Category: Genesis

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Genesis

Truly forgiven

God's forgiveness

Joseph had many reasons for tears in his life. His being sold to Egypt as a slave.

Being falsely accused and thrown into prison. Being confronted with his past as the brothers who had sold him into slavery came before him in Egypt for the first time.

Seeing his brother Benjamin for the first time in years, and then seeing his father Jacob alive, after thinking he would never see them again. And then years later, seeing his father pass away.

But perhaps his poignant tears came after all that had happened.

Following his father’s death, his brothers send him a message saying, “We know that we did you wrong all those years ago. But before Father died, he asked that you forgive us.”

And at those words, Joseph wept.

Why?

Probably because he had forgiven his brothers all those years ago, and they still felt guilty for what they had done. They still felt a block between themselves and Joseph.

And when he called them before him, they threw themselves on the ground, saying, “We are your slaves.”

But Joseph picked them up off the ground and said, “There’s need for this. Why are you doing this? I’ve already forgiven you. I’m not God. I’m not your judge. I’m your brother. So get up and don’t be afraid. I will take care of you.” (Genesis 50:18-21)

I wonder if God weeps as Joseph did when we hold on to guilt in our lives.

I wonder if God weeps when he sees us hold back from him in fear, thinking he still desires to punish us for our sin.

I wonder if God weeps when we fall before him in fear when he’s already forgiven us and made us his children.

Unlike Joseph, he is our judge, and yet because of Jesus, he doesn’t condemn us.

Instead, he lifts us to our feet and says, “Why are you so afraid? I’ve already forgiven you. My Son has already paid the penalty for your sin. I don’t judge you any longer. You’re my child. So get up, and don’t be afraid. I will take care of you.”

Do you still feel guilty for your past? Do you hesitate to draw near to God because of your guilt?

Just as Joseph forgave his brothers, God has forgiven you.

So draw near. He will accept you.

Draw near.

So, brothers and sisters, we are completely free to enter the Most Holy Place without fear because of the blood of Jesus’ death.

We can enter through a new and living way that Jesus opened for us. It leads through the curtain—Christ’s body.

And since we have a great priest over God’s house, let us come near to God with a sincere heart and a sure faith, because we have been made free from a guilty conscience, and our bodies have been washed with pure water.  (Hebrews 10:19-22)

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Genesis

How to lose a blessing

Genesis

The idea of blessing is a very prominent one in the book of Genesis.

The word is mentioned over 60 times, usually in the context of God blessing someone, or in fathers blessing their sons with God’s blessing.

It’s fitting, that in the second to last chapter, it ends with one long blessing given by Jacob to his sons.

But one thing really stands out in this passage: the blessings that were not given. Jacob did not bless his first three sons, Reuben, Simeon, and Levi. Why?

Reuben was excluded because he slept with his father’s concubine, who had been given to Jacob by Rachel to have children for her when she was barren.

Why did Reuben do such at thing?

Ironically enough, it was an attempt to try to solidify his position as firstborn son. It was something that was apparently a cultural custom of the time, although I don’t totally understand it.

You see a similar thing happen with one of David’s sons Adonijah in 1 Kings 2:13-25, when he tried to steal the throne from Solomon.

At any rate, by doing this while Jacob was still alive, Reuben lost his blessing.

Simeon and Levi were excluded because of the episode in Shechem where they took revenge for the rape of the sister by wiping out all the men in that city.

And Jacob said, I will not be associated with men such as these. And he refused to bless them as well.

What can we learn from this?

When it comes to receiving blessings from God, our actions matter.

Our salvation depends solely on God’s grace, but if we desire to see his blessings in our lives, our actions do make a difference.

This is true on two levels.

One is that if we want to find true blessing, we need to do things God’s way and not our own.

Reuben tried to gain a blessing by taking things into his own hands, rather than by doing things God’s way, and in so doing, lost the blessing he sought.

So many Christian marriages fall apart because instead of doing things God’s way, couples do things their own.

So many people struggle in their other relationships because instead of doing things God’s way, they do things their own.

So many parents struggle with raising their kids because instead of doing things God’s way, they do things their own.

So many people struggle financially because instead of doing things their own way, they do things their own.

How many times do we ask for God’s blessing on our lives, on our relationships, on our finances, in our jobs, and yet we insist on doing things our own way, instead of his?

It doesn’t work that way.  We can’t just ask God to bless us and yet refuse to do things his way.  We need to obey him.

Second, when we insist on a life of sin, God will refuse to associate himself with us, and in so doing, he takes his hand of blessing off of us.  Jacob told Simeon and Levi,

Let me not enter their council, let me not join their assembly, for they have killed men in their anger and hamstrung oxen as they pleased.  (Genesis 49:5-6)

One of the keys to this, I believe, is that Simeon and Levi never repented from their actions. Rather they tried to justify themselves (Genesis 34:31).

We simply cannot justify sin in our lives and not repent and expect God to bless us.

God is holy, and he will not associate with or bless people who willfully and unrepentantly holds on to sin in their lives.

I want to make one point clear. I’m not saying that if you struggle with sin that God will take off his hand of blessing off of you. All of us struggle with sin in one area or another.

But if you are willfully holding on to sin in your life and refuse to repent, he will not bless you.

Does that mean we’ll lose our salvation? That God will abandon us?

No. But he will take off his hand of blessing and let the enemy take his shots at us.

Why? Because he hates us?

No. Because he wants to bless us.

In 1 Corinthians 5:5, Paul points out this principle to the Corinthian church when telling them how to deal with an unrepentant sinner. He told them to no longer associate with him and to,

hand this man over to Satan, so that the sinful nature may be destroyed and his spirit saved on the day of the Lord.

God wants to bless you. He delights in blessing his people so that we may be a blessing to others.

But we cannot receive God’s blessing when we hold on to sin in our lives and do things our own way.

How about you?

Are you in a place where you can receive blessing from God in your life?

Are you obeying him?

Are you keeping your heart clean before him?

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Genesis

God’s blessing, God’s will

Genesis

Very interesting interaction between Joseph and his father Jacob here in Genesis 48.

His father is dying and calls in Joseph and his sons in order to bless them. But Jacob can’t see very well, so Joseph puts Manasseh, his older son, on Jacob’s right, and Ephraim, his younger son, on Jacob’s left.

The custom in those days was to put the person of greater honor on the right side and the person of lesser honor on the left, and so Joseph wanted Jacob to know that it was Manasseh who should get the greater blessing.

But Jacob crossed Joseph up, literally. He crossed his arms and put his right hand on Ephraim and his left hand on Manasseh, and blessed them that way, giving the greater blessing to Ephraim.

When Joseph saw this, he immediately tried to stop Jacob, saying “No, no, no. You’ve got it wrong, Father. Give your greater blessing to my older son.”

But Jacob just said, “No, I know what I’m doing. Manasseh will become a great people, but Ephraim will become greater.” And he blessed the two sons.

There is some sense of irony here.

I can’t help but think that Jacob was recalling his own life, where his mother was told by God that Jacob, the younger son, would become greater than Esau, the older son, despite the hopes that Isaac had for Esau. And now, Jacob was telling the same thing to Joseph.

There are two points about God’s blessing and God’s will here that I think can be pointed out.

First, God’s blessing in our lives has nothing to do with our position in life, or how people perceive us.

In Joseph’s family, Manasseh had been treated with greater honor because he was the older son. But God had other plans. It was his will that Ephraim have prominence.

Maybe you look down on yourself because you don’t think you’re so special. “I don’t have any special talents or skills. I’m a nobody. I just work at McDonalds. I’m just a housewife. I just have a boring 9-5 job. Why would God want to bless someone like me?”

Maybe you were always being compared to your brother or sister by your parents and you were always finding yourself being found wanting. “Why can’t you be more like your brother?” “Why can’t you be more like your sister?”

Maybe you weren’t so popular in school, and even now you don’t seem to have many friends.

But God doesn’t care about all that. He doesn’t care about what others think of you. He doesn’t care about your position in life. He cares about you. And he wants to bring blessing in your life. Jesus said in God’s kingdom,

Indeed, there are those who are last, and first who will be last. (Luke 13:30)

Jesus was talking to the Jews who thought that they had a special position in the world as God’s people, but Jesus told them that when God’s kingdom came, people from all over the world would be there, not just the Jews.

And Jesus told them that at that time, some Jews who thought they were so special would be humbled, while some of the ones they looked down upon would be honored.

In a broader perspective, there are people that are in low positions and are looked down upon now, but they will be blessed and exalted, while there are people that are in high positions now that will be humbled.

So don’t think that you’re exempt from God’s blessing just because of your position in life, what your skills or talents are, or how people perceive you. As you follow Jesus, and live your life for him, he will shower you with his blessings.

But there’s another point to be made about God’s will. It doesn’t always coincide with ours. Joseph had his own plans for his sons, as had Isaac. Both had planned for their older sons to be the prominent members of their family. But that wasn’t God’s will.

So often we’re like Joseph, who when Jacob tried to express his will, said, “No, no. You’ve got it all wrong. Do it this way.” But Jacob said, “No, that’s not how it’s going to be.”

And God sometimes does the same thing with us. We have our own plans for our lives. And when God tries to do something different, we tell him “No, you’ve got it all wrong. I want things this way.”

But as Proverbs 16:9 says,

In his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps.

And so we can either fight God and try to do things our way, or we can trust him and do things his way. But it’s as we give in to him, that we find blessing in our lives.

I mentioned before that for a long time I fought God’s will for me in my life that I come to Japan. But it was when I gave in, that I found God’s blessing in my life.

Do you want God’s blessing in your life? Remember that it doesn’t matter who you are or how people perceive you. God wants to bless you.

But also remember that his will isn’t always ours. And if we truly want his blessing in our lives, we need to trust and follow him.

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Genesis

Bought

Genesis

“It’s my life!”

“It’s my body! I have the right to do whatever I want.”

We often hear these phrases as people try to justify sin in their lives. But is it true?

The people of Egypt went through a very difficult time during the famine.

The whole land was wasting away because of the famine, and the people started crying out to Joseph for help, and so he started selling them grain.

But then their money ran out, so they sold him their livestock to pay for the grain.

But with their livestock now gone, and years of famine still to come, the people became desperate.

And so they said,

We cannot hide from our lord the fact that since our money is gone and our livestock belongs to you, there is nothing left for our lord except our bodies and our land.

Why should we perish before your eyes—we and our land as well?

Buy us and our land in exchange for food, and we with our land will be in bondage to Pharaoh.

Give us seed so that we may live and not die, and that the land may not become desolate. (Genesis 47:18-19)

And so all the Egyptians in the land became Pharaoh’s, both their land and their lives, but because they gave themselves to Pharaoh, they were saved from the famine.

In the same way, we were dying, wasting away because of sin in our lives. And like the Egyptians, we were helpless to do anything about it.

Many of us tried to buy God’s favor at first, but in the end, we realized that we simply did not have enough to give God in order to receive forgiveness for our sins. The number of our sins was too overwhelming.

And so God did something about it. It says in Romans 5:6, “You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.”

Why did Jesus die for us? He died to take the punishment for our sins. And in so doing, God purchased us as his own people.

It says in Revelation 5:9 concerning Jesus,

You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased for God persons from every tribe and language and people and nation.

Again in 1 Peter 1:18-19, it says,

For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.

So what does this mean for us? The answer is found in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20.

You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.

In other words, no Christian has the right to say any longer, “It’s my body. It’s my life. I can do whatever I please with it.”

When you became a Christian, God bought you with the blood of Jesus and you belong to him now, not yourself.

How are you living your life today? Are you living as though you belong to yourself? Are you living as though your time, your money, and your life all belong to you?

You are not your own. Your time is not your own. Your money is not your own. Your life is not your own.

You were bought with a price.

So let’s start living that way.

We lift our voices
We lift our hands
We lift our lives up to You
We are an offering

Lord use our voices
Lord use our hands
Lord use our lives they are Yours
We are an offering

All that I have
All that we are
All that we hope to be
We give to You
We give to You

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Genesis

Separate from the world, and yet touching it

Genesis

One of the more interesting scenes in Genesis is aged Jacob, standing before Pharaoh, the most powerful man in a powerful nation.

What would you have done  in that situation?

If you were standing before the president of the United States, surrounded by his secret service men, cameramen all around you, what would you say?

Here is Jacob, former deceiver and schemer, now worn by his years of trial and testing, once young and proud, now old and humbled.

And what does he do?

He blesses Pharaoh.  Not once, but twice. (Genesis 47:7, 10)

I wonder how Pharaoh felt?

Did he look down on Jacob, wondering what this mere shepherd was doing trying to bless him, the most powerful man in the nation?

Or did he feel the weight of the blessing?  That here, in Jacob, was a man who had touched the living God.  And now, Pharaoh was getting a taste of the living God right there in his own palace.

I don’t know how he felt.

But as I’ve mentioned before, we should be blessing the people around us.  When they see us, they should see Christ in us.  When we touch their lives, they should feel Christ himself touching their lives.

But though we need to be touching the world around us, we also need to keep our distance from it.

In other words, while we need to influence our world for Christ, we need to keep ourselves from being influenced by it.

Joseph certainly seemed to have that in mind when his family moved to Egypt.

Joseph knew that the Egyptians didn’t worship God, even with all the influence he had there.

And he knew that it would be very easy for Egypt to influence his family, just as they had been influenced before Abraham was called out from his home country to come to Canaan.

So he told his brothers and father, “Tell them you’re shepherds.  Egyptians kind of look down on shepherds, so by telling them that, they’ll keep you at a distance and you can keep yourselves separate from them.”

Being separate from the world and yet touching it is a delicate balance sometimes.

If we pull ourselves out and only spend time with Christians, we will have no influence on  the non-Christians around us.

If on the other hand, we spend all our time with non-Christians, we risk being influenced by their values and way of thinking.  Neither extreme is good.

