Enoch, the son of Cain (a murderer, who killed his own brother), is one of the most facinating persons in the Bible. He is the only man that the Scripture, in (Hebrews 11:5), tells us that "because of faith Enoch was caught up and transferred to heaven, so that he did not have a glimpse of death; and he was found not, because God had translated him".
Enoch must have been quite a man, to have God, Himself, choose to, "take him home with Him", (Genesis 5:24). Yet there is not even a chapter devoted to him. Not much is known of Enoch except about his birth in (Genesis 4:17); And Cain's wife [one of Adam's offspring] became pregnant and bore Enoch; and Cain built a city and named it after his son Enoch. After that there are several verses that follow which anounces the birth of Enoch's children.
The only other information we have is that Enoch "walked in habitual fellowship with God", (Genesis 4:24). In a way, however, that simple phrase tells us a lot. From this we can we are able to identify what traits in us God values the most. God desires for us to be in "habitual" fellowship with Him. He wants to know us and for us to know Him. He wants us to come to Him with our troubles and our triumphs. He has provided us with the Holy Spirit to comfort us, to encourage us, to guide us, to counsel us, and to hear our grievances. God cares about all aspects of our life, no matter how trivial. He is there to "lead us in the paths of righteousness", (Psalm 23:3). This is for our good, not His. God wants us to lead happy, fulfilled lives full of His grace and favor. It is for our own benefit to strive everyday to get closer to God, and to discover His will for us in our lives. That is from where our true joy and peace will come.
*All excerpt taken from the Amplified Bible
THE NARROW PATH by J.Roberts. There is a way that seems right to a man and appears straight before him, but at the end of it is death. (Proverbs 14:12). Enter through the narrow gate, for wide is the gate and broad is the path that leads to destruction, and many are those who are entering through it. But the gate is narrow and the path is straightened and compressed that leads away to life and few are those who find it. (Matthew 7:13,14) AMP.
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Saturday, January 29, 2011
Just Go!
God has placed it on my heart in recent days, that it is time for me to go. So, I have been praying, "Where, God? Where is it you want me to go? And for what possible purpose?" This bewildered me. I worried about the responsibilities I have here. I worried about how I could manage, financially. I worried about how I could live apart from my family and everything that was familiar to me.
So, as I pondered these questions, I turned to my usual source for unaswerable questions...the Scriptures. And so, I came upon the story of Abraham in Genesis in which God commands Abram, (later known as Abraham), in Genesis Chapter 12, Verse 1, ...Go forth for yourself [for your own advantage] away from your country, from your relatives and your father's house, to the land that I will show you. Notice the "I will" future tense, not past tense. God is prompting Abraham to first, go, and then He says (at a later time) I will show you, the "where". What is so surprising about this story is that Abram does it..he goes...without questioning God...without running around asking his family and his neighbors about what they think about it or whether they think this command is really from God. He just obeys God and goes. As we see in, Genesis 12:5, And Abram departed, as the Lord had directed him. Abraham was seventy-five years old when he left Haran. This instantaneous obedience to God required astounding faith on the part of Abraham. Can you imagine, at the age of 75, leaving everything you had ever known, the only place you had ever lived...most of your family and friends? ( He did take Sarah, his wife, and his nephew, Lot.) I think we would all like to believe that we would do the same and answer the call to go where ever God tells us to go and do whatever God wants us to do. I know, for myself, I would probably ponder the request, call up all my friends, my daughter, my sister and mother and ask them what advice they had for me. I hope to, someday, reach the level of faith where, like Abraham, I just obey. Without question!
As for the answer to my question: Go where, Lord? As I was praying, last night, God brought it to my mind; Go where? "Go out and find someone to bless! Lead the life of a servant, follow the example of Jesus in Acts 10:38, and 'Go about doing good!'" So it was never a physical place to which God was prompting me to go, afterall, but rather it was to a higher level of faith and obedience.
So, as I pondered these questions, I turned to my usual source for unaswerable questions...the Scriptures. And so, I came upon the story of Abraham in Genesis in which God commands Abram, (later known as Abraham), in Genesis Chapter 12, Verse 1, ...Go forth for yourself [for your own advantage] away from your country, from your relatives and your father's house, to the land that I will show you. Notice the "I will" future tense, not past tense. God is prompting Abraham to first, go, and then He says (at a later time) I will show you, the "where". What is so surprising about this story is that Abram does it..he goes...without questioning God...without running around asking his family and his neighbors about what they think about it or whether they think this command is really from God. He just obeys God and goes. As we see in, Genesis 12:5, And Abram departed, as the Lord had directed him. Abraham was seventy-five years old when he left Haran. This instantaneous obedience to God required astounding faith on the part of Abraham. Can you imagine, at the age of 75, leaving everything you had ever known, the only place you had ever lived...most of your family and friends? ( He did take Sarah, his wife, and his nephew, Lot.) I think we would all like to believe that we would do the same and answer the call to go where ever God tells us to go and do whatever God wants us to do. I know, for myself, I would probably ponder the request, call up all my friends, my daughter, my sister and mother and ask them what advice they had for me. I hope to, someday, reach the level of faith where, like Abraham, I just obey. Without question!
