среда, 1 июня 2011 г.
вторник, 31 мая 2011 г.
Noah (Genesis 6.9 - 7.10)
(Genesis 6.9 - 7.10)
It was a long, long time since the days when God walked with Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden, and things had changed. Everyone forgot about God.
They didn't pray to him anymore.
They didn't care about pleasing him.
All they cared about was themsleves. All they cared about was getting what they wanted when they wanted it. And after a while it didn't matter if anyone had to get hurt to get it.
And the world became a terrible place.
It wasn't safe to go out into the streets anymore. Robbers and bandits would jump on you and take your loaf of bread. And if they beat you up, no one would stop to help. They would just walk by, and maybe take the apple you had in your pocket too. People were lying and cheating - and even killing each other - everywhere. There was no safe place. You weren't even safe in your own bed at night.
God's beautiful world became a mean, awful, scary place to live.
That's what happens when people forget about God.
They didn't pray to him anymore.
They didn't care about pleasing him.
All they cared about was themsleves. All they cared about was getting what they wanted when they wanted it. And after a while it didn't matter if anyone had to get hurt to get it.
And the world became a terrible place.
It wasn't safe to go out into the streets anymore. Robbers and bandits would jump on you and take your loaf of bread. And if they beat you up, no one would stop to help. They would just walk by, and maybe take the apple you had in your pocket too. People were lying and cheating - and even killing each other - everywhere. There was no safe place. You weren't even safe in your own bed at night.
God's beautiful world became a mean, awful, scary place to live.
That's what happens when people forget about God.
But God was watching....
He saw what a terrible place the world had become.
He saw that everyone was lying, and cheating, and killing. He saw that no one cared about doing what was good and right anymore. And God knew that in their hearts all they wanted to do was evil and bad.
But... God saw one good man.
His name was Noah.
Noah still cared about God. He listened to God, and he always tried to do what God said. And God was pleased with Noah.
God said to Noah, "Noah, I have decided to put an end to this mess people have made of my world, and start all over."
So God said to Noah, "I want you to build a boat."
It was going to be a very BIG boat. God told Noah exactly how to make it. It was going to be longer than a football field, and higher than a three story house. It was going to have one door, and a window all around beneath the roof.
God called the boat an "ark."
This was going to be a big job for a 500 year old man!
That's how old Noah was when God gave him his little project to do. Now, Noah might have thought, "This job is too big, and I am too old!" And he didn't even have any power tools out back in his shed. But he did have God, and with God on your side, anything is possible.
So Noah went right to work. He did everything just as God had told him to.
He saw that everyone was lying, and cheating, and killing. He saw that no one cared about doing what was good and right anymore. And God knew that in their hearts all they wanted to do was evil and bad.
But... God saw one good man.
His name was Noah.
Noah still cared about God. He listened to God, and he always tried to do what God said. And God was pleased with Noah.
God said to Noah, "Noah, I have decided to put an end to this mess people have made of my world, and start all over."
So God said to Noah, "I want you to build a boat."
It was going to be a very BIG boat. God told Noah exactly how to make it. It was going to be longer than a football field, and higher than a three story house. It was going to have one door, and a window all around beneath the roof.
God called the boat an "ark."
This was going to be a big job for a 500 year old man!
That's how old Noah was when God gave him his little project to do. Now, Noah might have thought, "This job is too big, and I am too old!" And he didn't even have any power tools out back in his shed. But he did have God, and with God on your side, anything is possible.
So Noah went right to work. He did everything just as God had told him to.
His neighbors must have thought he was crazy. While they were spending all their time doing wicked things just to please themselves, Noah was hard at work, pleasing God. Noah kept on working, day after day, year after year. And day after day, year after year, people laughed at him.
And then one day Noah put down his hammer.
The ark was finished.
And then one day Noah put down his hammer.
The ark was finished.
There it was, this giant boat, resting on dry land - and no lake in sight!
What was God thinking?
He was thinking he had another job for Noah!
A really BIG job.
God said to Noah, "Now I want you to find two of every kind of animal, a male and a female, and bring them into the ark. And bring enough food for them all too." (God also told Noah to bring extra pairs of some animals, some for food, and some for sacrifices.)
Just think what a noise that must have been. Cows mooing. Lions roaring. Dogs barking. Elephants trumpeting - all at once. What a noise!
And what a mess! (It must have smelled pretty bad too...)
And how do you keep the tigers from eating the little lambs?
Still, with God's help, Noah did it all, just as God told him to.
Until finally there was just one more animal to get up onto the ark.
Noah was pushing on the wrinkly behind of a big grumpy elephant - an elephant who really didn't want to go on a cruise - when Noah felt a drop of rain hit his head.
суббота, 28 мая 2011 г.
Cain & Abel (Genesis 4.1-16)
Now they were going to have to work hard for their food and their clothes. And because of their sin, so would every one who ever lives. So it happened one day that Cain and Abel brought gifts to God to thank him for all the good things he had done for them. They built an altar for a sacrifice. Cain brought some of the things he had grown. He brought some wheat, and grapes and figs and things like that, and he burned them on the altar to give to God. Abel brought the first lamb born to one of his sheep. God was happy with Abel's gift, because he saw that Abel really wanted to please God and always do what God wanted. Later that day God found Cain working in the hot sun. God said to him, "Where is your brother Abel?" |
A Sad Day (Genesis 3.14-24)
(Genesis 3.14-24)
They knew God said not to eat the fruit from the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. But they did it anyway. They turned away from the way God wanted them to go. They turned away from God.Adam and Eve brought sin into God's perfect world.
