Mother's of the Bible-Eve (part 2)

Eve   

   Genesis chapters 2 & 3

What can be said about Eve? What do we really know about her?

She was the first woman in the bible. The first woman in the world. She was created from Adam's rib, therefore, she was not born from the womb and so she was never a child.

She was called "Woman" because she was taken from Adam's rib. Adam changed her name to Eve which means "mother of all living."

It is not known how many children she had but she did give birth to the first children.

 She was tempted by satan (the serpent) to eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. And therefore, because God had told them not to eat of this tree, she became the first person to sin.

After she and Adam ate the fruit of this tree, she became the first dressmaker when she sewed fig leaves together to make aprons to hide their nakedness from God as they were ashamed.

Eve was the first mother that had a son that murdered someone. (his brother)

(These facts from Genesis are not an in-depth study on the woman called Eve. If you are interested in learning more about her, go to the following website where you will find more information.)

https://www.biblegateway.com/resources/all-women-bible/Eve

I myself wonder what was in the mind of Eve when she was up against the things that she was with no foreknowledge or experience to give her a heads up.

Like, what was in her mind when she became aware that she was a living being for the first time? That she was given a name. Did she like her name? What was it like to give birth to a baby and how was she at being the first new mother on earth? How did she know how to properly take care of it? And then when she realized she had sinned after eating the fruit of that tree, did she cry over her sin? Did she beg God for forgiveness or just accept it and set about to sew those fig leaves to cover it up? And speaking of that, how did she know how to sew? Did God teach her or did it come naturally? Did she use a needle and thread, and if so, where did they come from? And finally, at least on the facts presented here, what was it like to know that her son had murdered someone? That someone being her other son?

We are not really so much different, I don't think, then this first woman on earth. We disobey God and we are ashamed when we do. Or we should be. Do we hide and try to cover it up? Or do we take responsibility for it and ask for his forgiveness?

I won't know those answers or any more about Eve, other than what has been written in the bible about her. Maybe I will when I get to heaven. In the meantime, if you think about her being the first woman on earth, it would be interesting to sit down with her and hear what her experiences with it had been. In heaven maybe I won't have to actually sit down to know because maybe there we will just know everything. I guess I will just have to wait and see.

Cartoon of the day!

May your day be filled with many blessings! Thanks for coming by!

Mother's of the Bible-Mary, Mother of Jesus (part one)

In honor of Mothers Day today, I am going to post some facts that we know about some of the women of the bible. One for each day, it begins with Mary, Mother of Jesus and will continue for the rest of this week. I hope to give you some new things to think about these precious women that loved God.

Mary, Mother of Jesus

Who better to start these series off then the Mother that brought God's Son Jesus into this world. She is greatly revered among Christians. However, she was probably the most humble of all the women in the bible. As we know, she was a virgin when Gabriel came to her to announce that she would give birth to a Savior that would be called Emmanuel. Before that time actually did come, this was foretold in a prophecy in Isaiah 7:14. She had been appointed for this long before she was even born.

She came from a humble family who lived in an insignificant town. However, she loved God and was favored among all women to become the mother of the Son of God that would die for the sins of the world. When Gabriel came to her to bring her this news, she accepted this with great courage and character. Luke 1:38.

It is not known at what her age was when Jesus was born. However, it is believed that she was 15-16 years old at that time. According to Jewish traditions, a young woman could be betrothed to a man at the age of 12. However, the consummation and physical intimacy would not happen until many months or even years later when they were legally married.

Whatever her age, Mary had been spiritually mature to be able to accept the call of Jesus' birth on her life. She responded to it with obedience to God even though people would question it. She knew her pregnancy would bring pain and turmoil into the lives of her family.

There is not a lot said about Mary during the life of Jesus. She and Joseph got separated from him when they had gone to the Festival of Passover. Luke 2:41-52. Later she would advise Jesus at a wedding that they had run out of wine and so Jesus performed his first miracle there. And  Mary was present when Jesus was crucified. John 19:25

But if there can be on thing said that is above all else. She loved God so much that she accepted her calling from him no matter the cost.

What is our calling of God? Do we have the courage that she displayed, or do we go our own way? That is the most important decision we each have to make. It can mean the type of eternity we will one day spend.


Mother's Day Quiz Answers from yesterday: How many did you correctly answer?

1 Elizabeth
2 Eve
3 Bathsheba
4 Rachel
5 Elizabeth
6 Mary
7Sara
8 Naomi
9 Jochebed
10 Rachel

Happy Mothers Day to all mothers that are visiting today! Mothering is an important but sometimes a thankless job. So I salute you for the privilege that God has bestowed on you. Maybe God didn't call you as he did the mother of Jesus. But he has called you for being a mother. And that is a privilege and a gift from God that we get to have.  Have a wonderful and blessed day!

Mother's Day Quz

Her children rise up and call her blessed. Proverbs 31:28    

Since tomorrow is Mothers Day, I thought we would have a little fun with a quiz about Mother's day. See how many of these questions you can get right. Maybe you will learn a little more about them as well.

