Would you kill your son?

Chapter 22 is such a chapter of Faith.

It blows my mind really. The Lord called on Abraham and told him to sacrifice his only son. I do not have kids yet, but i cannot even imagine if the Lord had told me to do that. How many of us would kill our only son and sacrifice him to the Lord? How many of us would be willing to do that for the Lords sake. Its one thing to lay down our own lives for God, but its a complete different situation to lay down the life of your son, to kill your only son....

But wait, isnt that what the Lord did for us?

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only son"

God sacrificed his son Jesus to the world, for the world.

For us.

God loves us so much. And its sometimes surreal to actually think about that. That I can have a personal relationship with him, and its through Christ that I can do that. So even though it was necessary for Christ to die on that cross, it says so much that God sent him here to die. Even though he lived a perfect life and treated everyone fairly.

But this story about Abraham is also such an encouragement to me. It shows SUCH GREAT FAITH. Abraham actually takes his son up to this mountain and ties him up and is about to kill him with a knife and then an angel stops him and tells him that it was a test from God and that he will bless Abraham because of his faith.

THIS IS TO ALL OF US:

God will bless us because of our faith. It is BY FAITH that we have been set free. We must walk BY FAITH. God blesses this, and walking by faith is most times a difficult thing to do. But the lord will always provide, just like he did on that mountain. He provided a ram to be sacrificed instead of Abrahams son. God is faithful.

Even if he is telling you to do something that seems so crazy and hard, I encourage you to do it. And its a reminder to me as well.

For some time now God has been telling me to share my faith with my brother. This may seem easy to some people, but to me it is the biggest battle I have had so far while being a christian. I just cannot get the courage to talk to him... all my fears I have are choking me. But i know it has to be done. And GOD WILL BLESS ME by doing this. So if, your reading this I could really use your prayers because fear has overwhelmed me in this area and is keeping me from sharing Christ. And i know this fear is coming from Satan. I want to talk to him on Christmas, so prayer would be awesome. Not only pray for me, but for his salvation.

Its November 27 and faith is a blessing in itself.

Child like Faith

are you a 'christian' or pursuer of Christ?

Chapter 19 is just a crazy chapter.
Right off the bat you can see how wicked the town of Sodom is. In the previous chapter the Lord had said that the outcry of their sin was grievous. You kind of get a small glimpse of just how bad it really was when the two angels went over to Sodom. As soon as Lot has the two angels inside his house, all the MEN of the city came banging on the door and told Lot to bring the 'men' they saw outside so that they could have sex with them. There are many things that would grieve the Lords heart with just that alone, and it was only a glimpse that we saw into the lives of these people.

Remember when God told Abraham that if he found just ten righteous people in the city that he would spare it? I would have felt pretty safe on that number. I would have thought, 10 out of 1000 (guess) that sounds pretty good. The city will probably remain. But the city was destroyed with acid rain. THERE WERE NOT EVEN TEN OUT OF THE WHOLE PLAIN WHO WERE RIGHTEOUS!

It makes me wonder, if this was a long time ago, and you always hear about how the world is getting worse and more corrupt, whats our percentage on this world. How many righteous people are there really? How many of us in the world are actually FOLLOWING Christ and not just going through the motions. Not just saying we believe in him and go about our day living with the world, but breaking out of the stereotypical mold of the 'christian' today and becoming an actual CHRIST FOLLOWER. Doing the things that please him and being aware of the sin in our life and fighting to overcome it everyday. Pursuing a life that proclaims the gospel and telling people about Jesus. Loving people, caring about their souls.
HOW MANY OF US ARE REALLY OUT THERE?
Sadly, I dont think its as many as it seems.

Its November 20 and I once was blind, but now I see.

are we there yet? are we there yet? are we there yet?

First off, Abraham was just straight up chillin' outside his tent and the Lord just showed up. That is a crazy thing to think of in itself. If you really think about it, thats just cool & I would also be pretty nervous.

Okay, when Abraham kept questioning the Lord and asking him all the 'what if's' questions over and over , that kind of takes some guts I would think. Im gonna type out that whole conversation with them... You tell me if you would have been as patient as God. Imagine this was someone asking you these questions....

The men turned away and went toward Sodom, but Abraham remained standing in front of the Lord. Then Abraham approached him and said " will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked? What if there are fifty righteous people in the city? Will you really sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous people in it? Far be it from you to do such a thing-to kill the righteous with the wicked. Treating the righteous and wicked alike. Far be it from you! Will not the judge of all the earth do right?"------ man that was brave. Im like sitting back in my chair saying... shut up Abraham! Holding on tight thinking God is going to crush him at any moment... But God doesnt. He says this,

The Lord said, "If I find fifty righteous people in the city of Sodom, I will spare the whole place for their sake."

