Devotional Studies Through the Bible, Uncategorized

>Grieved in His Heart

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The Lord was sorry
that He had made man on the earth,
and He was grieved in His heart.
Genesis 6:6
In the account of the flood, we see a part of the heart of God. We see that He grieves. He grieved over the wickedness of man’s heart to the point of being sorry that He had even created man. I see God’s grieving heart, and I immediately go to my own life and wonder how much grief my sins have laid upon the heart of God. How many times did I break His heart; how many times do I still break His heart?
I took a trip to Poland with the March of Remembrance and Hope in 2006 and walked through Auschwitz and Majdanek and other concentration camps and spoke with Holocaust survivors. My eyes were opened to the severity of the wickedness of the heart of man and the fact that sin is a contagious disease.
The Word tells us that “bad company corrupts good morals” (1 Corinthians 15:33). I saw this verse lived out through the heart-wrenching stories of those who lived through this era of history.
Irving Roth was one of the survivors with whom I spent the most time. He also has written Bondi’s Brother, a book sharing his story. Irving shares in his book about a soldier that he met while he was a young teenage prisoner of Auschwitz.
This soldier had been wounded in battle and had been transferred to Auschwitz to recover. He had been around the world in battle. He was not aware of what these prisoner camps really were about, and he didn’t understand what Irving could have done to be there. Irving explained to the soldier that he was there because he was a Jew and these camps killed Jews.
The soldier thought this was crazy and even accused Irving of telling a fib. He knew there was a war raging, and he couldn’t understand why his country would be killing men who could be fighting for it. Irving tells how the soldier reached in his pocket and gave him a piece of candy, the first he had tasted in years.
Weeks later, Irving saw this soldier again; whip in hand, beating and cursing the Jews along with the rest of the Nazi guards. This soldier could have gone in and made a difference, but instead his morals were corrupted by the company he kept.
Oh, precious one, this is why we need Christ. God tells us in Jeremiah 17:9 that the heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick. This is a valid statement. If you attempt to deny it, you have never really looked at your heart.
In the account of the flood, we also see the reality of the judgment of God. He says that there is still yet another judgment to come, but this one will be final.
This is the hope God gives. He offers salvation from his judgment; salvation to those who humble themselves and walk in his ways and obey his Word. He offered an ark for a man named Noah. Noah was the grandson of Methuselah, the great-grandson of Enoch, the man who walked with God.
We must know that Enoch shared with Noah about the judgment that was to come, so when God appeared to Noah and told him to build an ark in the middle of a desert and told him that it was going to rain (something Noah had never seen) for forty days and forty nights, I am sure his great-grandfather’s words rang loud in his ears and in his heart. Not to mention the Creator of the universe, Elohim, had assured him of this truth.
God did not send His judgment without warning, just as His future judgment has not been and will not be loudly declared. We can praise God for the assured fact that just as an ark was prepared for any who would believe and climb aboard, God has sent us another ark, the Christ.
The sad thing is that in Noah’s ark there was much room. All who would believe were Noah and his family, yet God had allowed the design of the ark to carry many more, yet no more would come.
Just as there was room in the ark, there is room in Christ. There is room at the cross for all who will believe and come.
Oh Father,
Your heart breaks and grieves over the sin and fall of Your creation, yet even in our sin, Your grace abounds. You have never pronounced judgment without reaching out and offering salvation to any who would believe and come. Thank you for sending Jesus Christ, for in Him I am safe. He is my refuge and my shelter from the storm.
Thank you for not giving up on me and for sending people into my life to share with me about the judgment that is to come and about You, the God who judges sin but in His loving-kindness, has made a way for salvation from this coming judgment.
This sin, this disease, I receive at birth, I did not choose it; it just is, and in this life, my disease can become stronger and completely destroy me, but you sent the Great Physician, who can heal my disease and cleanse me.
Oh Father, I am so thankful that part of my salvation, part of the promise in the new covenant, is a new heart; a heart that no longer desires to sin, but desires to walk in your ways because it simply loves You and wants to please You.
My Jesus, be glorified in me.
In Your name I pray,
Amen.
Devotional Studies Through the Bible, Uncategorized

