TIME

A colloquialism: "There's  a first time for everything." --  pgs

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth (Genesis 1:1).

And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light (Genesis 1:3).

And God said, "Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the water from the waters." And it was so. And God called the expanse Heaven (Genesis 1:6-8).

And God said, "Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear." And it was so. God called the dry land Earth, and the waters...He called seas (Genesis 1:9-10b).

And God said, "Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind..." And it was so (Genesis 1:11).

And God said, "Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years,  and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth." And it was so (Genesis 1:14-15).

And God said, "Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth. So God created...every living thing that moves (Genesis 1:20-21).

And God said, "Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds..."  And it was so(Genesis 1:24,25). 

Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it.... And it was so. (Genesis 1:26-28, 30b).

And God saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day (Genesis 1:31).  

Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God finished His work that He had done, and He rested on the seventh day. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy... (Genesis 2:2-4).   

A hymn to read, sing, hum, or whistle, to the glory of God: I sing the Almighty Power of God (Isaac Watts, 1715).

DUST

"Lord, what is man?" Take him in his four elements, of earth, air, fire, and water. In the earth, he is as fleeting dust; in the air, he is as a dissappearing vapour; in the water, he is as a breaking bubble; and in the fire, he is as a consuming smoke. --- Wiliam Secker

 

Dust: Then the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life... (Genesis 2:7).

COVENANT

As we are under the covenant of grace, we are secured against departing from the living God by the sure declaration of the covenant. ---- Charles Spurgeon

 

And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you. I will be their God (Genesis 17:7-8).

 

For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people (Hebrews 8:10).  

 

My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater that all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. I and the Father are one (John 10:27-30).

 

Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do His will, working in us that which is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen (Hebrews 13:20-21).

Communion with God

As the children of Israel's ultimate goal was not the land,  but communion with God in the land, so the Christian's ultimate goal is not heaven, but communion with heaven's God. ---- pgs

After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision: "Fear not, Abram, I am your shield, your very great reward... I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant...to be God to you, and the God of your seed after you. I am the LORD who brought you out from Ur...to give you this land to possess (Genesis 15:1, 7).

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth...And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God...and I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be His people, and God Himself will be with them as their God (Revelation 21:1-3).

A hymn to read, sing, hum, or whistle, to the glory of God: Jerusalem the Golden -

--- "O sweet and blessed country, the home of God's elect! O sweet and blessed country that eager hearts expect! Jesus, in mercy bring us to that dear land of rest; who are, with God the Father and Spirit, ever blest (fourth stanza)."

Marriage

For contemplation, he, and valor formed; for softness she, and sweet attractive grace; he for God only, she for God in him. ---- John Milton

Then the LORD God said, "It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him." But there was not found a helper fit for him. So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of the ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the LORD God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said, "This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man." Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh (Genesis 2:18, 20b-24). 

A hymn to read, sing, hum, or whistle, to the glory of God: O Happy Home, Where Thou Art Loved. 

The Love of the Father

God is. He knows, He cares, He comes, He calls, and gathers His own to Himself through Christ, the only Mediator between God and man. ---- pgs

And God heard their groaning, and God remembered His covenant...  God saw the people of Israel ---- and God knew. 

See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God, and so we are. There is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life and this life is in His Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him graciously give us all things? (Genesis 2:24-25; I John 3:1a; I Timothy 2:5; I John 5:11; Romans 8:31-32). 

A hymn to read, sing, hum or whistle to the glory of God: PRAISE TO THE LORD, THE ALMIGHTY 

Home

Good morning! 

Home   When home is ruled according to God's Word, angels might be asked to stay with us, and they would not find themselves out of their element. C. H. Spurgeon.

For I have chosen him, that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing righteousness and justice, so that the LORD may bring to Abraham what He has promised him (Genesis 16:19).

A hymn to be read or sung aloud to the glory of God: A CHRISTIAN HOME.   

Depravity

Good afteroon!

MAN. DEPRAVITY  Man is not making his way up through animism, fetishism, totemism, polytheism and monotheism to a knowledge of God. He started with a knowledge of God and has been going the other way ever since. ---- Vance Havner

...God created man in His own image...formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of llife, and the man became a living being (Genesis 1:27a; 2:7).

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. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked, so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves (Genesis 3:6, 7).

For although they knew God, they neither glorified Him as God nor gave thanks to Him, but their thinking became futile and there foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals (Romans 1:21

-----

A hymn to read or sing aloud to the glory of God: GOD BE MERCIFUL TO ME.