I found a web site which lists the oldest people living today. When I checked it I read of a lady who was 115, and another that was 125, and then some lady I think from Peru that was supposedly 140!  There was a picture of this lady and, yes, she looked every bit of 140.  Of course I am not sure how we can really know she is that old (count her wrinkles like the rings on a tree?), but there is no doubt she is very, very old.

​So segue back to Genesis after Cain kills his brother Abel we move on to a ‘a whole-lotta-begetting’ going on. God’s command to “go forth and multiply” was one command mankind took to heart well beyond just knowing simple math facts!

But old in Genesis is a relative thing.  People in Genesis times lived to be sometimes 800 or 900 years old.

Adam lived to be 930 years old after God created him on the 6th day Genesis 5:5. His son Seth was 912 Genesis 5:8, Noah later on in Genesis we learn lived to be 950 years, and the long in the tooth award winner is .. Methuselah... the oldest man in the history of .. HISTORY. Methuselah was cut down in the prime of life at the age of 969 Genesis 5:25-27

I figure if I eat my veggies, drink milk, get 8 hours of sleep a night along with daily exercise and in only 908  more birthdays I will have Methuselah beat.  That will be in the year.. 2928 when I am neighbors with George Jetson.

They say you are only as old as you feel and I find this to be very little encouragement some days when feeling 'Genesis5esque' old.  Maybe not Methuselah old, but at least somewhere in the mid 500s.  and to think they did not have Ibuprophen.
​

The other interesting pattern of this was how old people were still.. um.. still.. ‘begetting’. While one of today’s serious society concerns is teen pregnancies, this was not the problem with society recorded in Genesis. 

In Genesis 5 it was not unusual for a couple to wait 70 to 500 years old before starting a family.  I guess those 500 years were spent playing golf, world travel using up frequent flyer miles, paying off the mortgage(s), credit card debt, or marking hot yoga off their bucket list. 

Maybe women in Genesis 5 wanted a career as a shepherdess, garden mogul, or working as a Mary Kay Cosmetics specialist before settling down and having kids. ​

​Let me close these early chapters of Genesis with a few more images sharing a Back Pew perspective. 

• Before Salt Lake City Lamech  was living with his daily double, 
  
• Enoch walked with God, and was no more. And finally
  
• the Nephilum. The Hebrew word for Nephilum  is “Fallen ones (maybe angels who smoked)”.. and they were certainly fallen... “fallin’” for the women of Earth – and God was not pleased.

So while it is hard for me to grasp the fact that I am 62.. a Methuselah like age (969) boggles the mind.  But like so many things in the Bible, just because I don’t understand does not make it not true.  

​From Genesis through Revelation I find the evidence and promise of God’s love and grace.
From the Garden to the Flood to the Cross all the way through life today sitting in my Back Pew there is this promise and evidence of a loving God.

May God bless each of you today in ways that are beyond your dreams. I pray you place your faith and hopes in the one true God of our Bibles.

Jeff (Methuselah like aches & pains) Larson

Admittedly Cain did overreact when his ‘garden salad gift’ was rejected by God by killing his brother.  No more Red Bull energy drinks for Cain.

When God asks Cain what happened to his brother he gives the time honored answer. “Am I my brothers keeper?” and perhaps then deflected from his guilt mumbling about his PETA membership being disrespected. 

So there you have it. Adam, Eve, a Garden neglected, and two boys that fight. God's creation is certainly off to a fine start. ​

After creating the world God placed Adam and Even in the beautiful Garden of Eden (aka paradise), and in the center of this garden was the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil Ge 2:17 which Adam and Eve were forbidden to eat of its fruit. A Great setting for a Garden Party, until.. it was ruined.

So how do you ruin a Garden Party?
Rain, snow, gloom of night (mailman stuff), or maybe forget to send out the invites to your party?  Of course snow & ice might happen here in Minnesota (paradICE), but not in paradise (Eden), so how Adam & Eve ruin this Garden Party?

PETS?
Genesis 2:19-20 19 Now out of the ground the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. 20 The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him. 

So as Senior Garden Engineer Adam did his best Dr. Doolittle imitation and talked to the animals naming them one by one. What a daunting task, but 'in the beginning' the streaming library on Netflix was limited, there was no Sunday football, and this task was assigned before Eve arrived with her 'Honey Do List(s)' so he had plenty of time to name a 'couple animals'.

