BEDROCK BELIEFS lesson three readings

UPDATE: days complete
Day 11: Genesis 1:26-31
"...let us make humanity in our image..." v26a

Alone and together we bear the image of God. Together, the image is richer, deeper, and more complete than alone. Together, we are conformed to the image of the Son (Eph 4:11-16).

Lord God, we need to understand our essential community. We--especially those of us in Western, individualistic cultures--need to understand that we ARE community. It is neither a choice nor a program.
Day 12: Genesis 3:1-12
But the serpent said to the woman, "You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." v4-5

At our self-infected core, we wish to be God. The serpent pegged it. In fact, we are quite certain that we are gods. We are sure that good and evil are ours to decide ("...but it doesn't feel wrong..."). but this is the sin that polluted us all, this usurping of divine right, this making ourselves like God. How can we not see that we, humanity, bear his image?
Day 13: Genesis 3:13-19
Then the LORD God said to the woman, "What is this that you have done?" v13a

God's partnership with humanity shows even here. As with the man, God asks the woman what she has done. Some level of responsibility must be take, however slight.

Yahweh, I want to be honest before you and name my sins. I want not to hide behind excuses or reasons, but it is difficult. To hide is so simple. Yahweh, I trust you; help my lack of trust.
Day 14: Psalm 14:1-7
The LORD looks down from heaven on the children of man,
to see if there are any who understand,
who seek after God. v 2
I wrote a phrase a couple of years ago: holiness is direction, not destination. In other words, holiness is tending toward God and God only. It is not arrival at any sort of completeness. It is pointing our lives in the direction of God's glory, just as God himself is pointed in the direction of his glory.

Yes, there will be course corrections. But I think it is the trendline that matters.
Day 15: Jeremiah 17:5-10
Thus says the LORD:
"Cursed is the man who trusts in man
and makes flesh his strength,[a]
whose heart turns away from the LORD.
He is like a shrub in the desert,
and shall not see any good come.
He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness,
in an uninhabited salt land.

"Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD,
whose trust is the LORD. v 5-7

Once again, I see it is about the tending. The deed Yahweh judges is the tending of the heart, the object of trust. Do I trust humanity or do I trust Yahweh?

God, my tending is not pure, but I do trust.
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“Unless otherwise noted Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.” http://www.esv.org/

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