"Perspective" from 18-year-old guest blogger, Carli Cannon

  I'm so proud of this blog my daughter wrote about her perspective on God after studying Genesis.  I just had to share :)

Genesis has seriously left a huge impact on the way I think.

What the Lord has been bring me through lately is realizing that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of, well...everything. I keep coming to Proverbs 9:10 and realizing that if I want to lead a life of wisdom and abundance, I need to be living in fear, awe, and reverence of the One who created me. If I want to live an abundant life that pleases Him, I need to fear Him and CHOOSE to obey Him, even when things don’t make sense. And this starts with understanding His character SO THAT I can be awe-struck by Him and thus, live a life of desiring to please Him and fulfill His will… not mine.

The character of God is so prevalent in Genesis I really didn’t have enough time to write about it.  Each chapter unraveled a new aspect of His character that I never gave much thought to before I was actually looking for it. I had to read each story, each individual’s personal walk of life and LOOK for where God was in each situation. I needed to stop questioning HIM and start with a foundation of understanding that HE IS GOOD. It’s about the trust that in each situation, whether the judgment of Sodom or the joy in redemption for Joseph, God is sovereign and He has a bigger and better plan than any human could even come up with.

Despite the ever-sinning, chaotic demeanor of humanity, God has had SO much mercy upon His people… and has never ceased to fulfill His promises. He could have just started all over right when Adam and Eve sinned, but instead, He chose to redeem us. Life is a continuing story of the many pictures of God’s goodness, and we need to start looking for them in every situation and stop blaming Him for the bad things in our lives. Take this for example: say I am late to an event and just so happen to get stopped at EVERY red light. Rather than gritting my teeth and turning up the music in frustration, I’m going to start thanking the Lord that He’s allowing it to happen for a bigger reason than I understand.

From now on I’m going to CHOOSE to understand that in little and large things alike, the Lord sees the biggest picture of them all. He has a plan, and I need to trust that even in the rough seasons He will use it for His glory in the long run. I learned that I need to stop making my prayers about what He can change in the situations I’m in, and start praying for Him to change my perspective instead. I can’t wait to see the ways the Lord will begin to reveal Himself to me as I start to seek Him out in all that I do.

God Loves Fat!

Not only does God love fat, but He ree-hee-healy (thank you Jim Carey) loves fat.  Listen to this…the word fat is used 110 times in the New King James translation of the Bible.  Out of those 110, nearly 100 refer to something our Heavenly Father likes.  In fact, it was what pleased Him most in many Old Testament sacrifices. Check out this verse (wish there was a “LOVE” button here):

Lev_3:16: and the priest shall burn them on the altar as food, an offering made by fire for a sweet aroma; all the fat is the LORD's.

ALL the fat is the Lord’s.  He wants to make sure no one else is getting any of His fat!  This fact is repeated over and over again in several verses.  Fat was sweet to the Lord.  He even loved the aroma of it!

I’m not (repeat NOT) making a theological statement here, but I’m wondering:  Has the devil influenced our culture (and for that matter most of the world’s culture) to HATE fat simply because our God loves it so much?  That big ugly liar likes to pervert and ruin everything else God loves, why would he stop with the cute padding on our hips?

I realize that most of the mentions of fat in the Bible are in reference to animal fat, but here’s a thought-provoking verse that shows God’s heart toward His  human kids:

Mal_4:2  But to you who fear My name The Sun of Righteousness shall arise With healing in His wings; And you shall go out And grow fat like stall-fed calves.

There’s really no denying that “growing fat” is a good thing in this verse, is there?

Please don’t get me wrong, I’m not advocating a new trend toward life-threatening obesity.  That’s often linked to gluttony, which we all know God most definitely does NOT love.  But I am thinking a little differently about this whole FAT issue.  I think God likes my fat.  In fact, I think He loves every dimple on my pudgy little legs.

And…I'm pretty sure He loves every dimple on your cute little legs, too :)