Blog Through The Bible: Exodus 16-36

So here we are... In the middle of the desert, and feeling a little dry?  Parched? Thirsty? Confused?

Is your life at all mirroring the walk of the Hebrews where we've now left them... IMAGINE. IT. FOR. A. MINUTE?

Grumbling and complaining is where we find our liberated nation this week. Grumbling and complaining while the serve out the consequences of idol worship. This portion of our reading brings to mind the old saying, "Be careful what you ask for..." Is it possible to be liberated and still never be free? That's an important questions. See the end of this post for my answer.

Manna every single day - morning, noon and night. Until they grumbled and complained and God gave them meat - meat coming out of their nostrils, they were overrun with it. Over and over again the Hebrews test the Lord with their grumbling and complaining and over and over again the Lord delivers for them - but not without consequences.

For forty years this group of "vagabond" slaves would wonder in the desert cursing both God and Moses for their plight when really they themselves needed to change. Change their way of thinking, adjust their expectations and even open their eyes to a new perspective. At any moment their situation could have changed and they could have been delivered by their faith in God, but they chose to identify only with the tangible realities in their lives. Even when God invited them up to the mountain - fear kept them from meeting with Him there. They missed the blessing of His presence and then hated Moses all the more because of the favor he was offered in his time with God. Is that where we live today? Are God's people still quibbling and complaining in ungrateful postures when all the Lord has done is more than enough for all of us?

Jethro gives Moses some sound advice in this portion of our reading... It speaks to those moments when Moses says - "This is all too much for me, these people you have given me."

Exodus 18:17-23 (NIV)
¹⁷ Moses' father-in-law replied, "What you are doing is not good. ¹⁸ You and these people who come to you will only wear yourselves out. The work is too heavy for you; you cannot handle it alone. ¹⁹ Listen now to me and I will give you some advice, and may God be with you. You must be the people's representative before God and bring their disputes to him. ²⁰ Teach them the decrees and laws, and show them the way to live and the duties they are to perform. ²¹ But select capable men from all the people--men who fear God, trustworthy men who hate dishonest gain--and appoint them as officials over thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens. ²² Have them serve as judges for the people at all times, but have them bring every difficult case to you; the simple cases they can decide themselves. That will make your load lighter, because they will share it with you. ²³ If you do this and God so commands, you will be able to stand the strain, and all these people will go home satisfied."

This revelation brings me to two points:

1. We should never try to be everything to the people we serve. It is appropriate to be valued and to be looked to as a leader, but if our end all be all is found in a man/woman and not in God - LOOK OUT! You're headed for a ditch in the desert and right quick. Beth Moore grabbed my heart early on in my leadership days.  She said, "You should strive to be the kind of leader who points people to Jesus so that when your job is finished you can get out of the way and they'd still follow Jesus." She also advocates being a student of many teachers, but a follower of one Christ. Jethro was telling Moses - it is a disservice to both you and the people that they look to you for everything in their lives. It will wear all of you out. Suffering from Ministry or Lifestyle Burn Out?

2. We should not look to one person to help us resolve our problems and provide us ministry. We should seek wise counsel when needed, but trust that God's provision is not from some "special" anointed one, but from the ones who are holy submitted and given over to the Holy Spirit direction in their lives. I'm looking for people who lead me to Jesus. [Period]

As for whether or not freedom and liberation are different, I say yes. I believe liberty is the permission to be free, but freedom is the state of actually walking in the liberty you've been granted. It is highly possible one could truly be liberated and not be free.

Lots of meat in this week's reading. We're moving right along. Let me know what your meditating on from last week's reading. We jump into the LAW books next week - OH, LORD. HAVE. MERCY. Please... :) See you then.

Blessings,

BTTB Reading Plan 5-Better Late Than Never :)

If you have been waiting with "Baited Breath" for the reading plan, I apologize! This week has been like catching a rapidly moving train and prioritizing left me certain that I would not make it to the blog in time this week. :)If you are still reading along, leave a comment. Those who post comments on the Monday posts - 50 out of 52 weeks - will be entered to win a NKJV of the Spirit-Filled Life Bible. :) Hang in there and see you on Monday.

