Pastor of Fishing

This week has been a journey for me as I cared for the souls of those around me, as well as being cared for.  God never stops to amaze me in how He consistently wants to get my attention to things in my life, yet I tend to be too lazy and ignore the situations.

This past week I had the experience of attending a Memorial Service for my infant 3rd cousin-in law, Owen (www.thesiriannifamily.blogspot.com).  Owen and I really didn’t know each other, and frankly I barely knew his parents as well.  It was something for me that will forever shape my heart.  You see, I witnessed first hand the “peace that passes understanding”.   I have been to many a “Christian” funeral and walked away scratching my head and asking the question, “Why didn’t that look different than a regular ol funeral?”.

Owen’s was different.  You see this child was born with a heart complication that would eventually add more complications to take his life. Yet as I watched his life in review I realized that his family had touched so many lives in just a short amount of time.  It was as if he had lead a full life.  If you didn’t know he was 7 months old, you would have thought he had lived a very long time on this earth.  It spoke to me, what can be accomplished in 7 months?

Watching his parents took a totally different feel.  They definitely were going to miss their son, but they could not ignore the fact that he was with Christ.  A fact that we as believers so many times skip or gloss over in our times of remorse at funerals.  I watched as the pastor gave a touching and encouraging talk on what it means to live and die…and just the fact to live is to die and to die is gain really touched me.

So where am I going with all this?  I am begging the question to you as you read this.  Are you living to die?  Are you running to the end of the race?  Or are you assuming that you will live forever and you have tomorrow?

It hit me hard…and just wanted to share.

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Day 3 Genesis 8:1-11:32

Couple of pieces jumped out at me as I read the words of God to me.  First was rebirth…this concept of a restart.  The whole earth was rebooted.  Everything was just restarted in sweeping motion.  The earth subdued in water and then everything emerges from it again.  The opportunity to start over is something that always is attractive to many people. The effects of the flood always bring up the dinosaur questions in my head.  As a child I was very into dinosaurs, and the flood definitely explains it.  It also explains the concepts of “ancient” fish.  I see so many different fish that are dated back to “dinosaur times”  and well if there was a flood fish would live no yes?

The other concept is languages.  The tower of Babel always makes languages seem to make sense for me.  When I view the scientific evidence for a centralized tribe of people languages becomes a problem.  The tower of Babel solves this whole issue.  Could it be that neat and simple?  Language has created a very large barrier, yet it seems to be closing a gap with all the technology of the day.  Anyways just some thoughts on the passages…struck me how it all seems to explain some of our mysteries of history.

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Day 2  - Genesis 4:1-7:22

The theme that kept pressing in my mind throughout these 4 chapters is family.  Family dynamics play a huge role in what we see happening here with the early people of Creation.  The birth of Cain and Abel sets in motion a series of events that are still felt today.  We see the value of our first fruits being given to God.  The best is what God wants, not our second best.  I really find this to be an issue in my heart at times.  In ministry my second best can look like my best to many, but not to God.

The murder of a brother by their brother is something that shows the anger and rage that Cain felt.  This rage is also what receives the wrath of God.  The punishment is severe, yet has mercy wrapped up within it ( Genesis 4:15 ).   We see that even God has mercy even when it comes to murder, so why does the Church lack this mercy?

Imagine how Cain’s wife must have felt?  Banished out amongst the world to have to settle and create a new life, because her husband was a murderer of family!  Effects of Cain’s actions flow into his home life.  We see its not just an act that is solely felt by Cain, but for generations to come.  A city is formed because of the blood on his hands, yet through his line the earth was redeemed in Noah.

In chapter 5  is the generational line that is created.    It is a reference to show that Noah was the first generation not to know Adam.  Imagine everyone up to Noah’s generation had an opportunity to interact with the man that was created directly by God.  I wonder does that mean it showed that he didn’t have a belly button?  Was it that obvious?  This is significant though when looking at how sour the earth had gotten.  Even with the man that walked with God around people still forgot God’s goodness.

I get the chills every time I read chapter 6.  First off, who are these Nephilim?  I have heard so many different speculations on this set of people that it drives me nuts.  I want to know, yet we really do not have an accurate picture, and of course I figure they are taken out in the flood as well.  That is just a side note…

This is the chapter that continually rocks me.  In Genesis 6:5-8 we see a God that grieves.  It means to me that there are possibilities.  We make choices and God reacts to our choices, its not just this grand master of puppets plan, but God truly interacts and feels things towards and for us.  Think, if God knew that He would destroy the earth, why grieve over it?  Why have regret?  Think on that one…this makes our actions on this earth carry so much more weight than we can even imagine.

We also see a God that does know His building plans.  Here is Noah a man that now gets to build an ark?!?.  At this point we are not sure, but it seems that it has not rained at all on the earth either.  Irrigation has been springing up from the ground at this point, so to even have an understanding of rain coming blows my mind away.  I get scared and fearful just when I think of some of the burdens of my own heart, let alone giving up my life to build an ark…WOW.

Noah has some interesting family dynamics as well in these chapters.  Imagine having your extended family outside the ark screaming to be let in?  We don’t see this picture about the Ark, we always see a portrayal of all these happy faces and all the animals coming and lining up, but we never think of the destruction that lays around Noah and his family.  What were the yells and cries like?  Did people try to cling onto the Ark to survive?  Oh the images rush my mind as to what could have happened.  The destruction and chaos that ensued around the Ark as they waited for the earth to come back to a balance.  What grief God must have felt!?!?  150 days on the water…can’t even imagine what it must have been like…WOW!

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