bsf questions – Page 5 – The Notes are Good

BSF Genesis: Week 8, Day 5

Questions:

12.
a.
In love, they covered their father rather than ridicule or shame him

b.
Ham was engaged in stirring up conflict, Shem and Japheth in love that covers over an offense

c.
There is no place in a daily walk for gossip. I need to do more to help, in love, to cover the sins of my brother (and help him not repeat them) and less in discussing them with others. It doesn’t require a discussion or plan, just love and action.

13.
Shem be aligned with the blessing and praise of the Lord, God. David is a descendant of Shem and thus Jesus. God extends Japheth’s territory live in tents of Shem, Canaan slaves to Japheth. Canaanites were the inhabitants of the promised land.

My Daily Journal:

My first thought on this passage was, “aren’t we going a bit overboard here (no pun intended), Noah?” I mean, I get it that he was hung over from the beaujolais nouveau, but aren’t we over-reacting a bit? I know others have thought the same thing because there is this whole under-current of rationalization that there must have been more that went on in the tent to prompt such a curse. Of course, none of that is supported in the scriptures.

But the more I thought about it the more clear it became. It is our every day, seemingly insignificant activities that reveal the true nature of our heart. When I have heard accounts of people who have performed heroic acts, time and again the reaction is not one of surprise because this is the way they conducted themselves every day. In that light, Noah’s predictions/oracle about the future of his descendents isn’t based simply on this one night or one action. This is just an example of the behavior that reveals their heart. The patterns of their actions.

Almost all of us bow our head when someone says, “let’s pray.” But how often are we focusing on spending our day in conversation with God? How do we bring in the model of the good samaritan of conducting our daily life in a matter that shows love to our neighbor. There are implications that go far farther than to the impact today. They cascade down to our children and their children.

But we also have the opportunity to change. While the sins of the father cascade, each generation has the opportunity and choice (free will) to walk with God every day and change the pattern for themselves and their descendents.

BSF Genesis: Week 8, Day 3

Today’s Scriptures

Questions:

5.
Be fruitful and increase in number fill the earth, everything that lives and moves will be food, accounting for human blood shed (“by humans shall their blood be shed” – capital punishment), rule over every animal. Don’t eat meat that has lifeblood still in it.

6.
It is the blood that makes atonement. It is not for human consumption, nourishment or pleasure. It is the blood of the eternal covenant that brought Christ back from the dead, the perfect sacrificial lamb Heb 13:20-21, Heb 13:12, He sanctified the people with His own blood

7.
a.
Death. For in the image of God has God made mankind. Killing another man is to kill one with the image of God, i.e., to desire to kill God. The only just recompense is death.

b.
1. We aren’t told why, only that He did. 2. I don’t believe it was only a deterrent because time and again, we see those who willfully disobey God (e.g., Israel in the desert after exodus) are killed. Some immediate (golden calf), some longer term – (wander for 40 years)

My Daily Journal:

Blood atonement. Washed in the water or washed in the blood? Huh?

Here is my limited understanding.

God deposited into man the breath of life, and as such, all life comes from the original deposit made by God. In the original agreement God’s requirement in return for this deposit was obedience. Specifically, telling Adam and Eve they had the choice to not eat from the one tree and be obedient to Him or not. They chose not. We have continued to choose not to obey. Since we broke our end of the deal, the only reasonable/just action by God is to remove His deposit. Removal of life is required. Death is required. But, God by His grace, made a substitution and the first animal was sacrificed. Was this the same thing? Of course not, it was an impartial and inadequate payment. An animal is not man. Nor could any man be sacrificed as a substitution for the sins of others because, since all men have sinned, at best he would receive only the just result of his own sin. But Christ became fully man and lived without sin, the perfect sacrificial lamb of God, who through his death paid the price in full for all mankind because He had no price to pay for His own sin since He lived a life without sin. By the payment of his blood we are able to once again be in pure communion with God (at one with – atonement) as was His original design. And, as we, with all believers, are totally transformed at Christ’s return, we will live for eternity in that communion.