For me personally, when I get out of balance, it tends to be the former, because it’s so comfortable to be with people who have the same values as I do.  Who think the same way I do.

But God has called us to be a blessing to others, and I can’t do that if I don’t associate with the non-Christians around me.

How about you?  Are you balanced? Or out of balance?

Are you so connected with your Christian friends, that you’re not touching the world?

Or are you so connected with your non-Christian friends that they’re starting to influence you?

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Genesis

God’s silence through our suffering

God's silence

There are many stories of God’s people suffering throughout the Bible.  I don’t know that any of them suffered any more than Jacob.

Oh sure, Job’s suffering was far more intense.  But it was over a far shorter period of time (at least that’s always been my impression, anyway — feel free to correct me if I’m wrong).

Prophets were persecuted; many were even killed for proclaiming God’s word.  But at least God was speaking to them.  Jacob on the other hand…

This passage in Genesis 46 strikes me for one major reason.  It was great that God told Jacob, “Go down to Egypt.  I’ll be with you.  And Joseph himself will close your eyes.”

But where was God the previous 20 years or so?  Where were his words of comfort that Joseph was still alive during those 20 years?

After Joseph was sold into slavery, 13 years passed before he became an official of Egypt.

Seven more years passed where there was an abundance of food in Egypt.

It was only after that, during the famine, that Jacob would find out his son was still alive, give or take a few years.  Why didn’t God say anything?

When Jacob was deceived by his sons into thinking Joseph was dead, the Bible says he mourned many days and would not be comforted.  He said,

In mourning will I go down to the grave to my son.  (Genesis 37:35)

The years didn’t dull his pain either.  Twenty years later, he was still making decisions based on the death of Joseph.

He refused to send Benjamin (the only other son he had by his beloved wife Rachel) with his brothers to Egypt on their first trip because he feared something might happen to him.

And when the brothers said that the lord of the land had commanded that they bring back Benjamin to prove they were not spies, Jacob refused to let him go.  He said,

My son will not go down there with you; his brother is dead and he is the only one left.

If harm comes to him on the journey you are taking, you will bring my gray head down to the grave in sorrow (Genesis 42:38).

It was only when things got desperate, that he finally relented, saying,

If I am bereaved, I’m bereaved.  (Genesis 43:14).

Yet throughout this whole time of suffering, God said…nothing.

There are times when we go through suffering, and yet despite it all, God seems near.

We sense his presence.  We sense his comfort.  And we still sense his voice in our lives.  And because of that, even though we’re struggling, our trials are a little easier to bear.

But there are times when God is silent.  When our prayers just seem to bounce back off the ceiling.  When there are no answers to our questions.  And when God seems a mile away.

Jacob went through that for 20 years.

And yet sight unseen, God was working.  God had a plan to save Jacob and his family that Jacob could not see.

It wasn’t that God didn’t care through this time of silence.  He was working in Jacob’s family throughout each of those 20 years.

He was working in Joseph.

He was working in the hearts of Joseph’s brothers.

And yes, he was working even in Jacob.  Jacob just couldn’t see it.

But when he did, all the years of sorrow fell off like a weight.  And joy was restored once again.

Maybe you’re going through a hard time right now.  And God seems distant.  It seems like he doesn’t care.  It seems as though he’s abandoned you.

God didn’t abandon Jacob in those 20 years.  He hasn’t abandoned you.  He’s still working.  He’s still listening to your cries.  And he still has a plan for your life.  So hang on to him.

It may be one month, it might be one year, it might be 20 years.  It might even be…tomorrow.  But you will see God’s work in your life once again.

So hold on.  Don’t give up.

As the apostle Paul once wrote,

Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance;  perseverance, character; and character, hope.

And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. (Romans 5:3-5)

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Genesis

Forgiveness

forgiveness

As I read the story of Joseph dealing with his brothers, this is yet another time when I wish we could look into the mind of a character in the Bible.

What was Joseph really thinking throughout this entire episode of arresting his brothers, threatening them, sending them away, putting their silver back in their bags, falsely accusing Benjamin of theft, and finally revelation?

Had Joseph completely dealt with his anger and bitterness toward his brothers by the time they first arrived in Egypt?  Or was he still struggling with it all?

Was he simply testing his brothers to see if they had changed?  Or was he trying to take some measure of revenge, trying to make them suffer as he suffered?

I really don’t know.  Sometimes I think he had completely forgiven them; sometimes I’m not so sure.

But whatever his feelings throughout these chapters, I think there are some things we can learn about forgiveness.

First, forgiveness doesn’t mean ignoring what the other person did to you, or saying it never happened.

Joseph says to his brothers quite clearly, “I am Joseph.  You know.  The one you sold into Egypt as a slave.  I am the one that you wronged.”

Sometimes people try to avoid feeling pain by refusing to acknowledge that they were hurt.  But before the pain you feel can be dealt with, you have to acknowledge it, not ignore it.

And things can never be made completely right with the person who hurt you, unless you are willing to admit, “You hurt me.”

That’s what Joseph did.

Second, it’s saying to the other person, “You don’t owe anything to me anymore.”  He told his brothers,

And now, do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here. (Genesis 45:5)

So often, we want people to be angry at themselves.  We want people to feel guilty for what they’ve done to us.

But here, Joseph says, “I’ve forgiven you.  Don’t beat yourself up for what you’ve done to me.  I’m certainly not.”

Third, it’s letting go of the past and embracing the future.

Joseph didn’t dwell on how wrong his brothers were in selling him as a slave.

Instead, he pointed out how God was able to turn their actions into something that would save their family.

He said,

It was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you.  For two years now there has been famine in the land, and for the next five years there will be no plowing and reaping.

But God sent me ahead of you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance.  (Genesis 45:5-7)

God has a plan for each and every one of us.  And he wants to work in us and through us to touch lives.

But unforgiveness is like a chain that binds us to our past.  And as long as we are chained to our past, we can’t move forward into the future God has for us.

So in order to move forward and find God’s blessing in our lives, we must let go of the past.

One person put it this way, “To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you.”

But one thing that forgiveness does not mean is recklessly putting yourself in harm’s way.

God calls us to forgive, whether the other person is sorry or not.  As long as we don’t forgive, we’re a prisoner to our past, and we can’t move on into our future.

But if the other person is not sorry, then they can be a danger to us, both physically and emotionally.

Forgiveness doesn’t require repentance by the other person.  But full restoration of a relationship does.

I believe that’s why Joseph treated his brothers the way he did.  He wanted to see if they had really changed.  And when he saw that they had, full restoration was possible.

It’s very possible that if there had been no change, Joseph would never have revealed himself to them.

When someone hurts you, forgive.

But unless they are truly sorry and are committed to change, you would be wise to be very cautious in your relationship with them.  If you’re not, you’re just opening yourself up to being hurt again.

Too many people get hurt, because they want to restore a relationship before there is repentance.

As long as the other person doesn’t acknowledge that they’ve hurt you, as long as the other person refuses to acknowledge there needs to be some change in their behavior and are making serious efforts at change, you’re much better off keeping your distance from them.

If that’s not possible, then at least don’t fool yourself into thinking that things will get better.

Know what they are like and prepare yourself in your heart for the kinds of things they’re capable of.

At least that way, you’re not caught completely off guard when something happens, and you can prepare yourself emotionally.

But once again, repentant or not, we need to forgive.  Not so much for the other person’s sake.  But for ours.

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Genesis

A powerless past. A fruitful future

fruitful

Joseph went through a lot in 13 years.

Sold off to be a slave in Egypt by his own brothers.  Made the head of one of Pharaoh’s official’s household, only to be framed for rape and thrown in prison.

And now, here he is second in command only to Pharaoh in Egypt.

Now he marries the daughter of Pharaoh and has two sons.

One he names Manasseh, which means “forget,” because “God has made me forget all my trouble and all my father’s household.”

The second son he names Ephraim, which means “twice fruitful,” because,  “God has made me fruitful in the land of my suffering.” (Genesis 41:50-52)

Did Joseph really forget his past?

No.  But it’s influence over him was rendered powerless when he considered the blessing he had now.

Joseph said, “Not only am I fruitful in this land of my suffering, but I am twice fruitful.”

In Romans 8, Paul writes,

I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.

Paul here is specifically talking about the glory that will be revealed in us when Christ returns.  As it says in another scripture,

But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.  (1 John 3:2).

And at that time,

[God] will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.  (Revelation 21:4)

Will we completely forget our past?  I don’t know.  Possibly.

But I think it’s just as possible that we’ll remember it only as a part of the tapestry of our life that God wove while we were here on earth.  One whose pattern will only be remembered for it’s overall beauty.

But as with Joseph, I believe we can find a glimpse of that glory even here on earth.  That even here on earth, through all the sorrow and pain that we go through, we can find peace, joy, and contentment as we know the touch of God in our lives.

And so whatever sufferings we’re going through, we have hope for the future, both here on earth, and in the life to come.

But what do we do now during our times of suffering?  It helps to remember we’re not alone.  It continues on in Roman 8, saying,

In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.

And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will.  (Romans 8:26-27)

There are times in our lives when our suffering is so great, we don’t know what to pray for or even how to pray.

But during those times, God’s Spirit prays for us, and he prays for us according to God’s will.

That’s why Paul can say in verse 28,

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

It is because the Holy Spirit is praying for us that we can know that God will work for our good.

I’m sure the Holy Spirit was praying for Joseph during his times of trial.  And I know the Holy Spirit is praying for you.

Because of that, we can know that whatever we’re going through, God’s going to bring us through.

It may be in this life.  It may be in the next.

But whenever it is, we’ll be able to look back as Joseph did and say, “My past no longer has power over me, and I have now become twice fruitful.”

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Genesis

Telling it like it is

Genesis

“REPENT!  YOU’RE ALL GOING TO HELL!!!”

Sounds kind of like the thing you’d hear from one of those street preachers on a soap box in the States.

But one day I was walking with a Christian friend in Kobe, and we saw a car going by with some kind of message going over a loudspeaker.

Usually when you see that in Japan, it’s some kind of politician trying to get votes at election time.

But I heard something about Christ being mentioned, so I asked my friend what it was about, and he said, “They’re basically saying you’re all going to hell and need to repent.”

“I see,” was all I could say.

I can’t say that it’s something I would do.  Quite frankly, I strongly question its effectiveness, especially in this country.

On the other hand, one thing that Christians need to take into consideration is that there are often two sides to the messages of God.  And the message is not always happy, happy, joy, joy.

Joseph certainly learned this.  He received messages from God to give to people, and they certainly weren’t all happy, happy, joy, joy.

For the cupbearer, Joseph gave a message of forgiveness, and restoration.  Though the cupbearer had angered the Pharaoh, he was going to be forgiven and restored to his former position.

For the baker, however, there would be no forgiveness from Pharaoh, only judgment, and death.

I’m sure Joseph wasn’t filled with joy that he had to give such a message to the baker, but he did.  Because it was the truth.

The same was true with God’s message to Pharaoh.  There was good news, but there was also bad news.

There was going to be 7 years of abundance in Egypt, but that was going to be followed by 7 years of famine.

I’m sure Joseph didn’t think Pharaoh would be overjoyed to hear about the years of famine to come.

But he didn’t hide this from Pharaoh.  He told him everything, the good and the bad.  Because it was the truth.

And because he told Pharaoh the truth, Egypt was able to prepare for the famine to come.

Just as there were two sides to the messages that Joseph gave, there are two sides to the Christian message.

Yes, there is forgiveness, restoration, and joy found in Christ.  But there is also judgment and punishment to come for those who don’t believe.

When we share God’s message to people, are we giving both sides of the message?

Perhaps the most famous passage in all of scripture is John 3:16.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

People love this passage because it tells of God’s love for us, and how we can have eternal life through Jesus Christ.

But there’s another side to that verse.  It says, “whoever believes in him shall not perish.”

What about those who don’t believe in him?  The answer is very clear.  They will perish.  They will be separated from God forever when they die.

In case you missed that point, John makes it crystal clear two verses later.

Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.  (John 3:18)

Time and again, you see both sides to the message of the gospel.  Forgiveness and salvation for those who believe.  Judgment and wrath for those who don’t.

So what am I saying?  Tell the people around you, “You’re going to hell?”  Well, yes.

When we share the gospel message, people need to be aware that there is a problem.  That there is sin in their lives, and that because God is holy, he must punish sin.

The Bible says, “For the wages of sin is death.”  (Romans 6:23)

There is no way we can skip this part of the message.  Why?  Because we’re preaching a message of salvation.  And how can we be saved if there is nothing to be saved from.

People need to be saved if they’re drowning in the ocean, not if they’re standing safely on dry land.  People need to be saved if they’re trapped inside a burning building, not if they’re standing safely outside it.

People need to hear the gospel message because they are not safe.  They’re trapped in their sin, and they’re going to hell.

You can say that anyway you want to.  Eternal death.  Eternal separation from God.  It all amounts to the same thing.

So why am I not all for the people in their cars blaring out over the loudspeakers “You’re going to hell?”

I suppose it’s because as one person put it, they’re trying to “scare the hell out of people.”

Jesus wasn’t in the business of trying to “scare the hell out of people.”

He was in the business of trying to “love the hell out of people.”

When you look at all his interactions with sinners, he always reached out with love to try to turn them from their ways.

That said, Jesus repeatedly talked about hell and judgment throughout his ministry.

But it should be noted that despite the fact that he did so, sinners were still attracted to him.  Because they sensed he really cared about them.

I strongly doubt the passersby get that sense from the people driving by blaring out on loudspeakers, “You’re going to hell!”

Are you afraid of what people will think of you if you give them the whole truth?

It was because Joseph gave Pharaoh the whole truth that Egypt was able to be saved from the famine.

And if you give people the whole truth, it gives them the chance to be saved too, but from a fate much worse than just physical death.

