First Things First

First Things First

November 3, 2024

Every morning I start my day with a quick check of my blood sugar, a visual sweep of the kitchen, finding all the dirty dishes to fill the dishwasher, getting out a fresh dish towel and dish rag, drinking the dregs of the coffee pot, and starting a new one — all the while wondering what good news God has for me today, what new lesson will open my understanding so that I might have some insight or practical wisdom to share with others.

I live in the real world. However, God has occupied my real world for a half century, personally invading my barricaded inner self, breaking down all the walls of separation between He and I, so that I can become a better man.

Before that half century, I had heard the Bible stories in Sunday School, but they never were a real influence… until I became a Born Again Bible Believing Christian. That change took place when I was around 21 years old.

I am telling this short bio so you might be able to decide to bother reading the rest of what I have to say this morning.

Maybe you haven’t had your first cup of coffee yet. Maybe you have more pressing priorities or just are not in the mood for a ten minute read… That’s often the way with me, too.

Just the same, since about 4:30 this morning, this is what’s been pressing on my mind…First things.

How a person starts sets the tone for the rest of the day. For me it’s not unlike launching a boat prepared for sun, wind, rain, or stor — m ready to fish, swim, or just relax…

To understand the Bible in all its richness and insights, I have found that first, anyone must start by understanding how God has started His Day… and what I am referring to is the Creation story in Gemesis. “In the beginning…”

Now, having written about difficulties in communicating in writing before, I’ll try to be brief in my comments about it…

A late great friend of mine in High School (Class of 1968) had a three word expression that had at least three different connotations… Pardon my using coarse language, but he would say, “What an asshole!”

Was he saying someone was being a jerk of low character? Someone was being outrageously funny? Someone who had stupidly embarrassed himself in public? Did someone make him angry, or pleasantly surprised, or empathetic?

Two thoughts…

First, you had to know my friend. He was a good guy.

Second, you had to hear the inflections in his voice and see the expression on his face, and maybe even know the entire situation.

Only then would you understand his meaning.

I have learned that this is the same reality with God, Jesus, and the Bible.

First things first.

Please excuse me for a few minutes while I get a second cup of coffee, check my sugar, inject my insulin, take my pills, and grab a bowl of cereal… first things…

…Well, I’m back. (Betcha didn’t even know I was gone!) Sorry it took a while, but I’m in the early stages of dementia where my brain is slowly turning into sawdust, and I have to be very careful of what amounts of each insulin I dose. It’s happened before, where I mix them up and have to spend the morning forking down carbs so I don’t pass out.

After Covid there were some aftereffects we found kind of funny — like my loss of balance where I would be trying to accomplish my outdoor and garden duties… I stagger around “like a drunken sailor.” I joked with my wife that I should carry around an empty wine bottle to entertain the neighbors… Once I staggered about 20 feet sideways before I could catch myself. Another timeI fell into a muddy part of low ground and couldn’t get up. I mean, it was only a couple inches deep. I meekly called, “Help.” No one was around, anyways. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw my daughter getting into her car, taking her dog home. I called out, but her car was running, and she couldn’t hear me… Luckily, her dog did hear. Barking to get her attention, she turned in the direction her dog was looking and saw the fix I was in. She came to the backyard and rocked me to my knees like a good cowgirl would rock a fallen horse. She helped me up, we chuckled a bit, and then, we continued on our day. (By the way, we never had horses, but she is an Occupational Therapist and knows all kinds of ways to help people with their physical travails.)

So, I’ve strayed far and away from today’s topic… but I don’t care. Too soon for me, my writings will become as funny as my uncontrollable drunken sailor routine. Yeah. I know. It’ll be funny until it’s not. Still, one thing I’ve learned for sure is that God is faithful and will see us through… good times, bad times and everything in between…

Now, for the rest of the story:

Genesis is the start of the Bible. It lays out the first things like the creation of the Universe, the starry lights, the Sun, the Moon, and the stars. God even says why! He created all living things, all the plants and animals on land and in the Oceans. He made Mankind and gave the primal reasons for our existence..

Next, I have come to realize the foundational importance of God’s ensuing project: that “next thing” which is a very important detail to keep in mind. The seventh thing God did was to take a break.

This next thing God started was a separate project. “Separate” is extremely important to our understanding of God, Jesus, and the Bible, and the understanding of it will become an essential operative principle needed to be significantly applied throughout the Bible.

It is the sense of the original text’s use of the Greek word “holy.”

He set aside a plot of ground, not unlike one of our National Parks, making that place “holy ground.”. He created Adam, the first “son of God.” He knew, of course, that Adam would need a companion and partner in this adventure. He also knew that eventually Satan would tempt Eve to doubt what He had said, and she would fall into disobedience, Adam followed, and the rest is history.