Then Abraham spoke up again: "Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, though I am nothing but dust and ashes, what if the number of the righteous is five less than fifty? Will you destroy the whole city because of five people?"

The Lord said "If I find forty five there I will not destroy it."

Once again Abraham spoke to him. " What if only forty are there?"

God said " for the sake of forty I will not do it."

Then Abraham said " May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak. What if only thirty can be found there?

He answered " I will not do it if I find thirty there."

Abraham said " Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, what if only twenty can be found there?"

He said " For the sake of twenty I will not destroy it"

Then he said " May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak just once more. What if only ten can be found there?"

He answered " For the sake of ten I will not destroy it."

When the Lord had finished speaking with Abraham, he left and Abraham returned home.

Wouldn't you have been frustrated? God did not get impatient at all. He let Abraham ask all the questions. And even cooler, you see Gods grace in all this. God just screams love to me in this passage. Just the way he speaks.. . its love. God is love. At this point If he were to have found just ten righteous people in this city of many, he would have not destroyed it. I dont know about you, but that makes me feel good. Because that would include us believers now thanks to Christ Jesus...

Its November 16th and i am made righteous

Father Abraham had many sons..

This is a simple blog. Nothing ground breaking here

God told Abram (now Abraham) that his wife Sarai(Now Sarah) was going to have a baby within a year and it will be a boy.

Abraham (being 100) fell on his face and laughed.

# 1 That takes guts to laugh at what God is telling you literally in front of his face.

#2 MAN THAT DUDE'S OLD

# 3 MAN THAT DUDE'S OLD & HE'S ABOUT TO HAVE A BABY

# 4 MAN THAT DUDE'S WIFE IS OLD & SHE IS ABOUT TO HAVE A BABY

But what I love was that God named the baby Isaac- which means HE LAUGHS.

I love that. That was God's immediate response after Abraham laughed... and He wasn't angry, he has a humor & he is just awesome.

Its November 15 and if I could have a baby at age 99 then yall need to give me a high five.

I just figure it looked something like this when Abraham & his baby hung out

get naked!! But no, not really

Dang... Its been like three days!!
I have either been really busy, tired, or attacked by a crocodile and unable to type until now.
Ill let you decide.

so, HI :)
Chapter 15:
So Sarai cannot conceive any baby's for Abram and i get the since that she is disappointed. She knows that he wants children so she gets her maidservant Hagar to be his wife.

So Hagar becomes pregnant and then instantly despises Sarai.
Bam! That didnt take long....
Okay come on lady's! You know this is typical reaction for us girls. Despise meaning to scorn (you know those looks we can give to other girls... mmmmm hmmmm. I aint the only one guilty)

I have to just say that Sarai had to be jealous in some way..I mean, another woman is having her mans babys.... There is no possible way she couldnt have been and im sure she despised Hagar as well, Even though she jut set it up to work out this way! Man, we are so indecisive. Can this hit home to anyone else or is it just me?

I mean Jon will sing that song Hot and Cold by Katy Perry to me as a joke but he aint kiddin.. man its true.
So what am i getting at today? Im all over the place. Something cool in this story happens so ill get to that.

Long story short Hagar is kicked out pretty much by Sarai and Hagar is found in the desert by an angel of the Lord who asks her, where did she come from and where is she going. The angel continues to tell her to go back to her mistress and SUBMIT to her. (I dont know about you but that would be hard. Submit to sarai while she is pregnant with her husbands baby? i dont know if i could have done that.) But Hagar does. And the angel tells her she will have many more descendants to come, even though this child will be a wild child who's name is Ishmael.

but HERE'S WHAT I LOVE! finally we got to it
Hagar says this "You are the God who see's me. I have now seen the one who see's me"

I LOVE THIS. I love how she has just humbled herself in this circumstance and got honest with herself. She recognized that God see's everything... he saw Hagar as she was. She did not have to put a front on for him, but he saw her as she was and loved her and opened her eyes to him.

cool. I dont have to put a front on, to God or anyone else. In fact, the only way I am going to truly grow in a relationship with God is if I am honest with everyone. I have a hard time doing that sometimes because I want to be perceived as more than I really am. But to truly grow and abide in God I have to first get real with Him and everyone else around me.

Thats step 1.

