Thursday, September 30, 2010

Leaving a Legacy

Read Genesis 10

So, by now you’re probably wondering where in all of this you’re going to get a decent quiet time out of reading some random genealogy. When I think about genealogies I am reminded of my grandma who has a deep interest in family history and has done a great deal of research into our family on several sides during the past several decades. Whenever I go down to New Mexico to visit family I make a point of going over to my Mama Jeanne’s house and listening for a few days to see what I can glean from all of the things she has learned or remembered over the years which, as it turns out, is fascinating. She often speaks of “the need to remember where you came from, so you know where you’re going”. I think in many ways when we read biblical genealogies we need to remember this concept. It’s not simply a random list of unpronounceable names, these are stories, there is meaning behind every name and the way they are ordered. Lets look at a few examples.

“Cush fathered Nimrod; he was the first on earth to be a mighty man. He was a mighty hunter before the LORD. Therefore it is said, "Like Nimrod a mighty hunter before the LORD." The beginning of his kingdom was Babel, Erech, Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar. From that land he went into Assyria and built Nineveh, Rehoboth-Ir, Calah, and Resen between Nineveh and Calah; that is the great city.” (Genesis 10:8-12)

Notice to begin with that a large portion of the table of nations is dedicated to this man, Nimrod. Nimrod became a mighty man, a great hunter, and a hero which all sounds nice when you first say it, but hold on a second. This man was the first one on earth to believe that he was better than other men and exalted himself over them as their king. Nimrod established himself in a number of places we should be familiar with, just a few are Babel, Shinar (Babylon), Assyria, and Ninevah. True these places did become great kingdoms, but there was always an opposition between them God. The fruit of Nimrod’s legacy is empires in opposition to God.
Now let’s take another entry from this long list of names.

“Shem, the older brother of Japheth, also had sons. Shem was ancestor to all the children of Eber. The sons of Shem: Elam, Asshur, Arphaxad, Lud, and Aram.The sons of Aram: Uz, Hul, Gether, Meshech. Arphaxad had Shelah and Shelah had Eber. Eber had two sons, Peleg (so named because in his days the human race divided) and Joktan.” (Genesis 10:21-24)
Eber is the great grandson of Shem, but if you will note in the first line it says that Shem is the ancestor to all of the children of Eber. The link is significant because of all the other names in the passage and great grandchildren of Shem, why does God choose to point out Eber? What is the fruit of Eber’s legacy? The Hebrews. The children of Eber become the children of Israel. The chosen people of God. Jews even today recognize Eber as the first of the Hebrew peoples. His legacy is a legacy of godliness and, for us believers, ultimately redemption.

Here we have in one genealogy two different people, two different lives, and two very different lasting consequences. One was very successful if we’re gauging success by power and influence on worldly standards; the other chose to be used by God and emerged as a forefather of God’s redemptive work in the lives of all people. Reflect on your life and values for a moment. What are you pursuing? What is the end goal of your education? Your career? Your relationships? Your life? What are the lasting consequences of the way you are living now? Ask God to help define your view and the legacy of his redeeming work in your life.

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Dignity

Read: Genesis 9:18-28

So the LORD has created a flood to wipe out all the inhabitants of the earth save for Noah and his family, as well as a bunch of animals. But right off the bat, we see that sin is never far away from the door of humanity’s soul. Noah planted a vineyard, had a little more red wine than he expected, and then just passed out naked in his tent. Why he would drink wine naked in the first place is beyond me. Ham came in, and saw his dad naked, and then went out to announce it to his brothers, “Hey guys! Check it out - dad’s NAKED in his tent! What a loser, getting drunk and all! And why did he drink wine naked in the first place?” Shem and Japeth, however, would have none of it. True - they could’ve laughed along with Ham, but they did the opposite, covering their dad’s nakedness while averting their eyes.

Culturally speaking, in those days, it is not right for older children to look at their parents - especially their fathers - naked. Today, we don’t care - but in those days it was a big deal. In the ancient near east, the father figure is a towering, imposing figure. The father is a respected character, much like how the father is in traditional Chinese culture. The father is the lord of the household. But by seeing his father naked AND announcing it to his brothers, Ham has literally made his dad a joke. One commentary goes farther and says that such an act “emasculated” Noah. By seeing and joking about his naked father, Ham has stripped Noah of his fatherly dignity.

Yet, Ham’s behavior - stripping others of their dignity - is so common in this world. You see this whenever there is a conflict, from Washington DC to your backyard. Do you strip your parents of their dignity by putting them down? There is a fine line between truth and emasculation. As an example, my dad was a very simple-minded fellow. He was, and there’s no shame in being simple-minded. But that does not mean he was dumb. If I called him “dumb” or “stupid”, I would be no better than Ham, because I have torn down my dad’s dignity in the process. Do you do that do your parents? Do you, in times of disagreement, tear them down verbally to show that you have, somehow, the “upper hand”?

