Day One Built
for a Purpose
My girls love to set up
their doll houses and play for hours.
Our dining room table is seldom used for its designated purpose because
there is usually one to three doll houses set up and
all the accessories. Now when I say
accessories I mean additions to the houses built out of Lincoln Logs and Legos as well as yard settings. As the girls play you can often hear the
dialogue, not between my girls but between their doll characters. Often times the lives of the dolls mirror our
own lives which don’t sound any more exciting in Barbie’s world than they do in
our own world. The thing that stands out
about this play is that it always involves relationships. The dolls are constantly engaged in some type
of interaction with the other dolls.
This is unavoidable, we are hardwired for relationships. Even our children, at a young age, can’t help
but anticipate relationships. We want to
relate. That is because of how we were
created; we were created to relate.
Read Genesis 1:26-31 and
list what took place in the creation of humans.
Why does it seem that God
created humans?
God desired beings that
could related to Him which is why He created us in His image. As we take another look at the creation story
the elements of creation take on a whole new reason as we read Genesis 2:4-23. It appears that God created man to relate to
and that all of creation was for man.
How does this impact the way that you think God thinks in regard to you?
How does knowing this
enhance your understanding of all that God has done for you?
Day Two Inescapable
Consequences
No one has been able to
escape the escapades of Heiress Paris Hilton over the past months. She was convicted of an offense under which
she lost her license but then made the choice to continue driving. The judge, due to her seemingly arrogant
attitude toward the law, chose to send her to jail for forty five days. We all know what happened next, after only
three days in jail, the sheriff chose to release her citing medical
reasons. The original judge was furious
over this and soon had her back in jail.
To the average person like you or I it seemed at first that she had been
able to get out of the consequences of her actions due to her money. There have been many cases in the past that
have appeared to place certain persons above the law due to their economic
status so our assumptions are probably somewhat well founded. The judge however was not impressed by Ms.
Hilton’s celebrity or her family’s money and required that she serve her time
just as any other person would have. On
earth, the truth is that sometimes it is possible to escape the consequences of
bad choices, in eternity this is not an option.
In Genesis 2:15-17 God put
one restriction on the man that he created, “You must not eat from the tree of
the knowledge of good and evil.” Then,
in Genesis 3 we see the man and the woman choosing to disobey God and the
inescapable consequences.
What was the sin of the man
and the woman?
Why do you think God place
the tree in the garden in the first place?
Why do you think the
consequences were so severe?
Theologians and scholars
discuss and write volumes on this topic and a brief explanation seems to be
very inadequate but I will try anyway.
Simply put, God placed the tree in the garden to give man the
option. If God were to give man a free
will yet no decisions to make how could their relationship
truly be a choice. The man had to chose to love and relate to God. Choosing to disobey and eat from the tree was
a choice to not relate and love God. The
consequences were severe in order that man would understand his need for
God. This way when Christ was came man would truly see his need for a saviour.
Day Three Open
Eyes
You have most likely seen
the insurance commercial where the people are busy doing all kinds of activity
while driving. There is the man reading
the paper, the woman putting on make up and even another person changing clothes. They drive wrecklessly
because they do not have their eyes open to what is going on ahead and around
them. I have always laughed but after
today I think I will take this a little more seriously. As Andrea and I were heading back to
It would be easy for us to
be in this same state eternally. When
Adam, and then we, chose to disobey God we are separated from God for
eternity. We see that visually as God
sent Adam and Eve out of the garden. If
we were just left in that state of existence we could possibly just trudge
through life, miserable because we did not have the soul relationship we were
built for, not knowing what we actually needed.
God did not leave us in this blind state where we were clueless of our
separation from Him. He progressively
revealed Himself to man and then He gave man the law so that we could see how
far we were from God.
In Romans 7:7-12 to see the
purpose of the law given to men. How
does the law, even now, reveal your need for God?
God, so loved us that He not
only gave His Son for us, but He lovingly prepared us for the Son through the
gift of the law.
Day Four The Gift
My children hardly allow one
birthday party to be completed and the guests to leave before they begin
planning their next party and putting together their next gift list. Gifts are great because we just receive
them. Gifts that we have to earn are not
gifts and not something we look forward to but true gifts are a joy. It is also true though the earthly gifts soon
lose much of their shine and newness and another gift is always wanted and
“needed”. We seldom feel that we have
received “enough” or “sufficient” gifts.
There is one gift of course that is “enough” and is “sufficient” and is
truly a gift given without strings or conditions. This gift is seen in John 3:16, a verse you
probably know by heart since you were a young child. This gift is given solely because of the love
of God the father and the only condition is that we accept it.
What is included in this
gift?
You probably listed many
things such as joy, and love, and eternal security, but did you name
“relationship with God” in your list?
Relationship with God is truly the meat of this gift. God gave His Son so that we could once again
have relationship with God.
How much of your own
“spirituality” is based on the fact that you are able to have a relationship
with God because of Christ?
Day Five Beyond the Gift
One year for Christmas we
got our then three year old Grace a large collection of pretend kitchen
items. The items included fake food,
utensils, plates, and just about everything else you would need in the kitchen
of your dreams. As she opened the
collection she was thrilled and began to go piece by piece through the
collection. It was cute at first but
since the gift contained close to a hundred pieces, and she still had more
gifts to open, and we were expected at the grandparent’s house soon, we
attempted to hurry her along. This was
not possible, she was going to enjoy every piece of her new kitchen collection
and that is just what she did as she carefully reviewed each piece of fake
lettuce and pretend hamburger bun (top and bottom). Some gifts were meant to be enjoyed…..for a
long time. Enjoyment of a gift not only
involves appreciating the gift but also learning and appreciating every aspect
of the gift. That is just what Grace
did, she enjoy, appreciated, and learned everything there was about her
Christmas gift, even if it meant dad had to call an expectant grandma and
explain why we were late.
Has the gift given to you by
God ever been viewed in this manner. In
Romans 5:10-11 Paul encourages the believers to examine and appreciate their
gift from God in the same way. He
encourages the believers to not only receive the gift but understand,
appreciate, and enjoy every aspect.
How much appreciation do you
have for your gift?