>People Get Ready

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Enoch walked with God;
and he was not,
for God took him.
Genesis 5:24
“Enoch walked with God.” This statement amazes me. Is there any greater acclamation than to be written down in history and remembered as one who walked with God?
At 105 years old, Seth had his son Enos; then men began to call upon the name of the Lord. They began to pray, to call upon God for salvation.
One hundred and thirty years had passed since the fall of man and their being cast out of the garden. Sin was here, and its effect on mankind already quite evident.
We know this from what is written in Genesis chapter four, murders and lust and disobedience to our Creator already abounding. Yet here in this son of Adam, the one called Seth, God begins His remnant. Man began to call on the name of the Lord.
Six generations from Seth, seventh from Adam (Jude 1:14), Enoch is born, and Enoch walked with God. We learn from the book of Jude that Enoch was also a prophet, the first man to be recorded as a prophet of God.
At the age of sixty-five, Enoch had a son, and his name was to be Methuselah. Methuselah’s name means “when he dies, it will be sent.” I believe God let Enoch know that judgment was coming upon the earth. God let Enoch know when it was coming through the name of his son Methuselah. Methuselah would have a son, Lamech, and Lamech would have a son and name him Noah. In the day of Noah, God would send judgment upon the earth.
There is more for us to learn from Enoch’s relationship with God. He “walked with God; and he was not, for God took him” (Genesis 5:24). Enoch did not experience the great judgment that would come in the day of Noah because he died a physical death, but because God took him.
Through Enoch’s experience I believe we can see a picture of the rapture of the church: “Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord” (1 Thessalonians 4:17).
Today the church is here. We are here walking with God. We have a relationship with God. We are calling on His name. We are to be telling others about the judgment that God has said is yet to come. We as the church are to be sharing the gospel of God, just as Enoch did, and one day before the great day of judgment comes, just as God took Enoch, He shall take His church.
My friend, if He came to catch up His church today, would you be ready?
Oh Father,
You are so good. How awesome it is to know that You are the living God. You are not made with stone or wood. You are not a God that I pick up and have to carry. You are a God that carries me! You are a God that walks with those who call upon Your name. I do not have to search You out, nor do I have to travel miles to a temple built by the hands of men, for You come to me.
Oh Father, that I would never take for granted the relationship that I have with You. That I too, will be recorded as one who walked with You and called upon Your name. How exciting it is to think of being caught up with You in the air. My Father, I love You and I am humbled to even be able to call You Father. Thank You for loving me.
In Jesus’ name I pray,
Amen

Confessions of a Christian Wife, Proven Path Ministries

>Time’s Up

>Today is the 10th anniversary of 9/11. This day ten years ago I was substitute teaching at West Morgan High School while my husband was at work and my three month old baby girl was safe at her Grandmother’s. I remember this day like it was yesterday. I remember the jaw dropping sight of the one smoking tower, and I then remember the hand over my mouth in utter disbelief as I watched the 2nd plane fly into the 2nd tower, and then I remember my hand to my chest and I remember no longer being able to stand when I heard the news on the Pentagon, because I knew then this was an attack on our nation.

Immediately I wanted a head count of all those I loved. Where were they? Were they safe? My husband left work and came to me at the school and then we went to his mother’s to be with our baby and his mother. My Father-in-Law was on lock down at the arsenal… a prime possible target. We lived on pins and needles for a while…

Then we went to war… we still are at war.

The churches did flood that day and for months after.

Hate was stirred that day as well.

Then “tolerance” was pushed in our nation like it had never been pushed before.

I would like to say that our world was turned upside down for good on that day… but sadly I cannot. All we have to do is look at the change in our prime time t.v shows to see which way our nation flipped.

Touched By An Angel had a prime time slot, Cosby, Sister Sister, Home Improvement, Wonderful World of Disney, Promised Land, Kids Say the Darndest Things, America’s Funniest Home Videos, etc.

What has those prime time slots in this day?
Think about it…

What I have learned is that when we realize that life is short we will increase the desires of our heart. You want to know the real state of your heart? What is your initial response to “You have one month left to live, how will you spend it?”

