Headline #1: Death of the Seeds God had told Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply. Can you imagine the thoughts and images that must have run through the mind of Eve? Adam and Eve had been created, not born, so there had never been a human offspring born into the earth before. Oh, they had witnessed the births of animals but, in the Garden, giving birth was without the sorrows of pain. Now Adam and Eve were cast out of the Garden, and God had said He would greatly multiply her sorrow and her conception. In other words, she would experience a lot of pain and she would have multiple births. Nevertheless, the Lord continued, her desire would be for her husband, and her husband would rule over her. Having been cast out of the Garden without a plan for the night, let alone the future, being fruitful did not top Eve’s list of priorities… It was a time of great distress, great despair and rivers of tears. God had allowed them to take some things from the Garden with them. But the world they faced outside the Garden was desolate, almost barren, and frightening. The animals were wild, threatening, not at all like the animals in the Garden, and the nights were filled with the cries of small prey and unwary victims. You see, sin had spread a curse over the land, (Genesis 3:17) and in fear they were living out the consequences of their sin, with the understanding they would labor in this world for the rest of their lives just to plant fields and eat bread. We don’t know how long they wandered or how long they went without food or sleep before they found safe and adequate shelter in a large cave. They called the place The Cave of Treasures, because it was here they hid the precious things they had brought with them from the Garden. Louis Ginzberg tells us in his Legends Of The Bible that God allowed them to take Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh and that these three vessels, though they never left the cave, were passed down in ownership from generation to generation as mementoes from the Garden, along with the records and stories of each generation. These things were taken on the Ark with Noah and eventually passed from Shem to Abraham. If the legend is true, and they eventually fell into the hands of relatives who moved far away, God knew how to bring them back as the inheritance of the rightful son and heir at his birth in Bethlehem… I do believe there is a pittance of truth in some of these legends but…who knows what it was really like and what they really endured. Who knows how many times God intervened to deliver them from danger and to keep His plan on the right track? Who knows where that Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh is today? In any case, when things settled down a bit, when some form of calm and order had been achieved, when they were finally assured God would not forsake them, Eve conceived and brought forth her first born son, Cain. In time she brought forth her second son, Abel. And although the scriptures do not mention this, Jewish legend tells us a twin sister was born with each of them. This was for the purpose of marriage and procreation that the earth may begin to fill with men. This makes perfect sense, since God had said He would multiply Eve’s conception, and since there were no other gals for taking as brides anywhere on this earth… The boys grew up and Cain became a farmer and Abel became a shepherd with flocks. The day came when they placed an offering unto the Lord on the altar. Abel’s offering was accepted but Cain’s offering was rejected because it was offered in the wrong spirit. In a rage, Cain lured his brother into a distant field and smashed his head with a rock. It was the first murder, performed by the first man born into the earth, the first son of the first generation… You will recall that the blood of Abel cried out to God from the ground Genesis 4:10). Abel's seed had died with him, and the generations stored in his loins would never be born. It was the first death of a man on the earth, the first spilling of a man’s blood, and Abel’s was the first living soul to return to God. People who commit murder do not realize that when they take a life, they are not just taking one life, but are destroying generations. God counts a man’s seeds as He counts life itself for the life of a man is in the seed he springs from. Seeds are not to be cast to the ground as waste, which is why God slew the sons of Judah (Genesis 38: 9-10). As for unrepentant murderers, when they stand before their Creator they will be judged for killing multitudes instead of the one man they looked upon with hate and malice… Likewise, abortionists will not only be judged for killing one unborn baby, but the seeds of generations that would have matured in the child in a dozen or more years. And since this nation alone has killed in the neighborhood of fifty million unborn babies in the past thirty-five years, think of the blessings to our communities and the generations that would have come of those blessings that we will never know… Seth, the third son of Adam and Eve, never knew his murdered brother Abel because the tragedy occurred long before Seth was born. “For God,” said Eve, “has appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew” (Genesis 4:25). Seth may not have realized in his own lifetime that he had stepped into an interrupted Seed line to Messiah. Nevertheless it would be Seth’s assignment to plant the earth with Godly seed in “the second step on the journey to