Its November 13th and I am gonna peel off these layers.

he is

I really like the way this chapter starts off; when God says:

Don't be afraid Abram
I am your shield
Your very great reward

You know what I find cool about this? What would you think if someone were to talk about themselves in the way that God did in this statement. For example:
What if I were to come up to you and say something like this "Hello. Im jenna,but dont be worried. I will protect you. And also, I am an extremely awesome friend to have."

Ok for one thing yall all know me. Would you feel really secure by me saying that I will protect you? I don't think so. Most the time I will just run away and leave my friends if danger comes. Its true (Some of you have experienced this)
And then Im pretty sure you would definately think that maybe saying being an EXTREMELY AWESOME friend may be pushing it a little bit too far. (because you know my faults.)
And not to mention you would probably think by me saying all that, that I was extremely big headed.
So what in the world am I getting at?

God can say these things because HE IS! He is blameless and he is all powerful. We dont laugh or think yea right when God says these things. Its pretty awesome to think that no one on earth can even measure up to these standards.. only our God. No one can say
Dont be afraid: I am your shield: Your very great reward
Without us thinking... "pssshhhhhhhhhhhh"

Thats why I put my trust in God. He can back up what he says, we cannot find any fault in him. What he says is truth, and if he is the only one that can be like this; thats who I want to follow.


Its November 10th and I am not a shield OR your great reward.

save the world you hidden talents!

something that struck me:

When the people of Babylonia were all speaking one language and started to come together and build a great city with a huge tower to 'make a name for themselves, God said this:
" If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. " He continues to say "Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other"

# 1. HOLA! Como estas?

#2. I cant ignore the first statement God said. 'If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them.'
What does this say to you?
To me this says DREAM BIG. I feel like this statement is a reminder to us all. That if you have a dream or idea that you want to pursue in able to further the gospel, then get amongst a body of believers, discuss it, pray over it, and do it.
If God was saying that these people could do things beyond the realms of possibility, just by speaking in the same language and they weren't even pursuing their visions with the right intentions, Then how much more could we do as a body of believers who speak the same language (through Christ) that WOULD be with the right intentions... to further the gospel for Christs' sake.
Whatever your dreams are, whatever you are passionate about, whatever you love to do, whatever talents you have, USE THEM TO FURTHER THE GOSPEL.
Don't be afraid to be different in the way you reach people.
The possibilities are endless with Christ. Its why he created you, To spread the word in your unique way and to glorify him.

What can you do to further the gospel?
Are you settling for less?

Its November 9th and Oh the possibilities!

In Genesis 9 God made a covenant with Noah and his sons.  "Whenever I bring clouds over the earth, and the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind.  Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life."

God made his promise and used the rainbow as a sign of a reminder to him and us. Its good when God makes a promise to us.  Its in concrete and its not going to change.

Just another awesome reminder that the Lord is our Rock. He is never changing.  How scary would it be to worship a God who is all powerful but he also changes. 

That would mean in a moment at any given time he could change from a loving God to one that doesn't love.  He could  take back his promises and flood the earth and kill us all.  But he is an UNCHANGING God.  The God we read in the bible is the God today and the God forever. Thank goodness.

But anyway,

I really liked this picture.  The black and white in the picture reminds me of sinful man.   How without God we lack everything and are a undeserving race. This girl almost looks as if she is ashamed.  But this picture made me think of hope.  She is clinging on to hope and grace.  God's hope, That has life and looks so much greater than the world that surrounds us. To me the colors also represent the rainbow with the clouds in the background.  The rainbow that God promised he would never destroy the earth again with a flood.  The rainbow of hope and stability.  She is clinging to this because there is hope.

And that hope only is in God.  We can only find real hope in God. One that is never failing and perfect in all that he does. 

Its November 6 and I am hopeful.

Seven of a kind?

First of all I would like to point out that not all animals were to get on the ark two of a kind. It was actually only the "unclean animals" that were taken two of a kind. The clean animals and all the birds were taken seven of a kind. (each paired male and female) I guess this is because later in the chapter i read that after the flood Noah made a burnt offering for the Lord with some of his clean animals and clean birds.... So It was necessary to have had seven of a kind of these so that there could still be a pair left over to multiply after the burnt offering.
Weird... I did not know that.
Fun fact I guess!

The thing I liked best in Chapter 8 was this:
The Lord said in his heart "Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood.
This is GRACE.
God is GRACE.


So thats me; fleshly from birth. With my very heart evil from Childhood. (Thats a harsh way to put it, but the Lord said it so its truth) Yet God still made the decision to love us, man who has an evil heart from childhood. God is love. A far greater kind of love than I can even understand.

so God made his promise:
"And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done."
Yea, instead he sent Jesus to save us.

Its November 5 and Where did all the Dino's go?