But in order to do that, we must give them the whole testimony of God.  What is it?

And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.

He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.  (1 John 5:11)

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Genesis

Faithful under fire

Genesis

If there was someone that had a right to be bitter, it was Joseph.  His biggest crime was that he had a loud mouth.

And for that “crime” he was thrown into a cistern and left there for a few hours, and then he was shipped off to Egypt to be a slave.

Now he’s in a foreign country, doesn’t know the language, and is forced to serve people he doesn’t know.

It would’ve been so easy in his situation to become bitter.  To rage at God saying, “This isn’t fair!  I don’t deserve this!  How could you do this to me?”

But he didn’t.  Instead he served both God and his new master faithfully, and because he did so, God blessed not only him, but his new master as well.

But then trouble comes. His master’s beautiful wife becomes attracted to him and tries to get him into her bed. 

Again, it would’ve been so easy for Joseph to say, “Well, I’m far away from my home.  Nobody here really knows God.  My father and my brothers will never know what I’m doing.  Why not have a little fun?”

But instead, Joseph refused, saying, “How could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?” And despite the fact that day after day, this beautiful woman kept chasing after him, he refused to give into temptation.

But the day comes when she manages to corner him while no one else is in the house, and this time she is very insistent, grabbing him by the cloak and saying, “Come to bed with me!  Nobody’s here!  I arranged everything.  Nobody will ever know we’ve been sleeping together.”

And again, it would’ve been so easy for Joseph to just give in and say, “Okay, I’ll do it.  Just this once, I’ll do it.  She is beautiful after all.  And no one will ever know.  I deserve a little fun after all I’ve been through.”

But instead, Joseph turned and ran.

Unfortunately, however, his cloak is left in her hand, and she gets so angry at being rejected once again, that she tells everyone that Joseph tried to rape her.

And so once again, through no fault of his own, Joseph gets in trouble and is thrown in prison.

How would you have felt?  I would’ve been pretty bitter.  Here I am, trying to do the right thing, trying to doing things God’s way, and now look what’s happened!

But Joseph refused to let bitterness linger in his heart.  Instead, he remained faithful to God.  And as a result, God blessed him even while he was in prison.

The key phrase through this whole passage is this, “The Lord was with Joseph.”

God didn’t prevent problems from coming into Joseph’s life.  He didn’t promise Joseph that by doing things His way, everything would go smoothly.

But through it all, God was there.  And because Joseph was always aware of God’s presence in his life, he remained faithful to Him no matter the circumstances.

How about you?  Are you bitter about the circumstances you’re in?  Perhaps you’re in trouble through your own mistakes.  Maybe you’re in trouble despite the fact that you always tried to do things God’s way.

Stay faithful.

Don’t let bitterness control you.

Stay faithful.

And whatever you’re going through, God will bring you through the fire.

God never promises that your life will always be perfect.

God never promises that bad things will never happen to you.

What he does promise, is that through everything you go through, he’ll be with you every step of the way.

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Genesis

Unwanted and unloved: Finding God’s healing in your brokenness

Tamar and Leah

As I read Genesis, I’m struck by how many ugly stories there are, and how many involve women. Leah and Tamar come to mind.

Leah got married to Jacob only through the deception of her father Laban. And as a result, she felt unwanted and unloved by Jacob.

This is seen in the names that she gave her sons. (I’ve mentioned this in another post you can see here).

Tamar also felt unwanted and unloved.

God struck her husband down because of how evil he was.

His brother was forced by the customs of his day to take her as a wife, but he didn’t really want her, and so while he used her for his own sexual gratification, he wouldn’t completely consummate the marriage.

God got really upset with how he treated her, and so he struck him down as well.

Then her father-in-law Judah lied to her, saying he would give her to his youngest son as his wife when he became old enough, but then later refused to do so.

It seems as though Judah felt Tamar was bad luck because two of his sons died after getting married to her.

And so here is Tamar, unwanted and unloved by anyone.

Finally, out of desperation, she pretends to be a prostitute, seduces Judah, and gets pregnant by him.

Judah, when he finds out that she’s pregnant, hypocritically demands that she die, because horror of horrors, she has become a prostitute, ignoring the fact that he had just had sex with a prostitute three months earlier.

It seems that Judah here, was in fact very glad to have a reason to get rid of this woman he really didn’t want around.

But then she stuns him by giving him proof that he was the one that impregnated her. And so he’s forced to admit his own wrongdoing and lets her live.

She then gives birth to twin sons.

But though Leah and Tamar were unwanted and unloved by the people around them, they were wanted and loved by God.

It’s very interesting to me the grace that he showed both of them, by putting them into the family tree of Jesus.

You would’ve thought, first of all, that Jesus would’ve come through the family line of Rachel. After all, she was loved by Jacob, and Joseph, her son, was certainly the most righteous of all his brothers.

But it was through Leah, not Rachel, that Jesus would eventually come.

And you’d hardly think that God would use Tamar’s ugly incident with her father-in-law to help bring Jesus into the world.

But as you look at the genealogy of Jesus, that’s exactly what you see.

So what’s my point?

You may feel unwanted and unloved in your life. Maybe your husband or wife had an affair, and they left you for another person.

Maybe you were abused by your father or mother when you were growing up.

Or maybe you tried to gain your parents love and approval, but no matter what you did, you never could seem to please them.

Maybe you’ve been seeking a boyfriend or girlfriend, but while the people around you are getting married, you can’t seem to find the right person.

You’ve dated people and have had your heart broken numerous times. You’ve given your heart and perhaps even your body to people, only to have them reject you in the end.

But though you may feel unwanted and unloved, God sees you and he does love you. He knows your name. He knows every detail about you.

And though you’ve failed and you have sinned, he still loved you so much that he was willing to sacrifice his Son on a cross for your sin so that you could have a relationship with him.

No matter who you are, or what pain you’re feeling, God has a plan for you.

And if you’ll just reach out to him, you’ll find that he’s been reaching out to you all along, waiting to heal all the pain and loneliness you feel in your heart and to fill it with his love.

The LORD has appeared to us from afar saying:   “I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness.”  (Jeremiah 31:3)

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Genesis

Cold hearts

Genesis

In Japan, the divorce rate is way lower than it is in the States.  However, the number is going up.

I read a while back that divorces by people in their 60s are on the way up, especially since a law was passed that allowed for a more equal divvying up of the pensions.

Apparently, in a lot of households, husbands and wives aren’t really communicating much, and the relationships just aren’t going well.

As a result, the wives are dreading the day when their husbands retire and will be home all the time.  So, after their husbands retire, the wives file for divorce.

I suppose that’s better than the story of another woman that I read about.  She said that she’s deliberately feeding her husband a lot of greasy foods in the hope that he dies early.

It’s pretty sad, but from what I’ve seen of some husbands, they haven’t been treating their wives very well either, and that’s partly why all of this is happening.

I mentioned in an earlier blog a man that loves fishing so much that he’d rather do that than spend time with his family.  And whenever his wife complains, he just ignores her and goes off anyway.

His attitude towards his wife and children just strikes me as so cold.  I can’t believe there are people out there like that.

Well, Joseph’s brothers were also pretty cold.  After years of jealousy towards their brother, they see him coming out to them and decide to kill him.

Reuben manages to keep them from doing that, but it seems he’s more worried about his own hide than the safety of Joseph.

As the oldest son, Reuben knew he would be held responsible by his father. So he convinced them to just throw Joseph into a cistern, with the idea of rescuing him later.

Reuben then goes off somewhere, and Joseph is pleading with his brother to let him out, but they just ignore him, and perhaps even laugh at him.

Then, a bunch of merchants pass by, and Judah gets the bright idea of selling Joseph off as a slave.  Not only do they get rid of him, but they get paid to do so.

Again, Joseph pleads with them not to do that to him, but they shut their ears to his pleas and send him off.

They then dip his coat in blood and take it to their father and cold-heartedly let him assume the worst about Joseph.

Jacob weeps for days on end, and while they attempt to comfort him, no one even considers going to try and get Joseph back.

Jesus said that in the last days,

Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of many will grow cold. (Matthew 24:12)

How does love grow cold?

Selfishness is one reason.  We start putting our own desires and needs above others, and as we do, not only does our own love grow cold, but their love grows cold too.

My student’s relationships with his wife and his daughters are in danger, but the real danger comes when his wife and daughters stop saying anything at all.

At that point, the heat of anger is gone, their hearts have become numb to the pain he’s caused them, and all that’s left are cold hearts that don’t care anymore.

Jealousy is another reason.

Instead of being happy at another person’s good fortune, we allow our jealousy to put a wall between us.

Often times, the other person doesn’t even know what happened.  All they know is that something happened to the relationship, and that something is seriously wrong.

That happened between Joseph and his brothers.  You also see it later in the relationship between Saul and David.  (1 Samuel 18-19).

Anger and unforgiveness, whether deserved or not, are two more things that can cause our hearts to grow cold.

Someone wrongs us or hurts us, and we hold our anger inside.  The anger then leads to bitterness towards that person.  And bitterness can lead to hatred.

You see that in Joseph’s brothers.

Anger at the special treatment Jacob gave Joseph (very bad judgment on Jacob’s part).

Bitterness that they couldn’t receive the same kind of love from their father.

And as a result, hatred toward their brother.

All of that showed in their coldness to their brother’s pleas for mercy.

How about you?  Are you allowing your hearts to become cold towards the people in your life?

Towards your husband?

Towards your wife?

Towards your children?

Towards the people at work?

Towards the people at church?

All of that grieves the God who sent his Son because of his love for you and them.

Let us always remember Paul’s words to the Ephesian church.

And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.

Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice.

Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ, God forgave you. (Ephesians 4:30-32,)

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Genesis

Learning when to keep your mouth shut

Genesis

I kind of wonder if Joseph was just really cocky or really naive when he told his brothers about his dreams.

Did he say it like, “Hey guys!  Listen to this cool dream I had!  I had this dream where all your sheaves of grain bowed to mine.  And then I had this other dream where the sun, moon and stars all bowed down to me.

“What do you suppose it means?  Whatever it means, it sounds pretty cool, huh?”

Or did he say, “Hey guys!  Listen to this dream!  Heh, heh, heh.  You guys are all going to bow to ME someday!”

Well, however he said it, he got into trouble, not only with his brothers, but with his father as well.  Everyone got upset with him.

Which just goes to show that there are times when it’s better to keep your mouth shut, even if you think God is telling you something.

There was a friend I once knew when I was in university, who one day went up to a girl at church that he really liked and said, “God told me that I’m going to marry you some day.”

Her immediate reply was, “Well, God didn’t tell ME that.”

As it turned out, they never did get married.  But I think my friend learned his lesson that day.

The book of Proverbs talks a lot about watching what you say.  Among them are verses such as

Reckless words pierce like a sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing. (Proverbs 12:18)

Joseph would’ve been wise to have heeded those words.  His brothers were already jealous of him because his father favored him more than them.

But instead of saying things that calmed them down, his words pierced their hearts like a sword and only made them more angry, because it seemed like he was shoving his favored position down their throats.

How often do we say things that, instead of bringing healing to our relationships, bring more hurt.  It’s very easy, especially when we’re fighting, to say hurtful things to others.

“You’re so stupid!  I can’t believe you!  How could you have done such an idiotic thing!  You’re so inconsiderate!  I’ll never forgive you for this!”

As another verse says in Proverbs 15:1,

A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.

What kind of words come out of your mouth?  Are they healing to your relationships?  Or do they tear them apart?

It’s difficult sometimes to hold our tongue, especially when we’re angry.  But other kinds of words can be hurtful too.  Gossip can do great harm to a relationship.  It says in Proverbs 16:28,

A perverse person stirs up conflict, and a gossip separates close friends.

Sarcastic or mocking words can also do great damage, even if said jokingly.  I’ve gotten into trouble more than once for that.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned, and am still learning, it’s this:  “It’s much better to build up in love than to tear down in fun.”

In our culture, we sometimes delight in making fun of our friends.  Roasts at weddings or other events are somewhat traditional.

But sometimes when you’re tearing down in fun, you hit a chord in a person that you didn’t expect and you can really hurt them.

But when you build others up in love, people always come away from you blessed and encouraged.

What comes out of your mouth?  Blessings or curses?  Hurt or healing?

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Genesis

New names

Genesis

When my wife got pregnant, we were debating what to call our new child.  We threw around a lot of names.

I was kind of thinking of Emily, but that kind of got tossed to the side when my cousin stole that name for her own daughter who was born several weeks before. (If you’re reading this Susan, I’m only joking). 🙂

Anyway, we settled on Yumi, which means “bearing fruit.”

It comes from Galatians 5:22-23 which talks about the fruit of the Spirit, with our hope being that she would bear that kind of fruit in her life.

Names can be significant.  They often reflect the hopes and dreams a parent has for their child.  But sometimes they can have negative connotations too.

That was the case for Jacob, and also his son Benjamin.  Jacob’s name meant “Heel grasper” because when he and his twin brother Esau was born, he was holding on to Esau’s heel, trying to get a free ride out of his mother’s womb.

But Jacob’s name also had the connotation of “deceiver.”  And it reflected much of how Jacob’s life would turn out.

Benjamin was Jacob’s last son, and the younger of Rachel’s two sons.

But she had a difficult childbirth, and minutes after her son was born, with her dying breath, she named him Ben-Oni, which meant “Son of my trouble.”

In both cases, Jacob’s and Ben-Oni’s names were changed.  Jacob changed Ben-Oni’s name to “Benjamin” which meant “Son of my right hand.”

Jacob refused to see Benjamin as the “son of my trouble,” even though his birth cost the life of Jacob’s beloved wife.

Instead, he saw his son as one who would always have a place of honor in the family.  (To sit at a person’s right hand was considered to be in a place of honor).