As for the answer to my question: Go where, Lord? As I was praying, last night, God brought it to my mind; Go where? "Go out and find someone to bless! Lead the life of a servant, follow the example of Jesus in Acts 10:38, and 'Go about doing good!'" So it was never a physical place to which God was prompting me to go, afterall, but rather it was to a higher level of faith and obedience.
Friday, January 7, 2011
A Lump of Clay
Upon accepting Jesus Christ as our Savior, we instantly become reconciled to God and all our sins are forgiven us. We are reborn into the family of God. This is the good news of the Gospel. However, we are not instantly transformed into a perfect being. This is merely the beginning of a lifelong process, for it is at this time that God places us on the potter's wheel and begins to shape and mold us into what He intended for us to be. And though vital to our spiritual well being, the transformation from a lump of clay into the finished product can be painful. For the Word that God speaks is alive and full of power; it is sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating to the dividing line of the breath of life (soul) and [the immortal] spirit, and of joints and marrow [of the deepest parts of our nature], exposing and sifting and analyzing and judging the very thoughts and purposes of the heart. Hebrews 4:11-13 It is uncomfortable to have a bright light shined inward exposing our human frailties and carnal nature. Ultimately, we are made aware of the strongholds that have built up in our lives, a result of us having attempted to maneuver through a life without God. These strongholds must be removed (torn down) in order for us to fully enjoy the life that God has planned for us. Though we see ourselvs as we are, God sees us the way that He intended us to be.This is when the transformation process begins.
Throughout our lives, as we attempted to deal with circumstances on our own, apart from God, and as we have endured trying circumstance apart from the counseling and comforting of the Holy Spirit we build up stronghold in our personality. And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace [Who imparts all blessing and favor], Who has called you to His [own] eternal glory in Christ Jesus, will Himself complete and make you what you ought to be, establish and ground you securely, and strengthen, and settle you. 1 Peter 5:9-11
So you see, that regardless of how much we complain..this is too hard...I can't do this...it does not matter, we shall be transformed. It may take until the day Jesus returns but it will happen. Our part, then, is to push ourselves as far as we can go, and when we can go no further, God, Himself, will come to our rescue.
Throughout our lives, as we attempted to deal with circumstances on our own, apart from God, and as we have endured trying circumstance apart from the counseling and comforting of the Holy Spirit we build up stronghold in our personality. And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace [Who imparts all blessing and favor], Who has called you to His [own] eternal glory in Christ Jesus, will Himself complete and make you what you ought to be, establish and ground you securely, and strengthen, and settle you. 1 Peter 5:9-11
So you see, that regardless of how much we complain..this is too hard...I can't do this...it does not matter, we shall be transformed. It may take until the day Jesus returns but it will happen. Our part, then, is to push ourselves as far as we can go, and when we can go no further, God, Himself, will come to our rescue.
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Lest a Seed is Sown
We all know that life is precarious and that death can come suddenly and without warning, and as Christians we rely on our faith and our belief that through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross and His resurrection that we also can obtain eternal life. We are, however, human and still subject to human frailities and doubt, for some of us, does creep in. We are especially vulnerable to this doubt while we are experiencing the pain and grief of the loss of a loved one. It is at these times that we must renew our faith by reaching for the source of our strength in these times, the Word of God. As we ponder the mysteries of life and death, we can use this resource to reveal to us the answers to what seems to us the unanswerable. Through scripture we are able to search the heart of God to find the answers.
But someone will say, How can the dead be raised? With what kind of body will they come forth? ICorinthians 15:35. This verse gets directly to the question. We see that we are not the first nor the last to have raised these questions. The scripture gives us an answer. You foolish man! Everytime you plant a seed, you sow something that does not come to life unless it dies first. Nor is the seed you sow then the body which it is going to have (later), but it is a naked kernel...But God gives to it the body that he plans and sees fit, and to each kind of seed a body of its own. For all flesh is not the same, but there is one kind for humans, another for beasts, another for birds, and another for fish. There are heavenly bodies (sun, moon, and stars) and there are earthly bodies (men, animals, and plants), but the beauty and glory of the heavenly bodies is of one kind, while the beauty and glory of earthly bodies is a different kind. ...So it is with the resurrection of the dead. (The body that is sown is perishable and decays, but the body that is resurrected is imperishable (immune to decay, immortal)...It is sown in infirmity and weakness; it is resurrected in strenth and endued with power. It is sown a natural (physical) body; it is raised a supernatural (a spiritual) body. As surely as there is a physical body, there is a spiritual body. I Corinthians 15: 36-44.
