God is good and everything He makes and creates is good. He is a good Father and loves to communicate. He speaks creation into being.
He is a loving Father in that He sets boundaries for His children. Just as our children don’t understand why their parent tells them not to do something, so God tells Adam not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Adam doesn’t understand why, but he can know that it’s for his good that God tells him not to eat the fruit.
Before Adam ate the fruit he had a close relationship with his Father. Immediately after eating the fruit he becomes afraid of his Father. The Father comes for his regular walk with Adam and the Father calls out to him. God asks why Adam hid from Him. God knows why, but He’s helping Adam admit what he did. But Adam doesn’t admit what he did. He blames Eve instead of fessing up. And Eve blames the serpent, so no one takes responsibility for disobeying their Father. The Father disciplines His children. One of the consequences of their sin is that they can’t live in Eden anymore because God doesn’t want them to have access to the Tree of Life while in the state of sin. Our Father protects His children from harm. He makes the sun shine on even His enemies.
God is Rest. He gives us rest from our own works. Works that we try to gain His acceptance by. Adam was created perfect. He lived in the Garden of Eden. It was a perfect place for him to live. All of his needs were met there. He walked in perfect communion with God.
Adam and Eve were created with free will. They could choose to obey God and live a perfectly wonderful life, or they could choose to exert their own will and go their own way and not live a perfect life. Satan had access to this garden too through the serpent. Satan must have perceived that Eve was the easier one to manipulate. God had given Adam the command not to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Eve knew this command, but the serpent kept working on her until finally she thought why not just go ahead to try a little. She thought it looked good, it would be good for food, and she could gain wisdom. She knew the consequence of eating the fruit was death, but she believed Satan rather than God. Satan told her she wouldn’t die. Instead, Satan said, God didn’t want them to eat the fruit because then they would be like Him knowing good and evil. Poor Adam. He saw that Eve had eaten the fruit. He knew God had said they would die if they ate of it. Eve didn’t die. Should he obey God and not eat of the fruit or should he eat the fruit and suffer the same consequences that Eve would suffer? He didn’t consult God on this. He knew what He would say. He loved Eve. He couldn’t bare to be separated from her. So he ate it.
Now why did God put that tree in there? We don’t know. He’s working something out that we don’t know about or understand right now. It’s being worked out in the realm we can’t see with our natural eyes.
Why do I say this? The answer is in the first prophecy made to humankind. When God saw that they ate of the fruit He cursed the serpent, and said that He would put enmity between the snake and the woman and between her offspring and the snake. The woman’s offspring will crush the serpent’s head and the snake will strike his heal. Who is the woman’s offspring? This is the first reference in human history to the Father’s Son: Jesus Christ. Eve is the mother of all the living. It is true that all mitochondrial DNA goes right back to the first woman Eve. There are no mutations in mitDNA. The woman’s egg was not damaged in the sin of disobeying God. Adam’s seed was, however, damaged in the sin of eating the fruit. It is man’s seed that births sin in every human being on earth. Hence the Y-DNA has mutations. Interesting, huh? But this is also how Jesus was born of a virgin and therefore had no sin because no man provided his sin filled seed to His DNA. Jesus is God as Mary’s egg was fertilized by the Holy Spirit. Jesus has no sin. He is the offspring spoken about in the prophecy which will crush the serpent’s head (Satan). This has been done in the act of Jesus giving His life as a ransom for the human race which is infected with the sin from Adam on down. God is our Redeemer. Jesus is our Savior. The human race needs a savior to rescue it from sin. There is no other way to be saved. We must be redeemed in the way that He has provided.
One of the interesting ways this is illustrated is that Adam and Eve covered themselves with fig leaves when they realized they were naked. God took those fig leaves and replaced them with animal skins. In using fig leaves to cover their nakedness, they were trying to cover their own nakedness. God taught them that only through the shedding of blood can their sin be covered. It was a picture of what God was to provide. Jesus shed His blood to cover man’s sin. God is good. All we have to do is accept the gift that He has given us. Yeah!
One other thing that is cursed in this story told to us from antiquity, is the ground. Neither Eve nor Adam were cursed: only the serpent was cursed. There were consequences though. The ground was cursed. Man would have to painfully toil to eat of it. It will produce thorns and thistles and by the sweat of his brow man will eat of it’s food until he returns to the ground. For dust man is and to dust he will return.
It seems so unpopular nowadays to talk about creation. If you mention you believe this world was ‘created’ you’re looked upon as an idiot. Why is the idea of a Creator any more stupid than the idea of everything just happened by chance. That seems less logical to me than there being Someone greater than myself out there. This is not an intellectual problem: it’s a spiritual problem. There’s no other way to explain such a departure from what makes sense. We just don’t want to admit that God exists because that would take the control out of our hands. That’s funny. We don’t have any control at all. Can you decide when it rains or when an earthquake hits?
