Heavy

Reading chapter 7 in Genesis brings a heaviness upon my heart.  It must have done the same for God.  Death to his creation because as the Scripture records “human evil was out of control”.

There is a gap in the words.  The author tells us the flood waters took for 150 days.  GAP.  Then the scripture records, “Then God turned his attention to Noah…”

I wonder if this was a period of grief, heartbreak, and sadness.  It’s easy to set God up as a stoic being which gives life and takes it away.  I think that is a poor picture of God.  I really believe God was devastated, his creation chose everything and anything but him.

25

Happy 25th Anniversary to Family Bible Church!  This Saturday and Sunday we will be celebrating together.  Join us if you are able.

Different

From Genesis 6, “Noah was different.  GOD liked what he saw in Noah…Noah was a good man, a man of integrity in his community.  Noah walked with God.”

Being different is the trend.  But not so different you are weird.  See it’s just enough of a difference to be like another group of people who are different so you’re not completely different.  My favorite right now is the 80’s rock star look.  I’m considering it…pink hair, colorful splashes of color on my clothes…I could be cool again.

Noah was different.  So different, he was the head of the lone family God saved before he wiped out the world.

Here’s side note: have you ever thought about how horrific this event was?  I could not imagine knowing everyone was going to die except for your family and then hearing them outside the door of the ark.  Wow, there’s some darkness to brighten up your day.

Back to Noah.  Different.

When

When something “good” happens in your life…how do you respond?

When something “bad” happens in your life…how do you respond?

In chapter 4 of Genesis, we hear the story of Cain and Abel.  Quick recap, Abel was faithful with what God trusted him with and Cain was not.  God warns Cain to watch out for the sin which is ready to pounce.  Cain ignores God, engages in that sin and kills his brother Abel.

Cain is punished by God and the Message says, “Cain left the presence of God and lived in No-Man’s-Land.“  Cain deserted the faith, built a city, and declared for irreligion, living as sons of men, as John Wesley writes.  Further on in the story, Adam and Eve have another son, Seth.

After his birth in the Message, I was struck by these words, “That’s when men and women began praying and worshiping in the name of God.”

What was it about his birth?

Naked

There is no doubt this post will get many hits, simply do to its title.  To you who are looking for porn, welcome,  sorry no porn here but I encourage you to read on and see if anything might strike you deep within.  Also, for some of you who normally read this blog, this post may be a bit different then normal.

From Genesis 2, “The two of them, the Man and his Wife, were naked, but they felt no shame”

Nakedness was God’s original design.  In a sin free, perfect creation, nudity was normal, natural, and again…God’s design.  Scripture says, Adam and Eve were naked and the felt no shame.

People often have had dreams they are naked and in front of a huge crowd of people or at the store.  There is no doubt these people are embarrassed, fearful, and would be horrified if it really happened.

Creative

This is one of my favorite passages in all of scripture because it shows God’s creative nature implanted deeply in man and woman.

I say I am not creative but the truth is I have not allowed the creativeness deep within my be unleashed.  We are each called to create, to change, to name things in our world.  See how God used Adam in this way…

From Genesis 2, “GOD formed from the dirt of the ground all the animals of the field and all the birds of the air.  He brought them to the Man to see what he would name them.  Whatever the Man called each living creature, that was its name.”

It would have been easy for God to tell Adam the names of the animals but rather he wanted Adam to create, to partner with him in creation.  I still believe God wants to use each one of us to partner with him in creation.

Image

I’ve not shared thoughts for a short while, so back to Genesis to catch up.

From Genesis 1 (The Message), “God created human beings; he created them godlike, reflecting God’s nature.  He created them male and female.”

We are conditioned to see God as “He”, “Father”…as a man, we simply characterise as male.  I hate to break it to you…God is not a male, nor is God a female.  God is Spirit.  Our language limits us.

Consider the first paragraph in the Bible, it tells us God created the heavens and the earth but before this happened, God’s Spirit brooded above the watery abyss.

Look again at the verse above.  We are created godlike, we reflect the image of God.  This is both male and female.  Each gender reflects God’s nature.

So, if you’ve only ever considered God to be male, what characteristics of God have you been missing?

Pray

“Great is the LORD in Zion; he is exalted over all the nations.” -Psalm 99:2

Above is a picture of my mentor and friend.  He is a border guard in Israel in the midst of the conflict with Gaza.  If you remember him and his family, please cover them in prayer that the Lord would protect and provide.

Wicked

This Christmas, our Aunt Joyce took us to see Wicked in Detroit as our Christmas gift.  Us kids loved the day we spent with her and the show was amazing.  We had some great seats and loved the story.  We did not know the story before going that day.  After the show we went to this 100 year old Italian resturant called Roma’s.

Thanks again Aunt Joyce.  We loved the day!

Elephant

Jo and I love our small group.  This is a great group of people we dearly love and love sharing our life with.  The picture above and below are from our annual white elephant Christmas party.  Once again it was a quality event with some great gifts.