Author: Ron Outland

Hi, friends! It’s been over a week since I’ve written on here. I’ve been coming up with something I can consider good (but particularly what the Holy Spirit wants me to write), but it’s just hard, since this is one of the most controversial chapters in the Bible. And, spoiler alert, you won’t see this for the last time. I sent a link of my previous post to a friend and she liked it 😊 — also, this passage is found in page 2 of my NKJV and NASB Bibles, pages 4-5 of the VOICE Bible copy I have, and page 4 of the Amplified Bible (Classic Edition) copy I bought long ago.

I won’t get into who blamed who a lot in any of this, because, let’s face it, it’s a total waste of time. I’ve been blamed of a lot of random things growing up, and it continued into my adulthood by a large extent — I think it was a spirit of blame or even Satan himself going after me since boyhood. I pray against it and rebuke him in the Name of Jesus!! Of course, we know that Adam and Eve disobeyed God, but we don’t know why. Yet I don’t think it was unforgivable what they were doing, though the legacy they made resulted in many horrifying things, including bad immigration laws trying to keep out foreigners that are trying to find safety here in the U.S. (There are people that are offended by this, but I don’t care because I’m ruthless 😂😂😂) Anyway, this is the first episode of shame that had happened as we see in the Bible, seeing that Eve probably was insecure about something. I don’t know if it was a womanly thing or not, but I guess the answer is for another time. I also pray that my niece, Bee, doesn’t get any evil spirits following her anywhere. It’s not worth it.

In verse nine, the Lord God said to Adam and Eve, “Where are you?” — though He know where they were very well. I think He was interested in having a conversation with them there, but He felt the first-ever disconnect from humans that day, too. Also, I think I should mention this now… the Lord God goes beyond gender. We call Him “He” because “She” would only refer to females, and men and women need each other. It’s not “God the Mother” or anything, you know? It’s weird how some congregations picture God as if He were female — yet His love is better than life (Psalm 63:3). Also, the content of verse 11 is worth mentioning; God says, “Who told you that you were naked?” Any ideas as to any reasons why God said this other than the disobedience and loss of connection thing? Let me know in the comments or in person (or by Facebook Messenger or Instagram direct), because I’m not putting this on any social media site. But Eve is right about the serpent deceiving her — I don’t know how it happened, but I can’t spend any time investigating the root causes of the fall of man.

The next several verses are difficult, and I don’t want to get a view in which it would be corrupt; plus, it’s easy to manipulate those next six verses — it’s easy to manipulate many parts of the Bible, unfortunately — and I want to be in the right mind when I write on the next several verses, so bear with me, now. Will I write on them next week? Well, here’s some good news: I don’t have work until next Wednesday, and Christmas is a paid holiday that everyone at my Fry’s store is taking! Now that’s some good news! But tomorrow, I’m actually going to church and I might hear a message or two over the next few days there. I’ve begun to have hard feelings about churches in general over the last two months, but I’ve been more than willing to come to my Two Rivers Awaken group since I first found out about it five years ago and when Jesus called me into it six months later. Have a question why these hard feelings have existed before? Ask me in the comments!

Hope you’re having a good Christmas so far! (Yeah, this is a weird place to be in during late December…)

Here, we see that Satan contradicts the Lord more than once. God recompenses him for this in verses 14-15. We’ll get to it in a short or long while (whichever my work week permits in the seven days following Saturday — there’s still no schedule yet due to busyness), but to see this scene in one of the first chapters in the Bible is one heck of a plot twist. The premise of the entire chapter and what God says to us is fairly straightforward from our standpoint, but Eve had no idea what on earth the devil was plotting against her and Adam that day. Neither of them should have given in to him. But I don’t want to talk about anyone’s sin right now. Yet I will say this: what a lot of churches say you deserve, what many unchurched people (Christian or otherwise) say you deserve, and what God says you deserve are all three different things, and to an extent, their theology can actually contradict each other. Personally, I don’t believe that God says any one person has never deserved a chance to know Him. That’s impossible. For Jesus’ sacrifice on His cross makes it possible for anyone to accept Him. I know I won’t add to it, nor will I take away from it. I think this is biblical to believe.