Okay, most of us probably don’t. But what about your brothers and sisters (biological or Christian)? When the church is in disagreement, how do people resolve it? In peace and love? Or by trading words of malice and anger? What about friends? Or what about people you don’t like?

Jesus commands in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5: 43-45) that we are to love our enemies and even pray for our persecutors! Yes, your enemies might have taken away your dignity, but as Christians we don’t take theirs away. Let us, therefore, follow Jesus’ words, and be people who never - like Ham - rob others of their dignities.

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

The Noahic Covenant

As we come to the conclusion of the story of Noah and the Flood, its important for us to remember that the Bible was not naturally a segmented and sectioned book. If we’re reading about the Noahic Covenant, we have to read it within the context of the entire flood narrative, and then ultimately, God’s redemption story. Take some time this morning to read the entire flood story but focus on Genesis 8:20-9:17.

Read Genesis 6-9

So often we hear the assumption that God changes from the Old Testament to the New Testament. People incorrectly assume that God in the Old Testament is all about wrath and anger, who destroys people for their disobedience, while God in the New Testament is full of mercy and grace and loves people. Neither of those assertions is completely correct. God the Father is both perfectly just, dealing out righteous judgment on the disobedient, but at the same time he is full of mercy and compassion. We see such a clear picture of this in both the Old and New Testament, but we are given a microcosm of God’s full character here in the Flood narrative.

At the start, we see God’s righteous judgment and wrath poured out on humanity because of their disobedience. And yet, God is faithful to those who are obedient. He has compassion on Noah and his family because Noah was righteous and blameless in his generation (he stood out from the crowd, just like Enoch) Its true that without getting a clear picture of God’s righteous judgment (the Flood) you can’t fully understand his mercy and compassion either (Noah’s family).

Likewise at the end of the narrative, we see the covenant that God makes with Noah. A covenant was an agreement made between to parties, and God makes a covenant with Noah (and ultimately humanity) that He would never again so completely wipe out the living creatures on the earth. Once again, we see God’s righteous judgment side by side with God’s mercy on us. These things aren’t contradictory. They work side by side to give us a clear view of God’s character.

Take some time this morning and praise God for the fullness of His character. Read through Psalm 145 outloud as a praise to God who is both just and merciful, righteous and compassionate.

Monday, September 27, 2010

Land Ho!

As I have been reading Emmaus more Bible stories from his children’s Bibles, it is so interesting how they depict the flood in those books and also kid’s toys. It is always this big boat with lots of animals and everyone is smiling. The animals and boat are super cute and I think Emmaus even has a pair of pajamas with that. But can we all see the destruction of the flood that was brought. It isn’t a “G” rated cartoon but a “R” rated movie where people are killed, flood brings destruction, and just lots of really bad horror. So you can only imagine how Noah and his family felt on the ark. They are really excited that they were saved but also must have been devastated by the sight around them. Everything as they knew was now gone and they didn’t know when things would go back to normal

Read Genesis 8:1-19

They waited and waited until they finally saw the waters start to recede. After a long wait, there was the hope that the waters are starting to come down. Just put yourself in the mindset of the family, 150 days of watching the earth be filled with water. Each day you are wondering when things will return to normal. Then you realize that things will never be the same again.

God has given Noah, his family and all the animals on board the task of starting again. God is a God of second chances and we see here that he has given humanity another chance. Verse 15-17, “15 Then God said to Noah, 16 "Come out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and their wives. 17 Bring out every kind of living creature that is with you—the birds, the animals, and all the creatures that move along the ground—so they can multiply on the earth and be fruitful and increase in number upon it." God gives Noah the instruction that we saw in the garden.

What a great story of grace and love! Then Noah sets up an altar to sacrifice to God. The aroma was pleasing to God and God establishes a covenant (promise) with humanity. We can hold on to that promise and know that God will always shower us with his grace and love.

Are you feeling like the floods and hardships are surrounding you? Are you waiting for when the waters will finally go away? You can trust that God will provide and his timing is perfect. Hold on to the hope that he will take the storms in your life away each day you just have to faithfully look towards Him. I love Noah’s action afterwards in which he remembered that God provided so he built an altar to show a heart of thanksgiving and centered on the one that provided for Him. We must remember to have that same attitude of thanksgiving to Him who provides and guides us.

Friday, September 24, 2010

We Got One Ridiculously Mighty God

Most of you have probably heard of the story of Noah and how it rained for forty days and forty nights and the whole world was covered in water for 150 days. So you might have a lot of preconceptions about Noah and the Flood. But before you read today’s passage, I would like to remind you of some words from Francis Chan that I heard at LIFE 2010. During one of the evening seminars, he simply told us to think about God’s creation and all the detail that God put into creation. It went something like this:
Our God is the God who invented laughter. When we are happy or think something is funny, that is our natural response. Now who would have thought of something like laughter? It’s so original. And how about eating? God could have simply made us to absorb our food like amoebas. But no, instead, he created us to ingest our food, using our taste buds to absorb all the goodness of the food. And how about reproduction? God could have just as easily had us reproduce simply by holding hands.

