As I reflect on my own faith, I have to ask myself in what ways does my life reflect my statement that nothing is more important to me than relationship with God, and passing that on to the next generation? How does the way I channel my resources, the way I prioritize my energy, and my focus, the way I live out my dailies, reflect what I say is my conviction?
Walking Through Those Pearly Gates
In a court of law, conviction comes right before sentencing. But, it seems, in God's courtroom conviction comes before the crossroad of commitment. "Sentencing," if we want to call it that, seems to be sourced in the individual, not in God. And all this was terribly important, evidently, to Enoch.
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Enoch Walked By Faith
We might say, from Cain’s life, that he certainly believed God existed, he believed God was God. He surely understood the story of creation, the stories his parents had told him of Eden. He had assuredly seen with his own eyes the seraphim with their flaming swords, guarding the gates of paradise. He had even made, albeit half-hearted, sacrifices to God. There was nothing missing in Cain’s belief system. So, what made Cain different than Seth?
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Mortal…Immortality
When a crisis or a tragedy rolls down like a flash flood in a wadi, and comes in pounding waves over my own family, tumbling us into heartache, trauma, and intense grief, I am so thankful the first thing we do is hold hands and start praying. God is with us, and His heart is no less broken than ours.
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Inheritance
The ancient Hebrews did not always intend their genealogies to be used as a chronology. Often, names were left out of a genealogy in order to produce symmetry, a neat and clean pattern. The primary purpose of the genealogy was to establish a person’s family identity, a person’s roots.
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Pick Up Sticks, Pluck Off Grain
God intended the Sabbath to be something for creation, for created beings which have finite energy and resources, to be regularly replenished. Rather than a deliberately defiant and presumptuous disobedience of God and His intent, Jesus was providing that physical replenishment, in the spirit of King David, and in God’s Spirit, by gathering grain.
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Blessings and Curses
Moses was describing a basic principle of life, life goes well for us when living God's way, by God's law. Even for Job. In the middle of his story, life was awful. At the end of the book God not only restores Job's fortunes, they're even better than when the book starts out. Job successfully endured the ordeal God permitted in his life, and he was blessed.
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Who Does God Punish?
I think we call it the Fall of Humankind because the first humans were at the pinnacle of human experience, where everything was good, their relationships were healthy and filled with love, their work was satisfying and productive, their resources were ample, the world was their oyster, and their spiritual communion with God and each other was full.
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Why Should I Trust the Bible?
People ask, “Is the Bible trustworthy?” Does the Bible accurately represent what God has said and done, and how God thinks and feels? It's a foundational question, since the events in Genesis 3 leave us with a possibly disturbing impression of God.