Fleshly corruption causes flood

Its crazy to me to be able to read the very words of God. And to even make that connection that the God that I pray to and worship and talk to is the God who was in these pages. Thats just crazy to me.

But anyways,
God was so unhappy with man at this point. He was grieved to his heart. He said that man was continually full of evil. God was so grieved by this that he said he was even sorry that he had ever created man.
That disturbed me this morning to read.
It literally broke my heart.
I mean, God created man in his own image. Its not something he had to do but something he wanted to do. He took such special importance in the way that he created us. He breathed life into man through his very nosrils.
Im sure this was something he was very proud of, his creation.
But man broke his heart from the beginning when man was decieved. We chose not to follow the way of God and not to be obediant. And from that fall corruption was continual. Our flesh causes corruption. "My spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh"
This thing called 'flesh', its not a good thing.
What was created to be good for the glory of the Lord has become our ultimate stumbling block.

So anyway, God was so grieved over man that he decided to wipe man out completely from thea earth.
He did however see favor in one man. Noah. The bible said he was a rihteous man who was blameless on the earth and who walked with the Lord.
God used Noah and told him his plans and Noah listened.

And so because of the wickedness of man, God wiped the earth clean.

But thankfully because of his promise and later because of his son, our sins have been forgiven by his grace.
I beleieve that God still gets upset with the sin in our life. That it even grieves his heart. But he sent Jesus to take our sins away so that I can now have a relationship with God through his spirit. I am so thankful of this.
This chapter is leading me to repentance because I do not want to continue to grieve my father.
I want to honor him and have a pure heart.
Its something I must do everyday so each day I can start new.
To bring glory to God every day is something I will strive for because he loves man more than we could ever even comprehend.
This chapter is clear that we do not deserve anything that the Lord has given us.

So Thank you Lord for Jesus and for the grace you have given me when I know I deserve nothing more than death and damnation.
But your mercy has sufficed once again.

Its November 4 and I am humbled.

Scatterbrained

Genesis 4
Im going to be honest,
This chapter has completel got me confused. Im looking for clarity or answer and im not seeming to find it. Maybe later it will come... But here's my delima.
Im gonna go ahead and type out verses 2-7 and explain....

(talking about Eves first 2 sons)
Now Abel was a keeper of sheep and Cain a worker of the ground. In the course of time Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground, and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry and his face fell. The Lord said to Cain " Why are you angry? And why has your face fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desires is for you, but you must rule over it."

Im reading it over and over AND OVER and... i feel like ive almost got it,
but i dont.

Why did God Disregard Cain's offering?
Abel was a keeper of sheep... so he brought to the Lord as an offering the firstborn of the flock and brought their fat portions.
Cain was a worker of the ground..... so he brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground.

Im stumped as to why the Lord Regarded Abels offering but not Cains.
I can see in my mind that back then if I had the option of Fruit or Firstborn of the sheep for an offering to the Lord I would probably choose sheep,
but then again if I was a worker of the ground, like Cain, I would probably give my offering to the Lord in this way.. of what I did for a living. With my best effort put forth.

so, I start to think, was Cain being lazy with his work?
It did say that IN THE COURSE OF TIME Cain brought his offering....
Could Cain had made a better attemp or was he really trying? Thats where Im stuck.

But here's what i do get..
Right after that the Lord made this statement...
Why are you angry? And why has your face fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desires is for you, but you must rule over it."

God loved Cain...Right here God was giving Cain another chance. Even though I dont understand yet why God did not regard Cains offering I do know that God encouraged him that if he "did well", his offering would be accepted.
Maybe that is what it is, that God simply wanted Cain to put his heart into what he did and present it to the Lord with a right heart. To find joy in the work of the Lord.
I find it interesting that after God encourages Cain, he also warns him. He tells Cain that Sin is crouching at his door if he does not do well.

this makes me draw the conclusion that when we are not fully satisfied with the Lord or giving back to the Lord what is already his in the first place, that sin is closer to us than we think... creeping in like a theif in the night, ready to make its mark on your life
I truely believe Cain could have avoided the sin of killing his brother if he would have only listened to this warning.
I think sin manifest itself and the very thing we think we would never do ends up being the very thing we do and we wonder how did it get that far. So much evil happens in the world and we wonder how a human could ever do these things.. But if you think about it, living a life that is seperate from God, sin will sit in the hearts and manifests itself.. growing like a snowball effect. Where one seamingly small emotion can lead to sin which leads to another taht justifies another that leads to the wickedness of mans heart...

