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Grab on and Don't Let Go

In Genesis 18 God in human form, Jesus, appeared to Abraham, telling him the good news that Sarah would be pregnant in a year. The conversation then takes a turn toward Sodom and Gomorrah. The Lord said, “The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is immense, and their sin is extremely serious. I will go down to see if what they have done justifies the cry that has come up to me. If not, I will find out.” Genesis 18: 20-21 (CSV) I love the beauty that God, Jesus, is having this situation looked into before doing anything. The two angles that came with Jesus walked to Sodom to look into the situation. Jesus remained with Abraham and their conversation continued. Abraham stepped forward and said “Will you really sweep away the righteous with the wicked? What if there are fifty righteous people in the city? You could not possibly do such a thing: to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and wicked alike. You could not possibly do that! Won’t the judge of the whole wor...
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You Don't Have to be Perfect

“He also said to Him, ‘I am the LORD who brought you from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess.’ But he said, ‘Lord God, how can I know that I will possess it?’ He said to him, ‘Bring me a three-year-old cow, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.’ So he brought all these to him, cut them in half, and laid the pieces opposite each other, but he did not cut the birds in half….When the sun had set and it was dark, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch appeared and passed between the divided animals. On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying ‘I give this land to your offspring, from the Brook of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates River. Genesis 15:7-10,17-18 CSB This is an obscure weird occurrence for us to read about. Surprisingly it was weird in Abram’s time as well, but for very different reasons. The instructions that God gave to Abram were something he was familiar with. It was a common practice wh...
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The Upside Down Way

Up until the moment that I wrote this, I’ve viewed Abram in quite a negative light. “He’s so passive. Besides going where God calls, He doesn’t seem to follow God in any of these situations.” While Abram has moments of not trusting God, he also has moments of reflecting Jesus and what Jesus stood for. “Now, Lot who was traveling with Abram, also had flocks, herds, and tents. But the land was unable to support them as long as they stayed together, for they had so many possessions that they could not stay together, and there was quarreling between the herdsmen of Abram’s livestock and the herdsmen of Lot’s livestock…So Abram said to Lot, ‘Please, let’s not have quarreling between you and me, or between your herdsmen and my herdsmen, since we are relatives. Isn’t the whole land before you? Separate from me: if you go to the left, I will go to the right; if you go to the right, I will go to the left.’” Genesis 13:5-9 CSB Abram was not avoiding conflict here. He faced it. Did he lay d...
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The Earth, Divided

Thinking back on the first 10 chapters of Genesis, where did the division start? Did it begin in Peleg’s time? Was it when Ham shamed Noah, his father? Was it when mankind's every thought was evil and the flood came? Was it when Adam’s son was the first to murder? Was it when Adam and Eve were removed from the Garden of Eden? “The woman saw that the tree was good for food and delightful to look at, and that it was desirable for obtaining wisdom. So she took some of its fruit and ate it; she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves….and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden.” Genesis 3:6-8 It’s amazing how one “I want this” decision affected so much. Immediately it affected someone else. Immediately it affected their state of well-being. It didn’t stop there though. In our journey to look back,...
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Worshiping Our Savior, the Creator

"You are to take seven pairs, a male and its female, of all the clean animals, and two of the animals that are not clean, a male and its female, and seven pairs, male and female, of the birds of the sky – in order to keep offspring alive throughout the earth.” Genesis 7:2 (CSB) Once I was able to get past the initial shock that it wasn’t just 2 of each animal, as I had grown up thinking, I was then curious about why He was so specific and why there needed to be more of the clean animals for them to survive than the unclean. Was it because of the Jewish laws of only being allowed to eat clean animals? “Every creature that lives and moves will be food for you; as I gave the green plants, I have given you everything.” Genesis 9:3 (CSB) No, the Jewish laws weren’t established yet. They were free to eat any animal. “Then Noah built an altar to the LORD. He took some of every kind of clean animal and every kind of clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar.” Genesis 8:20 (C...
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Rising Above Sin

How do we rise above sin, the sin of the world, the sin in our own lives, the temptation to sin? The story of the flood gives a beautiful picture of this. “Understand that I am bringing a flood —- flood waters on the earth to destroy every creature under heaven with the breath of lie in it. Everything on earth will perish. But I will establish my covenant with you, and you will enter the ark with your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives.” Noah was righteous. While others followed their desires, Noah chose to do something quite unusual, because God asked him to. God had Noah fulfill His plan of cleansing the world by building a giant boat in the middle of land. Noah didn’t do it alone. He asked others, his family, to join him. His family believed him and followed his lead. Potentially by helping to build the ark despite persecution and then getting on the ark with countless animals. They did all of this even when there was no water in sight. In the end, none of their actions were...
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Walking With God

I once heard someone ask “What are you looking forward to doing with Jesus in heaven?” After reflecting upon that question I realized I just wanted to walk with Jesus. I wanted to be in the midst of His creation, nature, completely free from the worry of coming across anything bad. I can imagine taking in the beauty He created while discussing it and many other things with Him, not second guessing if it was His voice I was hearing, but knowing because He was right beside me. When thinking of this I couldn’t help but be reminded of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Genesis 3:8 states “Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden and the time the evening breeze.” I imagine that this happened daily. That they would walk with God every day. It was a joyful norm for them. Until they had turned from the Tree of Life and instead of joining God in His walk “they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden.” Genesis 3:8 continued (CSB) This has ha...
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