Even though those weren’t his exact words, it was definitely something along those lines. And I think the important thing is the message that he was trying to convey: God is amazing, inventive, mind-blowing; you name any good thing, and God probably is exactly that. So as you read today, I hope that you will focus on one thing in particular: God’s power.

Read Genesis 7:11-24

Wow right? I think that if we truly stopped and got rid of all our preconceptions about Noah and what we think we know about him we would be in awe of the power that is so mightily demonstrated by God in this passage. Just look at the words the author uses: “on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened.” Now if that doesn’t stimulate your imagination regarding the magnitude of the flooding, stop and think about the worst flooding you’ve ever seen or experienced in your life. Now raise that to the billionth power and it’s probably approximately what the earth looked like at the end of the first day of THE 150 day Flood. Yeah, pretty intense right?

Yet, I think the even more amazing fact is that God, despite the magnitude of the flood he created, was still in charge. It says that once Noah went into the ark with his family and all the animals, “the Lord shut him in.” This implies that God was protecting Noah the entire time, even when the rest of the world was going crazy! And yet, this is exactly what God does for us in our own lives. He protects us from things far beyond our strength to handle; He is our daily Ark.

This year has already been a tremendous challenge with both my parents in Taiwan and Elaine and I basically having to share all the house duties: cleaning, cooking, shopping, etc. In addition, I have all my schoolwork (AP’s included), college apps, and various other extracurricular activities. Yet, I believe that God is calling me to depend on His strength in this coming year, to cling to Him, just as the only way Noah could have survived the Flood was to cling to the Ark God had commanded him to make. So how is God calling you to trust in His strength today? This week? This month or even this year? Are you still trying to survive in this world on your own strength, constantly struggling to remain above the surface of the water? Because I know that God wants you in His Ark; He wants you to depend on His strength alone. So my prayer for you today is that you will learn to let go, to trust God with everything, and to truly live on His strength and power alone.

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Build Me an Ark!

Read Genesis 6:9-7:10

An interesting point to note at the outset of the story of Noah is the meaning of his name. Noah means rest. Rest is one of those highly desired yet illusive things for most of us busy people of the world. There’s this perpetual battle against whether you should get more sleep at night or busy yourself doing “more productive” things. I know personally over the years one of the most frustrating and yet fulfilling things about being a narcoleptic is finding rest. You yearn for it, long for it, think about it all the time, and for a few short moments you actually revel in all the glory of it . . . then you wake up.

What does it mean that Noah = rest? Does it mean out of his entire generation he was the only person who experienced the rest of God by being delivered by the flood? Does it mean Noah is the reprieve of God out of all the people of his corrupt chaotic generation? His generation was so depraved and corrupt that it mentions it like six times in the first couple of lines. What must’ve God thought about looking down on creation and the work of his hands and being so grieved by it that he decided to destroy everything that lived? Now that’s some serious corruption! Notice the Bible doesn’t even say this about his kids, or their wives, or his wife, and yet because of his righteousness and integrity God allows them to live. Have you ever stopped to think about the fact that God actually refers to Noah as blameless? There are not very many places in scripture where God refers to someone as being “blameless” and that in contrast to the society of the age around him. Even more so than this though, Noah continually walked with God. The reason behind him finding God’s rest, the reason behind the faithful actions of his life that even gives us the story we know of Noah, the reason only he was blameless in his generation was because he walked with God. Can people we know say the same of us?

Noah was a man of a lot of faith. Sometimes when I think about it I’m reminded of the recent movie starring Steve Carell, Evan Almighty. Seriously though, more than just the Hollywood portrayal of this event, Noah and his family had to be working on this ark for more than fifty years given the technology of the age. He and his family had to have faith to begin a work and a plan this complex that it involved the conservation of all living creatures that walk on earth or fly in the air. How many of us would be willing to face the same kind of public criticism and derision that Noah and his family faced for decades? I know personally whenever my parents or family bring up the fact that I want to live a life for God (which has meant a lot of nebulous time waiting for him to bring situations about) and not an easily upwardly mobile job in a secure field close to home, I cringe because I know the scorn that comes right along with it. However, it’s nothing compared with the scale of scorn that Noah and his family met while patiently working for the future of something they couldn’t even fathom, the destruction of their known world. Are you ready to suffer the scorn of others and look foolish as you patiently wait for God to direct you in school? Future college/career choices? In dating relationships/singleness? Do we understand what it means to live a righteous life? Are you prepared to walk out of a trashy or violent movie when all your friends continue to sit there and watch? How does your life look different because you follow after God with faith and righteousness? Hebrews talks about Noah like this:
“[Prompted] by faith Noah, being forewarned by God concerning events of which as yet there was no visible sign, took heed and diligently and reverently constructed and prepared an ark for the deliverance of his own family. By this [his faith which relied on God] he passed judgment and sentence on the world's unbelief and became an heir and possessor of righteousness (that relation of being right into which God puts the person who has faith).”( Hebrews 11:7, Amplified Bible)

As we continue to seek wholeness together throughout this year let’s take a moment together and reflect on our willingness to follow God in faith when we cannot see the outcomes. Let us pray for the strength and the boldness of faith that God has given so many who have come before us and desired to walk with him!

