The Beginning

Mornings are my favorite time of the day. Yes, I am a morning person.
Living at Woodleaf in the winter (even this winter when it doesn't feel or resemble any winter that I have spent here...way too warm) means waking up and starting a fire in the woodburning stove, turning the coffee on and getting ready to sit on our loveseat couch with my 2 favorite pups, Riley and Cody, and having time with JESUS. I love this time each and every day.

If you know me, or have read any of my blog posts, you will know that I LOVE the WORD OF GOD. As a newlywed 36 years ago, I was privileged to be mentored by two women who have greatly impacted my life: June Hoch Clodius and Recie Raley.
Recie challenged me to ask God to give me a love for His Word. After about 10 years, I realized how much I loved His Word. Today, even 25 plus years later, I love it more. For it allows me to know my God. Or rather to scratch the surface of knowing Him.
I'm not sure exactly how long its been, but somewhere between 15 and 20 yrs ago, I began reading thru the Bible each year. Its not a "religious or legalistic" thing. For me, I just know that I want to know more of God. So to do that, I have to be in His Word. Even in the dry periods, even in the most pain staking times of my life, I need to hear and remember God's promises to me. I don't follow a plan, I don't read thru from Genesis to Revelation. I just start where I believe the LORD has led me.
This year I started in Psalms, probably because I started the year grieving the loss of a dear man and wanted to hear from those who knew and had experienced the same type of feelligs I had. That asked God the "why" questions that i was asking.
This week I began Genesis. Oh how I love this book.
Genesis means beginning. And Genesis is the beginning of God's story with mankind.
Everyday I am reminded of God's truth and His promises to us. Somedays His Spirit reveals something new to me, othertimes I am reminded of truths that I need to always remember.
Notes in my journal from this week include:
Genesis 1-We were made in the image of God, in His likeness. WOW what God intended for us!
Genesis 2- After the creation, God rested from His work. If God needed to rest and HE is GOD, why do we not do the same?
Genesis 3-the Fall of mankind. Eve was deceived because she didn't remember exactly what God had said. That is why it is so important for us to know God's Word. To be in it daily, to let His Spirit speak to us;to take time to meditate on it and let it sink deep into our hearts and minds. Because when we do that, we won't be deceived by the enemy's lies and half truths or by others who mistakenly not speak His truth.
Genesis 4- God tells Cain that sin is crouching at the door, desiring to have you, but that he must master it. Do I let sin crouch at my door? Do you? Do we realize how letting sin into our life for even an inch, moves us a little bit farther from God? And that one sin often leads us easily into another? Oh Father, that we would not let sin take us, but that we would turn to You for help.
Genesis 5-10 tells the story of Noah and his descendants.
"The LORD saw how great man's wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclusion of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. The LORD was grieved that He had made man on the earth and His heart was filled with pain."
That, for me, is one of the saddest verses in all of Scripture. That God was grieved that He had made man and His heart was filled with pain. And that he was going to put an end to all the people. I look at the wickedness and evil that permeates our world today, and my heart is in pain. I wonder how God's must feel.
Thankfully there was Noah. "But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD..Noah was a righteous man, blameless among all the people of his time, and he walked with God.
Because of Noah, we are still here. Mankind continues. Do you realize that if there had not been this one righteous man who followed God, none of us would be here. Even one righteous man can save the world. Amazing.
Can you imagine Noah obeying God and building this massive ark, all the while, people around him being so evil and wicked and most likely making fun of this man building this monstrosity of a thing? The years of humiliation he endured while obeying His God? And yet, because of His obedience, mankind endured. Kind of humbles me when I think of how some may make fun of me for following Christ.
But God did not destroy mankind and the earth, and everytime we see a rainbow, we should be reminded of His Promise that he will never destroy the earth again with a flood.
Then chapter 11 of Genesis tells us the story of the tower of Babel.
In Genesis 9:1 God tells Noah and his sons "to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth". Well Noah's descendants didn't do that. They settled in what was ancient Babylon and decided to build a tower " so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth."
Ummm guys, that is not what God said to do. So He came down and completely confused their speech so as they wouldn't understand each other and their plans were thwarted, and now they had to separate and go off in different directions (and fill the earth).
Why, oh why, do I (we) think we can go against God's commands or His will and believe that nothing will happen to us. How foolish we can be. Does His word not say that He will get the last laugh (Ps 59). God's will and His plans can never be thwarted by our disobedience. When we disobey, God can do crazy things to get our attention!!
And next comes Abraham!!
I could write blogs on this man, the friend of God (james 2:23).
So for now, I will pause and be thankful that God's word is fresh each day, that His mercies are new every morning and Great is His Faithfulness to us.
How about you beginning to ask God to give you a love for His Word, starting today?