Bethlehem…” Adam was the first, taking that first step outside the Garden of Eden… Before Seth, the only seeds of humanity being planted in the earth were planted by Cain and his descendants. By the time Seth became a father, the earth was already filled with multitudes of wicked Cains. Try to imagine a world filled with every imaginable perverted entertainment – a type of Sodom and Gomorrah. Then try to imagine that over on the other mountain height resides five Godly people who fear any contact with the Cainites. These were Adam, Eve, Seth, his wife (probably a sister) and Enos, their son, who became the third step on the journey to Bethlehem… Are you beginning to see what Satan did when he pressured Cain to kill Abel? Do you understand how that one murder prevented righteousness in the land? Can you understand now why there was only one righteous Noah on the earth and because of that one righteous man, God saved Noah’s family also that his sons might repopulate the earth, hopefully with Godly seed. But Satan was always a thief and a destroyer – and he was in this battle for the long haul. Sooner or later, somewhere, he would find that Seed of the woman and he would destroy it. Meanwhile he would just have to destroy every seed that might lead to the Seed… There is no doubt that Adam and Eve shared the events and prophecies that had been spoken in the Garden with their son, Seth. There is no doubt they told him everything from the day of their creation to the day he was weaned. Seth passed the stories on to Enos who passed them on to his son, etc. etc. etc…Family recorders along the way etched stone tablets and possibly leather scrolls that were finally handed down to Noah, probably by the righteous Methusaleh. Noah took them on the ark, and later entrusted them to the care of Shem. In the generations to come, they would pass from Shem directly to Abraham then on to Isaac and Jacob. In time, the scrolls and tablets would be taken to Egypt along with all the writings of the patriarchs of all the generations where they would be preserved by the children of Israel until the day came when they were given to Moses in the wilderness. It was from these records that Moses recorded the history of creation, the patriarchs, the Great Flood, the tower of Babel and the generations that followed and their migrations into the then-known world. And they told the stories of the planting and gathering of Israel, all accumulative in the first five books of the Old Testament. All of that information is there for you and me to read, to study, and to know. We cannot help but marvel at all that God has done, and all that man has come through. It is a trumpet call to the soul just to read it… Headline #2: Footsteps of Valor Each generation represented another step in the journey to Bethlehem. It would take many generations and four thousand years to get there. Many sorrows, many tears, many lessons learned and many wars fought paved the way and every mile along the way was a trap, an ambush, a new heartache and a cry for deliverance. There were a lot of leaders of valor – Abraham, Jacob, Moses, Joshua, Caleb, David, Josiah, Nehemiah, Ezra and Jehoshaphat...and of course the prophets. There were a lot of corrupt and evil leaders as well – Ahab, Jeroboam, Zedekiah, Manasseh and Herod. Not all the feet of all the kings and generals were clean. Many kings of Israel brought a stench to the journey, for long periods of time. But there were others who lapped the waters with Gideon, rode hungry with David, and weathered the storm with Deborah and Barak. Many walked home with Ezra and many with Nehemiah to rebuild and replant. These were footsteps of valor, catching the vision in the eye and seeing it through the lens of prophetic promise, never marred, never delayed, and never abandoned because of the stench they knew was temporary… They marched through Glory. They marched through hell. And still they marched. For 1,900 years they marched in the dark of night and in the high noon of summer, never knowing how long their shoes would last. Again and again generations gave way to new generations and still they marched, here and there, anywhere they would be accepted, if not loved… A man named Balfour pleaded their cause and again, after another river of tears had flowed, Zion opened its arms. Compassion and utter joy sounded the trumpet and called the people to come – come to the land of your fathers – come and reclaim your heritage. The land has been waiting for you, and now you must come… They came and a nation was born in a day. That was sixty years ago. For the first forty years there was no stench. Today the stench has not only returned, it is rancid, nauseating and again defiles the march to Israel’s final Glory. Corruption hangs heavy like a mushroom cloud, treason lurks in dark conspiracies, whispered in the secret chambers, and betrayal holds the knife with a steady hand…et tu, Brutus? But I declare - as the Lord God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, they shall live and not die to declare the oracles of God. Enemies cannot steal courage. Enemies cannot steal valor. Enemies cannot steal a vision or the promises of Almighty God… God has seen, God has heard, and God who is Sovereign, will soon call for a march and a stench the wicked will not soon forget…it is written…it will be done… Headline #3: To Live Or Not To Live – That Is The Question The children of Adam and Eve have walked out their earthen world for an estimated 6,000 years. First they traveled