Is your answer “Wow how much of this world can I soak in and enjoy before my time’s up?”
Is it “I need to experience sex with as many different people as possible now, before I miss it?”
Is it “Alright let’s go to Vegas and LA and New York and fly to Paris and live it up?” 

(This mentality to me is about the same as saying, hey I am going down and I want to take as many as I can with me, I will stand either condemned or ashamed before God and I want you to as well)

When we discovered the men who committed the acts of 9/11 what did we learn about their last days? Days that they were fully aware were there last days?

Compare this with our Saviour. How did He spend His last days? Days that He was fully aware were His last days?

Whose example should we follow?
Man’s or Jesus’s?
We are in the last days… how are you spending them?

“God,
after He spoke long ago to the fathers
in the prophets
in many portions
and in many ways,
in these last days
has spoken to us in His Son,”
Hebrews 1:1-2

I believe our nation has exposed its heart in these post 9/11 days… Instead of our nation turning to God and seeking to grow in holiness and purpose, we showed ourselves to be filthy, and a pig that loved to wallow in it’s filth, a dog that returns to its vomit…

“And he said to me,
“Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book,
for the time is near. 
Let the one who does wrong, still do wrong;
and the one who is filthy, still be filthy;
and let the one who is righteous, still practice righteousness;
and the one who is holy, still keep himself holy.” 
“Behold, I am coming quickly,
and My reward is with Me,
to render to every man according to what he has done.
 I am the Alpha and the Omega,
the first and the last,
the beginning and the end.” 
Blessed are those who wash their robes,
so that they may have the right to the tree of life,
and may enter by the gates into the city.”
Revelation 22:10-14
 
So the time is near. We are not promised tomorrow. If you knew you were on borrowed time… would your desire be to soak up and enjoy more of the lust for the pleasures of this world or would your desire be to get even busier setting others free from the chains of slavery that are embedded in the momentary pleasures of this world?
 
If your time’s up, how do you want to spend each borrowed minute that is left?
 
 
 
 
Confessions of a Christian Wife, Proven Path Ministries

But God

If anyone has taken a class with me they have heard me comment about how much I love the “but’s” in the Bible.

“But God” is a phrase that encompasses the hope that is within the veil that is the anchor of our very souls.

We were in the depravity of our minds, the deceitfulness of our hearts, and the wickedness of our actions… BUT GOD!

How beautiful these words are as we look up from the pits we have dug with our own hands… but God 🙂 

Below is a letter from an email prayer update I receive from a beautiful woman of God who leads precept classes in a women’s prison… don’t miss the “but God” and when you finish reading please also lift Mary Alice up in prayer as she goes to the front lines to teach the Word of God to those that a lot of us would never even consider as having hope of repentance and entrance into the kingdom of Light… but God… 

“For while we were still helpless,
at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 
For one will hardly die for a righteous man;
though perhaps for the good man
someone would dare even to die. 
But God demonstrates His own love toward us,
in that while we were yet sinners,
Christ died for us.
Romans 5:6-8

Dear Praying Friends,

2:30pm class:  Before class I noticed Virginia’s gigantic smile and couldn’t help but ask, “Virginia, what’s up?”

You won’t believe what the Lord has done!  I have been down (incarcerated) for 39 years!  I’m 73 years old!  They wouldn’t even give me a parole date!  The chairman of the parole board told me last time that I was lucky she was retiring because, there was no way she would grant me parole!  Well, there she was, sitting on the board again.

My lawyer leaned over to me and said, ‘This doesn’t look good, she’s back.’

And I told him, ‘God is in control of my future, not this board.’

Virginia said, “When I entered the room, I smiled at everyone….they smiled back!”

“It’s such a wonderful feeling when you know God is in charge,” she noted to me with absolute assurance. “Much to everyone’s surprise, they observed the change in me and granted me parole, my date is in March 2012!”

She continued her story, “I did some really bad things in the 60’s, she hung her head and whispered something about teamsters, Jimmy Hoffa, smuggling drugs and guns to Mexico.  I hurt everybody I came in contact with and if I do get out, somehow I want to make it up to them.  Especially my family and friends.  I caused a lot of pain, MaryAlice.  I caused a lot of pain.”

“Virginia,” I comforted, “We can’t make up for the pain we’ve caused people.  But what we can do is received God’s forgiveness and offer our sincere apologies.”