Washing with water is an act of removal. We bath to remove dirt and grime and the smell of toil and labor. We are baptized as a symbol of cleaning the original sin we are born into as we choose to be reborn into the family of God. But being washed in the blood is an addition or insertion. It is a covering because even freshly bathed in water, we still carry the inclination to sin in us. God sees our heart. But by the covering of the blood of Christ, instead he sees the heart of His son. It is also placed not only on us, but penetrates into us (This is my body given…, this is my blood shed…). This is the symbol of the spirit of God dwelling in us as believers and beginning the transformation process.

In preparing this week, I ran across this website on blood atonement which I thought did a great job of bringing together a lot of scriptural references.

BSF Genesis: Week 8, Day 2

Today’s Scriptures

Questions:

3.
a.
It was the first thing recorded that he did upon exiting the ark into the new earth. Not seeking food or shelter or exploring or anything. His focus was not on self or family, but on God. What a great “first step for man”.

b.
My Brother-in-law was in town this week so we spent a lot of extended family time together as all the relatives in town fellowshipped. It was great to see everyone engaged in prayer, even having it led by littlest kids at meals. Because all the family in town is in BSF, we all went (including my B-I-L who does not attend BSF or church) and then had opp to discuss God’s grace in providing the ark and the parallel to Christ. The fact that there was only 1 ark, one way, and the beauty of the depth of the story.

c.
It was a pattern, modeled first by God with the first sin, but repeated and reinforced by Adam’s descendents. It does not appear God directly ordered Noah, but he was pleased by the action and the heart that it spoke to.

4.
a.

with shouts of joy and signing and music to the Lord
with a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart
with bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God (by denying self to sin and self-serving)
to walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself as a fragrant offering
By giving gifts (financial) for missions and kingdom work
By professing His name, doing good and sharing with others, submitting to authority, work with joy – all through Jesus
Like living stones built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood (brick by brick as part of the body of the church)

b.
All are important. The Hebrews passage reaches me most because it helps define what I think the OT is referring to when it says “Walk with God every day.”

My Daily Journal:

Patterns to our day. We all have snippets of them. We brush our teeth, comb our hair, shave in approximately the same way each time we do it. They are the things we have made a part of our life and a part of our daily action and movements.

Noah had a pattern of worshiping God. He regularly demonstrated spiritual leadership in his family not by being perfect but by this pattern of worship.

I saw the benefit of these patterns this past week. With family visiting from out of town it would have been tempting to skip our normal behaviors. But because time in worship and praise and study was a pattern everyone (young to old thanks to the children’s program) follows, it was more natural for the visit to change their patterns and attend and participate as well.

What patterns of worship do you have in your daily life? Do you take time to be quiet with God every day? Where is God on your daily to do list.

I actually started doing this a couple of months ago. When I make my list for the day, I now divide it into 4 quadrants by making a big x from corner to corner of the page: 1. God Tasks, 2. Work Growth Tasks, 3. Work Maintenance Tasks, 4. Personal and Family Tasks. This helps me focus on balance, while putting God at the top of my list.

BSF Genesis: Week 6, Day 5

Today’s Scriptures

Questions:

11.
Methuselah lived 969

12.
After flood lived shorter lives.We have brought more sin into us and magnified the ways that we live in sin. We have corrupted not only ourselves, but our environment and air and food. We have engineered and modified things for our comfort, without knowledge of all of the impacts of those changes. Gen 6:4 = God Said

My Daily Journal:

I’m old enough to remember making mix tapes on cassette. With analog music each recording was a copy of a copy. Each copy added my noise and hiss and pops. A scratch or stretch on the media was passed through to the next copy.

In the same way, Seth was a copy of Adam, but Enosh was a copy of Seth and Kenan was a copy of Enosh.

