Every night my boys ask me to read them a Bible story I have an old set of books with Bible stories that I had when I was a child. The other night I read my boys a story titled THE MAN WHO WALKED INTO HEAVEN. This story was discussing Genesis 5:21-24. Verse 21 When Enoch was 65 years old, he became the father of Methuselah. Verse 22 After the birth of Methuselah, Enoch lived in CLOSE FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD for another 300 years and he had sons and daughters. Verse 23-24 Enoch lived 365 years, WALKING IN CLOSE FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD. Then one day he disappeared, because GOD TOOK HIM.
As I read this story I began thinking about Enoch. The life span for this generation was on the average about 900 and plus years. Methuselah who was Enoch’s son lived to be 969. Our average life span is about 80 years. Sometimes I have a difficult time finding sixty minutes to spend with God. Enoch walked in a close relationship with God for 300 years and pleased God so much that God took him. Enoch walked into Heaven without having to die. I began thinking about this. Why did God take Enoch and not Adam the very first man created. God’s perfect creation. There must have been something about this man that God loved more than others. The book that I was reading stated The secret is that Enoch walked with God and have a close relationship with God. He was different from the others. He loved God with all his heart and he put God first in all situations. Enoch and God were best friends. He had one purpose and that was to serve God and do his will. He thought about God all day long, striving in every word and deed to please God. Enoch did please God even through all his trials that he went through.
What a relationship! Enoch wanted to please him in everything he did in everything he thought and every time he spoke a word he wanted to please God. I want a close relationship with God like Enoch had. I want to be God’s best friend and one day walk into Heaven without dying. We better all want a close relationship with God.
Matthew Matt. 24:37-41 ” When the Son of Man returns, it will be like it was in the Noah’s day. In those days before the flood, the people were enjoying banquets, parties, and weddings right up to the time that Noah entered the boat. People didn’t realize what was going to happen until the flood came and swept them all away, That is the way it will be when the Son of Man comes. Two men will be in the field: one will be taken, the other left. Two women will be grinding flour at the mill, one will be taken, the other one left.”
To walk with God + To have a close relationship with God and to please =To be taken-To walk into Heaven without dying.
I want to be in this equation!!!
Lord please give me and my family a heart like Enoch and be our BEST FRIEND!!
thedailylily.com 
There are so many thoughts that come to my mind when I read your blog. A wake-up call to hungry and thirst after Righteousness, to draw closer with God and know that He will draw close to me when I do. (James 4:8)
This scripture from John 15 (see below) so vividly comes to my mind that Jesus will call us His friend when we do what He commands us to do and in these verses it is to love one another as He loves us.
I guess the question I have to ask myself now is does Jesus call me His friend? Am I in the equation? Am I going through the process of equating loving others to loving Jesus and being a friend of Jesus. And the knowing of hearing Jesus say, you are now my friend will be in the fruit that I bear. Am I enjoying the fruit of friendship?
John 15:12-17
12 �This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I do not call you servants* any longer, because the servant* does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.
Thank You Wendy. I pray that we will have many friends from our blogs and coments on this site.
I read this scripture you wrote Sara of John 15;..that you love one another..When I went to the Farming Spiritual Retreat this past July I came to the recongnition that I had no love…oh I did thngs, made things, and gave thing thinking I loved…but that time spent in the retreat caused me to face the most important and one of the hardest thing in my life…it it was traumatic to me…because the realization was if I had no love for others where was my love for God?….I had none…this was winter for me …dark ..death…cold …facing it head on…
Sara had done a series of teachings called “landscaping designs” and it dealt with the seasons of ones life and walk and she was lead to mention to me the teaching on winter….God by his Holy Spirit ministered to me as I sought him..daily, diligently I sought because..I was determined to have that close intimate walk,,I hungered after it…I was dead and was good to no one…with out love we are nothing…I listened to that teaching and reread the parts of the Retreat book that God lead me to read , listened to The Pastors words from the pulpit..just took all that God was saying and just did it…and I still say to myself just do it…I can do it…I knew a change had taken place because my love for studying the word, speaking the word singing, talking (which I never did) and that has been like the proof ..Me talking and asking questions…just was/is increasing…I am walking out what I recieved..Im walking in it and I’m closer to God compared to where I was…every day I see since then it’s a growing closer to the One who was, and is and is to come…God…and one day I believe and am striving to hear Well done …That’s a mighty big world of fruit youve brought to me…(Its all about others being brought to Christ..not us Thats what we are here for not to please ourselves but to please Him who loved us first and to help those who are doing just that)…This Daily Lily is a pleasure to God…How do I know?…His Son is being shared here……and we do need to wake up and heed that Trumpet call and use the faith we have and allow that Bread from Heaven to flow through our fingers and share on this site the things that will encourage people and they will be determined to walk with God and make the world know that Jesus is the same yesturday, today and forever..and that God is Love…..dj
