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[#31] Genesis 2:18 – It is Not Good to Be Alone

By Jeremy Myers
11 Comments

[#31] Genesis 2:18 – It is Not Good to Be Alone
http://media.blubrry.com/one_verse/feeds.soundcloud.com/stream/256374056-redeeminggod-31-genesis-218-it-is-not-good-to-be-alone.mp3

So far in Genesis 2, we have seen that God has set up his temple. The temple was finished in Genesis 2:17, which means that beginning with Genesis 2:18, the biblical story really begins.

In Genesis 2:18, we see something foundational for how God wants us to live life, and something shocking about God’s role in that life.

The Text of Genesis 2:18

Genesis 2:18. And the Lord God said, “It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him.”

In this discussion of Genesis 2:18 we look at:

  • The first thing in God’s creation that is not good
  • The first foundational truth about the human experience
  • What God did about Adam being alone
  • Seven truths from Genesis 2:18 about loneliness

Genesis 2:18 - not good to be alone

Resources:

  • Buy my Book on the Atonement
  • Genesis 2:4-6 – The Second Creation Account
  • My God, My God, Why Have You Forsaken Me?
  • Was Moses Divorced?
  • fm Interview with Kathy Escobar
  • Subscribe and Leave a Review on iTunes

Downloadable Podcast Resources

Those who are part of my online discipleship group may download the MP3 audio file for this podcast and view the podcast transcript below.

You must join a discipleship group or login to download the MP3 and view the transcript.

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Do you like learning about the Bible online?

Do you like learning about Scripture and theology through my podcast? If so, then you will also love my online courses. They all have MP3 audio downloads, PDF transcripts, quizzes, and a comment section for questions and interaction with other students.

If you want to deepen your relationship with God and better understand Scripture, take one (or all) of these courses. They are great for personal study or for a small group Bible study.

You can see the list of available courses here, and if you join the Discipleship group, you can take all the courses at no additional cost. Go here to learn more and join now.

God is Redeeming God, Redeeming Scripture Bible & Theology Topics: alone, creation, Genesis 2:18, life, loneliness, love, One Verse Podcast, relationships

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[#21] Genesis 1:28-31 – Sex, Food, and Animals

By Jeremy Myers
7 Comments

[#21] Genesis 1:28-31 – Sex, Food, and Animals
https://media.blubrry.com/one_verse/feeds.soundcloud.com/stream/239225317-redeeminggod-21-genesis-1-28-31.mp3

What is the purpose of life? What is the chief end of mankind?

Genesis 1:28-31Is the chief end and purpose of man, as many dry and dusty old theologians like to say, “to glorify God and enjoy Him forever”? If that’s the case, it’s no wonder that many people want nothing to do with God, with theology, or with Christianity.

But what if I told you that according to God, our three primary tasks in life were to have sex, eat good food, and take care of your pets?

Now that is a little more appealing, isn’t it?

This is what we see from Genesis 1:28-31. Listen to the podcast to learn more!

The Text of Genesis 1:28-31

Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

And God said, “See, I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; to you it shall be for food. Also, to every beast of the earth, to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, in which there is life, I have given every green herb for food”; and it was so.

Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. So the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

In this discussion of Genesis 1:28-31 we look at:

  • The three instructions God gives to humans for how to live life.
  • God wants you to be fruitful and multiply
  • God wants you to enjoy good food
  • God wants you to make friends with animals
  • Doing these three things is what makes creation “very good”

Resources:

  • Logos Bible Software
  • Become a Patron of the One Verse Podcast
  • Wenham, Genesis – Amazon or CBD
  • The “Everything According to Tony Vance” Podcast
  • Subscribe and Leave a Review on iTunes

Downloadable Podcast Resources

Those who are part of my online discipleship group may download the MP3 audio file for this podcast and view the podcast transcript below.

You must join a discipleship group or login to download the MP3 and view the transcript.

Membership-become-a-member

Thanks for visiting this page ... but this page is for Discipleship Group members.

If you are already part of a Faith, Hope, or Love Discipleship Group,
Login here.

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Upgrade your Membership to one of the paid groups.

If you are not part of any group, you may learn about the various groups and their benefits here:
Join Us Today.

Membership-become-a-member


Do you like learning about the Bible online?

Do you like learning about Scripture and theology through my podcast? If so, then you will also love my online courses. They all have MP3 audio downloads, PDF transcripts, quizzes, and a comment section for questions and interaction with other students.

If you want to deepen your relationship with God and better understand Scripture, take one (or all) of these courses. They are great for personal study or for a small group Bible study.

You can see the list of available courses here, and if you join the Discipleship group, you can take all the courses at no additional cost. Go here to learn more and join now.

