Enoch

Genesis 5:23-"And after he became the father of Methuselah, Enoch walked with God 300 years and had other sons and daughters. (24) Enoch walked with God; then he was no more, because God took him away." (NIV) "By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that had pleased God." Hebrews 11:5 (KJV) I was reading in my Bible the other day and stumbled across the above scripture in Genesis. I thought the fact that a man actually walked with God was incredible and stayed on my mind. I now know that God allowed this to stay on my mind and peeked my curiosity. I wanted to share with you what God revealed to me about this man; this man, who seems to have so very little recorded about him... a man called Enoch. If you noticed, I used two different translations in the above verses to help explain the content for this post. Enoch was a descendant of Adam and yes, Cain. At first glance, it looks at though very little is said about Enoch. But if you look closely, you find two incredible things about him-1.) He walked with God and 2.) He did not die but was 'raptured up' by God. While escaping death is enough for me to say, "hummmmm", knowing Enoch walked with God prompted me to look deeper as to how he was able to walk with God and was this something I could do? When I think about walking with someone, side by side, I usually have a very good reason for doing so. The reason is usually to engage in a conversation. If I am walking behind someone, their voice is often muffled or distant and I find myself constantly asking them to repeat themselves. If someone is behind me, I find that I have to stop or slow down with my walk to talk to them. This to, interferes with my destination. I thought about the relationship between God and me. I am often running ahead of Him with thoughts or actions that I think He should already be doing! Or, I find myself dragging slowly behind as He calls me to step out on my faith, creating resistance to His plan for me. I have decided the best place to be is walking with Him, side by side. After all, isn't this the best scenario for two people who are communicating or who have a relationship? So, how do we do this? How do we 'walk with God' just as Enoch did? This brings me to the second above scripture, Hebrews 11:5. The King James version refers to Enoch as having this 'testimony' that pleased God. By definition, testimony refers to "an outward sign" or "evidence" of something. I believe Enoch lived out what he believe about the God he served. I believe he was able to do this because of the faith he had in God. The whole chapter of Hebrews 11 is dedicated to the great men and women of faith. Enoch is one of those mentioned. Immediately following the mention of Enoch, the Bible says, "And without faith, it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him" (Hebrews 11:6). I don't believe this was just 'randomly' inserted. I believe God associates the type of faith that is pleasing to him with a man who possessed such faith--Enoch. We cannot get around believing God. We talk about how difficult it is, yet we have no reason to doubt. I have come to a powerful conclusion: I want to live a testimony that is pleasing to God so that I can walk with God. I don't want to try to lead God or drag behind. I want God to want to walk with me because I believe in everything He says He is and is to come. I want to be close to His shoulder if I need to cry and close to His hand in case I stumble... Love, Corrie My prayer for today: Lord, how I fail you with my doubt and lack of faith. I have nothing that tells me you will not be faithful to me, but have your whole word that tells me just how faithful you are. Help me to live an outward testimony to who you are...