BRAVO! Dorothy! Praise God for His mercy, grace and compassion that with THE WORD of GOD and the teachings you were enabled to deliver your soul, so to speak, from a tepid state to burning and a shining. We all long for that state of which Wendy wrote concerning ENOCH. Sometimes we THINK we are walking it out; we THINK we’re working it out, which the Bible tell us to do, that is; “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling ,for it is God Who works in you, both to will and to do His good pleasure…and do all things without murmurings and disputings that you may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation among whom you must shine as lights to the world” (Phil. 2:12-15)
But to find the Love that the Bible speaks of takes seeking and knocking and asking and praying and crying out to GOD. If that’s what it takes….and we want it…that’s what we have to do. And Dorothy, you are a “JUST DO IT” saint. May God strengthen you even more and more and more till you light shines “so before men that they may glorify your FATHER in HEAVEN and he who loves his brother walks in the light.” (1Jn. 2:10)
I loved your retelling of the story of Enoch, Wendy. Your little boys are blessed to have parents that read BIBLE STORIES…wonderful words of life, to them at Bedtime.
Enoch’s story reminds me of Elijah’s,(2Kings 2:11) who, although he RODE into Heaven in a chariot, still entered the Kingdom of Heaven without dying. In these two stories I see that which you pointed out so well that there must be an incredibly close relationship and a walking moment by moment, in fellowship with the LORD JESUS CHRIST, as in Enoch’s story. And in the second which seems parallel to me, Elijah worked the works of God in sacrificial obedience to Him. These two things please the Lord more than “whole burnt offerings”. If we will allow Holy Spirit to enable us, which is HIS mission here on earth, and work the works of God through obedience and worship and praise, truly the gates of Heaven would be our destiny….dead or alive.
That is a wonderful story, Chickenfarmer, about God’s friend and how wonderful that your boys want a Bible story every night and that you read one to them. You plant a garden in them before they go to bed of good seeds from God’s word in order to produce a harvest of an obedient heart that loves God. Ps 86:11 is a prayer by the David who was also a man ‘after God’s own heart’ (Acts 13:22) and says: “Teach me your way, Oh Lord; I will walk in your truth; unite my heart to fear your name. I will praise You Oh Lord my God, with all my heart, And I will glorify your Name forevermore.”
Wendy, you wrote,”He thought about God all day long, striving in every word and deed to please God.”
Ps. 10:3 “The wicked in his proud countenance does not seek God; God is in none of his thoughts.” Ps. 94:11, tells us the Lord knoweth the thoughts of man…Ps. 139:23 “O God try me and know my thoughts,” Is. 55:8 “My thoughts are not your thoughts.” These are a few of many scriptures on thoughts and God. We know there are many scriptures where He tells us what to think…. Now Isa 65:2, says they walk after their own thoughts.”
Wendy, it seems to me to know God and think about God we need to know God’s thoughts and to know God’s thoughts we need to know God’s Word. Where would our walk take us if we knew His Thoughts and walked them out? How is this equation?
Maybe we need Jeremiah and Sara’s AWARENESS walking stick to figure this out. I think you are like Sara using chemistry reaction and not mathematics for the defination of equation.
Gary you asked “Where would our walk take us if we knew His thoughts and walked them out? Heaven! Jesus said in John14;23-24..”If a man love me, he will keep my words; and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him, He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings; and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father’s who sent me….Jesus told us Gods thoughts..and what would happen if we walked them out….They would make their abode with us…and Jesus said where he is there we would be also…Heaven…dj
Gary,your comments and scriptures on ‘Thoughts’ have got me thinking. And that led me to Proverbs 23:7 “As a man thinketh in his heart so is he.” So it looks like we become what we think about. And in Philippians 2:5 it tells us to “LET this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus…” . To LET says to me we choose the thoughts we will think. We can think and do as Phillipians 4:8,9 tells us to .”Whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, pure, lovely…of good report, if there is anything praiseworthy, meditate on these things. The things you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do and the God of peace will be with you.” This thinking and beholding with our mind will help conform us to the image of Christ (II Cor 3:18).
