Brotherly Hate

Reading from Genesis 4 NIV

So we continue on to see what happens after Adam & Eve are kicked out from The Garden.

They have two sons, Cain & Able.

I'm sure most of us are very familiar with this story.

So Cain & Able both offer sacrifices to God & God didn't look on favor on Cain's.

Able gave the best of what he had, but Cain just gave 'some of the fruits of the soil'. In the same way, God knows our hearts, so we should really give Him our all, our very best all the time.

I really liked verse 7.

"If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it." I'd say it's definitely worth memorizing!

It really reminds us that one sin leads to another & so on.. We must really be prepared and have to strength to stop it right away & not 'let it in'.

This time I read the passage I especially noticed one thing

Cain's brutality.

It was quite a small matter. God favoured Abel's offering over Cain that one time.

Cain could have changed and given his best the next time, I'm sure God would've forgiven him.

But instead, he kills his only brother.

That's pretty brutal if you ask me.

Did God strike Him dead right away?

Did God say He hated Him & completely forsook him?

No.

God did punish Cain, but He still loved him.

He was still watching over Cain as he wandered the earth.

That really reminds me, that even though there are terrible people out there, murders, terrorists, God still loves them just as well. We are definitely not to judge them, but instead, we should love them just as God loves as they have God's protection just as well as we do.

Then it goes on to list Cain's descendants.
What Lamech said to his wives really pointed something out to me.
It reminds me as generation passes onto generation, sin will manifest. It'll get worse. Along time, each generation slowly crosses the line & more sins become more acceptable in society & it's only going to get worse. In response to this, there not  a moment to lose to stand stronger in our faith as the pains & toils in this world are going to get harder & harder, especially for Christians.

Last of all, God replacing Abel with Seth is a great reminder that hope never dies out. If God didn't replace him, I'm sure there would be a slim chance of anyone righteous on the face of the earth, it would be completely corrupted. But out of Abel's ashes, rose Seth, which we will see eventually leads onto Noah :)

Godbless~

The Serpent

Reading from Genesis 3 NIV

Well this is basically where all goes wrong.
Only if we didn't screw it up...

But what's happened is the past.

Do you think you would've been able to reject the serpent? To not eat the fruit?
After having a closer look at what happened, I admit I would've fallen for it just as easily.

So after all God created, the perfection.
Yes, everything was perfect. Take a moment to imagine that.
A perfect breeze, healthy green lush trees, a clear stream, or whatever perfect may feel to you.
It would've been completely bliss nonetheless.

Then now in this chapter, the Serpent decides to taint it.
He decides to ruin EVERYTHING.
If only He didn't exist right?!

Just that in itself should make us hate sin so much.

So the passage starts us with the account of the serpent.
I think that in this first part we can learn ALOT about the enemy & how he works.
In turn, we can learn how we can defend ourselves and win the battle against him.

So when he first approaches the woman, he right away asked "Did God really say?"
He questions the rule.
I think this is really powerful. It makes us think right away, did He say those exact words? I think it makes us start to doubt what God said in the first place. In our context today, it's like us questioning "is this really so bad?"

Guess what the serpent's answer was..
"it isn't", or "you will not surely die" in the passage.
He right away counters us, he makes a firm stand against what keeps us right. It must have been quite convincing to the woman, that he seemed so sure of himself. It also was probably what the woman wanted to hear, she wanted permission from someone to eat of the fruit.

Then the serpent continues with his persuasion, now by twisting the truth.
He could have just told her that she would know good & evil, but he didn't. On top of it, he told her she would be like God. Now that certainly isn't true.
The devil will mix lies along with the truth alot of the time to convince us to sin.

So after this ordeal, the serpent wins~

Its says.
"When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom"

That 'also' really stands out to me. Maybe it implies that before meeting the serpent, the woman already saw that the fruit was good for food & pleasing to the eye? Maybe she had already kind of considered eating the fruit before, but the risk wasn't worth taking?

But now, the serpent gives her another really good reason, which causes her to fall.