Blog Through The Bible: Genesis 43-Exodus 15

Thought I would share this week's reading post by video... I'll be back with more insights on Tuesday, video or writing - either way it will be fun. :)

Video Blog #1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXLDJE8S99E

Video Blog #2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qex-6lTapVQ

What Happened to the Nostalgic B&W? HA! I was in a hurry and the computer was slow. :(

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Add this HTML code to your post to link back here. :) Thanks for reading along. :)

 

Blog Through The Bible: Reading Plan Week 4

Well, we've arrived at the fourth week of our journey through the history of God's relationship with man. How you doing?

Remember - if you are behind or have had a bad week - still check in with us here! We want to hear from you. If you are moving along at a clipping pace and on download mode--- Let us hear from you, too. We want to hear from you! Let's do a roll call! If you are Blogging Through The Bible, sign in on this post with a comment and let us know how you're doing.

So glad you are along for the journey! Here is this week's reading plan:



Enjoy the journey! See you on Monday with another weekly post - I'm looking forward to reading your comments then.

Blog Through the Bible: Genesis 22-42

Genesis 37:32-35 (NKJV)
³² Then they sent the tunic of many colors, and they brought it to their father and said, "We have found this. Do you know whether it is your son's tunic or not?"
³³ And he recognized it and said, "It is my son's tunic. A wild beast has devoured him. Without doubt Joseph is torn to pieces." ³⁴ Then Jacob tore his clothes, put sackcloth on his waist, and mourned for his son many days.  ³⁵ And all his sons and all his daughters arose to comfort him; but he refused to be comforted, and he said, "For I shall go down into the grave to my son in mourning." Thus his father wept for him.

As I stretch and yawn and feel the fatigue of not nearly enough sleep wash over me, I say... "Good...Morning."

In the last seven days we've covered several generations of Abraham's family. We've walked through the lives of Isaac, Esau, aka Edom, & Jacob, aka Israel. We've met Leah, the rather unattractive older sister of Rachel-who, BTW is an IDOL WORSHIPPER- that Jacob put up with the marry his beloved. I really feel sorry for Leah and Laban for that matter. But, you know it takes a manipulator to know a manipulator and perhaps there is some kind of divine justice in how Jacob was dealt with-God must have been working something out in him. Right?

Talk about generational issues. TEN, yes, TEN of Jacob's sons manipulated, lied, plotted murder and jealousy drove them to sell their own brother into slavery while allowing their father to believe HE. HAD. DIED.

Seriously? My daughters had a hard time letting me believe they were grieving because they did not want to cause me more pain in my loss of their brother. But, to willingly put your father through the grief of being bereft of child for your own benefit. COME. ON.

How did they live with themselves all those years between the pit and the Ishmaelites and running up on Joseph in Egypt? And, can you imagine that family reunion in your minds eye. Scripture hardly gives us the juicy tidbits - but I can see cold beads of sweat popping out on foreheads, and brothers dropping to their knees. Some might even run out of the building screaming. And, how do you go back and tell your dad... "Well, you know when we told you that Joseph died... Yeah, about that..."

Okay-maybe years of dysfunction and soap operas make me wonder about those details. Maybe, really, it is just my flesh talking. But, I am sort of amused that this is the family of promise that will bless all generations and then I think: THANK YOU, JESUS. You use dysfunctional, screwed up and crazy people just like me. They are just like me.

I am reminded afresh that God uses people. Ordinary, everyday, screwed up people who given over to their flesh and the nature of original sin, and are capable of the most heinous evil.

We are all just one decision away from being Hitler or Charles Manson. You may struggle with that statement, but I'm more convinced of it now than I ever have been after reading these forty-two chapters in Genesis.

As I sit her worn out from not nearly enough sleep and hours in front of this computer trying to sort out the emotions I'm feeling as a friend lies thousands of miles away in a hospital bed fighting for her life. All I can think is just how AWESOME our God is even in the desert, and the midst of dire circumstances where we are pleading for life over death. He's still AWESOME.

