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Why do we rush into Christmas?
This week, before Thanksgiving, we heard Christmas songs on the radio.
I kept changing the channels until I just turned it off.
I'd really like to embrace Thanksgiving first.
It's not that I'm a Bah Hum Bug. I love Christmas, I really do.
And I like Christmas songs. But how about save them for after we celebrate Thanksgiving
We politely shove Thanksgiving aside with a slight nod as we eat the Turkey and talk about what we want for Christmas and plan for the early Christmas shopping the morning after.
The Christmas season can very well be lovely and beautiful, but so can Thanksgiving, because we have so much to be thankful for. Let us remember the reason for coming together. Not to herald in Christmas, but to stop...and fully appreciate everything given us.
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Genesis
I see God as a Loving Protector...
After Adam and Eve eat from the wrong tree....and I mean the WRONG tree!
If there were two trees...which one would you eat from?
Especially since God specifically said do NOT eat from #1!
1- "The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil"
2- "The Tree of Life"
Tree of Life to me sounds more appealing, but perhaps it's because I am aware of my mortality.
If I had no concept of death and separation from God, perhaps the Tree of Life would seem a bit...pointless?
So the serpent convinces Eve and she convinces Adam and the two forget the ONE rule...(wow, don't you just want to slap them?) and eat from the wrong tree.
Later, after "finding out" that His creation had indeed failed to obey the one rule, God says "Man has become like one of us"...confirming the Trinity
and now he might take from t he Tree of Life and eat and live forever
So God banishes Adam and Eve from the garden.
And God places a Cherubim and flaming sword by the entrance to guard it from Adam or Eve (or anyone) returning.
Because sin has entered the picture, Adam is no longer pure.
Also, God told him that he would return to dust, meaning his body would return to the earth from where it came from. Adam is aware of his mortality.
So what happens if Adam then eats from the Tree of Life?
Which this would then separate him from God. He, of course, is a sinner, but has not done anything to offer anything in repentance.
So perhaps God puts the flaming sword and Cherubim to prevent Adam from returning to Eden and eating from the Tree of Life...because God is lovingly protecting him.
Maybe it wasn't necessarily driving him out b/c Adam doesn't "deserve" to live in Eden, or not necessarily all punishment here, or even more to it than sin and impurity can not remain in the Garden of Paradise, but...
perhaps...
b/c of the possibility that Adam, falling to temptation again, would eat the fruit from the Tree of Life and be separated from his creator. Because God loved Adam. God loved, adored Adam.
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Yah, I know what thought popped into your head...
"God loves sex"...yep, that's what came to your head when you read that, didn't it?
I truly believe God loves sex, He created it as a gift after two people make a promise to God that they will love each other and be selfless and etc. Of course God loves sex...it's wonderful, it's pleasurable and He gave it to us
But really, what I mean here is reproduction in the means of something coming from something else
God could create people with his own hands, (and He does)...but what I mean is, He can create them without having it be a beautiful, wonderful growing experience in a wonderful secret place inside a woman. He could just whip up a batch of people and not involve us at all.
But God chooses to.
God loves to create, but He allows reproduction by the permission of His plan
He is in charge, he is creating, but using us to do so...using trees, using animals...reproduction
v. 11
He creates "plants yielding seed", "trees with fruit with seed"
Even stars get old, die out and make new stars
Our beautiful Creator allowing us to be a part of the process, not only to witness it, trees, animals...things all around us...but to physically be a part of it. Beautiful!
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Ever wonder why God created light before the sun?
Have you ever thought about it?
Day one, He creates light- speaks it into existence.
God did not need the sun for light.
Isn't that so impossible for us to comprehend. We, in our little puny brains, try to comprehend things based on their beginnings.
Everything has to have a source, a place of beginning.
Except God.
He has always been, and always will be.
But how about light? Isn't that just crazy to try and wrap our heads around?
God speaks light, there is light...and then 3 days later He creates the sun.
And, to add to the perfectness of our Creator, I think part of the separation of the waters (Genesis 1: 6-7) was to create the atmosphere, the layer of protection we need from the sun.
Before He created the sun that could harm us without the layer of protection.
And here's a teaser thought...protection...
Did God put the Cherubim and the Flaming Sword there-guarding the Garden of Eden and the Tree of Life for loving protection?
He knew Adam and Eve would be so tempted to go eat from the Tree of Life.
If Adam ate from the Tree of Life, how would that affect his eternity?
Loving protection instead of kicking them out? Hmmmm
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This past summer around August-I heard a voice from the Lord calling me to help out a ministry in some of my "free time."
Now, the current state of my house reflects how much free time I have. It's a complete disaster most of the time.
But I believe it wasn't b/c I had so much "free time" on my hands as much as it was God preparing me for one of my next missions. Right now I am assisting a friend of mine in his fairly new adventure with a ministry called
Both Hands Foundation
This ministry serves to the widows and orphans. James 1:27 calls us to help widows and orphans in the same verse.
I have never been in an office, really. I did temp work at Thomas Nelson 15 years ago, but that was the closest thing to an office atmosphere, I think. My office was the classroom and except for email and simple power point music lessons, that was the extent of my "handy office knowledge."
I don't know Microsoft Outlook as much as I should, and I certainly wouldn't be the most helpful admin assistant. However, here I am, working two days a week volunteering my time for Both Hands. I believe so whole heartedly in what the ministry does, that I find myself diving into learning how to be an admin assistant. I may not be moving mountains now, but I am learning how to fly. And when I get enough under my wings, I am going to take off!
And my house? Well, it's still a mess, but I'm slowing catching up there, too.
And I truly believe God knew exactly where He wanted me, and whispered the plan in my ear in August, it just took a little while until I had more direction and the "go" sign.
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I am so frustrated with TV and what bad language they can get away with!
Yesterday, at 6:05, CBS went right from football to Sixty Minutes.
In their preview of what is "coming up," they showed a journalist saying the word, "GodD$#@"
Thankfully the kids were not in the room, but if they were? It was at 6:05 on a Sunday night!
We were eating dinner and watching football. So very wrong, so very frustrating.
It wasn't even a full five minutes following the football game that those inappropriate, disrespectful, foul, offensive swear words were broadcast on public television on a major network.
CBS has problems with language, I filed a complaint two years ago about their commercials and their language that were inappropriate for younger audiences. Heck, it's inappropriate for me!
When is enough enough already?
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