To give you some background information on how Satan became so crafty, the story is simple: he was created as Lucifer, but literally deified himself and got his followers to abandon the Holy One and rebel against Him (Isaiah 14:12-14). There are other Scriptures that explain this in other ways, but so far, the only three others I know of are Ezekiel 28:12-19, Luke 10:18, and 1 John 3:8. And since he has succeeded in tempting Eve to eat the fruit so that Adam would do the same, all of us have been enslaved to him, until Jesus died and rose again. Yet not everyone knows about this, nor is everyone saved, seeing that hate and idol worship is huge in this world still, even in the tail end of 2018. And sadly, not everyone has a human preach Jesus to them in this life. Thank God that He makes up for it by trying to get others to recognize Jesus by good teachings, though (Romans 2:14-15). And I know what you’re thinking, “It’s a pretty weird teaching to believe,” but you know how some people are with overtly blasphemous things like the idea that God didn’t create someone for salvation or that condemnation was set for them before time began. They’re those types of people who do many hateful and godless things and say nothing but problematic statements (for the words out of the mouth is the abundance of the heart; see Matthew 12:34), and if they don’t get their way even in the slightest forms or ways, they throw a fit and manipulate many to accept them. Sometimes they can lie about being friendly to you. They do this to everyone. Don’t entrust yourself to them.

At least, though, the food in the garden was good, and I’m sure God was willing to grow more. Even with this terrible incident (verses 6-8), He made more vegetation happen. But death was included by means of Satan’s power. Funny how the tree of knowledge of good and evil was forbidden to everyone. I think God wanted them to love Him without them getting worried about what can happen. But do you think Adam and Eve would have succeeded in staying in Eden (see verses 22-24) if Satan hadn’t gotten to them at all? I don’t really think they would’ve sinned, to be honest. People have told me that even without Satan, Adam and Eve were still capable of disobedience due to the free will that God had gifted them with, and that people don’t need Satan to be enslaved on every occasion, in essence, but they didn’t want to disobey Him… or at least, Eve never wanted that. Satan tricked her, didn’t he? (See 1 Timothy 2:14.) I don’t know what Adam was thinking. But we’ll get into the ideas of men and women in the next post!

P.S. I forgot to mention that this five-verse passage is found in page 2 of both the NKJV and NASB Bibles I have, and is also found in page 4 of both the VOICE and Amplified Bible (Classic Edition) translations I had bought about three years apart.

This took a dark turn real fast. The serpent meanders to Eve for some reason (turns out it’s Satan, see Revelation 12:9), deceives her, then she and Adam eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Indeed, perhaps only a day or two had passed between their creation and this sad event. (This chapter is found in page 2 of my NKJV Bible, pages 2-3 (Old Testament) of my NASB Bible, and pages 4-5 of both the VOICE and Amplified Bible (Classic Edition) copies I have.) The theories that surround the reasons why are many, and each are as far-fetched as the next. While I don’t want to explain any of them, I will say that I once heard a message from a staff member of ASU CRU several years ago (ASU CRU is the student ministry I was a part of during college) — she said Eve was afraid, and Satan could smell fear. I don’t know about the fear thing, but she probably did have questions about her marriage. I know I don’t want to make any woman I tie the knot with (if I have the chance to do that) question her sanity with any questions.

What I’m about to say won’t be found in many churches across the world and will probably get people angry, but the idea that sin comes from people and only people to omit the reality of demonic influence that Satan had started is a lie from Satan himself. This false teaching has been imprinted on a Bible translation at least once, and that adds to the Word of God, and He won’t forgive anyone who does this (Revelation 22:18-19), for it is a way to reject Him. I speak like this because it is one way to blaspheme the Holy Spirit, and spoiler alert: this won’t be the last time I speak against a sin that rejects Jesus according to His Word in Matthew 12:31-32. There are many ways to blaspheme the Holy Spirit, but thank God blasphemy against Jesus can be forgiven. It’s not as though one can reject Him by accident, either. But if you fear you’ve done this and want prayer that you get close to Him, rest assured in the fact you haven’t done it. I’ve feared this before myself.