1. Who was the mother of John the Baptist?
2. Who was the first mother in the bible?
3. Which mother's son grew up to be a king?
4. _______________'s son was sold into slavery by his brothers
5. Who was the mother whose son had said, "Repent for the kingdom of heaven is near."
6. Which mother was visited by an angel to tell her she was going to bare a son?
7. _______________only had one son
8. Which mother-in-law guided /Ruth into a relationship with Boaz?
9. This mother saved his life by putting him in a basket and hiding him in a river.
10. Josephs mother was ___________.

How many did you get right? Answers will post on tomorrow's blog. Thanks for playing along. 

                             Cartoon of the day: (I couldn't resist this one when I ran across it)

Thanks for coming by today Friends. I hope you come back tomorrow for the answers to the quiz and also a little more about this special day that we celebrate each year! God bless!

What does fear have to do with it?

What does fear have to do life? It can hit us at any time, in any place. But why do we allow it and how can we stop it?

I remember as an 8-year-old child, going to bed at night and as I laid there, each night, I would look up at the ceiling because I was afraid it would catch on fire. Where had it come from? I don't know. Probably from some tv show I had seen. Or something I had heard from someone. But it was real to me and it made me afraid.

I am not sure when I grew out of that fear. Eventually, I did stop watching the ceiling. But in my life, there has been an onslaught of many different types of fears that came along to take its place.

The next fear that I can remember was that I would never marry. No one would ever want me. That one didn't last too long. I met and married my husband, whom I am still married to, at the age of 18. I was afraid then that I would not be able to have children, so instead of taking the time to really know my husband in a marital sense, I got pregnant right away. And had 3 more children after that.

As my life went on, more serious fears came along. Fear has not been easy to overcome. And I am not here to tell you I have overcome it and have gotten perfect about it. But I am here to tell you that we can know that God is there to help us when we are afraid of something.

Granted and thankfully, I have never been put in a situation as some have. People like the 3 young ladies that were abducted in Cleveland and held hostage there for years by a madman. What must they have gone through all those years? And after they were finally freed, what have they gone through in the years that have followed? I can say I can only imagine. But I can't even say that. I can't imagine. And personally, I never hope to.

As we know, there are millions of examples of all kinds of things that people have gone through that I cannot compare my experiences too. So what have I got to complain about?  And yet, there are still times I can be afraid.

And so it is those times, I need to dwell on God and what he says to me about fear.

1.   The Lord your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior that saves. Zephaniah 3:17
2. So do not fear, for I am w do not be dismayed, for I am your God.
   I will strengthen you I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. Isaiah 41:10
3. The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.” Exodus 14:14      

The bible has a lot to say about fear. In fact, according to cbn.com, there are 365 scriptures that contain the words Fear Not.  That is one for every day of the year. And if when going through a fearful situation in something, I think if we meditate (and I mean really mediate) on at least one of them, it would help us get through whatever we are going through. But do we do that? If God is bigger then all our fears, can we not trust him to get us through? Why meditate on the fear instead of letting God work it out?   

As I said, I can't even imagine the horrors that some people have gone through in their lives. I do know that many have survived because of their trust in God. They have leaned upon him and he has pulled them through. No matter how hard, or what was happening at the time.. They acknowledged his power to deliver them and kept believing he would. I desire that kind of faith. How about you? 

       

  

Thanks for your visit today Friends. Have a blessed day!

Day off

Hello Friends,

Thanks for coming by. Please forgive me for skipping today's blog. I will be back.tomorrow. Until then, God bless you and yours!

Always Seeking, Not Always Finding

Have you ever known anyone who is very materialistic? In fact, more so than most anyone else that you know.

Many years ago, my Sister-in-Law married a man that was like that. He had trouble keeping a job, and yet he was always spending what money they had on some kind of his latest interest. From camping to trail bikes etc. It was always something and whatever it was at the moment would change on a regular basis.

I didn't know it at the time but realized a few years later what had been really been going on with him during those years. He had been trying to fill a void in his life. He had grown up in a very dysfunctional home life, where he was not cared for and loved the way he should have been. And he was looking for something to fill that need in himself by always wanting the latest "toy", whatever that might be at the time.

Whatever he would get, did not fill it, and so he would go on to the next thing. And eventually, he even went so far as to leave his family to start another one.

As sinners, we are all that way to some degree. Maybe not exactly like him, but we do try to fill the holes in our lives with things. And sometimes those things are not good for us. Maybe it is drugs or alcohol. Or just to have a stockpile of money. Maybe for some people, it is food. And for others, it might be sex and going from one partner after another trying to fill in that need for something that is missing. And as sinners, we don't even realize what we are doing.

But God wants us first to seek him as Psalm 37:4 says. And that word "first" means just that. We need to seek him first. To find him. And as we do, he will give us the desires of our heart.

