Second Stage Ministries

In this series of posts, we have seen God speak the universe into existence. We have seen how He formed and made us unique. We are His masterpieces! Then, we saw how God set a rhythm for rest by taking a rest after He created everything. Next, we took a look at the paradise that Adam and Eve were given to take care of and live in. They walked with God! But then we saw that all change with one choice that Adam and Eve made. They chose to take and eat from the tree that God had told them not to eat from. This caused evil to be brought to light. They were kicked out of the Garden for the choice that they had made. We looked at the punishments that were handed out. Lastly, we looked at Cain and Able and how the bad choices continued as we witnessed the first murder. But in all of this God still loved and protected Adam, Eve and Cain. But their actions set off a change that sent the world into a downward spiral and we see God say these words in Genesis 6: “The Lord saw how great th...

We are on to chapter 4 - where the story takes another big turn. At the beginning of chapter 4 we meet to brothers - Cain and Able. One of the first things I noticed in this story is that Eve praised the Lord for blessing of a son - Cain. “Adam made love to his wife Eve, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Cain. She said, “With the help of the Lord I have brought forth a man.” - Genesis 4:1 NIV Even though God had to punish them and kick them out of the Garden, Eve was still aware of where her blessing of having children came from. But that is really not the focus of this chapter. The focus is her sons. The Bible tells us a little bit about Cain and Able. “Now Abel kept flocks, and Cain worked the soil.” - Genesis 4:2b NIV So I get picture of Cain being this muscular and rugged type of man. He was out in the fields working planting crops and weeding the fields. Able on the other hand was a shepherd. He watched over the flocks and made sure they had wha...

We are continuing our walk through the book of Genesis and we have finally gotten to chapter 3! So I thought it would be fun to use 3 different words (all starting with 'C') to look at this chapter. The first word is: 1. Choice In an earlier post, I mentioned how God didn't have to give Adam and Eve the option to choose, but He wanted it too. He wanted them and us to have the ability to choose Him. Adam and Eve had many other trees in the Garden to eat from. There was just this one tree they weren't supposed to touch. But they did. But I also feel like it didn't happen overnight. I think it happened as they got bored and tired of the same old things. They had been everywhere in the Garden and done everything they could do. The tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil began to look fun and good to them and before they knew it they were standing right next to it. They were standing right where the Serpent wanted them to be standing. The Bible says this about ...

After God had created the world and gave Adam his instructions, God said: “'It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.'" - Genesis 2:18 NIV God knew right from the start that man should not be alone. He knew from the start that man could not do life alone. We need people to interact with and to do this thing called life, and when that element is missing or infrequent - loneliness can come aboard and start whispering all kinds of things to us, making us feel worse, and that is not the way God wants it. But we also find something else out right from the very beginning. After Adam and Eve ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (which we will look at in the next post) and they were hiding from God, we see these words in Genesis 3: “Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was  walking in the garden  in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the...

Over the last couple of posts, we have seen the world take shape with the voice of God. We have seen how God shaped us with His two hands. We have also looked at God's view of rest.  Today we are going to take an imaginative look at the paradise that God had created for Adam and Eve to live in. It must have been quite an amazing place to be in, and it was all for them and the animals. I can imagine that it must have been a place of pure awe. The trees and plants along the banks of the river (Genesis 2:10). The animals playing in the fields and water. The sunrises and sunsets. The endless supply of food from the trees and plants. Then the only thing Adam and Eve had to do was enjoy the space that God had made for them. God did, however, give them some responsibilities in the Garden.  1 - Work and care for the Garden     "The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it." - Genesis 2:15 NIV But I believe th...

The Dawn - part 3 - God Rested As we continue our look at the book of Genesis, we are going to be looking at the last day of Creation in this post. We can find the last day of Creation in Genesis 2: “By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work.” - Genesis 2:2 NIV Now I always ask this question whenever I reference this day of Creation - Did God really need to rest? Did He fall down in His lazy boy and exhausted from all the work? No. Of course not! However, He did know a little bit about us. So by "resting" on the seventh day, God is showing us a rhythm. A rhythm of work, work, work, work, work, work, rest. Work, work, work, work, work, work, rest. God wants us to rest. Rest is good for the soul. Rest is good, period. But we have been conditioned to think that rest is lazy and unproductive. We say to ourselves - "Here I am sitting here when I could be doing something....

In the last post we talked about how God spoke and the world was created. We can see this in Genesis 1. But towards the end of Genesis 1 we see the Creation story take a turn to a different type of creating. God went from speaking things in to existence to forming us in to existence. “So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” - Genesis 1:27 NIV “Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.” - Genesis 2:7 NIV These verses put a whole new look on the creation story. For the longest time I thought Genesis 2 was the next part of the story. But really Genesis 2 zooms in on how God created us and how the Garden of Eden became Adam and Eve's home. Can you picture this? God creating Adam from the dust of the ground and if He created Adam that way that mean He created all of us that way! God formed ...

Every story has to start somewhere. About a month ago, a friend and I started a book called "The Story" written by Max Lucado and Ryan Frazee. In this book they zero in on the great story of God that runs through the Bible. It's a story of amazing love, forgiveness and grace.  In the first part of the story, we see the Earth as a formless void and the words: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.” – Genesis 1:1-2 (NIV) But as we read the first 25 verses of Genesis 1 we start to see a pattern in HOW God is creating the heavens and the Earth. Throughout those verses we see these three words… “….GOD SAID…” [1] So I picture God looking down or “hovering” over the Earth. Then God begins to speak. “Let there be light, sky, dry ground, seas and oceans, trees and plants. Let there be sun, moon and stars.” [2]...