As I read this chapter in the four translations I mentioned earlier (by the way, I’ve finished Hosea in the Amplified Bible (Classic Edition) and am up to Matthew 16 in the NASB), I’ll make more and more notes on it. But I won’t get divisive with anything… yet as I read the footnotes of page 5 of the Amplified Bible (Classic Edition) copy I have, I’ve already found something divisive in footnote e in Genesis. But I won’t get into it now. Besides, it’s not as though God would blame you for something and heap up and actually enjoy condemnation on you or someone else. The one who made the divisive comment on footnote e is dead, though, and he’s in Hell for his godless comments he’s made over the years. Psalm 53 tells us that atheism is a way to reject Jesus, too, but I don’t think we should judge who’s reprobate and who isn’t. No one’s mind is supposed to work like this. Oh, and by the way, I don’t speak of a kind of atheism that is someone saying they don’t believe in God (though that’s still not good), but I’ll get to what the man said in the next chapter. For now, though, I’d like to take my time through this one and get some rest should things get hairy. I have almost 30 hours of work this week, so I don’t think I’ll write much for awhile (I don’t know next week’s work schedule, but they’ll post it on Thursday). I had found the divisive comment two years ago when I began reading that Amplified Bible translation anyway. Such things can only come from Satan himself, but in this case, he spoke through someone else. I don’t know why it was imprinted in the translation I have now or even on the website you can access that translation in.

Also, we were cursed with dreadful stuff as a result of eating of the forbidden fruit, but I really don’t think this should be translated into something unkind. Those who are trying to find the Lord Jesus and want to know Him don’t deserve such hate. Verses 16-19 are indeed some of the most difficult to translate into anything one in his/her right mind can accept. I won’t get into it here, but I love how God made some fur clothing to provide a better covering for Adam and Eve in verse 21. But He kicks them out of Eden so that they can’t live forever. For unfortunately, God was broken-hearted, and it is likely He forgave no one that day, but I don’t have a concise answer as to what exactly happened in their hearts except that shame had won. So Eden became paradise lost, and even to this day it is still closed. No one has ever taken a picture of it, though I think there were paintings of it in the past, but it is probably invisible, too. I just looked up “tree of life” on Google, and none of the images describe it to a satisfying extent. I don’t think those are real “trees of life.”

I’ll make notes on some individual verses or passages in context later. Like I said, this might take a while.

I’m making two posts on this because there are two central things happening here: creation and companionship. God said it wasn’t good for Adam to be alone (verse 18), so He wanted to make Eve out of him. Thank God their relationship was perfect that day, and their marriage started off with nothing going wrong.

(This passage I’m writing on is from page 2 of both of my NKJV and NASB Bibles, page 4 of the VOICE copy I have, and pages 3-4 of the Amplified Bible (Classic Edition) copy I bought years ago.)

I think we as early 21st century humans and Internet content viewers often forget the necessity of social connection. I know I don’t often remember to call someone (though I know most of us are often busy with life). But over time, I’ve found that the culture puts work over relationships. I don’t want us to do that. Yet I know work is a good thing; I just wish we could make much more in half the time we put into our jobs. I know I enjoy my job at Fry’s, but I’m not interested in becoming a workaholic. Indeed, not only do I want to be a good man to a woman I want to marry one day, but we also need friends.

Also, I find it hilarious that God just took a rib out of Adam to make Eve (verse 21), so that she could be his partner for everything. I want to be a team player for other people. The thing is, though, I’ve been single for ten years this month, and I’m not sure where I can meet anyone to create adventure with. But I have debts to pay off, so I don’t think I should concentrate on women right now. Fortunately, I had already paid one of them off before I started this blog, and two more are soon to be eliminated forever. The rest I think will take years, but I pray I don’t care about myself more than Jesus. It’s not right if we’re not trusting Him with our lives, for without Him and His care and provision, we go badly astray. Thank God I’ve been willing to get those debts paid off since day one of finding out about them. Let’s just pray they never come back once I’m done.

Verse 24 is quoted in Ephesians 5:31, but I believe that a man with his wife are supposed to be a team. Also, here’s a controversial opinion: I do not believe that the verses on submission and headship across the Bible (e.g., 1 Corinthians 11:2-16, Ephesians 5:22-33) are speaking of the Lord’s perspective; the Bible authors were speaking of worldly perceptions. I don’t know why they wrote that, but without this interpretation, bigotry is freely embraced and the people have their conscience strengthened so that they could abuse and exploit others, not to mention that they would even preach racism basing their messed-up opinions on the Scriptures as if they encouraged those divisive beliefs. Like I said, I want to be a team player for others. It shouldn’t matter to anyone what skin color or gender they are. I mean, my niece’s mom is from the Philippines, and so is her family. Funny enough, though (here’s an interesting fact), that land was formerly under U.S. ownership, but in 1946, they gained independence. I’m glad they are around. I pray for that nation to have revival (repentance and faith) in huge numbers. A majority of them are Catholic, but not a lot of people actually believe the Lord God. It’s actually pretty scary when you consider the fact that corruption is very high there (it’s high everywhere, I guess), but at least every generation can learn from their ancestors’ mistakes, no matter how insane.