God, on the other hand, changed Jacob’s name from “deceiver” to Israel.

There are two actual meanings here.  One is “He struggles with God.”  And that is the meaning God assigns to it when he talked to Jacob in chapter 32.

But here in chapter 35, it’s very possible that God’s assigning another meaning to the name.  Israel can also mean, “Prince with God.”

And it seems that this is the meaning God assigns here, as God blesses Israel and says,

From you, a nation and community of nations will come, and kings will be among your descendants.  (Genesis 35:11)

This would also explain why God renames Jacob “Israel” twice.

So what does this mean for us?  It means we that when we become Christians, we are no longer tied to our past, and more specifically, the mistakes of our past.

We may have completely messed up our lives, but God doesn’t look to our past anymore.  Instead, he only looks to our future and to what we can be.

And we are no longer bound by the way anyone, even our own parents feel, or have felt about us in the past.

Some of us may have been named “stupid” or “worthless” by our parents or by the people around us.

Some of us may have been named “a disappointment.”

But when God looks at us, he says, “You are precious and honored in my sight.”  (Isaiah 43:4).

He loved us so much, that he sent his own Son as an exchange for us, that is, he sent Jesus to die on a cross to take the punishment for our sin.

So whatever your name may be, whatever names you have been given, whether you like your name or not, remember that God has a new name for you.

A name that is no longer tied to your past, nor to the way people have looked at you in the past.

He gives us a name that reflects the way he sees you and the future he has envisioned for you.  As Jesus says in Revelation:

To him who overcomes…I will also give him a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to him who receives it.  (Revelation 2:17)

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Genesis

But I have a right to be angry!

Genesis

The Bible relates a lot of ugly incidents and sometimes people wonder why.  Basically, it’s to show us just how bad things get when people walk away from God and his ways.

Genesis 34 is ugly in more ways than one. 

First you have the rape of Dinah, Jacob’s daughter. 

Then you have the revenge taken by Jacob’s sons, as they first deceive, and then wipe out all the men in the city, while carrying off all their women and children, as well as all their possessions.

And when Jacob confronted his sons with their horrible actions, there’s no regret or remorse. 

Instead, they defiantly say, “Should he have treated our sister like a prostitute?”

Jacob’s sons had a point. 

Shechem had had no right to do what he did to Dinah, whether he “loved” her or not. 

Jacob’s sons had a perfect right to be angry.  They had a right to demand justice, and quite frankly, I don’t think they would’ve ever seen it happen, considering Shechem’s position in the city.

But they were still wrong.  The way they expressed their anger was completely wrong. 

What they got was not justice.  It was revenge, pure and simple. 

We may have a right to be angry at times, but we have no right to take revenge.

In James 1:19-20, it says,

My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires.

What is human anger?

1.  Human anger seeks to avenge itself just as Jacob’s sons did.

It can be done physically but can also be done verbally.  Verbally tearing the other person down for what they did. 

“You always do this!” 

“You never do that.” 

“I can’t believe you!  What kind of person are you anyway?” 

All this to make them feel guilty.  To make them feel horrible for what they’ve done to you.

2.  Human anger builds walls rather than tearing them down. 

You stomp around.  You slam doors.  Every look you give is a dagger.  When you walk into the room, the temperature drops 10 degrees. 

But when the other person asks you what’s wrong, you say, “Nothing.  Nothing at all.” 

Then you give them another glare that tells them that they should know what the problem is, before you go stomping off again.

3.  Human anger lingers.  It festers. 

And if it’s not dealt with, can turn into bitterness, and even hatred.

Some of you may be saying, “Yeah, but you don’t understand what he did to me!  I have a right to be angry.” 

Yes, you probably do.  But that kind of anger does not lead to the kind of life that God wants for you.  It’ll destroy your relationships, and it’ll become a cancer that eats you up from the inside. 

You may think you’re hurting back the other person, but you’re really hurting yourself.  And unchecked, anger can destroy your life.

But Jesus was different.

When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly.  (I Peter 2:23)

So how do we deal with the people who anger us?  As Paul wrote:

Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord.

On the contrary:

“If your enemy is hungry, feed him;
if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.
In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.”

Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.  Romans (12:19-21)

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Genesis

The god of Me. The God of me.

Genesis

Jacob had come a long way in his relationship with God during his journey from Canaan to Haran and back to Canaan again. 

He started out having only heard stories about God from his grandfather and father, but never really having had his own personal experience with the living God. 

Then he met God for the first time in Bethel but still didn’t really surrender himself to God completely. 

The night he wrestled with God, he was still calling him, “The God of my father Abraham, the God of my father Isaac,” but did not really acknowledge him as his own God.  (Genesis 32:9)

But now, after God had proven himself to Jacob, bringing him safely back to Canaan, Jacob built an altar to God, calling it, “El Elohe Israel,” which meant, “God, the God of Israel.” 

It’s easy for me to forget at times that the nation of Israel still didn’t exist at that time, and that God had actually renamed Jacob, “Israel.” 

So what Jacob was saying was not, “God, the God of the nation of Israel.”  He was saying, “God, the God of me.”

For so long, Jacob had lived with the attitude of “the god of Me.” 

He lived, not to serve God, but to serve himself.  He didn’t trust God or wait on God’s timing for things.  Instead, he tried to make things happen on his own no matter who he hurt.

But now, he was saying, “God, you are the God of me.”  And his life was never the same. 

This is not to say he would never fail again.  Or struggle with doubt or fear. 

But now, at last, God was on the throne of his heart, where he had belonged all along.

How about you?  Are you living with the attitude of, “The god of Me?” 

Are you still trying to live your own way?  Are you still living a life, not trusting in God, but in yourself alone?  Are you still living to please yourself, no matter who it hurts?

Or are you living with the attitude of, “God, you’re the God of me?”

As the old hymn says,

All to Jesus I surrender;
All to Him I freely give;

I will ever love and trust Him,
In His presence daily live.

All to Jesus I surrender;
Make me, Savior, wholly Thine;

Let me feel the Holy Spirit,
Truly know that Thou art mine.

All to Jesus I surrender;
Lord, I give myself to Thee;

Fill me with Thy love and power;
Let Thy blessing fall on me.

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Genesis

Am I really forgiven?

Genesis

Jacob’s reaction to Esau’s forgiveness makes me think of how some people react to God’s forgiveness in their lives.

Here is Jacob, trying his best to buy off his brother’s anger, when he finds out that God had already taken care of the problem.

Instead of facing an angry, murderous brother, Jacob finds Esau racing toward him, tears running down his face, and arms stretched out to embrace him.

But when Esau says, “Hey come back with me to my place.  Let me introduce you to my family,” Jacob declines, and says, “That’s okay.  It’s kind of hard to move everyone quickly, so you go on ahead, and I’ll see you there later.”

When Esau suggests leaving an escort for them, Jacob again declines, saying, “Oh you don’t need to do that.   We’ll be okay.”

And so Esau goes off, but instead of following after Esau, Jacob goes somewhere else.

Why?  Esau had forgiven him.  There was no need to fear anymore.  Jacob knew that, but perhaps in the back of his mind, there was still a seed of doubt.

“Has Esau really forgiven me?  After all I did, has he really forgiven me?  It doesn’t seem possible.  He was really angry before.  He wanted to kill me.  He couldn’t really have forgiven me, could he?”

And so he kept his distance from his brother.

How often do we do the same with God?  We try to buy off God’s anger by giving money, going to church, and doing lots of good things, not realizing that Jesus has already taken care of the problem by taking the punishment for our sin.

And so we approach God in fear.

But when we look up, instead of seeing an angry, judgmental God, we see him racing toward us, with tears running down his face, and arms stretched out to embrace us.

But even after we realize God has forgiven us, there’s sometimes still a seed of doubt in our hearts.

“Has God really forgiven me?  I’ve done so many awful things.  And I still struggle with sin in my life.  How could he really forgive me?”

And so instead of drawing near to him, we kind of keep our distance from him, just waiting for him to blast us for any mistake that we might make.  But that’s not how God is.

In Romans 8:1, it says, “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”  Later on it says,

Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies.

Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. (Romans 8:33-34)

Paul asks here, “Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen?  It’s not God.  He’s the one who justifies you.

Who is going to condemn you?  It’s not Jesus.  He went to the cross so that your sins could be forgiven, and he now interceding for you.”

And so if Jesus is your lawyer pleading for you, and God is the judge who is saying concerning you, “Not guilty,” why are we so afraid?

So let us not live in fear of God, but learn to love him.  For as 1 John 4:18-19 says,

There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.

We love because he first loved us.

May you truly know God’s love and forgiveness in your life.

Categories
Genesis

Wrestling with God

Genesis

I admit it.  I’m a pro wrestling fan.  Yes, I know it’s not “real.”  I know all the matches are predetermined.  But it’s still kind of fun to watch.

Well, in this passage, we see the very first wrestling match.  And while it was real, the victor was predetermined.  And in the end, Jacob finally had to say, “I yield.”

It occurs to me, though, that God could’ve made things a lot easier on Jacob.  Think about it.  From what we see of Esau in chapter 33, he had already forgiven Jacob.  God had blessed Esau, and he no longer held any bitterness in his heart towards his brother.

God could’ve told Jacob, “Hey man.  Don’t worry about it.  It’s all cool.  Esau isn’t coming to attack you.  He’s just happy that he can see you again.”

But God didn’t do that.  Instead, he let Jacob sweat.  Here Jacob is before God, totally panicking, and praying desperately. 

“God help!  My brother’s coming to kill me!  What am I going to do?  Didn’t you tell me to go back home?  Didn’t you say you were going to bless me?  Now look what’s happening!  I’m a dead man!”

Why did God let Jacob go through all those feelings of fear and panic?  I don’t know, but I would guess that he wanted Jacob to finally learn what it meant to yield to him and depend on him. 

All his life, Jacob had tried to do things his own way.  All his life, Jacob had tried to make things happen by his own strength and his own efforts.

But now Jacob was at the end of his rope.  There was nothing he could do.  There was nowhere to run and nowhere to hide. 

He was completely at the mercy of his brother, because there were just too many people and things with Jacob for him to get away from Esau.

So he sends his family away from him, and now he’s all alone, probably praying for all he’s worth. 

For all he knows, it’s the last day he’ll ever live, because he knows that Esau will definitely overtake them by the next day.

And suddenly in the dead of night, Jacob gets attacked and he starts wrestling with this unknown stranger. 

I’ve always kind of thought it was a silent struggle, with neither saying a word as they fought. 

But as I think about it, it seems very likely that they carried on at least some dialogue during the fight.

Jacob was probably shouting out, “Why are you doing this?  Who are you?  Why are you attacking me?”

I wonder if the man said anything to Jacob during the struggle? 

I wonder if while they were wrestling, he said to Jacob, “Why do you struggle so much?  Just yield!”

“No!  I’ll never yield.”

“Yield!”

“No!”

Finally daybreak comes, and when the man sees that Jacob is still struggling, still not yielding, he ends the fight by forcing Jacob’s hip out of joint. 

And the man says, “Let me go.   This fight is over.”

And Jacob cries out, “No.  I won’t let you go.” 

But by this time, Jacob is a beaten man.  He knows now that there can be no more wrestling.  No more struggling.  No more fighting.  All he can do is yield, and beg for mercy. 

And so he’s no longer trying to fight.  Instead, he’s simply clinging to the man, tears in his eyes, as he cries out, “I won’t let you go.   I need your blessing!”

The man replied, “What’s your name?”

“My name is Jacob.  It means ‘Deceiver.'”

“No longer will you be called ‘Deceiver.’  All your life, you’ve tried to con your way through life.  Deceiving your brother.  Deceiving your father.  Deceiving your uncle. 

But now you will be called, “He who wrestles with God.”  Because by wrestling with God, you’ve found the key to overcoming the problems in your life.  It’s not by deceiving others.  It’s not by trying to make things happen by your own efforts.  It’s by yielding…to me.”

At this point, Jacob is really afraid, wondering who he’s really talking to, and he says, “Who are you?  What’s your name?”

The nameless man replies, “Why do you need to know my name?”  And then he blessed Jacob.

And Jacob suddenly realized who he was talking to.  It was God himself. 

Many people believe that it was actually Jesus that Jacob had wrestled that night. 

Jacob called that place Peniel, which means “face of God,” because,

I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared. (Genesis 32:30)

And Jacob limped away from that place a broken, but blessed man.

How about you?  Are you wrestling with God right now?  Are you constantly struggling in life because you’re insisting on doing things your own way instead of God’s way? 

The only way to overcome in life is not to fight God, not to wrestle with him, but to yield to him.  To cling to him.  And to realize that true blessing comes only from him. 

Will you wrestle with God? 

Or will you yield to him?

Categories
Genesis

How to wreck your relationships

Genesis

Several months ago, I watched an old “Alfred Hitchcock Hour” show called “How to get rid of your wife.”  It was a black comedy about the lengths one man went through to get rid of his wife.

Essentially, he convinced her that he was trying to kill her, and in so doing, got her to try to kill him.  She was then arrested and thrown into prison, and he went scot free.  Kind of.  You have to see the episode to find the twist at the end.

Anyway, it was basically a story of nasty people dealing with nasty people.  The wife in the story wasn’t exactly a wonderful person either.

The episode came to mind as I read the last part of the story concerning Jacob and Laban.  Moses could’ve titled this  story, “How to get rid of your son-in-law.  (And your daughters too).”

Laban may not have been trying consciously to get rid of Jacob, but it sure is hard to believe he couldn’t see the potential consequences of what he was doing.

I’m just amazed at all the things Laban did to Jacob.  First he deceives Jacob into marrying Leah.  Then he makes Jacob work another 7 years to get Rachel.

Then he makes an agreement where Jacob would take care of all of Laban’s sheep and goats, with all the spotted and striped ones becoming Jacob’s.

