Noah

 And those that entered, male and female of all flesh, went in as God had commanded him. And the Lord shut him in.      Genesis 7.16

 

Time stands still as one dark day blurs into the next. Noah cannot remember the sun's warmth, solid ground, and pure air untainted by animals.

Months ago, he had found favour with God due to his right character and conduct. In His grace, God saved Noah and his family from the judgment He brought on the earth, a flood that wiped away an increasingly wicked human race. Now, Noah wonders if God has forgotten him. Will the deep floodwaters ever recede? Will he live out the remainder of his days imprisoned by the vessel that initially rescued him?

 

We can do all the ‘right’ things in our relationship with God yet be enveloped in darkness. Noah was an obedient man who walked faithfully with God.

Unceasing rain pounded the roof of the tent of the group of campers I had been put in charge of. Feeling trapped, with panic swelling, was God with Me in seemingly the wettest part of Cornwall. A thunderous clap boomed overhead, yet I recalled how God remembered Noah, (Genesis 8.1) guided the ark to dry land, and renewed His covenant relationship with him. In the middle of the storm, God gently reminded me of His faithfulness.

Like Noah, I worshipped.

God is with us when we cannot see an end to the darkness. Noah and his family endured over a year of waiting inside the ark before fully glimpsing God’s work on the outside. In this world full of trouble,(John 16.33) we can expect seasons when we do not understand how God is working. Illness, conflict, and financial hardship can make us assume God has abandoned us.

When we are tempted to misplace our trust, we recall how God used a long period of darkness to protect and preserve Noah’s family. Faithfully, He will bring us through our challenging circumstances.

 

Father, help me to trust You in the noise. Help me see You when I’m alone. Help me have for You a soft heart to worship. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Methuselah

 When Methuselah was 187 years old, he had Lamech. After he had Lamech, he lived another 782 years. Methuselah lived a total of 969 years. And he died.     Genesis 5.25-27

I cannot imagine living 969 years in this evil world.

Nevertheless, that is what Methuselah did. He lived during a time when humans were so depraved, God regretted that He had made man.

The Bible does not record much more about Methuselah’s life. However, a few things intrigue me about him. He was the oldest man who ever lived, his means ‘his death sends', and he died the year of the flood. Even in the brevity of the narrative of his life, he left a legacy of righteousness in his grandson and perhaps was one of the faithful who helped Noah build the ark.

God suffers long with humankind because He desires that none will perish but that all would come to the knowledge of the truth. (1 Timothy 2.4) Throughout our lives He teaches, encourages, supports, strengthens, and woos us into alignment with His heart. All He asks is we read His Word, listen to His voice, and obey.

I am living witness that God has not only cared for me but has suffered long through my almost 50 years of ups and downs. Though not raised in a Christian home, He led me to realise that the precepts in God’s Word will not only assist and guide me, but will help me become the person He intended.

Father, as we lay our cares at Your feet, help us to realise there is nothing too big or too small for You to handle. Help us to recognise that even though things surrounding us seem to be a little murky, You are carrying us through it all.

You who have been carried by Me from your birth and have been carried in my arms from the womb, even to your old age I am He, and even to your advanced old age I will carry you! I have made you, and I will carry you, be assured I will carry you and I will save you.        Isaiah 46.3-4

Enoch

 By faith Enoch was taken from this life so that he did not experience death: “He could not be found, because God had taken him away.” For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God.    Hebrews 11:5

Marvellously and mysteriously, God took Enoch.

Enoch was a faithful man who walked closely with the Lord and never experienced earthly death. We’re given few details of Enoch’s life, yet we know he pleased God because of his faith and constant fellowship with Him.

A loving friend longed to hear from God but admitted she never read the Bible. God gave us Scripture so we can know Him. He speaks to us through His Word. My friend was encouraged to begin reading the Bible daily. Once she determined to do so, her faith began flourishing. Her light shines even more brightly in the lives of others because she is spending time with God.

Faith comes by hearing the word of God. When we immerse ourselves in His Word and purposefully fellowship with Him, we too can be people of faith! Reading, memorising, writing out Scripture, and hearing God’s Word being spoken and taught will lead us to become people of faith. Faith in God is what pleases Him.

We cannot perfectly mould and plan our lives, but we can choose to believe God. We can choose to walk daily and have perpetual communication with Him.