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Heroes of Old, Not Heroes of God

Read Genesis 6: 1-8

Now the Nephilim were on the earth those days...

We are not sure who the Nephilim were, and the debate continues among academic biblical circles. But this much we know: the sons of God (read - holy) went to the daughters of the world (read - unholy), and married them, because they were hot. Oh - and they just married anyone they chose. I like you - let’s get hitched. Their children were the Nephilim, and they were “heroes of old, men of renown.” Later on in Numbers 13, after Moses sent the spies into the Promised Land, they returned to give the bad report, saying “We saw the Nephilim there... we looked like grasshoppers in our own eyes and we looked the same to them.”

In this world, we prize these outward virtues. Big and strong, tall and mighty, ageless and powerful. Or, beautiful - hot, even, sensuous, etc. The same temptations existed back then, but note in verse 5-6 the LORD’s response: grief. Terrible grief. So terrible, in fact, God even regretted creating man in the first place. And then his response went further: I’m going to remove all creation. It was a bad idea. These people may be heroes of old, men of renown, but God didn’t see it that way. He saw them as disappointments. Everything they did, their thoughts, their actions, their everything, tended towards evil.

It shouldn’t be surprising. When we focus on the things of this world, we naturally think that God is optional. Thus, Jesus often rails against the wealthy, the strong, the powerful, because many of them have been bought out by the world. Even though they claimed to be Jews, they weren’t on the inside. Thus, when God’s people married the daughters of the world on beauty alone - but not holiness - it was a big middle finger to God. Who are you, God, to tell me what I should do? These women are beautiful, they’re hot - why shouldn’t I marry them? What’s more - the children were “heroes of hold, men of renown.” What’s so bad about that?

What’s so bad about that is that the “heroes of old” were testaments to disobedience. Do we suffer from this wanton disobedience? Do we live our lives as one gigantic middle finger to God? Or do we humbly follow Him and serve Him only? Are we heroes of God?

It is interesting to compare this story to Jesus’ temptation. One of Jesus’ temptations was to jump down from a high place into a crowd below. Satan’s rationale: “The angels will keep you safe.” The idea was simple - by jumping down and letting the angels save you in front of all these people, you become an instant celebrity, a hero to the masses. But Jesus would not do it. What a hero of God Jesus was - that he would humbly walk this earth and even ascend the hill of Calvary for our sake. Let us follow in his steps.

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Standing Out in the Crowd

As a kid, one of the parts of the Bible I would always neglect reading was anything with a genealogy. What did a bunch of names and numbers have to do with me? It wasn’t until I understood that everything is written in the Bible for a reason, that I began to read through genealogies a little more carefully. My hope is that today you’d read Genesis 5 and see what God wants you to see.

Read Genesis 5

What immediately jumps out at you when you read this genealogy? The first is that it traces Adams line to Noah. Further more, its pretty easy to see that each person in the genealogy is introduced in the same structure. “When Person A was X years old he fathered Person B. Person A lived after he fathered Person B Y years and had other sons and days. Thus all the days of Person A were X+Y years, and he died.” It follows this formula from Adam to Seth to Enosh to Kenan to Mahalel to Jared to Methuselah to Lamech to Noah.

But sometimes its easy to get lost in the numbers, especially when they’re as huge as the ones found here in Genesis 5. Instead of just focusing on how each of the people follow the same formula, its as important, if not more important, to look at the one who stands out from the crowd. Enoch. Read Genesis 5:21-24. Enoch is different from all the rest. He stands out from the crowd by one simple sentence, that “he walked with God”. Now did that mean the rest didn’t walk with God? Probably not. It’s clear that Adam and Noah walked with God at some point. Both literally and as a metaphor for the righteous life that was honoring to God. But Enoch here receives special attention, because he also walked with God. This makes Enoch stick out from the rest of the crowd.

So what does this mean for us? I believe that many of us go about our daily lives, whether at school or home or work, and we blend right in. Its so easy for us to be chameleons and adjust accordingly so that we don’t draw attention to ourselves. I believe that God is calling us to stand out from the crowd. To be different and not blend in to what culture and society tells us to be. But it would be so easy to stand out for the wrong reason. Our desire ought to be to stand out from the crowd because we walk with God. Our lives should be a reflection of a close intimate relationship with the living God.

Take some time today to ask God to help you stand out from the crowd by walking with Him. We want the world to look and see not us but Jesus at work in us. Pray that your brothers and sisters in their own schools and homes would also stand out for Jesus.

Monday, September 20, 2010

Giving God My Best Not Leftovers

Try to remember a time when you tried to do something special for your parents for their birthday or Christmas? Do you remember what you did? Did you buy something? Or make something? Or just do something last minute? Or totally forgot all together? I remember once that I bought my mom a mother’s day card and it turned out to be the same one that I had bought her the year before (Whoops!). Try to think about the attitude you had in trying to give a gift.