The final verse in this chapter speaks of Adam and Eve (she was named thus in Genesis 3:20) being naked and unashamed. They probably didn’t see each other’s naked body parts until they were married (they didn’t need a room, since no other humans were around 😂🤣😄😅😆😜🤐), but whatever. What does it mean to lay our souls bare before the Lord Jesus? Why do many of us have a hard time being real? It can be scary, but we don’t need to keep secrets. There’s such a thing on keeping a low profile about something good but hard for many to accept, though. I never want to offend anyone, yet I know offences are inevitable sometimes (Luke 17:1a). But no one should make an effort to offend someone (Luke 17:1b). Fortunately, though, God won’t grade you on how well you do things. You’re no worse off if you don’t get a particular job, nor are you any better off if you eat only organic products and exercise like mad. But God does care if someone tries to use freedom to offend others, and also if someone tries to limit your freedom in the name of being considerate. That’s actually happened to me when I noticed that people can be honest yet offensive, and also, someone has tried to make me believe I was doing the same thing before. Offence wasn’t even on my mind, though. Sadly, truth in the latter scenario is hard to find almost every time. I don’t want to post any details here, though. Indeed, I’ve found before that offence is a weapon that can be so powerful it literally does in or enslaves even the strongest of people, and can actually prevent God’s hand from moving in people’s lives. For instance, do you know the story of the paralytic in Mark 2? Jesus came to show God’s glory one day, and four men carried a crippled man over the crowd and through a roof! Now that’s pretty amazing, don’t you think? Jesus was thrilled about the faith of those five people in Him, and the paralytic was healed that day. But some scribes called Jesus a blasphemer. I think, as a result, Jesus didn’t heal anyone else in that crowd that day, for God was offended at the scribes’ words. It would’ve been awesome if more miracles happened in that crowd that day. (An elder at my church helped me see that truth in one of his messages a few years ago.) At least, for the most part, miracles are an easy thing for Jesus to do, that is, until you see a crowd who is prolific about causing offence and loving to brutally rob others of their innocence. I can say from experience that if you see an entire community behaving like this, the only thing you can do is to leave and not look back. It’s not worth it to fall away like they did. Sure, you can pray for others there, but it wouldn’t be good for you even to speak to most of them, for in spite of a small minority of Christians in any community, should offence get the upper hand, it’s not good for anything. But I still believe that God will have the final word, for even when an ugly ending happens to something, He can replace those bad memories with something better.

See you in Genesis 3… boy, this one will be a doozy.

This NKJV title for the passage of Genesis 2:8-25 I will make two notes on. I think it’s only fitting that I don’t go overboard with information or amount of notes; it was the Holy Spirit Who told me this, I think. I also like the idea, for I never want to cause friction by going to the sins recorded in Scripture too soon. I just watched a YouTube video about the top 10 dark moments we missed on Nickelodeon when we were kids, and eventually teens. I won’t get into the details here; I won’t even post the link here. I want to be appropriate for some of the younger people reading this (though things get ridiculously sordid in some of the later chapters/books, but don’t worry, the Bible app is T-rated; 13+). I never want to get unsafe for the high school students or younger when I say or do anything. We shouldn’t frighten or offend them.

Anyway, this ten-verse passage is found in page 1 of my NKJV Bible, page 2 of my NASB Bible (Old Testament), pages 3-4 of my VOICE Bible, and page 3 of my Amplified Bible (Classic Edition). And here’s a side-note (I don’t think I mentioned it in the first chapter); I will not be commenting on all the notes in the VOICE Bible I have, but I do wish to be respectful when I see something out of place with God’s nature and character. This is lacking too often these days. But Jesus said to love your enemies (Matthew 5:43-48) — I think He said this so that even the most warped hearts can see the good in you and love Him and other people, knowing that first of all, none of us can save ourselves; only Jesus can do that, and He did, nearly 2,000 years ago when He died and rose again. For when we took the wrong route in which of the fruit of the tree to eat in Genesis 3, God said in His heart, “I’m not worried, for I have a plan to redeem humanity. I’ve known this since before the beginning, and people can never sin too much to be unable to accept My Son.” I’m sure you’ll have a hard time seeing this, but I don’t think God wants anyone to go to Hell (Ezekiel 18:32). It’s not His desire to see someone go down to the grave without eternal life from Him. I do know that in between verses 17 and 18 of the VOICE Bible that was first published and released in 2012, someone wrote that God “realized something was lacking.” Weird, huh? But I pray for this editor; hopefully he/she can believe that God knows everything and isn’t mad about this.