Heavenly Father, Your Word shows us those who pleased You were imperfect, yet they were people of faith. May we be people of faith who please You. We crave Your nearness, Father. Thank You, God, that You are with us just as You were with Enoch. In Jesus' name, Amen

You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, all whose thoughts are fixed on you!     Isaiah 26.3

Seth

And Adam knew his wife again, and she bore a son and called his name Seth, for she said, “God has appointed for me another offspring instead of Abel, for Cain killed him.”    Genesis 4.25

 

The labour pains intensified. Adam encouraged Eve to push. Relief came as the baby finally appeared.

“It’s a boy!” Adam exclaimed.

Eve reached for her son. “God has appointed for me another offspring instead of Abel.” She looked into his sweet, wet face. The wound on her heart healed ever so slightly as she peered into Seth's eyes. He would never know his older brothers, Cain and Abel, and this thirdborn son would receive all the blessings of the firstborn. “You are a promise from God,” she whispered into his tiny ear. Seth cooed, and Eve smiled up at her husband.

Not much is said about Seth in the Bible, but he became the catalyst for all of God’s promises and is in the lineage of Jesus. In Genesis 3.15, God promised the serpent, “He (Eve’s seed) shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” Through Seth, this promise was fulfilled many generations later in Jesus.

 

 

Can you relate to Eve? Our one child became three amidst concerns of infertility from cancer treatment or the miscarriage that occurred during the formation of our family. I’m sure when Eve held Seth for the first time, she was thinking of the promise God made in Genesis 3.15. No matter how hard it was, to see other expectant couples, I remembered God would always do as He promised. Despite the sorrow of losing a loved one, whether by miscarriage, infertility, untimely death, or old age, we know that God has a plan, and He will bring us comfort in His own way and timing.

We can all experience God with us, our Seth, trusting God to be the promise keeper, as He has been since the beginning of time.

 

 

Heavenly Father, thank You for your care for us and for always being there for us. We love You and know that You will always accomplish Your promises. In Jesus' name, Amen

 

Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.  Matthew 5.4

Adam

 So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken.     Genesis 3.23

Everything was ruined. One bite of the fruit that promised wisdom, and I knew. I was naked. Was the weight in my chest shame or fear? Nothing was the same, somehow the very earth beneath my feet felt different. Was it an undoing or an estrangement?

Eve, the woman I delight in, seemed a stranger. It was her fault. She took the fruit, I just took a bite because she did. Now naked and desperate, we sit sewing leaves to cover our shame because we know He will be coming. I used to look forward to walking with Him, but now I dread it.

“He’s coming!”

“Let's hide!”

God came with a question, not condemnation. He came with justice and grace. He told Adam and Eve the consequences of their choices. The breaking of relational wholeness, the pain of childbirth, and the sweat and toil that would be required to bring forth fruit. Then God banished them from the garden, where the Tree of Knowledge stood alongside the Tree of Life.

God could have struck Adam and Eve dead when they ate of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. He could have let them stay in the garden and eat of the Tree of Life. Then they would live forever separated from God. Instead, He banished them from the garden so they could have a right relationship with Him. He gave a future promise that one day the serpent would be defeated.

He comes to us with the same promise. Our sin does not have the final word. Jesus has paid the penalty for our sin and given us His righteousness. God’s kindness draws us to repentance, and He will never leave us. He is with us.

When shame and condemnation try to make us hide, let us listen for God’s still small voice. He is calling us home.

Father God, thank You for calling out to me in kindness. Help me to lay bare my heart so I can rejoice in Your presence. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there, if I make my bed in the depths,  you are there.         Psalm 139.7-8

God

 In the beginning God. . .      Genesis 1.1

Eternal, no beginning or ending, the first and the last, Alpha, Omega. . . this is our God. Always known, yet He created time and space for man to know Him.

Through the pages of His Word, we find ourselves in the story of the Almighty. We read the creation scene ushering in His presence to a world shaped by the sound of His voice, Let there be. . . and it was good.

The grand finale, man, is formed by the hands of the Almighty, and with his first breath he encounters the everlasting God. This scene sweeps man into God’s presence! God with man and man with God.

Life in the garden was good until it was not. The sin of man burrowed a chasm between them as man hid from God, placing Him at a distance. Yet God never moved, man did. The steps their Creator would take to bring them back with Him we’re drastic. In the garden God would take the life of a created beast shedding its blood to provide a covering for them.

Their relationship was restored, yet man would live in the harsh realities of the world engulfed in sin and longing to realise His presence.