“Oh, I have,” she interrupted, “Everyone of them have forgiven me.  But I just feel like I need to do something for all I’ve done.”

“You can, Virginia,” I encouraged, “Please God by growing in Him and serving Him and He will take care of the rest!”

She proceeded to tell me about how mean she was and that she was sent to different prisons all over the US to house her.  “Some states didn’t want me,” she recounted.  “I was really bad.  I would slash officers if they got even close to me and if I couldn’t reach them I would slash myself,” she said as she held up her arms so I could see the scars.  “I was a wild man,” she shook her head, “But God….”

“Oooh, my favorite two words,” I interrupted!

“Mine too,” Virginia agreed.  “But God kept sending officers and health workers and even a warden to me who didn’t give up on me.  Who were compassionate and kind.  I would get even meaner, but they just kept being kind until I couldn’t take it anymore…I couldn’t be mean…how can you be mean to so much compassion and kindness?  It broke me!  I cried and cried.” (That’s a BIG deal in prison, no one admits to crying!)

I thought to myself…the love of God compels me…His mercies are new every morning…

Virginia changed from that day forward…it’s been 10 years since that day, but the last year has been a huge change!  She is totally sold out to our Jesus!  She handles the Word with accuracy and can make application.   Wow!  But there’s more…

When you break a law in prison,  “Bad points” are applied against you on your record.  The most “good points” you can earn in a year to remove the “bad points” are 8.  Virginia has over 400 bad points against her still but the parole board intentionally overlooked those due to the remarkable transformation!  “It’s God, MaryAlice, it’s God!  There’s just no other explanation for it!  I didn’t ask for anything, I was content with ‘whatever you want, Lord’  and look what He did!”

“Therefore if anyone is in Christ,
he is a new creature;
the old things passed away; behold,
new things have come.” 
2 Corinthians 5:17
 
Devotional Studies Through the Bible, Uncategorized

>Must Be Alive To Die

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Adam had relations with his wife again;
and she gave birth to a son,
and named him Seth.
Genesis 4:25
God’s mercies are new every morning. Adam and Eve grieved over the death of Abel, and in their grief, God blessed them with Seth. Seth called upon the name of the Lord.
A distinction was now made between those who would go the way of Cain and those who, like Seth, would call upon the name of the Lord. The distinction is so great and so evident that when God inspired Moses to write the book of Genesis, there is no mention of the death of Cain or the death of his children.
On the other hand, with the generations of Seth and his descendants, beginning with Seth’s father, Adam, God made the point to say, “And he died.” For someone to die, he must first live. Cain never lived.
There are many like Cain who appear to be alive but are not connected to the life, and so therefore, are already dead.
An illustration of those without Christ can be seen in a vase. We can see a beautiful vase of flowers on a table. The flowers appear to be alive and thriving. You can even smell their fragrance and touch the softness of their petals, but if you return to that same vase of flowers a week or so later, the truth is made evident. Those flowers in that vase are now wilted and slimy, and they stink. Death has made itself evident.
The flowers only appeared alive for a short time because they had been cut off from their life-giving source. Now, someone who knows more about flowers than I do could have taken those cut-off flowers and placed them back into their life-giving source and those flowers would have lived.
We are like those flowers.
In the garden, when sin entered the world, we were cut off from our life-giving source; we were separated from our Creator. We may appear alive, but left without him, we too become wilted, slimy, and we stink. Death makes itself evident. Cain remained dead in spirit, and his children followed him. Never coming to God to receive life, they merely existed, and then existed no more.
Oh Father,
The death of your children is precious in your sight (Psalm 116:15); the death of the righteous, those who have called upon your name and waited for your promise. Even though they did not receive it in this life, they waited. Father, your Word is true, and they died believing your Word was true. They believed in the promised seed before he came in the flesh, and that faith, that belief, brought them life then as it does me now. Father, I pray that my life will count. Thank you for my life in Christ, for I did not even know I was dead until I finally lived.
In Jesus’ name I pray,
Amen.

