After Day 3

Some initial reflections from three days in the 1 year Bible reading plan at YouVersion:

Genesis 3:6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.

It's easy, with the benefit of 20/20 hindsight, to ask: "Eve, what were you thinking?" Lest we be too critical of Eve for trading all she had in the garden for a taste of the forbidden fruit, here's a couple of great questions from the community section of YouVersion to think about as we start 2009:

• What is your all-consuming-gotta-have “it” thing? (Don’t say “nothing.” What is it that is distracting you from fully pursuing God?)
• What has God already provided that you take for granted?

Matthew 4:18-20 As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. "Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men.” At once they left their nets and followed him.

These verses come right after the 40 days in the desert, where Jesus was tempted by the devil, where He answered every temptation with Scripture. I wonder what it was about Jesus that these fishermen were so willing to lay aside their financial security to follow Him, at once! What did these men see in Jesus that we miss? From there, Jesus went throughout Galilee teaching, preaching and healing every disease! What are we missing out on by holding on to the familiar and the 'secure' rather than risking radically following Jesus?


Genesis 6:5-8 The Lord saw how great man's wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. The Lord was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain. So the Lord said, “I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth—men and animals, and creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the air—for I am grieved that I have made them.” But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.

I wonder if the Lord is grieved and filled with pain when He looks at the world today. In the midst of our messed up world, I wonder if I find favor in the eyes of the Lord.