Oops Of the Day

The earth was flooded by 40 days of rain.

Genesis 7:4 & 11-20; Genesis 8:2-3 & 17; Genesis 9:13-15; Genesis 2:5-6; Genesis 8:22

OOPS: The earth was flooded by 40 days of rain.

FACT:   Springs under the ocean burst open and the floodgates of the sky were opened (Genesis 7:11-12). The waters kept rising for 5 months (Genesis 7:18-20). But at the end, the springs under the sea were closed, but the floodgates of the sky were only restrained (Genesis 8:2-3). Before the flood, the earth was watered by circulating dew (Genesis 2:5-6) For the first time, humans saw blue sky. And, with rain capabilities, the rainbow was made possible (Genesis 9:13-15). Further, the earth now had seasons (Genesis 8:22)

Oops Of the Day

Noah and His Sons Built the Ark.

Genesis 5:32; Genesis 6:14-18; Genesis 11:10

OOPS: As soon as God told Noah how to build the ark, he and his sons got to work building it while their wives planted gardens to keep their families fed.

FACT: Noah’s sons were not even born yet. The flood occurred 120 years later (Genesis 6:3) Noah was 500 years old when began to build the ark (Genesis 5:32). Shem begat his first son when he was 100 years old, “2 years after the flood ” (Genesis 11:10).  So, Noah built on the ark for probably 20 years while his sons were growing up and finding wives to marry. 

Oops Of the Day

Those people in Noah’s day thought about sin all the time. 

I would never do that.  I am not evil.

Genesis 6:5-6; Genesis 2:16-17; Matthew 15:17-20

OOPS:  Evil is worse than ordinary sins.  Only murderers, rapists, thieves and abusers are evil.  Most people are not evil.  

FACT: Eve ate a piece of fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good & Evil; therefore, she became evil.  Jesus listed things in Matthew 15 that were sins from an evil heart.  Here is a list of sins – bad we do.  (It does not include sins of good we do not do.)  

1 Corinthians 6:9-10 lists sexual immorality, idolatry, adultery, prostitution, homosexuality, thievery, greed, drunkenness, slander, swindling.

Galatians 5:19-21 lists sexual immorality, impurity, debauchery, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, orgies.

Ephesians 4:31; 5:4f lists bitterness, rage, anger, brawling, slander, malice, obscenity, foolish talk, coarse joking, immorality, impurity, greed.

Philippians 2:3, 14 lists selfish ambition, vain conceit, complaining, arguing.

Colossians 3:8-9 lists anger, rage, malice, slander, filthy language, lying.

1 Timothy 1:9-10; 5:13; 6:3-5 lists lawbreaking, rebellion, ungodliness, unholiness, irreligion, murder, adultery, perversion, slave trading, lying, perjury, idleness, gossip, false teaching, conceit, controversial, quarrelsomeness, envy, strife, malicious talk, evil suspicions, constant friction, robbing truth.

2 Timothy 3:2-8 lists loving self, loving money, boastfulness, pride, abusiveness, disobedience to parents, ungratefulness, unholiness, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of good, treacherousness, rashness, conceit, lovers of pleasure, denying power of godliness, controlling the weak- willed, never acknowledging truth, opposing the truth, depraved of mind.

Titus 3:3, 9-11 lists foolishness, disobedience, deceit, enslaved by passions, malice, envy, hatred, foolish controversies, arguments, quarrels, divisiveness.

James 3:14-16; 4:1-3; 5:3-6 lists bitter envy, selfish ambition, boasting, denying the truth, disorder, fights, quarrels, murder, covetousness, quarrelsomeness, fighting, wrong motives, hoarding wealth, failing to pay wages, living in self-indulgence, condemning the innocent.

1 Peter 2:1; 4:3 lists malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, slander, debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing, idolatry.

2 Peter 2:14-19 lists adulterous eyes, seducing, greedy, boastful, lustful, enticing, slaves of depravity.

Jude 7-8, 16 lists sexual immorality, perversion, rejecting authority, slandering celestial beings, grumbling, faultfinding, boastful, flatterers.

Revelation 21:8 lists cowardliness, disbelief, vileness, murder, sexual immorality, false healing, idolatry, lying.

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A Different Oops Every Day

Did Angels Marry People?

Genesis 6:2,; Matthew 22:30; Genesis 5:3-4; Genesis 4:12 & 26; Genesis 6:l; Genesis 34:16; Hosea 1:10; II Corinthians 6:18; Deuteronomy 7:3

OOPS:  Sons of God were angels who married human women.

FACT: Angels do not marry at all. The sons of God were descendants of Seth. The daughters of men were descendants of Cain, Seth’s brother.  Later, the sons and daughters of God were believers in Jesus.

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How long were Adam and Eve Sinless?

Genesis 2:17; 3:23-24; 5:3

SURPRISE  Adam & Eve may have been sinless 100 years. 

