The first year I did this, i used the s.o.a.p. format to journal through. not this year. i'm going to be a little less structured in my note taking, and just write about what really stood out to me each day. of course, i may not always post an entry, because sometimes life gets in the way. this really is very time consuming. my typical routine is to wake up, turn on some praise and worship music on pandora and spend about 30 minutes waking up to God's grace, and then delve into the day's reading. you might ask how much reading that is every day, and the answer is roughly 12 pages. the official schedule is exactly 12, but i don't like stopping mid-chapter, so i tend to read on through a little further. if i don't stop to eat in the middle, it takes about an hour. there may be days that i will split the reading into a morning and evening portion. after i read, if time permits, i write my notes while it's still fresh in my mind.
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| Art by Wolfgang Sauber, used with permission |
today i read the first 16 chapters of genesis. here's what struck me most...
Genesis 3:4-5, 16
New Living Translation (NLT)
4 “You won’t die!” the serpent replied to the woman. 5 “God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it, and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil.”
New Living Translation (NLT)
16 Then [God] said to the woman,
“I will sharpen the pain of your pregnancy, and in pain you will give birth.And you will desire to control your husband, but he will rule over you.[a]”
Genesis 4:7, 13
New Living Translation (NLT)
7 You will be accepted if you do what is right. But if you refuse to do what is right, then watch out! Sin is crouching at the door, eager to control you. But you must subdue it and be its master.”
13 Cain replied to the Lord, “My punishment[a] is too great for me to bear!
The loss of innocense always begins with temptation. in eden, the serpant came and taunted eve, enticing her to eat of the fruit that God had forbidden to them. once she caved in and ate, (and sharing with adam), their spiritual eyes were opened and they were able to see right and wrong. as part of God's reaction to their disobedience, God told eve that she would from then on try to control her husband... but that the husband should rule over her. and in a godly marriage, that's still true today. the head of the house should be the husband... but oh, how we wives tend to want to be in control.
later, after eve's sons gave offerings to the Lord, cain got angry because his offering wasn't good enough. why was that? probably because cain only 'gave an offering of the fruits" and abel gave an offering of the first of the fruits. my guess is that cain gave God what was left over after he'd used what he wanted for other purposes. God doesn't like leftovers.
so God asks cain why he's so glum, and reminds him that we're always going to be tempted. sin is always going to be there to taunt us, and to try and control us, but that we have to stand up and kick sin in the teeth and rule over our sinful nature.
i added verse 13 just because it was the first biblical example of whining about the consequences. cain's response to God was pretty much "that's not fair!" of course it's fair! you screwed up... what do you want, a medal? how often do people break the laws and then want to lay the blame elsewhere. they don't want to face the punishment for their actions. they'll blame it on someone else, or on a crappy childhood even. but ya know, it doesn't matter how crappy our childhood is. we have choices. and when we make right choices, we sure do want the credit for making them! it's only fair that when we make wrong choices, we own them, too, no matter how hard the lesson is.
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