The Everyday Prayer

Re: Verse reading–Genesis 1:26-28; 2:18-25 (day one)

“Shame is the intensely painful feeling that we are unworthy of love and belonging”–Brene Brown.

“I want to drag knives over my skin, just to feel something other than shame, but I’m not even brave enough for that.”–Paula Hawkins The Girl on the Train.

Long wait before we saw it again.  Adam and Eve had it.  (Then lost it.)  They weren’t embarrassed by who they were.  Felt no need to hide, or pretend, or fantasize, or envy. They were unashamed.

After a long winter, this sweet spring came again.  In Christ, people began to discover that they were “accepted in the Beloved” (Ephesians 1:6)  Ordinary people began to say, “I am not ashamed of the gospel” (Romans 1:16).  The reason?  The gospel led them to Christ in whom they received a “righteousness from God through faith”.  And the shame evaporated!

Great gift!  Great gospel!  Great God!  You don’t have to be ashamed anymore.

Re: Verse reading–Genesis 2:4-17 (day seven)

“the day you eat from it you shall surely die.”–v 17.

I was on death row.  Part of my  sentence had already been executed.  (In many ways, I was already dead.)  Part of the sentence was still in the future.

Convicted of a crime(s).  No excuses.  Waiting without hope.  I had been warned.  Foolish. Stubborn.  Too proud to listen or fear.  The jail was full of people just like me.

“I have come that they might have LIFE” said the Great Judge when He came to me that day.  He commuted my sentence!  He pardoned me!  Lifted the weight from my shoulders and carried it away.  Breathed original LIFE into my heart.

From convict to convert, through pardon to praise, from death to LIFE, I emerged from jail to a new chapter.  Only He could have done it!  Only He would have done it!

What does this Great Judge deserve from me now?

Re: Verse reading–Genesis 2:4-17 (day five)

A garden is the backdrop and context of man’s original existence. Adam and Eve would begin to understand God and themselves in a garden. God had this specific design in mind. Gardens require attention. They produce “fruit”, but it comes at a slow pace. Gardens demand constant interaction (watering, pruning, soil work, protection, careful and meticulous observance. There is a connection-personal and intentional. So, as Adam and Eve began the task of gardening, they have an opportunity to learn about life on earth as well as the character and nature of the Lord God (in chapter 1 He was just named as God- “Elohim”). In chapter 2 His name is Lord God-“Yahweh Elohim” a name that is far more personal, intimate, and relational). Sometimes we might wish that life would be like a well-oiled machine (predictable, mechanical, and simple). That is not God’s design (from the beginning). It’s a garden. What insight can we gain about life on earth? How can our faith in God be strengthened from the words and message of the Genesis 2 creation narrative?

Re: Verse reading–Genesis 2:4-17 (day four)

Last Sunday, the Sanctuary choir sang the “Majesty and Glory of His Name.”  One of my all-time favorites!  It is easy to see the majesty of God when you look up into the starry heavens on a dark night, or look across the snow-capped peaks of the Rocky Mountains, or see the wind-tossed waves of the ocean or the exploding power of a vast lightning storm.  How often do you look at the person next to you and recognize the majesty of God as they inhale and exhale?

Verse 7 says, “Then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.”  What a miracle!  God’s majesty is displayed, after all, when we look upon His handiwork.  The stars of heaven and the sweeping Milky Way may be grander in scale, but they are no less miraculous than each breath that we breathe.  Look for the majesty of God in the little things of life.  He is truly amazing!

Re: Verse reading–Genesis 2:4-17 (day three)

“In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.”  The potential to do evil isn’t a bug, it’s a feature.  If we cannot will to do evil, then we cannot will to love.  Is evil therefore necessary?  No.  It is not necessary, it is possible.  It is possible for human beings because we have the capacity to reason, to choose.  The aim of God is not that we would do things right because we are incapable of evil.  It is that we would do righteousness because we do not desire evil.  And so, a question: What do you desire?

Re: Verse reading–Genesis 2:4-17 (day two)

Then the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it. vs. 15

We often think about Adam and Eve’s punishment. They have to deal with toil and pain. Have you ever considered their assignment before the fall? God gave them Eden to enjoy, but also to work. I have often heard people jokingly refer to Heaven as boring. I don’t think they truly mean it, but there is a sense that we will have little to do. God created us to work with our hands, to use our skills, and to employ the gifts he gave us. Work is sacred. He did not intend for it to be toilsome, but to bring delight and fulfillment. Consider this as you set off for work today. Thank God for the ability to work.

RE Verse reading–Genesis 2:4-17 (day one)

“You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.”–v 116-17.

The Lord only gave them one rule.  One!  They were 99% free and 100% blessed.  Who wouldn’t GLADLY corporate with such a generous arrangement?

With the rule came a warning.  Clear.  Immediate consequence for disobedience.  But they didn’t believe Him.  They weren’t warned away by His words.

I have made the same mistake.  Seen it made by others.  “It will never happen to me” or “just this once.”

“The wages of sin is death” warns a Holy God from Heaven.  When we sin something dies.  We die.  Opportunities.  Fellowship with Him.  Serious consequences.

The universe comes with rules.  Things required.  Things forbidden.  The great human mistake is to not hear or believe that the rules come from God.

Re: Verse reading–Genesis 1:14-25; 2:1-3 (day seven)

“Let the waters TEEM with living creatures”–1:20, “BE FRUITFUL and INCREASE in number and FILL the waters in the seas”–1:22.

The Creation story has an exuberance, an enthusiasm that is often lacking in modern life.  We are jaded and weary.  God isn’t!  His instruction and expectation for His new creatures was for them to increase and multiply and fill the planet with life!  He commands the same path of progress (in  even stronger terms) to newly created men in 1:28.

I hear the same exuberance in our Lord as He instructs the disciples after the Resurrection.  “Go into all the world and make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.”–Matthew 28:19.

It is still God’s will to FILL this earth with New Creation life!  He doesn’t “do” empty.  He commands us to be fruitful!