Good morning everybody! Looking forward to another discussion on today's readings.
First of all, I wanted to put out a little note of encouragement. We touched on this just a bit in yesterday's readings - the fact is that sin is real, evil is real, Satan is real. And if you are committed to reading the Bible through in a year, Satan is committed to stopping you. Let's be real here - digging into the Word, spending time in prayer, spending time with God - that is going to cause you to grow in leaps and bounds. You will become a much stronger soldier in God's army. And, obviously the last thing our enemy wants is a strong army to fight. It reminds me of something I posted on my blog last year and I'm going to post again here (which is going to make this post rather long, I apologize for that, but I think this is a good time to remind ourselves of this)
From the LifeJournal website....
Why Is It So Important to Do Devotions Every Day?
What would the people in your church look like if they snacked on meager food morsels during the week and ate only one good meal on the weekend? You know the answer, don't you? You'd find yourself surrounded by emaciated, gaunt people in desperate need of nutrition.
And how would these undernourished believers fare against a demonic adversary? Can you imagine how this army would look? You'd see threadbare skeletons with hollow cheeks and sunken eye-sockets, lined up like phantoms. Weakened by famine, that shriveled militia could barely stand at attention; each would struggle to find the strength to keep his or her bony frame upright.
Could this "army" conquer an opposing force?
No way. No earthly general would send them out to fight.
Well, then, how about the army of the Lord? What of those who gather on Sunday mornings? Are they spiritually nourished to fight the battles ahead? Considering what most members of God's army subsist on—an occasional tidy snack from a devotional book and perhaps an average-sized meal on Sundays to satiate conscience—you'd have to conclude that God's fighting force has some serious training to do.
Have you ever wondered why marriages seemingly crumble overnight, and—out of the blue—Christians leaders fall to luring temptations?
The truth is, no marriage instantly disintegrates, and no one suddenly falls away from Christ. For that matter, no one dies from an eating disorder after missing a day or two of meals.
It could better be described as a slow decline—gradual spiritual starvation, barely even discernible to the outside observer. The malnourishment of God's sons and daughters happens over time, as they eat less and less. Then, in their weakness, they do something that shocks everyone, finally revealing what was really going on in their spiritual lives.
Did you know that more than 80 percent of those who call themselves Christians read their Bibles only once a week? And that's usually on Sundays, at church. They come to church to get their spiritual fill, and then snack on devotional tidbits for the rest of the week (if even that).
I wish for just one day God would change the way our eyes work, so we would see ourselves spiritually. We'd see most American churches filled with skeletal, hollow-eyed saints, looking as if a gust of wind would blow them away like tumbleweeds.
Which is why, when some new trend floods America and pushes our nation further away from God, further away from our spiritual roots, the church is unable to withstand the tide. We simply don't have the strength.
So what's the solution? ....
If we eat only once a week, it's no wonder the church is weak and struggling. But daily fresh bread can change all of that. Regularly dining on fresh bread makes for a stalwart, strong, developed army—the only kind of force that will always make a difference in this world.
So, don't expect things to go easy for you - especially these first few weeks. Make a deliberate effort to carve out time to get your readings done. But above all - do not quit! If you get behind, pick up where we are now. It's much better to miss a few days then to quit entirely!
OK, pep talk over.
Today's reading is Genesis 7-10:5, 1 Chronicles 1:5-7, Genesis 10:6-20, 1 Chronicles 1:8-16, Genesis 10:21-30, 1 Chronicles 1:17-23, Genesis 10:31-32. You can read the passages online by clicking here. If you find it to be distracting to flip back and forth so much - simply read Genesis 7-10 and then 1 Chronicles 1:5-23. If you'd prefer to read it this way online you can click here.
One more quick thing I wanted to throw in about yesterday's reading. I've always wondered a bit about the Nephilim mentioned in Gen 6:4, so I did a little reading up on it and found this article and this article that discuss the different interpretations of the Nephilim - if you're interested.
Today's readings are about the flood and some geneologies.
A few questions struck me as I read this passage...
1) They were on the ark for just over a year - they must've needed a lot of food, for humans and animals alike! Did they possibly eat some of the animals? There were 7 of each clean animal onboard. I know they sacrificed some of the clean animals to God after the came out of the ark, but it doesn't say how many. Also, that must've been one stinky ship!
2) What happened to all the dead people and animals on earth?
3) How far did the ark travel during this year on the high seas?
4) How long did it take for Noah to build the ark? Did Methuselah die in the flood or before the flood?
I have always loved rainbows, I think they're beautiful. I love how they are a symbol of one of God's first promises to us in the Bible. I love how they give us a glimpse at God's amazing creativity.