But when Christ came to this word he was like a a digitally remastered man. He came from the original without the noise, without the sin.

Our lineage as mankind takes us farther from God, but when we turn our lives over to Christ, through faith, we too are transformed to be copies of Him.

BSF Genesis: Week 6, Day 4

Today’s Scriptures

Questions:

8.
Enoch walked with God (gen 5:22, 24); Enoch pleased God (Heb 11:5); Enoch made faith in God the basis of his life (Heb 11:5-6); Enoch talked to others about the Lord’s command and warned them that God would judge the ungodly (Jude 14-15)

9.
He didn’t : Hebrews 11:5 “Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death”

10.
a.
All who believe will be lifted up and transformed, will not die (1 Cor 15:51 and 1 Thes 4:17)

b.
If alive, not die; Caught up in the cloud with Jesus; meet Christ F2F; New body; physically and spiritually with the Lord forever

c.
New body – so much of my time and energy is spent on this shell, I’m looking forward to trading up!

My Daily Journal:

Death is not inevitable. Our existence is so much more than a fatalist “we live and then we die.” We are ultimately not bound by laws of nature or time. We are not constrained by our ancestry or the actions of our fathers. But what truly makes a difference and what truly last are the choices we make.

It is not that all of those things don’t impact and influence us, they do. But our choice of how we relate to God transcends that and enables us to unite with the divine.

Enoch chose to walk with God for eternity.

BSF Genesis: Week 6, Day 3

Today’s Scriptures

Questions:

5.
a.
And then he died, 5:5, 8, 11, 14, 17, 20, 27, 31

The only way to eternal life is to be born again in the spirit
If you do not believe in Jesus, you will “die in your sins”
Death has reigned ever since the time of Adam
Wages of sin is death

6.
All of mankind is made in Adam’s likeness. Because Adam became imperfect, we are copies of that imperfection. Because Adam sinned, we are all sinners. The likeness of God in every person has been corrupted by original sin

7.
a.
Enoch walked faithfully with God 300 years. Enoch walked faithfully with God; then he was no more, because God took him away. Noah: “He will comfort us in the labor and painful toil of our hands caused by the ground the Lord has cursed.”

b.
I can do that. Enoch didn’t have some special power or calling. He didn’t have some extraordinary gift or blessing. He walked. I walk. He walked with God. I can do that.

My Daily Journal

One thing I love about the people in the bible is how ordinary they are. They sin. They make mistakes. They live and die. They are like me. But they also serve as examples for me. I can do what Enosh did and call on the name of the Lord. I can do with Enoch did and walk with God every day. I don’t have to build an ark (jumping ahead), I can just walk. It doesn’t take a leap of faith to begin, just a single step.

BSF Genesis: Week 5, Lecture

Life is hard. Ever since Adam and Eve choose sin, it has tried to jump out and harm us and attack us and draw us away from God over and over and over again.

The bible doesn’t teach us that if we follow God everything is smooth sailing. Just the opposite. God tells us to hold on. But God allows us to choose what we hold on to.

In our lesson tonight we learn about Cain. Cain decided to hold on to himself. As we read the verses you can almost see him standing there, pouting with his arms crossed tightly across his chest. Shut off, defiant, clinging only to himself.

What a dumb thing to hold onto when things get tough. God says that he is our rock and foundation. God invites us to let go and cling to him. God says he never loses a member of his flock.

But let’s look at Cain and what he clings to and how that works for him.

In our first section we are introduced to Cain and Abel. Cain was a farmer and Abel was a rancher or shepherd. They were brothers and Cain was the first born son of Adam and Eve. We don’t know how old they were when our story picks up, but we know people lived for a long time in those days, hundreds of years, but we are brought into the story at a critical point – a point where Cain and Abel brought an offering to the Lord.

We see that both brought a portion of the product of their labor. But it is also clear that the manner in which they brought it and the nature of the offering were different. Cain brought “some”. Abel brought fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock.

