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God's Wonderful Love
Tuesday May 20, 2008
 1 The man had relations with his wife Eve, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, "I have produced a man with the help of the LORD."
2 Next she bore his brother Abel. Abel became a keeper of flocks, and Cain a tiller of the soil.
3 In the course of time Cain brought an offering to the LORD from the fruit of the soil,
4 while Abel, for his part, brought one of the best firstlings of his flock. The LORD looked with favor on Abel and his offering,
5 but on Cain and his offering he did not. Cain greatly resented this and was crestfallen.
6 So the LORD said to Cain: "Why are you so resentful and crestfallen?
7 If you do well, you can hold up your head; but if not, sin is a demon lurking at the door: his urge is toward you, yet you can be his master."
8 Cain said to his brother Abel, "Let us go out in the field." When they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him.
9 Then the LORD asked Cain, "Where is your brother Abel?" He answered, "I do not know. Am I my brother's keeper?"
10 The LORD then said: "What have you done! Listen: your brother's blood cries out to me from the soil!Genesis 4:1-10It's pretty sad when we think about how jealousy can rule a person. Just thinking how we all go through moments as kids when a toy is given to a sibling and it's something we would want rather than what we received. And it happens in our day all the time. But from the beginning we are reading of this when there are only two that are involved, not huge groups of people. And in this instance it was the first born to be jealous of his brother. We see many times in family life where it is either the first born who merits much from the head of the family or it's the youngest. But we have had years and years of those who had done it before us as models. To witness to the rivalry between family. And the question is often why did it happen with the first family. Yet the very head is God himself. They communicated with him throughout their growing years. God knew their hearts better than they did. Cains offering was beautiful, but when he offered it, it wasn't with a heart filled with love. This might have been the difference in how it was presented to our Lord and Father. When reflecting upon this, how is our offerings to God? Are they meager with half a heart or is it with all of our being when we offer all our sacrifices. When we work do we offer it completely, when we pray do we offer it all or part of it. I could go on but I think this is enough to help us think about how we truly offer our own sacrifices. It's all in how our hearts offer it. | | | |
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Monday May 19, 2008
 15 I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; He will strike at your head, while you strike at his heel."
16 To the woman he said: "I will intensify the pangs of your childbearing; in pain shall you bring forth children. Yet your urge shall be for your husband, and he shall be your master."
17 To the man he said: "Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree of which I had forbidden you to eat, "Cursed be the ground because of you! In toil shall you eat its yield all the days of your life.
18 Thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to you, as you eat of the plants of the field.
19 By the sweat of your face shall you get bread to eat, Until you return to the ground, from which you were taken; For you are dirt, and to dirt you shall return."
20 The man called his wife Eve, because she became the mother of all the living.
21 For the man and his wife the LORD God made leather garments, with which he clothed them.
22 Then the LORD God said: "See! The man has become like one of us, knowing what is good and what is bad! Therefore, he must not be allowed to put out his hand to take fruit from the tree of life also, and thus eat of it and live forever."
23 The LORD God therefore banished him from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from which he had been taken.
24 When he expelled the man, he settled him east of the garden of Eden; and he stationed the cherubim and the fiery revolving sword, to guard the way to the tree of life.
Genesis 3:15-24That must have been a very sad day for Adam and Eve. Knowing the consequences of their actions and the result from it. They could have had life everlasting. Why is it we all seem to want to do the wrong thing. Have we been so conditioned since their sin to continue in a downward spiral. Instead of trying to attain life we are slowly causing our own destruction. We seem to have a death wish to return to the very ground from which Adam was made. We know that after living a life of toil our bodies will return to the earth. It is while we live that we often fail in the right way of living. And we instinctively know this too. We know what we are supposed to do, what we have been commanded since the beginning of time to do. But we drag our heels and continue to do what we want. We try to change genetics, and so much else and we have been witnessing the destruction it has rendered. Aren't we in this regard throwing ourselves out of Paradis too. Kids in school do things to get themselves expelled. Adults do things to get them thrown in jail. We do all sorts of things to get us thrown out but never in the right place. It's time to change directions and try to find our way back to God's love. | | | |
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Sunday May 18, 2008
6 And the woman saw that the tree was good to eat, and fair to the eyes, and delightful to behold: and she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave to her husband who did eat. 7 And the eyes of them both were opened: and when they perceived themselves to be naked, they sewed together fig leaves, and made themselves aprons. 8 And when they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in paradise at the afternoon air, Adam and his wife hid themselves from the face of the Lord God, amidst the trees of paradise. 9 And the Lord God called Adam, and said to him: Where art thou? 10 And he said: I heard thy voice in paradise; and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.