God is Redeeming God, Redeeming Life, Redeeming Scripture Bible & Theology Topics: Bible Study Podcast, Genesis 1:28-31, image of God, life, purpose in life, sex

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God is not a Vampire

By Jeremy Myers
12 Comments

God is not a Vampire

The impression we get from much of what passes for Christian teaching is that the closer we get to God, the more like Him we will become, and the less like ourselves.

In this way, God is sort of pictured as a being who sucks the human life out of us and injects us with His own life so that we become less like “me” and more like Him. As part of this exchange, we also get eternal life.

is god a vampire?It occurred to me recently that this sort of Christian theology makes God sound like a vampire. He “bites” us, and while we continue to “look” like ourselves, we get injected with His “blood” so that we “die” but remain alive forever. As the years go by, our human nature starts to fade away, and our “divine” nature starts to show through.

And as is the case with many vampires, they stop being too concerned about the humanity to which they used to belong, and use humans only for selfish reasons and personal gain. This is the dark side of being a vampire, and the dark side of being a Christian.

More Like God

It is not uncommon to encounter Christians who act as if their primary goal in life is to become less “human” and more “like God.” They give up their old friends, interests, desires, hobbies, and tastes, and instead hang out just with other Christians while studying an ancient book and speaking an arcane language that nobody else understands. They look down their noses on all the “unenlightened” humans around them who are “not filled with the Holy Spirit.” They sneer and scoff at all the ignorant masses who “live lives of emptiness and insignificance.”

But is this the way it is supposed to be?

No, I do not think so.

I believe that God wants us to be more human; not less.

God wants us to live

Jesus came so that we might have life, and might have it abundantly (John 10:10). He did not come to destroy fun and turn our smiles into frowns and our laughter into mourning, but to show us how to really have fun in life, to give us joy, and to turn our mourning into laughter.

God did not save us so that we might die, but so that we might live.

God made life, and He made this world, and He gave both to us so that we might enjoy it. Food tastes good because God made it taste good and gave us tastebuds by which to taste it. If God didn’t want us to enjoy food, He wouldn’t have given us tastebuds.

The same goes for the beauty of creation, the joy of good music, the physical sensation of touch, and even the pleasure of sex. These things are not bad or evil, but are good things God gave us to enjoy.

We worship God when we saturate ourselves with the good gifts He has given to us.

Near the end of his life, Bonhoeffer taught that God is not God at the price of emptying me of my humanity; humanity does not consist in letting oneself be sucked dry by a divine vampire! (Wink, The Human Being, 37).

The 19th Century philosopher Ludwig Feuerbach criticized Christianity by saying that we have made God in our own image, and in so doing, have become less human. He said that by putting all of our best traits onto God, we decide that these traits are not “human” but divine, and thus, we are dehumanized. Having projected what it means to be human onto God, we have become less human as a result.

The Christian religion has argued the opposite, but with similar conclusions. Seeing from Scripture that we were made in the image of God, we argue that the goal of life is to empty ourselves and become more like God. Life, we say, is found in conforming to the image of God and becoming less human as a result.

It seems that Jesus revealed a different path than either of these. While agreeing that God made us in His image, Jesus disagreed that this means we must empty ourselves of our humanity and become more like God. Jesus came that we might have life and might have it more abundantly. Jesus wants us not to empty ourselves of our humanity, but rise up to what it means to be fully human.

become godly by becoming yourself

Becoming Fully Human

God is not most glorified when we become more like Him, but when we become more like us.

God did not make us to be God, but to be human, fully human.

We become more “godly” by becoming ourselves; that is, by becoming who God made us to be.

To fully worship God is to fully live as humans. He made us to be humans, and we fulfill our purpose by living as humans.

And this is what sets a relationship with God apart from all other belief systems in the world. Most religions in the world try to get us to be less human so that we can become like God. Atheism rightly reacts to this wrong idea, and says that to fully live, we must be fully human. The problem with atheism, is that they believe we must reject God to become fully human.

God agrees with atheists. God too believes that our purpose is to become fully human. But Jesus teaches that we only become fully human when we live as God intended. The “rules” of God are not provided to destroy life and fun and pleasure, but to maximize them.

Atheism says: “You have made God and by giving him up, you become more human.”
Religion says: “God has made us and by following Him, we become less human.”
Jesus says, “God had made us, and by following Him, you become more human.”

Jesus became human, not to lead us back to God, but to lead us back to humanity.

So start to become more “Godlike” today. How? By learning to live like yourself. This is what God wants.

God is Redeeming Church, Redeeming Theology Bible & Theology Topics: anthropology, atheism, Discipleship, freedom, godliness, humanity, John 10:10, life, Theology of Man

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Do you have Paper theology or People theology?

