Creation to Christ: Reading 9 - August 16, 2016 - Genesis 22, Abraham Offers Isaac

Today’s Readings

Context 

God called on Abraham to give up what meant most to him, then provided the sacrifice to give it back. We give our lives to God but because of the death of Christ we receive our lives back, glorified and remade.

Devotional 

Sorry, the Internet is out at my hotel. I will have to add my devotional when I return home.

Think and Pray

Creation to Christ: Reading 8 - August 15, 2016 - Genesis 18:1-15, 21:1-7, God Sends a Miracle Baby

Today’s Readings

Context 

When there is a problem in this world, God has a solution - he sends a baby! He called Abram to be the father of many nations, but he and his wife Sarai were old and unable to have children. God gave them a baby by miraculous (if frustrating) means. When the people of Israel were enslaved in Egypt, what did God do? He sent a baby, born into slavery but who delivered the people from bondage. And, of course, many years later, God sent another baby, born in Bethlehem, laid in a manger - a fully human baby but also the Son of God. He lived perfectly among us and he delivered us from our sins.

We see in today's reading the establishment of a pattern in God's activity in the world. God works by his miraculous power, but only in such a way that everyone knows that it was God who did it and that he gets the glory. God often does the absurd. 

Devotional 

Do you believe what God says?
Do you believe what God says when the circumstances of life say loudly and clearly that the word of God is not true?

Abram received a promise of God, that he would be the father of many nations, and especially the father of the chosen nation, the people of God. There was one problem. When God gave him that command, he was 75 and his wife was 65, and they'd never been able to have children. Would you agree that if you've reached that age and not been able to have a child, that your chances of conceiving are, to say the least, remote.

So what did God do? He waited 25 years! Think about that. God waited not 5 years, not 10, not 20, but 25 years! Now the renamed Sarah is 89 and her husband is 99 and a couple of men (actually angels) appear to them and announce that she would have a baby.

Is it any wonder that she laughed?

But that is what God does, it's how God works. He is determined to work among us in such a way that it is clear that the power comes from God and God alone and that the glory properly goes to him. If 65 year-old Sarah had a baby, people would say it was an amazing thing - how strange. But by the time she was 90 and Abraham was 100, it was nothing but an undeniable miracle from God.

Unfortunately, along the way, Abraham lost faith one time, and rough his wife's handmaiden Hagar he fathered Ishmael, the ancestor of the Arab nations that have so plagued the Israelite people throughout history. His failure of faith caused him to act in the flesh and cause great problems.

Will you trust God? Often - VERY often - the events of this world will make it seem as if God's word is not true and God's promises will not be fulfilled. God has promised never to leave us, but sometimes we feel abandoned. God's provision sometimes seems as if it will never come. Some prayers seem destined to fail. But God is faithful no matter what your feelings or circumstances stay. What God says he will do. What God promises he will provide.

That is why we are called to walk by faith and not by sight. Sight told Abraham and Sarah that God was wrong and they would die childless. In fact, if they told someone they would have offspring who would become many nations, people would have rationally called them crazy. But they weren't crazy, they were faithful. God had spoken and they were simply walking by faith instead of by sight.

Father, help me to remember that your word is the truth in my life, not my feelings or circumstances. May I walk by faith and not by sight. 

Think and Pray

Do you determine what is true or possible based on what your eyes see or your heart feels, or do you listen to God and his word? 
The real truth in any situation is what God says!
Think brought situations in your life and analyze the difference between what God says about them and what circumstances or your feelings any. 

Creation to Christ: Reading 7 - August 14, 2016 - Genesis 17, God Chooses. God Changes. God Uses!

Today’s Readings

Context 

Having called Abram as his own and being determined to work through him, God does what he always does, he transforms Abraham so that he is usable. God transforms that which he intends to use. He chooses. Then he changes. Then he uses. That's how God works. 

Devotional - God Chooses, Changes, then Uses

"Well, pastor, of course, Uncle Buford was a Christian. When he was 9 he went forward in an evangelistic service and he was baptized. Now, he never went to church or gave much thought to God, but he was a nice man and 'once saved, always saved,' right?" 

