We’ve looked at the why of God’s first commandment to man. This post looks at the what. Then the LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to cultivate it and tend it. The LORD God commanded the man, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may freely eat; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for on the day that you eat from it you will certainly die.” – Genesis 2:15-17 Those three verses are innocuously wedged in between the geographic details of the garden and the statement that it wasn’t good for man to be alone. Am I the only one that finds that frustrating?…

Imagine that you’re at your friends’ house, and their adorable little girl is wreaking havoc in the living room. She’s dumped her bowl of sodden Cheerios on her head, and the milk is streaming down her body onto the antique Persian rug. Legos and beheaded dolls are strewn over every surface. She’s babbling and singing at the top of her lungs, making it impossible to carry on a conversation. Worst of all, she’s diabolically pulling on the cat’s tail. Yet your friend sits there sipping her coffee, blissfully unconcerned. If no rules are laid down, has the child misbehaved? The Bible teacher who took my faith life from trying to…

I am Yahweh; that is my name. I will not give my glory to anyone else or the praise I deserve to idols. – Isaiah 42:8 (Names of God version) I went to a wonderful exhibit this weekend, Discovering the World of Jesus. There were several ossuaries including the one believed to have held the bones of James, the brother of Jesus. There’s evidence that two of the others held the bones of John the Baptist and Zechariah, his father. They were amazing, but the artifact that caught my eye was an incense shovel. What stopped me in my tracks so I could get a good picture? Take a closer look.…

Then He said, “Do not come near here; remove your sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” Exodus 3:5 This week’s attribute may seem like a contradiction to last week’s friendly, sociable, genial qualities. Yahweh is both sociable and holy–set apart. Holiness is separateness. He is set apart from sin and set apart to moral perfection. How can He be both? By His mercy and grace. Ann Spangler says it so well: In his holiness, God exists above and apart from the world he has made. The kicker is this: How can a holy God who can have no communion with sin have anything to…

We’re starting out in Genesis again this week – what a surprise! I can’t pin down this attribute with just one word – they’re all inadequate. Friendly, sociable, genial, approachable–they all fall short in describing the King of Creation who genuinely enjoys hanging out with us. When we think of Genesis 3, we tend to either get a sinking feeling about the serpent enticing Eve to sin or the promise of Jesus found in Genesis 3:15. But I also see in Genesis 3 a Father who genuinely enjoys the company of his children. Now they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and…