Be sure to grab the link at the end of this post and drop it into the HTML editor on your post editor. You will then have the picture link back to this post, easy-peasy.

Don't forget to comment and let me know you're still in this! I'm looking for 50 out of 52 weeks so let's hear what you're thinking after 14 days of Genesis. Blog On.

Don'BSoReally I think the think I am meditating on this morning is how AWESIME <em>I am </em>OkayLor Se<a href="http://michellebentham.org/2011/01/17/blog-through-t…-genesis-22-42/"><img src="http://i1107.photobucket.com/albums/h388/michellebentham/BlogThroughTheBiblePostWidget200x146.png" alt="Blog Through The Bible" width="200" height="146" /></a>

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Blog Through The Bible Button

I DID IT! With the help of Google and God... But, we now have a BUTTON so you can grab the HTML code and drop it in your post so the Button will automatically link people back to my blog! Each week I will post a button at the bottom of my post with the link back directly to that week's POST.

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THURSDAY, MAY 2nd Comments: NONE! Really... We had 112 page views yesterday - first time we've broke 100 since March 29th! Leave your comments and link up to the blog and you are entered to win. NOEL WILLIAMS has been commenting regularly, visit Noel at http://www.prhayz.wordpress.com/ She linked up to our website on Twitter yesterday which I believe helped send traffic my way! So NOEL is our MAY 2nd Winner. NOEL, please email  me your favorite Scriptures and colors. 

I will post my draft of the Painting for Bridgit by May 11th! :)

4/20/2012 WE HAVE NOT HAD ANY 100 PAGE-VIEW days these last few weeks. Share a link and leave a comment to enter to win! I'll post the next update next week! 

FRIDAY APRIL 6th Entries: OUR WINNER IS BRIDGIT ! Bridgit please email me so we can get started on your personalized artwork! KEEP CHECKING BACK, Linking Back and letting others know about this give-a-way! 

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VISIT MY ONLINE ART GALLERY:

WWW.MICHELLEBENTHAMCREATES.ORG

IN OTHER NEWS: Women of Faith featured an excerpt from my blog about a WOF event I recently attended. Check It OUT!

I recently joined Angie Monroe on her Resolute Catalyst Radio Show talking all about Preserving Your Potential in Pressure Cooker Seasons.  LISTEN to the PODCAST on Angie's Podomatic. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AzoUU8qlkwc

                                                                                                                                                        ___

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If you are looking for my Bible study on the Hebrew Names of God click HERE.

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BETH MOORE IS COMING TO GATEWAY CHURCH for PINK IMPACT IN APRIL! Don't miss this great time to come together as women of God and hear the anointed teaching of Beth, Holly Wagner, Author Andy Andrews, Ps. Debbie Morris, and many more | April 26-27, 2012. Our Southlake Campus is SOLD. OUT. Frisco will have a live Satelite Feed and North Richland Hills is expected to sell out by the first of March or so! JUST JUMP IN!

Visit Beth at the LPM Blog and learn more what she's up to and her Living Proof Ministries!!

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It's taken me a while to get my bearings again, but I'm writing. And, I'm in love. With My Family. With My God. With the place I am in my life. With my HUSBAND. I'm in love and I love it... (See Gateway Church Christmas Carol)!

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Blog Through The Bible: Reading Plan Week 3

ROLL CALL! Who's still with us? Leave a comment. We had several check in on the first week's Monday post. Alexia, Jesi, Amy and Colleen checked in last week. The fun part is learning what you all received during your reading. Share - let us know what you're experiencing. IF. YOU. DON'T. HAVE. A. BLOG. LEAVE. IT. IN. A. COMMENT. :)

Week Three... Have we really found our way through 42 chapters of Scripture already?

Where has the time gone? You know it passes one day at a time, and we all get the same 24 hours. I'm thinking about how wonderfully pleasant my time with God has been. I think He enjoys it as much as I do. :)

This coming week we are closing out the book of Genesis and leaping into the book of Exodus. Are you ready to rejoin Joseph in Egypt and eventually wade into the Nile and pull a basket from the bull rushes?Let's Go!

