Family

Readings for today: Genesis 10-11

God loves families. God created the first human family. He ordained the first human marriage. He created humanity to be fruitful, multiply and fill the earth. So He commanded Adam and Eve. So He commanded Noah and his children. So He will command Abram and Sarai in just a few chapters. God’s desire is for humanity to fill the earth. Rule in His name over all He has made. This is why the Tower of Babel is such a problem. The people would not scatter. They were refusing to “fill the earth.” Instead, they sought to make a tower that would stretch to heavens. A physical signpost they could look to as they wandered so they always knew they would be safe. Much like ancient mariners who always tried to stay within sight of the coastline, the people were too scared to accomplish the mission God had set out for them. So God, in an act of grace, confused their languages and scattered them Himself. He pushed them out of the nest. And the people spread out across the globe, each developing their own language and customs. However, no matter how far afield they went, they still remained part of the same family. A family God loves with all His heart.

God loves the human family. In fact, He loves us so much He chose one particular family to bring about His covenant promise. They don’t know it yet but God has great plans for them. If you stop at Genesis 11, there is nothing remarkable about this family that would suggest what’s to come. Nothing foreshadowing the miracles and signs and wonders God will do in and through and for them. In fact, there are problems with this family. Sarai is barren so it seems the family name will be carried on through Nahor rather than Abram. Haran, the father of Terah, has died in Ur and something prompts Terah to take his clan to Haran. What it is, we don’t know. God has yet to reveal it to us. While they settle in Haran, tragedy strikes again and Terah dies, leaving childless Abram and Sarai, along with Nahor and Milcah, to decide what to do next. Should they return to Ur? Stay in Haran? Continue on to Canaan? Again, if you don’t know the story, these are open questions.

God loves the human family. God loves Abram and Sarai’s family. God loves your family. Perhaps you’re facing some open questions today? Perhaps the future of your family seems unclear? Perhaps you’re wrestling over what to do next? A relocation? A career change? Kids leaving home? Parents moving into graduated care? There are so many open questions in life. The other day, one of my daughters left for Australia for six months. We put her on a plane with no idea what she will experience while she is over there. She is nineteen years old. So much of her life in front of her. So many different directions she could go. So many things she could see and do. We have no idea what God has waiting for her only that God IS waiting for her over there. And He will be faithful. Just as He was faithful to Abram and Sarai and all who have come before us.

Readings for tomorrow: No readings on Sundays

Memory

Readings for today: Genesis 8-9, Psalms 12

Remember. It’s an important word. Even more, it’s an important spiritual practice. As we begin a new year, it’s important to look back on the previous year and remember all that God has done for us. Perhaps even make a list. Count our blessings. Recall to mind the number of ways God made Himself known to us in our struggle, heartache, grief, and pain. 2024 will forever be the year I lost my father. He died suddenly on a Saturday morning in March. As we gathered at the house to wait for the coroner to finish her work, I felt the presence of God. I remembered how God brought my father to faith when we were in Israel. I remembered his baptism in the Jordan River. I remembered the many ways God had softened his heart over the years. And I am thankful. 2024 is also the year my son left for college. I remembered the struggles we went through in high school. I remembered the challenges he overcame. I remembered the people God brought into his life to help him change. Grow in his self-confidence. And now he is launching out on his own. I am thankful.

And God remembered Noah. Does this mean God had forgotten? Noah and his family had slipped God’s mind? God lost track of them as He ran the universe? Not at all. God remembered Noah is another way of saying “God was faithful to Noah.” God would not forget Noah. God would remain true to His promise. The floodwaters recede. The earth reappears. The act of new creation is completed. Noah is given a renewed creation mandate to be fruitful and multiply. But I imagine the PTSD of what they went through was strong. So God gives them a sign. A rainbow in the clouds. Every time the clouds gather and they feel the fear inside - “is this going to be another flood?” - God makes the rainbow appear so they will not worry. They will know God has not forgotten His covenant. God will never again flood the earth in an act of judgment. “I have placed my bow in the clouds,  and it will be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. Whenever I form clouds over the earth and the bow appears in the clouds, I will remember my covenant  between me and you and all the living creatures: water will never again become a flood to destroy every creature. The bow will be in the clouds, and I will look at it and remember the permanent covenant  between God and all the living creatures on earth.” God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and every creature on earth.” (Genesis‬ ‭9‬:‭13‬-‭17‬ ‭CSB‬‬)

What signs has God given us of His faithfulness? A child born in Bethlehem. The cross. The empty tomb. Jesus Christ is the ultimate sign that God will be faithful to His covenant. Jesus is the sign that God always remembers. He will not leave us or forsake us, much less forget us. He loves us with an everlasting love. He has made a permanent, eternal covenant with us through the blood of His Son. Seed time and harvest. Cold and heat. Summer and winter. Day and night. None of these shall pass away until God’s covenant finally comes to completion when Jesus comes again in glory. Until that great day comes, we are called to remember God’s covenantal works. Cling to God’s covenantal signs. Trust God’s covenantal love.

