Celebrating Children

Bishop Charles Ballard III

X-MEN: The    Magnificent    Champions

 

 

Chapter 1

Adam and the Covenant of Dominion

²⁶ Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

²⁷ So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

²⁸ Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

Genesis 1:26-28 (NKJV)

Genesis 2:7 (NKJV)

⁷ And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.

 

Genesis 5:1-2 (KJV)

 ¹This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him;

 ²Male and female created he them; and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created.

 

1 Timothy 2:13 (NKJV)

¹³ For Adam was formed first, then Eve.

The need for companionship swelled in the loins of the first man. Perhaps the triune GOD marveled at the replication of the yearning.  It was this very yearning that ignited the creative perfection of GOD. And now, it was manifesting in the created creature called man.  GOD had enjoyed the companionship of the Word, His Son, and the Holy Spirit, His authority.  Their collective agreement sanctioned the birthing into the physical realm of Adam.  Now, GOD would enjoy the companionship of another kind.

Can you recall ever not knowing fear? Can you recall always being content and not knowing that there was any other way to be? Can you recall ever not being afraid of anything? Can you recall that you never knew what it meant to hide from GOD? Can you recall never worrying about a single thing? Can you recall ever knowing that there was no end to your created state of happiness? Can you recall the voice of GOD speaking to you as naturally as you breathe air? Can you recall always delighting yourself in the presence of GOD? Can you recall not knowing what naked was? Can you recall that you saw the world and everything around you in the perfectness of GOD?

Adam would have to answer yes to all of these questions. He is the only one of us who would be able to do that. Upon cross-examination by a prosecuting attorney determined to prove that he was guilty of having a perfect life and a flawless relationship with GOD, he would be unable to deny the truth and would be summarily found guilty as charged. 

Who would find him guilty? He had no human peers! So, GOD, the creator, is a judge and jury. Just and compassionate.  And now Adam’s innocence is corrupted. Now he sleeps with these memories. These fond memories emerge hauntingly against the backdrop of the life that he now must live. For now, he has been driven from paradise to do what he had never done before. Carve an existence for himself and EVE in the new world outside of the Garden of Eden. A greater authority has thrashed everything that he has known as life up to this point and sent him on his way.

What manner of man is this then? He has dominion over all the earth but has lost his intimacy with GOD. The man contaminated has a new nature of sin. He has been disobedient. His loins throb with passions. What manner of man is this then that also carries within him what no other man after him can ever carry? 

Many today become enraged at the loss of prized things in their world and are unpleasant to be around.  The loss or perceived loss of things that are important to them may find them rewarded with a special bed in a special hospital ward because it drives them insane.  Others resort to anti-social behaviors that are harbingers to criminal activities and psychotic lifestyles.  But not Adam!  Despite his gross error, which signaled death to all of humanity, he showed chivalrousness and stick-to-itiveness in the foreign world, which was to be his new home.  Although he had been given dominion over the earth, he now had to struggle to dominate it. He would succeed.

Chapter 2

  ⁸Then God spoke to Noah and to his sons with him, saying,

    ⁹Behold, I establish My covenant or pledge with you and with your descendants after you

    ¹⁰And with every living creature that is with you–whether the birds, the livestock, or the wild beasts of the earth along with you, as many as came out of the ark–every animal of the earth.

    ¹¹I will establish My covenant or pledge with you: Never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood; neither shall there ever again be a flood to destroy the earth and make it corrupt.

 ¹²And God said, This is the token of the covenant (solemn pledge) which I am making between Me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations:

    ¹³I set My bow [rainbow] in the cloud, and it shall be a token or sign of a covenant or solemn pledge between Me and the earth.

    ¹⁴And it shall be that when I bring clouds over the earth and the bow [rainbow] is seen in the clouds,

    ¹⁵I will [earnestly] remember My covenant or solemn pledge which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters will no more become a flood to destroy and make all flesh corrupt.

    ¹⁶When the bow [rainbow] is in the clouds and I look upon it, I will [earnestly] remember the everlasting covenant or pledge between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth.

    ¹⁷And God said to Noah, This [rainbow] is the token or sign of the covenant or solemn pledge which I have established between Me and all flesh upon the earth. 

Genesis 9:8-17 (Amp)

The consciousness of the people had shown sparse signs of regeneration.  Enoch was seven generations from Adam and a star among the nations. Enoch walked with GOD and GOD took him.  Because of his faith GOD did not let Enoch die.

