Genesis 5 lays out the generations of Adam in detail with each patriarch's name, age at the birth of his first son, the length of his remaining life, and his age at death...with one exception.
Genesis 5 SPECIFICALLY points out Enoch..."Then Enoch walked with the God...Enoch walked with God and he was not, for God took him." My bible commentary reads, "He walked with God, and instead of letting him die, God took him. In other words, Enoch went directly to heaven without dying, as will believers who are alive at the Rapture."
I've always been so amazed at that!! It's so easy to breeze right over lineages when they come up in the Bible because they "seem" so boring and repetitive. If you really think about it...it's really exciting! This lineage shows an exception of one man who walked with God and received a GREAT blessing! The lineage that Matthew opens up with...the lineage of Jesus Christ! ...Wow! When I was reading over that, yesterday, the first verse didn't really hit me, so until verse 15, I didn't really think about the fact that I was reading the lineage of Jesus Christ and when I got to verse 15 and read, "the father of Jacob," and it hit me...I had to put the Bible down for a moment, I was so excited! You see...there were SO many generations before Jesus Christ's time...God could have sent His Son ANY time He wanted and there was such a long time from the MAN-CENTERED PERSPECTIVE! I was so excited because reading this genealogy of Jesus Christ was a HUGE reminder that our God is a God of time. Good things happen in HIS perfect, appointed time.
Anyone had any "unanswered" prayer requests lately...?
Our God is a God of time. Good things happen in HIS perfect, appointed time.
God is good...all the time. =)
Anyway, going on to Genesis 6-7 which brings us into to the main message of this blog entry.
God was upset, "grieved in His heart," even SORRY he made man because there was so much ruling of the flesh all over the world that the world was filled with flesh-driven corruption and violence.
"The Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart."
Here...we see yet another example of man breaking God heart with our flesh-driven, sinful passions of the heart.
"Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually."
But one man proved differently. One man stood out in a world full of corruption and violence.
Meet Noah..."Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his time; Noah walked with God."
There you see that "walked with God" phrase, again.
Noah was obedient. He walked with God and obeyed Him to SUCH a degree that "Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord." Praise God! What an EXAMPLE! Raise your standards. We are not "of this world." Be "men of whom the world is not worthy of." Set your goals not to man's standards, but to God's standards to find favor in this present day of corruption!
We see His obedience repeatedly...
6:22 - "This Noah did; according to all that God had commanded him, so he did."
7:9 - "there went into the ark to Noah by twos, male and female; as God has commanded Noah."
7:16 - "Those that entered, male and female of all flesh, entered as God had commanded him..."
So...what comes out of obedience to God, to walking with God?
In this case...Noah's obedience saved his family.
"But I will establish My covenant with you; and you shall enter the ark - you and your sons and your wife, and your wons' wives with you." - 6:18
"This He blotted out every living thing that was upon the face of the land, from man to animals to creeping things and to birds of the sky, and they were blotted out from the earth; and only Noah was left, together with those that were with him in the ark."
By walking with God in faithfulness and obedience, Noah was spared and able to spare his family. OUr actions are SO important. They affect EVERYONE around us. In this case, it affected/saved Noah's loved one.
Parents, bless your children in your obedience and dedication and love to God.
Children, bless your family in your obedience and dedication and love to God.
Friends, bless your friends in your obedience and dedication and love to God.
Church members, bless your congregation in your obedience and dedication and love to God.
Everyone, bless strangers in your obedience and dedication and love to God.
Brothers and Sisters in Christ, bless your Heavenly Father in your obedience and dedication and love to God.
...Think about it.
Friday, May 13, 2011
Thursday, May 12, 2011
Prayer
Prayer
So…The other night, something really exciting happened and I really want to share it with whoever reads this blog!
I’ve been thinking about my prayer life, lately…A while back, Joyce Meyer had a few 90-second devotionals (It’s an iTunes podcast) about prayer and ever since then it’s been in the back of my mind. Amazingly enough, a couple weeks after that while looking through a devotional, Joyce Meyer was talking about prayer again. These devotions are two totally separate things. Well, every once and a while I get to thinking about my prayer life and it was strong on my heart Monday night.
I’m not necessarily unhappy with my prayer life, but I could definitely improve my prayer life. As I was thinking about this, I wasn’t really sure what it was I was wanting to improve. I thought about it…I talk to God regularly throughout the day every day. Sometimes it’s light-hearted, sometimes it’s a deep and serious prayer, sometimes I just laugh and joke with Him, ask questions, talk about random things, thank Him, etc... As I was thinking about it, I wasn’t sure what it was I wanted to improve other than “my prayer life.” I prayed over my prayer life and then I went straight to the Bible and looked up “prayer” in the index. That wasn’t quite what I was looking for…Then I remembered Mike Bickle’s lecture packet that he gave out at OneThing ’10. I was so excited because SURELY there had to be something about prayer in there! I looked under my bed where I keep all my note journals and stacks of bibles, pulled out last years journal and found the packet…opened up flat and quite bluntly to the FIRST page of the section, “How to Develop a Strong Prayer Life.”
At first I just kind of stared at it blankly in amazement and then burst into laughter, looking up and shaking my finger at God saying, “Oh yeah. You’re a funny one.”
Saying another prayer of wonder and awe and thanks, I dug into the 4, but POWERFUL pages of Mike Bickle’s lecture outline on prayer. Before, I had no idea what I was looking for, but when I started reading, I knew this was exactly it all along.
It really showed me that, #1: God is so amazing! And #2: The little things matter.
God is SO good and SO amazing and all-knowing!! Knowing that something as “simple” as leaving a lecture booklet folded open to a lesson for me to open on another day in the future when I am ready to finally understand and take in the information!!
But…there’s that word “simple” again, if you read my blog right about Genesis 1-2 (The Creator). It seems so simple from my man-centered perspective, when it was really something God knew all along, waiting for me to open my heart and mind to that message ever so patiently. <3
Wow!! I’m amazed. I love you, God! Your ways are so mysterious and amazing. What an amazing night. =)
I encourage you all to look up these AMAZING notes!!
Here is the 1-hr lesson from OneThing if you’re interested: http://mikebickle.org/resources/resource/3006?return_url=http%3A%2F%2Fmikebickle.org%2Fresources%2Fseries%2Fonething2010
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