Cover to cover in 365 days

Tower of Babel (Genesis 11-12)

2012-01-12T18:38:00.000-08:00

Genesis 11-12
Chapter eleven; this is a very important chapter in this book. The reason why this is so important is because it explains one of the reasons that we are so different today. Now if your not familiar with the story of the Tower of Babel I'll summarize it for you real quick. A bunch of people find a plain in a place called Shinar where they decide to make a city with a tower that reaches to the heavens, God see's this and decides to scatter them amongst the world and change all of there languages. Unable to complete the work with all of them speaking different languages, they give up and the name to the tower is given, "Babel." Now if this had not happened it is very possible that we wouldn't have explored the earth as quickly and we may have still spoken the same language up to this day.

Chapter twelve is a chapter about a man named Abram. Abram a God fearing man was encounter by God and given a command. "I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, an you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you." (Genesis 12:2-3) And Abram shows such great obedience, and trust in God leaving so much behind just to obey Him. Now Abram was suffering from a famine that was severe in the land that he was in so his wife and him decide to go down to Egypt. Now before they enter Egypt Abram decides to do something to, "cover his own end" if you will. He tells his wife when the Egyptians see her beauty they will take her and kill him because he was her husband so she tells them she is his sister. Just as expected they take his wife and for her sake take very good care of Abram. However God made Pharaoh and his household extremely sick because of Abrams' wife. When Pharaoh sees this he calls Abram to see him. He asks him why he just didn't tell him he was his wife and sends them on there way with everything they had. This passage shows how true God is to his word and how he never gives up on his promises.

Genesis 9-10

2012-01-11T22:44:00.000-08:00

In the beginning of chapter 9 we see that noah had just been let off of the ark after the water had receded enough for him to exit. The first thing that is recorded that God does, is make a covenant with Noah. In this covenant God gives Noah what is known as the dominion mandate (power over plants, animals, and the earth itself) to many, and also a promise that God will never destroy every living creature on earth again. To symbolize this covenant with Noah God creates a rainbow so that every time it rains He will be reminded of His promise.

Image via Wikipedia

Now before you read what I am about to say, understand this. I am very much a believer in every one being entitled to free will, and being able to do what they love and enjoy. However, I do not personally believe that God created us to be with a person of the same gender. I know, I know, of course the topic of homo-sexuality had to come up; but I feel that it is a topic that needs to be addressed. I have absolutely no preconceived notions, nor any hatred, resentment, or any negative feelings about people that profess to be gay, obviously other than the fact of there sexual desires/relationships/whatever. I think that God gave each and everyone of us the choice to choose between this sinful lust that some fall into. What this has to relate with Genesis 9 is the matter that the rainbow has been turned into a sign that in this modern age symbolizes homo-sexuality amongst us. In my opinion it is kind of like a, "face-palm" if you will; that we have turned such a sign of beauty, and elegance into something so intricately intertwined with sin. That's just the way that my mind, having gone through the experiences in life that I have has determined in my opinion on the subject. Feel free to have your own and of course delegate from mine because if you didn't life would be extremely dull.

Chapter 10

As it turns out, just a long family tree. Important none the less. Just not to me. Maybe, but in no way that I see at the moment. :/

Genesis 7-8

2012-01-10T22:33:00.000-08:00

Genesis 7-8
In chapter 7 God shows his complete dominance over animals. He shows us that he can summon them at any moment and that they will listen. Noah followed God's instructions and built the arc accordingly. God made it rain for forty days and nights and according to the scripture mountains tops were covered by over fifteen cubits(about 22 feet and 6 inches). This moment in history in my opinion is capable of refuting a lot of Evolutionist theories. What I mean by that is, Scientists assume that the earth is millions of years old when, for an example: They look at fossils and assume they have been preserved for a very long time. However the process of fossilization is done under two factors that take place rapidly; pressure, and proper sediments, both of which would be present during the flood, three if you include rapidity as a factor. With that being said I'm sure the ark was not a place to be for someone with a sensitive nose.

- On a side note I felt like i should throw this in. Every once in a while I find myself in a situation where I am not completely hopeless, and putting all of my trust in God becomes too difficult. I mean I just read this passage that told me that God raised the water above the mountains, why can't I put my faith in him on my chemistry test. And I won't ever know the answer until I meet Him and ask but I can guess that it has something to do with the fact that we are all deep down inside very preserved. What i mean by that is that we have trouble trusting in others, (especially someone or something that we can't even see) whether it's because of certain friends which betrayed us, or maybe even the fact that we haven't ever had a friendship that ended well. Whatever the case may-be putting our faith in God needs to be a priority and if you can't fully put your trust in Him, how can you expect to see results in your prayers..
Any how, moving right along into chapter eight the water finally recedes and Noah is let off of the ark. After sacrificing a few of the clean animals God enjoyed the aroma and promised to never destroy all living creatures as he had done. The end of this chapter came as a comfort to me knowing that if anyone could keep there promise, it would be God. And even more so what a great promise for us to know.

