Tag: bsfonline

BSF Genesis: Week 4, Day 2

Today’s Scriptures

Questions:

3.
The devil, satan

4.
a.
But you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.

b.
Yes, 9.In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and… 16.You are free to eat from any tree in the garden (i.e., if it was in the garden and they could eat from any tree in the garden except one then they could eat of that tree.)

5.
a.
1. Caused her to question God’s word (did God really say?) 2. Caused to q God’s justice (not die) 3. Cause to q God’s nature

b.
listened then saw/looked then took then ate then shared:  1. listened to question, 2. responded to question and amplified God’s word (added to it) 3. doubted and underplayed consequences of sin 4. listened to denial of God’s nature and didn’t argue

c.
God’s nature/attributes – He is truthful, He is just, He is loving, He is a protector

6.
a.
In both Satan used and twisted the word of God to provoke an action that is against God’s design. Jesus, however, was able to keep His focus only on the word and not on the temptation, Eve saw the temptation. Jesus told Satan, “away”

b.
No – God does not act to lure us off the path, but He does allow us the free will to step off if we choose: tempted vs seized by t

c.
Tempted to conform rather than live as an alien. Do I pray in public even before meals? How many times a day do I use Jesus’ name in a sentence with others? As a Christian I should speak a different language and have different customs.  I’m seeking strength in God’s Word and power from the H/S.

My Daily Journal:

In the senior level of the children’s program in BSF the closing exercise each week focuses on an attribute of God.  It wasn’t until doing the lesson today that I recognized just how vitally crucial that is to our walk with God and our ability to avoid being tempted.  Understanding that there are some things that are absolutely always true about the very nature of God gives us a perfect measure to test anything that may ever tempt us.  Adam and Eve both forgot (chose to not remember) that God is always true, that He is always just and that He is always faithful.  In so doing, they turned their eyes away from God (or, at a minimum who God really is) and it is only at this point that they fall to temptation.  When the hymnist reminds us to “turn our eyes upon Jesus” he isn’t telling us to treat the image of our Lord as some good luck talisman, but instead to view the road we choose to walk only through the lens of the true attributes of God.  Obviously, doing that starts with knowing the attributes of God.

The lesson this week breached the discussion about whether or not Jesus was tempted or tested, semantics for the underlying question of whether or not Jesus could sin.  This can become very confusing, particularly to a new christian.  Here is my perspective for better or worse.  It is not God’s nature to sin, that would be in direct contradiction to His attributes of being Holy and Perfect.  So, Jesus, as fully God, could not have sinned.  And, we see and hear throughout the new testament account that He lived a life perfect and without sin.  He was also fully man, born of a woman, and in this capacity had the ability to sin (Reminder: this is my understanding of scripture based on my very limited knowledge and study).  The majesty of Jesus as a man and as our unblemished lamb comes from the fact that he chose not to sin.  Adam and Eve chose to sin, Jesus chose not to sin.  I think this is important because it comes back to the presence of the tree and the serpent in the garden to begin with.  If God had not endowed man with free will and with the ability to choose to obey Him and live in perfect communion with Him, or not, then there would have been no tree, no serpent, no choice.  Jesus as a man was not in any way less than any other man.  It wasn’t that he was incapable of doing something that all other men are capable of doing.  Just the opposite, He was capable, but chose to stay focused on the Father’s will instead of the path we take to “look around”.  How often could we prevent temptations from creeping into our lives if we kept our eyes more focused on the word of God and the attributes about Him that it conveys?

BSF Genesis: Week 3, Day 5

Today’s Scriptures

Questions

12.
It says there was water above, but in 2:5,6 is says God had not sent rain… streams came up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground

13.
a.
Gen 1 reveals the inconceivable bigness and power of God, creator of all the cosmos. Gen 2 reveals the personal nature of God, forming from the dust, breathing His breath into the nostrils of man, planting, watering, growing, nurturing

b.
God’s power reminds me there is absolutely nothing that God cannot do with less effort than a nod, but that same God loves and cares for and created all of this for me.