But no sooner do they make the agreement, than Laban takes all the spotted and striped animals from the flock and puts those animals in the care of his other sons, leaving only the white ones with Jacob.

He of course thought that by doing so, there was little chance that there would be many striped or spotted animals being born for Jacob’s flock.

When that didn’t work, Laban unilaterally changed the terms of the agreement 10 times.

What in the world was Laban thinking?

When Jacob confronts him with all this, Laban doesn’t even apologize.  He just says, “Well, they were all my daughters and flocks to begin with.”

One wonders if Laban really couldn’t see how his attitude had not only wrecked his relationship with Jacob, but with his own daughters as well.

Leah and Rachel saw how Laban had treated them, and they felt like they had just been sold off like slaves or farm animals simply for the money.

(Although Rachel at least had the comfort of knowing that Jacob loved her.  Leah didn’t even have that much).

So how can we wreck our relationships?  I’ll put this in the context of marriage, but you can apply this in just about any relationship.

1.  Dishonesty.

Trust is essential to any relationship, and when you are dishonest in your dealings with people, it’s a good way to destroy your relationships.

In the Hitchcock film, it started with the husband complaining that his wife had deceived him into thinking she was a completely different kind of person while they were dating.

It was only when they got married, that his wife showed her true colors.

How often do people do that when they’re dating others?  They pretend to be someone they’re not, and in so doing, lay a foundation for their relationship that cannot stand the test of time.

2.  Having no respect for others’ feelings. 

Or at the very least, being completely oblivious to them.

When your husband or wife says you’re doing something that upsets them, do you just say, “You’re too sensitive.”

Or do you really consider their feelings, and try to place them above your own?

It’s all well and good to tell someone, “I want you to be honest with me.”

But when they are honest about how your actions or words make them feel, do you make the effort to change, or do you just think they’re being too petty?

3.  Selfishness and pride. 

I have no idea whether Laban was merely so selfish that he couldn’t see his actions were wrong, or whether he was too proud to apologize.

Either way, he was wrong.  And whether you struggle with pride or selfishness, either can effectively destroy a relationship.

When we become so selfish that we can’t even realize it, we start to demean people, and it allows us to justify just about any action that we do, no matter how wrong it is.

And when we become so proud that we can’t admit when we’re wrong, it puts a wall in our relationships that will only grow with time.  How many marriages have you known that were torn apart by selfishness and pride.

How are your relationships?  Would someone be able to write a script about your life called, “How to get rid of your wife/husband/best friend?”

If you truly care about the people in your life, take a look at yourself, and start rooting out anything that would tear those relationships apart.

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Genesis

Using people? Loving people?

Genesis

This is by far one of the more bizarre stories in the Bible.  And sad.  Jacob falls in love with Rachel, and her father Laban says, “If you work for me for 7 years, I’ll let you have her.”

That’s not really the bizarre part.  Jacob had nothing, and it was a custom in those days to pay a dowry to a bride’s father.

But then the bizarreness begins.  Jacob works the 7 years, and he takes his newly-wed, but veiled wife into his darkened tent, and when he wakes up the next morning, he finds out that it isn’t Rachel; it’s Rachel’s sister Leah.

Laban tells Jacob, “Well, it’s our custom to let the older sister get married first, but if you work 7 more years, I’ll let you have Rachel too.”  Jacob agrees and then marries Rachel.

But for obvious reasons, Jacob didn’t really love Leah, and the Lord saw that.  And so he allowed her to get pregnant, and she had three sons.  Leah’s words at their births are very poignant.

She named her first son Reuben which meant, “He’s seen my misery.”  And she said, “The Lord has seen my misery.  Surely my husband will love me now.”

She named her next son Simeon which meant, “Heard.”  And she said, “The Lord has heard I’m not loved, and so he gave me another son.”

The third son she named Levi which meant “Attached.”  And she said, “Now at last my husband will become attached to me because I’ve born him three sons.”

Rachel then got really upset because she had no children, so she gave her maidservant to Jacob to be another wife and to have children for her.

Then Leah got jealous when she was no longer having children, so she gave her maidservant to Jacob to be yet another wife and have children for her.  And this situation went on and on and on.

Why did all this happen?  Because Laban forgot one key thing.  People are to be loved, not used.

He used Jacob in order to both marry off his older daughter and to gain a profit from Jacob’s work.  He didn’t care that Jacob was a man with feelings.  And he didn’t care about the consequences to his own daughters.

You can see throughout these passages that he passed this way of thinking on to both his daughters who started seeing both Jacob and their own maidservants as tools in their own battle with one another.

Jacob wasn’t a whole lot better.  As the Bible says in Proverbs,

Under [this] the earth trembles…[and] cannot bear up…an unloved woman who is married. (Proverbs 30:21,23)

How do we see the people in our lives?  Do we see them as people that God loves and we should love?  Or do we simply see them as tools to get what we want?

So much pain comes into the world when people become tools instead of someone to love.

You see this in relationships sometimes with men claiming to love a woman simply in order to sleep with her.

You see this in marriage sometimes with people getting married simply because their partner happens to be rich.

You see this in the workplace sometimes with people using others as something to step on in order to advance in their career.

But when we see people that way, we not only degrade them, we degrade ourselves.

We were made to love and to be loved.  And by using people instead of loving them, we make ourselves something less than what God intended.

And that leads to misery, not only for the people we used, but for ourselves as well.

There’s an old song I love.  It says:

Using things and loving people
That’s the way it’s got to be

Using things and loving people
Look around and you can see
That loving things and using people
Only leads to misery

Using things and loving people
That’s the way it’s got to be

Using things and loving people
Brings you happiness I’ve found

Using things and loving people
Not the other way around

‘Cause loving things and using people
Only leads to misery

Using things and loving people
That’s the way it’s got to be
For you and me

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Genesis

Encountering God

Genesis

I grew up in a Christian home, so I’ve gone to church all my life.  I became a Christian at the age of 7 or so, but while I grew in head knowledge, I never really grew as a Christian.

By the time I was in junior high school, I really didn’t want to go to church.  Oh, I suppose I enjoyed being with my friends at church, but there were other things I preferred doing.

Then our family changed churches, and I really started disliking church.  It was so different from my old church.  The worship time seemed to drag on forever, and the people were very different from me.

But everything changed in a moment.  I started going to a Bible study when I was in ninth grade, and usually, we would start with a few songs, and then go into the Bible teaching.

But that night, it was different.

I don’t know to this day whether it was planned or not, but we started the singing, and we just never stopped.

And it was on that night, that I really sensed the presence of God in a room for the first time.  He felt so close, I almost felt like I could touch him.

I’d been a Christian for 7 years at that point, but it was the first time I realized, “Hey, God is really here!  He’s not just out there somewhere.  He is really here!”  That realization changed my life forever.

I imagine Jacob had those very same feelings that night at Bethel.

For a long time, he’d heard about God from his grandfather Abraham and his father Isaac.  He probably even believed in God.  But he had never really encountered God in his life.

And then one night, he goes to sleep and he has a dream of angels going up and down a stairway to heaven.

More than that, he hears the voice of God speaking to him, giving him all the promises that had been given to Abraham and Isaac.

And suddenly, God wasn’t a God far away.   God was a God who was near.  And Jacob said,

Surely the LORD is in this place, and I was not aware of it.  (16)

God, of course, had been there all along, but Jacob never noticed.  He had been too busy trying to make things happen in his life.  And in the process, he totally messed up his life.

Now he was on the run, in fear of his brother, wondering what what was going to happen to him, and in the midst of it all, God breaks through, and says, “Hey Jacob!  I’m here.  I’m with you.”

How about you?  Have you had your encounter with God?  Or is he just someone way out there somewhere?  Do you sense his presence in your life?  Is he real to you?  Or is he just a story in a book?

Have you had your encounter with God, only to lose sight of him?

Maybe before, God felt so close that you could touch him.  But now, you’ve come down from the mountaintop and find yourself entangled with the pressures of “real life.” And God doesn’t seem so near anymore.

God’s calling out to us as he did with Jacob.

“I’m here.  I’m with you.  And I will not leave you until I’ve done for you all that I’ve promised.  And even beyond.”

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Genesis

Not enough

Genesis

It strikes me that Esau’s response to his parents in this passage is very similar to people’s response to God sometimes.

Esau married some Hittites, who didn’t believe in God, and it deeply upset his parents.

Esau didn’t even realize how upset his parents were until Isaac sent Jacob off  with his blessing, but telling him not to marry one of the Canaanites.

In order to gain favor from his father, Esau decided to marry someone who would be more acceptable to his parents.

He of course couldn’t go where Jacob went, so he went to what he felt was the next best thing:  the descendants of Ishmael.

But how much better that was in the eyes of Isaac and Rebekah is very debatable.

In the same way, many people often do things that deeply hurt God, and they don’t even notice it.

When they do, they try to make up for it, usually by doing some kind of good things to balance out the bad things that they did.  But in Isaiah, it says,

All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.  (Isaiah 64:6).

In other words, the good things that we do is simply not enough in the eyes of God to take away the stain of sin in our lives.

It’s like saying, “God, I’m really sorry for my sins.  But let me give you a present.”  And as a present, you give him dirty, filthy rags.

The picture Isaiah gives here is very graphic.  The word he uses for “filthy rags” is a “menstrual cloth.”  Do you think that anyone, no less God, would accept that as a gift?  Of course not.

Yet time and again, people come before God with the mindset that if they just do enough good things, God will accept them.  But it doesn’t work that way.

Let’s put it another way.

My two-year old daughter will sometimes offer me a kiss.  Usually, I’m very happy to accept that kiss.

But if she’s been eating spaghetti and there’s sauce all over her mouth, there’s no way I’m going to accept a kiss from her until that sauce is wiped away.  Her kiss is stained with the spaghetti sauce.

In the same way, we may try to offer things to God, but if it’s stained with the sin in our lives, God will not accept it.

How then can that sin be dealt with and cleansed? There’s only one way.  It’s through Jesus Christ.  In Romans 5, it says this:

You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.

Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die.

But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him!

For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!

Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. (Romans 5:6-11)

We were powerless to save ourselves.  Everything we did was stained by sin in our lives.

But while we were still powerless, Jesus died on the cross and took the punishment for our sin.

And because he took our punishment, we are saved from God’s wrath, and even more, we are reconciled to God.  Not because of our own good works.  But because of Jesus’  work on the cross.

Are you trying to win God’s favor by doing good things?

It won’t work.  Everything you do is stained by sin.

The only way to be made acceptable to God is to have your sins cleansed.  And the only way to have your sins cleansed is by putting your faith in the work Jesus did on the cross.

Will you put your faith in him today?

Categories
Genesis

Do the ends really justify the means?

Genesis

There are a lot of questions I’d love to ask God about this passage.

First, how much did Isaac really know?

When God told Rebekah that Esau was to serve Jacob, did she pass that on to Isaac?  And if she did, how did Isaac respond?

Further, when Esau sold his birthright to Jacob, did Isaac hear about it, and what was his response?

Either Isaac knew nothing, and was just doing what he thought was right, or he knew everything, and there was something wrong about his attitude.  But as it is, we don’t know how much Isaac really knew.

Which brings us to Rebekah’s and Jacob’s actions.

I’m sure Rebekah told Jacob of what God has said.  The Bible doesn’t say this, but from Jacob’s actions earlier, taking Esau’s birthright, it seems that he had this idea planted from somewhere.

It could’ve come from himself, I suppose.  But it seems more likely that it came from his mother.  So in all probability, they both knew God’s promises.

But when Isaac was about to bless Esau instead, they both panicked.  And so they deceived Isaac into blessing Jacob instead.

Rebekah and Jacob succeeded.  They got the blessing from Isaac.  And it was God’s will to bless Jacob, not Esau.  But did the ends justify the means?

Well, look at the result.  Esau was so upset, he planned to murder Jacob.  Because of that Jacob had to flee for his life, and he never did see his mother again.

For a long time he had to live in fear of his life, and it was only many years later that he reconciled his relationship with Esau.

Lots of fear, lots of worry, lots of wasted years because of this one decision.

Which brings me to my last question.  Had Jacob and Rebekah done nothing, what would have happened?  Would God have intervened at the last minute and said to Isaac, “Jacob is the one you should bless?”

We don’t know.  And we’ll never know because Jacob and Rebekah took things into their own hands.

One thing I do know is that God always keeps his promises.  And he didn’t need Jacob and Rebekah’s help.

There may be times in our lives, when it seems we need to do something a little shady to get things done.

There may be times in our lives when we say, “But there was no other choice.  I had to do things this way.”

But when we try to force things apart from God’s will, we get into trouble.

Abraham and Sarah learned this with the birth of Ishamel.

And Jacob and Rebekah learned this with the incident of Isaac’s blessing.

How much regret have we had in our lives because we tried to force things to happen, instead of waiting for God to act.

As Proverbs 14:12 says,

There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.

And again, in Proverbs 3:5-6,

Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.

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Genesis

But it’s not fair!

Genesis

I had a dormmate once when I was living in Osaka.  To say that we didn’t get along that well would be an understatement.

One thing that particularly bothered me was that he wasn’t very good at keeping his word.

Namely, we were supposed to take turns cleaning the bathrooms, buying necessities such as tissue paper, toilet paper, etc.  We agreed to do this when we started living together.

However, while I would do my part, it seemed like he would never do his.  I would ask politely, and if I got really annoyed, not so politely.  And still nothing changed.

Sometimes, when we ran out of toilet paper, I just kept some tissue paper in my bedroom for my personal use and waited to see how long it would take for him to get around to buying the toilet paper.  It would usually take him several days to get around to doing so.

In the meantime, he would sometimes put in a packet of pocket tissue in the bathroom instead, which I would very quickly snatch up.

Very mature, right?  No excuses, but I was very annoyed.