A key difference is in what they were willing to give up or sacrifice to God. When Abel brought the best of what he had, first, he had to recognize that it was the best. Second, he had to be willing to sacrifice it, to give it up. In so doing, he opened the door for God to give him something even greater than what he had produced that had been his best. And we see that God poured out his favor on Abel AND on his offering.

But that isn’t what happened with Cain. Cain gave. He may have given more than Abel, we don’t know. His offering may have been worth more on the grain market, but there isn’t any indication that he gave the best. It says he gave “Some”, but it does not say that he gave the best of what he produced. Meaning, he held onto to that. He kept what he considered to be best on his own little trophy case, rather than clearing room for the type of trophy God wanted him to have.

What happened? Cain became very angry and downcast. Pay attention to that last part. If you are downcast, where is your focus? Is it up and to God? Is it forward and positive? Remember what happened when Eve filled her vision with the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Look at where Cain has his eyes.

God doesn’t need our stuff. We need to let go. God teaches us how to do this in his word and by his example. What did He give? In addition to everything that exists in the physical universe, He also gave His only Son. Jesus is the only acceptable sacrifice.

What are you doing in “half-hearted faith”?
Where do you need to give 100% of your heart?
What have you earned or achieved that you are having a hard time removing from your life because “it is so great”?

In our next section, we see that Cain’s actions soon follow his eyes. But, it is important to realize it did not have to be this way. God loved Cain so much that he sat down and talked to him, one-on-one (maybe three on one with the whole trinity thing, but you get the point). God offers him a do-over. God warns him about the door he is so focused on, the one that follows his downcast gaze, i.e., the door that leads further down. God tells him, sin is crouching at that door. You have the power to rule over it, don’t let it pounce on you. Now, if something is crouching right outside your door waiting to pounce, how are you going to keep it from pouncing on you? Duh! Use a different door. God is holding open the door back to him, but…

Soon, Cain commits premeditated murder. He lures his brother out into a field and whacks him (in the literal sense). It’s done. The first recorded death of a human and it is committed by another human.

So God immediately rains down condemnation on Cain, right? Actually, no. God’s first action is to offer Cain an opportunity to confess and repent. “Where is your brother, Abel?”

But Cain doesn’t confess or repent. He doesn’t fall down and cry out to God. He keeps going right through that door. He follows murder with lies and denial and condescension. “I don’t know.” “Am I my brother’s keeper?”

God cries out to him to listen and see what he has done. To recognize his action and change; to see the consequences and curse that he has brought onto himself from the very land that he relies on for a living as a farmer.

But, Cain chooses to close the door. In verse 14 Cain says to God. I will be hidden from your presence. Click.

What more could God have done to bring Cain back to him? All he had to do was repent. But lying and denying are like going the wrong way down the one way street that is supposed to lead back to God. Should it be any wonder to us if we get hit by a bus?
What are you lying about or denying?
What are you trying to keep hidden in your life from God? How is that working out?
Where do you complain that what you face is “too much” or “too hard” while at the same time contributing to making it even more, harder and worse?

Our third section gives us insight into the life of Cain. Clearly, God still saw him, even if he chose not to see God (it is written down in the bible, right).

We see God continued to provide. He gave gifts of music and carpentry and architecture and craftsmanship and arts. And what did Cain’s children do? They denied God.

Look at verses 17-24. What’s not mentioned? God. I looked back starting in Genesis 1:1 and would encourage you to as well. This is the longest number of verses so far with no mention of God. In Genesis 1 it is hard to go a single verse without God. But here, we go multiple generations. What is the focus? On accomplishments, on talents, on celebrity and commerce. Add in a best dressed list and this could be daytime TV.

