Monday, September 12, 2005

Where, When, What, Why – God’s plan for me

Why is it that I was born in the United States, in freedom and with a chance to know God, while others were born in third world countries with little chance for freedom and state sponsored religion that does not follow Christ?

Why do I get to live in San Diego?

How come I was born in this time, and not earlier or later?

What is God’s plan for me?

I asked myself these questions the other day and determined to search the scriptures for the answers. Here’s what I found in Genesis Chapter 2.

1. God has been placing people in the right place, at the right time since the beginning. (Genesis 2:4-8) Notice in verse 7 that God formed the man from the dust of the ground. And in verse 8 God planted the garden and then PUT the man in it. The man was created somewhere else, not in the garden. Then, once God had established the place where Adam was to live he took the man and put him there.

Later in verse 15, scripture says that …”God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it”. Adam had a reason for living!

The Hebrew word used in these scriptures for “Put” is “Siym”. It means “to set, put, establish, plant, set down” and so on. The various shades of meaning are as follows: (1) to place something or someone in a location. (2) to appoint a person to a position. (3) to establish a new relationship. (4) to assign something to someone. (5) to set aside something or someone for special purposes.

When God made Adam, he had a plan in mind. He establish a time and place for him to live, a job for him to do that had a special purpose and established a new relationship with him in the process.

Like Adam, God had a plan for me from the beginning (Jeremiah 29:11). He established a time and place for me to live (Acts 17:26). He gave me a job to do that has a special purpose (John 13:34-35, Matthew 28:18-20, John 21:15-18, etc.) and through Christ, God has established a new relationship with me in the process (Ephesians 1:5).

God also loved Adam and cherished their relationship. So much so that when He saw that Adam was lonely he gave him a helper. You can read about it in verses 20b-23. Today, God has given me my wife and children and before that, he gave me my friends in the Kingdom.

God enjoyed seeing Adam do his job just as he enjoys watching me do his will. In verses 19-20a God creates the animals, brings them to Adam, then quietly sits back and watches Adam give them names. God could have given them names without Adam's help, but instead he let Adam do it (as any father would) and simply enjoyed watching his child. Today, through Christ, God has given me a Garden to live in, to work it and care for it. He brings his sheep to me, some lost and some not. Then he sits quietly, with joy in his heart and watches me gather them up and put His name on them. What greater blessing could there be?

2 comments:

cybeRanger said...

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Joel Persinger said...

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