God is our Father. He created man in His image. That’s why there are fathers, mothers and children. God made it that way. Did you ever wonder why there are males and females in every species? If there wasn’t, life wouldn’t continue on this earth. It takes a male and female to create new life.
He made Adam out of earth. We are dust. If you don’t believe that, just take a look at what’s left over after cremating a body. Ashes….dust. For dust we are and to dust we will return. Some ancient civilizations refer to their first ancestor as ‘dirt’. Our bodies are made up of the same elements that every other living thing on this earth are made of. Our physical bodies are no different from any other animal. The thing that makes man different from animals is that God breathed His life into man. Man was given dominion over the earth and his mandate was to fill the earth and subdue it. Man’s job, as given by God, is to take care of creation. How are we doing so far?
The two blind men. Crying out to Jesus. The crowd tries to shut them up, they shout over them anyway, and they capture the Master’s attention. The parade stops. Jesus steps to the side of the road, and standing there before him are two men, nothing clearer than the fact that they are blind. “What do you want me to do for you?” Again the question. Again the obvious that must not be obvious after all.
The Samaritan woman whom Jesus meets at the well. She’s there in the heat of the day to draw water and they both know why. She’s not likely to run into anyone that way. She had a reputation. She succeeds in avoiding the women, but runs into God instead. What does he choose to talk to her about-her immorality? No, he speaks to her about her thirst: “If you knew the generosity of God and who I am, you would be asking me to a drink, and I would give you fresh, living water”. He doesn’t give a little sermon about purity, he doesn’t even mention it, except to say that he knows what her life has been like. “You’ve had five husbands, and the man you’re living with now isn’t even your husband”. In other words, now that we both know it, let’s talk about your heart’s real thirst, since the life you’ve chosen obviously isn’t working.
This may come as a surprise to you: Christianity is not an invitation to become a moral person. It is not a program for getting us in line or for reforming society. It has a powerful effect upon our lives, but when transformation comes, it is always the aftereffect of something else, something at the level of our hearts. At its core, Christianity begins with an invitation to desire. Look at the way Jesus relates to people. As he did with the fellow at the Sheep Gate (John 5), he is continually taking them into their hearts, to their deepest desires.
Consider the crippled man at the pool of Bethesda (John 5). Put yourself, literally, in his shoes. His entire life has been shaped by his brokenness. All his days he has wanted one thing. Forget riches. Forget fame. Life for this man was captured in one simple, unreachable desire. When the other children ran and played, he sat and watched. When his family stood at the temple to pray, he lay on the ground. Every times he needed to have a drink or to go to the bathroom, someone had to pick up and take him there.
At what point did he begin to lose hope? First a year, then two went by. Nothing, at least for him. Maybe someone else got a miracle; that would buy him some time. What about after five years with no results? Ten? How long can we sustain desire against continual disappointment?
In the beginning was the Wordand the Word was with God and the Wordwas God. He was with God in the beginning.
Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. (John 1:1-3)
That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touch-this we proclaim concerning the Wordof life. The life appeared: we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. (1 John 1:1,2)
The Supremacy of Christ
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rules or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. (Colossians 1:15-17)
How can you look at this earth and not believe that there isn’t a Designer? All this happened by chance? No, no, it can not be. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. (Genesis 1:1)
In the beginning you laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment. Like clothing you will change them and they will be discarded. But you remain the same, and your years will never end. (Psalm 102:25-27)
By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible. (Hebrews 11:3)
I haven’t been the friendliest driver lately. Oh, I’m fine- until I’m provoked. When people cut me off, I’m furious. Just the other day, a car began to get on the highway as I was passing by. The fellow ignored all the rules of merging and cut in front of me as I was doing full speed. I hit my brakes to avoid him and honked my horn. He looked back, snarled, and yelled something unprintable. That did it. Only the fear of higher insurance premiums kept me from running him off the road. But oh, how i wanted to. Of course, this never happens to you. You are kind and benevolent when someone cuts you off. Why, you’re practically happy when he steals your parking place, darts in right ahead of you. You smile and offer a blessing.
