Category Archives: Bible

In The Beginning God…

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Genesis 1:1

Happy New Year, 2025. Praying that God will be glorified in you, and that you will know the joy that comes from an honest relationship with your Savior. What a privilege we have to know our Creator as our friend.

This year, instead of reading the Bible through, I’ve chosen to do a topical series of studies written by Warren Wiersbe known as the “BE Series.” I’m starting with “Be Basic,” a study on Genesis 1-11. Not sure what this will look like, or how often I’ll post my thoughts. But my plan is to read the study along with God’s Word every day, journal my thoughts, and meditate on the beauty of Scripture as led by Rev. Wiersbe.

Today I was challenged to considered the first four words of the Bible: “In the beginning God…”

What does it mean to me that God is eternal? I can’t wrap my mind around “always existed.” I think I can imagine eternity future, never ending. But eternity past? How long did God exist before He created anything? What did He do all that time?

And there’s my answer. Words like “always,” or “future,” “ending,” “past,” “before,” and “time” are words bound by time. God exists outside of time. He exists in a perpetual “now.”

It’s not that He was or will be. It’s that He is. He just is. He even identified Himself as such when He told Moses, “I AM.” The disconnect comes with me, with my finite mind, limited understanding.

It’s like standing inches away from the Mona Lisa, gazing at it through a paper straw. If I tried to describe what I saw, or tried to imagine the whole, I would fail miserably. I would only be seeing the painting in part, I would not be able to understand the beauty of it. I would be limited by the lens through which I was looking.

Right now we can only know God in part. Our lens is like that of a paper straw. I love what I see through that straw, in nature and in His written Word. But if what I see of Him is limited by time and space, the whole of Him must be spectacular!

Even in my limited view of God, I see Him as all-powerful, all-knowing, kind, compassionate, faithful, true, righteous, and holy, singularly worthy of my worship. I can face the New Year with confidence, not because of who I am or what I’ve accomplished, or how determined I am to become a better person. I can face 2025 with confidence because of WHO GOD IS!

I can stand on the truth of, “In the beginning God…” because it’s THAT God I depend on.

Stay On The Ship

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Acts 27

I was talking to my pastor yesterday about how easy it can be to believe a lie. If you take time to listen to people who reject God, you being to understand their point of view. That can be a good thing, and I hope we are all investing ourselves in people we love and who are rejecting God. But when our understanding of their viewpoint becomes acceptance, we have a problem.

Paul was heading to Rome to be tried for bogus crimes the Jews made up to get rid of him. The ship he was sailing on got caught in a hurricane-force storm that pummeled them for weeks. The soldiers did everything they knew what to do to save the ship from being torn to pieces. They naturally feared for their lives, so Paul encouraged them with a word from God:

But now I urge you to keep up your courage, because not one of you will be lost, only the ship will be destroyed. Last night an angel of the God whose I am and whom I serve stood beside me and said, “Do not be afraid, Paul. You must stand trial before Caesar, and God has graciously given you the lives of all who sail with you.” So keep up your courage, men, for I have faith in God that it will happen just as he told me. (Acts 27:22-25)

In other words, stay in the ship and God has promised me you will be saved. Some of the sailors panicked, however. In their minds, and from what they believed about ships and storms, they determined the better option was to escape to land by lifeboats. They began to lower the lifeboats with the intention of abandoning the ship, in opposition to the Word of God.

When Paul saw what they were doing, he said to the centurion guarding him:

Unless these men stay with the ship, you cannot be saved. (Acts 27:31b)

So the ropes were cut, the lifeboats dropped empty into the raging sea. And although the ship was lost, not one of those men lost his life.

I think the moral of the story is the Word of God. Do you believe it or not?

We must sift everything we hear through the words God spoke. We must shape our world-view, our morality, our stand on what is right and what is wrong, our definition of sin and its punishment, our understanding of grace and mercy and love, through the lens of Scripture.

We all hear things from time to time that sound reasonable, maybe even scriptural. And maybe we think: “Ok. I can see their point. Maybe they have something there.”

BUT WAIT!

Before you go any further with that thought you better ask yourself: what does Scripture say? Not just a random verse taken out of context. What does God really say, how did it play out in the lives of the Old Testament Jews, how did Jesus embody the words spoken by the prophets?

