God brought her to the man...
Our culture, past and present, teaches that we need to be about the business of looking for our mate. We are taught that we need to date. Numerous teens have asked the question when discussing this topic of dating: How else will we know who our soulmate is?
The practice of dating has become an engrained way of life for many people in our society both young and old. The morphing of what the term means over the years is an interesting topic of study. (From Front Porch to Back Seat: Courtship in Twenthieth-Century America by Beth Bailey)
The pattern that God set in Scripture is very different from what our society teaches, advocates, and demands from us.
Through the lives of Adam & Eve, and Isaac & Rebekah God demonstrates clearly His way of bringing together husband and wife. (Genesis 2:18-25; Genesis 24:1-67)
1. How did God create the husband/wife relationship in these four people?
2. Do you agree with God's order and methods?
3. Do you think God's order and methods are applicable today?
4. Have the methods for creating relationships advocated by society been fruitful or fruitless; painful or painless; a blessing or a curse?
5. Do you trust God to provide what & who He desires for you in His time and His way?
6. Are you anxious about where you are in the area of relationships? If yes, does this anxiety stem from not surrendering to God's methods or because society says you are not where you should be?
Monday, November 28, 2011
Eve...Alone with God First: Questions for the Reader (Part 8) - Genesis Chapter 2
Eve...Alone with God First
Genesis 2:22 And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.
Today's culture, inside and outside the church, teaches us differently than what God ordains in His word. Speaking personally, I know that I bought into the lessons taught by my culture even back in the 70's, 80's and 90's. It took a lot of "brain-rinsing" for God to enable me to see His views and order for relationships.
While I cannot do life over, I can choose to learn God's ways and then surrender to His best for this life starting today.
1. Have you been alone with God first before seeking to be alone with someone else?
2. Have you allowed God to mold you into who He desires you to be, for His purposes?
3. Have you allowed God to bring you to the one for whom He designed you in His time and way?
Genesis 2:22 And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.
Today's culture, inside and outside the church, teaches us differently than what God ordains in His word. Speaking personally, I know that I bought into the lessons taught by my culture even back in the 70's, 80's and 90's. It took a lot of "brain-rinsing" for God to enable me to see His views and order for relationships.
While I cannot do life over, I can choose to learn God's ways and then surrender to His best for this life starting today.
1. Have you been alone with God first before seeking to be alone with someone else?
2. Have you allowed God to mold you into who He desires you to be, for His purposes?
3. Have you allowed God to bring you to the one for whom He designed you in His time and way?
Eve...Alone with God Before Being Brought to Adam by God: Part 5 of 10 - Genesis Chapter 2 and Its Implications for Relationships: A Commentary
Eve...Alone with God Before Being Brought to Adam by God
Genesis 2:22 And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from the man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.
In between the making of the woman, and the bringing of her to Adam, Eve spent time alone with God.
In that short fragment of a sentence, and brought her unto the man, several truths are quietly revealed. God's Word is amazing in that one word, or a small group of words can reveal so much!
1. God & Eve were some place different from Adam. It could have been close, or it could have been far.
2. Eve could have been awake or asleep, but she was with God (not alone by herself, and not with Adam).
3. Even the briefest millisecond with God can be packed with infinite blessings! (Acts 9:3-7)
4. Even the lightest touch from God causes the most amazing transformation and healing! (Matthew 9:20-22; Matthew 14:36)
What, if anything, transpired?
What was the quality of the experience of Eve with God?
Genesis 2:22 And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from the man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.
In between the making of the woman, and the bringing of her to Adam, Eve spent time alone with God.
In that short fragment of a sentence, and brought her unto the man, several truths are quietly revealed. God's Word is amazing in that one word, or a small group of words can reveal so much!
1. God & Eve were some place different from Adam. It could have been close, or it could have been far.
2. Eve could have been awake or asleep, but she was with God (not alone by herself, and not with Adam).
3. Even the briefest millisecond with God can be packed with infinite blessings! (Acts 9:3-7)
4. Even the lightest touch from God causes the most amazing transformation and healing! (Matthew 9:20-22; Matthew 14:36)
What, if anything, transpired?
What was the quality of the experience of Eve with God?