on foot, then on horseback, in wagons and carts, on camels, elephants and donkeys. Ships sailed the seas, then those wonderful 25-30-miles-an-hour trains opened up the continents, after which the gates of the world opened to the automobile, the trolley, the buses, the aeroplane and the subway. There was a time, less than 500 years ago, when a man did not travel more than a hundred miles from home during his lifetime. If he wanted a new beginning, and was willing to walk the distance, he traveled slowly, perhaps for a year or more, with wonder in his eyes for the new lands he had never seen before. One cannot look with wonder on God’s creation without coming face to face with the Creator Himself…And one cannot help but think about the millions that migrated so many years ago to places unknown, pilgrims who discovered their walk was lighter if they walked with God. Many died on their journeys, overtaken by marauding and barbaric gangs of thieves and murderers, who had no thought for the Creator, who coveted only the worldly goods of the created… Today we are living on the edge of the cliff. The end-time prophecies are being fulfilled before our eyes daily, and Jesus the Savior can come for His Bride any second. The world is not as beautiful as it used to be. Men have abused it, misused it. And people just don’t find the time to appreciate the glory in each little raindrop or the oxygen of life in every blade of grass and leaf of tree. Neither do they see the pollution of our waters, the raping of our rain forests, the poisoned soils of our failing nuclear waste dumps, or the scars across the land from coal stripping, shut down mining towns, crop erosions and abandoned rail lines. There are lessons to be learned in all of this. There is a hope out of the past that lingers today, and it glitters, not with gold, but with wisdom borrowed from the ghostly pilgrims of yesteryear. One thing we all learn quickly – life is short and it is always over before we are ready to say goodbye. What a pity we do not always learn what we were born to grab hold of before that day arrives… And what is that? Well, I can sum it up for you in one word – ETERNITY! The education, preparation and anticipation of Eternity! It is spending this life preparing for the next one. It is appreciating this life with such hunger for God our hunger can only be filled by God in the next world. Those that have gone before us have found the truth. Life does not end, life simply cannot end. Life continues, our forms are somewhat different, but life continues in the realm of our choice, and that choice is made in this lifetime. When our days are spent in this world, when our training opportunities have run their course, when our choices have been established and the confessions of our heart have been made, we simply move on to a new life that is one brief breath away from this body that was made in the image of God… Will we return to God in the beauty of His image? Or will we fall into the grave of disappointment and torment of hell? Will we take the opportunities afforded each of us in our daily living, to grab hold of the lessons meant to teach us humility, meekness, thankfulness, endurance, tolerance and love…filling us with the character of God which is the Spirit of God, preparing us daily … For example: 1. Am I doing things in this life I know I wouldn’t do in Heaven? 2. Am I saying things I know I wouldn’t dare to say in Heaven? 3. Am I entertaining thoughts I hope I never have in Heaven? 4. Am I slandering someone I need to forgive if I want to be forgiven? 5. Am I a pious Christian with friend-A, but a good-time-Charlie with friend-B? 6. Does hypocrisy color my social conduct? My office conversations? 7. Would I meet with Jesus wearing the same dress I wore to last week’s party? 8. Would I tell Jesus the joke my co-worker just told me? 9. Would I offer Jesus a cigarette? A beer? An airline ticket to Las Vegas? 10. Would I pressure Jesus to support abortion? 11. Would I ask Jesus to officiate at a homosexual wedding? 12. Would I petition Jesus to be tolerant of alternative lifestyles? Would I threaten Him if He refused? 13. Would I be comfortable opening my home to Jesus? 14. Would I give Jesus a bottle of Scotch for Christmas? A packet of condoms for the prom? 15. Would I offer Him the head seat at my dining room table? Would I be humbled if He accepted? Most of us do not realize we live double lives – one for this world, and one for Christ on Sunday. Even the most ardent Christian among us fails to meet every command with absolute obedience. We are human flesh, children with a fallen nature, children who need good sound spankings once in a while just to wake us up and remind us of the dangers that lurk all around us. We are all one breath away from eternity. One breath – that is all it takes to change addresses forever. Consider – and weep until the broken heart is healed. When Jesus calls, you won’t have time to forgive your offender, change dresses, or repent of the words you wish you had never spoken. If you are going into heaven with all these problems unresolved, you will be so weighed down with shame you won’t be able to face your Lord. Today is the day to repent, to turn from the ways of this world and start each new day as though you were already living in the heavenly world of Christ Jesus. It will prepare your heart to behold Him, and it will prepare you to enter in boldly, as His beautiful and glorious Bride…
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