Here is a picture that I find absolutely amazing....
What a mighty God we serve!
Tomorrow's reading is Genesis 11 - 14 and 1 Chronicles 1:24-27. Click here to read it online. (I'm not going to post the versions that do all the flipping, I'm just going to combine them from now on cause I think it's easier).
Also - I'm working on a schedule for all you guest posters - still waiting to hear back from a few of you. I will post a two week schedule on Monday using whomever has responded by then.
God bless you all as you read His Word!
Tammy
8 comments:
Tammy did you get my email?
It actually says in Gen 9:3 that they were given permission to eat animals, and earlier in Genesis they were only eating plants and fruit so I would think that they didn't eat animals until God told them they could which was AFTER they got off the Ark.
What I thought was interesting was 8:21 where He says that "every" inclination of the heart is evil from childhood. As a parent I wouldn't think that. But now that Nath is at an age where he is grasping things I can totally see it. And an example was I was reading at the table while he was eating yoghurt and he spat some out. I told him not to do that again (he was blowing bubbles) and he laughed and did it. Disobedient. So definitely had wrong motives coming from him.
What I thought was odd or don't know why its said is that in Genesis 9:5 God says that He will demand an accounting from the animals?! How on earth are they meant to give an accounting? LOL
A great thing that happened is that Grace saw me reading and wanted me to read it to her, so I did, she asked what a covenant was and I told her and she said "that's like that memory verse "God always keeps His promises" from Psalms". I was SO blown away she remembered it, it was MONTHS ago we did that verse!!
My children love the story of Noah's ark and everytime we see a rainbow, they tell me of how thankful they are that God will not flood our earth again. I tell them God's beauty and promises are all around us, if we will just stop and look!
I sent you an email as well Tammy!
I am still in awe of this awesomely HUGE boat that Noah and his family made over many many years... but what a great promise to never do that to us again. It makes me wonder though if he does it in small spurts like tsunami's, tornadoes and hurricanes?
One great thing we have seen out of this so far is that the kids see us reading the bible each morning and ask us to read aloud to them as well! I am so glad that Rick has decided to read along as well... We have even taken time to discuss parts of the passages.
Tammy - how very relevant your point is about how hard it will be to continue with this. As school is starting again tomorrow and the routine begins, we need to MAKE time for reading and devotions and also beat the hold the devil is trying to have on us... I want to regularly dine on that oh so delicious fresh bread!
This was a side note written in Conrad's Bible that I thought was worth repeating here...
Remembering in the bible not only involves the mind but especially includes action. Remembering by way of action-that is God's way. God remembers his covenant with Noah by sending a rainbow, He remembers his covenant with Abraham by delivering the people from Egypt, He remembers Hannah by giving her a child, He remembers the sins of His people by punishing them or He remembers their sins no more by forgiving them.
God wants our remembering to also involve action. Remembering the Lord means trusting Him to meet all our needs, remembering the Sabbath day means keeping it holy, remembering someone's kindness means doing that person a favour, remembering the laws of God means obeying them. In a special way we must remember Jesus Christ; that is, we must give thanks for who he is, identify His crucifixion and foster a deeper faith in him. All this and more come into play when we eat and drink at the Lord's table, doing it in remembrance of Him.
Food for thought.... Remembering with actions.
Good point Pam, we are still on summer break here in Australia, but there will be things that come up that will try and get us off the path, we just have to keep doing it, just like we would keep eating or drinking, we need the bread of life!
Pamela thanks for sharing that!!
Kristi - I love those teachable moments. That's one of my prayers - that God would draw my attention to those teachable moments so that I can take advantage of them instead of not even noticing.
Pam - active remembering - I really like that, thanks for sharing!
PamJ - modelling Bible reading to our children is so huge. They need to see us in the Word, they need to see us practicing what we preach. We need to be intentional about that!
Nic - isn't it easy for us as parents to see how young that inclination for evil is apparent? We don't like to admit it necessarily (after all, they are our darling children), but it's true. Human nature is not naturally good. We need to fight against it. And what is the best weapon? Love. Love God and love each other - everything else will fall into place if we follow these two commands (got that from our message in church this morning - very timely I think!)
PamJ.- I can see where you would wonder that, but God's promises are true forever. He promised never to flood the earth again, that He won't wipe out all of His creation in that way again. He didn't say that natural disasters weren't going to occur...in fact, in the New Testament, He tells us that there will be natural disasters amongst other things. Some of them lead to the end times, which many preachers and bible scholars believe we are seeing now. It just makes it all the more important that we live for Him and do what we can to lead others to Him as well!
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