There are four rivers spoken of here, one being the Euphrates (see verses 10-14). It’s situated in modern-day southeastern Iraq. I don’t know why God put the beginning of life and man there, but I think you can ask Him and He’ll lead you to the answer; maybe not in this life but if you have Jesus as Lord and Saviour, you can get a reliable answer in Heaven. We’re supposed to pray that God’s Kingdom comes, and also that His will would be accomplished, here on earth as it is in Heaven. Of course, there’s often some resistance, but I don’t think you should be hostile to anyone who does resist the Holy Spirit. No one needs hostility; it almost prevented me from even becoming Christian. To make a long story short, I didn’t even know I wanted the eternal life I’m now grateful to have, nor did I know I was missing out. Church had been rather useless, seeing that I didn’t grow up in a church that believed the Bible and the Holy Spirit’s Word. After I ran into a lady from a college ministry, I met many wonderful people, and am happy to have most of them on Facebook now. I haven’t talked to many of them, but a lot of bad stuff happened years down the road, but I don’t write off anyone as if God couldn’t love them. That’s impossible. I’d rather not think about my past; I instead want to be happy with the job I now have. I didn’t graduate college, but I do hope to pay off my debts one day.

One more thing: the Lord God prophesied that man would eat off of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, but when He said that death would be introduced, He meant that one would die spiritually — and so death would soon spread to all creation, seeing that none of us always avoid making mistakes of many kinds (Romans 5:12; James 3:2). I briefly wrote about this in the beginning of my fourth year at Arizona State (I didn’t take many credits/classes over the years), but I wrote on only one sticky note there. Not to worry, though, God didn’t change His character when man did eat off that forbidden tree. His love lasts forever. It can be easy to picture Him as if He was watching your every move, waiting for you to mess up so He can strike you. I don’t believe that’s what the Bible teaches, as if He did those things. Also, keep in mind that most of what happened that was later called the Old Testament took place across nearly 16 centuries. So it’s not as though God was quick to judge, either, nor would He be like this today. For He never changes (Malachi 3:6, Hebrews 13:8), so His patience for all wins every time (1 Timothy 1:16). Besides, He loves freedom of choice — He said Adam and Eve could eat of any tree except that tree of knowledge thing, though He gave them the option — freewill is a good thing; I think He gave all people this so love for Him wouldn’t be slavery or something. Of course, you know what happened after that, but who knows? Would things be different if the serpent hadn’t come to Eve in the first place?

Sound off in the comments!

To be continued…

Not much to say here except that it’s pretty awesome how nothing bad had happened yet (read the rest of the Bible for some good and bad episodes 😅😒) — I don’t know why there were no children yet, but I think Adam and Eve looked like they were the modern age of 23-28 here. And contrary to popular opinion, they weren’t white, either; they were probably Middle Eastern. (By the way, with the four Bibles I’m using for this — NKJV, NASB, the VOICE, and the Amplified Bible (Classic Edition) — the pages for this chapter are from pages 1-2 on the first two versions I’m using, then pages 3-4 on the other two.) There’s two trees (no vegetation had sprung up yet; see verse 5), the tree of life, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. What do you think would’ve happened if we had taken the tree of life first? I can scarcely imagine any different perspective on this. I can’t understand what God would’ve said to them. And before anyone asks me something about sovereignty of God, here’s my only answer: being first in rank. That’s it. It really sickens me how badly this word has been abused across many churches. The one I go to never does this. I think the global Church can learn something from the lead pastor of my young adult group, Awaken. (My church’s name is Two Rivers Church. But I won’t say anything concerning a denomination here.)

Anyway, creation looked and was glorious. What a shame Eden is paradise lost, now (see Genesis 3:22-24), even to this day. But that doesn’t mean we can’t make more awesome getaways to refresh our souls, seeing that we were born to glorify Jesus with good works, even something as simple yet difficult as building a hotel partly underwater. Don’t let the good things distract you, though. It is very expensive to even get there, even if you’re just saving up for Disneyland, with or without a hotel. I live in Arizona, and I work at a Fry’s store, so it’s literally not gonna happen with my wages. Not that I don’t like my job, though… I do think you can be a blessing to someone anywhere, even just by showing up. People are lovely. That’s what God believes.

