Happy New Year

Today is the "first day" of reading - Welcome!  God has blessed me with time to blog; hence, I blog.

Blessings for the new year.

I saw many attributes of God in today's reading...I am sure there are many others. 

Here is a start:

Eternal
Community
Powerful
Creative
Orderly
Thoughtful
Good
Life giving
Considerate
Loving
Wise
Guiding
Planning
Asthetic

I see God and the Holy Spirit pointing to Christ by Genesis 1:3 with the statement, "let there be light."

I see God as a protective father giving instruction in 2:17, not eat of the tree.

I see humanity "adding to" God's word (perhaps wandering astray) in 2:17 when Eve adds to God's instruction with the phrase "and you must not touch it" (about the tree).

I see the devil lying to Eve in 3:4 "when you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God"
That lie flys in the face of God's creation of man in 1:26 when God said "Let us make man in our own image."

I see God's frustration with the whole situation in 3:11-19.

I see God's provision for man by making garments in 3:21.  This too points to God's provision for us in a sacrifice for our sin, Christ.

I am unclear in the statement of the LORD  God..."the man has become like one of us knowing good and evil."  I have many questions about that.  Does only God know good and evil?  Does only Jesus know good and evil?  The Spirit...(doubt the Spirit is the one)?

I think of God's kind, loving consideration by putting the cherubim and flashing sword (awesone image) to protect man, in his fallen state from eating of the tree of life.

Just think about the vision of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and contrast it with the image of the tree of life (ultimately a cross on Calvary)....Which one would you eat from?

Just think about how different the world would have turned out if Adam and Eve (us) listened to and followed God's word and stayed in His will.  What if Adam and Eve had just eaten of the tree of life and avoided, not looked at the tree of the knowledge of good and evil?

Where do we not listen to and follow God's word and will?

What if we avoided temptation by asking the Spirit to turn our head away from sin and had not looked twice?

I think about the power of God's word,  Recall the start of John's gospel....In the beginning there was the Word and the Word was God...

Paula read to me out of Our Daily Bread today.  I want to share a portion of the reading before I close today.

"Sometimes, I think in our devotional reading, we treat God's Word like an express buffet.  We wolf it down as fast as we can and wonder why we haven't learned very much.  Like physical food, spiritual food needs chewing!...long time Christians...speed read through passages we've read many times before.  ...in doing so, we miss what God is meaning to show us.  ...when we learn nothing new from that passage.

Let us not come to the Bible as an express buffet.  Only by meditating on God's Word will we get the most value for our spiritual well being."


I pray for God to bless our time in the word and to give us the time management skills to be in the word daily.

(Be sure to look at the time lines at the start of the Bible)

In Christ,

David P