No Man Is Infallible!

Reading:  Genesis 12
My Verse:  "Say, I beg of you, that you are my sister, so that it may go well with me for your sake and my life will be spared because of you"  (12:13).

Quite amazing.  Abraham, one of those Bible characters who is larger than life to most of us committs a most dreadful sin.   He - the father of the Israel nation!  And yet, even he does a most despicable thing!  In this case he not only  commits  sin himself  but requires that his wife also  sin.  He asks her to lie and committ adultery.  Oh LORD God, I keep asking myself how can this be?  How is it that this is in the Bible?  Abraham not only does this here but he does it again later on - the very same sin. 

How easy it is for us to lose our way.  While in these bodies, while on this earth - we are never free from the danger of falling into sin.  Oh LORD, You provide us with ample warnings in Your Word.  It starts off immediately with Cain when You told him, "And if you do not do well, sin crouches at your door, its desire is for you, but you must master it"  (Gen. 4:7).

You tell us of so many great men and women who have fallen into the snares of sin.  David is another amazing Bible character and he too committed awful sins - not one but many.  And yet he, unlike Cain was able to repent and beg Your forgiveness.  "Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Your steadfast love, according to the multitude of Your tender mercy and loving-kindness, blot out my trangresssions"  (Psalm 51:1).  And You did!  You only require of us to repent of our sin and You will do that - forgive us and "blot out our trangressions!

Dear, LORD God, help me to be like David - to have a tender heart for You.  Help me to be ever vigilant and alert as Peter implored us to be. "Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour . . ." (I Peter 5:8). 

You put many things in the Bible - all of it for our edification, for our knowledge, that we would turn to You for the salvation of our souls.  Thank You for this, another clear warning on the danger of becoming complacent to sin. 

My prayer today is this:  "Keep your servant also from willful sins; may they not rule over me.  Then will I be blameless, innocent of great transgression.  May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer" (Psalms 19:13,14).

Ditat Deus - God Enriches!

Nothing Will Be Impossible!

Reading:  Genesis 10, 11
My Verse:  "And the Lord said, Behold, they are one people and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do, and now nothing they have imagined they can do will be impossible for them"  (11:6).

What a fascinating statement!  Dear LORD God, Your word holds so much within it.  I am continually intrigued.

First, You state what the situation is, the problem.  The people are doing exactly the opposite of what You told them to do.  Genesis 1:28 states. "And God blessed them and said to them, Be fruitful, and fill the earth, and subdue it [using all its vast resources in the service of God and man]; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and over every living creature that moves upon the earth."  The people were to fill the earth but they don't want to do that.  They have decided to stay in this one locale on the plain of Shinar.  "And they said, Come, let us build us a city and a tower whose top reaches into the sky, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered over the whole earth"  (11:4).  Wow, how quickly and completely we, humans  wander away from Your precepts - Your commands - and a reverant fear of You.

The fascinating part of this verse is how You speak of the people.  You speak of their great potential,  "now nothing they have imagined they can do will be impossible for them."  You created us to be pretty amazing beings! You did create us in Your own image and made us capable of great and wonderful things. 

Unfortunately, in this case as is so often the case You  must intervene to get man back on track of what You knew was the best thing for them to be doing.   And so it continues,  because of the sin nature we all have, the selfish desire for self-aggrandisment we only get ourselves into trouble if we go our own way.  We can have all the brains and potential in the world but without You at the center of our lives - leading and guiding - we simply self-implode.  One can see this throughout history with all the great cultures, great men and women.  When any person or culture cuts You out they almost always fail.  One does not need to study much history to see the truth of this.

How we need to look ever upward to You for our direction, LORD God.  Right now there is such a fascination amongst the young with super heros.  We all of us want to live largely and do wonderful things.  You do make that possible but it takes us allowing You to do a wonderful work in our lives.

"For nothing is impossible with God."  (Luke 1:37)

"Ah, Sovereign LORD, You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and outstretched arm.  Nothing is too hard for You.  (Jeremiah 32:17)

"God thunders marvelously with His voice; He does great things which we cannot comprehend." (Job 37:5)

Yes, we are pretty amazing creatures!  But, that is what we are - Your creations!  We cannot live a full and large life without You, our Creator.

Ditat Deus - God Enriches!
 

A Covenant With All Living Creatures!

Reading:  Genesis 9
My Verse:  "When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.  God said to Noah, "This is  the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth" (9:16,17).

This is so fascinating!  That You, LORD God would make a covenant with all living creatures - not just man but all living creatures! 