Readings for tomorrow: Genesis 10-11

Favor

Readings for today: Genesis 6-7

Favor. It’s a core human need. A primal desire within all of us. We all want to be looked on with favor. We all want the approval of others. We all want to be supported, blessed, encouraged, esteemed. A friend of mine reached out the other day. He’s got an important interview next week. I told him I would pray for him to have favor with the interview team. Another friend is seeking to close on a home. She needs her mortgage application to come through. I told her I would pray for her to have favor with the lender. A couple I’m working with is struggling. One of the things I pray regularly over them is favor. I pray they would favor each other even as they seek the favor of one another.

Noah found favor with God. What an incredible statement. In the midst of all the pain and heartbreak in the world, one man still seeks God. One man still walks with God. One man is found righteous with God. Blameless in his generation. Does this mean Noah is perfect? Of course not. Part of our problem is we always think favor has to be earned. We think favor is something we achieve. If I do something for you, you will look with favor on me. But that’s not really favor at all, is it? Not at least the way the Bible talks about favor. Favor flows from relationship. Favor is the natural response of God to a heart that is turned towards Him. Abel’s heart was right with the Lord so He looked on his offering with favor. Noah’s heart was right with the Lord so God chose Him to be a new Adam. As such, he represented a fresh start. A fresh start for humanity. A fresh start for the world.

How does one find favor with God? The same way Abel did. The same way Noah did. The same way all the saints of the Old and New Testaments did. By faith. We look to God by faith. We seek God by faith. We nurture a relationship with God by faith. We follow God by faith. We trust God by faith. We orient our hearts towards God by faith. A man named Augustine once wrote, “our hearts are restless until they find their rest in God.” Restlessness is what happens when we aren’t sure we are favored. When we aren’t experiencing favor. When we have lost favor. It could be with our spouses or children or friends. It could be with colleagues at work or at school. It could be in our community. Most of all, our hearts will be restless until we find favor with God. Make it your aim in 2025 to seek favor with God above all else.

Readings for tomorrow: Genesis 8-9, Psalms 12

Communion

Readings for today: Genesis 3-5

Communion. It’s what God created in the beginning. Communion with Him. Communion with one another. Communion with the world He had made and all that is in it. Communion is a blessing. It is sweet and intimate. It connects us. It is marked by joyful and mutual submission. It serves as a blessing to all who enjoy it. It’s a relationship that benefits everyone. When humanity lives in communion with God, we live openly, freely, transparently. We are protected from any kind of shame or guilt or coercion or manipulation. We have nothing to fear. Nothing to be anxious over. Nothing to worry about. And these benefits flow into the other relationships we enjoy in life. Relationships with family and friends. We find our communion with one another deepening and becoming more rich and full and sacred. Furthermore, these benefits convey to the work we do in the world. Our gratitude for the blessing of being able to enjoy and exercise dominion over all God has made. The land flourishes. Society thrives. God is honored. This is what God intends for us.

Alienation. Sadly, we chose to chart our own path. We chose to go our own way. We allowed the lust of the flesh - the fruit of the tree was good for food - and the lust of the eyes - the fruit of the tree was delightful to look at - and the pride of life - the fruit of the tree was desirable for obtaining wisdom - to warp our perspective. The result was alienation. We became alienated from God as we sought to hide from Him in the Garden. We became alienated from one another as we sought to shift the blame and entered into a power struggle. We became alienated from creation itself as it became resistant and hardened to our desire to exploit it for our own benefit. As one African theologian put it, this is what happens when we choose communion with the “ancient serpent” over communion with God.

Communion and alienation. We make choices every single day to pursue one or the other. From the moment we wake up in the morning until the moment we lay our head down at night, we are making decisions that lead to deeper communion with God, one another, and the world around us or greater alienation with the same. And we cannot claim ignorance. God has shown us what a life lived in perfect communion looks like in the Person of Jesus Christ. He has literally come to earth to show us the way. To mark the path. To map it out for us. The fundamental question for us is the same as it was for Adam and Eve. Will we believe God or will we trust the serpent? Will we trust God or will we trust ourselves to discern right from wrong, truth from error? Will we rely on the wisdom of God or will we seek to be wise in our own eyes?