The thought that kept going through my head was, “This isn’t fair!  Why should I always clean the bathroom?  Why should I always buy the tissue paper and toilet paper?”

I was right…and I was wrong.  Obviously it wasn’t fair, but I also didn’t handle things as I should have.

Isaac apparently had a lot more patience than I did.

He was living among the Philistines and when they got jealous of his wealth, they started plugging up the wells his father had dug.

When he dug up a new well, the Philistines came and said, “That’s our water.  Get out of here.”

He moved on and dug another well, and the Philistines came and did the same thing.

If it had been me, I would’ve been really upset.  “This isn’t fair!  I dug these wells.  Why should these guys get full use of it?  Why should I have to dig another one.  Let them dig their own wells.”

But Isaac wasn’t me.  Instead of complaining, he just kept digging wells until the Philistines finally left him alone.  And eventually, he even made peace with them.

I’m usually a patient guy, but when things don’t seem fair, I lose my patience very quickly.  But God says,

If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.”  (Romans 12:18)

To do that, we need to learn to accept people for who and what they are.

My dormmate was very unreliable when it came to housework or shopping, among other things.  I needed to learn to accept that, because there was no way to make him change.  I tried to make him change and I failed miserably.

Change can only come when a person wants to change.  We can’t force them to change.  And because of that, sometimes we have to put up with a little, or a lot of unfairness in our lives.

But if we are unwilling to do that, we’ll not only lose peace with others, we’ll lose peace within ourselves.

Am I saying that if someone upsets us, we should never say anything?  No.  Say something once.  Say it twice.  But after that, let it go.

Learn to accept them, warts and all.  After all, Christ does the same with us.  As the apostle Paul wrote,

Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God.  (Romans 15:7)

Paul was speaking specifically about relationships within the church.

But how much better would our relationships in our marriages, our workplaces, our schools, and in our neighborhoods be if we would learn to accept all people as they are?

How much praise would we bring to God if we could just learn to do that?

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Genesis

Afraid

Genesis

It’s amazing how Isaac could do the exact thing to Rebekah that Abraham did to Sarah:  deny that she was his wife, and say that she was his sister instead.

Amazing because Isaac wasn’t even born when Abraham had his two incidents with the Pharaoh and Abimelech.

Did Abraham give him this advice when going into foreign territories?  And if Abraham did, why didn’t he warn Isaac of what had happened to him?

But ultimately, fear can cause us to do stupid things.  That’s what happened to Abraham.  And that’s what happened to Isaac.

The problem with fear is that it often blinds us to the possible consequences of our actions.

We fear our future, so we turn to astrology or fortune telling.

We fear being alone, and so we marry someone we know we shouldn’t.

We fear losing our boyfriend or girlfriend, so we sleep with them.

We fear rejection from our family and friends, so we deny our Lord in words and actions.

But that’s not how God wants us to live.  He doesn’t want us to live in fear, wondering what will happen to us in the future.

He wants us to live trusting him.

He wants us to live knowing that he loves us and that he’ll take care of us.

He wants us to live knowing that he wants our best.

If only we would believe that.

As the writer of Psalm 91 penned,

He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.

I will say of the LORD, “He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.” (1-2)

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Genesis

Nearsighted

Genesis

I remember being a kid and seeing everyone in my family wearing glasses.  It made me kind of jealous, believe it or not, and I wanted glasses too, so I didn’t really take care of my eyes.

I needed glasses by the time I was in second grade, I think.  Many glasses and contact lenses later, I really wish I had taken better care of my eyes.

Esau was definitely nearsighted when it came to his future.  As the firstborn son, he was entitled to many privileges as such, including a double-portion of the family inheritance, leadership over the family once Isaac died, and the blessings God had promised Abraham and Isaac.

But Esau despised these things.  He considered them of very little worth compared to the needs of the here and now.  And so in a split second, for a simple bowl of stew, he gave it all away.

It’s easy to criticize Esau, but how often do we despise the inheritance we have in Christ?

How often do we treat it as of little value, compared to our needs and wants of the here and now.  We spend so much time pursuing our career, pursuing money, and pursuing things, that we forget the things that are truly important.

Ultimately, there are only two things on this earth we can take with us into heaven.  Our relationship with God and our relationships with others who know Him.

These are the things that are eternal, and they make up a large part of our inheritance in heaven.  Everything else in this world will just turn to dust and pass away.

So why focus so much on what is temporal?

As the apostle John wrote,

Do not love the world or anything in the world.

If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world.

The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.   (1 John 2:15-16)

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Genesis

No turning back

Genesis

When I came to Japan, I had no idea how long I would stay here. My initial plan was to stick it out for two years, and see how I felt after that.

During that time, I started visiting a church in Kobe, and in my second year, there was a seminar on small groups. In one of the seminars, however, the pastor gave a talk on being a missionary in Japan.

During the talk, he said something that’s always stayed with me. He said, “If you’re going to be a missionary in Japan, don’t come with a plan B, only a plan A.”

What he meant by that was to come to Japan with the intention of staying permanently. Don’t come to Japan with the back door of returning available in your mind.

The reason was that in Japan, it takes time to build relationships, and those relationships are vital if people are to become Christians.

Many times, people would say to the pastor, “I’m interested in what you’re saying, but how long are you going to be here? I don’t want to become a Christian only to have you abandon me later.”

I’ve never forgotten those words, and it was shortly thereafter that I made the decision to stay in Japan permanently.

I thought about that as I read the passage in Genesis today. Abraham wanted to find a wife for Isaac, but didn’t want him to marry one of the Canaanites. So Abraham sent a servant back to where his relatives were to find a wife from among them.

But when the servant asked what to do if no one was willing to come back with him, Abraham was adamant that Isaac not go back to live there. Abraham’s last recorded words were, “Don’t take my son back there.”

Why was Abraham so adamant about this? Because God had commanded him to leave his old life behind, and to start a new life with God, and Abraham didn’t want his children to abandon the promises that God had made to him.

Also, Abraham was confident that God would take care of Isaac’s need for a wife, if he would just follow God’s commands. He saw no need to go back.

This was much different from his earlier attitudes when dealing with Pharaoh, Abimelech, and in waiting for Isaac to be born.

Abraham had finally matured in his faith, and his face was set forward to what God had planned for him and his descendants. He refused to look back.

In Hebrews 11, it says,

If they (Abraham and his descendants) had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. (15–16)

God wants us to be the same way.

Sometimes when the Christian life gets hard, or things don’t go as we hope, it’s easy to look back to our old life and say, “I might as well go back to my old way of life. It’s so much easier to do things my way than to do things God’s way.”

And as long as we’re looking back, it’s easy to slip back into our old way of life.

Personally, if I were always focused on my old life in Hawaii, it would be easy to get homesick, and just give up on my life in Japan.

But God doesn’t want us to look back. He wants us to look forward. And he wants us to press on along the path he has for us.

It’s not necessarily the easiest path. But in the end, we’ll find that it is the path of the greatest blessing.

I don’t know about you, but that’s the path I want to take. As the apostle Paul said,

I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.

Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it.

But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:12–14)

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Genesis

Aliens and Strangers

Genesis

In Japan, I’m considered to have come from another planet. I can prove it. I have my own “alien registration card.”

I heard that not long ago, when people came into a Japanese airport, when passing through immigration, there was a line for Japanese and one for “aliens.”

They’ve since changed that to “foreigners,” but according to my card I’m still an “alien.”

Anyway, that’s what Abraham was in the land of Canaan. He was in the place God had led him to, and God had promised to give that land to his descendants as an inheritance.

But that time had not come yet. And so when Abraham’s wife Sarah died, he had no place to bury her, and he had to buy land in which to bury her.

When he went to the Hittites, he said, “I am an alien and a stranger among you. Sell me some property for a burial site here so I can bury my dead.” (verse 4). And they kindly allowed him to buy some property.

Abraham died and was buried there too, never actually having received the promise, but waiting in hope for that day to come. In Hebrews 11, it says,

By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise.

For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God…

All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance.

And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth.

People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own.

If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one.

Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them. (Hebrews 11:9–16)

Shortly after I moved to Japan, my brother moved to the Big Island of Hawaii. My sister and her family followed, and then my parents eventually moved there as well. Now when I go back to Oahu, I have no home. It’s kind of sad.

When I visit my old neighborhood and pass by my old house, someone else lives there, and the place looks different now. It’s not my home anymore.

But then again, it never was. This world is just a place we’re visiting for a short time. We’re aliens and strangers in a land where we don’t truly belong. Instead, our true home awaits for us in heaven.

So the question is where is your heart? Is it here on this earth? Are your thoughts consumed only with life here? Or is your true home where your heart is?

Sometimes people think that if you’re too heavenly-minded, you’re no earthly good. But as C.S. Lewis put it,

If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were precisely those who thought most of the next.

The Apostles themselves, who set on foot the conversion of the Roman Empire, the great men who built up the Middle Ages, the English Evangelicals who abolished the Slave Trade, all left their mark on Earth, precisely because their minds were occupied with Heaven.

It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this. (Mere Christianity — Essay on Hope)

Lewis is right. When our hearts are set on heaven, all our priorities fall into place. When our hearts are set on earth, that’s when our priorities and our lives become a mess.

Where is your heart? Are your priorities in this life right?

As the old Petra song says,

We are envoys, we must tarry
With this message we must carry

There’s so much to do before we leave
With so many more who may believe

Our mission here can never fail
And the gates of hell will not prevail

We are strangers; we are aliens
We are not of this world.

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Genesis

God is good

Genesis

At some churches I’ve been to, the worship leader will start by saying, “God is good!” And the people all reply, “All the time!”

Then the worship leader calls back, “All the time!” And the people reply, “God is good!”

I am by no means criticizing this practice. But I do wonder sometimes if people really take those words to heart, or if they’re just words they say when they’re feeling good about things at church.

The honest truth is, whether we truly believe these words or not will shape our Christian lives whether for the good or for the bad.

Abraham certainly wasn’t feeling good when one night, God told him, “Abraham, go and sacrifice Isaac on an altar to me.”

Here was a child that God had been promising for at least a quarter of a century and probably longer, and now God was saying, “Offer him to me as a burnt offering.”

How many people would be saying, “God is good,” after that? Would you?

And yet Abraham obeyed. He didn’t delay his obedience, either. He started out early in the morning to do what God had asked. And he went all the way to the point of binding his son, putting him on the altar, and raising the knife to kill him.

How could Abraham do that? Because the words “God is good” were not just a catch phrase for him. He really believed them.

Abraham knew God’s promises to him. He knew that God had promised to make a nation through Isaac. And he knew that because God is good, he would never break his promises.

So if God made him kill his own son, Abraham believed in his heart that God was good and would raise Isaac back from the dead, and figuratively speaking, he did. (Hebrews 11:19)

Abraham’s words to his servants were very significant. He told them, “We will come back to you. We will go away to worship, but we will come back to you.”

The words in the Hebrew are particularly emphatic. Abraham believed God was good, and so he was willing to go all the way to obey him.

How about you? Do you believe that God is good? Do you really believe it? Or is it just a catch phrase to you?

Unless you truly believe God is good, you will always hesitate to obey him. You will always be questioning whether his way is best. Unless you truly believe that God is good, you’ll never be able to please him.

As the writer of Hebrews said,

Without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him. (Hebrews 11:6)

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Genesis

Letting go of “My way”

Genesis

Abraham faced a difficult choice after the birth of Isaac. Sarah caught Ishmael mocking Isaac, and demanded that Abraham send Hagar and Ishmael away.

It seemed pretty harsh. After all, Abraham was still Ishmael’s father, and even in their culture, it was a definite no-no to send them away. It just wasn’t done.

Yet God told Abraham to let them go. Why?

It’s possible that even after Isaac was born, Abraham would have been tempted to give the rights and privileges of the first-born to Ishmael.

It’s not likely that this would have happened, I admit.

However, we already saw earlier in Genesis 17 that he had asked God to give Ishmael that right. And after 14 years or so of being Abraham’s only son, I’m sure Abraham was still very much attached to him.

But God made it clear that this wasn’t his will.

Even more important, though, was what Ishmael symbolized: a life of doing things “my way.”

Ishmael came as a result of Abraham trying to do things his own way.

Abraham and Sarah had wavered in their belief of God’s promises, and when God didn’t fulfill his promise when they expected, they became impatient and tried to make things happen on their own.

But they were wrong. Their way was not God’s way.

And basically God told Abraham, “It’s time to let ‘your way’ go. I’ll take care of Ishmael. He’ll be okay. But it’s time to let go of Ishmael and your own plans, and totally commit yourself to me and my plans.”

And so Abraham obeyed.

God asks the same thing of us. So often we battle between doing things our own way and God’s way.

Sometimes we get impatient with God’s timing, and try to make things happen on our own as Abraham did.

Sometimes we try doing things God’s way, but things still don’t seem to be going well, so we just give up and go back to doing things our own way.

But God says, “Let go. Trust me. And I’ll take care of the rest.”

We are to trust him in our relationships, in our job situations, in our financial situations, in everything.

And as we do, we’ll start to find his blessing.

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Genesis

No excuses

Genesis

“But I didn’t know. I have a clean conscience.”

Those were the words of Abimelech when he took Abraham’s wife to be his own.

And he was right. Abraham and Sarah both lied to him, saying that she was Abraham’s sister. So Abimelech took Sarah as his own wife.

But God confronted Abimelech saying, “You’re a dead man because you’ve taken another man’s wife as your own.”

And while Abimelech truly didn’t know, he still had sinned, and his sin needed to be atoned for.

How often do we sin, and not even notice? Probably a lot more often than we think.

That’s why it’s a good idea at the end of the day to ask God to search your heart. Because if you don’t, you may find a block between you and God, and you won’t even know why.