[Since the publication of this book I have continued my research and study in the Scriptures. I would like to share some insight that I have gleaned concerning the verse that speaks of Seth calling upon the name of the Lord. At first I interpreted this verse to mean that Seth began the generation of prayer communication between man and God, but after further study, I believe it is much more. As we study further in the Word we discover that when men called upon the name of the Lord it was usually a cry for Him to move on their behalf, to deliver them from an enemy or an oppressor, it was a cry for help. If we consider the placement of this chapter in God’s Holy Word we have to notice that this reference of calling upon the name of the Lord, precedes the chapter of the flood and follows the chapter that speaks of the murders of Cain and Lamech. I believe that Seth’s call upon the name of the Lord was the righteous ones calling upon God to deliver them from the great oppression of the wicked that now filled the earth… thus the flood. Seth’s calling on the name of the Lord was much more than a simply prayer of fellowship it was the same cry we see over and over again in the Word of God clear up to Revelation 6:9-10 “I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God, and because of the testimony which they had maintained; and they cried out with a loud voice, saying, “How long, O Lord, holy and true, will You refrain from judging and avenging our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” ]
Confessions of a Christian Wife, Uncategorized

The Angry Voice

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confessions

The other day I was fixing supper and my youngest came into the kitchen to tell me about something her big sister had done to her. She came in explaining in her poor pitiful me voice that her big sister was getting on to her in my “angry voice” and was acting like she was her momma.

What? My children? My little precious bundles of joy recognize that I, the one who gave birth to them has an “angry voice” and it is “my angy voice“?

I was shocked!

Well not really…
Yes, I have an angry voice and yes, I use it.

At first I felt condemnation at this realization? Am I not to be kind? Am I not to be sweet tempered? Am I not to be gentle?

Oh I hear sweet soft spoken mom’s who never seem to “lose it” with their children…

I hear them and I think. I will do better. I will become like them. I will remain calm always. I will become even tempered if it kills me. But alas this red-head (yes, I shall blame the red-head, I have it and I shall use it, lol) along with my touch of Irish blood (you know “the fighting Irish”) just seems to get me every time.

The most frustrating thing is that the “angry voice” does not rise up out of my throat until my sweet voice has already asked at least twice, there just is something about that third time…

But somehow, for some strange reason, my children amazingly seem to comprehend my words and act upon my request the moment the “angry voice” emerges.

Sometimes I feel as though I should just skip the polite requests and just jump straight to the “angry voice”

As I have pondered my “angry voice” I was reminded of a passage in Isaiah…

 Again the LORD spoke to me further, saying,
 “Inasmuch as these people have rejected
the gently flowing waters of Shiloah
And rejoice in Rezin and the son of Remaliah; 
“Now therefore, behold,
the Lord is about to bring on them
the strong and abundant waters of the Euphrates,
Even the king of Assyria and all his glory;
And it will rise up over all its channels
and go over all its banks.”

Isaiah 8:5-7

And here it is. The children ignoring the gentle sweet voice of their Father, not seeming to hear Him at all… then comes the “angry voice”.

Have you ever been on the receiving end of the “angry voice” of God?

How many times has God gotten to the point that He has had to use His angry voice simply because we will not obey the sweet gentle sound of His small still whisper?

I do not believe that God enjoys having to whip out His angry voice to get His children to hear and obey Him anymore than I enjoy having to use mine to get my children to hear and obey me.

Now the “angry voice” is not to be used to belittle, bash, or abuse, it simply is re-stating the exact same request in a more forceful tone, the “I mean business, now!” tone.

My angry voice is usually preceded by the question “how many times do I have to tell you to…?“

And it usually ends with the “do you understand me?” or “if I have to tell you again it will be with the belt“

I don’t enjoy disciplining my children. I don’t enjoy the angry voice. I would much rather they choose to simply do what I ask, when I ask them…

Hmmmm… I am sure my Heavenly Father looks down upon me with the very same sentiment.