Dear ones, there is one Truth. Anything that veers from that Truth is merely opinion and is nothing to stand on. Anything that is not Truth is a lie.

There is one salvation. There is one ship. To attempt to save yourself any other way is death.

I can confidently say that Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life and no one goes to the Father without going through Jesus. I can say you must be born again. I can say that faith comes through hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

I can tell you that Scripture is God-breathed and it is the first and final authority.

I can say those things unapologetically, having built my life on the truth of it, because those words are in the Bible and the truth of them is demonstrated in those precious pages, and in my life.

Again I ask you concerning to the Word of God: do you believe it or not? Your life depends on your answer.

Losing Faith

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Matthew 15:21-28; Mark 7:24-30

I kind of feel bad for the Greek lady. She got on her knees and asked Jesus to help her, and His first was response was – NO! But she didn’t lose her faith. She stayed right there and boldly expressed her faith in Jesus’ ability to heal her daughter.

Is that how I react when God’s answer to my prayers isn’t immediate, when His first response is, NO or WAIT? Let me learn from this non-Jewish believer to hold onto faith no matter what.

God is faithful. Always. So I’m not losing my faith in Him.

I’m Excited

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The Gospels

Every time I start reading the Gospels I get excited. After nine months of reading the Old Testament, I finally arrive at what the prophets, the Law, even the lives of the Jewish people pointed me toward – Jesus!

As hard as it is to read parts of the Old Testament, I still love it. I love looking for pictures of Jesus in the day-to-day lives of the Jews, through the words of the prophets, and the poets. I think it’s an amazing part of the Bible and there is something to learn on every page. It provides the backdrop and helps us understand the significance of what we are about to read in the New Testament. – Jesus!

The fulfillment of every word from Genesis to Malachi – Jesus!

I love reading the Old Testament. But I can’t help but get excited when I turn the page to the New. What a privilege it is to get to know my Savior through the eyes of people who knew Him!

I pray that God will open my eyes, draw me closer, challenge, convict, strengthen me, and reveal Himself a bit more as I spend the next three months in the New Testament.

I’m excited!

What If We Obeyed?

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Zechariah 8; Ezra

The temple in Jerusalem was being rebuilt. There was opposition, of course. But the opposition could not stand against the Truth. God’s house would be restored.

The Jews let God call the shots. (now there’s a novel idea). They didn’t go to war against those who wanted to stop the work. There was no mean Twitter exchange. They kept on working and let the Truth do its thing.

In fact, here are the things God told them to do instead of seeking revenge:

“…Speak the truth to each other, and render true and sound judgment in your courts; do not plot evil against your neighbor, and do not love to swear falsely. I hate all this,” declares the Lord. (Zechariah 8:16-17)

I wonder what would happen if Trump and Harris obeyed this during tonight’s debate. I wonder how our nation, our churches, our families would fare if we all obeyed.

No, Thank You.

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Ezra 4

When people came and offered to help build the temple in Jerusalem after the Babylonian captivity, Zerubbabel told them: no, thank you. Even though they claimed to seek God, and would have lightened the load on the Jews (many hands make light work), the people offering their help were not true believers. In fact, Scripture calls them enemies.

Zerubbabel told them they had no part in the building of the temple, and sent them away.

I wish the Church was as protective of the work of the Lord. today It seems we are quick to welcome anyone who knows the password: “I’m a Christian.” But we aren’t necessarily hearing what their lives are telling us.

We welcome the enemy by singing Bethel songs, listening to the likes of Joyce Meier, Andy Stanley, and Joel Osteen. We welcome the enemy when we focus our worship on the band, or focus on the raising of hands and clapping along with the drums. The enemy comes saying the Gospel needs to be relevant to a changing society, that homosexuals can be pastors, that humans are basically good. The list goes on.

We’ve welcomed the enemy, and think we’re building the Church. Zerubbabel knew that you can’t build anything pleasing to God working shoulder-to-shoulder with the enemy.

When are we going to realize the same?

Weird

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Ezekiel 3-4; Jeremiah 27-28

The label “weird” is being thrown out a lot lately in the political arena. No one likes to be thought of as weird. It’s a term that is intended to make you think something is wrong with you. That you don’t fit it. That you should be ashamed.