Last chance to check in for your Week 1 reading. Please post comments HERE. I'm leaving one more post in this Video Blog! Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOo2BDRP_WA

If you follow me on Twitter, Then you've seen I'm #prayingforjoanne.

You can learn more about Joanne by clicking on her picture to the left, but I wanted to tell you about how I got to know her. Joanne and I have a few things in common, 1) Beth Moore's LPM Blog, 2) Blogging, 3) We love God and 4) We are a part of an online "church" community of about 6,000 women and a few men who love God, too.

I met Joanne for the very first time sitting across the table from her with about 30 other women in San Antonio, TX. The occasion was a "Siesta" Meet-Up. Joanne is a published author. She is a mom, wife, sister, daughter, friend, and  beloved of God. I remember her calm, quiet demeanor and her willingness to share her observations about writing with a novice like me. She came across as very authentic. What you saw was what you got in Joanne - and she is not about pretense. Her last blog post was about how she started a fire in her fireplace and smoked up the house because the air was so cold it took a moment to draw into the flue. She lived life and on the pages of her blog she shared that life with us.

In San Antonio about 10,000 women converged on the city between August 21 & 22, 2008. I attended with 1,000 other bloggers who had been planning for near a year for that very weekend. Beth Moore's Living Proof Live San Antonio had finally arrived. We would get a meet up time with Beth and her girls after the conference and the opportunity to find some of our beloved online friends face-to-face. That weekend for me also marked a bittersweet occasion. The third anniversay of my son's homegoing landed on the last day of the conference, August 23, 2010.

That weekend God sealed His healing in my heart - the end of my grieving season. I took my little "dawg," Justin. The $50 worth of Build-A-Bear comfort I purchased on a particularly intense day of grief. I got up early that Saturday morning ready for breakfast and a little quiet time. I grabbed my plate, my Bible and my "dawg" and went downstairs to the restaurant in the lobby.

I sat down at a small table by myself and found that I was weeping before I could get one morsel of food in my mouth. Isaiah 60 resonated so loudly in my heart that I could not bear the overwhelming emotion they brought up out of my soul. I had known a divine appointment awaited me in San Antonio. And this was just one of those moments. I could have laid out right there in the floor and worshiped God. A couple of other Siestas invited me to their table, and I got to know a precious mom and her daughters - on of whom was from Gibbons(?), I think that is right, Texas. Oh, well... If it is not. It's been now on 2 1/2 years and I'm on the other side of that 40 hill... so maybe the memory is slipping like the transmission in our Explorer. At any rate, breakfast was precious and the little family of Siestas bought my breakfast - no arguments. One word for that: BLESSING. Yes, they were.

By the end of that day, I had worshiped in the Throne Room of our King as Travis Cottrell and company led us to an intimate encounter with God through the words of "Before the Throne of God Above." In that moment I saw my precious boy, who had gone home to heaven after a head trauma claimed his life on August 23, 2005, at the feet of Jesus worshipping in heaven. In a dark arena with 10,000 women seated and listening to the sweet words of that beautiful hymn, I was standing and worshiping  God with all I had in me. That moment will remain forever precious to me.

As I sit and type out these words this early winter morning, I can't help but think about Joanne and Toben Heim. How Toben sits with his precious wife and loves her all the more while contending in prayer for her healing. How thousands of women across the world are praying with him for her healing and restoration. And how the doctors will always only say - the prognosis is minute to minute, or perhaps hour to hour after the brain has suffered a trauma as Joanne's brain has.

A few days ago I posted on my Welcome Page that we are praying for Joanne who is in the fight of her life to come back to her husband and children after suffering a stroke two days ago. Our God is huge. He is our willing healer. I remember the hours of listening to the breathing of the ventilator, watching the monitor numbers in the silence and praying for God to just take care of my son on those hot August days in 2005. No doubt Toben's heart fills with the same prayers that God would take care of his wife.

Last night he wrote on her blog:  "In short, the girl has hoses and lines and wires running everywhere! But you know what? She still looks beautiful to me. And she is at rest. ...

Here's my thought: not that much has changed in our relationship. She is still here, she is still the love of my life, she is still the one I want to grow old with.  Her inability to talk or respond yet doesn't really change any of that.

