Stay Focused 01.01.09

Hello My Friend/Guest,

Today is Thursday January 1, 2009. Happy New Year! I pray that this year brings you much joy and gladness.

Today's Lesson: God provides us with everything we need to live an abundant filled life, all we need to do to obtain it is Obey His Word. As you keep your eyes focused on God and you will not fall into the temptations of Satan.

Today we will be reading about the creation of all things; the creation of Adam and Eve; Eve's temptation by Satan; and Adam and Eve's rebellion against God and their forfeit of the Garden of Eden.

Today's Bible Reading: Please read Genesis Chapters 1-3, Click Here to read them online. If the link does not work copy and paste this one into your browser: biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%201-3&version=9

We are beginning our studies on the book of Genesis. The book of Genesis is the first book of the Bible/Old Testament and contains fifty chapters. The author of the book is Moses and it was originally written to the people of Isreal. The purpose of the book was to record the beginning of the universe, man, the Sabbath, marriage, sin, sacrifice, nations, and government. It also records the stories of key men of God: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph. What we are to learn from the book is that God's plan from the beginning included all nations and that God begins new things with people.

In six days God created the heaven and earth. "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth........And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.........And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good.......And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good. And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. "(Genesis 1:1,11,21,25-27,29).

God made mankind in His own image and likeness which makes us different from every animal."And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul." (2:7). No animal has a God consciousness or is capable of worshiping God.

God provided us everything that would sustain us and enable us to fulfill His perfect will and achieve a happy and worthwhile life. Man's responsibility was to obey God and to take care of His garden However, God allowed man's love, loyalty, and obedience to be tested. "Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat." (3:1-6).

Satan did not reveal himself to Eve as the enemy of God nor a wicked deceiver with the intent on destroying every enjoyment of mankind. His intent was, and still is, to prevent man from obeying God. First, he tried to create doubt concerning the truth of what God had said. He implied that God was withholding the best enjoyments in life from Adam and Eve. Then he deceived them by giving only partial truth of God's Word, which was a lie. Satan knows just enough Scripture to make someone think he knows what he is talking about in order to make it to his advantage.

While being tempted Eve chose to trust herself rather than God, she took her eyes off Him and focused only on what she was seeing in front of her, the more she thought about it the more she desired it. Once she got to that point she disregarded what belonged only to God and His authority and only chose to fulfill her desire. Once she tasted the forbidden fruit she then tempted Adam. They both sinned, and consequently, died spiritually. From that moment on, all of Adam's descendants inherited his sinful, disobedient nature, that includes all of us.

The steps to sin and its immediate consequences of eternal spiritual death and eventual physical death are still the same today. However, we are blessed to have a way out of sin and that is through the Lord, Jesus Christ. "These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God. And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us: And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him." (I John 5:13-15).

Throughout the Old Testament there are verses that reveal Jesus Christ, they will be listed daily.

Jesus Christ Revealed: "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." (Genesis 1:1). Jesus is our creator.

Today's Psalm: "This shall be written for the generation to come: and the people which shall be created shall praise the LORD." (102:18).

Today's Prayer:
Dear God,
Your mercies are renewed daily and Your provision is experienced in our lives each moment of every day. We seek You for guidance in the new year and growth in our daily Christian walk. Though we cannot predict the future we can predict Your faithfulness because You are a God that does not change. Every promise You have made is true as we have seen in the Biblical records. This gives us reason to trust You for the dawning of a new year where we will once again experience Your guiding presence in our daily lives. In Jesus' name.......Amen.

Enjoy your day/night!
God Bless,
Christina

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