Origins - life in the Word

New Guest: Like this one, most posts are devotional; those related to CAR BIZ can be found by searching for that title. You might start with 'Welcome,' the first post in the archives, dated November 12, 2008, where I introduce myself and the blog. I invite to you add in any reflections or comments you may have.

Blessings and best wishes,
Dr. Will

Monday, January 11, 2010
Devotions: Ps 1-4, 7; Gen 2:4-25; Heb 1; Jn 1:1-18

The person is blessed who conducts himself in a godly manner: avoid wicked counsel; shun sinful actions and procedures; forego scoffing. Instead, delight in YHWH’s law and meditate on it day and night. Such people are like trees rooted near flowing water; they are fruitful in season; they persist, lively and evergreen; and all they do prospers. The wicked are cursed: windblown, unable to face God’s holy judgment, excluded from the congregation of the righteous. YHWH regards the way of the righteous and protects them; but the way of the wicked will perish. Despite all this, nations and earthly rulers continue to conspire against the Lord and His Anointed One; they seek to free themselves from divine rule and control. But God laughs at them derisively; in His wrath, He confronts them: ‘I have set My King on Zion, My holy hill.’ I choose God and His way; God has said to Jesus, ‘You are My Son; I have begotten You. Ask, and I will make the nations Your heritage; I’ll put all the earth in Your possession. You will rule them absolutely, as with an iron rod; You will shatter them like a potter’s vessel.’ I warn earthly powers: be wise and take heed; serve YHWH with fear and trembling; show fealty to His Christ, lest God be angry and you perish along the way, for His wrath is quickly kindled and is deadly. Blessed are all who take refuge in Him. Lord, I face rising opposition and skepticism; but You, YHWH, Are a Shield around me, my Glory; You raise up my perspective and lift my morale. When I cry out to You, You answer from Your holy hill. I can survive and flourish; I fear nothing, despite strong opposition. Deliver me, O God! Break the teeth of my enemies. Deliverance is from YHWH; Lord, let Your blessing rest on Your people. I struggle in the human realm, but God is with me. I may experience anger, but I will not sin; I will keep my own counsel and trust in YHWH. God has set aside great joy for me, and I will rest and sleep in God’s own peace. My safety is ensured by the Almighty One. Lord, You have vindicated me; strike down my enemies, and let Your holy saints see how You protect me. My shield is with God, Who saves the upright in heart, a righteous Judge Who hates iniquity. God brings down the malice and violence of the wicked upon themselves. I will thank YHWH for His righteousness and praise His holy name, the Most High!

The second Creation story in ‘Beginnings’: In the day when YHWH Elohim made the earth and heavens, there was no human being—no wild plants, no herbs, no rain, just a mist watering the surface. God formed man from the dust of the ground; He breathed into his nostrils the Breath of life, the Ruach. And man became a living being. The Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east; there, He put the man He had formed. And from the ground, the Lord God caused to grow every kind of tree that is pleasant to see and good for food. In the center of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. A river flowed from Eden, and divided into four great rivers: Pishon, Gihon, Tigris and Euphrates. The Lord God charged the man to cultivate and tend the garden, and commanded him, ‘You may freely eat of every tree, except you shall not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; for in the day you eat of it, you shall die.’ Then the Lord God declared, ‘Lo tov—Not good that the man should be alone; I will make a helper fit for him.’ The Lord God formed every wild animal and every flying species and brought them before the man, to see what he would name them. The man gave names to all domestic species, every bird, and every wild animal. But among all these, there was not a fit helper for the man. So the Lord God cast a deep sleep upon the man; and while he slept, God took one of the man’s ribs and closed up its place with flesh. The Lord God fashioned the rib into a woman and brought her to the man. And the man declared, ‘This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman [ishsha], for she was taken out of Man [ish]. (Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and cleaves to his wife and they become one flesh.) And the man and his wife were both naked, and were not ashamed.

In former times, God has spoken to our ancestors in many and various ways, through His prophets; but in these last days, He has spoken to us by a Son, Whom God appointed as the Heir of all things, and through Whom He also created the world. The Son reflects God’s glory and bears the very stamp of His nature—He manifests the essential Being of God. The Son upholds the created universe by His word of power. When the Son had made purification for sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the Name He has obtained is more excellent than theirs. God has never said to any angel what He declares to the Son, ‘You Are My Son; today I have begotten You.’ Nor, ‘I will be to Him a Father and He shall be to Me a Son.’ When God brings the Firstborn into the world, He declares, ‘Let all God’s angels worship Him.’ Concerning angels, God ‘makes His angels winds and His servants flames of fire.’ But of the Son, He says, ‘Your throne, O God, is for ever and ever, the righteous scepter is the scepter of Your kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness. Therefore God, Your God, has anointed You with the oil of gladness beyond Your comrades.’ And He declares, ‘You, Lord, did found the earth in the beginning, and the heavens are Your handiwork. They will perish, but You remain; they will grow old like a garment; You will roll them up like an old cloak, and they will be changed. But You are the same, and Your years will never end.’ He has said to no angel, as He says to the Son, ‘Sit at My right hand, till I make Your enemies a stool for Your feet.’ Angels are ministering spirits sent forth to serve, for the sake of those whom God chooses to obtain salvation, aren’t they?

The Word existed in the Beginning; the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God; all things were made through Him, and nothing was made apart from Him. In Him was life; and that life was the light of humanity. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome the Light, and cannot comprehend the Light. God sent a man named John, as a witness to the Light, so that through his testimony, all might believe. John was not the Light, but came to witness concerning the Light. The true Light Who enlightens every mortal was coming into the world. He was in the world; and though the world was made through Him, yet the world did not recognize Him. He came to His own home, but His own people did not receive Him! Yet to all who received Him, to all who believed in His Name, He gave the dynamis [the right, the power] to become children of God—children born not of blood nor of fleshly desire nor of human will, but born of God. The Word became flesh and encamped among us, full of grace and truth. We have beheld His glory, the glory of the only Son from the Father. John witnessed concerning Him, crying out, ‘This is He of Whom I said “He Who comes after me has surpassed me because He Is before me.”’ From His fullness we have all received grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus the Messiah. No one as ever seen God; but God the only Begotten, Who is in the Father’s bosom, has made God known.