Exodus 3:5

So He said, “Do not come any closer. Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground.”

Personal Challenge

Do we ever stop to consider that when we come before our God in worship or prayer that we are standing on holy ground? If we do, do we fall before Him in awe and reverence because He is our Holy God? Our practice of faith has become so casual, and we have relegated the Living God to be one of our peers when He is still our creator. Maybe it is time to take the shoes off of our feet when we approach our God and fall before Him before we start commanding Him to do what we want Him to do like some genie in a bottle. Maybe then we will just listen for His commandment instead. Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy!

Genesis 24:8

“And if the woman is not willing to follow you, then you will be released from this oath; only do not take my son back there.”

Encouraging Words

Well! That is an odd verse to choose for the verse of the day. Not if you have the rest of the story. Isaac has now grown to the age where it is time for him to consider marriage. Abraham has followed His God’s direction and sojourned to a foreign land. He believes it is important that Isaac marry one of their own people so he sends his servant back to their homeland to find a wife. He tells him that God will guide him and when he finds the lucky candidate he is to ask her to return with him to this unknown land, to an unknown people, and marry this unknown guy. We know what most of us today would say to a proposition like this. What is important in this verse is the last command that Abraham gives his servant. Under no means, force her to do this. He could have easily given the dowry to her father who would have they made her go. No! She is to come on her own free will. This is an image of how God treats each of us. He gives us opportunities and choices to make and lets us choose. So what happens next? Read the story to find out. It is all found in Genesis 24:1-67. Glory be to God!

Genesis 22:10-12

Then Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. But the Angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham! Abraham!” So he said, “Here I am.” He then replied, “Do not lay your hand on the lad, or do anything to him, for now I know you fear God, since for My sake you have not spared your beloved son.”

Personal Challenge

The story of Abraham and Isaac ends up at this pinnacle of God testing His faithful servant to see how far he will go for His God. His entire life, Abraham was promised by God to have enough offspring to fill the earth. And yet, he and Sarah did not have their son Isaac until they were in their early 100’s. Finally, an answered prayer. But then several years later, probably when Isaac was in his preteen years, God tells Abraham to go into the hills and offer his son as a sacrifice to God. Can you imagine the thoughts going through his head? And he does it, all the way to the point where Isaac is tied up, laying on the kindling for the fire, and hand-raised ready to plunge the knife into his son. But God interferes. Was this a test to satisfy God? Or was it a test for Abraham to find out just how far he would go far the love of his God? I believe it was the latter for God already knew how far Abraham would go, He just needed to help Abraham discover that. Isn’t that what our tests, trials, and tribulations in life are all about, opportunities for us to discover within ourselves just how far we are willing to go for our God? Lord, Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner!

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!