We have created a category of Christianity that the New Testament knows nothing about, a category of believer that the Old Testament would find foreign. It is the person who has had an encounter with the Living God of Heaven and whose life remains pretty much the same thereafter. In this new category we've invented, a person makes a profession of faith and is forgiven of his or her sin. That person receives a guaranteed home in heaven when this life is over. But between here and there, between the profession of faith and the end of life everything remains the same. He goes on being just who he was. She continues with her life without any interference from above.

It is just not a model that is found in the Bible. When a man or woman encountered God, they were changed.

Here in Genesis 17 we see that in stark relief as God calls Abram into a covenant relationship with him and then everything changes. God signifies this in two ways. First, he changes both Abram's and Sarai's names. Abram becomes Abraham, the "father of many nations." Sarai becomes a "princess" - that's what Sarah means. God's involvement in their lives radically alters them. Think how many times God changed the name of someone after the encounter. Meeting God changes lives, changes hearts, changes destinies. If God hasn't changed your life then you need to seriously question whether you've had a real encounter with the Living God.

God did something else in this passage. He instituted a sign of the covenant, a symbolic act known as circumcision. It symbolized two things. First, it was a mark that a man was set apart for God. There should be, in each of our lives, an unmistakable mark that we belong to him. It ought to be obvious to the world! But it also symbolized cleansing, the removal of sin. Israel belonged to God and could no longer live like the world.

We who have been redeemed by Christ have received what the NT calls the circumcision of the heart. We have been taken into the family of God, identified with Christ, sealed by the Spirit - we belong to him, set apart as a holy people. And as a people of God we must conform our lives (by the Spirit's power) to Christ not live according to the ways of the world. We belong to him and must live to glorify him according to the righteous character of Christ.

It is pretty much impossible to make the case for the "unchanged redeemed" category of Christian that we see so many of in the world today. The word of God just does not allow it. I am sure there are people who are genuinely redeemed who show no outward signs, and it is not my duty or right to decide who is and who is not saved.

But we are the redeemed of Christ and we belong to him. We've not only been saved, but we've been circumcised in our hearts, set apart for God and called to walk in purity. The ways of the world can not longer be our ways. The values of the world can no longer shape ours. We must be shaped by the power of the Christ who died for us, rose as Lord of all, and dwells in us by the Holy Spirit. 

Father, I thank you that you have made me holy in Christ. Help me to live out every day what you have made me in Christ. 

Think and Pray

Think through some of the major figures of biblical history, both OT and NT. How did their lives change when they encountered God? Think of Noah. Moses at the Burning Bush. Think of Saul of Tarsus. Consider others as the Spirit guides your mind. What changes did God make?
Are you walking in holiness and seeing the transforming power of Christ in your life daily?

Creation to Christ: Reading 6 - August 13, 2016 - Genesis 12:1-9, 15:1-20, God Chooses a Nation

Today’s Readings

Context 

I want you! The poster of a pointing Uncle Sam is famous in our cultural lore. But the scripture tells us that God also made choices. In our readings today he made a key choice - he chose Abram to the Father not only of many nations but of his Chosen People, Israel. In his great work of redemption and in his battle against the world system, God would work in and through this people. 

Devotional 

Israel never understood why they were chosen. In Deuteronomy, God told them that it was because they were so hard-headed and rebellious that everyone would know that the world he did was all by his grace and power. He said similar things in the New Testament, to churches like Corinth, reminding them that they were chosen as God's own not because of their greatness or merit but simply so God could display his power through them.

In these two passages God defines three great gifts he is going to give the people he chose as his own. These are eternal and irrevocable promises based on the character of God.

First, in Genesis 12:3, he promises to bless Israel. They will experience God at work among them, seeing his power and presence. God is infinitely good and his work in us produces good. But the real good he gives is not health and wealth, or physical, earthly things, but the blessing of his glory among his people.

But there is a key aspect to this that the Israelites almost always forgot. Not only would they be blessed, but they would be a blessing. God's gifts to us are never meant to stop with us. We are channels of his blessing - what he gives to us is to be shared with the world. When he blesses us with prosperity (as he has America) it is to be shared with others and invested in kingdom work. When he comforts us we are to comfort others. We love and forgive because God first loved us and forgave us. When God blesses us we pass those blessings on to the world .

God chose a people so he could bless the world through them. In the OT, that people was Israel. Today, that is the church. God takes us as his own not just to bless us but so that through us we can bless the world.