Ok, admittedly all the animals are not pets, but I know my one little rescue dog could get into the right amount of mischief to ruin a garden party. Either chewing up something that is not his, sneaking food that is not his, or.. leaving little doggie-doo 'presents' that are his and I have stepped in.

But we do not read any animals (even a mischievous rescue dog ruined the Garden Party.
​

There was no Old ‘Testament’ Navy, GAP (except between the leaves!), or levi's stores in the Garden so Adam & Eve being naked went for the ‘obvious’ line of clothing.. FIG LEAVES?  

Ge 3:7 Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.

But.. this 'Fig Leaf' line of fashion had at least a couple serious drawbacks. 
1. Leaf blight, and squirrels, and
2. Fig Leaves were simply not all that flattering. No woman when asking how she looks, wants to hear the words.. "You look like a SHRUB".

And now seeing the bigger picture outside of the world of fashion, Adam & Eve realized life would never be the same. Sin caused a host of irrational emotions.

Ge 3:8-9 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 Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”​

The Invention of the Blame Game..
Naked and afraid Adam & Eve were playing 'Hide & Seek' with God. This is where the time honored (or dishonored) 'Blame Game' was first used. First Adam blamed Eve, Eve blamed the snake, and the snake did not have a leg (literally & figuratively) to stand on!  

This my friends is how you ruin a Garden Party!

About a week later  a CSI investigation corroborated the entire Genesis 3 account.

So the fall out from this original sin was the snake, woman, and man were cursed and Adam & Eve were then EVICTED from the Garden while Willie Nelson played 'On the Road Again' in the background.  ​​

GOOD NEWS IS.. God's Grace is as they say AMAZING. He will accept us back after any big or small prodigal moments when we truly repent. BUT please note.. God will not be mocked.. an insincere whoopsie attitude  towards our sin move us further away from the safety and blessings God intends for us.

My prayer today all of us to pursue a greater love for our God. To be in a place where obedience to our loving Heavenly Father is a natural expression of this love. May God impress on our hearts His love for us, He desires the very best for us, and realize His Word is a light to guide us in this dark world.

Blessings

Jeff (weeding my garden) Larson

Genesis 1 - In the beginning, God spoke the universe into existence.  Some of those present claimed they heard a loud crackling sound like thunder, but most simply described it as sort of a.. BANG.. actually a BIG BANG! 

At this point let me be clear, I am not here to discuss Old Earth v New Earth theories. This would be above the pay grade of this cartoonist, but what I will say is .. God created and it was GOOD!

Genesis 1:1-31 To summarize, this daunting project was completed in 6 days where Day 1:  DAY , NIGHT , the SKY were spoke into existence by our Almighty Creator. 

Genesis 2:1-3 Then on the 7th day God rested.  In contrast I installed a bathroom floor in our town-home recently and I rested on the 5th, 6th, and 7th days and while it turned out nice it was not Hubble Telescope spectacular like God's Universe.

Those first 6 days His creation included the sun, stars, land, waters, and all the creatures in the sea and on land were created. 

To rule over the lands and seas God created MAN​ Genesis 2:7 in His own image from the dust of the Earth followed by creating WOMAN from man's 'spare rib' declaring it is not good for man to be alone. Genesis 2:18
​
To which Adam declared.. "Hey beautiful, where have you been all my life?"   

​Then God commanded Adam and Eve to "be fruitful and multiply".. to which Adam quickly started working on his times tables.

This creation story is all recorded into the Bible book of Genesis. While many Cosmologists believe the Big Bang was the creation of EVERYTHING from NOTHING followed by billions of years of random collisions and explosions resulted in our ever expanding universe, all the planets including Earth including life with all it's complexities.  

​Ok, I believe you can collide a chocolate bar with a jar of peanut butter and end up with a Reeses Peanut Butter Cup.. but this Universe has too moving parts + complexities that are bound together with rules and order for me to believe EVERYTHING came from NOTHING.

So I choose to believe there must be an intelligent design behind creation. For me, I believe in a divine creator that exists outside the confines of time and space. I believe this Intelligent Design is described in the Bible Book of Genesis.