When both the man & women eat of the tree, they become tainted.

I'm sure God would've known right away, but He still decided to look for them & call out to them.

It really shows that God is slow to anger, & that He's a God that gives us chances.

One question that came to mind is "what if there was no response?"
What if the man & woman just kept hiding from God & didn't answer Him?

What do you think would've happened?

I'd like to hear your thoughts.

So now they know God knows.

I would imagine they were like so nervous.

Have you ever done something pretty bad & wasn't found out for a while? You'd become super paranoid to any sign that someone might have found out. You'd be completely nerve-racked. That was probably the man & woman as they were hiding & then being questioned by God.

So when God asked "did you do it", Adam's first reaction was blame-shifting.

He didn't admit it, he didn't want to be deemed as wrong. He was probably afraid.

We're probably like that alot of the time, it's our natural response to our guilt.

Then God turns to Eve.
Adam was probably like "whew" & so relieved God bought it.
But of course, God knew Adam was guilty.

So some messages God spoke to me this time.

He reminded me that Satan will question us, make us doubt Him, & tweak what we believe to make us vulnerable to His temptations. So in turn, we really need a solid foundation in God's word, the truth. Then we cannot be shaken by anything.

How God cursed everyone in the end, even though He didn't accuse Adam of being wrong straight away really reminded me not to take any sins lightly. Alot of the time, there's 'little things' that I do which I know I'm sinning, but it's so small I just let it pass. But here, I'm reminded that it does matter, God knows, & will punish us unless we change.

Lastly, from here, we see how God closed of The Garden from humanity once and for all. From this point, humanity was dead spiritually. It was the end of everything good.
But now that God sent Jesus to die for us, He opened the path for us once again. It's a once in a lifetime opportunity, we definitely don't want to miss it.

Godbless~

The Serene Place

Reading from Genesis 2:4-25 NIV

So this where things start happening.
Where God's creation start living out their roles.

Reading through this, I can really feel the peace of the place. There was no sin yet, it was all perfect & good in God's eyes. It's almost like a glimpse of heaven.

I found verses 5-7 very descriptive & specific. Like "no shrub of the field had yet appeared on the earth" & "no plant of the field had yet sprung up". I think here the Bible is using images we can relate to, or at least the people of that time could. It's about agriculture.
I think the idea from this is that the land was basically dry & barren in a sense. It may not be literally the images painted, but that's the idea for our understanding.

I always wonder why God put the tree of knowledge of good and evil there whenever I read it. It is when Adam ate the fruit that kicked him out of the garden. God knew it would happen & He still created it. Feel free to share any ideas about this.

I think verse 7 is a really important verse.
"the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being."

The living being part really stands out to me. It really sets us apart from the rest of creation. It shows that living isn't just about being able to survive, to eat, drink, sleep, have a good time. Animals can do all of those things. What living is really about, is being alive because of God & for God.

When talking about the rivers, it's all very geographical with the names of places and stuff. When I read it, the place names has no meaning to me at all. But I'm sure there's more to this. It's probably lost it's meaning nowadays, but back then, all those places probably had a significance. It might have been a beautiful and majestic area. That's why the places were named, maybe for emphasis

Now onto the command about the tree, the reason behind why sin came into the world. I think it actually wasn't the reason that Adam ate the fruit that got them kicked out. I think it's more of the idea behind the intention. Adam disobeyed God, he questioned Him, he didn't completely trust Him.
So even though God said that they'd die if they ate from the tree, it wasn't the fruit that caused the chaos, but the meaning behind the whole command & disobeying it that did so.

At the end, no shame from feeling naked.
What do you guys think? I personally think this is pretty spectacular.
Nudity & all that sort of stuff is considered profane nowadays, it's really disapproved. But here, nudity was basically the same as having clothes on. Also, there was probably no lust involved. Adam probably didn't look at Eve's naked body & think lustfully at all & vice versa. With all the pornography & stuff around nowadays, that is truly an amazing thing!

So onto applications I picked up from reading this time.

