COTR CG Leaders Week 6 Devotional

Dear Group Leaders!

Before we dive into Chapter 4 of Genesis, let’s recap Gen. 1-3-

God is THE Creator. God created everything. God is GOOD and HOLY and made mankind in his image- God desired to be in close relationship with man and designated man as HIS “regal” steward over all creation on earth.  Satan tempts man to distrust God and to trust himself. Mankind is permanently altered with a bite of forbidden fruit filled with lies and death.  Man falls. God acts…enter the GOSPEL!

Why should we study our ancient history that reflects SO badly on us and is a constant reminder of how sinful, stubborn and rebellious we are as humans?

Because we forget and need the reminding, and God’s worth it.

In seeing how sinful and unfaithful we are as humans, we see, IN STARK CONTRAST, how good and faithful GOD IS.  We see that this holy, just God did NOT abandon us to figure out life on our own.  God’s constant, abiding, sustaining hope lives in Jesus Christ, who loves us best and most!

This “Messiah Christ” is the reason we live, breathe and have purpose. He’s the author of ALL life.

Knowing Jesus brings hope and life because HE IS LIFE. He, alone, makes life “worth” living.

Our Genesis Creator God spoke life and truth- He communicated in such a way that man could know His heart.  God wrote Genesis so we would understand where we came from and then head to where we are meant to go.

From the beginning-God desired man’s heart to be rooted and sustained entirely IN and BY His love.

God never meant for man to live crushed under sin’s weight and its entanglements of pain, delusion, disease, loss, insecurity, fear, malice, deceit, treachery, rage… THAT list of torment is Satan’s doing.  

God gave man a choice: either respond to Him in loving trust (obedience) or turn away and “determine” truth and reality for himself.  Unfortunately, Adam and Eve chose unwisely.  

But remember…But, God!

Because of grace and mercy, HOPE lives to meet us in our sin, need and pain.  Even though our first parents rejected GOD’s best, they ultimately found hope, life, and purpose in God’s loving sovereignty.  God’s sovereignty means, in a nutshell, that God’s desires, plans, and purposes CAN NOT be permanently thwarted no matter how Satan, sin or circumstances cause commotion or disruption… God WILL SEE that HIS wise loving desires come to fulfillment.  WHAT COMFORT-GOD’s SOVEREIGNTY!

What condition is our heart at this moment?

Peace? No peace- Joy? No joy- Fear? Anxiety? Doubt? Despair?

Are we resting in the security of GOD’s loving sovereignty? Are we settled in God and His love? Do  His promises bring peace and hope or do we wrestle and remain unsettled? Are we uncertain? Are we doubting God, His word, His power, His love?  Where is your heart and mine, dear brother and sister in the Lord-

It is a choice, a holy choice we’ve been given this choice of where to put our hope…

Because where we settle our heart’s affections WILL determine what we believe, and then, how we live; this heart posture WILL reflect who we honor in our hearts as God. 

Where does your hope come from today?

Joshua implored the Israel nation to heed The Lord with a warning and a battle cry:

Joshua 24:15

“…choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell; But as for me and my house, will serve the Lord.”

In 2018 we still have a choice to make each day-where do we place our hope?

I don’t know about you, but I want to learn from my ancestor’s mistakes…

What is the hope that Adam and Eve found?

Hope came in the seed of faith planted by a faithful God in an unfaithful pair.

God told Adam and Eve in Genesis 3:15 about the hope of a “seed” from the woman that would destroy the see of the enemy- “I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. He will strike at your head, and you will strike his heel.”

Then GOD did something never before done: GOD DESTROYED. In Genesis 3:21-God took an animal, killed it, spilled its blood and used the skin to cover Adam and Eve.  He took one life to provide for another.

As blood spilled, God instituted the picture of substitutionary death- the death of an innocent as the price to cover another’s guilt and sin.  The gospel of grace is God offering HOPE and LIFE through the death of His beloved son, JESUS…another “innocent” slaughtered for the guilt of others.

In promising a savior from the seed of Eve, God extended faith- a HOPE filled seed meant as a way to believe, trust and walk with GOD again- God extended grace.  Adam and Eve believed.

Adam says in Genesis 3:22-

“Adam named his wife Eve because she would become the mother of all the living.”

Adam believed God’s promise of Gen. 3:15, and in believing and naming Eve to reflect that saving promise, Adam stepped into trusting faith. Eve, likewise, in accepting her name as the “mother of all the living”, stepped into faith alongside Adam- both trusting God’s promise to be as good as God himself.

As Adam and Eve surrendered to this saving, “future promise” to be fulfilled in God’s time- their hearts softened, they repented, and in turning back to desiring God and His ways, faith took root.  

As with Adam and Eve, God draws each of us with holy, forgiving arms of love. Respond to me, He says. 

The Gospel Call is simple:

God says, “I am God, you are not. You need me. Your sin in gets in the way. I can fix that!”

We need this Gospel message preached to our hearts daily.  Unless we surrender to Jesus and His life sustaining grace, we shrivel like a plant desperately dry from lack of water. We need Jesus-our Living water.

 Will you and I believe and surrender to Jesus today- in all things, in all ways?

As we leave our Genesis beginnings, I pray we become warier of our own “self” confidence, and more surrendered and established in knowing, loving and obeying Jesus Christ.

This day, each day, let’s pray for one another to choose wisely.

Blessings,

 Mary Kaye Abbott