A few concluding statements- Today I felt a renewed sense of my relationship with God. Just waking up with a different mind set, that God created all of this for a reason and today is my attempt to make the most of it. This is some of the most motivating encouragement out there! If you don't believe me try believing that and see how you feel.

Genesis 4-6

2012-01-10T19:43:00.000-08:00

Genesis 4-6
The head of chapter four is titled cain and abel and as you can expect it tells the story of cain and abel. The sin nature that had so recently became evident in Adam and Eve had been passed on to there two sons who eventually gave way to the whole world becoming corrupt. God found favor on Abel when they had both made there offerings and this made Abel angry. He then invites his brother into the field where he kills him and God curses and banishes him. I think it is really important to understand that even if Adam and Eve weren't tempted satan would have quickly found another to devour and corrupt. Also I think that is note worthy Cain is worried that if he becomes a wanderer that others will kill him. Now when i first read this I was extremely curious and after researching a little it became clear that Adam and Eve had, had several more kids and there were now multiple generations living. This is explained in chapter 5, in detail. In chapter 6 the wickedness of the world had become so great that God contemplated destroying them all together. Luckily a man named noah found favor with God. However God still had to destroy the rest of the people and living creatures of the earth but would save two of each kind of land animal and the rest of Noah's immediate family. (see next post)

Genesis 1-3

2012-01-10T00:17:00.000-08:00

Genesis 1-3
Genesis 1. I feel as though this such a vastly moving passage that is so bold in its statements that it actually turns a few people that are looking for answers away from God. However this passage shows just how great God truly is and how powerful he really is. I believe that this is meant to be taken completely literally and not morphed into context by other world views. God shows that he can do what no other being could possibly fathom doing. He created everything that we know in six days and of course rested on the seventh. Even more incredibly in verse 27 it says and i quote, "So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them." And in my own interpretation of what this is saying is that he had already created and per-ordained all of us to be who we are with the gift of free will. Yes, that means he individually created us one by one making us all different in some way and loving us all truly unconditionally. This passage definitely relies on us having faith, (hold on a second lets talk about what faith is. Faith is believing in something unseen and in my opinion and i think you will agree, trusting it completely. Ok sounds good enough back to the passage) because we can't prove that God really exists and created the universe, you can't reproduce it in a lab, there was no human present that is alive that would have been able to have seen it, they don't make a "God" detector that you can buy at Lowes but that's just what I'm saying, it just takes "faith."And of course we can spend all day arguing over Evolution or whatever you believe but just as much and even i found more so those beliefs take "faith." Moving on: Genesis 2. This is where God creates Adam and when He sees that Adam is lonely creates Eve from Adams own flesh so that they could be united as one. (paraphrasing of course and eve not being named until chapter three after the fall) Genesis 3. This is one of the most painful moments i can imagine for God knowing that his perfect creations had become tainted and inevitably knowing that he would have to sacrifice his own son to die on the cross for there sins. This is also the first glimpse of the horrible creature that we come to know as Satan, serpent, father of lies, the devil, lucifer, he has many names that part is clear. He is constantly trying to bring us further and further away from God through sin and corrupting us more and more. In this passage we also see that God banished both Adam and Eve from the garden and placed a guard outside waving a flaming sword to protect it, and keep them away from the tree of life. - So this has been day one i hope you enjoyed, if you found any mistakes please let me know and i will either fix it or explain my reasoning to you. Please subscribe, follow whatever it is but make sure that you enjoy and remember, God loves you!

2012-01-09T23:35:00.000-08:00

Hi, my name is Spencer, a 16 year old, mostly normal, male and i am going to spend the next 365 days reading the holy bible, (new international version) cover to cover, in hopefully 365 days. I already have a christian background and have been in private school for ten years. However I am at a point where i would like to read what i know as God's word entirely and completely hopefully taking nothing out of context. I sure hope that you will spend the next year with me and stay subscribe to my posts. Also fill free to share this link with your friends. I would like to encourage you to be open minded when reading this blog and read it with out any biased opinions; and i would also challenge to read the word for your-self and make your own opinions and let that guide your faith. with all that being said I hope you enjoy.