God, through His holy word, has given us a direct answer to a direct question. We are able to comprehend the analogy of the seed and how, when it (the seed) is planted (buried) in the ground, it is not at all what it will become when it reappears above the ground as a tree, or a flower or any other kind of plant. So it is with our earthly bodies. Now we must apply our faith and believe that the Word is the truth.
But someone will say, How can the dead be raised? With what kind of body will they come forth? ICorinthians 15:35. This verse gets directly to the question. We see that we are not the first nor the last to have raised these questions. The scripture gives us an answer. You foolish man! Everytime you plant a seed, you sow something that does not come to life unless it dies first. Nor is the seed you sow then the body which it is going to have (later), but it is a naked kernel...But God gives to it the body that he plans and sees fit, and to each kind of seed a body of its own. For all flesh is not the same, but there is one kind for humans, another for beasts, another for birds, and another for fish. There are heavenly bodies (sun, moon, and stars) and there are earthly bodies (men, animals, and plants), but the beauty and glory of the heavenly bodies is of one kind, while the beauty and glory of earthly bodies is a different kind. ...So it is with the resurrection of the dead. (The body that is sown is perishable and decays, but the body that is resurrected is imperishable (immune to decay, immortal)...It is sown in infirmity and weakness; it is resurrected in strenth and endued with power. It is sown a natural (physical) body; it is raised a supernatural (a spiritual) body. As surely as there is a physical body, there is a spiritual body. I Corinthians 15: 36-44.
God, through His holy word, has given us a direct answer to a direct question. We are able to comprehend the analogy of the seed and how, when it (the seed) is planted (buried) in the ground, it is not at all what it will become when it reappears above the ground as a tree, or a flower or any other kind of plant. So it is with our earthly bodies. Now we must apply our faith and believe that the Word is the truth.
Saturday, January 1, 2011
Here I am!
It is New Year's Eve, 26 minutes till the end of the year. I'm in my pj's watching CNN's Anderson Cooper and Kathy Griffin (who is she, anyway) waiting for the ball to drop in NYC's Time Square, contemplating what the future might hold for a 53 yea old, retired, white woman. I am not working. My daughter is grown and has her own family and her own life (as it should be.) I asked myself: What do I want? I know I want to do something new. I know I want to do something besides worry about my mortgage payment. But, what is it I want to accomplish in the new year. And then I noticed, even as I'm writing this, that there are a lot of "'I's" in this story. Then it dawned on me. Maybe I'm asking the wrong question. Maybe the question should be; what does God want for me in this coming year. And suddenly peace came over me.
It is time to step out in faith and try the new thing. Remember in the Bible when God told Abram (later Abraham): Go for yourself [for your own advantage] away from your country, from your relatives and your father's house, to the land that I will show you...and I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you with abundant increase of favors and make your name famous and distinguished, and you will be a blessing [dispensing good to others] Gen.12 1,2; and in Gen. 12:4 (just two verses up) it says...So Abram departed. He just left. He immediatly obeyed God. He didn't ask his relatives what they thought; he didn't confer with his neighbors. He obeyed God and left. Now, I know God made him a lot of promises. But this guy had faith, real faith. He didn't just believe, he was convinced. It required a radical act of obedience to step out in faith, not knowing where God was leading him, leaving everyone and everthing he had ever known behind. He trusted God, so he obeyed, end of story. And so God always said of Abraham, that his faith was accounted to him as righteousness. And because faith results in obedience and obedience results in blessing. Abraham became a very great man. If you truly believe the promises of God (also known as faith), then you will obey God when He calls you out from your comfort zone. Like when the Angel of the Lord called out to Abraham from heaven, in Gen. 22:11 and says. Abraham, Abraham! And without hesitation Abraham answers, Here I am.