FACT: Adam was 130 when his third son (Seth) was born. If Adam had Cain when Adam was 102 and had Abel when Adam was 105, they would have been teenagers shortly before Seth was born and about when Cain killed Abel. Therefore, Adam may have been 101 years old when Eve became pregnant with Cain after they left the Garden of Eden.

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A Different Oops Every Day

Was the sheep Abel offered more valuable than the vegetables Cain offered?

Genesis 4:3-4

OOPS:  God accepted Abel’s sacrifice and rejected Cain’s sacrifice because Abel’s sheep was obviously more valuable than Cain’s vegetables.

FACT:  The Bible does not tell us how many vegetables Cain offered.  It could have been enough to feed an entire family for a year.  Or feed an entire village.  The attitudes of their hearts was the reason God accepted Abel’s and not Cain’s.  They went through the same motions of worship.  Attitude makes all the difference in the world.

What a powerful God you are. You speak and your words roar through the universe. You sing and your song echoes from star to star. You whisper and the wind swirls and makes the clouds bump lazily into each other. You sigh and I feel your Spirit within my soul.  Mighty and gentle. Tough and tender. Everywhere at once and nestled in my heart.

Forgive me when I judge others by myself. I was where they are once. Help me be patient with others and delight in their little bit of growth instead of their slow progress.

Thank you for cold, nippy mornings with the wind pounding on my cheeks, icy paths challenging my balance, and cabin fever when I stay indoors too long. And for rush-hour traffic and horns that honk and declare their presence on the road. Thank you for restless children and empty cupboards and flat tires. Thank you for a world that is not perfect so I can watch you work within it all to bring blessings and peace and wonder.

The scripture for today, January 12, is James 1:12 as found in the New Testament of the Bible:          “Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him.”

Ah, Lord God. I praise you for your greatness and minuteness.  You dwell in the cosmos and you dwell in each tiny atom. You are directed energy, determined love, the head, heart and soul of the universe. Nature praises your reliability and predictability. My spirit praises you for bringing life and brightness and wonder into the world. When the sun shines on me, I know it is you. When rain drops happily onto the ground, I know it is you. When the rainbow emerges among dark clouds, it, of course, is you.

Help me not look down on people with weaknesses. When I do, it makes me weaker than them.

Your patience with mankind through the centuries is beyond comprehension. You answer sometimes silly (to you) daily prayers while having to keep everything in the cosmos synchronized. And, Jesus, you came at just the right time after mankind had tried everything to be perfect and realized it is impossible. Oh glorious thought ~ all you have done and continue to do to rescue me from Satan and keep the way clear for me to live on the heights with you someday forever. Thank you, too, for seekers around the world.  Send more to me so I can reach out to them. Thank you for their souls that I may offer up to you.

The scripture for today, January 11, is 2nd Peter 1:11 as found in the New Testament of the Bible:          “And you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”

You are the fountain of all things, the cause of all things, the manifestation, the life-giver and mover of all things. The thought of you is staggering and beyond my comprehension.  Still you reveal yourself and leave it up to me to understand what I can. That understanding is just a shadow, a whisper in this vast cosmos. Someday I will understand ~ well, maybe. Will it ever be possible? I am only human. Still, on that Someday, I will comprehend and praise you more than I ever imagined.

If I stayed to myself and minded only my own business, I would not be opening myself up to insults. That’s just being a coward. Help me open myself up to taunts. Help me share in the suffering of Jesus.

Your Bible is such a blessing. It is not confusion. It is not chaos in its wondering about this and that. It is not madness in careless guessing. It is order and harmony, peace and tranquility, it is ultimate truth. There it is just waiting for me to discover it. You open your mind and heart to me in your Bible, along with your plans, your movings, your yearnings for me. A love letter from God it is. When I read, it is as though I am in a mist and seeing you afar. Thank you for your Bible.

The scripture for today, January 8, is 1st Peter 1:8 as found in the New Testament of the Bible:          “Though you have not seen him, you love him! And even though you do not see him now, you believe in him! And are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy!”

Ah, my Lord Jehovah, I praise you ~ God the Father and First Cause of all things, God the Son who carries out the will of the Father, God the Spirit and Life Bringer.  In every way you have revealed yourself. In every way you are the white radiance of eternity quivering in the intense delight of divinity.  I am not in the dark, wondering about your glorious will for me. You provide light in your Word. You are Word. You are Light.  The rays of your wisdom stream down to me, I catch them, and my heart is filled with You.

Lord God, help me work through forgiving seventy times seven. That’s 490 forgiving the same person for sometimes the same thing. So hard to do. Make me die to self so I can.

Your Bible is a gift I shall never tire of because I never have to guess what is going on in the world. It is so astounding, I never comprehend all that is in it ~ about the past, the right now, and the forever future. Your Plan for this world affects the next world ~ your place of ethereal love and joy. I thank you for revealing all this to me through your Words and keeping my heart as receptive as that of a little child.