Devotional Studies Through the Bible, Uncategorized

>Attitude Adjustment

>

But for Cain and for his offering
He had no regard.
So Cain became very angry
and his countenance fell.
Genesis 4:5
I have to admit that on a casual reading of this particular passage of Scripture, one could easily think God was a little unfair. I have to confess that I once held that thought. However, what I have learned in my walk with God is He is never unfair. Taking a closer look at this passage, at this famous story of Cain and Abel, so very much can be seen.
God is our Creator, and He will be honored.
God had regard for Abel’s offering because his offering came according to God’s way. In the garden after the fall, God slew an animal to cover Adam and Eve. This animal was slain to cover their sin. Here God showed them that “without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness” (Hebrews 9:22). Abel brought God an animal from his flock as his offering. Abel also brought Him the firstlings. God is deserving of our first priority and deserving of our best.
For Cain’s offering, God had no regard because he did not come with a blood sacrifice, and he came in the course of time and not with his firstfruits. Yet even in Cain’s blatant disregard and lack of respect, God’s hand of mercy extended out to him.
God remained patient with him, and He gave him guidance and encouragement. He instructed him on what he needed to do, how he needed to do it, and gave him a warning concerning the sin of his heart.
Oh, precious one, our Creator is still patient with us. He has instructed us on what we need to do. We need to come to Him through the blood of Jesus Christ. He has instructed us on how we need to do it. We come to Him by grace through faith. He has given us a warning concerning the sin of our heart. God’s Word, His commands and precepts, show us the truth, and by them we are warned because by them we see that our way is different from God’s way. We then must choose to heed God’s warning and submit to his way or disregard this warning and experience the consequences.
Cain continued to disregard God and His word of warning, and in this he hardened his heart. This hardening led to jealousy and hatred toward his brother, which ended in Cain murdering Abel.
When we ignore God’s warning, when we blatantly disregard his commands, our hearts grow hard. When our hearts grow hard, we lose our sensitivity to sin, and in this state we can do things we never dreamed we would be guilty of doing.
God cast Cain from his presence. Even in this judgment we see Cain’s hardness of heart. He showed no remorse or repentance, only concern for the greatness of his own judgment. Cain was self-centered, not God-centered. His offering and his reaction toward Abel demonstrated the state of his heart.
In the book of Jude we read, “But these men revile the things which they do not understand; and the things which they know by instinct, like unreasoning animals, by these things they are destroyed. Woe to them! For they have gone the way of Cain” (Jude 1:10–11). Cain did not understand why God would only accept the offering if it came according to His way. Cain wanted the offering to be according to his instinct of what was right. Cain refused to accept God’s way by faith. He chose to act according to his own understanding, and by this he was destroyed.
My friend, we may not completely understand God’s ways, but let us accept them by faith and trust the Holy Spirit to bring us into understanding.
Oh Father,
You are God. You are holy, and You will be treated as holy. You will be honored, and You will be exalted. You know my heart. You know my coming and my going.
Oh Father, may I always give You my best. May my walk with You always be priority in my life. When I fail You and Your Holy Spirit convicts me of my sin, may I always be quick to confess and repent. May my heart always be soft and eager to be molded by You. Thank You, for Your mercies are great and Your love endures forever.
In Jesus’ name I pray,
Amen.
Devotional Studies Through the Bible, Uncategorized