11 And he said to him: And who hath told thee that thou wast naked, but that thou hast eaten of the tree whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldst not eat? 12 And Adam said: The woman, whom thou gavest me to be my companion, gave me of the tree, and I did eat. 13 And the Lord God said to the woman: Why hast thou done this? And she answered: The serpent deceived me, and I did eat. 14 And the Lord God said to the serpent: Because thou hast done this thing, thou art cursed among all cattle, and beasts of the earth: upon thy breast shalt thou go, and earth shalt thou eat all the days of thy life. 15 I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed: she shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel.
Genesis 3:6-15
The strangest thing came to mind when I read this, it was the similarity in how our parents request things of us as children. I remember as a child my parents asking that we not touch items, either in our home or in the home of others. Or in a sense, not to touch prepared food before guests arrive. As a child this is difficult to do sometimes. Recalling these moments had me realize that at times even our siblings play a role in goading us to touch what we were told not to. And the result after the fact, we all know what that is, off to the corner for time spent in punishment. Punishment, all for touching what we were told not to. The kids today when they are rightly punished, look at their punishment as unjust. The key is in how we obey and when we don't, the result is punishment from our parents. So on that note, we have in our own lives situations of disobedience to our parents will and the result. Amazing how from Adam and Eve and their disobedience we have until this day continued the process of not doing God's Will. He loves us more than our own parents, but we look at him as if he is a mean God when it is us who often do wrong.
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Saturday May 17, 2008
21 Then the Lord God cast a deep sleep upon Adam: and when he was fast asleep, he took one of his ribs, and filled up flesh for it. 22 And the Lord God built the rib which he took from Adam into a woman: and brought her to Adam. 23 And Adam said: This now is bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called woman, because she was taken out of man. 24 Wherefore a man shall leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they shall be two in one flesh. 25 And they were both naked: to wit, Adam and his wife: and were not ashamed.
Now the serpent was more subtle than any of the beasts of the earth which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman: Why hath God commanded you, that you should not eat of every tree of paradise? 2 And the woman answered him, saying: Of the fruit of the trees that are in paradise we do eat: 3 But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of paradise, God hath commanded us that we should not eat; and that we should not touch it, lest perhaps we die. 4 And the serpent said to the woman: No, you shall not die the death. 5 For God doth know that in what day soever you shall eat thereof, your eyes shall be opened: and you shall be as Gods, knowing good and evil.
Genesis 2:21-25,3:1-5
From the beginning God commanded, but what was the one thing that killed the relationship when they were told not to eat of the one tree. By the goading of the serpent they no longer obeyed God's Will for them. Eve disobeyed his command to not eat of the fruit. Throughout history what has caused more grief? their disobedience to orders. It's in all aspect of life. We marry and live out our life often disobeying our spouses, to do what we have termed our own thing. In the workforce, it happens and often we see the result when errors are committed. The same can be said of governments and so on. Little do we realize how much we disobey commands on a daily basis. In this day and age they are often called rules. For Adam and Eve they were commanded to do one thing, and they failed to obey and brought about a succession of disobedience to God. It opened their eyes to how much they have sinned against his Will. When thinking about this isn't that the one thing God asks of us? to do His Will? It's something we all have a hard time doing, isn't it!
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Friday May 16, 2008
11 The name of the one is Phison: that is it which compasseth all the land of Hevilath, where gold groweth. 12 And the gold of that land is very good: there is found bdellium, and the onyx stone. 13 And the name of the second river is Gehon: the same is it that compasseth all the land of Ethiopia. 14 And the name of the third river is Tigris: the same passeth along by the Assyrians. And the fourth river is Euphrates. 15 And the Lord God took man, and put him into the paradise of pleasure, to dress it, and to keep it.
16 And he commanded him, saying: Of every tree of paradise thou shalt eat: 17 But of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat. For in what day soever thou shalt eat of it, thou shalt die the death. 18 And the Lord God said: It is not good for man to be alone: let us make him a help like unto himself. 19 And the Lord God having formed out of the ground all the beasts of the earth, and all the fowls of the air, brought them to Adam to see what he would call them: for whatsoever Adam called any living creature the same is its name. 20 And Adam called all the beasts by their names, and all the fowls of the air, and all the cattle of the field: but for Adam there was not found a helper like himself.
Genesis 2:11-20
Adam was commanded not to eat of a certain tree, else he would die a certain death. We too are commanded to not sin else we will most certainly die alone. Sin separates us from God. He made animals and Adam named them. Look how far we too have come since the beginning. Occasionally we will find a creature not known to us and we too will name it, just as Adam did. We continue to name many things in this life, including those who are born. We have learned from Adam to give a name to what we create, to what we discover and have no known clue as to what it is. We have formed a foundation since Adam in the discovery of a vast world. Look how far we have come since the beginning and still we discover continually what was old and what is new. We preserve what has long since gone, but we refuse to honor and cherish life. And we name it progress.
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