Category Archives: genesis

Genesis 2 At Last

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I work with the high school group in my church, and let me just say what an incredible adventure it has been hanging with these awesome young people. I learn so much from them and are faced with tough questions that force me to constantly examine my faith and why I believe in the marvelous God that I love so dearly. Today, they have also presented me with a new opportunity; we are going to read the Bible in a year together, using the GroupMe app to encourage and hold each other accountable. I am so excited to begin this new journey through the Bible with these incredible teenagers; it also gives me the added bonus of reading passages of the Bible that I normally would gloss over or ignore. I am going to try to write on one of the assigned passages each day – forcing me out of my comfort zone and teaching me to see lessons and applications in each portion of God’s Word.

Today is the first day of our reading, and so we start at the beginning: Genesis 1-2 (among others like Psalms 1, Matthew 1, and Acts 1). But it is Genesis 2:18-25 (ESV) that captures my imagination today:

Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” 19 Now out of the ground the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. 20 The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him. 21 So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. 22 And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. 23 Then the man said,

“This at last is bone of my bones
    and flesh of my flesh;
she shall be called Woman,
    because she was taken out of Man.”

24 Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. 25 And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.

How I love that God gave Adam the opportunity to see what he was missing. God created each living creature and had Adam name each and every one before Adam realizes that there is no partner for him. Then God creates woman, and Adam breathes, “at last…”

How I love that God will never force us into anything. He knows long before we do what we need, but He waits until we see that need before He gives. We need to see what we are missing so that when God gives it, we can breathe the words “at last…” and have joy and thankfulness in our hearts. We need to see our own limitations. We need to know that no matter how hard we try, there are simply some things that we cannot do for ourselves. We cannot force another to love us; we cannot force a company to give us a much-needed job; we cannot force our children to walk a righteous path. We have to see our need, our helplessness so that we can see it when God provides. What appreciation would we have for God if we never saw the things He provided?

When we are faced with our own limitations, it humbles us and gives us compassion for those who are in need. When we recognize our helplessness, it drives us to help those in their own moments of helplessness.

How I thank God today that He gives us the opportunity to see our helplessness and uses those moments to grow us as people of compassion and grace, and into a people of thanksgiving. My prayer for today is that we would not be scared of our own limitations, of the things that are completely out of our control; my prayer is that we would welcome these moments as opportunities to see God at work! Ultimately, that is one of the best parts of recognizing those things outside of our control – we get to see God come through again and again and again. Our faith grows exponentially every time we see Him fulfill the needs which we cannot fulfill on our own. Praise Him for these moments, and wait with expectation knowing that soon God will pour the blessing upon you, and you can finally breathe the words “at last…” and praise Him for His continued love and faithfulness. Amen!

Genesis 4:7 But you MUST RULE over it.

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I am doing my reading for my Angelology and Demonology class (coolest. class. ever.) and stumbled upon this gem in Genesis 4:6-7

The Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it.”

The first thing I notice is the phrase, “if you do well.” In Hebrew this phrase means if you “do the right thing, or the beautiful thing.” I just love this: the beautiful thing. Can’t you just see that the good things we do in this life are beautiful to your Creator? Don’t you think they make Him proud, fill His heart with joy for you because of the love you are sharing? I can just imagine Him watching us do beautiful things for others with a smile on His wonderful face and a tear in His eye because not only have we blessed others with our actions, but we have blessed His incredible name. Truly, loving and serving others in the name of Christ is doing beautiful things in the sight of your heavenly Father.

When we do these beautiful things, we not only bless others and bless God, but we ourselves are accepted and lifted up, according to the original Hebrew translation. This word can also mean “exalted,” which follows exactly what Jesus said in Matthew 23:12, “Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, but those who humble themselves will be exalted.” Even as early as Cain, God has taught us that the only way for our spirits to be uplifted is by humbling ourselves. We are not made in a way that makes sense to the world. The world tells us to lift up our own names, to be seen and respected; however, when we exalt ourselves, we are left strangely empty. There is no refreshing peace or calm that invades our spirits when we lift up ourselves – only an emptiness than can never be filled. It is only when we serve others that we are filled with joy and blessing in abundance. It is truly a conundrum, but if you doubt the Bible’s words, I dare you to put it to the test. Find a way to serve someone with no expectation of receiving payment; love them in a way that you would not normally do and see if it does not uplift your soul in an inexplicable way. Go do a beautiful thing and it will be exalted in the heavenlies, all the way to your Creator.

The second thing that catches my eye is that when we do not do good works, we invite the tempter to our doors. “And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. It’s desire is for you.” I just get such a visual through the imagery of this verse; I see a rainy night, a poorly lit front porch, with a snarling face awaiting in the shadows. 1 Peter 5:8 says, “Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” Don’t you see a theme here? The tempter is stalking you, he is on the prowl, in your doorway, waiting to devour you. When we do not do the right things, we signal him like a beacon to our doors, and he is ever-ready to pounce. Peter tells us to be watchful – to be ever-vigilant – lest we become his next victim.

The incredible thing, though, is in the last part of Gen 4:7b: but you must rule over it. You know what this tells me? We can have mastery over not only sin, but over the tempter himself. Hallelujah, anybody?! Sometimes, it seems like we are being attacked on all sides; like we are in the pit drowning in the muck. BUT. We are masters over sin. In Christ, we are already victorious! In Christ, we have been given the victory. In Christ, we have already defeated the tempter and EVERY stronghold of sin in our lives… We simply have to claim it. I LOVE Deuteronomy 20:4:

For the Lord your God is he who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies, to give you the victory.

See, Beloved, we do NOT serve a God who leaves us to fight the battle alone. No. We serve a MIGHTY WARRIOR KING who goes before us, standing with us in the fight, and HE gives us the victory. Romans 8:37 says we are more than conquerors through Christ and he leads us in the victory procession (2 Cor 2:14).

John 8:38 says it best, “So if the Son has set you free, YOU WILL BE FREE INDEED.”

CLAIM YOUR FREEDOM!

Through Christ, we are more than conquerors over he who prowls and awaits your failure. We all fail; we fail God, we fail ourselves, we fail loved ones. However, through Christ even our failings can bring about victory. Let him FREE you from the chains of sin. Let Him go before you and clear the way; Claim your victory.

FOR I AM FREE INDEED.

AMEN AND AMEN.