By Jeremy Myers
11 Comments

Do you have Paper theology or People theology?

Do you have a paper theology or a people theology?

I used to have a paper theology.

In many ways, I suppose I still do.

study theology

A paper theology is when we have the “right” answers to tough theological questions and issues, but we don’t really know any people that are affected by our “right” answer.

In other words, paper theology is when we approach Scripture and theology from an “ivory tower” perspective. We study for the sake of studying and finding answers, but none of our answers have any real connection to life.

Paper theology is a theology that comes from studying books.

There is nothing exactly wrong with a paper theology. It is just that since paper theology never takes people into consideration, paper theology is often wrong when applied to real life. Paper theology may be right on paper, but wrong in life.

That’s because life requires people theology.

I am working on my people theology

If paper theology comes from studying books, people theology comes from being with people.

It requires coming down out of the ivory tower, leaving the quiet study, closing the dusty books, and entering into the real lives of real people who have real problems. When you do this, you quickly discover that the neat and tidy answers from your paper theology rarely applies or helps anyone in real life.

More often than not, when you get involved in the lives of people, you will find that your paper theology begins to get a bit muddled. Lines start getting erased. Clear-cut answers start to get smudged a bit.

Being with people changes your paper theology.

If you try to hold on to your paper theology when hanging around with people, it will not be long before people stop hanging around you.

The theology that looks good on paper rarely looks good when applied to people.

Jesus had People Theology

One of the biggest battles Jesus faced during His earthly minister was with the religious people of His day. While those who were labeled as “sinners” by the religious people loved to hang out with Jesus, those who were religious often found themselves at odds with Jesus.

Why?

Because the people theology of Jesus clashed with the paper theology of the religious.

Almost every single encounter Jesus had with the religious people was because they had theologically “correct” answers to pressing cultural and religious issues, but which Jesus soundly rejected in favor of loving and helping people.

The religious people had laws (easily defended from Scripture) about not working on the Sabbath. Jesus let his disciples break these laws because they were hungry (Luke 6:1-5).

The religious people had laws (easily defended from Scripture) about who could and could not be helped on the Sabbath. It was even a nice three-point answer! But Jesus ignored their neat and tidy theological answer so He could help a person get his hand back (Luke 6:6-11).

The religious people had laws (easily defended from Scripture) about stoning those caught in adultery. But when they brought an adulterous woman to Jesus, He forgave her and let her go.

We could give example after example after example.

But here’s the point: Jesus knew that the point of theology was to help us love people better.

If our theology causes us to bind heavy burdens on people’s backs, while creating rules, restrictions, and regulations for how to live life with God and others, and we stifle people’s joy, censor their love, and chide them for their grace, it is no wonder that people reject us and our theology, and maybe the God we claim to follow as well.

people theology

But let us follow the example of Jesus in developing our theology surrounded by people.

If our theology is really “true” it will lead us to look like Jesus and love like Jesus. True theology will be a theology built not on a love for paper, but on a love for people.

What does this mean for our theology?

It means that while we can develop and build our theology by reading and studying, nothing should be really set in stone until we put this theology into practice in the lives of people around us.

Do you believe God is angry about sin? Take a look at what this sort of idea does psychologically, emotionally, and spiritually to those in your life who know they are sinners. Does it lead them toward God, or away from Him? Does it lead toward honesty and openness about our failures, or does it cause us to hide and lie about our mistakes?

Do you believe that LGBTQ people are sex-crazed perverts being used by the devil to lead our country to hell? Well, first, good luck trying to prove this from Scripture, but second, how about you go out and become friends with someone who is gay? Of course, you better not tell them your theology, or you will never become friends. But if you truly become friends, you might discover that your “theology” about LGBTQ people changes. Here are some accounts of people who had this very thing happen to them:

  • A pastor who changed his thinking about homosexuality
  • 3 Mistakes about the Homosexual conversations and how we can correct these

Do you believe that Muslims are all violent extremists who want to chop your head off? Again, good luck trying to prove this from Scripture, but before you go spouting off about this idea to others, maybe you should go out and become good friends with some Muslims. Not to convert them or “win them to Christ,” but just to be friends with them. I think that if you do, your paper theology about Muslims might change.

We could on and on about various other theological and practical issues, but the end of the matter is this: If you get to know people as part of developing your theology, these people will change your theology more than your theology will change people. And that’s a good thing.

God is Redeeming Life, Redeeming Theology Bible & Theology Topics: life, love others, people, relationships, theology

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Thank You, Mothers!

By Jeremy Myers
Leave a Comment

Thank You, Mothers!

Mothers Day

God is Redeeming Life Bible & Theology Topics: humor, laugh a little, life, mothers, mothers day

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