14.
a.
We do not experience shame or guilt until we see things through a veil clouded by a sinful heart. Infants are not ashamed to be naked, they are innocent.

b.
I think it is a stretch to apply this verse to Adam and Eve. Where they clothed in the glory of God, absolutely, for God walked with them, but not as a covering for something shameful, but as one carries a fragrance with them. They disobeyed.

c.
The fall of man is not a one time event that we can blame on Adam and Eve. Each of us inherited a sinful nature and have continued to sin in a world that mankind has corrupted by sin. But Rom 6:23 – we are given a gift of salvation and the ability to return to our origins with God, living in His light for all eternity.

My Daily Journal:

Our dog loves to lay in the sun. She’ll find the one beam of light coming in through a window and stretch out under it. But how often do we, the supposed wiser, get pulled into the shadows by our sinful nature?

BSF Genesis: Week 3, Day 4

Today’s Scriptures

Questions:

10.
a.
The fruit that comes from and unites us with God, the divine. The fruit of the spirit and the tree of death (cross) conquered by Jesus to give us everlasting life.

b.
They were prevented from, not allowed to have the choice. To live forever without justice would be eternity apart from God.

c.
Yes, not only to eat of the fruit but believers have been “grafted to the vine”. John 15:5, and thus we also may bear fruit Gal 5:22, We also eat of the fruit of the divine through communion John 4:43

11.
Rom 6: 23: the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord; 1 Peter 2:24: He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed

My Daily Journal:

What does it mean to die?  As anyone who has spent any time pondering the question has concluded, there are things far worse than physical death.  We understand that the time we have on this earth is not even a dot on the timeline of eternity.  We know that our existence in the physical world is a dead end street.

However, we learn that (1) we weren’t created to end and go away and (2) we don’t have to stay on that path.  Yes, our cells and organs and flesh will cease to grow and will die, but we have been given the opportunity to eat and drink in the gift of salvation and to once again unite with our divine creator.  Jesus became man and paid the price of just punishment to buy us back from the choice man originally made and all men since have repeated.  And, he has offered to make us one with Him, for us to “remain in Him and for Him to remain in us (John 6:56).  He offers for us to become the branches of His vine and to live in Him for eternity.

But eternity doesn’t start after we draw our last breath.  In the same way someone turns off a dead end road as soon as they know it dead ends, so to are we given the opportunity to turn off the dead end road of mortal death and onto the path of eternal life.  Why wait to begin living until death – we are called to live in Him now with a well of living water flowing from us daily.

BSF Genesis: Week 3, Day 3

Today’s Scriptures

Questions

6.
Iraq, parts of Turkey

7.
Trees, pleasing to eye and good for food; work and care of the garden; free to eat from any tree but one

8.
Free to eat from any tree buy not the tree of knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will die

9.
a.
Companionship, comfort, beauty of the plants and trees and flowers, great food, rewarding work and ministries

b.
Prov 3:5-6: I fail to trust in the Lord, I lean on my own understanding and I fail to acknowledge him – no wonder my paths zig zag and are so full of hills and valleys.

My Daily Journal

Just a couple of points to think and pray about today:

1. Interesting that it is a tree of knowledge of good and evil since one of the items I struggle with is to try to take control away from God and rely on what makes logical sense to me.  I struggle to try to figure things out on my own, using my knowledge and my judgment and then, too often, turn to God to bail me out.  We don’t consider it ignorance or naivete for a child to trust that their loving parent knows better; we call it wisdom.  Yet, even knowing that God is all knowing, I still convince myself that I should rely on my own limited knowledge first.

2.  I don’t know if it is just how it translates into English, but I had not before caught the wording in Genesis 2:17, “but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”  It doesn’t say “if you eat from it”, but simply “when you eat from it.”  What amazing love God has for His creation that He would give us the ability to turn from Him even with His perfect knowledge.  It was never a question of “if” only of “when”.

BSF Genesis: Week 3, Day 2

Today’s Scriptures

Questions

3.
a.
1:26 Made by God in His image to rule, 27 male & female, 28 blessed, be fruitful, rule 29 given plants for food 2:7 formed from dust, God breathed life into man, 8 placed in garden, 15 to work and care for garden, 16-17 free choice, 18 not good alone 20 name animals, 21-22 woman formed from rib, 25 naked not ashamed, P8:5 lower than angels crowned with glory, 6 rulers

b.
That we are blessed: In life’s trials it is critical to remember that from the moment we were formed we were blessed and crowned with glory and honor, trials will pass, but life in God will last forever

4.
a.
First man, Ruler over all things (Gen 1: 28, 29; Ps 8:6-8, Heb 2:8)

b. Responsibility but not position. A failed leader. God did not revoke our responsibility, but we have failed to perform our job

c.
That while we failed as mankind, Jesus, in becoming a man and conquered death, has regained the position

5.
a.
v15 to work the Garden and care for it

b.
Work the harvest and care for the Kingdom on Earth. My services focuses a lot on the youngest sprouts in the garden.