Enough of this writing.  Time to hold hands with my girl."

Theirs happens to be a beautiful love story. Toben and Joanne and their family need your prayers. Will you join us in #prayingforjoanne. Toben is posting regular updates on Twitter @tobenheim.

I knew you would.

Blog Through The Bible IV: Genesis 1-21

I'm going to move along more quickly, otherwise we might take a few year blogging through the Bible at this pace. :)

Chapter Four: A few of the things I found interesting follow.

• Genesis 4:7 "If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it."  This brings up a number of responses. The picture I get is of dark forces crouching all around the doorstep waiting for us to walk into the trap they've set for us. But, we don't have to do it. We can be aware of them and rule over the very thing that would draw us to them. If you do well, will you not be accepted?


• Genesis 4:10 "And He said, 'What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground." GOD. DOESN'T. MISS. A. THING. He knows. That is an inescapable truth. He knew long before Cain killed Abel that the day would come. And still, even in Cain's guilt God had mercy on him.


• After the birth of Seth's son Enosh - Men began to call on the name of the Lord. I'm with Colleen here... And Adam and Eve Didn't?

Chapter Five... Genealogy, Genealogy, Genealogy. Have you ever logged into Ancestry.com and started a family tree. Those little "hint" leaves crop up in your tree and you could literally spend days looking through the annuals of your family history and still there would be a hint toward one more relative. Thank you, Lord, His account is the highlights.

• Genesis 5:1-2: "This is the book of the genealogy of Adam. In the day that God created man. He made him in the likeness of God. He created them male and female, blessed them and called them Mankind in the day they were created." - Mankind, not the human race.


• Tucked in chapter five are a few more tasty little nuggets to savor: 1) Seth was a son born in Adam's own likeness, after his image; 2) The genealogies are important. They tell the stories in time by generation; 3) Enoch walked with God and was no more. What happened to him? I felt God smile when I asked this question afresh in my reading. Translated. Raptured. He did not die. Enoch simply was no more.


• Three generations after Enoch, Lamech brings forth Noah. Noah's name means "this one will comfort us." His name reflects rest from labor.

Chapter Six. The first story of redemption.

• At the opening of this chapter one thing jumps of the page as I read: Genesis 6:5 "The Lord saw the wickedness of man was great - EVERY. INTENT. OF. THE. THOUGHTS. OF. HIS. HEART. WAS. ONLY. EVIL. CONTINUALLY." Empahsis mine.


• Genesis 6:6: The Lord experienced regret and grief over the wickedness of man, why? Verse 7 provides the answer - because regret brings destruction.


• Yet Noah, found grace, as a just man, blameless and having integrity before God. Can you picture Noah when God came to him with the idea about building a boat? WHAT? Noah lived differently from those around him.


• The sinfulness of man corrupts not only people but also the land, the environment and everything he touches. Corruption leads to violence.


• When God defines our purpose He is specific. He give you the details, not just the overview. When He told Noah about the specifications for the ARK - nothing was left to chance.


• Noah fulfilled his purpose. "Thus Noah did: according to all that God commanded him, so he did." Genesis 6:22

God sees us - when we receive His grace - his favor and attention are upon us. He sees our  righteousness in His Son. God not only redeemed Mankind through Noah, but all the animals of His creation.

I noted that he brought seven animals of the clean variety. Seven-Sanctification. Not sure about that, but I wrote it just that way in my journal. [UPDATE: That would be CHAPTER SEVEN-Sanctification. Interesting.]

I also noticed it rained forty days and forty nights to purify the world from the wickedness of Mankind. ALL. THE. HIGH. HILLS. UNDER. THE.  WHOLE. HEAVEN. WERE. COVERED. Can you get a visual for that? It's overwhelming. Isaiah 43 comes to mind. When you walk through the flood it will not wash over you....

Until next time...

Blog Through The Bible: Genesis 1-21

We have arrived! Our very first opportunity to share all the wonderful things God has been showing us in the days behind us as we read through His Word one chapter at a time.

