had created for Adam to bask in!



What delight God must have had in seeing the pleasure that Adam took in the beauty of the garden. Then, one by one, God brought all of the animals and birds that He had created in a parade before Adam. Wanting to bring His new companion into partnership with Him, He gave Adam the honor of naming each living creature. I wonder if God and Adam laughed together as Adam would look at the different sizes and shapes of the animals, amazed at God’s creativity, and then he would call it something like "rhinoceros"





or "hippopotamus"








or "kangaroo". It did not matter what Adam named it, God gave him the final say.






God also gave man the gift of freedom. Adam was free to choose whether he would love God and fellowship with Him...or live selfishly to himself. God planted a tree in the middle of all the other trees in the garden, calling it the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God told Adam he could eat freely of all the trees in the garden except that one. If Adam ate fruit from that marked tree, he would be disobeying his Creator. That would mean that his fellowship with God would be broken...death would occur. This gave Adam the freedom to choose love rather than the command to love. Love is not genuine if it is demanded of someone.



On top of all of these expressions of God’s love to man, God also recognized Adam’s need to have a companion in fleshly form. Out of Adam’s own body the Creator formed Eve. God blessed their union and made them one. They were free to enjoy each other as they frolicked in the garden of paradise that God had provided for them. Talk about having your cake and eating it too…besides each other, they also had fellowship with the Creator Himself!





What a utopia…what more could they ask for? What God had created was good...it was pure...and it was holy. Life was perfect. Too bad the story does not end there, but if it had perhaps we would not be here. We will learn more about our roots as we travel through Genesis. We have much to discover about our ancestors, as well as ourselves.

Are you ready? Take up your Bible and let’s go!

Saturday, April 19, 2008

Genesis Chapter 1 - God, The Awesome Creator

Don’t you just love fresh new beginnings? There is something about having a blank slate with no smudges that makes one feel like he or she can conquer the world. It’s like standing on the top of a mountain looking at the other sparkly snow covered peaks around you...peaks where no man has been...no imprints...no dirt...just fresh fallen snow glimmering in the sunlight. You take a deep breath of fresh air and feel its sharpness rush through your nostrils and down your wind pipes, and you just feel "clean all over."

You stand there and ponder the awesomeness of this scene from nature and the One who created such beauty...One who was there before the mountains existed, or the sun shone, or the breezes blew.

Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. (Genesis 1:2)




Don’t you wish you could have been there---to observe God with His clean slate...to hear Him speak and see the world take formation?

We were not there. Nobody was there, but God. However God knew His creatures would be curious, and so He gave us Genesis -- the first book of the Bible...the story of creation...the beginning of everything that exists. As we begin to read how He created day by separating light from darkness...


  • how He created sky by separating the mists of the air from the water of the earth...



how He formed land by separating dry ground from the seas...



and how He planted all of the vegetation...

we begin to get a sense that this Being is some kind of artist!




We look at His slate again and we squint as we see the bright orange glow of the sun.






At night we look up and study the big round moon to see if we can see a face on it. Then the stars start to twinkle around us...and we begin to think this is better than any fireworks display!! Before God is finished creating He:



puts birds in the sky,




cattle in the fields,







  • wild animals in the forests,




  • and fish in the seas.






To top it all off He decides to make a being in His own likeness and calls this being man, and gives him authority over all the other creatures.

You shout out in ecstasy, "Brilliant!! How did you do it, God?"

He turns, He looks, and He sees that He has made everything perfect. He is pleased with all of His creation, calling it good...very, very good.

Did I say only God was there that week? You need to know that God, the Creator, is three dimensional, and we find that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit were all present together at creation. We know this by what is written in His Word:

God the Father: And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. (Genesis 1:3)

Jesus the Son: For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. (Colossians 1:16 - refers to Jesus - see context)

The Holy Spirit: The Spirit of God has made me; the breath of the Almighty gives me life. (Job 33:4)

All Three: Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground. (Genesis 1:26)

Think about this: we were created in the image of God…perfect…no flaws! Since God is holy, this means we were also created holy. That original nature created in us changed to sinful because of choices that were made by the first man and woman, as we will discover very soon in our study of Genesis. I look forward to when we again shall be made like Him, restored to perfection.

Lord, I desire a perfect heart, holy and acceptable to you. May this study lead me to become once again more like you. Amen.