A DAY OF CONFESSION PART - 2

A DAY OF CONFESSION – PART 2

Genesis 2:15 King James Version (KJV)

¹⁵ And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.

Implication:-

God has given us some duties. It’s our purpose in life. God wants us to DRESS the EARTH and to KEEP the EARTH. Every citizen of the EARTH to which ever religion he belongs, language, race, caste creed etc. no matter what young or old, male and female – all of us have an important role to DRESS the EARTH and to KEEP the EARTH.

DRESS for me is – giving wholesome development

To BEAUTIFY the community

To PREPARE

To IMPROVISE

To bring BETTERMENT

To bring BENEFITS

Some questions to check ourselves in the light of the WORD.

Q. Am I DRESSING the community I am living in?

Q. Am I Dressing the family I am living in?

Q. Am I able to prepare, bring benefit or make betterment in the family, community, school, college, job, office, project etc.

Q. Am I able to prepare my children in my family, church , or community the way God wants them to be?

Q. Am I of any benefit to God? If no benefit - lets ask God to show us a way. He won’t be angry. Don’t need to be depressed or anything. Just  ask God to teach us how we can go about it.

Eg.  Let’s take ME  into consideration?

I help in a school,  small youth group in a church.

I write so that I want to be useful to the people beyond my reach. May be to people I have never met in my life. To people on the other side of the world.

I mentor women on one-on – one basis.

I do terrace gardening.

I try to make my own COMPOST – black gold.

The place I live in is not remote but full of stubborn people who always fight . they can kill each other even for a matter of 50 rupees. But I could find love in their hearts.

Whatever we planted died in a week – that bad was the land. Now all my flowers bloom in bunches. In the villages I worked – CHILDREN  were beaten,  not given food to eat why? – until they steal or rob something and brought home.

I might not see a community change – FAST but I will do my SMALL BIT. I might not change the whole world around me – BUT – I will do my bit.

If you are STUDENTS- you should think  “I should do MY BEST”.

 

To KEEP the EARTH for me  -

It is to maintain the EARTH

To keep it going GOD’S WAY.

Taking PROPER MEASURES to help things happen God’s way.

To help PROTECT the EARTH

To PROVIDE for its MAINTENANCE

To SHEPHERD the EARTH

To GUIDE

To LEAD

 

There might be many theological things that I might not be considering while writing. I can write from Mathew Henry’s commentary also. But I am not doing that. These are simple issues that GOD revealed to me in these days of COVID -19  that we need to reflect on and pray about. We need to check ourselves . if we are doing likewise then it is good. If not let’s spend the day or a few hours of fasting and prayer and ponder on the issues we have in our personal life.

Many people say he is not doing like that or she is not doing like that. Here the criteria is “HOW AM I?”

 

Some questions to check ourselves in the light of the WORD.

Q. Am I KEEPING the EARTH?

Q. Am I helping to keep it going God’s way?

Q. Am I taking the PROPER MEASURES  to help things happen God’s way?

Q. Am I SHEPHERDING?

Q. Am I GUIDING?

Q. Am I LEADING?

Q. am I providing for the maintenance of the earth or community around the earth?

We don’t need to be a pastor or youth leader or a Sunday school teacher to do this. We can even do with one person at a time. That is If we can influence one person in our life time and guide or lead them it is a great purpose fulfilled.

 

Eg. If there is a dirty well in your street or neighborhood then inform somebody that the water in it is DIRTY. In India – the thought process is like this

“why should I”

“what have I got to do with it”

“it is not a matter concerning me”

“it is the duty of the  municipality”

In my teens – my friends used to say in telugu – “ Anni nethennna vesu kuntavu enduku” that means “ why do you lay all things on your head”

It means “why do you have to get soooo … involved?

 

I will tell the truth- we have a dirty well in our street. Some strangers used to bring garbage in knotted polythene bags and throw into the well. The water from the well is very sweet. But when I drank the water, I poisoned myself. I had vomitings and diarrhoea. I looked into the well and lo and behold I saw garbage bags floating in the well. There was a rumor that I was doing it. I took initiative and went house to house to talk about lending a hand to get it cleaned. It took 5 years for the people to be moved. It is not like developed countries where we take a placard and just stand and people will respond. Or we do a thing or two on t.v. Finally one lady felt it is time we get the WELL cleaned. She hired some men to be lowered down into the well and carry out the trash physically. She collected money from everybody for the total expense. Some gave. Some did not. The so called Christians in our street did not respond to the call nor did they even share in the expense.

Don’t be disheartened when things don’t go as planned. Wait on the LORD and it will happen in God’s time. The idea finally comes down to MY SMALL BIT. That’s all.

 

 

Genesis 2:25 King James Version (KJV)

²⁵ And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.

Implication:-

GOD wants us to be NAKED. Here NAKED does not mean being without clothes. It is being TRUTHFUL and at the same time being TRANSPARENT. He loves us as we are. He wants us to be AS WE ARE. God wants us to be seen and be known just as we are. God loves TRANSPARENCY. Adam and Eve did not feel guilty or feel ashamed to be TRANSPARENT before GOD. We know from  Genesis 3:8 à that God regularly

WALKED with them in the Garden of Eden

TALKED with them in the Garden of Eden

 and even the TIME of the DAY  is mentioned in the same verse – in the cool of the day.

We see that there was TRANSPARENCY in their daily walk of life

Adam and Eve did not feel guilty or ashamed to share anything with GOD in their regular conversations.

Some questions to check ourselves in the light of the WORD.

Q. Am I being TRANSPARENT in what I do and believe?

Q. Am I hiding something?

Q. Am I being transparent to my spouse, fiancé, partner, parents ?

Q. Am I being transparent to my –

Children ?

Fellow believers ?

Neighbors ?

Boss?

Colleagues? Etc

Q. Am I being TRANSPARENT in my spiritual life?

Q. Am I feeling ASHAMED of anything?

Lets ask the LORD to forgive us as He is Faithful and Just to forgive us from all unrighteousness. Let’s take time out to sit and ponder on these issues and pray for God’s healing in these areas of our life.

IF YOU THINK I HAVENOT JUSTIFIED THE PASSAGE then the standard interpretation always remains unchanged. for right interpretation please read the following link
https://www.biblestudytools.com/commentaries/matthew-henry-complete/genesis/2.html

Please feel free to write to me at estherbabhi@gmail.com