The dictionary defines covenant to mean an agreement, usually formal, between two or more persons to do or not to do something specified.  One article I read makes the point that a covenant is more personal than a contract - it involves loyalty and allegiance.  Covenants often have conditions attached to them.  In this particular covenent that You made LORD God, You did not place any conditions on it as in many of the covenants You later made with the Israelites.  They most often did not fulfil their side of the covenant. 

In this covenant with the rainbow  You simply vowed that this was the way it would be - "Never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood; neither shall there ever again be a flood to destroy the earth and make it corrupt"  (9:11).

What fascinates me is that You, LORD God felt the need to make such a covenant with us, man.   You are God, sovereign and all-powerful.  You did not need to do this and yet You did.  I can only surmise that You did this because You care about man, You care about our well-being, our state of mind.  This covenant allows us to be free of the worry of such a catastrophic event happening again.

It is a beautiful thing - the rainbow.  It is even more beautiful, knowing that it is a sign of a covenant You have made with us - Your creatures.  It is a sign of Your love for us.

Oh, LORD God, I cannot begin to understand all that goes into Who and What You are!  I can only look up and be content that I belong to You and know that You will always provide me with the knowledge I need to get me through this day.

I like what A. W. Tozer says here on the incomprehensibility of You, LORD God and of our desire to know ever more of You.

"The yearning to know What cannot be known, to comprehend the Incomprehensible, to touch and taste the Unapproachable, arises from the image of God in the nature of man.  Deep calleth unto deep, and though polluted and landlocked by the mighty disaster theologians call the Fall, the soul senses it origin and longs to return to its source.  How can this be realized?  The answer of the Bible is simply, "through Jesus Christ our Lord." (The Knowledge of the Holy by A. W. Tozer)

Ditat Deus - God Enriches!

While Earth Remains . . .

Reading:  Genesis 7,8
My Verse:  "While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease"  (8:22).

There is so much in these few words, "While the earth remains."  There is a promise here and there is  a warning.  There is also a sadness because prior to this verse You say that You will "never again curse the ground because of man, for the imagination of man's heart is evil and wicked from his youth, neither will I ever again smite and destroy every living thing, as I have done."  It is almost like you have reconciled yourself to the fact of man's sinful nature.  You are in a sense relenting and are now allowing a way for man to be saved, to repent of his sin and become a new person. 

You created us in Your image.  This verse helps me to see You as an entity that feels - that hurts and mourns.  I see Your compassion here.  You cannot abide sin because You are holy but You are also loving and caring.  You are willing to provide a way for us to come back to You.  So many see You as a God so far removed from us and totally unable to understand where we are but that is so not true.  You are a God that responds to us, to how we respond to You and Your offer of love and redemption.

The promise here is something we humans should find so very reassuring.  Our world can at times be pretty scary with the earthquakes, storms, fires, and war that seems to be continually going on.  Despite all this we can be assured that the seasons will continue and "day and night will not cease" while the earth remains!

But there is that word "while"  to consider.  This would indicate that this earth as we know it will not always be here.  You, LORD God,  are warning us.  Revelation is the culmination of earth's story.  The earth is in a steady state of decay.  This is the consequence of sin.  Even the second Law of Thermodynamics states.  "All natural systems degenerate when left to themselves."  Isaiah 24:19-20 gives an amazing prophesy concerning the end times and the final result of earth's decline.

"The earth is broken asunder,
the earth is split through,
the earth is shaken violently.
the earth reels to and fro like a drunkard
And it totters like a shack,
 For its transgression is heavy upon it,
And it will fall, never to rise again."

Because You are compassionate and loving You implore us LORD God to call upon You that You might save us while we are still able.

"Seek the LORD while he may be found, call upon Him while He is near" (Isaiah 55:6).

Ditat Deus - God Enriches!

Lost True Direction!

Reading:  Genesis 6
My Verse:  "And God looked upon the world and saw how degenerate, debased and vicious it was, for all humanity had corrupted their way upon the earth and lost their true direction"  (6:12).

Man has "corrupted their way" on this earth that You, LORD God created.  You had placed man as the guardian of all that was on this earth.  But instead he only abused this trust.  Man, even after the flood have ruled but as tyrants over both each other, the animals and the resources.  We have only to look around at the awful abuse of people and waste of resources.  What You meant to be beautiful and bountiful has been horribly corrupted.  It is no wonder that You regretted what You brought into being.  "And the Lord regretted that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved at heart"  (6:6). 

