thursday 2nd september 2010

Thursday 2nd September 2010!

Genesis 4: 18- 4:16, Matthew :1-18 and psalms 2: 1-12.

So on Thursday we read that God decided it wasn’t good for man to be alone- Genesis 2: 18. So he then formed beasts and all birds using the dirt from the ground just as he did with Man. (v 19). And he named them, however he was still lonely so God in recognition of this, cause the man to fall into a deep sleep and took out one of his ribs and formed a Woman, then brought her to him in which he called her, Women. God making a suitable helper for him. Okay we know these two humans as ‘Adam’ and ‘Eve’. This comes from the Greek words for Man and Women. Just a little fact for you there.
Okay so Adam and Eve became one flesh and God performed the first marriage ceremony in the Garden of Eden. They were left and allowed to roam and eat from any tree except’ ‘The tree of life and the tree of knowledge of good and evil’, otherwise, ‘they would surely die’. Now there was a crafty serpent in the garden. Who set himself out to temp Eve and succeeds by saying she’d become more like God if she was to eat from It. He was implying that God was selfish and over controlling by not wanting to share his knowledge of Good and evil and by doing so she’d have to eat from the tree. Now it is not wrong for Humans to aspire to be like God, it is a part of His plan and by doing so was to be obedient to God in order to be rewarded. So to not eat from the tree was good and to eat was bad leading o sin and unleashing evil. Uh oh! So in consequence of this they was punished and banished from the Garden. Adam was to work hard for food by working the ground, And Eve’s labour pains was to increase and the Serpent was to remain for all time travelling on his belly and eat dirt.

So Adam and Eve get it on and as a result have two children, Cain and Abel. What happens later on in their lives? Well Cain kills Able out o f jealousy because Abel gave a far more substantial offering to God. God finds Cain and asks where his brother is? ‘Am I my brother’s Keeper?’ There’s something I love about this daily reading of genesis. The fact that God asks Cain where is brother i, knowing full well that Cain had killed him, then earlier when he asked Adam and Eve if they’d had eaten from the tree again knowing that they had. God gives them a chance to come clean /repent and be honest about their sin, but that weren’t which lead to them being banished/exiled and punished.

I love the fact although they sinned God still walked on the earth and has close contact with his creation. Cain was so worried that someone would take revenge and kill him in return that God puts a mark of protection on him. No matter what, God will protect you whether you’ve sinned or not. We come to the reading in Matthew where again he protect his son from being murdered because of king Herod’s jealously because The King of the Jews had been Born. And Jesus was perfect in every way. So today’s theme is Protection: No matter what you do God will protect you. This is along as you obey him and trust that he will, This means keeping yourself from temptation and not acting on impulse. Like Adam, Eve and Cain. They did consult God first, always ask him first and maybe Christian peers.
Also as we won’t be meeting until Wednesday just pray that you won’t be tempted and ask god for strength so you can overcome it. May the peace of the lord be always with you.

Tara.x