You wrote Enoch wanted to please God in everything…and he did and he went..God took him…I started looking up pleasing God..and this is what I found…John 8:29..(Jesus talking)And He that sent me is with me. The Father hath not left me alone, for I do always those things that please him….Rom 15:3.For even Christ pleased not Himself…Hebrews 11:6..But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him….Boy Enoch had some kind of faith …same kind we have…He was active in it…Jesus was/is active…diligently active pleasing God….I want to be in that equation and chemistry Too!…..dj
I wanted to post the scripture Wendy gave us to read in this blog from the Message. I hope we will take time to think about this, pray about it and do something about it. There was a time I remember hearing this scripture often and many preachers preaching and believers talking about it and believing. I hope and pray the ones that are alive to this message will begin to encourage others. Let us be encouragers or let others encourage us.
Message 37 -39″The Arrival of the Son of Man will take place in times like Noah’s. Before the great flood everyone was carrying on as usual, having a good time right up to the day Noah boarded the ark. They knew nothing until the flood hit and swept everything away.
39 -44″The Son of Man’s Arrival will be like that: Two men will be working in the field one will be taken, one left behind; two women will be grinding at the mill one will be taken, one left behind. So stay awake, alert. You have no idea what day your Master will show up. But you do know this: You know that if the homeowner had known what time of night the burglar would arrive, he would have been there with his dogs to prevent the break-in. Be vigilant just like that. You have no idea when the Son of Man is going to show up.
Sara, your sharing of the scripture written in the Message Bible, it really helped me to see this in a more deeper way…Vigilant.. I looked it up and this is what the Webster Dic.said;..vigilant to keep watch, stay awake, alertly watchful esp. to avoid danger…vigil..watching or surveillance…..I understand in pictures and when I read the part about (he would have been there with his dogs to prevent the break-in)..I could see as it were a man watching at his windows, going from window to window..the ones upstairs to the ones downstairs looking out…looking around..listening to every sound..having the doors locked…and poised ready to pounce in an instant….with his dogs…ready…(Jesus said in Matt.24;27.For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be…) lightning is fast…therefore our vigilance must be constant….WOW..(I’ve got some vigiling to do)..dj
This blog made me think about the greatest two commandments: love
God with all you heart, soul, mind, strength, and love your neighbor as
yourself. God wants us to have a relationship with Him, like Enoch had. If we
stop and think about relationships; in general, we only get out of them, what
we put into them. For instance, if I never talked to or spent time with my family
and friends, I would never have a relationship with them.(pretty simple, huh?) To love my friends and family is to have relationships with them; therefore, to love God is to have a relationship with Him.
To have a relationship with Him, is to know Him (by reading His Word and doing what it says), talk to Him (pray without ceasing) and being still to listen to the Holy Spirit. God help us to take time to get in our prayer “closets” to spend time with You, so we can be
certain to be in this equation!
Needles look what I found in connection to relationship..John4;19 “Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do; for whatever things he doeth, these also doeth the Son in the same manner..For the Father loveth the Son, and showeth him all things that he himself doeth, and he will show him greater works than these, that ye may marvel….And John 17;20 “Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also who shall believe on me through their word; That they all may be one, as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us; that the world may believe that thou hast sent me…verse 24;”Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me; for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world..verse 26:And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it, that the love with which thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them….back to John 4;19″For the Father loveth the Son….a full circle relationship that reaches world wide and universally outward…dj
Tammy, I appreciate your thoughts on the two greatest commands, love God and your neighbor as yourself. You gave great steps and ideas for spending time with God. Now what steps should I take when I decide to spend time with a family member or friend or neighbor. How would I know if it equates to a relationship according to the commands of God? If time spend equated to an open honest and productive relationship. I guess the word productive would be genuine relationship? Or should ‘time’ spent be good enough?
That simple part is not quite that simple to me? Help?
I have been focused on praying for our children and the youth for this walk with God. They are the ones at the helm of the ship. They are now guiding and leading this nation or will be shortly. We pray that they do not fall in a rut of past political sins and failures. They will step up higher with Jesus, stand firm and not be swayed by the beguiling of the world.
I urge all to get aboard two by two as Noah did and pray for our youth and nation. Please we need many intercessors at this time in our nation’s history.