Week 2: And from dust

This week I had less time to read and write, but here is what I could get down "on paper"

Day 6

Gen 2:4-25
Gen 3

Because I said so

God told Adam and Eve that if they even touched the tree of the knowledge of good and evil that they would die... surely!

The serpent points out that the two actually won't die but will be knowledgeable of everything.  When Eve and Adam eat the fruit, they gain knowledge of God and evil but don't die right then and there.

Why did God tell them they would surely die if they even touched it? Eve is the one who says God made that claim. The text doesn't say good said it.  Maybe Adam retold Eve and added that if she even touched the fruit of the forbidden tree, she would die.

Once they knew good and evil, Adam knew Eve. Before their knowledge of good and evil, perhaps their becoming one was different somehow.  They were called to multiply and be fruitful, but their first named child is after the fall. They could have had sex before the fall, or maybe they hadn't yet had the chance with the snake suffering in on them.


Day 7

Psalm 51

I have found when I am trudging through a valley in my life or standing with wind whipped hair on a mountain top, I feel closest to God. He is close holding me and keeping me from giving up or He heard my cry and look how good He is!

These times I find praise, worship, and prayer so accessible. The mountain top shows me the big picture of how He is pulling miracle after miracle through in my life. In the valley, every detail, pain, struggle, and step is pulled into clear focus and the minutiae and depth of His thoroughness sustains me.

However, when I'm coasting along, going through the motions, making ends meet, and generally okay, the memories of the valley and mountaintop seem hard to tap into. The God of the everyday moment.  How do we keep the wind whipped hair and detailed focus after those seasons fade?

Day 8

Deut 8:3
Psalm 51:17

Even though God made the people go through the wilderness, he kept their feet from blistering and their clothes from wearing through.  While he tests us, he also covers us in ways we may not even recognize until after we've come out on the other side.

In the hardest times of my life, God provided for me in ways that didn't take away my struggle, but instead helped me to endure.  I was able to go through the experience, gain lessons that often are time released to reveal sessions afterward, and remain whole.  

When I ask how I made it out of an abusive home and poverty stricken community, it was God who put people in my path to nurture my mind and desire to serve others.  Though we were poor, I never went hungry. Though people were abused around me, I was often spared. Though I strong headedly entered an unequally yoked marriage, I was able to leave the relationship without having to deal with children and knowing my unbelieving partner had left me so God called me to live in peace.  Though I had to delay my college education, God helped me once more with people and programs in my path to return and perform the best I ever had as a student.

In every wilderness of my life, God applies a fresh pair of shoes and clothing in whatever form they may need to be in so that I can just keep going until I reach the land meant for me.

Day 9

1 Peter 3:13-22
Matthew 4:1-11

When Jesus was fresh out of the water of John's Baptism, the spirit led him into the wilderness where he prepared for 40 days and nights.  He fasted then faced Satan himself.  I wonder how much Jesus knew at that time.  If he had any idea how long it would be (God, is he here yet?) or  what it would be like.  Similarities to the people of Israel in the wilderness and their 40 days and nights are here.  But instead of murmuring and manna, Jesus' only companion is the Holy Spirit and rocks.  The angels tend to him afterwards, but during the entire ordeal, he is alone.

His suffering was not just for himself.  This test was the last moment before he presented himself to the world as the Son of Man proclaiming that the Kindgom has come.  How could he take on the Pharisees and Sadducees, the sternest and sickest of us sinners, and the demands of being a rolling stone if he had not taken time away on his own with an old school out and out fast.  

Lent is a time that we harken to Jesus' experience.  We focus our spiritual selves around our faith.  What is distracting us, where are we weak? If dealing with the devil was a test, the fast was the study session.  Time with yourself to know through and through who you were and why.  Jesus had his answers on the ready and Peter encourages us to be the same way.  Why do you believe?  What do you believe?  Could you explain it in your own words, or better yet with the Word?

Day 10

Mark 3

Jesus was angry more than just once.  You heard about the table flipping, merchant snapping Jesus. You might have even read about that poor tree that didn't have fruit even though it wasn't the season for figs.

But here, Jesus is upset at the ridiculousness that the Pharisees held the laws around. He was angry that people would rather clean themselves than heal others.

His radical way of walking out faith was accused of being the work of the devil. But the piety of the Pharisees in the name of God was doing more harm.

Day 11

Mark 4

Jesus took his teachings from the temple to the people who swelled in groups so large that he had to float out on a boat offshore to preach.  He told stories and parables to the crowds and asked repeatedly if they were really listening.

Am I really listening?  When God speaks to me through the beauty of his creation around me, with the angst of a struggling friend, or in the grimy hands held open on the subway?  What are the allegories in my life?

Day 12

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