Now Read Genesis 4

Here we see that Cain was a gardener and Abel was a shepherd tending the sheep. Back then, people would bring sacrifices to God to show their love for Him. One time Cain gave God a gift, or a sacrifice, of the fruit he grew. Abel gave God one of the very best of his flock. God was very happy with Abel’s gift but he wasn’t very pleased with Cain’s gift.

You may be wondering why did God like Abel’s gift more than Cain’s gift. Read again Genesis 4:3-5 - 3 In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the LORD. 4 But Abel brought fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The LORD looked with favor on Abel and his offering, 5 but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast. Cain brought some of the fruits he grew whenever he thought of it while Abel brought the fat portions of the firstborn of his flock. This means Cain just did it without much thought while Abel brought the best (the fat off the best and most favorite sheep he had). God was so pleased with Abel’s gift as it showed that Abel realizes that everything he has comes from God and Abel wanted to give God his very best. Cain on the other hand didn’t see the importance of showing God that God was first in His life. So God told Abel that He was pleased with his offering and truly delighted in it. All that made Cain very jealous and angry. So one day out in the field, he killed Abel.

Remember the introduction, try to picture this. It is your dad’s birthday and you have two sons. One brought you a gift with every penny of his allowance to show you his love and the other gave you an apple from the refrigerator that you actually purchased. Though you love both, aren’t you more pleased with the sacrifice of the first son.

Think about the ways you treat God. Do you just give Him the leftovers of your life? Do you give him all the stuff that is left after you do all the things that are truly important or mean the most to you in your life? Or are you giving God your best? In all the things you do, are you giving and sacrificing the best for Him? Think about the time you spend with him – is it with an attitude that God is first or is it with an attitude of duty and obligation. Take some time to just reflect and think about what are ways you want to give God your best and not the leftovers.

Friday, September 17, 2010

The Story is About God’s Love

Read Genesis 3:8-24

I think that even by the time we reach the end of the third chapter of Genesis, we have already been taken on a roller coaster of emotions. Initially, we are in complete awe of how God created EVERYTHING in this humongous universe, from the smallest ant abdomen to the largest galaxies out there. Then, we share Adam and Eve’s extreme joy when they are united by God to “worship and obey” Him together. The intimacy they experience with God is something we Christians today can only dream of. And then (Darth Vader music)…something we now call “The Fall” occurs. Adam and Eve, so lovingly created by God to live in such a perfect environment (It’s the Garden of Eden for crying out loud. It’s the absolutely perfect place for humans to live and flourish), enjoying such deep intimacy with God – BOOM! They sin. Adam and Eve have practically – no, they do have – everything they could ever possibly want; yet, they still choose to disobey God and they sever humankind’s once-whole relationship with God.

Wow. My reaction to this story is sometimes anger. I look at all that Adam and Eve had, all that God had given to them, and I am overwhelmingly confused, mad, and shocked at how our ancestors could have given up all that good stuff just so they could eat a little fruit off the only tree that God commanded them not to eat off of. One tree, that’s all that God ever told them to stay away from. Everything else, go right on ahead. But no, do not eat from that tree. Yet, what do Adam and Eve do? Eat from that one tree God tells them not to eat from. And the argument could be made the serpent did tempt Eve to eat from the tree initially, who gave it to Adam to eat, who blah blah blah. The point is Adam and Eve chose to consciously disobey God and reject everything that He had provided for them.

Yet, each time I continue to think more about the situation and my own life, I begin to see times in my own life where I have sinned and consciously rebelled against God, at times, even sinning deliberately against God even when I know, not too deep down, that I should not be doing what I am doing…while I’m sinning against God. And when I’m reminded of those times, I realize that I have absolutely no right to be mad at Adam and Eve for what they did because, frankly, who am I to judge them, a fellow sinner? And, at this, I begin to understand the deep sadness and fear that must have gripped their hearts the moment they bit into the forbidden fruit. In fact, Adam and Eve actually physically try to hide from God when they “heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden.”
I remember going on a vacation to Oregon the summer after Kindergarten. We stayed at a nice hotel/apartment called Boulders on the River. It was a really nice place and, best of all (even though I didn’t even play volleyball at the age of 6), there was a sand volleyball court behind the place we were staying, in the middle of a big grass field. One day, my two sisters and I went out to that sand court to play with the sand and probably try to make sand castles or something. We also decided that it was a good idea to bring my mom’s umbrella/parasol outside because we thought it would be a good idea to all try to hide underneath it while playing with the sand. I also remember distinctly my mom and dad both telling us: “make sure you don’t break it.” That’s the one command they gave us. Of course, we reassured them that we wouldn’t and hurried outside to play. Luckily for us, there happened to be a bunch of people playing volleyball on the sand court that day and, lo and behold, the ball smashed into my mom’s umbrella that we were hiding underneath and, yeah, broke it. I don’t remember what exactly went through my mind the instant I realized what had happened, but I can imagine it was similar to how Adam and Eve felt when they too broke the single command given to them: shock, fear, anxiety. After we realized the state of the umbrella, my sisters and I quietly crept back into the house, tried to fix up the umbrella as best as we could, put it away, and hid from my parents. I can imagine how terrible I must have felt and how the worry tore at my heart that afternoon. After all, it was the one thing my parents told us not to do, and we did exactly that. We could have just as easily played somewhere else, but we consciously chose to stay where we were, in a very likely position for a ball to come in and break my mom’s umbrella. Later that afternoon, I remember my dad calling out to the three of us, similar to how God called out to Adam and Eve in the garden, asking us where we were. We came out from hiding in our rooms and when my dad asked about the umbrella, there was absolutely no hiding the truth.