Not only is there no mention of God, but they quickly take the things that come from God and twist them and misuse them. Think about it? How did Cain get married? Not just where did he find a wife, but actually, who married them? How did they enter into a holy covenant without God? Is it any wonder then that a few generations down that sacrament gets stretched further? Why not marry 2 wives? Why not kill someone and claim 11 times the protection for it that God offered to Cain? Why not sing about it? Wives… I’ve killed a man….

But what will all of this bring them? All of these accomplishments without faith? I don’t want to jump ahead, but come back and you learn about how they end up “all wet.”

What accomplishment are you holding onto as being yours instead of God’s?
Where do you focus on the performer or celebrity instead of the divine who gave the talent?
Are you spending your time reading People or reading God?

BSF Genesis: Week 5, Day 4

Today’s Scriptures

Questions:

9.
a.
The sarcasm and condescension in his tone (often a defense mechanism): “Am I my brother’s keeper?” My punishment is more than I can bear: driving from land, hidden from presence, restless wanderer, others will kill me. No “I’m sorry”, no desire to change, just concern for self

b.
God is just but does not seek harm. His goal is rehabilitation not punishment as retribution. He protects us even though we don’t deserve it.

10.
a.
David acknowledge that he had sinned against God and sought mercy. He recognized God’s right and justice and sought to be cleansed not protected. He wanted to get out of sin not out of punishment.

b.
It is hard, but I should be grateful to have those in my life who care enough to tell me. While it is more gentle to hear from a brother/sister that I love and serve with, it also cuts deeper to the bone. I pray that I can be better at turning immediately to God rather than trying to stand up on my own and that I set my focus on returning to right and not fixate on the problem.

11.
a.
God is light, no darkness: purified by blood of Jesus. If confess He is faithful, forgives, purifies

b.
Confess and be purified through the cleansing of the blood of Christ (saying “I did it” is not enough, but we must also seek to be purified)

My Daily Journal:

Verse 14 was a pivotal verse in my understanding of the relationship between God and Cain.

God has come to Cain and offered him an opportunity to confess and to repent. But, Cain’s reply is lies. God admonishes him to look at the mess he has made: the curse that he has brought upon himself from the very soil that he relies on as a farmer.

But, to see the heart of the matter, look at verse 14 piece-by-piece:

Today you are driving me from the land – this is true and is what God said.
and I will be hidden from your presence – God never said this nor implied it. God is not limited to a piece of real estate. If anyone is choosing to be hidden from the others presence it is Cain choosing to be hidden from the presence of God (and we already saw how well that worked for his mom and dad with the fig leaves)
I will be a restless wanderer on the earth – this is true and is what God said.
and whoever finds me will kill me – God never said this nor implied it. In regard to this last line it is as if God says, fine, if that is really what you are worried about, someone killing you, then we’ll get that off the table, but, son, you’ve got a lot bigger problems than that made up worry.

Cain chose to hide from God’s presence. Cain chose the exit door. Obviously, as we continue to read the rest of the chapter, God knows all about Cain and his family ongoing. The issue isn’t in God not knowing Cain, but in Cain not knowing God.

When I face consequences of my sin and I adding to them by trying to hide? Do I invent worries as part of a pity-party or do I turn over my worries to God.

BSF Genesis: Week 5, Day 3

Today’s Scriptures

Questions:

7.
a.
If you do what is right will you not be accepted? Sin is crouching at your door but you must rule over it

b.
God talked with him one-on-one. He doesn’t lower standards but offers him a second chance and confirms Cain has the power to rule over sin

8.
a.
Repent and try again (instead of being sad, make it right). Warning: if you don’t, then you will carry this as darkness in you and it (sin) will take you over – if you shut out the path of light, you will be swallowed by darkness – rule over it, fight it, go the other way.

b.
Any one who does not do what is right is not God’s child, nor anyone who does not love brother/sister. Anyone who loves passes from death to life. Anyone who hates is a murderer. Jesus laid down his life for us, we should lay down our lives for our brothers/sisters.