The corruptness of mankind had become a seared consciousness. All things were becoming more right in everyman’s eyesight. 

Their unified consciousness of evil had pushed their spiritual consciousness of GOD subconscious.

Imagine parenting seven children.  You give them your name and you feed and clothe them.  You provide a place for them to live and you prepare them to be able to live on their own someday.  Also, they are exposed to everything in your life, including GOD. 

We would then say that they were pre-disposed to resemble and act like you (husband and wife) because of your particular genetic make-up. They will have physical features similar to their biological parents.  They will have behaviors that are similar to their biological parents. They will have principles that are similar to those of their environment. We would also conclude that they will be pre-disposed to have a relationship with GOD.

Your children reach a certain age and you relinquish your guardianship over them.  You release them to live according to how you have taught them. The first one leaves home and takes up drinking and drugs. The second one leaves home and takes up stealing. The third one leaves home and takes up drinking, drugs, and stealing.  The fourth leaves home and becomes sexually immoral with men and women. The fifth one leaves home and continues in the same sexual immorality and criminal behavior of the others.  The sixth one leaves home and takes up cannibalism, drinking, drugs, stealing, and diverse sexual immorality with men, women, and animals and worships an eagle.

You search inside of yourself.  The seventh one has just left home.  You say, “What will become of this child now that I have seen what has become of the others? Yes, they were flesh of my flesh and bone of my bone and yet……”

You now have a shadow of the hemorrhaging heart of GOD. GOD held out hope because Noah was a righteous man.  All the pain from the disobedient children had festered and GOD wanted to destroy all of mankind.  He wanted the hurt and disappointment to go away.

The “Prophet” Noah had endured 120 years of continuous disassociation by his family and the human race..  What exactly was this thing that was never heard of before and now being built right before their very eyes?

This three level gopher wood ark was being built by direct instruction from the almighty GOD.  No one, even Noah, had ever heard of an ark, flood, cloud or rain.  To the people, the speaking into existence some things that they had never heard of before was ridiculous. Noah persisted on in faith.

Noah, 10 generations from Adam, was not oblivious to the history of his kinship. He also had a choice.  He chose righteousness before GOD and was rewarded. 

Unable to stand it anymore GOD caused a great flood to come upon the earth. He had instructed Noah to build an Ark before the flood and also numbered the animals to be saved.

The Ark housed Noah and his three sons, and their 4 wives. Family and friends would be no more. Surely there was a mad dash for the ark once this new phenomenon began to occur.  GOD had sealed the door shut and no one could open it.

Noah died knowing that he was the father of the new world.  GOD, remorsefully gave him the promise of a rainbow as a sign that a flood would never be used again to destroy all of the earth and mankind.

“GOD…the promise keeper”

Chapter 3

Abraham and the Covenant of Land

A mighty cloud spurns heavenward from Haran on this momentous morning.  It is not a cloud of smoke from pagan sacrifices or pre-celebratory preparations for a festival. But a movement orchestrated by GOD. The bleating of lambs, the

shuffling of many feet, babies crying, and little children noisily skirting the reaches of their parents hands and  patience; caravan south-westward. One determined step after another increases the separation between brothers as GOD had directed that it must be so.

Genesis 13:14-16 (NKJV)

¹⁴ And the LORD said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him: “Lift your eyes now and look from the place where you are—northward, southward, eastward, and westward;

 ¹⁵ for all the land which you see I give to you and your descendants forever.

¹⁶ And I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth; so that if a man could number the dust of the earth, then your descendants also could be numbered.

Genesis 15:5-7(NKJV)

⁵ Then He brought him outside and said, “Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them.” And He said to him, “So shall your descendants be.”
⁶ And he believed in the LORD, and He accounted it to him for righteousness.
⁷ Then He said to him, “I am the LORD, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to inherit it.”

Genesis 15:18-21(NKJV)

¹⁸On the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying: “To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the River Euphrates—

¹⁹ the Kenites, the Kenezzites, the Kadmonites,

²⁰ the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim,

 ²¹ the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.”

Perspiration drips constantly off of the tip of his nose.  His eyes are washed with the salty residue that unfailingly finds its way into them from his furled brawl.  Destiny awaits and with each guided step he draws nearer to his new home.  The only thing between him and it now are all the nations that occupy the land that GOD says he has given him and his descendants.

Descendants??  “I have not a son of my own!” circles round and round in Abram’s mind.  The thought remains unspoken, but not unknown to GOD.  My beloved beautiful wife Sarai is without child and now is well pass her time of child. 

