Growth in God

The Weekly Bible verse is "Forget the former things, do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs , do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wastelands."

Today's Readings are Genesis 3, Psalm 23 ad Philippians 3

We all know Genesis 3 very well. We hear of it often. The temptation of the serpent upon Eve, her falling for it, giving in, then tempting Adam, who in turn gave in and the disappointment God had to fell at their actions. Isn't it hard to avoid temptation. We are tempted in so many ways. Through advertisement in magazines, the television, boards on the side of the road, the radio- to spend money we may not have, or to desire maybe with a slight envy the newest item out there, maybe a new phone or Ipod/MP3 player. The list is great, we all have our own areas. For me at times it could be the latest fabric. Boy is the temptation there. I am though ever so thankful to God that we are forgiven, that even though he made our life full of painful toil as He stated, He also is merciful and still wants to grant our desires, our needs. He still has a plan for us, we are not Lost, we are His Children Forever. Even when life here on earth may seem to much to bear, we can go before our Heavenly Father on our needs and let him hear our petitions, our cry for help. He will be our strength and comfort.

Here is Genesis 3 for you to read for yourself.

1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?"
2 The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, 'You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.' "
4 "You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman. 5 "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."
6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.
8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the LORD God called to the man, "Where are you?"
10 He answered, "I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid."
11 And he said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?"
12 The man said, "The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it."
13 Then the LORD God said to the woman, "What is this you have done?" The woman said, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate."
14 So the LORD God said to the serpent, "Because you have done this, "Cursed are you above all the livestock and all the wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life.
15 And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel."
16 To the woman he said, "I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing; with pain you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you."
17 To Adam he said, "Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, 'You must not eat of it,' "Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life.
18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field.
19 By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return."
20 Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living.
21 The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. 22 And the LORD God said, "The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever." 23 So the LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. 24 After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.

Psalm's 23 is another one that most of us should know. It seems to be a verse/passage on so many gift items. One we tend to learn by heart pretty early on through bible/sunday school etc.

God talks about Restoring our Soul, We should fear no evil, He is with us, He will comfort us. That love and goodness will follow us and we will Dwell in the House of the Lord Forever. This is for sure another of the 7000 promises that we should claim for ourselves. I know I want a restored soul so often. Being a mother of young kids is rough, mine are getting on into almost teenage years now and it seems even more difficult to just keep up with their normal school work. I can't imagine the trials of the moms and dads that have their kids in sports and other hobby/activities. We are a family that loves to be together though. I am happy that my children are content watching movies at home- if they get their homework done, on a school night. Having a dinner where we all do manage to sit at the table and eat together, and every once in a while- used to be more frequent- we play games on a weekend night, or stay up for a movie marathon, the last being Shrek 1-3. I value this time, the quiet moments with my family, even if they are surrounded by the busyness of the world. I know that in these moments there will be few as they continue to get older, soon they will be on their own. So I often pray for God to Restore my Soul so that I can face the challenges of the day. Two today were my daughter being sick and me having to still go to work this morning and leave her home alone, then my oldest sons bus broke down and he was not sure where he was on the route and they felt it could be 2 hours before they could get another bus to get him home. WOW did I pray. God was good, as I never did find the bus. In my moments of frustration and desperation the Transportation department called to let me know that the bus had broken down- nearly an hour later, and that they had sent another bus and he should be getting home any minute. Then i felt the comfort of God surround me as I knew he was safe and would be home by the time I got there. What a great God we have, one to protect our children, one that helps them not have much fear, even when we do.

Here is the whole passage for Psalm's 23

Psalm 23 A psalm of David.

1 The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.
2 He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters,
3 he restores my soul. He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake.

4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.
6 Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.

Philippians 3

This is a rather long passage, long more because it is a letter and most of it I think we tend to skip over. Some of the parts that I tend to lean to out of this chapter in the bible for example verses 7-10.

7But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ 9and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. 10I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.

This passage may seem a little confusing, as it talks so different then we do now a days. Mainly I feel the point is that we do not have righteousness from ourselves but rather through Christ who died for us in order for us to have it. Also what a blessed thing it is for us to have knowledge of Christs Death because if we accept Him and what He has done for us then we are to be with Him in his kingdom- we are saved.

Our verse for the week from Isaiah 43:18 and 19 is just about re quoted in Philippians 3

in verse 13 it says ....Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

A promise to claim from Philippians for ourselves is this

20..our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.

For Philippians if you would like to read the full context of this chapter please either read from your bible or you can find it online through this link. http://tinyurl.com/7jxuwg

I pray that you find your soul restored, that God provide you will comfort in the areas you are in need, that you lean not to your own understanding but put your faith in Him, who died for us to grant us forgiveness of all things. I pray that you are able to get past yesterdays failures and successes, that you do not worry about tomorrow and what is to come, but that you take time to enjoy today and what God has to offer you in His Blessings.