My Daily Journal:

Work and care.  Thinking about the fact that God gave Adam, and by extension all mankind, work and care to do from the very beginning of creation stirred me.  We are often described as a culture of consumers.  But we weren’t created to consume, we were created to work and care.

Too often our only thought is on WII-FM: What’s In It For Me?  Even when it comes to church and bible study (i.e., getting to know God).  We don’t recognize we are put here to work and care and when we do that we get to enjoy the fruits of the garden.  I’m not saying that people don’t grow and there aren’t different churches that are better fits for families at different stages of life.  But in the big C Church – the body of all believers, we are all to work and care.

I also love how, from even the very beginning, those two terms go together:  work and care.  It reminds me of James 2 and the discussion in the early church over the position of faith and works.  In Genesis we see and even more basic command.  As men, created by God in His likeness we are to do work AND care.  Community service without caring for the spiritual being is a fool’s errand.  Having a heart for the Lord without rolling up our sleeves is also foolish.  We need to care for God as a child cares for a father; we need to care for God’s creation as a prince cares for his father’s kingdom; we need to care for other people as God cares for us – totally.  From this caring and compassion we need to be compelled into action to save and care for God’s people.

BSF Genesis: Week 2, Day 5

Today’s Scriptures

Questions:

10.

  • God spoke to Himself, the trinity: Make man in our image and likeness
  • Rule over the fish, birds, livestock wild animals, all creatures
  • God create us male and female
  • God blessed us and spoke to us – fill earth and subdue it,
  • God gave us rule over every living creature

11. a.  Increase in number, fill and subdue earth, rule over living creatures, all plants with seeds for food (bummed about navel oranges and seedless watermelons)

b.  bible, church, teachers, knowledge, love of family, food, shelter, and so much more at every level

12. We are made in God’s image, made to rule (as He is sovereign) God knows everything about us, even while we are still in the womb, even all the days of our lives. God made all the nations, all boundaries and appointed all times of history so that… we would seek Him and reach out for Him and find Him. We are His offspring.

My Daily Journal

Again I am drawn back to the “in” word.  We are made in God’s image.  Not like God’s image, not from His image, not a representation of His image, but IN the image of God.  We are also made unto this world.  Interesting then that the two commands we are given are to (1) be fruitful and increase in number – the same command given to the other living creatures of this world and (2) to rule over the other living creatures as is the nature of God in whose image we are made.

Continuing, it is all the more interesting that of those two commands, we did pretty good at the first one, and failed at the second – we allowed the temptation presented by the earth to rule over us. In Adam and Eve’s desire to be “like God” they gave up the sovereignty that had been a gift given exclusively to them which made them the most like God.

And, to save us from that fall (and what a fitting word that is once you think about it), God’s Son had to step down, becoming lower than the angels, to lift us back up into the position we were originally created into, the offspring (the family) of the King of Kings.

BSF Genesis: Week 2, Day 2

Today’s Scriptures

Questions:

3.

  • Said let there be light and there was, Light was good, sep’d from darkness, called “day” and “night”
  • Keep my lamp burning, turn darkness into light
  • With you is fountain of life, in your life we see light
  • Word is lamp to feet and light to path, unfolding of words give light; understanding to simpleminded
  • In him: life; light of all, shines in darkness, not overcome. JTB came to testify re: the light, JTB witness to it (JTB=John the Baptist)
  • Light has come into world but people loved darkness (evil) evildoers hate light, exposed, truth->light
  • Jesus is the light of the world, followers will never walk in darkness, but will have light of life
  • Unbelievers blinded, not see gospel light=glory of Christ/image of God, light shine 2 know God
  • Chosen people, royal priest, God’s possession, called out of darkness into His wonderful light
  • Walk in Light=fellowship and purification for sin, if confess sin, He is faithful/just & will forgive

4 a. GREED: the eye is lamp of body, healthy (generous) eyes fill body with light, stingy eyes with dark; IDOLATRY: Light cannot have fellowship w/ evil; DEEDS: Live as children of light, expose deeds of darkness, shameful what disobedient do in the dark; FAULTLESS: shine like stars; FORGIVEN: walk in light, if say in Christ but walk in darkness you lie; ETERNAL: God’s glory is the light of heaven.

