Day 4

Today is May 29, 2023

And I took far too long in between my last post to come back. The quickest recap I can do is that December 26th, 2022, I listened to my internal voice that said I could no longer stay where respect was not being served. I took a huge leap of faith into a direction that will require some heavy spiritual lifting to ensure I do not fall as far as I had back in 2016. In addition to that, my personal life has been somewhat of a roller coaster ride that I did not sign up for.

In 8 days it will be a full year of my intentional spiritual journey of reading the Bible. Very wild to think about. I will say that my life has gotten more stable since then, so it is refreshing to think that hard times do not last.

I read this section starting January 13th of this year. Those were some cold nights in the jeep and some very hard times mentally. Definitely remember feeling like my mental health was at it’s end. Then February 12th was the next time and the very next day I had one of the biggest break-ups/melt downs of the life. That was hard. Then I finally sat down and on March 23rd of this year, got the rest of this section completed. The crazy part was, that was the day after I accepted a proposal to be marriaged and was effectively a few hours engaged. As I sit and write this, I am now over a month removed from calling the engagement off. I also spent a lot of time working on my several projects and have been making steadfast headway in that department. Stability is quite the luxury.

Noah (Gen 6:9–9:29)

The Godly Be Saved

This part talked about how Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. In previous readings, God seemed pretty angry at the behavior of Eve, Adam, Cain, etc. It says that Noah was perfect and by that it means blameless. That was weird to me because how can anyone be blameless? Or rather, how would they have blame to start with? Then it names his three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japtheth.

Gen 6:11 says earth was corrupted and filled with violence. My questions are, who corrupted them? What does that mean? Free will corrupts people? The the text says that “all flesh” had corrupted his way upon the earth. There appears to be a cross-reference to a different part of the Bible. Since I am new in my studies, I would like to read it first through and then reread parts for further understanding. Also, I was gifted the opportunity to have Bible study led by more experienced students. That was a blessing in understanding.

So, next, God tells Noah he’s going to destroy everything. Which sounds like the God I’ve learned about so far in reading. The text goes in great detail about the length, breadth, and height of the ark. It is all in cubit length.

(For those who read right when I post — this will be updated later today. I am posting so I can encourage myself to follow through better.) 1:45pm