I have more to say on this chapter, so I’ll make a few more notes, each on specific verses or passages. Besides, I said this is a short post (sort of), so I’ll talk later.

I like what the editor said there. I hadn’t thought to coin mankind as the crown of God’s creation (for Jesus is the Uncreated One). I just wish no one got conceited because of this, yet I don’t think hubris is God’s intent for anything, including making another human being, as if He wanted me or anyone else to become gods. That’d be weird, don’t you think? Yet I’ve met people who have said they were Jesus. And I thought they were more or less hubristic or something. But even so, no one should assume they know something when they don’t (1 Corinthians 8:2). The note I read in the VOICE version is found in page 3 there, and it’s in between verses 28 and 29.

I think we don’t understand anything about what it means to be human, to do good to all creation and to each other. I wish we could get along better (some just don’t want to); indeed, Christmas is just 23 days away. Fortunately, hate is forgivable, but it’s always un-Christian, for 1 John 3:15 says that all who hate a believer in Christ is a murderer, and that no one who does this has eternal life abiding in them. And speaking of Christmas, I realized a few days ago that many who are fear-mongering about the war on Christmas actually create hostility against Christmas itself, though they probably know about Jesus being the reason for the season. It doesn’t have to be this way (everyone celebrates it differently anyway), but offence is rich in many parts of the world, especially when someone uses God’s Name to stir up discord among friends and family. I’ve seen that happen in my life before, but I don’t want to go into details now. I think that Christmas — and also Easter/Resurrection Sunday, being three to four months apart depending on the lunar cycle — are supposed to be used as opportunities to reach out to the unsaved in large capacities. They don’t have to be the only days to do it, but no one needs to worship the days themselves, and that can actually be pretty easy to do. But worship of something other than God, while also un-Christian, is also forgivable; I just wish no one chose that over Him.

But there will come a day when a great tribulation lasting for seven years (as prophesied in Daniel and Revelation, and some other parts of Scripture) begins by surprise, starting with all Jesus-lovers being raptured out of this world unexpectedly by God’s command to Jesus taking up His Bride who had accepted Him by then, and are also still alive at that point (1 Thessalonians 4:17). (Sorry for the run-on sentence format 😂🤣!) I don’t know exactly why God predicted this would happen, but I don’t believe He wants it to take place. I don’t want to get into it now anyway. I always have frustration with others who preach judgment rather than the love of Jesus that everyone should know about, especially in His sacrifice for all mankind. I think a reason God had sent Him into this world is to reaffirm His love for every human being. I have a niece (she’s my brother’s infant daughter), and I don’t want her to be frightened by anything. Even as I write, I pray she enjoys a beautiful first Christmas this month, and also when I see her Christmas morning. I don’t mind if I don’t make it to the Rapture, but I’d love for my niece to never experience death. And the women in our families can live to be longer than a hundred (my mom’s maternal grandmother is at least 103 and is still living). But the men in my gene pool, we aren’t so fortunate. My dad’s parents died in their 70s, with my dad himself passing away due to a heart attack at only 55 in 2012. Two of his brothers had died at a relatively young age by means of the same thing, too. And I was younger than twelve in both cases (I’m turning 28 this month). My brother and I could be next in just fifteen years. And he’s only 22. I pray against this assignment that Satan has made in my family line generations ago, and I rebuke the setup he’s made so that it would be gone forever. I don’t want death to have the last word instead of Jesus, so that no one else could live without Him in Heaven and later in New Jerusalem (I’m the first to become Christian among my family members in ages, though many have faked it over the centuries). I want to be around my niece long enough so that I’m not dead by the time she has children of her own, if she’s interested in that 😅 — but I want children of my own, too. I’m still a single bachelor, by the way 😅

I’ll speak with you later!

I only just learned about man’s dominion that God gave us all a few years ago. I don’t know how many people teach this, but it’s pretty awesome to know that God gave Adam and Eve and all their descendants (including you and me) authority over creation. We gave it to Satan when we sinned in the Garden of Eden (3:6), but Jesus took it back from him (Matthew 28:18). I don’t know why anyone could believe otherwise. My main problem is that politics has interfered with everything, and if you don’t have excellent discernment about it, starting with at least knowing that people shouldn’t be divisive or tyrannical in anything, you will likely struggle. I think it’s better to mirror Heaven on Earth, just as Jesus prayed that God’s will be done here on Earth as it is in Heaven (Matthew 6:10).