​May God bless each of you greatly in your pursuit of truth. This is important stuff, and a foundation for life. If there is a God then the pursuit of Him is a greater science than can be found looking through any microscope or telescope.  Bigger than Star Trek's five year journey exploring the stars.

A while back our pastor gave a sermon on getting to know God by reading our Bibles regularly and systematically.  During this very good sermon our pastor joked that the most read books of the Bible are Genesis and Matthew, because our inspired intentions in January to read through our Bibles fades once we are through Genesis, and Matthew. (Leviticus has killed many a Bible study ).. then the next year we are back in Genesis and Matthew.  I call this bible study plan.. The BEGINAGAINS.

I must be honest and say I have followed the BEGINAGAIN plan many times and not until 2003 did I completely read my Bible from cover to cover AND I CARTOONED THRU IT TOO! Note: Neither Billy Graham or the Pope could say they cartooned through the Bible.  Then in 2018 lightning struck again as I read through my Bible from Genesis through Revelations. YEAH ME!

My wife Mary and I have several nativity sets that we put on display each Christmas season. And in the month of December 2004 was a Christmas season like most all the others, EXCEPT.. our dog Baylie (Husky Springer Spaniel mix) who was about a year and a half old at the time still liked to chew on things that were not her designated chew toys. 

One of those items is my kneaded eraser which I use when I am drawing my cartoons, and it looks like a lump of clay.  Well Baylie would sneak it off my desk, and chew it up but never swallow it.  Leaving a mangled pile of eraser fragments on the family room floor.  I push the crumbs back together, and continue to use it.  I know, I know.. Ewwwww!!  But she cleans the pencil lead out of it and dog drool seems to be an active agent in making the eraser .. erase.  BUT I DIGRESS.. ​

I confess #IHATEHASHTAGS is not the most endearing blog title, but my purpose is to focus on a Biblical response to the glut of #movements in our VERY SECULAR society.

This messy world is inundated with Virtue Signalling / Social Justice Crusaders all whipped up into a frenzy by the media and social media with images, sound bites, tweets, etc, which often lack context promoting 'feelings' over 'facts', agendas over truth. Collectively I will label these the dreaded #SJWCRUSADES (social justice warrior crusades). 

These #SJWCRUSADES exist in a land where everyone is a victim, and/or bullied into a fragile 'snowflake' condition barely able to function. Their victim status paralysis is someone else fault when 'feelings are hurt', and/or they were made to 'feel uncomfortable' which is considered an 'act of violence' against them. Who is to blame?  Mostly, Men.. more specifically WHITE MEN. And the luck of the draw, I was born a white male have continued that status for my entire life. So.. sorry? I guess for something I did or didn't do inherently because I am white? and male?

Important note: I am not insensitive to injustice, but am concerned with a #SJWCRUSADE response to injustice, and where they place hope.  For me, I would like to place my hope in the following Bible Basics..

Getting back to the (Bible) Basics..

• So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.​ Matthew 7:12 (#do_unto_others)
• He who justifies the wicked and he who condemns the righteous are both alike an abomination to the LORD. Proverbs 17:15 (#true_justice)
• “Does our law judge a man without first giving him a hearing and learning what he does?” John 7:51 (#innocent_til_proven_guilty)​
• “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” Mt 22:37-40 #loveGod&Others Hey.. WHAT IF.. we really did #OBEY these two commandments?
• For all have sinned and come short of the Glory of God. Romans 3:23. #AllHaveSinned.

In these verses we find justice and an outline for just behavior. So I ponder again.. WHAT IF.. we simply follow the above Bible Basics instead of launching into another #SJWCRUSADE?


​Welcome to the #SJWCRUSADE Jungle..
#metoo, #churchtoo, #BLM, #believewomen, #toxicmasculinity, #whiteprivelege, #woke, #lgbtq, #prochoice, #abortionisawomansright, #impeach45, etc etc.
In most of these movements GUILT, MOTIVES, and PRIVILEGE are assumed.. and terms like INTERSECTIONALITY are spewed out (yes spewed). But honestly most #SJWCRUSADES add nothing to justice not already covered by God's Word and common sense, and #SJWCRUSADES often have their own agenda that perverts truth.

​​So with this in mind, onward and forward to societies #SJWCRUSADES parade of Injustices.
​

1. Respect Women (#believewomen, #metoo, #churchtoo, #toxicmasculinity) 
I believe all these #SJWCRUSADES have hijacked/injured truth where guilt is assumed (and very public) because we must #believewomen.   After all.. Why would a woman lie? A. Because for women, just like men Romans 3:23 applies.