>Never Without Hope

>

And he said to the woman,
“Indeed, has God said,
‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?”
Genesis 3:1
In Genesis 1:31, God saw all that He had made, and He said it was good—very good—and He rested.
Somewhere between chapters 2 and 3 in Genesis, Satan attempted to set himself up as God. We get a glimpse of his rebellion in Isaiah 14:13–14: “You said in your heart, I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God … I will make myself like the Most High.”
God cast him out of heaven and down to earth, and one third of the angels followed him. In Revelation 12:9 we read, “And the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.”
Never again in Scripture does God say He presently rests. In fact, He now says He never sleeps nor slumbers (Psalm 121:4), but a sabbath rest is waiting (Hebrews 4:9). We now are engaged in a battle, a battle “not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:12).
Satan was cast out of heaven into a serpent. While in this serpent, Satan remained not only under the dominion of God, but under the dominion of man, for man had been given dominion over all the living things on the earth. This, Satan would not have, so he came and deceived Eve. Then Adam listened to the voice of his wife and chose to disobey God. In this one act of disobedience, “sin entered the world and death through sin” (Romans 5:12), but God was not surprised.
In the fall of mankind, God shows us how great His mercy and kindness is and how far His grace extends. In the ugliness of sin, His glory still beautifully shines. We see the truth of God’s Word and the fact that His Word is for our benefit. His words are an illustration of His love, and when they are obeyed, they result in giving and sustaining life. Yet even in our disobedience, his love abounds.
God is perfect in wisdom, and He knows all things. He knew Adam and Eve believed the lie of the serpent and had disobeyed His command, and yet He gave them the opportunity to first come to Him and confess what they had done. God gave them the opportunity to repent.
He listened patiently to the blame game and pointing of fingers. When it came time for God to deliver His judgment, it was just, for He is a just God. He cursed the root first, the tempter.
Before our Creator cursed man and the earth, He first laid out His redemption plan. God did not leave Adam and Eve without hope, and He does not leave us without hope. He did not eradicate the consequences of their actions, but in their repentance, He gave them hope. God’s mercy and grace continued as He shed the blood of an innocent animal, the first blood sacrifice, to cover the shame and nakedness of a sin-aware Adam and Eve.
In his mercy He cast Adam and Eve out of the garden so that they could not eat of the tree of life and live forever in their sinful, decaying state. Outside the garden, sin would claim its wage, physical death (Romans 6:23), but also outside the garden, redemption could be found. God had promised a seed, and that promised seed was and is Jesus Christ (Galatians 3:16), and all who trust in him even though they die, they shall live (John 11:25).
Satan was out to destroy man’s relationship with God, but all he succeeded in doing was showing Adam and Eve how very great God’s love was for them when he forgave them for their disobedience. My friend, do you know how great his love is for you? Do you understand that He has “forgiven you for all that you have done” (Ezekiel 16:63)?
Do not listen to the lie of the serpent: “Indeed has God said” (Genesis 3:1). Know that yes, God has said and all that God has said is true. Know, my precious one, that when God speaks, He speaks out of the essence of who He is and “God is love” (1 John 4:8) and in His words are the power of life.
The same God that reached out to Adam and Eve in their sin is the very same God who is reaching out to us in our sin. His arms are outstretched, and his voice cries “come” (Revelation 22:17).
Oh Father,
That I would never forget Your great love for me, nor the open arms You hold out to me. I fail; even as Your Holy Spirit-filled child, I fail. I still stumble, and sometimes I have eyes that don’t see and ears that don’t hear and a mind that’s been deceived, but still I am Yours.
You promised You would never leave me nor forsake me (Hebrews 13:5). This is the hope I have that is in Christ; if I confess my sin, You are faithful and righteous to forgive me and to cleanse me from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9).
Oh Father, I am so grateful to be Yours. My Jesus, I am so thankful for the hope that I have in You. I love You, my Elohim.
In Jesus’ name I pray,
Amen.
Devotional Studies Through the Bible, Uncategorized