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
God's Purpose or our purpose for the husband:wife relationship: Questions for the Reader (Part 7) - Genesis Chapter 2
God's Purpose or our purpose for the husband:wife relationship
1. What is God's purpose for the husband:wife relationship?
2. What is our purpose for the husband:wife relationship?
3. Whose purpose for this relationship dictates your thoughts and actions in this relatioship?
Insights from Scripture:
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth...And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness...so God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it...(Genesis 1:1, 26-28)
Excerpts below from the book Adulterous Heart (by Barbara Lynette Peters)
Imagine for a few moments, if you will, the truth. This truth is contained clearly throughout Scripture and warrants your thorough analysis as well as mine. Imagine that “in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth . . . he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited” (Genesis 1:1, Isaiah 45:18).
So in this initial setting, Earth, God meticulously and carefully created a most suitable place for Himself to dwell among man. He began by adding light to that which was previously dark. He organized the two opposing states of light and dark and created what He called Day and Night. As the details of Genesis chapter one and two slowly unfold, the order and purpose that is created out of emptiness and chaos are phenomenal and incomprehensible. God not only created macro-order, He created micro-order to levels that we have yet to fathom. The Garden of Eden was free of decay, death and sin. It was full of life.
So in this initial setting, Earth, God meticulously and carefully created a most suitable place for Himself to dwell among man. He began by adding light to that which was previously dark. He organized the two opposing states of light and dark and created what He called Day and Night. As the details of Genesis chapter one and two slowly unfold, the order and purpose that is created out of emptiness and chaos are phenomenal and incomprehensible. God not only created macro-order, He created micro-order to levels that we have yet to fathom. The Garden of Eden was free of decay, death and sin. It was full of life.
God ordained every detail for His purposes. One such purpose He revealed not in words, but in His actions. God created a most suitable environment where He communed with man, spoke to man, allowed His presence to be sensed by man, provided for man, taught man, and walked near man. God blessed man. The intimacy of God’s relationship with man at this point, in this God designed and structured setting, may be far beyond our human ability to perceive.
_______________________________________________end of excerpt_____
The Garden of Eden was the initial setting created by God where He would commune and relate intimately to man. After man's ousting from this setting, God began orchestrating the next setting for Himself to intimately commune with man, dwell among man. This setting was amongst the people He created, the Israelites, in the Tent of Meetings, and later the Temple.
Even before the destruction of this second setting specifically ordained for the intimate communion of the Holy God with men, God began orchestrating the next place in which the Holy God would dwell among man, a human temple. His name is Jesus Christ.
God's orchestration of life on Earth did not stop there, He made it possible for the Holy God to dwell within man by the death & resurrection of His Son, Jesus the Christ. When Christ died on the cross, overcame death and ascended into Heaven, His sacrifice made it possible for people who believed in God's provision to have the Holy Spirit dwell within them. God enabled His Spirit to be deposited into human temples. In order for these human temples to be a suitable place for the Holy God, they needed to be redeemed, purified, transformed, changed, willingly die to their flesh, and live by the Power of God alone! God begins a work of preparing our human temple for His dominion in it after we believe upon His Son Christ, and as we willingly die to self daily. God desires to meticulously and carefully create a most suitable place for Himself to dwell within man.
Will we surrender to His creative work, or are we more concerned about what we desire to create of our lives?
The purpose of marriage has to do with our human temple being used by God to be spiritually fruitful and multiply the likeness of the Godhead in our own lives, and that of those God places in our lives (our children, neighbors, friends, etc.) The purpose of marriage has less to do with us being entertained, meeting a societal goal, having a mate for the sake of having a mate, us not being alone, having an instant sexual partner, or changing someone into what we want them to be. While God said it was not good that man should be alone (Genesis 2:18), He also said that He would never leave us or forsake us (Deutoronomy 31:6,8; Joshua 1:5; 1Chronicles 28:20; Hebrews 13:5). He never promised that humans would never leave or forsake each other. His Word demonstrates repeatedly that we are faithless, but He is the only forever faithful Husband.
Do we trust God enough to be the One and only for us? Or are we still too overcome by our fears, our own desires & expectations, and those of the world around us so that we don't let go of everything else and hold on to Him alone? Are we able to surrender our desire for a person to fill the void, and trust God to provide whatever He chooses, when He chooses, while we instead go about doing the Kingdom work for which He designed us?