In Genesis 15:1-6, God promised Abraham a second gift, that his seed would flourish and that he would become the father of many nations. Though Abraham was an old man, God would supernaturally bless him with offspring who would become as numerous as the stars in the sky.

When God is working, there is growth. Offspring. New life. For Abraham, that was a physical blessing. The seed he was promised was literal descendants who would be the result of his miraculous work. Sarah. Rachel. God's power opened wombs and brought life.

Today our God promises offspring to his chosen people, but it is not literal. He uses us in his eternal process of redemption and as we proclaim Christ God saves souls and creates new life.

God chose a people so that he could bring new life through them. In the OT, that was Israel, but in the NT, that is the church's role in bringing the lost to Christ.

God gave his people a third gift in Genesis 15:7-11, which had also been mentioned in 12:1 and 12:7, a land to possess. The physical land of Israel was the possession of the people of Israel for all time. That has some political ramifications and even opens some controversies which are not part of our discussion here. Our purpose is to say that God gave them a land to possess, and then empowered them to possess that land and drive out the enemies that lived there.

We too have a land that we must possess - our own bodies. We must give them as living sacrifices, give them fully to God to serve him, and bring them fully under obedience to Christ. Those spiritual Canaanites who dwell within us must be driven out. But the good news is that as God promised the land to Israel he promises us the power to walk in righteousness.

God chose a people so that they could possess a land in holiness. In the OT that was the land of Israel. In the NT, it is our own bodies as the Temples of God's Spirit to be used for him.

Land. Seed. Blessing. The gifts of God to his chosen people. As God chose Israel and gave them gifts he chooses us as his own and gives us great gifts. He blesses us so that we can bless the world. He brings new life to the world through our witness. And he gives us the power to possess our "land" in holiness.

Father, thank you for you grace and power, and these mighty gifts that you give. 

Think and Pray

Israel received these gifts - land, seed and blessing. Did they take full advantage of them?
Will you receive God's blessing and be a blessing to others?
Will you actively participate in God's purpose to create new spiritual life through you in this world?
Will you possess your body in holiness or will you walk in sin and the ways of the world?

Creation to Christ: Reading 5 - August 12, 2016 - Genesis 11, Mankind Builds a Kingdom

Today’s Readings

Context 

The story of the Tower of Babel is not one that most think to be that significant; we tend to skip from the Flood to the call of Abram and the Patriarchs and give scant attention to Genesis 11. But it is an important story, one that tells us the root of the world system that stands in opposition to God.

In Revelation 17 and 18, God will destroy the sinful religious, economic, and political system he calls Babylon. "Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great." But it is here in Genesis 11 that Babylon finds its beginning. Mankind unites in opposition to the word of God to form a political system rebelling against God's ways. They seek to build a tower into heaven, which speaks of the attempts of human false religion to reach God by human means. God revealed a path to heaven but man says, "I will build my own tower and find my own way."  

In the Garden, sin began. At Babel, the world system of organized opposition to the kingdom of God was instituted. 

Devotional - The Other Kingdom

From the moment the world was created it had a king, a ruler, one who ordered things and determined how life should be lived. The Creator of all was also the King of kings. This world belonged to him. But when Adam and Eve turned away and were sent out of the Garden their intimacy with God was lost. Sin separates us from God.

In the plains of Shinar men gathered and said, "Come, let us make bricks..." They were uniting to build something. There's nothing inherently wrong with that except that God had told them to go their separate ways and fill the earth. They were uniting in disobedience to form an economic, social, political, and even religious coalition that would oppose the kingdom of God.

And the battle was on. Human beings are remarkable creatures, even God recognized the amazing potential of mankind in verse 6. Human beings united in wickedness would be able to do great things - terrible, ungodly, awful, but great. Sinful human beings united with great power can do scary things. So God went to work to bring down the sinful world system. He confused their tongues and scattered them as he had originally commanded. 

The Babylon world system has been in effect ever since - it is all around us. It is an economic system that tells us that people can be judged by their bank balance and possessions, that the accumulation of wealth gives meaning and value to life. It is a system that runs on oppression, dishonesty, and corruption. 

The Babylon world system is political, a mad rush to gain and maintain power. It is about winning instead of serving, about gaining power and control instead of being a statesman and helping others. 