It is time to step out in faith and try the new thing. Remember in the Bible when God told Abram (later Abraham): Go for yourself [for your own advantage] away from your country, from your relatives and your father's house, to the land that I will show you...and I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you with abundant increase of favors and make your name famous and distinguished, and you will be a blessing [dispensing good to others] Gen.12 1,2; and in Gen. 12:4 (just two verses up) it says...So Abram departed. He just left. He immediatly obeyed God. He didn't ask his relatives what they thought; he didn't confer with his neighbors. He obeyed God and left. Now, I know God made him a lot of promises. But this guy had faith, real faith. He didn't just believe, he was convinced. It required a radical act of obedience to step out in faith, not knowing where God was leading him, leaving everyone and everthing he had ever known behind. He trusted God, so he obeyed, end of story. And so God always said of Abraham, that his faith was accounted to him as righteousness. And because faith results in obedience and obedience results in blessing. Abraham became a very great man. If you truly believe the promises of God (also known as faith), then you will obey God when He calls you out from your comfort zone. Like when the Angel of the Lord called out to Abraham from heaven, in Gen. 22:11 and says. Abraham, Abraham! And without hesitation Abraham answers, Here I am.
Friday, December 31, 2010
The Way
There is a way that seems right to a man and appears straight before him, but at the end of it is the way of death. (Proverbs 14:12). Enter through the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many are those who are entering through it. But the gate is narrow and the way is straightened and compressed that leads away to life and few are those who find it. (Matthew 7:13,14)
In order to find the way to the narrow path, we must strive to have our spiritual eyes and ears opened. Just as Jesus restored sight to the blind in His healing ministry, we must seek to have our spiritual sight restored. Because if we find ourselves traveling the broad path that leads to destruction then we are living in darkness and, therefore, blind to the Truth. A light from on high will dawn upon us and visit us. To shine upon and give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to direct and guide our feet in a straight line into the way of peace. (Luke 1: 78,79).
God has given us free will. The path we choose in life is ours. We choose not one time, but daily, sometimes moment by moment the way in which we will go. Our lives bear the fruit of these choices. Which is why we someimes find ourselves in places, in relationships, in circumsances that we would rather not be in.
But there is good news! God has provided us a guide to map out our jouney. We can read His Word and plot our course daily. He wants to lead us into the good life that He has intended for us. By having the eyes of your heart flooded with light, so that you can know and understand the hope to which He has called you, and how rich is His glorious inheritance for us. And so that you can know and undersand what is the immeasurable and unlimited and surpassing greatness of His power in and for us who believe, as demonstrated in the working of His mighty strength. The same power which he exerted in Christ when He raised Him from he dead. Just imagine, the same miracle working power that raised Jesus from the dead is available to us in our lives!
In order to find the way to the narrow path, we must strive to have our spiritual eyes and ears opened. Just as Jesus restored sight to the blind in His healing ministry, we must seek to have our spiritual sight restored. Because if we find ourselves traveling the broad path that leads to destruction then we are living in darkness and, therefore, blind to the Truth. A light from on high will dawn upon us and visit us. To shine upon and give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to direct and guide our feet in a straight line into the way of peace. (Luke 1: 78,79).
God has given us free will. The path we choose in life is ours. We choose not one time, but daily, sometimes moment by moment the way in which we will go. Our lives bear the fruit of these choices. Which is why we someimes find ourselves in places, in relationships, in circumsances that we would rather not be in.
But there is good news! God has provided us a guide to map out our jouney. We can read His Word and plot our course daily. He wants to lead us into the good life that He has intended for us. By having the eyes of your heart flooded with light, so that you can know and understand the hope to which He has called you, and how rich is His glorious inheritance for us. And so that you can know and undersand what is the immeasurable and unlimited and surpassing greatness of His power in and for us who believe, as demonstrated in the working of His mighty strength. The same power which he exerted in Christ when He raised Him from he dead. Just imagine, the same miracle working power that raised Jesus from the dead is available to us in our lives!
Years End
You can't help but be reflective come this time of the year. Afterall, another year has gone by. So much happened and so much did not happen. At 53 the "did not happen" category can be the most disturbing. There are so many things I want to do. And now that I am retired and have the time to do them, I just don't. I haven't watched TV for about three days. I refuse to spend the rest of my life hypnotized by a box with a light in it (even if it is a 47" HD 1080p), oh God, that's even worse. I've become what I swore I never would...materialistic. I'm either watching HSN, QVC, or shopping online. What have I become?
Well, a new year is almost here and I am not going to waste it. It is time to step out in faith and try some new things. I refuse to let fear hold me back. I'm going to do something I'm afraid to do. You know...afraid of ridicule...afraid of failure. The new year holds new hope, and I plan to take advantage of that.
Well, a new year is almost here and I am not going to waste it. It is time to step out in faith and try some new things. I refuse to let fear hold me back. I'm going to do something I'm afraid to do. You know...afraid of ridicule...afraid of failure. The new year holds new hope, and I plan to take advantage of that.
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