I sense by the many conversations with Christ followers and others that we are instead gripped by fear, paralyzed by our expectations, mesmerized by the teachings of our world, and overcome by our desires. We are more loyal to what we want for ourselves, than what God desires for the life He created in us.
_______________________________________________end of excerpt_____
The Garden of Eden was the initial setting created by God where He would commune and relate intimately to man. After man's ousting from this setting, God began orchestrating the next setting for Himself to intimately commune with man, dwell among man. This setting was amongst the people He created, the Israelites, in the Tent of Meetings, and later the Temple.
Even before the destruction of this second setting specifically ordained for the intimate communion of the Holy God with men, God began orchestrating the next place in which the Holy God would dwell among man, a human temple. His name is Jesus Christ.
God's orchestration of life on Earth did not stop there, He made it possible for the Holy God to dwell within man by the death & resurrection of His Son, Jesus the Christ. When Christ died on the cross, overcame death and ascended into Heaven, His sacrifice made it possible for people who believed in God's provision to have the Holy Spirit dwell within them. God enabled His Spirit to be deposited into human temples. In order for these human temples to be a suitable place for the Holy God, they needed to be redeemed, purified, transformed, changed, willingly die to their flesh, and live by the Power of God alone! God begins a work of preparing our human temple for His dominion in it after we believe upon His Son Christ, and as we willingly die to self daily. God desires to meticulously and carefully create a most suitable place for Himself to dwell within man.
Will we surrender to His creative work, or are we more concerned about what we desire to create of our lives?
The purpose of marriage has to do with our human temple being used by God to be spiritually fruitful and multiply the likeness of the Godhead in our own lives, and that of those God places in our lives (our children, neighbors, friends, etc.) The purpose of marriage has less to do with us being entertained, meeting a societal goal, having a mate for the sake of having a mate, us not being alone, having an instant sexual partner, or changing someone into what we want them to be. While God said it was not good that man should be alone (Genesis 2:18), He also said that He would never leave us or forsake us (Deutoronomy 31:6,8; Joshua 1:5; 1Chronicles 28:20; Hebrews 13:5). He never promised that humans would never leave or forsake each other. His Word demonstrates repeatedly that we are faithless, but He is the only forever faithful Husband.
Do we trust God enough to be the One and only for us? Or are we still too overcome by our fears, our own desires & expectations, and those of the world around us so that we don't let go of everything else and hold on to Him alone? Are we able to surrender our desire for a person to fill the void, and trust God to provide whatever He chooses, when He chooses, while we instead go about doing the Kingdom work for which He designed us?
I sense by the many conversations with Christ followers and others that we are instead gripped by fear, paralyzed by our expectations, mesmerized by the teachings of our world, and overcome by our desires. We are more loyal to what we want for ourselves, than what God desires for the life He created in us.
Created in God's image?
In Chapter 1 of his book, One for All, H. Daniel Hilliard gives amazing perspective on the spiritual implications of being created in God's image. My natural mind has most often reverted to thinking of this concept from a physical perspective, but my natural thoughts are so very limited and lacking.
The word image has both spiritual and physical meanings. In spiritual (non‐physical) terms, an image is a shade (shadow) or phantom (mental representation); and, in physical terms, an image is an idol or figure (figurine or statute). Both categories of definitions have the same implication: a thing that represents someone or something else greater than itself. Adam was an image of God because Jehovah God personally left a deposit or imprint of Himself—Eternal Breath and Mindset—in him; but, Adam was not exactly the same as, or identical to God.
The word image has both spiritual and physical meanings. In spiritual (non‐physical) terms, an image is a shade (shadow) or phantom (mental representation); and, in physical terms, an image is an idol or figure (figurine or statute). Both categories of definitions have the same implication: a thing that represents someone or something else greater than itself. Adam was an image of God because Jehovah God personally left a deposit or imprint of Himself—Eternal Breath and Mindset—in him; but, Adam was not exactly the same as, or identical to God.
Adam’s Purpose
At the time of his creation, Adam was an immortal living soul—mind and body—that was inspired by an eternal God-consciousness or spirit. In truth, he was an interface. An interface connects two or more things that could not otherwise be connected or joined directly together. Adam bridged or connected the supernatural (unseen) world of God to the physical world.