And it is a religious system, based either on the worship of false gods or the worship of the true God in false ways. It is a human-built system of religion designed to help humans use human ideas to perform human rituals and human works to earn their way into the favor of God. 

How do we distinguish the true faith from the Babylonian system? 

• The true faith is God-centered and the Babylon system is about us. 
• The true faith is by grace through faith and the Babylon system is by works. 
• The true faith emphasizes holiness while the Babylon system justifies or ignores our sin. 
• The true faith is revealed by God's word while the Babylon system is rooted in human reason. 

The list could go on and on, but we must be constantly vigilant. The enemy who seduced Adam and Eve and established this world system is still active today, lying and trying to draw us to the dark side. He brings wolves among the sheep to lead them astray to their destruction. The battle is always on between the Kingdom of God and the sinful system known symbolically as Babylon. 

Father, give me wisdom to follow you and to be aware of that which is false. Guide me by your Spirit and protect me from that false world system that seeks to lead me astray. 

Think and Pray

Think about things you see in the world today that are part of the Babylon world system.
Thank God for his word that gives you truth and clear guidance away from those lies.

Creation to Christ: Reading 4 - August 11, 2016 - Genesis 6-9, The Flood

Today’s Readings

Context 

It's a familiar story, one known even by those who do not grow up in the church. Noah. The Ark. The Flood. A Rainbow. It's been the subject of movies and paintings and children's books. But the story has been turned into something that it is not - an adventure story. It is a story of judgment and salvation.

In Genesis 6:5-7, God decides to judge the world with a cataclysmic flood because of the wickedness of mankind. He finds one righteous man, Noah, and saves humanity through him and his family. They build the ark and God brings the animals. The rains come and the waters rise. Then God sends the rainbow as a promise that he will never destroy the world by flood again, and Noah and his family start over.

What we learn from this is two key lessons. First, the heart of man is not trustworthy. It is deceitful and leads us to sin. Second, God is a holy God and he does judge sin. He is kind and loving but there is a time at which his wrath reaches its limit and is poured out on the world. 

Devotional - God Starts Over

"Follow your heart."
"If it comes from within you, it can't be wrong."
"Only you can know what is best for you." 

The world tells you that the only true guide for right and wrong is your own heart, your own mind, your own conscience. You must do what you think is right. But the Bible tells us a very different story and the tragic episode of the Flood is a prime example of why we cannot trust our own hearts.

Adam and Eve plunged the world into sin and that sin spread rapidly. We know very little about that world because it was destroyed, but we know it was wicked. The best description of it was given in Genesis 6:5.

The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

That statement doesn't leave much wiggle room, does it? Every intention (not just some but every) of the thoughts of man's heart was only (not a partially, but fully, ONLY) evil continually (not just some of the time, but always). Not a flattering portrait of humanity there, is it? And because of that wickedness God brought terrible judgment on them, destroying all but 8 people on earth. He does not ignore human rebellion. 

That was a time of extremity for human sin, but the wickedness of the human heart of always a reality. Other scriptures make it clear that while the world has not always been as evil as the world was at the time of the Flood, our hearts have always been deceitful. Jeremiah 17:9 makes it clear. 

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?

Romans 3 culls several quotes from the prophets and from Psalms to describe the sinfulness of man and paints an unflattering picture. Proverbs 28:26 sums it all up.

Whoever trusts in his own mind is a fool, but he who walks in wisdom will be delivered.

We are flawed, broken by sin, unable to handle life on our own. Our sin has marred the image of God, rendered our consciences ineffective and left us unable to trust ourselves or rely on our own emotions or hearts.  We are broken and we need to be fixed. If we follow our own ways it leads to destruction and to judgment, as it did the people in the days of Noah. 

:But our God is a God of salvation. He saved Noah, providing a boat in which he could be protected from the judgment that would come. You and I likewise have a place of protection from the judgment that is coming, a place not built by human hands but constructed by the love of God and matchless work of Christ on the Cross. Because of that work, we are safe inside instead of being locked outside facing the flood of God's wrath. 

Praise God!

Thank you, God, that though I am a sinner, broken, depraved, desrving of hell, in Christ you have prepared a place for me in glory that will last forever. 

Think and Pray

Do you tend to trust yourself, your ideas and your own thinking, or do you trust in God's word?

