Something I find incredibly value and useful to the Christian life is the practice of the Creeds and the Lord’s prayer. I personally think these are incredibly powerful and worth thoughtfully repeating every morning and evening. So here they are, the Lord’s Prayer and the Apostle’s Creed:

Our Father, Who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name.
Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread and
forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.
Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For Thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, forever and ever. Amen.

I believe in God, the Father Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth.
And in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
and born of the virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
who was crucified, died and was buried.
He descended into hell.
and on the third day He rose again from the dead.
He ascended into heaven
and sits at the right hand of the Father.
From thence He will come to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic Church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting. Amen

Now, one of my favorite things (because I’m a bit of a geek) is reciting these same articles in Latin. This is probably incredibly silly, but I always feel like these two are more holy, more set apart, more special when we look at them in another language, especially an old and ancient one. So here they are:

Credo in Deum Patrem omnipotentem, Creatorem caeli et terrae,
et in Iesum Christum, Filium Eius unicum, Dominum nostrum,
qui conceptus est de Spiritu Sancto, natus ex Maria Virgine,
passus sub Pontio Pilato, crucifixus, mortuus, et sepultus,
descendit ad ínferos, tertia die resurrexit a mortuis,
ascendit ad caelos, sedet ad dexteram Patris omnipotentis,
inde venturus est iudicare vivos et mortuos.
Credo in Spiritum Sanctum,
sanctam Ecclesiam catholicam, sanctorum communionem,
remissionem peccatorum,
carnis resurrectionem,
vitam aeternam.
Amen.

Pater noster, qui es in caelis, sanctificetur nomen tuum.
Adveniat regnum tuum. Fiat voluntas tua, sicut in caelo et in terra.
Panem nostrum quotidianum da nobis hodie, et dimitte nobis debita nostra sicut et nos dimittimus debitoribus nostris.
Et ne nos inducas in tentationem, sed libera nos a malo.
Quia tuum est regnum, et potestas, et Gloria, in saecula.
Amen.

One other thing that I’d like to mention is a meal prayer put forth by Luther’s Small Catechism:

The eyes of all look to You, O Lord, and You give them their food at the proper time. You open Your hand and satisfy the desires of every living thing. [Psalm 145:15-16].
Lord God, heavenly Father, bless us and the Your gifts which we receive from Your bountiful goodness, through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen

1. Esau rejoins Ishmael’s line in 28.9
2. In 28.22 Jacob promises a tenth (tithe) of all he has to God
3. In 30.1-24 Jacob’s wives (Rachel and Leah) battle it out for his affections. Even more than that, they battle for time spent between the sheets as they both want to have more children than the other.
4. In 32.22-32 Jacob wrestles with God. This is one of my favorite passages of scripture for two reasons: God comes down to see Jacob and Jacob refuses to let God leave without a blessing. Man may be nothing but dust, but God listens to his intentions and his hearts desires.

1. Would be a great nation
2. Would always be hostile toward their brothers
3. Would live east of their brothers

I find this very interesting because Ishmael is the link between Islam, Judaism, and Christianity. The prophecies also seem much like the current day Middle East. This is so interesting! This also led to me reading the Wikipedia article “Jesus in Islam” which I suggest you give a read to as well.

Some other interesting points from today’s reading are:

• Genesis 18.14 – “Is anything to hard for the LORD?” I believe it is very wise that none of us ever forget this. Nothing is to hard for God and His Christ
• Genesis 18.16-33 – Intercession works! This is such an awesome model for how we should pray and intercede before God. I think that there are truly two lessons that should be drawn from this: Always ask God for specific things and always remind God of His promises (mainly for you benefit).
• Genesis 19.30-36 – I find it interesting that Lot was the Father of his grandchildren. Incest? Maybe. But more interesting because Christ’s line goes through the Moabites who are a direct descendant of this line
• Genesis 22.14 – “The Lord Will Provide” or Jehovah-Jireh. This is just one name of God. The names of God are so important as they reveal his character. Look up the names of God and study them. God will provide! Jehovah-Jireh!

Think about that!

Day 1 was yesterday and required the reading of Genesis 1 – Genesis 6. A few verses struck me as either odd or powerful. Those verse are Genesis 3.22, 4.7, 4.26, and 6.3.

The first of these verses is Genesis 3.22:

And the Lord God said, “Now that the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil, what if he should stretch out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever!”

Now what interests me here is that it seems that God wants to prevent man from eating from the tree of life because man would become more like God, not only knowing good and evil but also living forever. Now why would God want to prevent man from living forever? Initially man was created as an eternal being (death is part of the curse) and, in retrospect, Christ died in order to clear the path for those who trust in Him to approach the Father while entering into eternal life. Obviously God is not attempting to prevent man from remaining eternal while in his current stae. Maybe God fears that man will be too God-like and dangerous if he now lives forever. But why would the omnipotent fear the limited? This is obviously not the case. Maybe God is jealous and desires that there be no created beings that resemble Him in such a manner. This cannot be the case because we are created in the Imago Dei, the Image of God (Gen. 1.26-27). Something does not make sense here.

Now, let’s think about this logically: Man ate from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. This disobedience is referred to as the fall and brings about the curse of sin and death. This brings man into a corrupted state where he is fully aware of his nature and sinful desires. These will lead to the experiences of guilt and struggling to fulfill and follow God’s law. Living eternally in this state would not be desirable, let only bearable, for most. God, in His great mercy, prevents man from eating for the tree of life in order to spare him the difficulty, pain, and guilt of bearing the knowledge of good and evil for all eternity while in his corrupted and sinful state. Instead this experience is limited to man’s earthly lifetime. So, basically, preventing man from eating from the Tree of Life does not occur out of jealousy or fear but out of a sincere desire to free and protect His creation from the struggle of sin, death, and guilt.

The second verse to consider is Genesis 4.7:

If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it.”

This verse is simply powerful and a recommendation to master the sin in your life and control it. This also gives me hope that while I am a sinful being I can still struggle and fight against sin with God’s help. I can master sin and I can do what is right and I can be acceptable to God – but only with His help. Isn’t it wonderful that His help turns out to be Christ – the great intercessor between God and man that has purified those who come to Him?

The third verse is Genesis 4.26:

At that time men began to call on the name of the Lord

What an interesting verse. At first I thought that this was referring to some kind of personal or corporate worship. But after reading some commentaries (here) I believe that this refers to the idea that men, for the first time, were distinguished by who they believed and worshiped. Those who worshiped God were called by His name and others were not.

The final verse is Genesis 6.3:

Then the LORD said, “My Spirit will not contend with man forever, for he is mortal; his days will be a hundred and twenty years.”

I find this interesting because in the verses immediately following it man still lives for more than a 120 years! It must be that, after doing some research, that I still am not sure exactly how to take this verse. Go figure!