GOD’s promise of a son motivates Abram and Sarai to take matters into their own hands.  Sarai, understanding the custom offers Hagar her Egyptian handmaid to wife.  It would seem that the issue was solved when Hagar became pregnant. Instead, her maternal instincts exalted themselves and she began to relish in the knowledge that her status and value has risen considerable.

It was she that had given the greatest gift a woman could give to Abram.  She had given him a son.  And, this son would be his heir because there was neither a son older or younger.  He was the only son.  Sarai began to notice the uppishness of Hagar.  As we can be certain that it was also obvious to the rest of the clan.  Pregnant Hagar and barren Sarai having to face each other 10s of times per day became increasingly unbearable.  Nearly every conversation revolved around the soon coming son of Abram or what it felt like to be carrying “the” baby.

The new son of Abram brought formidable challenges into his and Sarai’s life.  By custom, Ishmael was her son, but it was no denying that Hagar had now determined that she was not going to be left out of the future picture.  A spark now becomes a flame.

This flame of change was not unnoticed by GOD.  GOD again spoke with Abram and told him that there were yet other changes.  He would no longer be known as Abram but Abraham and that his wife Sarai would be known as Sarah because she would indeed bear him a son. The son of promise was to be named Isaac.

Abraham and Sarah are well advanced in age at the birth of Isaac.  Abraham is 100 years old and Sarah is around 90.  Fifteen years after the birth of Ishmael and the convincing of Abraham to take Hagar as a concubine to fulfill the promise of GOD, GOD fulfills his word.

Abraham, a man desirous to do the will of GOD found himself in the middle of a squabble between Sarah and Hagar.  Each mother is becoming more assertive in establishing her son’s position of inheritance. Sarah the wife, request that Hagar and Ishmael be expelled from the family unit.  Abraham’s love of Ishmael makes this request unpalatable.  GOD addresses the issue and Abraham is encouraged to follow through on Sarah’s request.  GOD declares Ishmael’s descendants will become a great nation.

This division of Abraham’s children results in two great nations.  GOD makes a promise to Abraham about Isaac and the Angel of the Lord comforts Hagar once again with the promise that Ishmael descendants will be a great nations. The Arab nation is often times considered by some to be direct descendants of Ishmael through his daughter who married Esau as the Hebrew nation called Israel is of Isaac.

Marvelous in all his ways is our GOD.  In the natural Abraham could only see so far.  And as far as he could see GOD guaranteed that the land would be his.  The blessing was to his seed.  The seed of promise inherited upon the faith of Abraham. 

The impossible in the natural became possible as Abraham faith withstood test after test.   He was called to leave the land of his ancestors and commanded to separate from his own family. Abraham, a descendant in the ninth generation of Shem, the eldest son of Noah. Finding himself in the land of Canaan for the second time, following the great famine, his alignment with the inhabitants there was instrumental in their joint survival as they drove out their common enemy invaders.  Then, blessed by GOD with military victory over Chedorlaomer, King of Elam, and his united confederate of nations he rescued his nephew lot and his family. They were seized in the raid on Sodom by the King of

Elam.  Refusing to have his wealth attributed to anyone but GOD he turned down the lavish offer of more wealth from the King of  

Sodom.  This was meant as a tribute to Abraham for returning to the king all that had been lost.

GOD tested Abraham again by requesting he make a burnt offering sacrifice of Isaac, his only son, in Moriah. His obedience and trust, extracted from GOD:

Genesis 22:12 (KJV)

“And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the Lad, neither do thou anything unto him: for now I know that thou fearest GOD, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me”

Abraham waltzed into the hall of fame of faith. He sacrificed himself for others, yet he increased.  He humbled himself before GOD’s anointed King and Priest Melchizedek of Salem blessing him with 1/10^th of his possessions. He refused to be made by man only by GOD to preserve the purity of his divine relationship.

The diligent pursuit of faithfulness displayed through the obedience of Abraham culminated in GOD”s delight of an everlasting covenant of “The Promised Land” to the seed.

Genesis 28:13 (KJV)

And behold, the LORD stood above it and said: “I am the LORD God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and your descendants.

…………………..Forever.

Chapter 4

Moses and the Covenant of Law

Chapter 5

David and the Covenant of Government

Chapter 6

Jesus and the Covenant of Redemption

Chapter 7

Phinehas and the Covenant of Peace