‘Bone of my bones – flesh of my flesh’

Interesting thoughts/questions I wondered about while reading Genesis 1-3 this morning…

Gen 1:26-28 says God created man and woman, “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them,” — on the 6th day of creation. Yet it isn’t until Gen. 2 that scriptures actually tells us about the creation of Eve. I wonder how/why that is? Does that signify the seven days took a lot longer than a literal seven days? Maybe 100 years for each day or 1000 years for each day?

If you read Gen. 2:15-24 it would appear that things happened in this order…

Adam was created. God told him not to eat of the Tree of Knowledge.

God realized Adam was alone. (v. 18)

God told him to get to work. Adam set out to name all the animals (probably not a short-term task). “So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds of the air and all the beasts of the field.” (v. 20)

I bet as Don Miller suggests, in his book, “Searching for God Knows What” it could have easily taken 30-40 maybe even 100 years to name all the animals on the earth. I wonder if he named all the fish in the sea too? Did they all swim up next to the shoreline so he could name them?

Adam stays busy working “But for Adam no suitable helper was found.” (v. 20)

Seems like God realized Adam’s needs long before he did. I wonder when it hit Adam that he was lonely and needed human companionship.

I wonder if God was sitting there just waiting for that moment to arrive. Then He leans over and says to the angels gathered around watching things on earth in great joy – “Ha. See I told you Gabriel and Michael — I knew he’d realize his basic need in life is for companionship and relationship. He just had to get out and see the world a bit.”

Miller says that he bets Eve felt really loved.

Adam had longed for a companion. He didn’t even know what that would mean but when he saw Eve he said, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman,’ for she was taken out of man.”

I bet Eve felt treasured because Adam had never lusted after another woman. Never abused another woman.

Never mistreated another woman and he was craving her presence even before she was created.

She was exactly what he was looking for.

Reminds me of our search for Christ. Before meeting Christ, we don’t know we’re even looking for Him. But we search and search and carry on with our work until suddenly we realize there’s something missing. We’re missing out on something bigger than us. Then once we find Him — we realize He’s exactly what our soul needed.

Anyways — just some thoughts — additions/comments/clarifications?

Flowers make all the difference

Originally published as Church Flowers in The Belton Journal

A pastor in St. Paul, Minn. blogged this week about a flower garden planted in front of his church.

First of all, I love pastors that blog regularly. It gives a lot of insight into the ministry and what they go through and see throughout the week.

Some even give insight into how their weekly sermon progresses.

Fellowship Church in Dallas has a blog set up for their entire church staff to post notes and journals on. (UPDATE: While Pastor Ed Young still blogs, I can’t find the blogs for the entire staff anymore.)

It gives you a connection with the staff that you might not otherwise have.

But I digress…

Pastor Pat Kahnke of St. Paul Fellowship Church writes that he noticed a bunch of kids bustling around in the church parking lot earlier this week.

As he walked closer he realized that a number of his church members had taken the initiative to plow up a weedy section of their church lot and plant a flower bed in its place.

While planting the flower bed, one of the church members knocked on a neighboring house door to ask to borrow a water hose.

The church neighbor said they could borrow the hose that day and year-round to keep the flower bed looking healthy.

And as a result, another member volunteered to plow the man’s backyard for him.

What a great sign of ministry on so many levels.

They took the care of the church upon themselves

No one sat around and waited for a church beautification committee to tell them what needed to be done. No building committee hired out work that church members could easily do.

People took responsibility for their church and went the extra mile to be sure their place of worship was taken care of.

What if each of us looked for areas in our own churches or work places where we could go the extra mile without being asked?

What if we quit shrugging responsibility for things in our offices or church and stepped up and said, “This needs to be done — and I’m going to do it. Even if it’s not in my job description and even if I may not be an expert on the subject.–

They involved outsiders

One of the things I love about this story is that it involved people in the neighborhood.

Now granted, with a little planning they could have brought their own water hose, but think of the ministry opportunity they would have missed. In the process, they made sure that a neighbor of the church knew what was going on at the church and then found a way to meet him at his need.

Wasn’t that Jesus’ entire ministry was about? He met people at their need.

If we are passionate about what we do, or wherever we do it, it can be contagious – people will want to be a part of it.

A business cannot grow without new customers and a church cannot grow without new members. We must rid ourselves of being exclusive or selective in who we reach out to. We must bring outsiders in.

A few months ago I wrote about George Masters who was so passionate about Apple’s iPod, that he spent several hours designing a complete television commercial based on his favorite toy.

“Why would a school teacher spend a good chunk of his free time, for five months, crafting a really slick ad for no money? For no real recognition other than a, ‘Hey, that’s cool,’ from a few friends? Because he really, really likes his iPod,– wrote blogger Andy Havens. “Masters frankly admits that he partly worked on the project as a way of teaching himself some computer animation basics, and to be part of a portfolio. That being said, why pick the iPod mini as his subject? Because he’s a huge fan. And let’s remember that ‘fan’ is short for ‘fanatic.’–

If we can get people passionate about our product or message, people will become a part of the message and share it with them where ever they go.

Little efforts can go a long way

Third, as Pastor Kahnke wrote in his blog that he was blessed and ministered to by seeing their effort and the beautiful flowers left by their effort.

A pastor who was worn down was encouraged and blessed by a small effort by members of his congregation.

I can’t imagine that this group of church goers would have realized the impact their thoughtfulness had on their pastor, or the impact it would have on a newspaper editor some 1,113 miles away.

You never know what impact your willingness to serve will have on others.