It is truly impossible to imagine what went on in that discussion when You, LORD God decided that man had gone beyond redemption and had to be destroyed.  What awfulness it had to be for you to carry out this amazing event - the great flood. to extinguish all those lives.

Today we seem to be in much the same place.  We, however, do have the Holy Spirit to lead and guide those of us that follow You, those of us that have found that You, LORD God are our true direction.  You, only are the way to a meaningful life, a life of purpose.  You are Truth.

We also have Your written Word.  Thank You for that.  Thank You too for the writings of the many saints that have passed.  We have no excuse for denying You.

Yes, all on earth is in a state of decay and only You can free it of this inevitable decline.  "That nature itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and corruption into the glorious freedom of God's children"  (Romans 8:21).

We do not have to be lost.  You will provide us true direction if we but seek You out.

"And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever. . " (John 12:16).

"Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.  In all your ways acknowledge Him, and he will make your paths straight" (Proverbs 3:5-6).

"For the LORD gives wisdom; from His mouth come knowledge and understanding.  He stores up sound wisdom for the upright; He is a shield to those who walk in integrity, guarding the paths of justice, and He preserves the way of His godly ones.  Then you wil discern righteousness and justice and equity and every good course"  (Proverbs 2:6-9).

"The mind of man plans his way, but the LORD directs his steps" (Proverbs 16:9).

Thank You, LORD God for much needed guidance.  Help me to be faithful in prayer for the leaders of our country.

Ditat Deus - God Enriches!

What does "His Image" Mean?

Reading:  Genesis 5
My Verse:  "This is the book of the generations of the offspring of Adam.  When God created man, He made him in the likeness of God"  (4:1).

Oh, LORD God, You know how often I have pondered this statement.  That we were created in Your likeness - Your image.  What exactly does that mean?  How are we to understand this statement?

Many writers have said that we should understand this to mean spiritually - in Your spiritual image.  This comes to that concept that we have the consciousness of You stamped on our very being.  We are each born with an innate sense of right and wrong.  Though many want to deny that You exist, they cannot explain this away.

We must then understand Who You are in order to have an idea of what it is to be in your image. 
 Tozer speaks to the great -vital- importance of thinking rightly about Who You are. 

Jesus gave us some hints.

 "If you really knew me, you would know my father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him" (John 14:7).

"God is a Spirit; and they that worship him must worship Him in spirit and in truth"  (John 4:24).

I think that because You are God our understanding  of Who You truly are can only be in part - a very small part.  You are too vast and incomprehensible for our limited ability. 

I also believe LORD God that You give us all the understanding we need for each day if we but put ourselves before You and Your Word daily.  Your Word tells us so much.  Galatians 5:22-23 says much about Who You are and how we are to be like You. 

"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.  Against such things there is no law."

You are love.  "Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love" (1 John 4:8).How powerful is that!  Oh, LORD God teach me to love as You love - selflessly, unconditionally, powerfully.

You are joy.  In You only can one find true, deep abiding joy.  This is not mere happiness but joy!

You are peace.  "And the peace of God which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."  Philippians 4:7.  It is only when one has this deep abiding peace can one truly function effectively in this world, which at times seems so chaotic.

You are patience.  "The Lord is not slow in keeping His promise, as some understand slowness.  He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance" (2 Peter 3:9).  Oh, LORD,  thank You for Your patience.  Help me to not grow weary in my prayer for those that need You!

You are kind.  Some think of you as a bit of a tyrant but just reading the Bible shows how amazingly kind You are, how tolerant You are of those that deny and abuse You.  Help me to exhibit that kindness to others.

Oh, LORD God You are good, faithful, and gentle.  I am to be all these things as well. And finally, self-control.  I am to have self-control that hardest of attributes for us to live out in our lives.But here too You promise to help us.  "For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power; of love and of self-discipline" (2 Timothy 1:7).

What a wonderful thing to be in Your image!  My understanding of this concept may not be complete but it is enough for today.  Thank You!

Ditat Deus - God Enriches!

Downward Spiral of Sin, But Hope Glimmers!

Reading:  Genesis 4
My Verse:  "The LORD said to Cain, "Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen?  If you do well, will you not be accepted?  And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door.  Its desire is for you but you must rule over it"  (4:6,7).

And so the downward spiral of sin begins and deepens.  You, LORD God begin your pleading with us to "rule over it."  Sin has become a constant in the lives of mankind.   All of life, every aspect of life becomes a struggle. Sin is ever "crouching at the door." 

