Tag Archives: God

genesis 10: origins

“These are the generations of the sons of Noah…”

Just nine words. Words that no doubt most of us just skim past. But you and I are in those words. Generations. Sons of Noah.

Japheth: Often referred to as the Father of Europeans. His descendants were French, German, Celtic, Russian, and Spanish, among others. Some of his sons’ descendants inhabited Iran and Iraq, India and Armenia.

Ham: His descendants inhabited Africa and the Far East. They founded both Babylon and Ethiopia. They lived in Libya, Egypt, and Israel. It is also widely believed that the Asian peoples descended from sons of Ham.

Shem was an ancestor of Persians, Assyrians and the Syrians, and various Arabic peoples.

You and I fall somewhere in there, as descendants of the sons of Noah, a descendant of Adam and Eve.

It’s good to know and remember where you came from.

I was the first person in my immediate family (parents, siblings) to become a Christian. I met a guy in a bar and eventually married him. He came from a Christian family and told me about Jesus. Not a lot, but the basics. Years later I would surrender my life to that Jesus and never look back. But I learned that there were members of my dad’s family (grandmother, grandfather (eventually) uncles, aunts) who were Christians. I can’t help but wonder where it began. I would love to discover who was my point of origin for the gospel in my family.

After I got saved, most of my family members became Christians, one at a time. I’m still believing for those who have not yet surrendered to the Lordship of Christ.

The covenants God made with both Abraham and Noah included their descendants. God’s purposes and His heart are for families, for lineage and legacy. He doesn’t bless one man, He blesses a man and his descendants. He doesn’t just save one man, He saves a man and his entire household.

And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.”

That doesn’t mean that when one person is saved, his whole household is automatically saved. It means that one person getting saved then opens the door for the gospel to his whole family.

In a very roundabout way, I am coming to my point, which is this:

God is about family. Descendants. Legacy. Households. Keep going. Keep praying. Keep believing. Keep walking with Jesus. You are opening doors. You are walking in the blessings of God that are being passed down from one generation to the next.

You could very well be someone’s point of origin for the gospel.

genesis 8: altars

Again, God is specific with timing. The ark came to rest on the 17th day of the 7th month. In the 601st year (of Noah’s life), 2nd month, 27th day of the month, the earth was finally dry again. Noah and his family had been in the ark for about a year. I can only imagine the smell.

God knows the timing of every single thing in your life. If you are wondering when, or how long, then I invite you to rest. Stop wrestling with the timing of it. Whatever it is, it will not be one minute late, or go on one minute too long.

Noah and his family didn’t know how long they would be in there. I assume they had friends and neighbors who perished in the flood. Their home and all that was known to them was gone, and they had no idea what life would look like outside of the Ark. Maybe they were grieving. Maybe they were scared. Whatever they were dealing with, it was no vacation.

Sometimes being rescued is hard. Life as we know it changes and it can be painful, and it always comes with a loss. In fact, we all have, or have heard, testimonies of life going downhill fast once we surrendered our lives to Jesus. If you are in the hard part of the rescue, stay put. Dry ground is coming.

“Then Noah built an altar to the Lord.”

Altars. Places of sacrifice. Worship. Devotion. Repentance. Thanksgiving. They represent our lives before God. The sacrifice on Noah’s altar was a costly one, given that there were only so many animals left on the earth. And that thought quickly became this one –

There are things that come with us in our rescue so that they can become our sacrifice on dry ground.

So, here come the questions, more for me than for you, but I think we could all stand to answer them: What came with you when Jesus declared you saved? Have you built an altar for your pride yet (independence, selfishness, anger, etc.)?

Can you look back at the difficult seasons and find the altars you built to worship God?

Is your life on an altar right now?


genesis 7: faith

It was in Noah’s 600th year, in the 2nd month, on the 17th day. God knows precisely when He began the flooding of the earth in order to eradicate the wickedness that permeated it. It was the exact same day that He saved the one speck of righteousness that existed on the earth – Noah. Interestingly, it never states that Noah’s sons, wife, or daughters-in-law were righteous. It only tells us that Noah found favor, Noah walked with God, Noah was righteous. Yet his entire family was saved from the flood. Reminds me of this:

“They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved–you and your household.” – Acts 16:31

{Maybe today you needed to hear that God likes to save whole families. Maybe you needed to hear that God’s timing is precise. Maybe you needed encouragement to continue to pray, continue to believe God for your family.}

But that’s not all that caught my eye in this chapter.

Noah did all that God commanded. All. Not most. Not some. All. But these were not just obedient actions. Listen to Hebrews 11:7:

“By faith Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his household, by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.“

Noah’s obedience came through faith. He believed God would do what He said He would do. He most likely did not understand exactly what that would look like, but He believed it would happen. He trusted God to keep His Word.