Now back to Adam and Eve. At this point in their story, God has just confronted them about their sin, asking them, “Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” Not that God needs their answer to know the truth. But our God is also a just God whose absolute abhorrence of sin demands payment for sin. And thus, Adam and Eve are given difficulty working the ground and pain in childbirth respectively as well as banished from the Garden of Eden and, more importantly, God’s presence.
I think that it’s important to note that, despite our sins and the extreme grief that it causes God, just as my father was probably grieved (on a smaller scale) that we couldn’t come to him and admit our faults, God still loves us. No matter what we do to disrupt God’s original intent, He still has our best interests in mind. I want to highlight the last part of today’s passage: “And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them. Then the Lord God said, ‘Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat and live forever–’ therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken.”

I think both of these gestures, clothing Adam and Eve, and driving them out of the Garden of Eden are significant in showing God’s desire and love for us. In fact, the first thing God does after he declares his punishment on humans is to clothe them. This is still a very intimate action; it brings to my mind the image of a mother lovingly dressing her young child for his/her first day of school. It also shows that God, even right after the first human sin, still loves us! And that is way cool. Also, regarding how driving humans from the garden is reflective of love, here is a commentary from my ESV Bible regarding verses 22-24:
“The couple is expelled from the garden. God begins a sentence in v. 22 and breaks it off without finishing it – for the man to live forever (in his sinful condition) is an unbearable thought, and God must waste no time in preventing it (‘therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden’).”

Now what does all this mean for us today though? I think that we’ve established that we are in no position to judge Adam and Eve for their downfall, but I do not believe that is the true purpose of this passage or of Genesis as a whole. In fact, I believe that the story is primarily about God’s love despite our sin and not simply about our sin itself. For even amidst our sin and the mandatory consequences for sin, God’s love shines through and is the climax and finale of the story of our lives.
So how have you, even with all the sin in your life, been able to see God’s love shown by you, through you, or to you? Really reflect on this, because I know from firsthand experience that it is extraordinarily easy to get distracted from what is the true story of all of creation: that is, God’s love.

Thursday, September 16, 2010

Naked and Not Ashamed

Read Genesis 2:25-3:7

One of my truly favorite things about growing up, becoming less prudish, and getting my own apartment is the ability to walk around naked when no one else is at home. It’s a very freeing experience that I highly recommend. It’s all about being comfortable in your own skin; and, let’s face it, you know God already knows what you look like because he made you that way. The one catch about it is that you have to be alone and have to be in private somewhere for this to ever really work out. One cannot simply go parading about in their birthday suit whenever they see fit, there are laws against that kind of thing aside from it being totally inappropriate.

Before the fall of man humanity had that comfortableness with themselves before others and before God. In the beginning, “The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.”(Gen 2:25) We see a wholeness of trust and honesty between both man and wife and between them and God. There’s no need to hide anything, and there is completeness about their relationships that only God can provide. What I think is interesting to note is just how Satan tries to go about breaking this unity up. One of the first things he asks the woman is, “Did God really say . . . ; questioning the goodness and truthfulness of God. Reflect for a moment on your own life, do you ever hear those questions being asked of you? Is God really good? Is God really faithful? Does God really have your best interests in mind? I hear it at least on an everyday basis. Satan plants the seed of doubt first, even before he begins to lie.

Another thing, let’s take a look at this dialogue:
Satan: “Did God really say, you must not eat from any tree in the garden?” – No, only the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. But there’s a definite try to make Eve doubt.
Woman: “You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.” - Hold on Eve, God only said not to eat it. Best to defend God using God’s words not your own.
Satan: “You will not surely die.” - Well not if you touch it no, but if you eat it you’re toast. Now there’s the original doubt and the twisted lie.
Satan: “ For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” – Technically your eyes will be opened, but not to anything you would want to see, so lie. You will be like God. Sounds familiar, isn’t that Satan’s greatest downfall? I guess if it worked on him he figured he could try it out on others. Lie. Knowing good and evil. Ironically, man is oh so much better at knowing evil than we ever were at knowing good because of that choice. Lie.

