Way of The Warrior- A Daily Devotional

Then God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth. The fear and dread of you will fall on all the beasts of the earth, and on all the birds in the sky, on every creature that moves along the ground, and on all the fish in the sea; they are given into your hands. Everything that lives and moves about will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything. “But you must not eat meat that has its lifeblood still in it. And for your lifeblood I will surely demand an accounting. I will demand an accounting from every animal. And from each human being, too, I will demand an accounting for the life of another human being. “Whoever sheds human blood, by humans shall their blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made mankind. – Genesis 9:1-6 NIV

Warrior;

This is a NEW BEGINNING.  There are a few “IN THE BEGINNINGs” in the Bible: Genesis 1:1; In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. In John 1, we have a beginning too:  In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. (John 1:1-5) This is a new beginning, because God ended ALL LIFE on the planet. Everything, Everyone, with the exception of those saved from Judgement; Noah, his 3 sons, and their wives and a solid representation of the animal kingdom at that time.  Consider this, that just 5 short chapters into this historical introduction and understanding of God and man’s interaction with God- God had ‘HAD IT’ with man! Hear the Word of the Lord; The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the LORD regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. So the LORD said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them.” But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD. (Genesis 6:5-8)

Leader, consider this: in the Bible; there are 1,189 chapters within the 66 books that make up the modern Bible. There are 929 chapters across 39 books of the Old Testament of the Bible. There are 260 chapters across 27 books of the New Testament of the Bible. There are 31,102 verses in the Bible, which is made up of 23,145 verses in the Old Testament and 7,957 verses in the New Testament. In general, the English Bible runs around 785,000 words in length. Our God who is LONG-SUFFERING, who is SLOW TO ANGER, who is patient…destroyed all man and all creatures based on a short time with man, 5 chapters and 5 verses from, IN THE BEGINNING GOD CREATED! This is why LOVE IS A VERB, not a feeling! For God so loved the world, HE DID SOMETHING ABOUT IT! Notice a few things about this NOAHIC COVENANT. I always wonder why wild animals are so afraid of people. Why are feral cats afraid of people? Here is your answer; “The fear and the dread of you will fall on all the bests of the earth.” This is another original confirmation for those of us who eat meat. I have many friends who are in the denomination of the 7^th Day Adventists, and they have some hard-core religious beliefs about vegetarianism. In Matthew 15 Jesus called the crowd to him and said, “Listen and understand. What goes into a man’s mouth does not make him `unclean,’ but what comes out of his mouth, that is what makes him `unclean. ‘ This just confirms God’s covenant with Noah, mankind, the earth, and the animals; “Everything that lives and moves about will be food for you. Just as I have you the green plants, I now give you everything. BUT…. Whenever we are dealing with God, we need to be aware of the BIG BUT! It is written: The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, BUT of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” (Genesis 2:15-17 emphasis mine)

Conduit, the NEW COVENANT that was made to NOAH- in a way a father of us all- was not just with Man, but with the animals and with the earth. God is the God of all things. He has compassion for HIS creation and for HIS creatures. He wants us to be good stewards, He wants us to be kind to animals and He wants us to LOVE ONE ANOTHER. For Love covers a multitude of sins. However, what we have a tendency to do is to take God’s desires and make them a PATTERN, a RELIGION and then we worship the CREATION or the CREATURE instead of the CREATOR. We get TWISTED in our loyalty and in our Spiritual development. We worship animals, we worship trees, we worship the earth, we pray for $10 gas so we can save the planet. What\Who are we saving the planet from? It is written: But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. (2 Peter 3:10) We are to be good stewards of God’s planet, but make no mistake about it -God is going to destroy this planet, melt it! Our loyalties get twisted. There is a saying, “The road to Hell is paved with good intentions”. At least 3 times in today’s verses God says, “I will demand an accounting.” We will soon be standing before the judgement seat of God, He will DEMAND AN ACCOUNTING! Hear the Word of the Lord; And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment. (Hebrews 9:27) Why do you pass judgment on your brother? Or you, why do you despise your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God; for it is written, “As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.” So then each of us will give an account of himself to God. (Romans 14:10-12) The Time is NOW! Time to be ALL IN for the KINGDOM! God Almighty put our eyes in the front of our face. Because we MOVE in the direction of our FOCUS, and we FOCUS in the direction of our MOVEment. Get your EYES and HEART ON the LORD, and your HANDS and FEET WILL FOLLOW!