People with a religious spirit will often follow the rules out of trust in the rules, not the rule giver. Rules provide order and some measure of control and even superiority to the one who religiously follows them, but the people who follow the rules apart from faith are not the ones who are commended in scripture.

Rules are necessary, and obedience is good. But God will always want to take us below the surface of our obedience so we can discover why we are obeying, and where faith comes into it. For instance, the story of the rich young ruler in Matthew 19:

“And behold, a man came up to him, saying, “Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?” And he said to him, “Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good. If you would enter life, keep the commandments.” He said to him, “Which ones?” And Jesus said, “You shall not murder, You shall not commit adultery, You shall not steal, You shall not bear false witness, Honor your father and mother, and, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” The young man said to him, “All these I have kept. What do I still lack?” Jesus said to him, “If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” When the young man heard this he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.”

The man kept the commands until his obedience required Him to trust God by giving away what he actually trusted. His money. His obedience to the commandments came from his own ability to follow rules. But as in all things, God is looking for faith. From the beginning to the end, it will always be about faith. We enter salvation through faith, not obedience to rules. We can obey every rule written in the scriptures, every commandment given by God – (which we can’t, but for argument’s sake, let’s say we could) but if we do not obey the gospel, we will still be lost, and the gospel is obeyed solely by faith.

By faith, we all have to give up what we’ve been trusting in, and trust God alone.

“And without faith it is impossible to please God…” – Hebrews 11:6

No matter how many rules we follow.

let’s raise a sword to father’s day

Sunday morning. Quiet house. Pondering these two sentences:

“No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him.” (John 6:44)

“I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” (John 14:6)

I can’t get to Jesus unless the Father draws me to Him, and I can’t get to the Father unless I come to Jesus first. Of all of the spiritual truths, this one is the great tenderizer of my heart.

God built a cross and put His Son on it because of the sin that separated us. Then He chased me down by drawing me to Jesus so that Jesus could make things right between me and my Father. Everything that was done was done because my Father wanted me with Him. I will never get over that. Ever.

And I grieve because of how many Christians find no rest in the truth. So many are still trying to win God’s approval, still trying to prove themselves worthy. Keeping Him at a distance, trying to figure out if He can be trusted.

And that is why the Word of God is a sword.

On this day especially, when fathers are being celebrated, many of you have a bitter taste in your mouth that has made its way to your heart, because not all earthly fathers are good. Sad fact of a fallen world: good parenting is hard to do and some just couldn’t do it and it turned children into victims, and the enemy knows an opportunity when he sees one.

So here’s a question: How is the enemy using that bitter taste in you to his advantage?

Maybe it’s keeping you from forgiving, which makes it hard to receive forgiveness. Maybe it’s protecting a victim mentality that makes everyone around you suspect of trying to hurt you. Every slight, real or imagined, sends you into a tailspin. It’s possible that your bitterness is being used to force you into a continual cycle of trying to get approval from others and then crashing into depression because you just can’t get enough approval to make something in you feel better. Maybe you punish yourself because you weren’t worthy to be loved well by your father. Maybe you’re just angry. Like, all the time. Those are all fallouts from trauma, but honestly? I don’t think any of that is your enemy’s actual goal.

His perfect outcome is to draw a straight line from your earthly father to God.

I believe he could care less how you feel about your earthly dad, just as long as your relationship with God suffers because you have used your earthly father to judge your heavenly Father. But here is the truth that the enemy will never whisper to your heart:

There is only One who is the exact representation of the Father and His name is Jesus. He is the only One who can walk that straight line to God. Every other single person on this earth has to go through the cross.

Today, of all days, calls for a sword. Truth to break lies that are so dang strong. Love that will conquer a heart that’s been hurt. A heavenly perspective that will change how we see a fallen world with fallen people.

Truth can help us choose forgiveness, choose to move on, choose to let go. The Word of God can tear down the lies that keep us imprisoned in our childhoods (and our adulthoods), where we re-live our wounding on a regular basis.

Truth reminds us that God cannot be measured by earthly fathers; that all goodness starts with Him, not with us.

The sword of the Spirit declares with every swing that God is good and that you can trust that the whole reason He built a cross for His Son and drew you to it is because you are loved and wanted by Him.

Come Home

“Lord, you have been our dwelling place throughout all generations.” Psalm 90:1

“The God of old is your dwelling place, and underneath are the everlasting arms.” Deuteronomy 33:27

From pages so old, Moses is whispering to us that God is our home.

I know. Home wasn’t always a good place for me either. It wasn’t always safe and mostly I couldn’t wait to leave. It was where escape became my first and strongest addiction. And then I found other so-called homes. Relationships that hurt. Marriages that hurt. Places that made me long to be free, to be anywhere but there.