4 b. To help me be a better witness in and with my emotions. The worry and stress I carry and that I, at times, allow others to see does not convey the trust that I have that God is in control. I find my mind and emotions at times in a dark place despite knowing that God’s light will overcome all darkness and worry.

My Daily Journal:

On opening night of BSF we discussed that the bible as a whole is the method God has chosen to reveal Himself to His creation.  That is true for it as a whole and for each part or element of it.  Everything in the bible is suitable to teaching and learning about God.

In week 1 of BSF we focused on the big question: Who is God?  Specifically as revealed in the first chapter of Genesis.

This week we look deeper into: What can we learn about God from what He did? Again, with a focus on Gen 1.

So, after going from eternal nothingness to creating ALL of the heavens and the earth (all mass, matter and laws that govern it), God wasn’t ready to call it a day.  No, he said, “let there be light and there was light.”  Then He separates the light from darkness, calling the light day and darkness night.

We can go a lot of directions with this.  Light is just light and it is also not just light.  Light is the shekina glory of God that was a pillar of fire in the desert.  Light is justice and mercy of God shining on all.  Light exposes darkness.  Light is a word that encompasses all of glory and goodness and power and energy.  Jesus is the light of life and the light of salvation. Scientifically, light is unique.  According to Einstein’s theory of relativity, light is the only constant.  We won’t even get into the Particle / Wave Duality of Light and Matter & Quantum Entanglement discussion.  But, let’s just say that light is a much bigger thing than most of us recognize as we live our daily lives.  There is nowhere anywhere that does not contain some light either in a visible or invisible spectrum.

And what of darkness?  We learn in these first few verses that God allowed choice far before He created anyone capable of making that choice.  His light, His glory is capable of penetrating everything.  As we peer deeper and deeper into space, it is impossible to find any space where there is not light.  Scientist are even now making discovers through analyzing light bending around galaxies.  But God allowed there to be darkness, for there to be a place where people can choose to not be in His light (even though that is an illusion because the waves of light always penetrate the darkness).

We can follow lots of discussion and dissect the Hebrew words used for light and darkness, but what strikes me is something for more simple and one that we almost always miss in reading God’s story of creation.  Look at Gen 1:5b, “And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.”  When I think about the end of a day, I might think about midnight.  I might call it a day when the sun sets.  But look at what God did.  And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.

See, the important message is that from the very beginning God never left His creation in the dark.  He never called it a day until it was morning and the light shined again.  He didn’t leave his people in the darkness of sin, His Son Rose from the darkness on Easter morning.  He will not leave His creation and His children in our current state, but take us up to the new heaven for all eternity, to live forever in His perfect light without darkness and without night.  Now that’s a good day!

Online Resources

I like doing my lesson online and thought that it might be good to share some tools I have found that make it easier and a more rich and in-depth study.

Obviously, bsfgroups.org (now preview.bsfinternational.org/lessons) is the official location for getting the lesson in a pdf format with space to type in answers on the form.

bsfonline.org goes lesson by lesson and provides all of the bible passages referenced in the lesson in one concise place.

blueletterbible.org is my favorite source for getting deeper into the word.  With one click I can see dozens of different versions of any passage.  It also links to the Greek and provides translation and interpretation through Strong’s Dictionary.  There are also links to sermons and study materials from pillars of faith.

dropbox.com is the tool I use to store my lesson.  Dropbox automatically puts a copy on my work computer, home computer and even provides access via web if I am somewhere else.  No more excuses that my lesson is at home so I can’t work on it over lunch at the office.

wordpress.com is, obviously, the blogging tool I use.

biblegateway.com is not only a great bible site but it reads the passages.  This is not a mechanical, computer voice but a voice actor.  On the long passages (like last week to read 2nd Thes) I can turn it on while doing other chores and get the joy of hearing the word.  This is also helpful to learn the pronunciation of many of the towns.

atozmom.wordpress.com is another bsf lesson blogger who has been doing this for a few years.

If you have others, please share them for everyone reading this to see.  Do you have favorite blogs, websites, tools or especially mobile apps that you use?