>Covenant of Marriage

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Then the Lord God said,
“It is not good for the man to be alone;
I will make him a helper suitable for him.”
Genesis 2:18
The earth was ready. The garden was ready. The man was ready, almost.
God breathed life into Adam and placed him in the garden to keep it and cultivate it.
God showed him what to do … and what not to do.
God told him that he was free to eat of all the trees of the garden except one—the tree of the knowledge of good and evil—and he told him that in the day he ate of it, he would “surely die.” (Genesis 2:17)
Then God brought beasts out to the man, and he took ownership over them by giving them their names.
God looked at man, and God looked at the beast, and He knew He was not yet finished with His masterpiece.
Man still needed a suitable helper.
So God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and as he slept, God took from his side a rib. From this rib God fashioned a helper. God awoke the man and presented to him his gift, and the man said, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; She shall be called woman” (Genesis 2:23).
This woman, this gift from God, was taken from his side, close to his heart. She was not taken from his head to rule over him or to be ruled by him. She was not taken from his feet to walk all over him or to be walked all over. She was taken from his side, to complement him, to be his helper, to be his friend. The man was given responsibility over his woman, not dominion. She was bone of his bones and flesh of his flesh.
Then God said, “They shall become one flesh” (Genesis 2:24), the first blood covenant.
Our Creator is a God of covenant.
A covenant is a solid, binding agreement that is made by passing between two pieces of flesh. It supersedes all other relationships and contracts. It is an unconditional agreement.
God created the marriage covenant. In this covenant we also see another picture of our triune God. In the book of Ephesians we read that the husband is to love his wife as Christ loves the church (Ephesians 5:25). When God chose to create the woman he called her “a helper.” In John 14:16, Jesus tells the disciples that the Father is going to send them a helper. This helper is the Holy Spirit.
In a marriage covenant, we have God as the head, we have the husband who is to love as Christ, and we have the wife, the helper. Do you see the beautiful image of the Trinity of God that is displayed through the covenant of marriage?
Oh precious one, God provided all for man. He met his physical need, his emotional need, and his
spiritual need. He walked with him. He talked with him. I imagine He laughed with him. God’s work was complete, and on the seventh day he rested. He rested not from fatigue, but because He simply was done. His masterpiece was completed.
Oh Father,
I can only imagine how those days in the garden must have been; You and the man and the woman—no sin separating the relationship. The joy and the peace of life in the garden is almost unimaginable for me. Yet, because of Your Holy Spirit within me, I can close my eyes and fall before You in complete worship and adoration. I feel the hope of Your peace, the hope of my utter joy complete in You.
In the creation of woman, I also can see a picture of my life in Christ. On that cross a spear pierced my bridegroom’s side, and by the blood that poured out from His side, I was able to become His bride.
Oh Father, I love You, and I am so excited to be the bride of Christ.
Oh Father, may I be presented to my Bridegroom “as a pure virgin”
(2 Corinthians 11:2).
My Jesus, it is in Your name I pray,
Amen.
Devotional Studies Through the Bible, Uncategorized

>Created For His Pleasure

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Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness.”

Genesis 1:26

How many times have you read God’s Word and never seen “let us” and “our image”? So many times I read this phrase and never realized what it said. It does not say “let me” or “my image.” God uses plural words to speak of Himself. The beautiful Trinity is once again seen so clearly if we will only look. 

God, three persons in one, made man in His likeness. God gave us just a small insight into who He is in His creation of man. Man is body, mind, and spirit. We are in a sense a triune being.

God also illustrates His likeness to us through the dominion that he gave man over the earth. God holds dominion over all. He is the supreme, sovereign ruler over all creation, and in His likeness He created man. He created man to also have dominion, dominion under His authority; on this place he called earth.

God created earth for man. God designed it to be able to sustain our life. He created every provision we would need for life before He ever fashioned Adam from the earth. He is a God of order and detail. God forms, and then God fills.

He formed the sky then filled it with stars. He formed the water then filled it with fish. He formed the land and then filled it with beast. When he commanded the earth to sprout forth its vegetation and commanded the trees out of the ground, they came fully grown, ready to reproduce. 

When all was ready and good, God created man.

God created man to have fellowship with Him. God created man for His own pleasure. God created you for His pleasure.

Zephaniah 3:17 tells us that God will exult over us with joy and will quiet us with His love and rejoice over us with shouts of joy. We are formed by the hand of a Holy God, created in His image, according to His likeness, and we are filled with the breath of His life.

This was our beginning, but as we go further into Genesis, we will discover how we lose our dominion and even more frightful, how we lose the likeness of the image of our Creator. But oh, precious one, our Creator has not forsaken us. Jesus Christ, God the Son, has come, and in Christ, we once more begin to bear the image of our Creator. 

In 2 Corinthians 3:18 we read that in Christ we are being transformed back into the image of our Lord from glory to glory. We were created bearing the image of our Creator and having dominion over the earth under the authority of our God, and only in and through Christ can we, to this purpose, be eternally restored.

Oh Father,

You created us with intent and purpose. You created us because You wanted us. You created me because You wanted me, and not just for a short time; You created me for eternity. You loved me so much that when mankind fell, You sent Your Son to earth in flesh to make the way for me to return to my eternity with You.

Someday, my Father, because of my faith in Christ, I’ll get to walk again in the garden with You. One day I’ll see Your face. One day I’ll be held in Your embrace. Oh Father, thank You for loving me.

In Jesus’ name I pray,

Amen.

The writing and teachings of Nicole Love Halbrooks Vaughn