Lots of deception. We can see it clearly, why couldn’t Eve? Already the doubt had taken hold. In the moment that she took her eyes off God and his goodness, the lies surrounded her and she foundered, but then again, isn’t it the same for us? John the apostle speaks of the sinful nature of man in 1John 2:16 “For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world.” Temptation is the same now as it was then. “When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food (cravings of sinful man) and pleasing to the eye (lust of the eyes), and also desirable for gaining wisdom (boasting of what he has and does), she took some and ate it”(Gen.3:6). Eve’s sin was the same as ours today. Her temptation was the same temptation.

“Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.” Gen.3:7. I was just thinking about what it must’ve been like for Adam and Eve who were enjoying the fellowship of God, the completion of themselves, each other, and creation in Him, to suddenly feel the loss of it upon sinning. Us without God was never what God created us or intended to be. We were never meant to be focused on the self, we were always created to be focused on God, fulfilled by God, and to be bearers of his image. So, there is this sense of profound loss, brokenness, and shame when we come to the realization of what we are without communion with God. We are naked in so much more than just a physical state of being, we ourselves are bare and utterly helpless. I think that this is the nakedness that Adam and Eve felt in those first moments of loss. It must’ve been a death in itself in some way, a terrible foreshadowing of the real eternal separation from God.
Notice Adam and Eve knowing the moment they sinned that they were utterly alone and naked tried to cover themselves with fig leaves. You feel the sense of everything being not as it should be and you want to fix it, but you make the second great mistake by presuming you are the type of person that can fix the problem. Adam and Eve perceiving that they are naked try to clothe themselves immediately creating another barrier –a physical barrier- between them and God, and also between each other. All the relationships become broken when we are not united in God. What are the barriers we put up in trying to restore our relationship with others and God on our own strength? However, all hope is still present. Jesus who is our great Healer and Reconciler created through himself the Shalom that reconciles us with God as we continue to grow and have faith in Him; and it is also reconciling us with each other. Reflect and ask God to work his reconciliation in your brokenness with Him and with others.

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Relational Wholeness

Read: Genesis 2: 18-24

Humans are social creatures. This shouldn’t surprise you - psychological studies have pretty much validated the fact that we need each other. There is simply this something within us that desires companionship. It was something that was evident from the very beginning. Even though there were so many animals to name, Adam was still very much alone. These were, after all, not humans.

So God created Eve. And, as verse 23 shows, Adam was - shall we say - thrilled with her. Finally! Here is someone who he could truly identify with, walk with, do things together with, love! They could share meals together meaningfully (try doing that with a lion). In other words, Adam is no longer alone, having found a wholeness to his identity in Eve.

Unfortunately, as many of you might guess, sin has taken apart this wholeness. Thus, we are forced to find wholeness in all the wrong places. Sometimes, it gets pretty sickening. Take for example the story of a Japanese guy - who’s name is Sal9000. Last year, he decided to pop the question to his girlfriend, Nene Anegasaki. What’s strange is that Nene is a character from a Nintendo DS relationship game. Most of our relationships are probably not that ... ridiculous, shall we say. But do we find wholeness in other things that are not quite so ridiculous?

It would be awkward for me not to address the white elephant in the room while thinking about this passage: dating/marriage. It is natural to desire a close companionship - there’s no shame in that. But it’s hard to keep this desire from evolving into lust when we see our peers at school holding hands with their significant others. Whether or not the relationship is truly based on love is something I question. I can say that because in the Church fellowship is a web of mutual relationships that is based on agape love, the highest love that God calls us to embody in our lives!

The relationship between each of us at church is the same relationship that exists between brothers and sisters. There is no love closer than that. As my mom has often said when I was young whenever I argued with my brothers, “Henry, you must sacrifice for your brothers, because you all came into this world from my belly!” So likewise must love our brothers and sisters in Christ - because every first Sunday of the month, we observe communion, the powerful symbol of this relationship. Are we that kind of a Church? Do we truly regard each other as brothers and sisters? Or just close friends? Perhaps if we truly loved each other, we would not struggle to find a relational wholeness in the wrong places.

In talking to a few seminary folk, I’ve noticed that many churches are struggling with similar issues. Many Christians are finding wholeness in things that are fundamentally of this world. But we see the dangers of it in 1 John 2: 15-17. “If anyone loves the world,” cautions John, “the love of the Father is not in him.”
So in the next few minutes, just reflect on your life. Pause and put away your homework, take a shower, sit down, pause and reflect: is there something or even someone of this world that you’re trying to pursue in order to have wholeness? I completely encourage you to maybe get together with your discipleship mentor and just talk about this. Is there something of this world you’re going after instead of Jesus Christ? But go further - reflect on your church. Are we, as the youth group, truly pursuing wholeness? Do we take seriously the fact that we all are brothers and sisters, who are related to each other by Jesus Christ?

“O Lord, you have made Man so that he should delight to praise Thee, for Thou has made us for Thyself and our hearts are restless until it comes to rest in Thee.” Let these words of St. Augustine ring true in our lives.