With his visible self or body, Adam could sense (see, hear, touch, taste and smell) things in the physical world and then process those senses with his mind or thoughts. And, with his spirit, he could perceive and sense things in the unseen world of God and then process those perceptions and senses, too, with his mind or thoughts.
And God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it…” Genesis 1:28a
Although Adam was the first one of his kind of life-form, when God looked at him He saw the fullness of humanity or the entire human race. As such, Adam had, at least, three primary responsibilities:
1. To stand before God and receive the blessing—verbal adoration or warm salutations—and the Earthly authority for all (the rest) of his kind of life-form.
2. To set the tone or pattern of agreement with God for all (the rest) of his kind of life-form
3. To reproduce others of his kind, in the image and likeness of God, and then equally share with them the blessing and authority he received from God.
Excerpts from: One for All: the message of salvation in God's own words by H. Daniel Hilliard.
Do we agree with God's intended Purposes?: Part 4 of 10 - Genesis Chapter 2 and Its Implications for Relationships: A Commentary
Do we agree with God's intended Purposes?
Genesis 2:22-23
And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from the man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.
God made a woman, then brought her unto Adam, just as He had previously brought the animals before Adam.
Adam was gifted by God with the ability to identify the name & purpose of the animals. He also did this with Eve.
Knowing her origin and purpose, He agreed with God's intent--that she was for him. Adam demonstrated that he desired what God designed, the way He designed it, according to God's timing.
Genesis 2:22-23
And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from the man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.
God made a woman, then brought her unto Adam, just as He had previously brought the animals before Adam.
Adam was gifted by God with the ability to identify the name & purpose of the animals. He also did this with Eve.
Knowing her origin and purpose, He agreed with God's intent--that she was for him. Adam demonstrated that he desired what God designed, the way He designed it, according to God's timing.
Saturday, November 5, 2011
Waiting or Manipulating: Questions for the Reader (Part 6) - Genesis Chapter 2
Waiting or Manipulating?
Men
1. What item(s) has God allowed to be missing in you that He will provide for by His means?
2. Have you allowed God to "put you to sleep" while He orchestrates events and people according to His will & His timing?
3. Or, are you instead manipulating events & people according to the the traditions of your culture, family or religion?
Women
1. Have you allowed God to fashion you according to His plan to be a blessing to the mate of His design?
2. Have you spent quality time alone with God focused soley on Him?
3. Has God "brought" you to the one He has designed for you in His time & way?
3. Or, are you instead manipulating events & people according to your desires, traditions of your culture, family or religion?
Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him... (Psalm 37:7)
The Lord is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him. (Lamentations 3:25)
Men
1. What item(s) has God allowed to be missing in you that He will provide for by His means?
2. Have you allowed God to "put you to sleep" while He orchestrates events and people according to His will & His timing?
3. Or, are you instead manipulating events & people according to the the traditions of your culture, family or religion?
Women
1. Have you allowed God to fashion you according to His plan to be a blessing to the mate of His design?
2. Have you spent quality time alone with God focused soley on Him?
3. Has God "brought" you to the one He has designed for you in His time & way?
3. Or, are you instead manipulating events & people according to your desires, traditions of your culture, family or religion?
Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him... (Psalm 37:7)
The Lord is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him. (Lamentations 3:25)
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
What Adam Lacked...Part 3 of 10 Genesis Chapter 2 and Its Implications for Relationships: A Commentary
What Adam Lacked...
Genesis 2:21-22
And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof: And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.
God chose to provide for the man by taking something from the man. God, the great physician, performed surgery with supernatural anesthesia.
God took a piece of Adam, and did not replace this piece/rib. The missing piece was used to fashion a woman. The woman now had what the man lacked.
God fashioned the woman to be the suitable being for the man. Then God brought the woman to the man.
Genesis 2:21-22
And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof: And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.
God chose to provide for the man by taking something from the man. God, the great physician, performed surgery with supernatural anesthesia.
God took a piece of Adam, and did not replace this piece/rib. The missing piece was used to fashion a woman. The woman now had what the man lacked.
God fashioned the woman to be the suitable being for the man. Then God brought the woman to the man.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)