I think this is a great passage to get to know God better.
We can see that He really likes life, by watering the ground so plants could shoot up, & breathing the breathe of life. So we can also conclude that He doesn't like death. Death isn't His plan for us, He wants us to have eternal life with Him. We can also be assured God isn't happy when we experience death of close ones.

From the command God gave Adam, not to eat the fruit, it wasn't very clear & there was no reason behind it. I'm not sure if Adam questioned it. But we can really learn that God requires us to trust Him so that we can have a solid relationship with Him. He may test our faith alot of the time to test & strengthen our relationship with Him.

Also, when God said "It is not good for man to be alone" He meant it.
We aren't made to be alone. We are made for love. We are capable of love. To love there needs to be at least two peers. So however alone you may be, or you want to be, keep in mind you need someone.

So that's basically what I picked up from this passage this time around.

Godbless~

A God who is THE beginning.

Reading from Genesis 1-2:2 NIV

This is a must read when reading the Bible.
It's the very start of all existence; of everything.

Keep in mind though, this is The Bible.

It isn't a Science text book.
It won't show the chemical reactions to how it all happened.
It won't show the physics to how it all works.
It doesn't show the biology to how life existed.
So don't read it like one.

Don't try to understand how God did it.
You'll be left with no answers & most probably with doubts 'bout His existence.
He is God & every aspect of Him is far greater than us.
There's no way our tiny minds could ever understand.

He created the whole world all by Himself.
That's all you need to know.

So let's have a look at some things that I noticed when reading it this time around.

In verse 1, the word "formless" really stood out to me.
No form at all.
Not one dimensional, not two dimensional, not three dimensional...
Imagine that.. Not even a 'dot'.
It was nothing.
That's pretty amazing if you ask me.

Something new arose to me in verse 4 this time I read it.
"God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness."
It made me think, that since light was good & He separated it from darkness, is that a theme of good & bad coming in already? So darkness is given a bad impression already.. four verses into The Bible.
I never actually noticed it.

In verse 6-8, when He created the sky, I always thought it was just the sky above, & waters below. But after reading it more clearly now.. It seems there's sky under AND above the sky.. Hmm, wonder what the water above refers to.

I'd also like to point out that when God created stars, their purpose was to "give light on the earth".
The word earth is very special. It didn't say for mars or any other planets, it says earth. This shows how we as humans on earth are chosen by God. We can be assured there's no parallel universe or alien species that God has chosen as well as us.
We are the chosen. The only at that.

When God created land animals, it seems there were three categories of them. 'Livestock', 'creatures that move along the ground', & 'the wild animals'. I found that quite interesting.

Now onto when God created mankind.
One thing really stood out to me this time, which I never actually noticed before.
"Let us make mankind in our image".
It doesn't say "my image". It really reminds us that God is really special.
So we are a reflection of every aspect of God. The Father, Son & Holy Spirit.
I never actually thought 'bout it that way before.

Here's one question that really struck me after reading this.
Why did God decide to use six days to create the Earth? He could have easily done so in one second if He wanted. It's really interesting to me.
Maybe He wanted to categorize all He created for us to understand a little better.
What do you think?

Some important points I picked up this time.

In the beginning, God was already there.
There is no beginning to God.
He's always existed.
God isn't limited by time.
He just was, is & always will be.

Also, this account of creation is really 'impossible' if we try and logically explain it.
Don't try to.
God just requires us to know He did all this & to acknowledge that He's able to do things like this. That His power is infinite.

It really helps me set my mind right to read the rest of the Bible.
We really shouldn't try read the bible with a "logic cap" on.
Alot of the miracles & events in the Bible will never be able to be understood by our human logic. That's what faith is all 'bout, abandoning all logic to believe God just because He is.

This beginning to the Bible also sets the scene for us.
It's all 'about God.
He exists.
It's all about Him.

We only are something because He decided so.
We're dealing with something so much greater than ourselves here.
It should completely humble us.

These are some of my thoughts from this passage.
Hope you enjoyed it.

Godbless~