Sin is knowing what God wants, but doing what you want instead. Adam and Eve disobeyed God, and at that moment, everything changed.Even though Adam tried to blame Eve for eating the fruit, and Eve tried to blame the serpent, God knew the truth. They all had disobeyed him.So first, God said to the serpent,"Because you lied to my children and tricked them into disobeying me, you will crawl on your belly from this day on, and you will eat dust as long as you live."And then, because God knows what is going to happen today and every day after that, he said to the serpent (remember, the serpent was really Satan), "You will hate Eve and her children, and all the people who are ever born after them. You will be their enemy. And you will do everything you can to hurt them. You will do everything you can to keep them from knowing how much I love them. But one day a child will be born. You will bite his heel, but he will crush your head."The child that God was talking about is Jesus.Way back at the beginning of time, God already knew that one day Satan would hurt Jesus - on the day that Jesus died on the cross. But just as sure as that, God knows of another day that is still coming - the day when Jesus will get rid of Satan forever.Now God turned to Adam and Eve.God said to Eve, "Because you sinned and disobeyed me, this is what is going to happen. When you have children, it will not be easy. It is going to hurt. "And he said to Adam, "Because you disobeyed me, you will have to work hard all your life for the food you eat and the things you need. Weeds and prickly things will grow along with your food, and you will sweat to make things grow. All your life you will have trouble."Their hard life would always remind them what sin can do.And he said to both of them, "And then one day you will die, just as I said you would. I made your bodies from the dust from the ground, and one day they will become dust in the ground again."All this happened because Adam and Eve disobeyed God.It wasn't that God was being mean or unfair. God had made a place where everything worked together perfectly. And it was wonderful. Everything was just the way God wanted it. But when Adam and Eve sinned, they chose to to do something different from what God wanted. Now everything wasn't working together so perfectly. And that messes up everything. That is why sin is so terrible.So God made clothes out of animal skins for Adam and Eve to wear. And then God sent them out of the beautiful, perfect garden he had made for them. God put an angel with a flaming sword on guard at the graden's gate to protect the perfect place from the terrible things sin can do.Adam and Eve began to learn that when we choose to do what we want instead of what God wants, we ruin the good things God has made for us.But even though Adam and Eve had sinned, God still loved them.
The very moment Adam and Eve disobeyed God, sin came between God and his children.
Because we are all God's children, sin has separated us all from God. We can't live apart from God, so now God had to make a way to bring us back to him. And that is what the rest of the Bible is all about!
Adam, Eve, Snake (Genesis 3.1-13)
BIG TROUBLE
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Adam and Eve (Genesis 2:18-25)
Even though the garden God had made for him was the most beautiful place there could ever be, Adam was lonely.
Adam needed some company. So God reached into the ground again and took some more stuff from the earth. This time he made every kind of animal and every kind of bird. He brought them all to Adam to see what he would call them.
It must have taken a long, long time to think up all those names!
Luckily, he didn't call them things like 'Foo Foo' or 'Snuggems' or 'Pooky' or anything like that. Instead, he called them 'gerbils' and 'rabbits' and 'rhinoceroses.' And he called the birds 'eagles' and 'egrets' and 'ruby throated warblers.'
Well, actually, we don't know WHAT Adam named them. He didn't speak English. But he named each kind, and that's important because people are the only ones that name things. Your dog knows what a squirrel is, but he doesn't call it a squirrel. He just barks at it! But naming things is one of the things that shows we are different from all the other creatures that God made.
But even with all the animals around to keep him company, God saw that Adam was still sad. Monkeys are fun to play with, but they don't have very much to say... and they have terrible table manners.
So God made Adam fall asleep (he must have conked him on the head or something), and while Adam was sleeping, God took one of his ribs.
God took Adam's rib and he made a woman from it.
When Adam woke up, God brought Eve to him (that's what Adam named her later on), and Adam said, "At last! Here is someone like me! Her bones were made from my bones, and her body was made from my body. I will call her 'woman' because that means she was taken out of man."
At last Adam was happy.
And so Adam and Eve lived together in God's garden. And do you know what? They were naked and nobody cared... or thought it was funny!
But that's another story...
Adam
...When God first made the Earth, God looked down and he saw that there was no one to take care of it.
So God reached down into the ground and scooped up some stuff from the earth. He took the stuff from the earth into his hands and formed it into a man. But the man just laid there on the ground like a lump of clay. There was no life in him. So God bent down again and breathed into the man - and the man became alive!
The man's body was made from the earth, but his life came from the breath of God. Always remember that. Your life is the breath of God.
God called the man, 'Adam.'
Then God planted a garden in Eden for Adam to live in. And since God is God, he is a pretty good gardener. He planted all kinds of trees in his garden; apple trees, and pear trees, banana trees and mango trees, fig trees and who knows what other kinds of trees in his garden. God wanted to make sure there was plenty of good things to eat. (Don't ask me why he didn't plant any candy trees!).
In the middle of the garden God also planted two special trees. One was called the Tree of Life, and the other was called the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.
And God made a stream of clear, cool water to flow through the middle of the garden to water it and keep it green.
Then God brought Adam to the garden and he told him, "Take care of my garden. You may eat the fruit of any of the trees that I have made to grow there. But be careful. Do not eat any of the fruit from the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. If you eat any of that fruit, you will die."
So Adam began to live and work in the garden God had made for him.
The garden was a wonderful, beautiful place.
But Adam was lonely.
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