Also, I’ve been told that Genesis 1:29 tells us of plants being given to all man, and that marijuana is one of them. That last part is a lie, for though the verse is true in every way, marijuana is not God’s invention, nor is tobacco. “All things are lawful, but all things are not helpful” (1 Corinthians 6:12a, NKJV), right? I think those two things (and many other perversions of creation) have been manipulated out of the good by Satan. You don’t see someone smoking an actual tree bark like it’s a blunt, right? You don’t see maple leaves rolled up like cigarettes or other similar things and chainsmoked by the hundreds one at a time, right? I’m sure some people do this, but all of it is forgivable. It’s not as though anyone can reject the Lord Jesus by accident, right? I definitely don’t think it’s even possible for someone to go to Hell without them being given any chances to repent and believe in Him. God has no pleasure in anyone going there anyway (Ezekiel 18:32). The idea that God condemns those who have never heard Jesus’ message of salvation is an absolute sham, too, a deception of the evil one. But I won’t explain it now. By the way, this six-verse passage is found in page 1 both in the NKJV and NASB Bibles I’m using, page 3 of the VOICE copy I have, and pages 2-3 of the Amplified Bible (Classic Edition) that I bought some years ago. Oh, and one more thing: be prepared for me mentioning that a certain Scripture is used to manipulate people in a huge degree on many occasions.

See you in chapter 2!

I’ve read once that the Hebrew for “day” can mean any unspecified period of time, from as short as like a second or two to as long as hundreds or even many millions of years. It’s not my job to correct things as if I were an enforcer, though. I’m not interested in being a theological policeman. I do know man was created last (1:26-31, compare with other verses in the Bible’s first chapter), however. But I don’t want to debate with anyone concerning creationism vs. evolutionism; it never really works and is completely fruitless. For while I believe in good theology, we can’t force our opinions down anyone’s throats. I think Jesus is perfect theology, for He has loved everyone flawlessly since before the events in this book even began. I think there’s a tension between promoting truthful things and doing good works, but they should go hand-in-hand. If you want to go more in detail about this, I recommend talking to a professional theologian concerning anything on how the universe began, for I can only say so much. Besides, I can’t assume that because evening and morning (in that order) make up a 24-hour day, we should go to sleep as soon as sunset happens. I think we should feel free to go to sleep and wake up at anytime! But I don’t recommend missing out on anything important (i.e. work, job interviews, a Sunday church service that actually helps, etc.). Still, I have been told that waking up at, like, 7 a.m. is quite normal. However, this isn’t what God calls everyone to do. There is a vast expanse of lifestyles in which we can only see slivers of, and here on earth, we can only see part of God’s reality due to our actions disrupting creation from Adam and Eve’s disobedience (Romans 5:12) up to now. I am strongly against divisive opinions that go against freedom of concept when the concepts are good. I’m not willing to believe these opinions.

If there’s anything you can take away from this, it’s that no one deserves to be restricted in anything good. The Lord Jesus died so we can be free, right? But this isn’t freedom to sin, as if God’s grace somehow gave license for that. Instead, I can decipher that just as good predated evil in every form (and even after the fall, good wasn’t eliminated entirely), so we were created wanting to do good and nothing but. That’s what every Christian wants, male or female (Proverbs 11:23). We can do good things at the wrong time, though, and even want to do them at bad times, not understanding that it’s not the best method on God’s time table. Thank God you don’t have to understand everything as well as He does, though. It’s not as though He demands perfection anyway. He’s more so interested in each person, and all people across time itself accepting Jesus as Lord and Saviour. Not that we shouldn’t learn new things; we just can’t do it all at once. Also, both the NKJV and NASB Bibles I’m using have this passage in page 1 of each of them, and the VOICE has this passage in pages 2-3 there, and the Amplified Bible I’m using — that’s for pages 1-3 there. By the way, creation began on a Saturday evening (as we know it today) — Sunday is the first day of the week, and creation was finished on a Friday afternoon, when man came into play. I don’t know why the day format was listed as evening then morning here, but there are many ways you can define a day in a certain 24-hour period, one being the day beginning at sunrise, and ending the next sunrise the next day. I’ll get into the whole “let man rule” thing sooner or later, but not in this post.

