what a wonderful day!

Praise God! Praise God for a wonderful day!
I woke up to a sunny sun ( :) :) :) ), well actually, I woke up to a broken stove..it kept beeping hahhaa :P Then church and sunday school came along and it was great!! Dr. Rev. Tony Costa was preaching and teaching Sunday school today and I don't think I've ever learned so much about Genesis in such little time! It still blows my mind because we only went through 11 chapters...!!!!!
I was once again reminded of what Jorge said to me once, "If you read through the Old Testament, you will find that it parallels to Christ a lot." And it does!! In just 11 chapters in the book of Genesis, you find so many things that relate to Jesus, God and the Holy Spirit!!

Chapter 3 - Cain and Abel. I remembered that years ago during Sunday school class, my class asked my teacher about why God favoured Abel more than Cain. You know, the whole favouritism topic. But today, I realized that it's not about favourtism but how Cain and Abel understood God and the concept of atonement. It relates to Genesis 4:3-5. Abel understood the idea of sacrifice of an animal (firstborn and blood). And even so, Cain offered his crops, which came from his toil, which (Genesis 3:17-19) also says that the ground is cursed. And even in chapter 4, it states that Cain was a ground worker (verse 2) - so the food he grows, or corps are cursed, technically speaking. And and and! this parallels with Christ too, because of the promise that God told Adam and Eve in Chapter 3 - that the seed of a woman (Jesus coming from a virgin birth) will be the one to save everyone from God's wrath (a summary). So when Eve conceived and gave birth to Cain, she said "I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord". Eve understood the idea behind God's promise, but we know that Cain is not the seed.

Fast forward to Abel killed by Cain - which by the way, Cain is the first murderer known and recorded - To Seth and other sons and daughters from Adam and Eve...haha, Rev. Tony C also added that some people have asked him how the three sons were able to have families of their own, but Genesis 5:4 says that Adam and Eve also had daughters so....yeah. Haha! Next, it shows the generations from Adam to Noah. But in Genesis 5:22-24! It talks about Enoch and how he walked with God. Enoch walked with God until he was taken. Rev. Tony says that there are people who will never taste death. He painted an imagery in our minds: how one day God comes to see Enoch and asks him if he wanted to walk. Enoch says 'Yes God' and they walked and kept talking and talking, until God tells him, "let's go Enoch, do you want to leave earth?" and Enoch says yes and God takes him, and no one sees him ever again. I found that to be very interesting.

Now to the time of Noah! Yes, Noah and the ark! Before Noah was instructed by God to build an ark, Chapter 6 talks about the corruption of the world. It says in Genesis 6 that the 'sons of God' saw that the women of the earth were attractive and took them as wives (so they had sexual relation). What was really interesting is who are the 'sons of God'. Rev. Tony says that he thinks that they are the same as the 'sons of God' that were described in the book Job. And if you read the book Job, satan was among the 'sons of God'. Therefore, 'sons of God' are angelic beings. This means that when the angelic beings saw these attractive women and wanted them, there was corruption in heaven and on earth. The angelic beings went down to have sexual relations with these women and created a hybrid race - called the Nephilim. And hahah, in my footnotes, it means 'giant'. So the offsprings are giants - reminds you of Goliath? And Rev. Tony said that this kind of genetic material somehow got into the human genetics - which is why you see that there are people who are really really tall. I'm not sure how accurate this is or if I really believe this and I will state why in a sec (or some paragraphs down below haha!). So in verse 3 of chapter 6, God says that His spirit did not want to abide in man forever so his days shall be 120 years. This is why today, it is like a disorder if someone was really really tall and they just keep growing - like into a giant but they die faster or earlier cause their organs fail..... :P I don't know the science part of it. So God was really angry and decides to destroy all of mankind except for Noah and his family because Noah found favour in God's eyes. So God decides to flood the whole earth and kill everyone except for Noah and his family and two of every living thing. One thing to note is that when God gives dimensions for anything - the ark, the tabernacle - it is divine. I can't really explain this part because even after J asked Rev. Tony about it, I didn't get a straight up answer :P but he said that there were some engineers that built the ark with the same measurements and said that it was perfectly engineered and built for any flood.... :P cool! Chapter 6-7 then shows that Noah builds the ark and also warns everyone of what is to happen - just like how Jesus spoke to people to repent. Another thing that is interesting is that we see the grace of God. In Genesis 7:16, Noah and his family went into the ark and THEN God shut them in. Rev. Tony emphasized that God was the one who shut the door - God opens and shuts the door. This is the grace period - the period where God allows anyone to enter the ark if they wanted to be saved, BUT!! there is also an end to this period. :P And now here comes the wrath of God! The flooding begins and this is the shabaaam kapow part! The ark is parallel to the tabernacle, which represents God's presence. So think of the ark as Christ. When we are hidden in Christ, we are saved from God's wrath. Noah and his family were safe inside the ark - they were safe from God's wrath. When we abide in Christ, we are saved from God's wrath!

