"In the Beginning"

I have always liked the first three chapters of Genesis.  Its a part of the Bible that I feel where I’ve literally sucked the marrow of.  Why would God create a creation like that described in Genesis?  Why jump through all those hoops?  I’ve asked and pondered those questions for some time and I’d like to share some of my thoughts.

It seems to me that for Genesis to make sense, we need to understand that it is out of chronological order.  While Genesis starts with “In the beginning…”, Jeremiah 1:5 says “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart…”  For me, this means the following; If HE knew me from before HE formed me, then HE knew me in all my sin!

What HE did then is just unbelievable!  As an act of HIS will and HIS love, God proceeds to create a creation that will address my condition as a sinner!  Genesis 1:3 “And God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light.”  The ‘Light’ that is being talked about here is the Spirit of God and this is the foundation over which God builds the rest of creation.  Literally everything has its basis, its foundation, in the Holy Spirit.  Immediately after that, the Lord places the very first level of protection for us; Genesis 1:4 says “God saw that the light was good, and He separated [emphasis mine] the light from the darkness.”  This separation is important, in fact, vital!

The definition of separate is: to set or keep apart, to sever contractual relations, to block off, to isolate, to become or cause to become disunited or disjointed. May imply any of several causes such as dispersion, removal of one from others.  If the light is the Spirit of God and HE separated the darkness from the light; then what is this darkness?  The darkness is evil itself, the enemy, Satan.  With this separation in place, God established two things; first, Satan could have no part of whatever was done under the realm of The Light and, second, everything that follows the separation will be created in the realm of the Light.

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and He separated the light from the darkness. God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day. [no mention of night] (Gen 1:1-5 NIV)

If we use the Spirit of God as the foundation upon which creation is ‘built’ then ‘evening and morning (notice there is no night) – the first day’ has nothing to do with the light from the sun.  This has to do with the manifest presence of the Spirit.  I believe that this verse means that God purposed for periods when the manifest presence of His Spirit would not be felt for the purpose of bringing us to Him so that He can bless us abundantly.  Consider;

That night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two maidservants and his eleven sons and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. 23 After he had sent them across the stream, he sent over all his possessions. 24 So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. 25 When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. 26 Then the man said, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.” But Jacob replied, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”  (Gen. 32:22-26 NIV)

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is [present tense] the kingdom of heaven.” (Mat. 5:3)

Whenever evening and morning come, it does something to the Spirit man within us and it cries out for the manifest Spirit of God.  whatever the condition or circumstance, we must wrestle with it until daybreak and then ask for our right as sons and daughters, ask for our blessing.  Look at the very first beatitude, the moment you admit that you are spiritually bankrupt, the kingdom of heaven is given to you.  We need to have very clear in our minds that, contrary to the more common belief, ‘evening and morning…’ is the beginning point of our next level of blessing and God designed it all this way specifically for us!

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United / Divided

I appeal to you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another so that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought. 1 Corinthians 1:10

There is no way to be united except through Jesus. Being united is about surrendering to one another, trusting one another.  Trust is something that I do not do well; in fact, just thinking about it gives me anxiety!  I know this much – I can trust the Lord, I can trust His judgment and His counsel and, if I surrender to Him, He will see to it that I can be “perfectly united in mind and thought.” Lord, lack of trust is what I have used all of my life to survive.  Lack of trust is all about me and no one else but me.  Sure, on occasion I have agreed with others but, the kind of agreeing that You are talking about here is a whole different dimension.  This kind of agreement and unity is connected to the ability to “stand” that is spoken of in Ephesians 6:13

Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.

No one can go to battle and stand on their own.  To be able to stand and succeed, you need others who stand with you.  Yes, the Lord will stand with me – that is the easy part.  The Lord wants the Church as a Body to stand with one another “perfectly united in mind and thought”; this is literally about trusting someone else with your life and your spirit!  The truth is, I cannot see myself trusting someone enough to do that but, what I can see myself doing is trusting Jesus and accepting whatever He wants for me to do.  If He says “Trust your brethren” then, for Him, I’ll do my best to do just that.

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Back at it… Again!

Well, after almost a year without publishing anything, I’m back at it again.  If you want to know why, you can read my "About Me" page.  Somehow, someway, I HAVE TO get serious about connecting with the Lord!

A MERRY CHRISTMAS?

In my other blog, The Baby Boomer Experience, I wrote A MERRY CHRISTMAS? NOT SO SURE… This is a blog about the pain of being a divorced father away from your children.

Yet, I have a promise from Almighty God – a promise that I hold up to be completely true:

“‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,’ declares the LORD…” Jeremiah 29:11-14

The LORD will reply to them:
“I am sending you grain, new wine and oil,
enough to satisfy you fully;
never again will I make you
an object of scorn to the nations. Joel 2:19

The time before – My Testimony

I suppose that I should start with my testimony of where I was before I accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior. For me, much of my testimony can be summed up in some of the verses of Deuteronomy 28. I am here as living, breathing testimony that the words written so long ago are as true and valid today as the day they were written and spoken by God Himself:

30 You will be pledged to be married to a woman, but another will take her and ravish her. You will build a house, but you will not live in it. You will plant a vineyard, but you will not even begin to enjoy its fruit.

32 Your sons and daughters will be given to another nation, and you will wear out your eyes watching for them day after day, powerless to lift a hand.

33 A people that you do not know will eat what your land and labor produce, and you will have nothing but cruel oppression all your days.

34 The sights you see will drive you mad.

38 You will sow much seed in the field but you will harvest little, because locusts will devour it.

39 You will plant vineyards and cultivate them but you will not drink the wine or gather the grapes, because worms will eat them.

41 You will have sons and daughters but you will not keep them, because they will go into captivity.

43 The alien who lives among you will rise above you higher and higher, but you will sink lower and lower.

44 He will lend to you, but you will not lend to him. He will be the head, but you will be the tail.

Beloved, even though what you have read sounds like and, in many ways is, very hard punishment, I still say that I rejoice in my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I know, to the marrow of my bones, that He will work all things to make me and those whom I love whole again.