This is so graphic - "Its desire is for you. . ."  Sin is portrayed as an active live creature. In the New Testament Peter likens the devil to a roaring lion.  "Be self-controlled and alert.  Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour"  I Peter 5:8).  Spiritual warfare is so very real.  You told Cain here that he needed to "do well."  If he did well then he would "be accepted."  It was Cain's choice, with Your help he could conquer sin and be victorious. 

He chose not to turn to You.  He allowed his anger to rule over him - he allowed sin to have its sway in his life, and his life continued that downward spiral.  Yet, You still show compassion to him.  Even though You made him a wanderer, You placed a mark on him to protect him from others.  "the LORD put a mark on Cain."  Did that mean there was still hope for him?  It does not seem that his family or descendents were followers of You.  Lamech, his descendent was even more rebellious.  He continued that downward spiral of lawless living - living without Your perfect law, sure testimony, right precepts, pure commandments, clean fear, and true rules! (Psalm 19)

Oh, LORD God, thank You for the hope here - faint though it may seem.  You show here that we do have a choice.  As You told Cain. "If you do well, will you not be accepted?"  And You told him that He could rule over sin - "you must rule over it."  Thank You for this hope.

Oh, LORD, You are ever there, just waiting to catch us up into Your arms - to love on us as only You can!  Yes, we do live in the midst of spiritual warfare which is very real and tumultous but we have the victory in You!  We must unlike Cain, cry out to You for our help.

"And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, LORD, I believe; help thou mine unbelief"  (Mark (:24).

"Help me, O LORD my God; O save me according to Thy mercy"  (Psalm 109:26).

"Our soul waiteth for the LORD; He is our Help and our Shield"  (Psalm 33;20).

Ditat Deus - God Enriches!

No Longer Guardians Of Eden!

Reading:  Genesis 3
My Verse:  "Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the Garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken"  (3:23).

What a sad chapter in the history of man.  Demotion.  Adam lost his job to "tend and guard and keep"  the Garden of Eden.  Sin had entered into the world of man and nothing has been the same since.  Adam, who was perfect in every way we can imagine, who communed with You, LORD God and to whom You entrusted the care of this incredible place was no longer capable of doing the job and so You had to remove him from the Garden of Eden.  You gave his job to the cherubim. "So [God] drove out the man and He placed at the east of the Garden of Eden the cherubim and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep and guard the way to the tree of life"  (3:24).



There is this phrase "there is no going back."  Adam and Eve took a step into another world, a whole different dimension from the one You meant for them, LORD God.  They could not possibly imagine the awfulness of what they had done - the incredible consequences of sin.  Their son Cain killed his own brother - murdered him.  Sin has a way of spiraling downward.   There is no holding the line with sin, it continually drags downward and deeper into itself - corrupting and dehumanizing to ever greater degree.  Oh, Lord, how Your must have been saddened.

You called out to Adam, "Where are you?"    You knew what he had done.  You knew where he was and what he was doing.  But You called out to him.  You wanted him to answer You to answer for what he had done.  And in this Adam failed again.  Instead of taking the responsibility, he blamed Eve, ultimately blaming You.  And so we continue to seek to blame our situation, others, You - anyone but ourselves for our sin!

LORD God, how You continue to love us.  Here You showed that love by providing Adam and Eve with clothing.  You showed that love by removing them from the Garden of Eden so they would not eat of the Tree of Life and live forever in their sin.  You had compassion on them and You did not destroy them.  Instead, You put into motion a plan of redemption, a plan for the salvation of man.

And so You continue to call out to us today.  We continue to fall short of what You would have us to be, but You still love us, You still want us.

"I tell you the truth, whoever hears my Word and believes Him who sent Me has eternal life and will not be condemned;  he has crossed over from death to life"  (John 5:24).

We only need to cry out to You and You will start the healing and transforming of our souls, minds and bodies!  ". . .and call upon Me in the day of trouble, I will deliver you . .."  (Psalm 50:15).

While here on this earth we will never know what Adam and Eve knew in the Garden of Eden.  No man will ever have that amazing kind of fellowship with You but You in your mercy have made it possible for us to turn to You, to be healed by You, to be enabled to get a glimpse of what that fellowship must have been like.  You enable us to look forward to that glorious day when we will know You as You are!  "Beloved, we are God's children, now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when He appears we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him as He is"  (I John 3:2).

Ditat Deus - God Enriches!

To Tend and Guard and Keep!

