His Awesome Patience

Hi, I am trying to read through the bible in a year again, this time in New King James version. There is this very cool website http://www.bibleinayear.org/ which actually emails you the daily bible reading! I dunno about you, but I somehow fill obligated to read my office emails, so hopefully this will work better for me than the on-again, off-again attempts I have been making with other bible reading plans.

Being the smart aleck that I am, I have decided to post a short entry daily about what spoke to me in my daily readings. I am hoping that this serves to give me more discipline to get on track with the daily readings, and I will be praying that as you read the posts, He will speak directly to you and bless you despite my clumsy attempts at blogging.

OK, Day 1 is Genesis 1-3, exciting stuff about how God created the universe and all in it. As I read these chapters, something a good friend of mine shared resonates in my mind. In Chapter 3, when Adam and Eve takes of the forbidden fruit, do you suppose God knew straight away that they have in one single act of defiance thrown away all the good that God has planned for them in His perfect Will? Well, if He is indeed the all-knowing and omnipotent God, then He must know, right? So why did He ask Adam "Where are you?" (v10), and then "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat?" (v11). My friend suggested that since this is the first time Adam has sinned, God is probing Adam to get him to understand and confess what he has done, so that he learns.

What awesome patience! Imagine this, you have just stepped into the house after a long day of work and you find that Junior has been using your brand new $3,000 ZIPP wheels as a lever to move the fridge (despite being told NOT to touch it), and your ZIPP wheels now look more like a used wedge of lemon. For those asking "What's a ZIPP?", please substitue with Junior breaking your brand new wide screen plasma TV (picture not mine, by the way). Would you (1) Gasp/scream in horror, (2) Turn around and head for the pub, (3) Chase Junior around the house while screaming like a banshee, (4) Start thinking of all sorts of ways to punish Junior for his wilful act of disobedience, or (5) Ask him gently what he has done (despite the obvious circumstantial evidence) so that Junior has a chance to admit (and learn from) what he has done? I confess that I would have probably done (1) to (4) in combination. :-) Now do you see what I mean by "His Awesome Patience"?