As I consider all we have read this early Monday morning I'm feeling in my heart a swelling as I realize that there is a common thread that runs through the twenty-one chapters we have considered thus far. Each recounted event involves two key elements: 1.) The person hearing the Lord's voice; and 2.) the person choosing to agree with and do what they heard.

KEY VERSE: Then God said, "Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb that yields seed, and the fruit tree that yields fruit according to its kind, whose seed is in itself, on the earth"; and it was so. And the earth brought forth grass, the herb that yields seed according to its kind, and the tree that yields fruit, whose seed is in itself according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. Genesis 1:11-12 (NKJV, emphasis mine.)



This really jumped out at me. I then noticed in Genesis 8:22 that God ordained Seedtime and Harvest in His covenant with Noah. Seedtime and Harvest.

Here is what I sense I'm hearing from God about seeds and fruit. "The fruit bears seed inside itself." God's Word equals the seed. But, the planting of that seed requires fruit that came before so the seed could be planted.

Each of us who sits at a keyboard typing out our growing faith is the result of someone else bearing fruit that had seed within itself. The harvest brings forth the very seeds that bless those that come behind us. What happens to the seed is important - I keep thinking about what would have happened to us had the person who planted the seed in our hearts would not have given away the fruit of their harvest.

How is it that people miss the opportunity to give their seed away?

1.) Hoarding it. Storing it up for that someday that never seems to come. We study, pray and hear the voice of God in our daily life, but we sit idly by and do nothing with it. Maybe fear paralyzes us and keeps us from it. Maybe we just don't want to risk it. Let's face it - some people may not want what we are offering.

2.) Ignoring it. Worse than keeping it all for ourselves, we just pretend we didn't know. But, God knows the truth.

3.) Consuming it. We keep feasting and feasting on the fruit of our harvest and never look outward to see who might share in it's benefits.We never plant again for another harvest.

GIVE. IT. AWAY. Give away the seed of your harvest away. Plant it into the lives of others and watch for it to grow. That's the power of seedtime and harvest - God established it to bring forth new life in its season. Spiritually and Physically seedtime and harvest.

I'll be back a little later today to share more thoughts. I've just been enjoying the Lord's presence and His Spirit highlighting Scriptures for me as we work our way through the tissue-paper pages of His Holy Word.



Here is the link to this week's post: http://michellebentham.org/2011/01/10/blog-through-the-bible-genesis-1-21/

Be sure to copy and past the address and link back to my post! Don't forget to log in on the comments and leave a link to your post - Please leave your name, location and a link to your blog. If you don't have a blog feel free to leave your observations in your comment.

More Blog Through The Bible: Genesis 1-21

This morning I thought I would jump online and post a few of my observations from each chapter we read last week. For Chapter One, along with my "Fruit & Seed" observation from yesterday, I also noted this:

• The Garden is not mentioned in Genesis Chapter One. Why?


• God created mankind at the end of the Creation story, not the beginning. Why?


• Verse 31, "Then God saw everything that He had made, and INDEED it was very good. So the evening and the morning were the sixth day." (NKJV)

I guess what strikes me from these three observations is the intentionality of God and how much I assume in my reading it from a perspective of what I've been taught all my life. There is no Garden in Chapter One. But, verse 31 brings afresh something I've told myself many times, "God glories in His creation." He knew how it would come out - even the fall and the plan of redemption and sacrifice necessary to make that happen. He knew some would not choose Him, but still in all of that He shares with us, "...God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good." God sees the big picture, more clearly He sees the Kingdom outcome and INDEED, IT IS VERY GOOD. Hold onto that a while.

CHAPTER TWO:

• God planted the Garden eastward of Eden. Not so much the Garden of Eden, but instead God's Garden near Eden. :)


• One River ran through the Garden, but when it left the Garden it broke into four headwaters: 1. Pishon; 2. Gishon; 3. Hidderel; 4. Euphrates. The river's original purpose was to water the Garden and out of that river four rivers flowed.


• Adam's responsibility in the Garden was to tend and keep it. Among those responsibilities Adam also name all the animals God created. I have heard it before, but I am seriously struck by the audacious nature of that task. How long did it take Adam to name them?


