Life on Planet Earth on Adam

liturgy

Kindness flows from you, Lord, pure and

Author

Scripture

Romans 5:8-11, Genesis 3:8-21, Isaiah 61:10, Ephesians 2:13-14, Revelation 22:14, Hebrews 10:19-22

Kindness flows from you, Lord, pure and continual. You had cast us off, as was only just, but mercifully you forgave us; you hated us and you were reconciled to us, you cursed us and you blessed us; y...

Quote

Author

Rudyard Kipling

Keywords

Gardening

Adam was a gardener, and God, who made him, sees that half of all good gardening is done upon the knees.

Quote

Author

Lady Nancy Astor

Keywords

The first time Adam had a chance, he laid the blame on a woman. (for humor)

liturgy

Adapted from 2 Chronicles 20

Author

Dustin Ray

Scripture

2 Chronicles 20:6

Pastor: O Lord, we are in over our heads. So many are the sins that we’ve committed this past week, and they condemn us in your presence. Only because you love us with a never-ending, unbreaking, alwa...

Quote

Author

Richard Sibbes

Keywords

Satan gives Adam an apple, and takes away Paradise. Therefore, in all temptations let us consider not what he offers, but what we shall lose.

illustration

The First Word Spoken to Adam & Eve

Author

A. J. Swoboda

Keywords

Imagine what Adam and Eve learned about God’s generosity from their first impression of him on their first day. Their first knowledge of God and the world God had made was that rest was not an afterth...

illustration

Feeding God’s People

Author

Rachel Marie Stone

Keywords

Scripture

Genesis 2:8-18, Genesis 3:1-24, John 6:35, Psalm 146:7, Deuteronomy 11:8-15

God wants to feed his people. In keeping the one tree from them, God protected Adam and Eve. When they broke table fellowship with God, they suspected that God was withholding something good, that thi...

illustration

Dust and Creation

Keywords

Scripture

Genesis 2:null, Genesis 1:30

Contrast the creation of the first man according to Genesis 2 with the creation of the first human beings according to Mesopotamian tradition. Both start with dust or clay, but then the accounts vary....

illustration

God’s First Menu

Author

Tim Chester

Keywords

Scripture

Genesis 2:16

What is the very first thing God said to humanity after he created Adam and Eve and placed them in the garden of Eden? “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden” (Gen. 2:16). God’s first words a...

illustration

Both Adams in Me

Author

John Donne

Keywords

Scripture

Colossians 1:13-14, Philippians 2:8, Hebrews 9:14, Genesis 3:19, 1 Corinthians 15:45

In this beautiful poem by the English Divine John Donne, our nature as both redeemed and still sinful is eloquently described: We think that Paradise and Calvary, Christ’s Cross and Adam’s Tree, ...

illustration

The Biblical Helper: Ezer

Author

John Mark Comer

Keywords

Scripture

Genesis 2:18–25 , Exodus 17:8–13, Ecclesiastes 4:9–12, John 14:16–17 , Romans 16:1–4, Psalm 118:6–7

Adam was called by God to take care of Eden. But it was too much work for one man. Eden was massive. Adam was incapable of gardening the whole thing. He needed help. That’s why God created Eve. Go...

illustration

Blind to Love

Author

Chuck DeGroat

Keywords

All addictions begin in shame. They don’t begin with troubling behavior—a binge on porn, a night of overdrinking–but with a sense of lack or limitation. An addict may be loved deeply, but sense of lac...

Quote

Author

Norman Wirzba

Keywords

There is an integrity to creation that depends on humans seeing themselves as properly placed within a network of creation and God. The drama shows us that neither God nor the creation itself can tole...

Quote

Author

John Donne

Keywords

Place

We think that Paradise and Calvary, Christ’s Cross and Adam’s Tree, stood in one place; Look Lord and find both Adams met in me; As the first Adam’s sweat surrounds my face, May the last Adam’s blood ...

Quote

Author

Blaise Pascal

Keywords

St. Augustine teaches us that there is in each man a Serpent, an Eve, and an Adam. Our senses and natural propensities are the Serpent; the excitable desire is the Eve; and reason is the Adam. Our nat...

illustration

A Dual Identity

Author

Mark D. Roberts

Keywords

Scripture

Genesis 2:7

Some of my favorite heroes have a dual identity: Clark Kent is Superman; Bruce Wayne is Batman; Peter Parker is Spider-Man. The list goes on and on. You and I also have a dual identity, though, unlike...

illustration

Transgressing Boundaries After the Fall

Author

Ashley Hales

Keywords

Scripture

Genesis 3:1-24, Romans 5:12, 1 Timothy 2:12-21

After the fall of our first parents, boundaries were something to push past, to transgress. It’s worth pausing to note how we use the word transgression for “sin.” With its Latin roots, “across” and “...

illustration

God's Image: Our True Identity

Author

Chuck DeGroat

Keywords

Scripture

Genesis 1:26-27, Genesis 3:1-7, Romans 7:14-25, 2 Corinthians 5:17, Psalm 51:10

God formed us in his image — a glorious thought! — but we all participate in the abandonment of that original identity…Does that mean that your precious little child is a dirty rotten sinner, as some ...