When I read about the Old Testament prophets, I have to think many were considered “weird” by the people around them. I mean, making a model of the city, putting a frying pan up as a barrier, then lying beside it on your side for a year and a half is weird. Going around with a yoke around your neck is weird. Reading God’s Word aloud in a public setting, then tying a rock to it and throwing it into the water is weird.

Elijah, Elisha, all the way up to the last Old Testament prophet, John the Baptist were all kind of weird. But their weirdness was obedience to God to point people to the truth. God revealed Himself in dramatic fashion through the obedience of these precious weird-os.

So what do people see when they look at you? Do they see someone who looks and acts just like a non-believer? Do they see someone who fits in, plays it safe, doesn’t stand out as a child of God?

Or are you weird because you are obedient to your Lord? It might seem weird to shine your light in a world that is more comfortable in the dark. But isn’t that what we’re supposed to do?

The world’s definition of “weird” IS WEIRD!

I hope you are weird.

Just Stop

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Psalm 49:13-14

There is the fate of those who trust in themselves, and of their followers, who approve their sayings. Like sheep they are destined for the grave, and death will feed on them.

Stop with the “I am powerful, I am beautiful, I am brave, important, worthy” ideology. Just stop! Not only are you NOT those things, you were never intended to be. You are not enough, and you never will be. This whole self-empowerment thing is really self-imprisonment.

I know you’ve been told differently, that you can’t be happy or successful or fulfilled unless you tell yourself how great you are often enough until you believe it. “Trust yourself,” they say.

Dear Ones, stop being sheep. The psalmist reminds us where that leads.

Instead, humble yourself before God and let Him lift you up. (see James 4:10). God is our refuge and strength, a present help, the giver of life and eternity through His Son. (see Psalm 46:1 and John 14:6)

You are wasting your time and squandering the blessings that come from surrendering to God. Stop trusting in yourself. In reality, you make a lousy god. Stop trying.

Just stop.

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. (Romans 15:13, emphasis mine)

They tried

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Jonah 1-4

There are so many lessons to be learned from Jonah. Today the sailors spoke to me, maybe for the first time. They were pagan. they didn’t know God and most likely thought He was just another god like the ones they worshiped.

When the storm came they cried out to their gods, they tried to lighten the ship by throwing their valuable cargo overboard. They did everything they knew to do to save themselves.

These seem like really good men. Even when Jonah said God was punishing him and that if they wanted to be saved they needed to throw him overboard, they couldn’t do it. They continued to struggle against the storm, throwing more things overboard while sparing the life of Jonah.

But no matter how moral they were, or how hard they worked, or how many times they cried out to their gods, the storm kept getting worse. It wasn’t until they obeyed God that the storm calmed, and they were saved.

Does that remind you of so many in our world these days? Sometimes we think the enemies of God are bad people. But many, if not most are nice, moral, hard working, well meaning people doing everything they can to calm the storm, to be ok, to save themselves. What they find it hard to do is to surrender to the will of God. Thing is, there is no salvation apart from God.

I’m so glad the sailors we read about in the book of Jonah recognized the truth about God and believed. I pray the same will be true for the modern-day sailors who are trying so hard to save themselves. May they give it up, surrender to God, obey Him, accept the gift of grace through the blood of Jesus… and be saved.

Someone to Confide In

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Psalm 25

Do you have someone you can confide in? Some you can tell your most intimate thoughts and feelings to, and have the confidence to know they will not betray you with that information? I hope you do. And I hope you are that to them as well.

Now here’s what blew me away today. Are you ready for this?

The Lord confides in those who fear him, he makes his covenant known to them. (verse 14)

Wow. God confides in us?

To me, that speaks of the precious, intimate relationship I can enjoy with God. But I never thought about it as a two-way street. Sure, I know I can go to Him and pour my heart out and be confident that He hears. I know I can trust Him with my most intimate thoughts.

I guess the question is: can He trust me with the same?

When I read His Word, do I listen to His heart? I can’t have a real friendship if I don’t. Intimacy isn’t the responsibility of just one party. It takes two to be intimate. It takes two to make a friendship.

If God confides in those who fear Him, can He confide in me? Do I fear, respect, honor, and obey Him so that He knows He can trust me with His heart? You don’t confide in, share your heart with someone who disrespects you or who doesn’t value you.

And, evidently neither does God.