Ciao!

Glad to write again! I just woke up about two and a half hours ago (I wasn’t in the mood to use this laptop earlier), but I think the things Moses (the author according to tradition) writes about here are so good it’s not even funny! Here, we see that creation was not only good, but that no one had ever sinned before. The second chapter is mostly dedicated to God fashioning man out of dirt (and the first woman ever from the man’s rib), but I don’t want to talk too much on either chapter here, for I want to be, for the most part, balanced in what I write. And you’ve noticed that I’m writing on some of the same chapters more than once. Spoiler alert: it won’t be the last time I do this. I won’t make the same note on the exact same Scriptural passage more than once per round of Bible notes, but I will cover different Bible verses each time.

Anyway, creation was not only good, but blessed by God Himself and was literal paradise on Earth! I think that’s really hard to pull off nowadays, seeing that sin had entered the world and, since we’ve all sinned before (Romans 3:23), whether we have Jesus and Lord and Saviour in our lives or not, a good, trusting scenario can easily be obliterated. Just think of Laish that people of Israel invaded in the later verses of Judges 18: the people that had lived in Laish were all living securely, and I imagine they enjoyed peace across the community. But when Israel pillaged the town, everyone was killed, and they renamed it Dan. And I don’t think God had commanded them to eliminate those people, either. Those awesome people had no suspicion of any ruthlessness attacking them. They just wanted to promote something good. But what did they believe? I don’t have an answer to that, but the Lord God knows, so I think you can ask Him. Also, Newtown, Connecticut suffered a similar fate in December 2012 when a gunman mercilessly killed over 20 children (most of whom being kindergarteners) and a teacher that, if I remember correctly, was protecting some students in her classroom. I can’t even begin to think how super-mad I was and how much of a train wreck I felt when this happened. And here’s another thing: the gunman worshiped Satan, so I don’t think he’s interested in Jesus (though He does not command to attack anyone — I know I’m not interested in hurting any souls). None of us suspected that he would do this sort of thing, I think. As for what the people wanted after that, though, I don’t want to address that now. A third scenario I can bring up is this: God even prophesied in Ezekiel 38 that people from Gog (the land of western Russia) would attack others (probably the Israelites) who dwell securely and without borders. I think they would be driven into a panic if that happened. You notice a pattern? Satan loves to attack those who want peace across the entire planet, and the kind that the world doesn’t give, but Christ’s (John 14:27) — for Jesus alone can give the kind of peace and love that lasts, and forever, too.

I can talk all day about how the security and trust can be established, but can also be broken very easily. Too often it never recovers. I think the people just don’t want to risk any beautiful blessing being broken again. Thankfully, we won’t have to even think about bad stuff happening in the future when New Jerusalem is established and creation renewed, if anyone is in Christ, of course. Maybe when I’m further along in this round of Bible notes and can bring up some Scriptures that will help me (and you) understand what’s going on, I’ll explain it to you further, but for now, I’ll just conclude this with the fact that the story begins here, in Genesis 1. Many people who have read the Bible would say that because sin has entered the world, we can’t live out a good or even a decent life where the scenarios of communal trust and security can happen. I say different! For sin didn’t predate anything in creation, as we can see here (though 2 Corinthians 4:6 is an interesting paraphrase of Genesis 1:3, according to a comment in the New Oxford Annotated Bible I had discovered). Not even Satan, when he was known as Lucifer, was created with any sin, but as you might be aware, fell from heaven when he led a rebellion with a third of God’s angels that he had convinced to join him. It was only God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, before He created anything. Funny enough, He’s thought of all of us (that includes you, the reader) before even that happened. I’m glad He’s had me in mind before time began. It’s the same for you, too.

Well, I go to work in a little over three hours, so I’ll get back on here later.

Be encouraged,

Ron Outland

P.S. I forgot to mention that I’m still using the NKJV, NASB (1995), the VOICE, and the Amplified Bible (Classic Edition) for this note, and these chapters are in pages 1-2 (NKJV and NASB (1995); these are pages 1-2 in the Old Testament for the latter), pages 2-4 of the VOICE (including notes in that one, which I won’t get to now), and pages 1-4 of the Amplified Bible (also with notes, which I won’t get to right now, either). Forgive me if I lose track on some of them; it’s a big load of work. I guess it’s a good thing I’m not doing more than four at once! 😅