Quote

Author

John Calvin

Keywords

The custody of the garden was given in charge to Adam, to show that we possess the things which God has committed to our hands, on the condition that, being content with the frugal and moderate use of...

Quote

Author

Ben Myers

Keywords

Yes, religion is a crutch. But it’s not my own personal crutch. It is Adam’s crutch. It’s the human race that walks (if it walks at all) with a limp. And so when Sunday morning comes around I drag old...

Quote

Author

Ephrem of Syria

Keywords

Scripture

1 Corinthians 15:21-22, 1 Peter 2:24, Colossians 1:19-20, Romans 5:18-19, Hebrews 2:14-15

All these changes did the Merciful One effect: Stripping of His glory and putting on a body; For He had devised a way to reclothe Adam, In that glory which Adam had stripped off.

illustration

Three Men Argue About the Oldest Profession in the World

Author

Source Unknown

Keywords

Scripture

Isaiah 45:18, Proverbs 3:19, Psalm 33:6, Genesis 2:21-22, Genesis 1:1-2

A physician, a civil engineer, and a politician were arguing about what was the oldest profession in the world. The physician remarked, “Well, in the Bible, it says that God created Eve from a rib tak...

illustration

A Distinctive Kind of Contract

Author

Mark D. Roberts

Keywords

Scripture

Genesis 1:null, Genesis 6:18, Genesis 9:null, Genesis 9:11, Jeremiah 31:31, Luke 22:20

Contracts. We all have them, by the dozens. In business, government, and in our personal lives, contracts provide structure and order for relationships that are essential to all of life. Contracts tel...

illustration

There and Back Again, A Human Tale

Author

Alan Jones

Keywords

Scripture

Luke 15:11-32

Let us begin with a question. Do you really know how to enjoy the world? Do you know how to enjoy yourself? One of the greatest parables in the New Testament has to do with the search for enjoyment an...

illustration

Needs Can Be Good

Author

A. J. Swoboda

Keywords

Needs are not bad. If God is sovereign and the “first good” comes before sin invades the world, then why did God wait to create the woman until later? In my mind, there can be only one rationale: God ...

illustration

The Secret Formula for Writing a Bestselling Book

Author

Addison D. Bevere

Keywords

I recently found, hidden in plain sight, the secret formula for writing a bestselling book. Yes, you read that right. My discovery created a surge of power that I could hardly handle. It felt like lea...

illustration

Monkeys & Comparison

Author

Brian Zahnd

Keywords

Scripture

2 Corinthians 10:12, Ecclesiastes 4:4, Romans 12:6, Philippians 2:3, 1 Corinthians 12:18-20, Proverbs 14:30, James 3:16

In their book Friend and Foe, social psychologists Adam Galinsky and Maurice Schweitzer cite a study by Emory University scientist Frans de Waal regarding comparison. De Waal trained capuchin monkeys ...

Quote

Author

Glen Scrivener

Keywords

Scripture

Ephesians 2:1-2, Romans 7:18-20, Romans 3:23, Psalm 51:5, Romans 5:12

The next time you say something deceitful, hurtful or proud, you cannot say “I don’t know what came over me.” Nothing came over you. Such sins come _out_of you. They come from a wellspring that is ver...

illustration

Shepherds versus Farmers?

Author

The Pastor's Workshop

Keywords

In Understanding Genesis Nahum Sarna explodes the myth that in the story of Cain and Abel represents a biblical preference for the shepherd over the tiller of the soil. He points out that “there is no...

liturgy

Almighty and most merciful God, you

Author

George Adam Smith

Keywords

Scripture

2 Timothy 3:10-19, 2 Kings 22:8-20, Luke 24:13-35, Acts 8:26-40, Nehemiah 8:1-12, Romans 15:4

Almighty and most merciful God, you have given the Bible to be the revelation of your great love to us, and of your power and will to save us: grant that our study of it may not be made in vain by the...

liturgy

liturgy

illustration

illustration

illustration

illustration

illustration

illustration

illustration

illustration

illustration

illustration

illustration

illustration

illustration

illustration

illustration

illustration

illustration

liturgy

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

I

J

K

L

M

N

O

P

Q

R

S

T

U

V

W

Genesis

Exodus

Leviticus

Numbers

Deuteronomy

Joshua

Judges

Ruth

1 Samuel

2 Samuel

1 Kings

2 Kings

1 Chronicles

2 Chronicles

Ezra

Nehemiah

Esther

Job

Psalm

Proverbs

Ecclesiastes

Song of Solomon

Isaiah

Jeremiah

Lamentations

Ezekiel

Daniel

Hosea

Joel

Amos

Obadiah

Jonah

Micah

Nahum

Habakkuk

Zephaniah