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Tag: Genesis

  • A Temporary Throne – 16

    A Temporary Throne – 16

    CHAPTER 16

    SINCE THE BEGINNING, I HAVE WANTED TO BE NEAR MEN OF FAITH.

    I thought about Adam, then having to survive outside of the exquisitely beautiful garden. And also I thought about Eve and their young children struggling just to keep alive.

    I remembered Noah, and I thought of the heart of the LOVING GOD in WHOSE PRESENCE I remained: How it must have hurt HIM to know that only one man of faith remained among all of the men and woman on the earth.

    CREATION WAS GOOD.

    Would God ask me what to do? Must I again judge the fate of mankind?

    Genesis 6: 5 Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 6 And the Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.

     

    I HAD GRACE FOR NOAH, BECAUSE HE ALONE HAD FAITH FOR OBEDIENCE TO MY WILL.

    ROGER, IF I ASKED YOU TO BUILD AN ARK FIVE STORIES HIGH, LONGER THAN A FOOTBALL STADIUM, AND WITH THE STORAGE AREA OF 569 RAILROAD CARS, WOULD YOU DO IT?

    I pictured myself swimming for my life in a storm.

    WHERE DO I FIND A MAN WITH FAITH LIKE THAT, NOW?

    “Lord, I need more grace than Noah. Many men have much more faith than me, Lord.”

    (Was I trying to encourage THE LORD GOD, I asked myself?)

    I do love HIM.

    To be continued…

    A Temporary Throne is an original work of Roger Harned,

    © Copyright 2013, All Rights Reserved by the author.

  • A Temporary Throne – 15

    A Temporary Throne – 15

    Previously:

    “Should the LORD plant the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil?” I asked myself.
    I had never thought of the connection of my sins to this (really) or of any alternative.

    CHAPTER 15

    I knew that sin had its beginning from the very beginnings of man and there was nothing that I could do about it.

    The lies would begin. Satan’s influence would spread throughout God’s Creation and eventually draw in my own loved ones. (Of course I had been drawn into sin as well, except the Lord Himself came down and saved me.)

    Oh no!

    I just realized that had I NOT allowed the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil to be placed in the middle of the garden, Christ would not have had to die on the Cross!

    Did I mess up already?

    I DID NOT WANT YOU TO LOVE ME, UNLESS YOU WANTED TO BE CLOSE IN LOVE WITH ME.

    THOSE WHO CHOOSE MY LOVE TRULY LOVE ME, AS I TRULY LOVE YOU – FREELY.

    1 John 4:8 He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.

    I LOVE this MAN!

    “Why do we disobey HIM?” I thought.

    GOOD AND EVIL ARE CLEAR CHOICES.

    “But because we do not have knowledge of everything,” I continued, “we sometimes choose evil.”

    YOU CHOOSE EVIL, BECAUSE THE FRUIT IS PLEASANT TO YOUR FLESH.

    “… AND I ignore your command and your will,” I thought.

    (But I knew the LORD knew my every thought.)  And I looked away in shame…

    To be continued…

    A Temporary Throne is an original work of Roger Harned,

    © Copyright 2013, All Rights Reserved by the author.

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  • A Temporary Throne – Forward

    A Temporary Throne – Forward

    A Temporary Throne is a fictional exploration of the Book of Genesis with this question in mind:

    What would I do IF I were God?

    (Of course, I am not; but what would I do?)

    It is staged as a serial cliff-hanger-type story, as if we do not know what is coming next (in Genesis). Call it: a peculiar dream where suddenly we wake up just when you get to the good part. You can’t wait to go back to sleep to continue in the compelling stories of the lives of these characters we love: Adam, Abram, Moses and all the rest of them.

    One inspiration for these conversations with God is Job. Some of the appeal of Job to me is his boldness to stand before his friends and even before God Almighty to discuss what is morally right and what is truly evil.

    As I re-read Genesis and examined the issues of justice and mercy it seemed to me that at times God showed little of the love we know so well in Christ Jesus. God seems to have much less mercy for some of the main characters of Biblical history than we might expect from our familiar New Testament eyes of Jesus.

    This, of course, begs the question:

    What could God have done differently? (After all, God is all-knowing.) Wasn’t there a more merciful way for God to deal with these men and women?

     

    For this exclusive posting to http://talkofJesus.com we will follow the story-line one chapter per day on Monday through Friday each week.

    (Previous chapters will remain available in case you miss an episode.) All chapters are short; some are very brief.

    May I suggest that you take a few minutes to include them with your daily devotional time and follow-up with the appropriate scriptures of non-fiction from Genesis in your Bible.

    A Temporary Throne is an original work of Roger Harned, © Copyright 2013, All Rights Reserved by the author.