The Book Report

Day 25
Gen 50:1-Exodus 2:10
Matt16:13-17:9
Psalm 21:1-13
Proverbs 5:1-6

As I come to the end of Genesis I am thinking about it like that fourth grade book report.  The bare bones highlights of the process of completing the assigned reading.  Title, Author, and the where, when, why of the story.  And of course "key points".
So my book report is on a book titled: Genesis
Author:  Moses  (who, like Cher, Beyonce, Queen Latifah and Brangelina needs no last name).
When: 1450-1410 B.C
Where: The region presently known as the Middle East
Why: To record God's creation of the world and His desire to have a people set apart to worship Him
Key points: (taken from the NLT)

• Genesis sets the stage for the entire Bible.
•  It reveals the person and nature of God (Creator, Sustainer, Judge, Redeemer).
• The value and dignity of human beings (made in God's image, saved by grace, used by God in the world).
• The tragedy and consequences of sin (the fall, separation from God, judgement).
• The promise and assurance of salvation (covenant, forgiveness, promised Messiah). 

In the fourth grade this is where I would stop, copied straight from the book, the end.  Out of laziness I wouldn't expound  on how Genesis means "the beginning" and with new beginnings comes hope. Or how salvation comes by faith.  And my favorite part: the people in Genesis are simple, ordinary people.  It's a consistent thread.  

I've enjoyed reading the bible so far but I am a diet book junkie.  I can tell anybody how to successfully lose weight in thirteen different languages.  Okay so that's an exaggeration but I buy every book that comes out.  They all work, I always lose weight until I get to that part about 'lifestyle change'.  My lifestyle requires adequate levels of german chocolate cake, coffee with cream and steamed vegies with heavy allotments of butter or rich sauces.  There is  a plaque hanging in my kitchen that reads: "If you're afraid of butter use cream"(Julia Child).  So sometime around my 50th birthday I got on an exercise kick, deciding if I was going to eat, throwing all caution to the wind, then exercise was my answer.  I got fit (I say that in past-tense).  I was a lean mean eating machine.  I don't eat because I am trying to drown my sorrows in comfort food, I eat because I LOVE to eat (and I love to cook as well).  So with exercise I was toned and strong, and there was no muffin top to camouflage.  Unfortunately, as with all my obsessions, my need to be fit wavered and now eight weeks short of my 55th birthday I am flabby, soft and afraid to step on the scales.  There is a segue coming soon...Faith, according to my bible, is like a muscle (there it is!) it grows with exercise, gaining strength over time.  And after a lifetime of trusting God, faith can be strong and unwavering.

I'm excited to be through Genesis, but not so I can "get on to the good-stuff" as I earlier believed.  Yes it is a tiny milestone for a dedicated "quitter of all things difficult" as I am, to have finished the first book.  But I am encouraged with the reminder that God uses simple, ordinary, incredibly inadequate people to accomplish His work.  A successful employer knows how to identify the particular gifts of the people he hires and put them where they are productive.  God is the ultimate perfect employer.  I have belonged to churches that urge you to find your "gift" and put them to good use within the church and your community.  As yet I am unable to pinpoint what my particular gift is but staying with my conviction to read the Bible is all the encouragement I need to continue (or actually start) exercising my faith in God in order for Him to show me what that potential is.  From what I understand about Him so far, He can still use me even though I am at my  baby-delivery weight with nothing to deliver.

"The second day of a diet is always easier than the first.  By the second day you're off it."