January 3, Reading 1 – Genesis 3

Reading

Audio, Visual

SAA Notes

The desire to be like God is a fount of sin and of much evil. The Bible teaches that we are creatures – created ones. The desire to be something else – grander, higher, less inhibited by our finitude, is the old temptation that lies behind some of our most cherished beliefs – as exampled by re-incarnation and evolution. When you come to Christ you accept that your final future is as a creature – a created one. Resurrection of the human body is that future.

SJA Notes

* Dearest Lord God, please humble our hearts today as we read Your word to us.

“But the LORD God called to the man …”

God’s order that He has laid down for us is important. Order across all of life.

In this passage today we see the consequences for rejecting His order in relationships.

The serpent goes to Eve, not to Adam, and tempts her to disobedience. Eve yields to this temptation, Adam there by her side.

Eve then gives the fruit to Adam and he takes it, disobeying God’s order.

Adam rejects God’s order (the responsibility given to him) and stays quiet during the interaction with the serpent.

Adam yields to temptation at many points, from the approach of the serpent to the last bite of the fruit.

God though shows us the right order.

He comes to Adam first.

“But the LORD God called to the man …”

It is Adam that God created first, then Eve. God’s word tells us that the husband is the head of the household as Christ is the head of the church.

God speaks first with Adam. Then Eve.

We see wrong decision-making again in blame-shifting.

Adam blames Eve. Eve blames the serpent.

God knows the full truth of our hearts, and His response shows that none of our excuses can trick Him.

Let us be exhorted today to submit under God’s order for us, in all of our relationships we have and situations we find ourselves in.

* Holy God,

Your judgements are right and true, for You are a just God.

Your grace and Your mercy are to us salvation!

Thank You Lord God!

Amen.

January 2, Reading 1 – Genesis 2:4-25

Reading

Audio, Visual

SAA Notes

Adam worked in paradise. His work was not cursed with futility. That came later. These two chapters also reveal that we are made in God’s image – two persons (male & female) and one humanity/flesh. In what other ways are we made in His image?

SJA Notes

* Sovereign God, let Your Name be praised throughout the earth. Please show us more of Your will for us today from Your word.

“… Then the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.”

God breathed life into man!

We can see that Job knew the truth of this, as he says (Job ch 13),

“The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life.”

This is God at work, our CREATOR God.

We see this physical creation is mirrored in our spiritual life too.

In Ezekiel (ch 37) we read,

“Thus says the Lord GOD: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live.”

God’s BREATH is life-giving, both to our bodies and our souls!

This is the God we worship, one whose breath can bring life to dry bones, to those dead in their sins!

* God Above,

Thank You for Your breath that brings life.

Please help us to glorify Your Name today in whatever we go about.

Please may those around us see Jesus, having the breath of life breathed into them.

Amen.


January 1, Reading 1 – Genesis 1:1-2:3

Reading

Audio, Visual

SAA Notes

John begins the opening words of his Gospel with the opening words of Genesis. We live in a universe that testifies to the creative intelligence behind it, to the joy of God in His creation. This is the starting point and foundation of the Gospel.

SJA Notes

* Creator God, we would learn from Your word today. Please teach us more of You.

“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”

God is shown here at work. The three Persons of God, putting together creation.

From the rest of scripture we see Father, Spirit and the Son at work.

The book of John, chapter one, tells us that God in the Person of the Son is the WORD (in the beginning with the Father), and that all things were made through Him.

We know from Hebrews chapter one that Jesus the Son is the energy by which all of creation is sustained.

It is incredible to contemplate that Jesus was at work with the Father and the Spirit in making man (in Their image) – That one day thousands of years later God the Son would take on flesh as a man.

We know from a number of places in scripture (such as Ephesians chapter one) that before this act of creation, before the foundation of the world, God had chosen us in Christ Jesus (God in the Person of the Son), our names written in the Lamb’s book of life.

Creation is not just something God came up with on a whim. Just as the role of Jesus as King and Saviour was not a plan b to deal with pesky humans sinning.

We can start our reading in Genesis with the full and secure knowledge that God’s plans for us are deep and rock-solid.

Truly the testimony of Jesus (God’s word become flesh) from Genesis to Revelation is the spirit of prophesy – All of God’s word testifies to Him!

* God in Heaven,

Thank You for another year begun.

Thank You for creating the lights that separate day from night to be for signs and seasons, for our measuring of days and years.

Please teach us today what You want us to know.

Amen.