David knew this and so he prayed,

Who can discern his errors? Forgive my hidden faults. Keep your servant also from willful sins; may they not rule over me. Then will I be blameless, innocent of great transgression. (Psalm 19:12–13, NIV)

In another prayer, he said,

Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. (Psalm 139:23–24)

Lord, how often do I do things that put a block between you and me and don’t even know it? Please forgive me.

Make me more sensitive to your Holy Spirit so that when I sin, I notice it and can confess it to you.

As David prayed, forgive my hidden faults. See if there is any offensive way in me. And keep me from willful sins in my life that would damage my relationship with you.

In Jesus’ name, amen.

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Genesis

At what cost?

Genesis

Last night, I chatted with a student, and he talked about how he loves fishing.

His family lives in Mie Prefecture, but he lives in Osaka prefecture most of the week because of his job. He apparently goes back to visit his family every weekend… sort of.

Instead of spending time with his family, he usually goes out fishing.

He told me with a big smile on his face, “My wife always complains when I go out fishing and says I should spend more time with my daughters (8 and 10 years old respectively).”

As an English teacher, and especially meeting him for the first time, I couldn’t really say anything, but in my head, I was thinking, “You may enjoy fishing, but at what cost?”

He never sees his kids during the week nor his wife. And when he does come home, he never spends much time with them. The day will come when he finds that he has totally alienated his family… if that day hasn’t come already.

All of us make decisions in life. Sometimes we even make them thinking they’re for the best. But the question we need to constantly ask ourselves is, “At what cost am I doing these things?”

Lot’s daughters were desperate to preserve their family line. Their husbands had been killed when Sodom was destroyed. Their father had taken them away to the mountains, and they were basically living as hermits there, cut off from civilization.

And so they got their father drunk and slept with him. They preserved their family line, but at what cost? They degraded themselves and their father.

I wonder how Lot felt when he found out. He had made his own mistakes. At this point, he had nothing. There was no reason he couldn’t have gone back to Abraham. Abraham would’ve taken him in. But perhaps Lot was too ashamed at what had happened to him.

So he kept his pride and stayed away. But at what cost? What pride he had left was stripped away by his daughter’s actions.

But the amazing thing is that even from the depths that we find ourselves in because of the bad choices we make, God can still find a way to redeem the situation.

One of Lot’s daughters gave birth to a son named Moab.

Years later, from that family line came a woman called Ruth, who traveled with her mother-in-law Naomi to the land of Israel.

Ruth married a man named Boaz, and if you look far enough down that family line, you find the name of the ultimate Redeemer: Jesus.

Lot and his daughters made awful decisions. And yet God was still able to find a way to turn their situation into something that had worth.

He can do the same with us.

Maybe you married a non-Christian, and now you’re facing marital problems because of it.

Maybe you neglected your family, and now your wife is leaving you.

Maybe you walked away from God to pursue your career, and now your life feels empty, and you feel that God has abandoned you.

Whatever mess you’ve made of your life, God will not abandon you. He will not give up on you. And he can turn the most horrible situation into something beautiful.

All you need to do is turn to him. Admit that you’ve made bad decisions. Ask for forgiveness. Ask for his help. And God will be there for you.

It doesn’t mean that God will necessarily take away your problems. But he will see you through them.

As it says in James 4:10,

Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.

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Genesis

Holding on to what you shouldn’t

Genesis

Several years ago, I was working at an English conversation school called NOVA. It was one of the largest schools in Japan, and I had worked there for seven years or so.

In my last several years I noticed some disturbing trends. One was that they were expanding far more rapidly than it seemed they should. Then in my final year, schools started closing, and if that weren’t enough, paychecks started coming in late.

I should’ve gotten out at that point, but it was hard because the pay was pretty good, I had good benefits, the hours were great, and I just kept hoping against hope that things would get better. It didn’t and the company went bankrupt.

Suddenly, I along with hundreds of other teachers and staff were out of a job. And because the market was so suddenly flooded with teachers, it became very difficult to find another job.

I’ve got an okay job now, but I keep wondering if I could be doing better if I had gotten out of NOVA earlier before the market flooded. Maybe. Maybe not. I’ll never know.

Lot was in a similar situation. He had parted ways from Abraham after a dispute over land, and Lot had chosen a place that looked really good to the eye.

It seems like he also became one of the leaders of the city in a very short time (city leaders often sat at the city gates in order to judge disputes that might have occurred).

So not only was he in a comfortable place, but he was also in a comfortable position in the city.

There was one problem. Sodom was extremely wicked. Perhaps Lot had tried to be a good example to the city from his position of influence. But ultimately, Sodom got worse and worse.

Peter described Lot this way:

a righteous man, who was distressed by the depraved conduct of the lawless (for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard). (2 Peter 2:7–8)

But there was another problem. The people of Sodom were starting to affect the way that Lot thought. Instead of influencing them, they were influencing him.

You see that clearly when the people started to attack his house, insisting that he send the angels out to them so that the people could rape them. What did Lot do? He offered to send out his daughters to them instead.

That’s the problem when you surround yourself with ungodly people with no one around you to remind you of God and his ways. You often start to take on the values and attitudes of the people you actually spend time with.

Lot should have gotten out of there a long time ago. Why didn’t he? He was probably comfortable where he was. He probably enjoyed his place in the community. And he didn’t want to give these things up.

So he continued hoping against hope that things would get better. And it almost led to disaster for him and his family.

Even when the angels warned him of the judgment to come, he hesitated. The angels literally had to drag him and his family out of the city. Even then, he was hesitant to completely leave the area.

How often do we hold on to things that are not good for us? It could be a job that takes us away from our family or from church on Sundays. It could be a relationship with a boyfriend or girlfriend that is not a Christian.

It could be pornography. It could even be something that’s “good” but that pulls us away from God. It could be a hobby that dominates too much of your time. It could be the internet, books, TV, or sports.

None of them are bad in themselves, but they can become bad if they start to control us instead of us controlling them.

I know for me, that has been a problem in the past, and I still struggle with it even today.

What about you? What are you holding on to today?

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Genesis

Mirroring the heart of God

Genesis

It’s scenes like this one that show why God would choose someone like Abraham in spite of all his faults and failures.

In this interaction, you see in Abraham’s words and pleas what I believe was in the heart of God from the first: a desire to show mercy.

God tells Abraham that the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah was so great and their deeds so evil that he had come and see it for himself.

And Abraham knew what that would mean: judgment. But Abraham also knew that his nephew Lot and his family were living in Sodom, and so he started pleading for mercy.

It’s a very poignant scene. The two men (angels actually) leave for Sodom and the Lord and Abraham are left standing there, looking down on the city.

Perhaps they’re standing in silence knowing the judgment that is to come. But then Abraham slowly inches his way towards the Lord, and when he’s standing right next to him, he asks softly:

“Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked?

What if there are fifty righteous people in the city? Will you really sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous people in it?

Far be it from you to do such a thing—to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike.

Far be it from you! Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?” (Genesis 18:23–25)

The Lord replies, “If I find fifty righteous people in the city of Sodom, I will spare the whole place for their sake.”

Perhaps there is silence for a minute or two. Then Abraham asks, “What if the number of the righteous is five less than fifty? Will you destroy the whole city for lack of five people?”

The Lord immediately answers, “If I find forty-five there,” he said, “I will not destroy it.”

On and on, the conversation goes, as Abraham brings the number down to 40, 30, 20, and finally 10. One wonders how far God would have gone. Down to one? Perhaps God would have spared the city for even one.

Why did God let the conversation go as long as it did? Why do I think he would’ve even gone down to the number one?

Because while God must eventually bring justice, he also longs to show mercy as well. And I think it pleases him when his people mirror his heart and desire to show mercy as well.

So when his people mirror his heart and pray for his mercy on the lost, he is very quick to say yes.

How about us? Do we have that same heart of compassion and mercy for the lost?

Do we desire more than anything that they would know God’s mercy, and in so doing, find a relationship with the living God?

Or do we not give a rip?

How often do you pray for the people around you who don’t know Christ?

Do you pray for God’s mercy in their lives?

Or are you more likely to pray for his judgment?

Or do you not pray at all?

God’s desire is to show mercy. God’s desire for us is that we mirror his heart of mercy.

What is in your heart today, as you consider the lost people around you?

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Genesis

Bitterness and joy

Genesis

There are times in the Bible that I wish we could’ve caught people’s reactions on video. How exactly did they say the things they said?

For example, when Abraham and Sarah laughed at the words of God in Genesis 17 and 18, did they laugh in the same way? Or was there a different kind of tone in their laughter?

I kind of think (and this is pure speculation on my part) that there was a difference in the tone of their laughter.

I tend to think that when Abraham laughed, it was like he heard a good joke. “Say what? Sarah’s going to have a baby at her age? That’s a good one Lord. Tell me another one. (Under his breath) Sarah having a baby. Heh.”

For Sarah, I kind of wonder if her laughter had a tinge of bitterness in it. She knew the promises God had made to Abraham decades before. And they still hadn’t happened.

During that time, she suffered through the shame of not being able to bear a child, even having her own maidservant mock her over it. And now God was saying, “Sarah will have a child.”

And Sarah’s response: “Ha! Yeah, right. I’ve heard that one before, and nothing has ever happened. Now I’m old and worn out, my husband is an old man, and now we’re going to have a child? Please!”

When we are forced to wait for God’s promises to come to pass in our lives, it can be easy to become bitter.

When we do the things we feel God has asked us to do, and still we find no blessing in our lives, it’s easy to become bitter.

It’s easy to think that the blessing will never come. That God won’t actually keep his promises.

What do we do? Do we hold on to the promises? Do we hold on to the belief that God will bless us in our lives? Or do we give up?

Abraham and Sarah both faltered in their faith during their time in the promised land. But ultimately both continued to put their faith in God.

And in the end, they found God’s blessing. God showed grace to them despite their wavering hearts, and gave them a son.

When he did, their laughter of unbelief and bitterness changed into the laughter of joy.

Sarah said, “God has brought me laughter, and everyone who hears about this will laugh with me.”

And she added, “Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.” (Genesis 21:6–7)

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Genesis

The God of the impossible

Genesis

It’s been a trying the past week or so. Not that I’ve had a lot of stress or anything, but for whatever reason, I’ve been struggling with insomnia. I’ve never had it before, but last Tuesday and Wednesday, I couldn’t sleep.

Then for the next three days, I was fine, but last night, once again, I couldn’t sleep. I’m not sure if it’s physical or spiritual or whatever. It could be that it’s just really humid. I hope that’s it.

I must say that when you go sleepless, it puts a lot of anxiety into you the next night, wondering if you’ll be able to sleep. Which of course doesn’t do a whole lot of good for your sleeplessness, if you tense up as a result.

At any rate, as I look at this passage, I’m trying to remember that God is the God who can do anything, even overcome things like sleeplessness.

This is the first time in the Bible that God introduces himself as the Almighty one, although it certainly isn’t the last. I don’t think it was an accident either, because God was asking Abraham to believe a lot.

Abraham is now 99 and he still has no son. His wife Sarai was of course not much younger, and was far beyond the age of giving birth. To believe that God could give them a child through Sarah strained credibility.

And so when God appears, he tells Abraham, “I am God Almighty.” The not-so-subtle hint being, “Your situation may seem impossible, but I can do anything.”

Abraham, of course, had a tough time believing at that point that God could keep his promise. First he laughs when God tells him that Sarai will have a baby. Then he tries to help God out.

“Hey God, I already have a son named Ishmael. Just use him to carry out your promise.”

But God declined Abraham’s offer, and instead said, “No, I will do what I have promised you. It may seem impossible to you, but all things are possible with me.”

Which brings me back to my problem. I have no idea why I’m going sleepless, and it’s easy to get worried about it. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t.

Honestly, I could use your prayers. Pray for peace that God can take care of my problem. And pray that God does take care of my problem, whatever the cause may be.

God you are the one who can do all things. You’re the God who sees me. You’re the God who hears me. You know my insomnia problems and my worries about it.

Lord, give me peace at night when it’s time to sleep. Help me to block out all noises that might distract me. Help me not to be bothered by other physical conditions. If it’s a spiritual attack, I pray your protection over me.

I know that you are the God of the impossible. You were the God of the impossible to Abraham. You are the God of the impossible even now. Help me to truly believe that.

In Jesus’ name, amen.

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Genesis

The God who sees; the God who hears

Genesis

“God sees what you’re doing! God knows! You can’t hide from him!”

All of these words can have an ominous tone behind them. It’s as if God is just waiting in heaven, looking for the next person to mess up so that he can zap them.

But what’s interesting in this passage to me is that God doesn’t reveal himself as that way at all.

Hagar really messed up. She was given to Abraham by Sarai in order to continue the family line, when Sarai couldn’t have children.

But when Hagar became pregnant, she started to “despise” Sarai. She looked down on her. Perhaps she even mocked her inability to get pregnant in 30–40 years while Hagar became pregnant in just one.

And so Sarai started to mistreat her. What does that mean? Perhaps she started using cutting words of her own. Perhaps she used violence. But whatever she did, life became so unbearable for Hagar that she fled.

Certainly Sarai was wrong. But Hagar helped bring all of this upon herself by her own attitude and actions.

And yet, when God confronted her, he didn’t scold her. He didn’t punish her for her attitude or actions. He didn’t say, “You got what you deserved.”

Instead, he showed concern for her. He said, “Where have you come from? Where are you going?”

And when Hagar said, “I’m running from my mistress,” God didn’t demand the whole story from her. He didn’t beat a confession out of her.

Instead, he simply said, “Go back to your mistress and submit to her. You were wrong to do what you did. So go back, apologize, and stop doing what you were doing. If you do, everything will be all right.”

And then he added,

I will so increase your descendants that they will be too numerous to count… You shall name [your son] Ishmael, for the Lord has heard of your misery. (Genesis 16:9–11)

Basically God said, “Hagar, I know of your troubles; I know you brought them on yourself, but let your son always be a reminder that I am the God who hears you” (Ishmael means “God hears”).