Creation to Christ: Reading 3 - August 10, 2016 - Genesis 3, The Fall of Man into Sin

Today’s Readings

Context 

Since I just spent several months digging into Genesis 3:1-7, it is obvious that one day's devotional could never plumb the depths of this powerful passage. In Genesis 3 we see the beginning of human rebellion and sin, as Adam and Eve choose to listen to Satan's lies instead of to God's truth. 

We see several things worth noting in this passage. 

First, we are introduced to the serpent, the embodiment of our enemy the devil. We see his lies, as he tries to cause Adam and Eve to believe that the good God is actually cruel to them. 

We see the root of sin, which is pride and independence, the desire to "be like God" instead of to submit to him and worship him. That was Satan's downfall and it was the inducement he used with the man and woman. 

We see the consequences of sin, as God brings judgment on sin, bringing down the curse on the man, the woman, and on the serpent. 

And finally, in Genesis 3:15, we see what has been called the Protoevangelion - the first gospel. In the curse, God tells the serpent (Satan) that he would strike the heel of the Seed of the woman but that the woman's Seed would then crush his head. That is seen as a prophecy of the coming of Christ would be put to death but would rise again to stand victorious over Satan. 

Devotional -  Drinking Satan's Desert Sand

 There is so much to devour in this passage - the path of temptation that Satan sets before us, the ease with which we are duped by his lies, the terrible effects of sin and the curse it brings on our lives, and most gloriously, the intent of God to redeem (3:16) as he promises to send one who will crush the Serpent's head.  

But the first line strikes me as significant. “The serpent was more crafty than any other…” Of course, we know from the rest of Scripture that this serpent was the rebel Satan. He has an ability to deceive human beings into making bad choices that cost us God's blessings and bring judgment on us.

Consider the irony of the situation. God gave Adam and Eve a paradise – a place beyond our wildest imaginations. Beauty. Joy. Sustenance. Companionship. Pleasure. What more could they ask for? And all God required was that they would honor his Lordship to him by refusing to eat of one tree. One tree out of a thousand? A million? That one tree belonged to God and they were to treat it as holy in obedience to the Father.

Could God have been any better to Adam and Eve?

And yet, Satan was able to convince this first human pair that God was against them, that he was robbing them of the joy of life, that he was holding them back. Look at his question. 

“Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” 

With these crafty words, Satan turned the goodness of God into meanness - how could he withhold that wonderful tree from them? Was he that cruel and oppressive?  He made the gift of God seem like a burden. 

Then, Satan made an assertion about God's warning that disobedience would bring death. Not so, he said.

“You will not surely die!” 

The Liar of Liars calls the God of Truth a liar – and Adam and Eve bought it. Satan has been calling the truth of God's words into question ever since. The Bible isn't accurate. You can't trust what it says. It's teachings are outdated and have been replaced by the wisdom of today's experts. You can ignore God's word and cast it aside without concern or consequence. You will not surely die. 

Finally, he said, “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

God is trying to hold you down and keep you back. If you want to reach your potential and get the most out of life, you must cast off the shackles of God's control and do as you please. Obeying God will ruin your life, or limit it's potential at the least. No one should be Lord over you! You will only be "all you can be" if you "do your own thing."

It was nothing but a lie, a mirage in the desert. All Satan offered was a single piece of fruit. It would cost them paradise, the blessing of God, intimacy with God, the life that God had created for them. They gave it all up for one bite of fruit. Satan convinced them that one bite of one piece of fruit was better than all that God would give them. 

Adam and Eve fell to the lies of Satan and brought death and destruction into this world. Still today we listen to Satan's lies. We too often fall prey to the belief that God's commands are oppressive, that we can get away with disobedience, that our lives will be better if we walk our own paths instead of God's. And as we listen to those lies we find again that all Satan offers is a mirage. Time and again we drink desert sand instead of the water of life that comes from God when we give our lives to him. 

It is the word that exposes those lies so that we may walk in the truth. Let us no longer drink the sand of Satan's lies, but take in the water of life that comes from Christ. 

Lord, you are Truth. May we listen to your truth and to God’s Word rather than to the lies of the Enemy. May your word expose the works of darkness with the light of truth. May we stop settling for Satan's desert sand and drink deeply from your living water. 

Think and Pray

Are you drinking the desert sand of Satan by having your values shaped by the world, or are your drinking deeply of the truth and having the living water of Christ refresh your soul?