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Genesis 5:2-3

He made them male and female, and blessed them; and the day He made them He called his name Adam. Now Adam lived two hundred and thirty years, and begot a son according to his form and image, and named him Seth.

Encouraging Words

In all of creation, there is only one portion that is claimed to be created in the form and image of God. That would be Adam and Eve. And yet, we proclaim that God is without form and therefore no one has seen Him. So, how can this be? In Orthodoxy, we believe that the pre-incarnate Jesus was the active part of God in the creation of all that exists. If you look at the icons of the church that depict the creation of Adam and Eve, you see Jesus breathing life into Adam. You also see that they have the same face. This is a mystery and we accept it as such. But the mystery does not stop there. Adam and Eve then reproduce children who bear their image and the reproduction continues on through to today. We are all still created in the form and image of our God. This is the reason that we are to love one another. Glory be to God!

Genesis 4:25

Again Adam knew his wife Eve, and she conceived and bore a son, and he named him Seth, saying, “God has appointed another seed for me instead of Abel, whom Cain killed.”

Encouraging Words

The story of Adam and Eve is such a great example of God’s enduring love for us. They committed the first sin by rejecting God as their source for every­thing and chose to seek their own outside of God. This action brought sin into God’s creation. Then years later their oldest son, Cain, killed his younger brother, Abel, out of jealousy. Their sin has expanded exponentially. And yet, after all of this, God did not reject them. He continued to love them as He does us today. He gave to them a new son to replace Abel, just as He gives us new chances all the time, to choose Him. Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy! Lord have mercy!

Genesis 6:22

Thus Noah did according to all the Lord God commanded him, so he did.

Personal challenge

Why are we so different today than our patriarchs and fathers that have gone before us? People like Moses, Noah, David, the Apostles, and many, many more in the Scriptures and in the history of the church. Is it because we have been able to accumulate so much wealth and comfort that we no longer are dependent on God for our every need? Is it because we have become stiff-necked and hardhearted in our ways? Or is it simply just because we are choosing to? We have here the reminder that Noah should have been the first Nike ambassador with his “Just Do It!” attitude. Living in a land-locked area with no large bodies of water, he hears from God that he needs to build a giant boat and fill it with pairs of every animal on earth. And what did he do? He did it. All that God asks us to do is to love Him and love our neighbor. Is that really that hard? Once again it is a choice, just like choosing to not sin against Him. Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy!

Genesis 3:11-13

Thus He said, “Who said you were naked? Have you eaten from the one tree from which I commanded you not to eat?” Then Adam said, “The woman You gave me, gave me of the tree, and I ate.” So the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

Personal challenge

The desire to be right, to be vindicated of the wrong that we have committed is so strong and goes all the way back to Adam and Eve. “I am not responsible for what I did, so-and-so made me do it!” We are all experts at deflecting the blame for our bad behaviors off to someone or something else. We pass the buck. But God always knows the truth and He still seeks to walk with us in the garden. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner!

Genesis 3:8-9

Then they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden that afternoon, and Adam and his wife hid themselves within the tree in the middle of the garden from the presence of the Lord God. So the Lord God called Adam and said to him, “Adam, where are you?”

Personal Challenge

Have you ever done something that you knew really offended someone or caused them to be disappointed in you and then go out of your way to avoid them? This is what Adam and Eve did when they committed the first sin, and this is what we do with Him all of the time. When we exercise our free will and betray our relationship with God. we hide from Him. We avoid Him when we need Him the most. But just as God came looking for His precious children, knowing full well what they had done, He comes looking for us so that He can love us and forgive us. Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy!

Genesis 3:7

Then the eyes of the two were opened, and they knew they were naked. So they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings.

Personal Challenge

After Adam and Eve committed the first sin of humankind, their eyes were opened and they saw what they had done and how bare they stood before God. If we are not careful, we too can become blinded to the sins that follow temptation. The farther we are from God in our journeys through life, the more we are blinded toward the sin in our lives and the consequences of our behaviors. We do have a choice. We can say “No!” to sin. But we need God in our lives to help us do this. We need Him to forgive us when we do sin. We need Him to open our eyes while we are being tempted so that we can see sin for what it is and flee from it. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner!

Genesis 1:5

God called the light Day; the darkness He called Night; and there was evening and morning, one day.

Encouraging Words

No matter how chaotic our lives may get from time to time, we can be encouraged that we serve a God that puts everything in proper order. He is organized and not disheveled. He has everything that we know of as creation in His hand and moving along like clockwork. We can rest in that truth just as we can rest in the night that He created to end each day. Glory be to God!

James 4:11-12

Do not speak evil of one another, brethren. He who speaks evil of a brother and judges his brother, speaks evil of the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. There is one Lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy. Who are you to judge another?

Personal challenge

It is so hard to live in this Jerry Seinfeld world where it is expected to be putting everyone down and try to live a Christian life of love. What comes out of our mouth, whether encouraging or demeaning, has an impact on those whom we speak to. We are told here by James that we should not judge or criticize others because it is only God’s job to do that. There is a fine line between correcting someone who is in error and being judgmental. Lord Jesus Christ Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner!

Ephesians 2:19-22

Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.

Personal Challenge

Being a Christian is not being a lone ranger. We have been saved into a body of believers that goes back to the beginning of the church founded by the Apostles and Fathers of the church. There is no such thing as an isolated Christian. We need each other to grow, to love, and be loved. Even Jesus surrounded Himself with the twelve Apostles. We have become complacent in our society and culture to stand alone and apart from each other and have brought that mindset into the church. However, the true Church of our Lord is an entity of its own, the Bride of Christ, and will not let this individualistic mindset invade the church. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner!