I can't even begin to fathom how God was able to simply speak the world into existence. Just imagine the kind of power it takes to say, "Let there be light" and it happens! Omnipotence, that's all I can say. And wow.
One thing that always stuck out in my mind from the Garden of Eden that I always felt never got much attention is the Tree of Life. We know all about the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, and how eating of its fruit caused Adam and Eve's eyes to be opened and made them aware and ashamed. For a long time, I thought it was only because they ate of this tree that God cast them out of Eden. However, I have never noticed what was said in Gen 3:22-24...
"Then the Lord God said, 'Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil; and now, he might stretch out his hand, and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever'--therefore, the Lord God sent him out from the Garden of Eden, to cultivate the ground from which he was taken. So He drove the man out; and at the east of the garden of Eden He stationed the cherubim and the flaming sword which turned every direction to guard the way to the Tree of Life."
Sadly, until I started reading through the Bible this time around, I had never fully examined this piece of Scripture carefully. I suppose I felt that I heard it enough in Sunday School as a child that there was nothing left to examine. I always thought that Adam and Eve were kicked out of the Garden only because they disobeyed God. I always viewed the Garden as a form of Heaven on Earth, and once humanity fell, they were no longer "worthy" to be in the Garden.Therefore, the angel (cherubim) guarded the entrance to the Garden so that they could no longer enter the Garden.
Maybe that's part of the truth, but the end of Genesis 3 shows me that even while humanity was being punished with the curse of sin, God still had compassion on those He created in His likeness. Rather than let the fear of death that was now instilled in humans drive them to eat of the Tree of Life and therefore suffer in their sinful human nature on Earth until the end of time, God showed mercy by preventing them from being able to gain eternal life on Earth. Like many of us when we receive some form of "punishment" or "chastisement" from God, I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't realize that He was actually showing His love for them, even in their time of failure.
Monday, November 8, 2010
Sunday, November 7, 2010
And It Begins...
So if anyone ever decides to read this blog, there will probably be two questions that pop into your mind. 1. What on earth does the URL mean? 2. What is this blog about?
To answer the first question, I tried several different URL addresses (and was rejected in all of them) before I decided to try "Whose glory His glory." In the summer of 2009 I did an internship with Athletes in Action, which is the sports ministry branch of Campus Crusades for Christ. Whenever we huddled to discuss something, we'd break the huddle like any team does. This usually included us all putting a hand into the center of the huddle. Ravshan, an AIA staff member from Uzbekistan, would then shout "Whose glory?!" We would all reply by saying "His glory!" Even today, that cheer serves as a reminder to me that I should always be living out 1 Corinthians 10:31..."Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God." I believe that can also be correlated to this blog. I want this blog to be solely focused on glorifying Him and nothing else, including myself.
Which brings us to the second question. A couple of months ago I decided to read Job. Once I finished it, I contemplated which book of the Bible I should read next. I originally decided on Nehemiah. I read the background information on Nehemiah and saw that it was probably written by Ezra the priest, and that is somewhat a continuation of the book of Ezra. So I thought to myself, "Ok, I'll read Ezra and then Nehemiah." Then I thought that it would be important to know the background of Ezra and Nehemiah by reading the Chronicles first. At this point I decided that I should just start from the beginning, to make sure I didn't miss anything!
I read through the Bible once, when I was 15. It was a "read it in a year" kind of system, and I really didn't process most of what I read. This time, I'm going at my own pace and reading as much as I can process at a time. I'm quite sure that I won't uncover everything about every verse this time around, but I am sure that I will learn much more than I did 7 years ago.
I'm no theologian, and I'm no philosopher. My blogs will simply be what I am gathering from my reading of the Bible, from beginning to end. Some thoughts may seem much more intelligent than others, and that's ok. You may disagree with some of my insight, and that's ok, too. I will always try to back up Scripture with Scripture. If you want to add your own thoughts, go for it. I've already read through Genesis, so my first several blogs will go back through Genesis and recall what I gathered from it. Enjoy the blog!
To answer the first question, I tried several different URL addresses (and was rejected in all of them) before I decided to try "Whose glory His glory." In the summer of 2009 I did an internship with Athletes in Action, which is the sports ministry branch of Campus Crusades for Christ. Whenever we huddled to discuss something, we'd break the huddle like any team does. This usually included us all putting a hand into the center of the huddle. Ravshan, an AIA staff member from Uzbekistan, would then shout "Whose glory?!" We would all reply by saying "His glory!" Even today, that cheer serves as a reminder to me that I should always be living out 1 Corinthians 10:31..."Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God." I believe that can also be correlated to this blog. I want this blog to be solely focused on glorifying Him and nothing else, including myself.
Which brings us to the second question. A couple of months ago I decided to read Job. Once I finished it, I contemplated which book of the Bible I should read next. I originally decided on Nehemiah. I read the background information on Nehemiah and saw that it was probably written by Ezra the priest, and that is somewhat a continuation of the book of Ezra. So I thought to myself, "Ok, I'll read Ezra and then Nehemiah." Then I thought that it would be important to know the background of Ezra and Nehemiah by reading the Chronicles first. At this point I decided that I should just start from the beginning, to make sure I didn't miss anything!
I read through the Bible once, when I was 15. It was a "read it in a year" kind of system, and I really didn't process most of what I read. This time, I'm going at my own pace and reading as much as I can process at a time. I'm quite sure that I won't uncover everything about every verse this time around, but I am sure that I will learn much more than I did 7 years ago.
I'm no theologian, and I'm no philosopher. My blogs will simply be what I am gathering from my reading of the Bible, from beginning to end. Some thoughts may seem much more intelligent than others, and that's ok. You may disagree with some of my insight, and that's ok, too. I will always try to back up Scripture with Scripture. If you want to add your own thoughts, go for it. I've already read through Genesis, so my first several blogs will go back through Genesis and recall what I gathered from it. Enjoy the blog!
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