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Worship & Obey

Have you ever looked at Google Maps and started with the satellite view of the United States, then kept zooming in until you got to your house? Its really fascinating; as you zoom in closer and closer, you see more and more detail. For some houses, you can even look at the street view and see a detailed picture of your home. You should try it out sometime. In Genesis 2, the author does the same thing Google Maps does. He zooms in on the Garden of Eden to give you a detailed picture not only of the garden, but God’s interaction with man. Where chapter 1 was the zoomed out satellite big picture, Genesis 2 is the zoomed in and in high definition.

Read Genesis 2:3-17

The author of Genesis describes in extreme detail what God was doing when he planted the Garden at Eden . Every tree that was good for food and pleasing to the eye was there. At its center there was a river which meant this was a fertile planting ground. This was the perfect place to live. God provided for all of Adam’s physical needs in the Garden. God really only gives Adam one command, which is to not eat from the tree of the knowledge of Good & Evil (We’ll look at this in just a few days)

What I want to draw our attention to is Genesis 2:15. It says, “the LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.” God gave Adam a job, a role in the place where He had put Adam. Pretty simple, to take care of the land. For each of us, God gives us a role in the places He puts us. For example, in your school you were given the task of studying. In your homes, you were given the role of submitting to your parents. Garden, school, work, home, seemingly different places and different roles. But what’s interesting is that in the Hebrew, the words “work it” and “keep it” were not exclusively used in reference to gardening or farming. Instead, those two words were used most often in reference to the Levitical duties of the priests in the tabernacle. “Work” referred to the service in the tabernacle worship. “Keep” similarly referred to being faithful to all the duties God had given to the priests. Numbers 3:7 says, “They shall keep guard over him and over the whole congregation before the tent of meeting, as they minister [work] at the tabernacle.

So really what Adam’s task boiled down to was God placed him in the garden not only to work it and keep it, but to worship and obey. So that’s the question for us today. In the places God has placed us (our schools, our homes, wherever), God has given us a role, not only to be a student or a son/daughter, but to worship and obey Him. Are we living that out in our daily lives? Do we seek to worship and obey God at every moment in every place?

Monday, September 13, 2010

Where shall we begin…the Beginning is a good place!!!!

Welcome to our journey together through the book of Genesis. It is our desire that we all spend time with God and this is designed to be a tool you can use to see how God wants to help you look into God’s Word for teaching, guidance, and action. The great thing is that we hope to find time to spend with God and then see how that impacts all of us as we are reading the same things and hopefully it will allow us to discussion and grow together.

Now why Genesis? As we have been desiring to see God speak to us through our theme Seeking Wholeness – Being Good News to the Broken, I am going to quote our Doulos teaching ministry leader – “I am reminded of how we were whole as a race (of people) at the dawn of Creation, yet became broken at the Fall. Genesis is a story about God’s people seeking wholeness by finding their identity in God and how they were called to be different from the nations around them. Likewise, their struggles and triumphs can be good warnings and reminders for us regarding the challenges we face in an ungodly world. And although the Israelites never see Jesus bring full restoration to our relationship with God, I believe that a study into the Old Testament will be both challenging and fulfilling. It will hopefully help the youth to understand that there are many things in this world that will stand between us and a healthy relationship with God, but as God’s chosen people, as His Church, we are called to be different and to truly be Good News to all the people who may or may not have been exposed to the Gospel yet.”

When you read God’s WORD, I want to challenge you especially as we are doing Genesis. Don’t read it with the thought, I know this story. I heard it so many times during Sunday School. Please read it as if it is your first time reading it (and if it is, please don’t worry about that either, we are excited for you to see more of God through it). So I am going to encourage you read it, then try reading it again out loud.

READ GENESIS 1:1- 2:3

As you read it, I hope you pay attention to the fact that God just spoke, and it came to be. God is the Creator and we must see the power in that. As God created the heavens and the earth, God declares them to be “good”. I am not asking you to memorize what was created on which day and or to focus on the meaning of what does a “day” mean, but focus on the fact that our mighty God created this world and it was “good”.

So notice the main repetition of the word “God” with the word “made” or “created”. “God” appears 35 times in the first 34 verses. The Scripture shows that He is the main focus of all. Nothing is made or created without Him.

There is an extremely vital lesson we learn from the design of the universe. If the universe was made up of random forces as we see commonly taught in our schools in Science class, then how we live is up to us. We can create our own “purpose” in life, and devise our own standards of “right” and “wrong”. But most that live with this viewpoint usually do not consistently live with these thoughts. It becomes quite clear in our lives that there is absolute “right” and “wrong”. Where does that idea come from? It comes from God who shows us that He is Absolute Truth and sets the standard of “right” and “wrong” in this world. Here is our challenge though, do we know God and are close to him that we have the right view of Him as being mighty and powerful and bigger than anything we can fathom? Also, am I searching for Him to teach me to live by His standards of what is “right” and “wrong”? What ways do I want to dedicate myself in doing those things (doing these devotions is a great start, by the way)? Take some time to pray about these things.