HAPPY NEW YEAR!
On a really fun and must have note—I have a friend making dresses and bows to help fund their adoption! If you have a girly, have a niece, or you just want to help a family with their adoption–will you pretty please with ice cream on top…and a cheery—head over right now to her adorable site and get a dress, 2 or 3 for a little love in your life?! You can tell your hubby that it’s going toward an adoption—the dresses are custom made and you get to pick our your fabric and everything!!! Julie is also doing our read through the Bible this year…and I’d love to help her start her year off with a handful of orders to help her! And when you get your dress, love your dress and want more—you can find her link under my “mommying” tab on my home page. Check out her goods here: http://flitterbugs.blogspot.com
For those of you bravely joining in the commitment to read through the BIBLE in 2010…today—is our first read! January 1 – Genesis 1:1-3:24. To print off the entire year reading plan, please see the previous post.
And for those of you who haven’t read yet—oh my word…talk about some MEAT…some seriously good stuff…to start our year off with! These 3 short chapters are full of theology, explanation of why we are the way we are and amazement of God’s creativeness. Creation is one of the essential truths of the Christian faith. In these 3 chapters, non-believers will argue and deny almost every verse written. I mean, seriously–who wrote Genesis anyway? I mean…who was around to document the part before man was created? (See–you follow along with me this year in this chronological read through…and I’m gonna make ya think;) Well, lemme tell ya–some say Moses wrote it–we know as believers we believe the Word is God breathed. But who actually wrote it? Scholars argue the answer. The more important matter to me–is WHO believed and trusted it? Jesus did. In Matthew it is written: And he [Jesus] answered and said unto them, “Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female, 5 And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh? 6 Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.” Matthew 19:4-6 (KJV) Maybe it was Moses–maybe not–Moses never claims authorship. BUT most likely it was a writer during that time. And can you imagine God laying that story on your heart and mind and telling you to write that?! For real—I would have been doing some double takes nailing those words on a tablet! Ok Lord—if you say so! Regardless who wrote it though, Jesus gives Genesis credit! And I believe in Jesus! I believe Jesus on this one. And that is enough for me. YET…it’s a great question and it might be fun for you to bring up just to make your spouse think;).
Back to Genesis. These 3 chapters…the first reading for our year…will rock your world when you really think about them. In just 3 chapters, you have CREATION…and as if that isn’t enough…you also have the first mention of the Trinity…unity of man and woman—the miracle of becoming one flesh…instructions to be fruitful and multiply…temptation…the beginning of sin…the curse of man, women and Satan…and being thrown out of the garden. WOW…told you we have some meat in the first day of our reading! SO…dig on in—rejoice in our Creator…His grandness and power!
Here are just a few things that stuck out to me in a new way…
Genesis 1:1-2 – If the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters—yet there wasn’t an Earth, there was no land—there was no sky even…just waters and the Spirit of the Lord was hovering over the waters…what does that look like to you? What do you imagine the grandness of that to look like? HOW GRAND IS OUR GOD?
Genesis 1:26 – I love that God uses the word US here. He makes it a point in the very beginning that He is not alone in Creation. In the beginning was God—the Trinity.
Genesis 2:4 – Before verse 2:4, we only see God’s name as God. In verse 2:4, we are given another name of God – LORD. LORD with all caps translates to “Jehovah”. SO…any time you see LORD in all caps as we read through this year–remember it means Jehovah. Jehovah is often refered to as “God as Creator”. Jehovah is that name of God, which denotes that he alone has his being of himself, and that he gives being to all creatures and things (Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary). Don’t you wish you spoke and understood Hebrew? I sure wish I did! Everything seems to have such deeper meaning when you dig into the Hebrew meaning doesn’t it?!
Genesis 3:16 – I thought it was interesting in the KJV how the curse of sorrow is seperated here—almost like women have a curse of sorrow AND pain in childbearing: Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee. Hmmm…is that why we are more emotional than men? WAAAAA! I’ll admit, I sure can be a roller coaster while my husband is so even keel! UGH. To think we could have lived a life without the curse of sorrow. Man, do I need Jesus all the more if I’m now created…preprogrammed this way!!!
And as for the pain in child-bearing…I am so thankful for epidurals—that’s my 2 cents on that one–YET…there was definite pain in recovery…and I definitely felt the curse of Eve in that one.
OK–don’t expect full commentaries on all our readings this year;). I’ll be doing good if I just post the reading each day! YET…I am SOOOO thankful for you sweet friends keeping me accountable! I am so excited to dig deeper in His word this year! 365 days of knowing HIM…our Creator…our Jehovah…the Trinity…more intimately. Oh how we need Him. The serpant saw Adam and Eve in communion with God and couldn’t stand it. Temptation came and they gave in. Let us hold TIGHT to the LORD and HIS WORD this year. The Lord is going to do great things this year—but procrastination, tiredness, busy lifestyles will all try to keep us from our commitments…I pray this year I can put the LORD and knowing Him FIRST. Let my house be dirtier if it means knowing Him more. I might not look perfect to the world–but the only One who really sees us…all of us…is the Lord–our Creator. The world will tell us we need to do things that the Lord would not…so let us aim to hear the Lord over the world this year. Speak to us Lord this year. Change our hearts. And let your glory be revealed.
I would LOVE to hear from you…your thoughts and even your prayers for 2010!
XOXO!
Andrea
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