Your life is a gift and also an assignment.
Imagine that God gives you a loving husband or wife. You must then learn to love. That's much more than being in love.
You're a woman, and you're praying for a baby. Your longing is fulfilled. Then you must learn to be a mother. It's not just biological reproduction. Fatherhood also needs to be learned.
Adam and Eve were given a great gift, life, with the nature of God himself.
So God created man in His own image; He created him in the image of God; He created them male and female. Gen 1:27
With this amazing gift came a great assignment.
God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, and every creature that crawls on the earth.” Gen 1:28
The gift was a blessing and the assignment was also a blessing.
You can read this because have received the great gift of life. You are alive.
God appointed the man and the woman to rule the world together. They should do this as a partnership.
Some people do not want to understand this because their thinking is dominated by hierarchy, men ruling over women, leaders ruling over church members.
But there is an even sadder error in thinking that has ruined humanity. Men want to rule the world without recognising God, without understanding this responsibility as a gift of God.
In the beginning God did not say that men should dominate women. He also did not say that men should rule over other people.
On the contrary. Men and women together were appointed to govern the earth.
In the New Testament Jesus trained his apostles as a team. He sent out his disciples two by two.
Jesus also recognised women his disciples.
But He replied to the one who told Him, “Who is My mother and who are My brothers?”
And stretching out His hand toward His disciples, He said, “Here are My mother and My brothers! Mt 12:48-49 (HCSB)
Men and women were called to rule the world, but they needed a small beginning.
And the LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to cultivate and preserve it. Gen 2:15
When God gave you your life, you were very small. You were supposed to receive love and care, to learn and grow. It is a tragedy that many small children do not receive healthy love.
Adam and Eve had the great blessing of being loved and taught by God Himself. Tragically, they rejected this blessing, because they wanted to go their own way, instead of developing their life and mission with God's fatherly love.
God gave Adam and Eve the gift of life, but not a life as orphans, but a life as his beloved children, a life with his care and friendship.
Life with God included the assignment to rule the world with God, as God's children and co-workers, all within the framework of love and partnership.
After Adam’s fall, people were like orphans in the world. Most no longer knew God's friendship and fatherly love.
Do you know God's friendship and fatherly love?
“For God loved the world in this way: He gave His One and Only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16 (HCSB)
God wants to give you the same gift that Adam and Eve had in the beginning, not only never ending life, but life with God, eternal love and fulfilment.
What should this life look like? Just a respectable moral life in a church? This is the holy highway of the Gospel, but rather a parking lot.
Jesus calls us to an adventure to live as He lived on earth.
Jesus had a mission to save the world.
Jesus calls you and me to participate in His mission.
Are women to be only personal assistants? The first witness to declare the resurrection was Mary Magdalene.
What is your personal assignment from God?
Imagine that God gives you a loving husband or wife. You must then learn to love. That's much more than being in love.
You're a woman, and you're praying for a baby. Your longing is fulfilled. Then you must learn to be a mother. It's not just biological reproduction. Fatherhood also needs to be learned.
Adam and Eve were given a great gift, life, with the nature of God himself.
So God created man in His own image; He created him in the image of God; He created them male and female. Gen 1:27
With this amazing gift came a great assignment.
God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, and every creature that crawls on the earth.” Gen 1:28
The gift was a blessing and the assignment was also a blessing.
You can read this because have received the great gift of life. You are alive.
God appointed the man and the woman to rule the world together. They should do this as a partnership.
Some people do not want to understand this because their thinking is dominated by hierarchy, men ruling over women, leaders ruling over church members.
But there is an even sadder error in thinking that has ruined humanity. Men want to rule the world without recognising God, without understanding this responsibility as a gift of God.
In the beginning God did not say that men should dominate women. He also did not say that men should rule over other people.
On the contrary. Men and women together were appointed to govern the earth.
In the New Testament Jesus trained his apostles as a team. He sent out his disciples two by two.
Jesus also recognised women his disciples.
But He replied to the one who told Him, “Who is My mother and who are My brothers?”
And stretching out His hand toward His disciples, He said, “Here are My mother and My brothers! Mt 12:48-49 (HCSB)
Men and women were called to rule the world, but they needed a small beginning.
And the LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to cultivate and preserve it. Gen 2:15
When God gave you your life, you were very small. You were supposed to receive love and care, to learn and grow. It is a tragedy that many small children do not receive healthy love.
Adam and Eve had the great blessing of being loved and taught by God Himself. Tragically, they rejected this blessing, because they wanted to go their own way, instead of developing their life and mission with God's fatherly love.
God gave Adam and Eve the gift of life, but not a life as orphans, but a life as his beloved children, a life with his care and friendship.
Life with God included the assignment to rule the world with God, as God's children and co-workers, all within the framework of love and partnership.
After Adam’s fall, people were like orphans in the world. Most no longer knew God's friendship and fatherly love.
Do you know God's friendship and fatherly love?
“For God loved the world in this way: He gave His One and Only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16 (HCSB)
Adam and Eve had life from God and with God. God is eternal. Life with God is eternal.
God wants to give you the same gift that Adam and Eve had in the beginning, not only never ending life, but life with God, eternal love and fulfilment.
What should this life look like? Just a respectable moral life in a church? This is the holy highway of the Gospel, but rather a parking lot.
Jesus calls us to an adventure to live as He lived on earth.
Jesus had a mission to save the world.
Jesus calls you and me to participate in His mission.
Are women to be only personal assistants? The first witness to declare the resurrection was Mary Magdalene.
What is your personal assignment from God?
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