My Daily Journal:

I was struck by the visual of sin crouching at the door. It brought to mind the game show, The Price is Right.

Host: Well, Cain, I can see you have your mind set on door number 2. But before you choose that door, let me tell you a little bit about what’s behind it. You see, sin is crouching just behind that door.

Cain: (continues to stare at door number 2)

Host: You know you can choose door number 1, right?

Cain: (continues to stare at door number 2)

Host: You cannot even imagine the prize package We have assembled if you choose door number 1?

Cain: (continues to stare at door number 2)

Host: You know we offer free do-overs, right? You can just go back and start the whole sacrifice/offering thing all over again. What do you say?

Interesting that the bible notes that Cain’s face was downcast. We learned in the garden that our actions follow our eyes. Cain’s eyes are cast downward and the only door He can see is the door downward, going the wrong way on the one way street that is supposed to lead to God. He isn’t opening a prize door, he is staring at the exit.

When I face struggles, do I stop and look to God for a better door or do I see only one way out? When sin is crouching at the door to my heart do I try to fight it on my own or do I enlist as a soldier in God’s army?

BSF Genesis: Week 5, Day 2

Today’s Scriptures

Questions:

3.
a.
Cain gave some of the fruit, Abel brought fat portion of firstborn. I don’t think it was the what, but the how and why.

b.
God doesn’t need our offering, but wants our faith and trust. He wants us to be willing to give up what we consider “best” so He can give us something even better.

4.
Yes. I think she learned through the fall that God’s word was truth (and she had just gone through childbirth reminding her of all aspects of that discussion). God made a promise and now He was beginning to fulfill that promise.

5.
a.
Cain worked the soil, Cain was very angry, his face was downcast

b.
He wanted full recognition and reward. He didn’t want it pointed out that he wasn’t doing his best.

c.
Same. I don’t enjoy being shown that I’m not doing my best

6.
A sacrifice of praise and to do good and to share with others / Through daily prayer and meditation, teaching and writing

My Daily Journal

The part of today’s lesson that really stuck me was God’s attribute as a teacher wanting to help me grow. God requires a sacrifice, an offering, from me. Not because He needs something that I have. God created all of it and owns all of it. He has put me in place as a steward, but I am only on a temporary work assignment here, where God is eternally in charge and in control. Instead, the sacrifice and offering is a check on the condition of my heart and head.

God wants me to sacrifice that which I deem to be the best that I have acquired. If I cannot let go of what I consider to be best out of the things that my labor has produced, then I am blocking God from giving me something better than that out of the work of His labor (which produced everything that exists in 6 days). If I have already place something on the pedestal of “best” and am not willing to remove it, then how can God give me something better?

With that understanding, it is absurd not to joyfully give up whatever it is that I achieve or acquire with my work because what God can give instead is so much greater. It isn’t a negotiation, it is an exchange of gifts, given in joy and love.

But that begins with the view of God as a giver. I think that is at the heart of the difference between Cain and Abel.

Cain may have largely seen God as a God who takes away. In Cain’s eyes, God took away Cain’s inheritance of the Garden of Eden; He took away the ability to garden without sweat and thorns and thistles, He took away constant peace without constant vigilance and fear. If Eve saw the fulfillment of the prophecy as immediate, Cain may have been raised as a fighter, as one who uses force to work the ground and as one who is prepared, with force, to crush the serpent’s head.

On the other hand, Abel may have largely seen God as a God who gives. Abel practiced husbandry of livestock, he cared for animals, he shepherded his flocks and he saw the pain that must have been present in the first animal sacrifice that God had performed with His own hands. He saw what death looked like and may have recognized God’s grace.

What is my attitude in approaching God and His church? Do I gladly sacrifice the best that I have acquired perceiving that God gives far better gifts? Do I see the church and pledge drives and capital campaigns as giving or taking? Am I willing to contribute some or joyfully give the best that I have acquired?