• God set boundaries for the man in the Garden. Why does God set boundaries?


• Verse 25 "And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed." (NKJV)

Our original intended design (both male and female) was to tend and cultivate God's Garden. You know throughout Scripture people can be identified symbolically as trees, as a field of wheat, and so on. God's Garden is planted in a field of lost souls. We are to tend God's Garden. Plant His seeds in it, cultivate it, help others to realize the harvest in it. Our job is not only to tend it, but to keep it.

I asked God about the boundaries in the Garden and He said, "Boundaries keep you safe."  Enough for me. I'm also struck by that last sentence of Chapter Two. Sin and the Fall brought shame and regret - not God. They were both naked and not ashamed. What is that like, God? When we are in right standing with God, we are veiled in His righteousness through Jesus Christ. We are naked and not ashamed. He gives more honor to the less honorable parts. Let that sit on you for a minute...


I am also developing this sense of awe in my heart at the creative nature of God. I've known about it, but I've never really been in awe of it before.

I think about how I "learned" to paint. Well, save only the one year of high school art where my paintings lacked dimension and scale. I mastered "recreating" the human face one time in my entire study of art. Everything I ever produced in human likeness had a caricature quality about it. In school, I drew beautiful roses that I never finished, and well, I learned a variety of shading and drawing techniques that have been useful over the years. Still, it was all basic. Through the years, I've dabbled in painting with acrylics on small plaster figurines, walls, and craft art. I've drawn, doodled and sketched. I loved using pastels, but found it messy, messy, messy. My painting in the early days required lots of newspaper and water to clean up the mess.

Art quietly subsided in my life in the early years of my marriage to Scott. Life took on new meaning while work and family seemed to take up more and more of my time. Until one day in 2003 when an odd Bible study assignment reawakened my desire to sketch out life on a sheet of paper. The assignment: Draw what you think Jesus looks like.

The conclusion of this drawing left me speechless. I could not even believe I had done it. But, for God.


A few years later I set out to decorate a room in our old church for a new support group I intended to host for grieving parents. I labored and painted the room a soothing sea foam green color. I added seaside accents and in lieu of spending a lot of money on artwork, I went to the local Hobby Lobby and unloaded $50 on several canvases and a set of acrylic paints with brushes. I would paint.

Mind you, all my real artistic "canvas" type painting had taken place in my high school career and brought forth B- results. I really had no idea if this would work. What's more, I had hoped my painting would reflect LIGHT. Lots of it. I started painting and a few hours later I stepped away from a canvas that had a lighthouse in the darkness shining light out all around. It looked magnificent to me. And others really found it appealing as well. I painted several more pictures of a boat beached on the shoreline and of a sailboat being tossed on the waves. I coupled this with odds and ends picked up from Hobby Lobby and our local garage sale queen.

By the time I finished those paintings, I asked my director at the after school program if I could try teaching some of the kids to paint. Or, maybe she asked me. I'm not sure and would not want to get caught fibbing.

At any rate I began with a set of water colors and blank pieces of manila paper and started to teach these kids to paint. Not only did it stir the creative juices in these kids, but it brought life to me. I felt alive and accomplished and quite satisfied as I looked at their paintings. I emphasized to these kids that art is not about getting the definition exactly the same as the model, but instead about recreating what your mind sees. Recreating what is beautiful in what you are trying to paint. Eventually we graduated to pencil sketching and acrylics on canvas. Each time the kids blew me away with their creativity and expression.


We held an art show at the end of the year complete with classical music and an opportunity for me to speak to the families about the art exhibit. I also shared the Genesis 1:1 creation story from the Message. I explained that the creativity expressed in their child's art is part of how we reflect God's image and creative nature to the world. I asked them to encourage their child's artistic nature and desire to express it.


I prepared little manuals with examples of great artists: Picasso, Renoir, Degas, Monet, and well I had to throw in a little Thomas Kincaid and Jackson Pollack. :) After all, we couldn't leave out the painter of light, and some of my students were very young.


