bsfgroups – Page 14 – The Notes are Good

BSF Genesis: Week 9, Day 3

Questions:

5.
a.
They conspire and plot in vain, they attempt to band together to replace God. They are rebuked by God

b.
We seek to replace God or, at a minimum, to remake God in our image instead of the other way around. We build up towers of praise to ourselves, but ignore the divine one who provides all

6.
Jesus (the way, truth, life). Salvation is found in no one else – Jesus is the only name by which we must be saved.

b.
Through prayer and study of His word. Through acts of random kindness that reflect His love for His people. For intentional life to devote time and talents to His work.

c. God wants me to reach out to Him in all things – I still struggle with a “me do” approach, calling on God to be my wingman instead of recognizing it is His sky.

My Daily Journal:

What am I building?

The key thought that struck me today was “why a tower?”

I mean, if they wanted to build, they could have built anything, right? Better roads, water systems, schools, hospitals, housing for the poor. But they chose to build a tower. Why?

Towers raise us up. They don’t hold everyone so they naturally elevate some over others. They allow those in the tower to look down on their kingdoms. They raise them up out of the muck of everyday life and all the messy people.

They also offer some protection. it is easier to see attacks coming from a tower and to fire arrows down on your foes.

They are also a means of pride and intimidation. In battle they would raise the flag high on a pole so all could see and rally around it. How much more so a tower of bricks.

We still build a lot of towers. Some would argue that many of our churches and ways of living out our beliefs take the shape of fortresses with high and lofty ideals that we raise up as towers for others to see. It is understandable, because so much of our faith and views are constantly under attack.

But we don’t need to build towers or strength. God is our tower. A mighty fortress is our God (to quote Luther).

What are we called to build? I think a good answer to that comes from John 1:23 where John the Baptist references Isaiah in his message: “Make straight the paths for the Lord.”

I am called to be missional. Where do I need to build more bridges and fewer towers?

BSF Genesis: Week 8, Day 5

Today’s Scriptures

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 4

Today’s Scriptures

Questions:

8.
a.
We must be transformed, born again, born of the spirit. We must accept the gift of salvation and accept Christ into our heart, to bring the spirit into us and make a mark of adoption. We must reflect Christ’s glory and not our own.

b.
The image is of knowledge and attitude. Of faith. Putting on a new self – righteous and holy (like the creator) – i.e., image is not necessarily or limited to physical appearance.

9.
We are brothers (both of the same Father and sharing the same blood). We have the same desires to be transformed in righteousness and made holy. We both serve the same master. If our focus is on seeing this then we would see our sameness and unity, the other things would then fall out of focus and not be seen.

10.
To form a personal, close, relationship with Christ, held in His bosom. We reflect his glory and are transformed to His image in our thoughts, words, deeds, daily walk

11.
God’s promise are not paper promises, but are written into the very fabric of nature. God does not forget, but we need to be reminded.

My Daily Journal:

Two quick thoughts moved me in today’s study. The first was in #10. The image that came to my mind was of a parent or grandparent cradling and infant in their arms. Although he passed away many years ago when my son was only 6 months old, I can still clearly see my father-in-law holding his grandson in his hands and making faces with him. My son stared in fascination and attempted to model the face of his loving ancestor, to mirror his smile and the love in his eyes. That is the same thought that comes to mind with this passage. When we are veiled from the face of God, it is like a parent needing to wear a hospital mask. That is not the parent’s desire or choice, but it is for the safety of the infant. But when the veil is removed, then we can truly see and interact with the face of our ancestor.

Second was the rainbow. Now, many people look at science and our understanding of how rainbows work and see this passage of the bible as a naive and superstitious interpretation of making something natural be divine. But looking at that same point from the other side of that perspective makes perfect sense. We put a lot of value into a signature written on paper. Checks and contracts must be signed and that makes them binding. When we discuss something as being absolute, we say it is written in stone. But even things carved in stone can weather and fade and be erased. But God chose to sign His covenant in the very fabric of nature itself into the interaction of the light and molecules that comprise the elements of that very promise. In that light (no pun intended), it makes perfect sense that this is the only way that God would have placed His signature. Can you think of a more perfect way of sealing the promise for all eternity and to all creatures of every generation?

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 6, Day 2

Today’s Scriptures

Questions:

3.
a.
Began to call on the name of the Lord

b.
Pray daily and in many settings. Lead prayer and worship with my family and with others. Use God’s name throughout my speech in a positive and praising fashion

4.
a.
Extol at all times, praise always on lips, glory in the Lord letting others hear, done with others (exalt together), seek and He answers, delivers from all fears, look on him and become radiant, not covered with shame, poor man called and Lord heard, saved out of troubles, angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him and he delivers

b.
Look on him and become radiant not covered in shame. We are shameful people. As a christian I am even more aware of my sin and shame. But when I look on the Lord, then others see him and not me.

My Daily Journal:

I liked the discussion of daily habits. I was reading an book this week that pointed out that it is very rare that we, as humans, have the ability to just “let go” of something. Instead we are much more successful at grabbing a hold of something else. With that in mind, it makes me think less of what do I need to quit or remove from my life and more in terms of what new habits I need to form which will replace the bad.

Doing my study daily is a challenge for me (obviously), but that is in part because I haven’t made it a habit. I don’t have a trigger at which point I do it (like brushing my teeth when I first get up). I haven’t set a time of day or place. When I quit smoking I reached out for something else to do with my hands and my mouth. In my daytime hours I need to substitute other things to do with my mind and my lips. I need to remove the time thinking about me and substitute it with thoughts about what God wants me to do. I need to remove the words that give my credit and substitute it with words that praise God.

That can be true of so much of our walk with God. We try to cram it in to an already packed schedule instead of finding a better balance and order by reaching for it instead.

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?