I always had a roof over my head but I was always homeless.

Because true home is a safe place – physically and emotionally. A refuge. A place we don’t want to leave and when we do we can’t wait to return. It is where we feel most welcomed, most ourselves, most free. Home is where we live, not where we simply survive.

And finally, after running from every other place that called itself home for me, I ran to God. I didn’t feel safe with Him at first, because I didn’t feel safe with anyone. Trust issues don’t just disappear when you say a prayer, know what I mean? Words like “God will punish you for that” don’t just stop sounding true. I didn’t know that He is actually kind, or safe. I didn’t know that I had finally run home.

Belief doesn’t just show up in us. We choose it, because we have been given free will to do so. Everything we believe was a choice we made to believe it. For years I chose to believe that if I just hung in there, tried a little harder, my life would get better and I would end up happy. But eventually, it became clear to me that nothing was going to change and that made me sad and panicked and tired. Out of hope. And just as one king has to die for another king to take his place, one belief system has to end so that another can begin.

So one day in a hospital cafeteria I chose to believe that Jesus was the Son of God, that He died to pay the price for my sins, and I could now be forgiven and have eternal life. But honestly? The thing I most needed at that moment, the choice that was like jumping off a cliff for me, was to believe that God could change my life. If that wasn’t true, then I was a goner. So I jumped.

Some people feel most “with” God when they are in worship. For others, it’s being in nature, or maybe it’s when they are gathered with other Christians in prayer. I know a few Christians who only feel close to God when they are in church. Others have a particular spot in their home where they meet with Him. For me, there’s only ever been one place.

From that hospital cafeteria, I went back to my life, to a husband and kids and emotional wounds that wouldn’t quit. And a bible. That’s it. No church. No bible study groups or women’s ministries. Just a bible that I didn’t understand, and a need to know God. I needed to find out who He was and why He loved me. That was 30 years ago and today, the Word of God and the presence of God are the same thing to me. I am most at home when I am with Him in the scriptures. I feel safe there. Loved and free. It’s where I talk to my Father and He talks to me. It is always where I most want to be.

For Christians, life is a journey home, and doesn’t that make you think heaven? But Moses has whispered something and I can’t shake it.

God is our home. Heaven is where we finally see what home looks like.

 

{Dear believer – while the scriptures may not feel like home for you, they are where the truth is found. They are where you will come to know Him, the One you have chosen to believe. To try to follow Christ with nothing more than a sporadic or occasional glance at the Word of God will make following Him a confusing, cumbersome endeavor. Or worse, an option.}

#readyourbible

what God does with barren

Can I speak to the barren feeling people for a minute? For many of you, it’s not a barren womb, but a barren season that holds your pain. You long for something good to come from the hard and painful places you’ve been living in, but your heart just can’t see it. I can speak to that. I’ve lived with that feeling. I’m talking to the ones looking around for any sign of something growing, those who have come to believe there will be little, if any, fruit from this season. I want to whisper right into the ear of the one who feels empty and unproductive, like something has died (and very well may have) –

God does amazing things in barren places.

Isaac. Jacob. Joseph. Samson. Samuel. John the Baptist. The common thread that runs through each of their stories? Their mothers were barren. Childless.

Isaac. His barren mother was 90. Daddy Abraham was 100.
Isaac. The son of promise. Second patriarch of the Israelites. He grandfathered the twelve tribes of Israel.

Jacob. His mom, Rebekah had been barren for about 20 years when God answered her husband, Isaac’s prayer. Jacob. Third patriarch of the Israelites. Third person in the line of God’s covenant with Abraham. He fathered the twelve tribes of Israel.

Joseph’s mom was Rachel, one of Jacob’s two wives, and she too was barren until God stepped in. Joseph. Sold into slavery as a boy, and became the second most powerful man in Egypt.

Samson. While mother is not named, her barrenness is. Named by an angel who said to her, “You are barren and childless, but you are going to become pregnant and give birth to a son. Samson. Mighty warrior, and one of the twelve leaders who judged Israel.

Samuel. Hannah’s womb was shut by God, and then opened by Him so that Hannah could have the child for which she so fervently prayed. Samuel. Israel’s first prophet and king-maker. He anointed Israel’s first king.

John the Baptist. His mother, Elizabeth was “very old”, and unable to conceive. John the Baptist. Truth speaker. Baptizer.
Forerunner of Jesus.

This was all God, making greatness come from barrenness. That’s His way, you know. He leaves the possible to mortals, while He pulls glory from impossible places.

This is what I believe: In the midst of our most barren places, God is making a way for life.

Is there anyplace more barren than death itself? And yet, He has given us His Word that He brings dead back to life.