Consider these statistics:

A recent LifeWay Research study found only 45 percent of those who regularly attend church read the Bible more than once a week. Over 40 percent of the people attending read their Bible occasionally, maybe once or twice a month. Almost 1 in 5 churchgoers say they never read the Bible—essentially the same number who read it every day.

source: https://www.christianitytoday.com/edstetzer/2015/july/epidemic-of-bibl


As Christians we expect God to take care of us and our needs? And yet, we don't give him the time of day? Not to say that he doesn't keep his promises when we don't keep ours to him. I have found in my life that even when I am not faithful to him, he is still faithful to me. But really? Should I expect him to give me the desires of my heart if I don't have a real relationship with him every day? I along with so many other Christians need to work on that to make it better. To give God the time he deserves.

I know we are busy every day with other things. And God knows that too. But we have no excuse when we can't take some time out for the God who saved us and loves us. Do we ignore our spouses, our children, other family members? How about our friends? Do we ignore them?

After my brother-in-law left his family, he took up with another woman. Or maybe he did before he actually left them. At any rate, to the best of my knowledge, that relationship didn't work out either and he died an early death all alone, never finding what he had been seeking all along and didn't know it. How sad and yet, but for God, we could be in that same situation.

If we say we love God, why then do we not spend time with him each day? I know it is something I have been trying to do more of, but to be truthful, I can improve on spending even more time with him. How about you? Do you need to start spending time with God? If so, maybe you should get on with it. He is waiting for you. He wants a real relationship with you. Not a superficial one.


Today's bulletin blooper: For those of you who have children and don’t know it, we have a nursery downstairs.

Thanks for your visit today Friends. God go with you on your day and I hope you will come back tomorrow!

Why Worry?

Worry: a state of anxiety and uncertainty over actual or potential problems.
give way to anxiety or unease; allow one's mind to dwell on difficulty or troubles.

We worry about all kinds of things today. Suffice to say, there are a lot of things to worry about. Our jobs, our finances, our families...the list goes on and on.

We worry when we go to bed to sleep about things we cannot control and therefore we don't get the rest we need after a hard day of whatever that day has brought. We might get a couple hours of restless sleep and then guess what? The alarm clock goes off and we face going through another day of some type of the stresses of life, and go to bed that night....again worrying about whatever we were worrying about the night before, or the night before that or....well you get the idea. Or maybe tonight, we face some new worries that may carry on night after night while we are supposed to letting our bodies rest from the stresses of the day. 

Any of that sound familiar?

For one thing, just worrying about our problems at night, are not going to solve them. We know for a fact, that they are going to be there the next day.  Our worry and lack of sleep at night just funnel into the next day. And the more we worry, we can actually have health problems from it. 

Consider this:

In the midst of excessive worrying, you may suffer with high anxiety -- even panic -- during waking hours. Many chronic worriers tell of feeling a sense of impending doom or unrealistic fears that only increase their worries. Ultra-sensitive to their environment and to the criticism of others, excessive worriers may see anything -- and anyone -- as a potential threat.

source: https://www.webmd.com/balance/guide/how-worrying-affects-your-body#1-2

Years ago, my aunt (who has since passed on), lost her husband to cancer. She sold their farm and moved to town where she bought a house. However living alone she was terrified of being home alone at night. And so every night, she would string items across doorways and in places where if someone were to break in, it would wake her up. She was always in a very state of anxiety even in the daytime. Wherever she was or whatever she was doing. And so I only imagine what kind of anxiety she went through at night, worrying that someone was going to come in and hurt her.

She passed away herself of cancer. And while it seems the jury may still be out on whether or not that much stress can cause cancer or not, it sure didn't do her any good otherwise. How sad. And yet we all sometimes allow ourselves to take on the things that it causes in our bodies.

So, what is the answer?

 Many people reach for the sleeping pills they keep around so hopefully, they can sleep better.  Maybe they will help. Or maybe, if they are a narcotic, they can be addictive. And then, they have other problems than sleeping.  Others may drink warm milk (yuck!) at bedtime or mediate. Or maybe go to sleep listening to soft music to destress. 

Back shortly after my husband and I became Christians, we went to sleep with a Christian radio station that played soothing music and talks about different Christian subjects. And it was a wonderful way to go to sleep with God on our minds. 

But, I believe the best way is to learn and meditate on what the bible says we should do.

The Lord is a refuge for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble. Psalm 9:9

A joyful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones. Proverbs 17:22.

Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for today has enough trouble of its own. Mathew 6:34

~Matthew 6:34

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Mathew 22:28-30

These are just a few scriptures that deal with anxiety and worry. And if we learn them or just read them and practice them, this really is the best way to deal with what is on our minds. God's ways are always best for us. Even if we listen to soothing music or have that glass of warm milk along with putting our minds on him. As Colasions3:2 says: Think on things above, not on things of the earth.

Learn to lean on God and he will give you the rest that you need to get through each day!

Thanks for coming by Folks. Have a blessed day in Jesus!