I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas celebrating with family and
friends the birth of Jesus Christ. Now it is onward and forward getting
ready for the New Year. One of those great New Years goals/resolutions many
of us make is to read through the Bible. So with this topic in mind let me
share Bible reading and paraphrasing of this time honored venture.
Hmmm.. so where should I start? How about in the Beginning.
In the Beginningagain?
A while back our pastor gave a sermon on getting to know God by reading our
Bibles regularly and systematically.
During this very good sermon our pastor joked that the most read books of
the Bible are Genesis and Matthew, because our inspired intentions in
January to read through our Bibles fades once we are through Genesis, and
Matthew. (Leviticus has killed many a Bible study )
I must be honest and say I have followed this failed study plan many times
and not until 2003 did I completely read my Bible from cover to cover.
So this brings me to the title of today’s thought. I am in the
Beginning-Again (Beginningagain) in Genesis where it all.. BEGAN.
So in the Beginning God created the world. To summarize, it took 6 days to
complete this daunting project, there was DAY and NIGHT and finally on the
7th day he rested. During those first 6 days, the sun and stars, the land
and all the creatures of the sea and the land were created, and .. man…
then … WOMAN cuz it was not good for man to be alone else he would just
watch tv all day, and never learn teh blessing of a honey-do list. Now
after each of the 6 days of creation, God declared it was good, and when
Eve was created from a spare rib he was not using anyways.. Adam declared..
HELLLO BEAUTIFUL!! With this God commanded "be fruitful and multiply".. in
response to this command.. Adam quickly started working on his times
tables.
Next, God delegated the naming of animals to the Senior Garden Engineer...
Adam. I must imagine this process had more than a few moments that could
only be described as strange.
Other strange moments as seen through the mind of this strange cartoonist
happened (maybe) when the 'NEWNESS' of this new world made no sense. For
example, Adam agonizes to others over his missing childhood memories, and
what's a mother and what's a father? The scriptures have always held many
mysteries that man can only pray to grasp with God’s help.. AND this was
true when the Bible’s first manuscripts were read.
Then there was the Beautiful Garden of Eden created for man, and in the
center of the Garden was theTree of Knowledge of Good and Evil which Adam
and Eve were forbidden to eat of its fruit.. So next enters ‘ The Snake’
aka Satan, and the snake tempts Eve that eating fruit is a good thing, she
does, and offers it Adam and he eats too. In my defense of Adam, though he
did disobey God (being a married man myself) I am sure that refusing food
from his wife would have only resulted in marital thin ice. Of course being
on thin ice with your wife NO MATTER HOW THIS SCARES US MEN.. pales in
comparison to going down in history as the man who first sinned.
So they both eat the apple, and all of a sudden they feel a draft, and
realize they are naked. They felt more uncomfortable in the draft than a
1960s hippy at Woodstock. Now this is a different draft of course, but
neither the 1960s hippy, or Adam & Eve enjoyed facing that awkward dilemma
of what to do next. The hippy headed for Canada Eh!, and Adam & Eve
realized they were naked with no visible means of support, and no one to
blame but themselves..
I will leave this story for today with this message.. Toon in the coming
days for more stories of how the World Turns and other great feats of God.
May you have a great day, blessed by God in great ways.
friends the birth of Jesus Christ. Now it is onward and forward getting
ready for the New Year. One of those great New Years goals/resolutions many
of us make is to read through the Bible. So with this topic in mind let me
share Bible reading and paraphrasing of this time honored venture.
Hmmm.. so where should I start? How about in the Beginning.
In the Beginningagain?
A while back our pastor gave a sermon on getting to know God by reading our
Bibles regularly and systematically.
During this very good sermon our pastor joked that the most read books of
the Bible are Genesis and Matthew, because our inspired intentions in
January to read through our Bibles fades once we are through Genesis, and
Matthew. (Leviticus has killed many a Bible study )
I must be honest and say I have followed this failed study plan many times
and not until 2003 did I completely read my Bible from cover to cover.
So this brings me to the title of today’s thought. I am in the
Beginning-Again (Beginningagain) in Genesis where it all.. BEGAN.
So in the Beginning God created the world. To summarize, it took 6 days to
complete this daunting project, there was DAY and NIGHT and finally on the
7th day he rested. During those first 6 days, the sun and stars, the land
and all the creatures of the sea and the land were created, and .. man…
then … WOMAN cuz it was not good for man to be alone else he would just
watch tv all day, and never learn teh blessing of a honey-do list. Now
after each of the 6 days of creation, God declared it was good, and when
Eve was created from a spare rib he was not using anyways.. Adam declared..
HELLLO BEAUTIFUL!! With this God commanded "be fruitful and multiply".. in
response to this command.. Adam quickly started working on his times
tables.
Next, God delegated the naming of animals to the Senior Garden Engineer...
Adam. I must imagine this process had more than a few moments that could
only be described as strange.
Other strange moments as seen through the mind of this strange cartoonist
happened (maybe) when the 'NEWNESS' of this new world made no sense. For
example, Adam agonizes to others over his missing childhood memories, and
what's a mother and what's a father? The scriptures have always held many
mysteries that man can only pray to grasp with God’s help.. AND this was
true when the Bible’s first manuscripts were read.
Then there was the Beautiful Garden of Eden created for man, and in the
center of the Garden was theTree of Knowledge of Good and Evil which Adam
and Eve were forbidden to eat of its fruit.. So next enters ‘ The Snake’
aka Satan, and the snake tempts Eve that eating fruit is a good thing, she
does, and offers it Adam and he eats too. In my defense of Adam, though he
did disobey God (being a married man myself) I am sure that refusing food
from his wife would have only resulted in marital thin ice. Of course being
on thin ice with your wife NO MATTER HOW THIS SCARES US MEN.. pales in
comparison to going down in history as the man who first sinned.
So they both eat the apple, and all of a sudden they feel a draft, and
realize they are naked. They felt more uncomfortable in the draft than a
1960s hippy at Woodstock. Now this is a different draft of course, but
neither the 1960s hippy, or Adam & Eve enjoyed facing that awkward dilemma
of what to do next. The hippy headed for Canada Eh!, and Adam & Eve
realized they were naked with no visible means of support, and no one to
blame but themselves..
I will leave this story for today with this message.. Toon in the coming
days for more stories of how the World Turns and other great feats of God.
May you have a great day, blessed by God in great ways.