  • Two of God’s prophets, Elijah and Elisha each brought women’s sons back to life.
  • A dead man was thrown into Elisha’s tomb and came back to life.
  • At a funeral procession for a widow’s only son, Jesus brought him back to life for her.
  • Jairus, a Jewish leader’s, daughter died. Jesus raised her from the dead.
  • Lazarus, brother to Mary & Martha, died and was buried for 4 days when Jesus called him out of his grave.
  • Jesus. Crucified, dead and buried. Risen to new life after 3 days.

For the love of sinners, God brought forth a Savior from the womb of a virgin, had Him die our death, and then brought Him out of the grave so that we too could be raised to life.

When we were dead in our sins, living the most barren of lives, God gave us our first real breath through Christ.

Because…

From barren places, God brings life.

In our barrenness, God is faithful. Do you believe this?

Genesis 17; Genesis 25:21; Genesis 30:22; Judges 13:2; 1Samuel 1:1; Luke 1:18-23; 1Kings 17:17-24; 2Kings 4:18-37; 2Kings 13:20-21; Luke 7:11-17; Luke 8:49-56; John 11:1-44;

who has heard?

“I know that the Lord has given you this land and that the terror of you has fallen on us, and everyone who lives in the land is panicking because of you. For we have heard how the Lord dried up the waters of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to Sihon and Og, the two Amorite kings you completely destroyed across the Jordan. When we heard this, we lost heart, and everyone’s courage failed because of you, for the Lord your God is God in heaven above and on earth below.” – Joshua 2:10-11

Do you know who hears about that time God made $600 appear in our bank account? Or the day I had a horrible toothache and He told me to lay hands on my jaw and command healing to come, and it came? Or any of the many times God has been spectacularly evident for me?

Believers. Other Christians that are like-minded, who worship like me, believe like me, use the same lingo I use. That’s who hears about the exploits of God in my life. Know why? Because they won’t think I’m weird. They won’t look at me like I just grew another head. They won’t walk away thinking I’m “one of those people”, and try to figure out how to avoid lengthy conversations with me in the future.

So God is dealing with me right here in Joshua’s story. Dealing with my need for people, both believers and unbelievers, to approve of my walk with God. At the same time, He is showing me the bigger picture (because there is always a picture that is bigger than me and my life) of the Church.

So let’s talk about that. It’s much more interesting than the angst I am dealing with on a personal level as God exposes motives and various items of junk in my heart.

“I know that the Lord has given you this land and that the terror of you has fallen on us, and everyone who lives in the land is panicking because of you.” (v. 9)

You know those toys, the things that show you one picture if you hold it a certain way, but if you shift your hand just slightly, a different picture appears? Let’s do that with this passage.

If we hold it one way, we see the real story taking place of two spies and a prostitute having a conversation. But let’s shift our hand ever so slightly.

Now we see the spiritual picture of God’s people and the enemy (satan and his demons). We see the realm that we miss if we don’t think to look past the natural.

The Church’s mission is to expand the Kingdom of God, not just by moving into more and more territory, but by coming into a territory and making disciples there. Since the Kingdom of God is wherever the power and authority of God are ruling and reigning, when people come to salvation, they are now a place where that is happening. The more people that have the power and authority of God in them through the Holy Spirit, the larger the Kingdom of God becomes. Make sense?

So if we see the story here from that place, then Rahab’s comments are very revealing. They tell us that the (spiritual) rulers of any territory that we are about to head into are panicking, and terror has fallen upon them. Because they know. They’ve heard of God’s power in His Church. They know that our God is Lord of heaven and earth.

But do we know it? Are we aware that there are territories waiting for the Church to come in and conquer the darkness there? Do we understand who we are, what we have been commanded, and Who is with us in it?

Or are we still looking at the picture in the physical and getting overwhelmed by what we see?

If the Church is going to be strong and courageous, then it has to start with me (and you). I have to understand that when I declare the power of God in my life, telling of the seas He has parted and the mountains He has moved, I’m not just talking to the people in front of me. I’m declaring that my God is Lord of heaven AND earth to the darkness that is over the territory I’m in. And while the people in front of me may roll their eyes and think I’m weird, I know that the enemy begins to panic.

He panics because strong and courageous just entered his territory. And there can only be one reason she’s here.

So tell me, who has heard of your God? Not just the God who hates homosexuality or public schools or Democrats. That, honestly, does not make the enemy tremble, or people want to know Him.

Who has heard of the God who forgave your sin, who freed you from bondage, who healed your sickness, who provided for you when there was nothing left? The God who made a way when there wasn’t a way for you, who brought you through the fire unharmed? Who has heard about the God who changed you, who took you from darkness to light, from death to life?

Who has heard?