Water Your Worth

I love books and one of the best books in a book is the Bible, recently I was gifted another Bible and I am thrilled to go in it from the beginning. This one came from a Messianic Judaism church and I love how it draws me in more with some hebrew studies as well. With this one added to the regular studies, I was naturally invited by God to start from the beginning.

No matter how many times I read a chapter or even a verse(!) there is always something new to learn and apply – seriously the best “books” (quotations added because the Bible is so much more than just a book but it is also in a book form).

In the beginning…

What adds to this ever growing love and appreciation is how the Holy Spirit unites my child and I in the same reading. Just as I start to go into the beginning again my son also feels called to go to the beginning (without me sharing or inclining) and asks me to read his beginning versions for him. But, even on top of that there are added depths to the story that I receive that make things so much more awesome and necessary to share.

There are so many little details that are actually so much more than just that “little addition” that you might think. Remember, this is God breathed literature, so everything has a meaning and purpose for being written. “Then God said, “I have just given you every green plant yielding seed that is on the surface of the whole land, and every tree, which has the fruit of a tree yielding seed. They are to be food for you. Also for every wild animal, every flying creature of the sky and every creature that crawls on the land which has life, every green plant is to be food.” And it happened so.” (Genesis 1:29-30) {Now, before I go deeper on this I want to first state that this is by NO means a post about how anyone should or shouldn’t feel about what their diet needs are or are supposed to be – this is a completely different acknowledgement that I want to share and to digest on, so please stay with me through this.}

So the world was made and God gave His instructions and determined that ALL was good and that He loved all but especially loved His human kind (hu – of God, kind – made in His image and likeness) – yes, He adores His children above all the rest of His creation. This act of adoration stirred up what was hidden in lucifer to come to the surface – deep down he did not want to be in God’s service and when he saw how much God loved the humans, instead of delighting in them as well, he chose to despise humans and challenge God – his ego and pride came through. This act of disrespectful, rebellious challenging brought about his own destruction as he was catapulted out of the family and sent to earth… where God had given His humans dominion. Having been a high ranking and quite beautiful angel, being thrown down and being put under the humans was just not something that was at all appealing to lucifer so of course he made a crafty plan to get in between the perfect couple and plant doubt and encourage the first and most heart breaking sin.

Stay with me. Once the humans ate of the tree of knowledge, death did indeed take place – a death of purity, a death of union, a death of trust and a death of obedience. They felt death creep into their emotions as shame came over them, causing them to hide from the Father and cover their loins with leaves. Now, our Father is so beautiful and loving that while His heart was broking into pieces and He was upset; God had to send the humans out of the perfect garden and life so that they did not befall into the same terrible fate as satan – if they ate of the tree of life then they would be living in sin forever without any salvation. But, before He sent them away He gave them clothes and told them that they were going to have to live differently now, He would still be close and that there was going to be a promise fulfilled that would fix everything.

Okay, so back to the verse I talked about earlier. Take note that everything was full of life and life was adding to life – seed bearing fruits and seed bearing trees to eat. Never did He say to kill animals and eat or even tell the animals to kill each other. It was not until death was brought in by the enemy that there was death of things for eating and sacrifices brought about. It was the death of the life that was that brought about a need for death. The death in their bodies started to then crave death and then it was only a death that would atone… until the ultimate death. The promise made and fulfilled, the keys retrieved and the life granted to be able to choose salvation through the body of Christ and live cleansed from sin.

“But Samuel replied, “What is more pleasing to the Lord: your burnt offerings and sacrifices or your obedience to his voice? Listen! Obedience is better than sacrifice, and submission is better than offering the fat of rams.” (1 Samuel 15:22) and “I want you to show love, not offer sacrifices. I want you to know me more than I want burnt offerings.” (Hosea 6:6)

God is life, breathes life, speaks life and wants life with us – death of His things is not what He wants to see or receive.

Just as it is incredibly important to be aware of how we use our time, what we listen to, what we study or focus on and who we involve ourselves with… like attracts like. So, people who are living in sin want others to be living in sin with them and that is why when you start to turn to Him the path is indeed narrowed. This world has been stained by the hate, pride, deceit, disobedience, lust and death that the enemy has spread from his own internal destruction and his only satisfaction (if it can even been as that) is to take as many with him into his own fate (seeing others die adds companionship to his wasted life) and to add more hurt to our Father… miserable, isn’t it? So… how do you choose? Life or death? Sin or salvation? While the Father made you for His great plans, He gives you the opportunity to choose the best He has for you or to choose the other… what an awesome God we have!