We displayed the art on folding exhibit boards and included the artist's name on each board. (I made everyone sign their paintings because they are artists, and artists always sign their work-Oh I just had a God thought, but I'll come back to that.) Beside each board was a slip of paper - the attendees were encouraged to determine which master the child most resembled in their paintings. We awarded ribbons and prizes to each of the kids who participated and they took home their artwork with their proud parents by their side. All of them swelling with a sense of pride as some of the greatest artists in the world. And if I tell the truth - each one of them, in their own right --- REALLY WAS. Not because everybody needs to win, but because each one of them risked it. They got out there on the ledge with God and let Him work through their perspective to express Himself in their art.


What impressed me the most about these kids: the way they would follow rules to be a part of my group. Some of them were in fifth grade and rough' n 'tumble boys at that. But, they were drawn in to art. To creating. That spring became a powerful season in all of our lives. And, I don't know where it came from, but for God.

By the end of that summer, my husband and I had "moved our letter" over to Gateway Church and I have not taught art again, but I continue to recreate just as He showed me to do those warm spring days in 2007.

So now for the nugget about artist's signing their paintings. God's fingerprint, His image, in us is His signature on our lives. There is a deep thing in us that is God created, God driven and God satisfied. We will spend our wealth, time and our energy trying to fill it with other things until we discover the end of ourselves and our utter inability to satisfy something so deep that only God can suffice. He created us to need Him. That is His signature. It is to His glory that we live and breathe and have our being. Without Him nothing lives, nothing takes on life. We are a pile of dust and ashes without our God.

I'll be back with more musings from the first twenty-one of Genesis tomorrow. Until Then... Be Blessed.

Blog Through The Bible III: Genesis 1-21

GENESIS. The Beginning. God's creative beginning.  Onward to Chapter Three:

• Satan was introduced as "the serpent." More Cunning than the other animals. Why? Because he allowed himself to be used by Satan? HMMMM! No answer for this. God said - Not really important.


• The snake talked. He talked. I mean it is not everyday that a snake draws up and talks to you unless, of course, you are a Disney character.


• Now here's a question: 1) Could all the animals talk and think like the serpent? If yes, not so strange. If NO! WHAT. WAS. EVE. THINKING?

Okay, I'm back. That serpent had access to the Garden, by extension Satan had access to the Garden. Satan used the same temptation He succumbed to to tempt Eve. Be careful, what he's up to... NOTHING NEW.

Satan never actually TOLD Eve anything. He didn't have to lie to her. He asked her questions and the conclusions she drew ON. HER. OWN. led her to believe a lie. Now, let's just hold onto that for a minute.

She lost the battle the moment she agreed with the enemy in her conclusion against God.

This part always gives me pause. ADAM. WAS. WITH. HER. Really?

• Did he object?


• Did he try to stop her?


• Was he also taken in by the snake?

The consequences doled out to Adam indicate his role loomed more than complicit, but instead a willful act of violating God's boundary by eating of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

The awareness of knowledge of good and evil brought no refreshing revelation. It brought shame, hiding and fear - all of which required covering. Anything that is happening in my life that causes shame, fear or hiding should be checked. God or bad - hiding from God is not being submitted to Him as my covering and righteousness.

God still pursued Adam and Eve, even after they sinned. He went looking for them. He even knew they were hiding from Him. He even knew why - He didn't give up on them.

I chuckle at this next part: When he found them - they told on themselves. "Who told you you were naked?"

They were AFRAID. Fear and shame together never come from agreement with God. The Holy Spirit never condemns.

THREE. WERE. GUILTY. 1) The serpent; 2) Eve; 3) Adam.

ACCUSATION. 1) Satan indirectly accused God of holding out with his question to Eve; 2) Eve accused Satan of deceiving her; 3) Adam accused both Eve and by extension God for his decision... "The woman YOU gave me." (emphasis mine)

EVERYTHING. WAS. CURSED. Satan. Adam. Eve. The entire earth.

Creation - All of Creation betrayed God that day. All of creation would suffer the consequence.

Adam and Eve were removed from the Garden. Why? PROTECTION. In a fallen state, immortality is the ultimate consequence. SATAN. KNOWS. THAT. Adam and Eve did not.

More tomorrow... Until then.