Tag Archives: grace

Day 5: Legacy & Land

Genesis 12-14; Matthew 5:1-26

Legacy and Land. That’s God’s promise to Abraham in the beginning of Chapter 12. It was some promise. Abraham’s legacy is fulfilled in Jesus. We won’t see the promise of land fully fulfilled until God brings forth the new heaven and the new earth. That will be something. It almost seems too good to be true. almost :)

I used to get very confused reading the Old Testament… because the writers of the old testament seem oblivious to the fact that the main characters do stupid things. It took me a while to realize that those people really did do stupid things and it was okay for me to notice.

Abraham is a great example right here in chapter 12. He just made a most extraordinary act of faith by packing up everything he owned (which was quite a lot) and moving the whole crew down to the land God would show him. How’s that for obedience in the face of ambiguity? Wow. But then Abraham seemed to forget his God when traveling down to Egypt to escape the famine. He lied to Pharaoh and allowed Sarah, his wife to be taken into Pharaoh’s house as his wife! What? It just doesn’t make sense. How could the great Patriarch of the Faith do something that stupid? I’ll tell you how… he’s human.

It’s actually refreshing. I can identify with Abraham… at least his stupid parts ;)

We learn more about Abraham in the following chapters. First, i noticed how rich Abraham was. He and his nephew, Lot, had so much livestock and herdsmen that the land could not support both of them and they had to separate. Later, Lot got captured by a foreign king and we read of Abraham’s war effort to save Lot and all of the people (Gen 14:14-16). The language is heroic. It sounds like a scene from Braveheart!

But as Abraham was returning home from battle, he met a mysterious King. He was called priest of God most High (vs. 14:18). Abraham instantly recognized him as one with authority as he bowed and offered the King a tenth of all the spoils. The writer of Hebrews identified this King as a forerunner of Christ (Heb 7). This King, named Melchizedek, challenges my “Braveheart” image as he reminds me that Abraham only found success in battle because of God. Melchizedek said to Abraham,

“Blessed be Abram by God Most High,
Possessor of heaven and earth;
and blessed be God Most High,
who has delivered your enemies into your hand!”

God gets the glory for Abraham’s victory. God gets the glory when He rescues Abraham from stupid choices. God gets the glory for Abraham’s great faith. I wonder how God gets the glory in my life??

Day 3: What good is the flood?

Genesis 6-8; Matthew 3

Genesis 6-8 is the story of the flood. The idea of God destroying the earth causes me to wrestle… really wrestle with God’s goodness. I’ve struggled to see how God’s goodness is revealed in destroying every living thing on the earth (except those few on the ark). Seriously, what good is the flood?

I believe God has patiently endured my questioning and given me not just one, but several glimpses of his goodness in this passage of Scripture.

  • Firstly, I believe God gave the world the opportunity to repent and be saved. Think about it… It took Noah and his sons a VERY long time to build that ark. Scholars debate on the specifics, but it was somewhere between 75-100 years of building. Don’t you think news would have spread about this crazy guy building this humongous boat? Don’t you think Noah tried to warn people of the coming flood? They had a chance to repent, believe and be saved… But they didn’t. And they perished.
  • Secondly, (and this is a hard one for me) every living thing deserved to be destroyed. The bible says “every intention of the thoughts of [man’s] heart was only evil continually” (Genesis 6:5). God showed his grace by preserving a remnant.
  •  Thirdly, (and I love this) I see God’s tender, personal care for Noah and his family in verse 7:16, “And the Lord shut him in.” God, himself, shut the door to the arc and protected them from the deadly flood. He, personally, saved them.
  • And finally, Noah’s story is both a warning and a joyful proclamation to us. Just as those who were in the ark were saved from the flood… If we are found “in Christ” we will be saved from the judgment that is to come. God, in his mercy, warns repetitively throughout Scripture that there will be judgment for those who do not turn to Jesus for help. None of us are good enough to earn entrance into heaven. Jesus offers us a trade: we get his perfect record, and he gets our tarnished one. As a result, he received the punishment we deserve, and we get the reward that only he deserves. This is good news. This is the gospel.

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Day 1: Amazing Grace

Genesis 1-2; Matthew 1

I hope you’ll join me in reading through the Bible in a year! Each day, I will seek to find the common thread of God’s covenant love woven throughout the Old and New Testaments.

Genesis 1 is the well-known account of creation. The story of God’s redemptive love begins in Genesis 1 with the words, “God created the heavens and the earth.” Genesis 2 zooms in to give more detail, especially regarding the sixth day when God created humans. When I read Genesis 2, I imagine God as a loving, meticulous artisan… Listen to the verbs:

formed
breathed
planted
caused

God loved his creation – so much that He bequeathed His own image and divine purpose to his prized creatures, humans.  Today’s key verse highlights God’s loving instructions to Adam. This verse foreshadows the disastrous disobedient choice Adam and his wife, Eve would make – turning their hearts away from their Creator and poisoning God’s creation with sin.

But…thousands of years later, in a lowly city, an extraordinary baby would be born. Our Savior, with a King’s credence, arrived quietly to a poor carpenter and his soon-to-be wife. These two chapters mark the beginnings of God’s story – a story of a loving Creator sending His son to save His wayward children. It is a story of God’s amazing grace!

Amazing grace is what we’ll need to continue this journey! Day 1 – check. 364 to go…