Throughout the narrative of Scripture, we see God present with His creation as they come to know Him and experience Him in their lives. The sin of man launched into motion the promise of complete reconciliation with God as mankind would carry the seed of the Messiah.

The very with of God walked with man in the beginning, and Immanuel, God with us, would enter the world to fulfil the promise.

God Almighty, You are with me! As I enter this season of Advent, may I be with You and drawn into Your presence. In Jesus' name, Amen.

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.     John 1.14

Hope

 Believers embrace hope differently than the world. Our hope is grounded in confident faith within the promises of God.

 

Faith shows the reality of what we hope for,

it is the evidence of things we cannot see.  Hebrews 11.1

 

As you enter this first week of Advent, may you find hope in the promise that is to come. God ushers in the beginning of time and engages within the narrative of His creation.

 

God Almighty, as I enter this week, I set my eyes on all that You have for me. Through those who sinned and those who followed faithfully, may I see myself, and may my faith be strengthened in hope with full assurance You will keep Your promises. I will look for You and find You are with me. In Jesus’s name, Amen.

Genealogy

 Yes it is mainly scripture but what i hope to do for advent this year is go through the line of Jesus and talk about various people leading up to the birth of Jesus. These are the ones i have put in capitals. I hope these will be helpful to you. Also each evening i will go a to z also featuring an aspect of the Christmas story also.

Matthew 1:1-17 The Genealogy of Jesus Christ

 The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.

Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, and Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, and Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Ram, and Ram the father of Amminadab, and Amminadab the father of Nahshon, and Nahshon the father of Salmon, and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of David the king. 

And David was the father of SOLOMON the wife of Uriah, and Solomon the father of REHOBOAM, and Rehoboam the father of ABIJAH, and Abijah the father of ASAPH, and Asaph the father of JEHOSHAPHAT, and Jehoshaphat the father of Joram, and Joram the father of UZZIAH, and Uzziah the father of Jotham, and Jotham the father of AHAZ, and Ahaz the father of HEZEKIAH and Hezekiah the father of Manasseh, and Manasseh the father of Amos, and Amos the father of JOSIAH, and Josiah the father of JECHONIAH and his brothers, at the time of the deportation to Babylon.

And after the deportation to Babylon: Jechoniah was the father of Shealtiel, and Shealtiel the father of ZERUBBABEL, and Zerubbabel the father of Abiud, and Abiud the father of Eliakim, and Eliakim the father of Azor, and Azor the father of Zadok, and Zadok the father of Achim, and Achim the father of Eliud, and Eliud the father of Eleazar, and Eleazar the father of Matthan, and Matthan the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of JOSEPH the husband of Mary, of whom JESUS was born, who is called Christ.

So all the generations from Abraham to David were fourteen generations, and from David to the deportation to Babylon fourteen generations, and from the deportation to Babylon to the Christ fourteen generations.

Luke 3:23-38 Now Jesus himself was about thirty years old when he began his ministry. He was the son, so it was thought, of Joseph, 

the son of Heli, the son of Matthat,

the son of Levi, the son of Melki,

the son of Jannai, the son of Joseph,

the son of Mattathias, the son of Amos,

the son of Nahum, the son of Esli,

the son of Naggai, the son of Maath,

the son of Mattathias, the son of Semein,

the son of Josek, the son of Joda,

the son of Joanan, the son of Rhesa,

the son of Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel,

the son of Neri, the son of Melki,

the son of Addi, the son of Cosam,

the son of Elmadam, the son of Er,

the son of Joshua, the son of Eliezer,

the son of Jorim, the son of Matthat,

the son of Levi, the son of Simeon,

the son of Judah, the son of Joseph,

the son of Jonam, the son of Eliakim,

the son of Melea, the son of Menna,

the son of Mattatha, the son of Nathan, 

the son of DAVID, the son of JESSE,

the son of Obed, the son of BOAZ,

the son of SALMON, the son of Nahshon,

the son of Amminadab, the son of Ram,

the son of Hezron, the son of PEREZ, 

the son of JUDAH, the son of JACOB,

the son of ISSAC, the son of ABRAHAM,

the son of Terah, the son of Nahor, 

the son of Serug, the son of Reu,

the son of Peleg, the son of Eber,

the son of Shelah, the son of Cainan,

the son of Arphaxad, the son of Shem,

the son of NOAH, the son of Lamech, 

the son of METHUSELAH, the son of ENOCH,

the son of Jared, the son of Mahalalel,

the son of Kenan, the son of Enosh,

the son of SETH, the son ADAM,

the son of GOD .