Genesis 8 - the flood subsides and Noah sends out a raven. The raven does not return. Noah waits and then sends a dove out. The dove returns but comes back with an olive leaf - symbol for peace nowadays right? But a dove is significant! What does a dove do? A dove hovers....Genesis 1:2! "The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters." The Holy Spirit can be described as a dove that hovers - just like how when Jesus was baptized, God sends a dove. note that God doesn't send a hawk and goes gawwwwwk at Jesus, or an eagle to dive right down to Jesus or you know a lion (what we would think would be majestic), but God sends a dove - it shows how gentle God is and also something about the Holy Spirit - the Holy Spirit can come in a rush of wind or fire on tongues, but it is also gentle like a dove.

Noah becomes the new ancestor, since humans were wiped out..which is why I don't understand the Nephilim..how it can be in the genetic material if they were wiped out....unless the 'sons of God' disobeyed God and went down to earth again and married earthly women? I don't know :P Anyways! We are almost getting to Abram! Time goes on and Noah's family multiplies - ie. the Shemites and Noah's other two sons. They all speak one language and are unified. Genesis 11! They wanted to reach the heavens and this displeased God because by their own hands the people wanted to build this tower to act as a gateway between earth and the heavens. God also saw that since the people spoke one language and were unified then nothing will be impossible for them - something to note because when you are working with teams and you are really into it and you are all unified - you can accomplish much. So God says in verse 7 "Let us go down and there confuse the language..." Note that God has used "us", referencing Him, Jesus and the Holy Spirit!! So yes, the tower of Babel and God confused the language and dispersed everyone - this is the beginning of ethnic groups!
Finally we get to Abram and he is a Mesopotamian! This means that Abram is a gentile but he is an important figure for the Jews! But he is not a Jew!

Interesting yeaaaaah? To me it is! Quoting Rev. Tony, there is so much meat in the Bible! So many things to learn and to parallel it with Christ! Wow! I find it to be very sugoi :P

After this, I finally get to yum cha with my family! And then I went to menchies!! I didn't get it cause I was full but I want to go there again! It seems really fun hahaa and waterloo has one!! :D :D :D hahha something to do in the summer! And during the car ride back home, it was really nice - cause it's warm, it's sunny and I can feel the wind breezing through my hair - it felt so nice!!! :) yeeee Praise God!! And taking advantage of this nice weather, my brother and I went for a semi-jog. It is a semi-jog because I cannot jog :( all my running skills developed from kilometre club has vanished. gone. zitto. Yes, this means that I am out of shape -.- so out of shape :( :( but now I must get into "shape", which really means a healthy fit. hahahah! Then my mom trimmed my hair! haha, I have to say, I have really thick hair...I lost a lot of hair and I still think I have a lot left :D hahaha, it was decent and I couldn't complain and I didn't cry! Win! :D

Overall, today has been a good day!!!

Praise God for a good day! Praise God praise God praise God! :)