Still and all God did have an overall master plan which will be unraveled throughout the Bible record and when He brings the final curtain down.

Two things I have come to realize:

• The original sin, being wrapped in disobedience, spawned the Blame Game — an irresponsible, adversarial, and counter productive habit which has persisted to this day and is coming to its full blown and tragic consequence and conclusion.
• Mankind, that is, all the peoples of the world, were created first. Then, God embarked on a “separate work,” and the word “separate,” as I have just stated, being the key operative word which would be His principle method of revealing His ways and His will, His nature and character, and His plan for all people.

This is one example of why “first things” are so important. They are foundational to building an honest mindset of what we believe in and what we might commit ourselves to living by.

You see, something else I have discovered in my word studies of the original languages of the original texts is the meaning of that word “holy.”

We must understand that it often takes more than one word or even one phrase to envelop the meaning of what someone is trying to communicate.

This is why I told the story of my friend using the same phrase to indicate three different ideas.

Take the Classic novelists like Charles Dickens who knew that and were so skillful at painting pictures with words…

We really need the authors of the Scripture Books and their verses to provide the voice inflections, facial expressions, and how they defined their word usages. However, and obviously, we know that those authors are all dead and that will never happen.. unless… God made a way so that we can completely and fully understand…

Most important and to my point is what Jesus promised: “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments. And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Advocate to be with you forever — the Spirit of truth. The world cannot receive Him, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. But you do know Him, for He abides with you… …All this I have spoken to you while I am still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have told you. — John 14:15–17 & 25–26, ibid.

God pretty much knew ahead of time what would ensue after He accomplished His first things” — everything we call history — and He had that overarching Master Plan which I mentioned.God knew that that would be the situation for all generations that followed those authors deaths, and as the Apostle Paul wrote:

“Every Scripture is God-breathed and profitable for instruction, for conviction, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete, having been fully equipped toward every good work.” — 2 Timothy 3:16–17. Berean Literal Bible.

Now without arguing incessantly about the exact meaning of “God-breathed,” let’s keep it simple: God oversaw the initial writing of the texts and God made sure of the perpetual preservation of them. Did God dictate the words as a boss dictating to an office secretary? I would say when the author quoted God, yes, definitely yes.

What about the rest? History is history and it was important to people like Moses to preserve it. God oversaw that project, too. Who said what to whom? They had scribes who wrote the stuff down at the time it was happening and that included conversations. Books like the Psalms were written perhaps even by the psalmists themselves. Certainly King David had scribes to record them, also.

So look, Paul wrote in his first letter to the Corinthians, “For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial passes away.” — 13:9–10, ibid.

Eventually, but as for now, first things first.”

Look, please, let’s not nitpick, arguing about where the specks of sawdust are coming from. Instead, let’s work on getting the 2x12 lumber out of our eyes so we can see things clearly…

God gave us the Bible, and He knows what we need to know.

We must look to Him for understanding. Keep in mind that these writings were in the style of meat and potatoes… plain talk to plain people.

Going back to another important aspect from the story of Adam and Eve, they were separate from Mankind for God’s special purposes of conveyance, revealing Himself and His ways, and to accomplish the fulfillment of the relationship He desired and planned to eventually have with all peoples everywhere.

Look. He made a Paradise and put Adam and Eve in it. Before that he had made a beautiful world for Mankind to live in, and He saw that, in His eyes, everything was very good. As with Adam and Eve, He continued to separate out individuals and tribes and nations for His good purposes. Even in spite of our failures to live up to His standards, God continues to advance His intentions, moving forward, giving everyone every opportunity to turn to Him in order to adopt His good ways.

The story of Jesus was the epitome of His plan — the climax of His novel, so to speak. Now this epic story revealed in the pages of the Bible, as is in any novel, is in the literary stage of denouement — the outcome of a complex sequence of events — unraveling of the mysteries of the story before the final conclusion — The End.

One final word: the word holy as in the phrase “holy unto God” is simply meaning “separated unto God,”and separated specifically for His purposes.

The Bible is rich with such people. From heroes and heroines to grave disappointments and even enemies of God and those He had chosen.

However, the question remains, “Will we learn anything from their lives?”

First things first.

Reach out to Jesus to get God involved in your life and in opening your eyes.

He was in the world, and though the world was made through Him, the world did not recognize Him. He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. But to all who did receive Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God — children born not of blood, nor of the desire or will of man, but born of God. -

John 1:10–13, Berean Standard Bible

Recognize Him.

Receive Him.

Respond to His invitation.

Accept the right to become children of God.