What is causing the quarrels and fights among you? Isn’t it the whole army of evil desires at war within you? You want what you don’t have, so you scheme and kill to get it. You are jealous for what others have, and you can’t possess it, so you fight and quarrel to take it away from them. (James 4:1-2 NLT)
Armenian horsemaster bringing tribute to Darius I of Persia Behistun Inscription (515 BC)
Once I found out my dad’s DNA was of J2 Haplo group, I started to search for possible routes my ancestors may have taken to get from the middle east to England. I firmly believe we all descend from one man, Noah, and that he in turn descends from Adam. Why do I believe this? Well, because the Bible says this is the case (Genesis 1-11). Modern man has decided that he’s way too smart to believe such fairy tales, but if one is objective enough to look at the evidences of these stories they may be surprised. Universally, man has a common tradition that our great-grandfather (fill in the blank with the name which matches the particular people/culture) was rescued from a great flood, and there were 8 survivors from which one of them they descend. Most people groups have their own mythology involving a god who started their tribe. The god’s name is derived from the name of the first individual who began the clan. There are many oral traditions about the flood around the world. For example, when David Thompson, explorer for the Hudson Bay Company, traveled to the area where he found the Columbia River, he found many native Indian tribes there as well. They shared with him that their ancestor was caught in a flood and the Great Spirit put the rainbow in the sky as a Mark of Life to promise not to flood the earth again. David told them ‘we’ had that same story. This is recorded in David Thompsons journal.
Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham and Japheth. Japheth populated the north mostly, Shem the west of Asia and Ham the south areas. My interest for my DNA study is the Japhetic line. He is the father of all the European nations. His name lives on in Greek and Roman mythology as Jupiter/Zeus and Iapetes and in India as Iyapeti or Pra-Japati. Japheth had 7 sons: Gomer who populated, first, the area of Galatia in middle Turkey and further to France formerly known as Gaul; Magog, who went north and populated Scandinavia and Russia; Javan, who became the seafaring people in Greece, Cyprus and Crete; Medai, who populated northern Iran; Tubal, who fathered the Bulgarians, Hungarians, Albanians, Romanians, and others; Meshech, from which Moscow takes its name; and Tiras who became the Thracians and possibly the Etruscans of Italy.
Further, Gomers three sons are listed as: Ashkenaz, who populated the area of Armenia first and then went to Europe where they populated Germany (German Jews call themselves Ashkenazi Jews); Riphath, who populated areas of Turkey and then Czechoslovakia and Romania; and last Togarmah, for whom there is quite an abundance of tradition among his descendants largely in Turkey and Armenia. Then, the sons of Javan: Elishah, for which the Greek translation is Hellas and his descendants settled in Greece; Tarshish, who settled in Spain; Kittim, who fathered the people of Cyprus; and Dodanium who settled Rhodes and the Dardanelles.
Togarmahs sons
The man I’m interested in is Togarmah, the father of the Turks, Armenians, Georgians, people of Dagestan, Azerbijanis, the Iberians, and the people of the Caucasus including the Chechens and Ingush. The J2 haplo group is mainly concentrated in these areas with highest concentrations in the Ingush and Chechens.
Togarmah had several sons who settled between the Black and Caspian Seas. The Armenians say that their ancestor is the first son of Togarmah: Haik for which their native land is named Hyak. The second son is Kartlos, the father of the Georgians. Lakos is the father of the Lek tribes of Dagestan and Azerbijan. Hereti is the father of the Georgians and Albanians. Caucasus was the father of the Chechens and the Ingush and Egros was the father of the Iberians.
The Armenians are known for their skill in breeding horses. They were known for the use of horses in battle as were the Mongols and the Huns who occupied vast lands across north Asia and Europe.
Horses in ArmeniaMongolians on horses
Then we have the Spanish and their relationship with the horse, from which the whole American horse culture descends. The name of the Spanish peninsula is Iberia. Where does this ancient name come from? Above we see that Togarmah had a son Egros who is reported to be the father of a people called the Ibers living in the area of Eastern Turkey. At least some of these people obviously migrated to the Spanish peninsula and perhaps took their horses with them. Of course horse culture in Spain was heavily influenced by the Arabs who are well-known for their beautiful horse breeds.
Arabian horsesSyrian man with an Arabian horseSpanish Andalusian HorseTraditional Spanish riding clothes
We know that the Spanish brought the horse to the Americas and the cowboy was birthed out of the Mexican Vaqueros.
Mexican Vaqueros – 1880sMexican Vaqueros 1901
As the horse population grew it became popular with the Native Indians. This is where my dads story comes in.
Picture taken 1907
My dad rode horses growing up and he and his friends used to go over to the Indian Reserve and rustle wild horses. Don’t tell anyone. Here’s a picture of him on one of the wild horses he caught.
Dad on his wild horse Babe
So that’s my theory about my ancestors and their connection with horses. It’s fun to wonder about anyway.
Lighten up, Brighten up 