• ​Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with [them] according to knowledge, giving honour unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered. 1 Peter 3:7 

• Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price [is] far above rubies. Proverbs 31:10-11
  So God created man in his [own] image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. Genesis 1:27 
  
  Simply put, there is no place in our Bibles condoning the disrespect, harassment, or assault of women. ​In all instances seek truth and justice without assumed guilt.
  
  ​

2. Racism (#BLM, #woke, #whiteprivelege)
Slavery, racism, and discrimination based on the color of your skin is foolish sin. Please note, when the Bible speaks of slavery it was a different culture and the meaning of the term slave was very different from what it means today.  The Bible never condoned slavery as we think of it today, or any bias against anyone based on the color of their skin.

• We know that the law is good if one uses it properly. We also know that the law is made not for the righteous but for lawbreakers and rebels, the ungodly and sinful, the unholy and irreligious, for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers, for the sexually immoral, for those practicing homosexuality, for slave traders and liars and perjurers—and for whatever else is contrary to the sound doctrine 1 Timothy 8:10
• There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. Galatians 3:28
• For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. Romans 1:16
  

​Again, God created all men equal and so racism is simply put.. stupid.  Now, I must say that racism is found within all races.  ANYONE who judges the motives, intention, and abilities based on race is wrong, and could be racist.


3. Abortion (#prochoice??, #abortionisawomansright) 
There are ZERO valid arguments for abortion. Science and common sense tell us the unborn child is a beautiful human life and to be #prochoice is at it's heart a deception of truth or worse. There is a beating heart, there is the developing body of the unborn child. The birth canal is not the arbiter of life... conception is.  And abortion needs to be seen for what it is.. the ending of this life by violent methods.

• For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. Psalms 139:13-14 
  

​Note: There needs to be great compassion for the expecting mother and her circumstances. There needs to be loving counsel available for these 9 months and beyond. There needs to be resources available for the expecting mom, and the kind words encouraging life over the alternative choice of abortion.

4. LGBTQ & Gender Issues (#lgbtq) 
​It matters what we Christians believe on these issues. Of course Christians should respect, appreciate, and love those who are LGBTQ, But.. we should not turn a blind eye to ANY sinful sexual lifestyle from infidelity, porn, adultery, and including LBTQ issues where the scriptures are so clear.

• and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men .. Romans 1:27
• Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men. 1 Corinthians 6:9
• We know that the law is good if one uses it properly. We also know that the law is made not for the righteous but for lawbreakers and rebels, the ungodly and sinful, the unholy and irreligious, for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers, for the sexually immoral, for those practicing homosexuality, or slave traders and liars and perjurers—and for whatever else is contrary to the sound doctrine 1 Timothy 8:10
  

​
​Again, The pursuit of Justice and Truth are biblical. Justice where we are presumed innocent until proven guilty, and where a just punishment is delivered to the truly guilty. 

​

aka The Northwoods Good Samaritan of 2001. ​This is a story near and dear to my heart that I like to share most every December.  

Back in the December of 2001 on the roads of ice and snow near Hayward Wisconsin  a young mom with her preschool children loaded in the family car was heading home to the nearby town of Drummond when along the road she spots an older man with the hood up on his car.

This was a typical bitter cold December day, but though she has her young children with her she is impressed to stop and see if she can help. 

As she pulls over the old man approaches her car. She cautiously locks her doors and rolls down her window slightly to ask if she can help. The old man does not speak, tries to open the door, then reaches inside his coat.. making her all the more uneasy. 

The old man pulls out a small keyboard from his jacket and plays a pretyped short message explaining he has ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease) so he can not speak. He then types needs a ride into town. The young woman opens her car to the old man she does not know and drives him home.

This old man was my father Walter Larson, and the young woman was Jen Herricks, and Jen was the the Good Samaritan of Northern Wisconsin 2001. I wonder how many cars drove by before Jen stopped to help. How many macho northwoods guys in their 4x4 trucks drove by too busy to help an old man stranded on a bitter cold winter day? Maybe none, but maybe too many. But no matter, my dad was cared for by someone with a family car, and a kind heart.