Sin was crounching at Cains door, because he rejected to do well, to try again. He gave up, and let his jealousy over his brother take over him like a snowball affect.

Sins desires are for you, but you MUST rule over it.
These were Gods words.

ANY FEEDBACK?

Its November 3 and I am mentally drained.

No different than Eve

Genesis 3
First Verse!
"Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord had made."
This is the first time that the serpent is mentioned, which we all know was Satan.
I looked up the word crafty on dictionary.com and this is what was number one.

1. skillful in underhand or evil schemes; cunning; deceitful; sly.
Another word used to describe crafty is ingenious. This means intelligent.
Its just a reminder that Satan(the one who roams around like a roaring lion on THIS EARTH) is extremely intellegent and crafty. He knows every trick in the book in finding a way for man to stumble. (Even more so now! He has had many years of practice)
Even as believers, our soul is safe with the Lord but that will not stop satan and his demons from trying to pull us down, to put things into our heads that maybe make us less in pursuit of our Savior.
Check this out.. check out his craftiness in the first thing that he says.. He said to the woman " Did God REALLY say, you must not eat from any tree in the garden? " See how he worded that? DID GOD REALLY SAY...Its his craftiness that makes people question... because he goes on to say " You will not surely die, For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."
Dont you just wish you could scream at eve and say NOOOOO!! Dude God told you not to eat from that tree! What are you doing? Dont you know God made you in his image and gave you a life where death will never come? Dont you realize that you have everything you could ever need and are always in the presence of the Lord?!!
Its what we long for ans she had it!!
I know thats what I want to scream....
Its like, thanks guys for the fall of man.
But then I read it again and am I any different? Would I have done anthing differently? Im gonna go ahead and say nope. I probably would have eaten from that tree. Because isnt it just like us to fall into the craftyness of satan and not even realize that what we are doing is causing a far greater affect than we thought? Dont we sugar coat sin all the time and in our mind make it okay? I mean did eve not justify her eating the apple? She made it right in her mind that eating the apple was okay. Verse 6 says "when the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was GOOD FOR FOOD and PLEASING TO THE EYE and also desirable for GAINING WISDOM, she took some and ate it.
SNATCH!! Satan decieved her & if she only would have known the consequences to come.
It makes me mad until i realize Im no different.

After all this the Lord gives a list of things that will now happen to adam and eve. He tells eve that he will greatly increase her childbearing pains and that now her husband will rule over her.
He tells adam that the ground is now cursed because of him and that he will have to now work hard for the food that they will eat. And then says that "until you return from the ground, since from it you were taken, for dust you are and from dust you will return."
This is the first mention of death. The consiquence of sin is death. We were created to live eternally but now every single one of us must die ( But thank you Lord for Jesus! Who connects us with you who gives us eternal life after death)
Thats awesome..
Yea, HE LOVES US STILL!!
Now thats crazy love.


Cahpter 4 I will get to later tonight. I did not realize how much i would write on this.

Its Novemeber 3 and I am a fallen race.

WE ARE GOD BREATHED.... literally

1:4 - God saw that the light was good and He seperated the light from the darkness.
----->This is huge. Just in the fourth verse of the bible starts this truth that darkness and light do not belong togther. God saw that the light was good, From the very beginning this was set in motion. God seperated the two because there was a clear differance that dark can never be present with the light and visa versa. This was what God saw, that light was good and darkness was not.
1:27- So God created man in His own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
-----> Just had to type that out. Its awesome... We are created in God's own image.. Male and Female.. WE are created in GODS OWN IMAGE. This makes me think... we HAVE to be here for a purpose... we CAN do GREAT things... simply because we are created in the image of God... we have this capability to do great things...
do we realize this potential?

2:7 The Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostril the breath of life, and the man became a living being.


Its November 2 and i am God Breathed

This is my blog.

There are a couple of reasons for this blog.
This blog will be like a journal for me while i read through scripture.
I will be starting in Genesis and going from there.
I have yet to read the word completely throughout and this is something I have known I should do and now want to do.
Now is as better time as any to start this journey.
Not sure how long it will take but I know the Lord will teach me and grow me.
That is my prayer.
I also know this will make me more discplne in getting in the word every day.
That has been a struggle for me.
I feel that I have just been stagnant & as a Christ follwer this is not okay
I want to pursue Christ with an honest heart and a real passion.
I am excited to see how the Lord will grow my knowledge and understanding of the truth.
I am excited to move forward and have God use me.
I dont want to just hear what everyone else has to say about God and the bible and just what they think.
I want to learn for myself and have the Spirit teach me along the way.
This is my blog.

Its November 2, 2009 and I am ready.