Readings for tomorrow: Genesis 6-7

Word

Readings for today: John 1:1-3, Psalms 8, 104

Words. Words are important. They are essential to communication. We use words to express ideas, give shape to thoughts, and bring definition to the world around us. We use words to convey meaning and purpose and values. Words have power. The power to hurt and the power to heal. The power to hinder and the power to help. The power to curse and the power to bless. When we use words well, the world around us experiences life and love and joy and peace. When we use words poorly, the world around us experiences death and hatred and grief and violence. Words are critical to understanding our world and our place in it. Words are vital in discerning truth. Words are the key to learning wisdom.

As important as our words are, they are ultimately finite. They are limited. They cannot begin to describe the majesty and glory of our Creator. Our words fail when it comes to describing God. We can use every word that has ever existed in every language throughout human history around the globe and still not scratch the surface of God. He is beyond human words and human expression and human language and human understanding. This is why we need the Word.

Word. The Word is different than human words. The Word is God’s expression of Himself. God’s revelation of Himself. God communicating Himself to us in a language we can understand. Jesus is the Word of God incarnate. The Word of God made flesh and blood. But He has always been the Word. He was present and active at creation, speaking the universe into existence. He was present and active even before creation, existing in eternal fellowship with the Father and the Holy Spirit. One God, Three Persons, Blessed Trinity. In the beginning was the Word. John is deliberately recalling the opening words of Genesis to convey a fundamental truth. The Word is God. The Word is with God. The Word is the Creator God. And all that has come into being was made by Him and through Him.

This is a stunning revelation. Almost all of the creation narratives of the religions of the ancient world involved a great war between good and evil. Good typically wins and dismembers evil, thus creating the world and all that is in it. Creation birthed in conflict. The universe formed by violent processes from the beginning. Much of modern science would agree though they would depersonalize and demythologize it. The Big Bang is a violent explosion that results in a rapid expansion of matter. Stars are formed when molecular clouds collapse under the weight of their own gravity thus creating the conditions for nuclear fusion. When massive stars reach the end of their lives, they can turn into black holes with a gravitational pull so intense nothing can escape, not even light itself. Meteors pummel moons and planets throughout our solar system. Asteroids cruise through the universe primed for collision. It’s not a safe environment at all. So one can understand why the ancients believed what they believed.

This is what makes the creation story in the Bible so remarkable. God speaks the world into existence. God tames the chaos through Word not power. God makes everything good. God sets everything in order. God rests on the seventh day. There is nothing analogous to it in any other religion in the world. It’s one of the many reasons to believe it is divine revelation not human myth. It’s simply not credible to think that any human being or human society would come up with this on their own.

Readings for tomorrow: Genesis 3-5

Genesis

Readings for today: Genesis 1-2

Genesis = origin, creation, in the beginning. Studying the opening chapters of the Bible gives us a window into God’s realm. It gives us a picture of what our world was intended to be. It gives us a glimpse of what our world one day will be when God Himself returns to make all things new. As such, it is worthy of our most intense study. This is the world our hearts long for. This is the world that echoes in our genetic memories. It’s the world we were made for which is why our world feels so foreign, strange, and alien at times.

What is God’s world like? It is a world of order. A world where everything has a purpose and place. The sun, moon, and stars in their courses above. The birds in the air. The fish in the sea. The mammals and insects and other creeping, crawling things on the earth. It’s world full of life and beauty and biodiversity. Each plant and animal reproducing according to its kind. It is a world designed by God specifically for the enjoyment of humanity. The creatures He made in His own image. The creatures He set in the world to care and to keep and to steward it towards ever-greater heights of fruitfulness. Note how God carefully crafts the environment so that humanity can flourish. Light. Atmosphere. Land. Water. Flora and fauna. Animals galore. And God sets us in this world to be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and exercise dominion over all He has made. Not domination. Dominion. This is a critical distinction. We are not set up as tyrants but as servants. We are not given authority to rule but to serve. The world doesn’t exist for our pleasure alone but for the glory of God.

God’s world is a community. It is the place where the dimensions of heaven and earth meet and God walks with us in the cool of the day. It is the place where God and humanity engage in deep, covenantal friendship as humanity lives out her purpose and obeys the commands of her Creator. It is the place where human beings find intimacy with other human beings. Adam and Eve. Bone of my bones. Flesh of my flesh. And all of it is good. Very good in fact. This is the world God designed. This is the world God desires.

Yes, we are far from this world. Yes, chapter three will bring disruption to this world. But today we sit, if but for a moment, and imagine the world as God intended it to be. A world without chaos, violence, injustice, suffering, or pain. A world of perfect peace and grace and generosity and service where those bearing the image of God perfectly serve their Creator with joy and satisfaction, stewarding the life of the garden God has planted. Partnering with God to help all of creation thrive. And so we join our voices with church since at least the 4th century singing the ancient hymn, Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost. As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be. World without end. Amen. Amen.

Readings for tomorrow: John 1:1-3, Psalms 8, 104