Reading:  Genesis 2
My Verse:  "And the LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to tend and guard and keep it"  (2:15)

It is so easy to forget that You, LORD God placed Adam in this Garden of Eden, this paradise to work!  You did this before sin ever entered into the equation - into the world you created!  You gave Adam a job to do, a mission, a purpose.  This is so important for us to be mindful of, that it is not a punishment to have a work to do.  It should be considered a blessing, a good thing.

We have so corrupted many things LORD God.  Our minds have become so warped by sin and its consequences that we think wrongly about many things that You in fact set in place.  You wanted man to have a work, a job, a purpose to his existence.  We instead often look at work as punishment as something dreaded.

I love to garden.  I love that this was the first job assigned to Adam.  You planted this beautiful garden.  "And the LORD God planted a garden toward the east, in Eden; and there He put the man whom He had formed"  (2:8).  You planted it for Adam to care for.  It must have been so beautiful!  All those trees with their beautiful blossoms and fruits!  But even in this paradise the garden needed tending.  It needed someone to "tend it and guard it and keep it." 

You, LORD God, also speak of the resources that you provided for man to use.  Verses 11 and 12 speak of these resources.  "The first is named Pishon; it is the one flowing around the whold land of Havilah, where there is gold.  The gold of that land is of high quality; bdellium and onyx stone are there."

I like what the ESV study notes say about Your purposes in placing Adam in this most beautiful of gardens.  "The man's role is to be not only a gardener but also a guardian.  As a priest, he is to maintain the sanctity of the garden as part of a temple complex."  This is so beautiful and wondrous. So Adam was like a priest and the garden was like a temple.  It implies that You created this earth as a very special place, a place you could come to and commune with Your creations.

We can only look forward to that day when all the mess we humans have created will be righted!  Because this was Your original plan -to commune and fellowship with us here on earth -You will create a "new heavens and a new earth!"

"For behold I create a new heaven and a new earth; and men will not remember the first, nor do they come to any one's mind"  (Isaiah 65:17)

"Then I saw a new sky and a new earth, for the former sky and the former earth had passed away and there no longer existed any sea"  (Revelation 21:1).

And I know that You will have jobs for each of us that believe on Your name there in this new heaven and new earth.  We will "tend and guard and keep"  there in this new paradise!

Ditat Deus - God Enriches!

In The Beginning . . .

Reading:  Genesis 1
My Verse:  "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth"  (1:1).

This really is such an amazing verse.  It is the basis of the entire Bible.  If one cannot accept this as truth then the rest is simply a story.  But in the reading of the rest of the Bible - this verse is supported, fleshed out in all its complexity and drama.  I feel a thrill in the reading of this verse because having read the entire Bible before I am able to anticipate all that is before me.  I am able to anticipate not only Your wondrous works but also mankinds incredible waywardness and all that results from that.  And yet, through it all You, LORD God  are at work.  As Philippians 2:13 says:  ". . . for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to His good purposes."

I cannot begin to understand all that is implied here.  I can only believe.  You LORD God created time.  The dictionary defines time as:  a limited period or interval, as between two successive events, a finite duration.  We Your creations live within this time on this planet You created for us.  "In the beginning . . implies that there will also be an end.  That is something that we always need to keep it mind.  Knowing that there will be an end to the world as we know it colors how we live, how we approach life.  Revelation speaks of the end, of all that immediately precedes the end.  You, LORD God tell us in Revelation 22:20 "Yes, I am coming quickly."  So, we live within this time that You created, time that began when You told it to and time that will end when You return.

I think of Michelangelo's painting of the Creation of Adam on the Sistine Chapel.  He painted the glory and awesomeness of that event.  I believe that he was able to capture this so well because he believed it to be truth.  Many of the great paintings were painted by artists that believed You, LORD God to be truth.  For them the Bible was true and so they were able to bring beauty into the world because they had that basis of truth to work upon.

Yes, we so need to have this basis, this foundation on which to stand, to live out our lives in a way that makes sense.  You, LORD God created a world of order.  One needs only to examine the detail of life to see that. 

"By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible."  Hebrews 11:3

I love what Job said.  "God hangs the earth on nothing."  Job 26:7
                                   "By God's breath the heavens are made beautiful."  Job 26:13

"The earth is the LORD'S and all it contains, the world and those who dwell in it.  For He has founded it upon the seas, and established it upon rivers."  (Psalm 33:6,9)

Thank You, LORD God for helping me to see this truth.  I am truly blessed.

Ditat Deus - God Enriches!