What was Hagar’s response?

She gave this name to the LORD who spoke to her: “You are the God who sees me,” for she said, “I have now seen the One who sees me.” (Genesis 16:13)

For Hagar, the fact that God sees and God hears was not a thing to be worried about. It was not a thing to be feared.

Rather she learned that this God who sees us and hears us does so in order to show us mercy, if we’ll just yield to him and his voice.

As the old song by Michael Card goes,

To the outcast on her knees, you were the God who really sees.

Maybe you feel like you’ve failed. Maybe your life is a mess because of the bad choices you made. Remember that God sees you. Remember that he hears you. And remember that he longs to show you mercy as he did to Hagar.

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Genesis

It may be normal, but is it right?

Genesis

I was chatting with a middle-aged English student recently, and he talked about how he met his daughter’s boyfriend recently.

While they were chatting, the boyfriend mentioned that he and the daughter would be going off on an overseas trip together.

My student said, “I was surprised, but I said okay.”

I guess he thought he was being an understanding father by saying this.

I suppose that the couple might actually reserve separate rooms, but I wouldn’t bet my life on it.

In our culture today, it just seems like a “normal” thing for couples to sleep together even though they’re not married.

Recently my sister mentioned overhearing a mother talking about her kid’s 16th birthday party at a hotel, saying, “Well, I took away the vodka from them, but I let them keep the rum.”

I suppose this mom thought it was just “normal” that teens drink at their parties.

A lot of things seem “normal” in our cultures, but the big question is not if it’s “normal,” but if it’s right.

Abram faced the same problem in his day.

God had promised him a son, but after 10, perhaps even 20 years of waiting, Abram still had no children. Sarah was getting up in age, she was already 65 by this point, and there seemed to be no way for her to have children.

Culturally, this was a terrible situation.

In those days, it was considered the worst thing in the world for a family name to die out.

But in their culture, it was perfectly natural for a wife with no children to offer her servant to the husband. The servant would sleep with the husband, have a baby, and that baby would become the heir.

So, going along with the culture, Sarai did just that. And it was considered perfectly normal in that day. But was it right?

No. God had promised to give Abram a child through Sarai, but instead of believing God’s promise and waiting for his timing, they got impatient and tried to force things to happen on their own.

They succeeded. Abram and Sarai got the child they wanted. But their choice also brought about problems they didn’t anticipate.

When Sarai’s servant Hagar got pregnant, she started mocking Sarai and despising her.

That led Sarai to get upset and caused marital strife with Abraham. “This is all YOUR fault!”—totally ignoring the fact that it was her own idea in the first place.

Their decision had long-term consequences as well, as the descendants of Hagar’s son Ishmael (the Muslims) have had a long-standing feud with the descendants of Sarai’s son Isaac (the Jews).

But that’s what happens when we stray from God’s way to follow the way of our culture.

Cultures change. What was normal in our culture 100 years ago is not normal now. And what is normal now will probably not be normal 100 years from now.

But God’s ways and his Word never change. And when we stray away from his ways and his Word, we do so at our own risk.

Unwanted pregnancies. Abortion. Teenage moms without husbands. Poverty. Alcoholism. Drunk driving accidents. Marital strife. Divorce. The list goes on and on.

So we have a choice. Are we going to follow culture? Or are we going to follow God?

Sometimes, there’s no difference between the two. But when the two come into conflict, which do we follow?

When Joshua led the people into the promised land, he said this:

Now fear the LORD and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your forefathers worshiped beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD.

But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living.

But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD. (Joshua 24:14–15)

The Israelites had to decide whether to leave behind the cultural practices that they and their ancestors had followed in Egypt, or to continue in them.

They had to choose whether to follow their culture or to follow God.

And we have the same choice today.

May we make the same choice Joshua did: “But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”

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Genesis

Believing God

Genesis

Sometimes, believing God can be pretty difficult. We know God’s promises. We know what he has said. And yet, our circumstances can sometimes make it difficult to hold on to these things.

In Japan, for instance, the population of Christians is very small, less than one percent. And the ratio of female to male Christians in Japan is highly disproportionate in favor of the women.

This is great for the men, I suppose, but a big problem for women who are looking for someone to marry.

They know God’s admonition not to marry a non-Christian, but with the choices so limited, it’s sometimes difficult to believe God will provide someone, especially if they’ve been waiting a long time.

And so I know a number of Japanese women who just gave up and married a non-Christian.

Unfortunately, many of them find that while they’ve solved one problem, they’ve invited a number of other problems into their lives as they deal with living with a man who is not following Christ, and all the pressures and struggles that come with it.

Abram faced a similar choice. To believe God or not. God had promised him that if he would leave his land and go where God told him, that he would become a great nation. But at this point, he was in his seventies, and he still didn’t have a son.

Now God comes again and says to him, “I am your great reward” (NIV) or “Your reward will be very great.” (NASB)

I tend to think the latter translation is better, considering Abram’s response.

Abram basically answered, “How can you say that? I don’t have any kids. I’m getting up there in age. Everything I have is going to be inherited by my servant? How can you say my reward is going to be great? Where is the blessing that you promised me.”

God answered, “This man won’t be your heir. Look at the sky. Count all the stars in the sky if you can. That’s what your descendants will be like.”

That must have been tough to swallow. “I have no kids. My wife is getting older. And my descendants are going to be like the stars in the sky?”

But Abram made a decision. What was it?

“I’m going to choose to believe God.”

Abraham was not perfect. He failed many times in his life. There were many times he didn’t trust in God.

His failures with Pharaoh and Abimelech were just two of them. But at this place, and at this time, he said, “I’m going to choose to believe God.”

And that pleased God.

More than anything else, God wants us to trust him. It was what he asked of Adam and Eve.

“You can eat from any tree in the garden, but don’t eat from that tree. Trust me. I’m only looking out for your best.”

And it was broken trust that led to their broken relationship with him.

In Hebrews 11:6, it says,

And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

Most of us believe that God exists. But do we really believe that he is looking out for our best? Do we really believe that he will reward us if we trust him? That’s the key question.

For many of the Japanese women that married non-Christians, the answer was no.

It’s hard to condemn them because loneliness is a difficult thing. And when you’ve been waiting a long time with no end in sight, it gets very hard to believe anymore.

Even Abraham had trouble believing under those circumstances as chapter 16 bears out.

But if we want a close relationship with God, we need to settle this one question in our heart. “Do I believe him?”

Maybe you have failed in the past. You didn’t trust him, and you made bad decisions as a result.

Take heart from the life of Abraham. He also made bad decisions because he didn’t trust God. But God didn’t give up on him. And he won’t give up on you.

If you want to get right with God, all you have to do is come to him and say, “God, I’ve failed. I’m sorry. But I come to you today, and I just want to say, ‘I believe in you.'”

And just as God credited Abraham with righteousness for his faith despite his failures, he will do the same with you.

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Genesis

Where blessing and success come from

Genesis

“Abram and the battle of the kings.” Sounds like some kind of movie set in the middle ages or something like that. 🙂

Anyway, after Abram and his allies gained victory over the kings that had captured his nephew Lot and his family, it would’ve been pretty easy to let pride rise up.

“Here we are, just 318 men, and we rout these kings and their men. What a great military strategist I am! What a great leader I am!”

But Abram didn’t fall into that trap.

Instead, when Melchizedek came, pointing out that his victory came from the Lord, Abram acknowledged it by giving a tenth of the plunder to Melchizedek.

And instead of taking the rest of the plunder as his due for his great victory, he kept none of it—only dispersing some of it to his allies who had helped him and then giving the rest back to the king of Sodom and (assumedly) the king’s allies.

His reason? He remembered where true blessing came from, and would not receive anything from men whose lives were so ungodly. He said in verse 23,

I will accept nothing belonging to you, not even a thread or the thong of a sandal, so that you will never be able to say, ‘I made Abram rich.’

How often do we fall into the trap of pride?

We begin to think that it’s only because of our own talents, abilities, and efforts that we find success in our lives, and forget that it was God who gave us the talents, abilities, and the strength to do those things in the first place.

And when we forget that, it’s so easy to forget God himself and to start seeking blessings in our lives apart from him, whether it be money, pleasure, or whatever.

That’s what happened to the Israelites when they came into the promised land. Within but a few generations, they quickly forgot that it was God who had brought them there.

As a result, they started seeking blessings from other gods, and in the process, they left God on the side.

It’s worth noting that in a lot of cases, they didn’t completely leave him behind; they just put him on the side while pursuing these other things.

That’s often how it is with us. We don’t really leave God behind. He just ends up on the side somewhere.

How do we avoid this trap when things are going well for us?

First, remember who God is. That he is, “God most high, Creator of heaven and earth.”

An alternate reading for “creator” in the NIV is “possessor.” In other words, because he is the creator, he owns everything, and he is the one who gives us all that we have.

In 1 Corinthians 4:7, Paul wrote,

For who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?

In Jeremiah 9:23–24, God adds,

“Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom or the strong man boast of his strength or the rich man boast of his riches, but let him who boasts boast about this: that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight,” declares the LORD.

As we boast in him and not in ourselves, it helps us to maintain perspective on where the blessings and success in our lives come from.

The second thing to remember is to give thanks to him for the blessings we’ve received—as Melchizedek did through his words, and Abram did through his giving.

Once in a while, I hear people say, “Christians don’t have to tithe. That was Old Testament law. We are not bound by that anymore.”

That’s true. But it’s worth noting that before the law came, Abraham—not Moses—set the precedent for tithing. And that he gave it as a sign of gratitude for what God had done.

I believe it is the same with us. We don’t give because of the Old Testament law or out of obligation.

Rather, it’s a way to acknowledge where we got our blessings from and to thank God for them. And in doing so, it helps us avoid the trap of pride.

Lord, help me always remember where my blessings come from. Help me always remember where my success comes from.

I know that they don’t come merely from my own talents or efforts. Rather, they all originate from you.

Help me to always keep a heart of gratitude towards you, to never push you to the side in pursuit of other things, and to always keep you at the center of my life.

In Jesus’ name, amen.

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Genesis

Not worth arguing about

Genesis

Every once in a while, my wife and I will have a disagreement. Generally speaking, they tend to be small things, but our conversation can get heated at times.

It’s very strange to me how stubborn I can get (dare I say my wife as well) about things sometimes. And I often find myself fighting pride, not wanting to give in to her.

Just as an example, on our baby stroller, there are some straps with hooks on them that will naturally just slide down the sides of the stroller handle if you don’t make a conscious effort to hold them where they are.

(When there’s no bag or something on them holding them together, anyway).

One time, my wife got really annoyed with me because I let the straps go down yet again and left them there until she used the stroller the next day. (In my defense, she’d never mentioned it before).

From my standpoint, it was a very small thing. So it falls down. It takes all of 2 seconds to push them back up again. Who cares? Apparently, my wife did.

Still, my thinking was, “If it takes two seconds, and she really cares about it, she should just push it up.”

It took God’s little voice saying, “If it takes two seconds, why don’t you just push them back up before you put the stroller away,” to get me to stop the argument and to start changing my habits.

Yep, pride can be a pretty nasty thing in these kinds of arguments.

Abram’s dispute with Lot was much bigger. The land couldn’t support the two of them, and it was causing a huge problem between their men.

Abram had every right as the leader in the family to say, “Get lost Lot. I get first pick of the land, and I’m going this way.”

There could’ve been a big dispute over the land, but instead, Abram said, “Hey, we’re close relatives. This isn’t worth arguing about. There’s a lot of land. You choose where you want to go, and I’ll go the other way.”

And when Lot chose what looked to be the better land, Abram didn’t argue; he just said, “God bless” and left. And what’s more, God blessed him for it.

How much better would life be if when we’re arguing about something, we say, “Look we’re friends. You’re my husband. You’re my wife. Our relationship is much more important than our dispute. So I’ll bend on this because I love you.”

How much better would our lives be if we could just let pride go, and as the apostle Paul said:

Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. (Ephesians 5:21)

How much of the Lord’s blessing would we find in our relationships, if we would learn to do that?

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Genesis

To be a blessing?

Genesis

Well, as I’ve mentioned before, even the godly people in the Bible aren’t perfect, and Abram proves this in spades here.

Because of a famine, Abram and his wife go to Egypt and stay there, but Abram is so lacking in faith in God and his protection, that he tells his wife, “Don’t tell anyone you’re married to me. Tell them I’m your brother.”

(This was technically true. They had the same father, but different mothers).

The result: Pharaoh (Quick! Look away and see if you can spell Pharaoh) takes Sarai to be his wife.

Can you imagine what Sarai was thinking? “What in the world kind of husband do I have, anyway?” What was Abram thinking? And I mean before and after Sarai was taken away from him.

Anyway, by not trusting God, Abram got some temporary blessings (sheep, cattle, donkeys, servants, camels, etc) from Pharaoh.

But in the end, instead of being a blessing to Pharaoh, Abram ends up being a curse to him, with Pharaoh and his household getting struck with serious diseases.

Abram gets his wife back, but gets chased out of the country too.

Abram learned his lesson so well, he did the same thing years later. He goes to a place called Gerar, calls Sarah his sister, and she gets taken away from him by the king, Abimelech.

Sarah must have been thinking, “Not again! I can’t believe my husband!”

So once again, Abram ends up being a curse to the king (not to mention Sarah—can you imagine being put through this twice?), as God warns Abimelech to return Abram’s wife lest he and his family die.

Pharaoh and the king of Gerar had similar responses:

What have you done to me?

Why didn’t you tell me she was your wife? Why did you say ‘She is my sister,’ so that I took her to be my wife? (Genesis 12:18–19)

What have you done to us?

How have I wronged you that you have brought such great guilt upon me and my kingdom?

You have done things that should not be done. What was your reason for this? (Genesis 20:9–10)

What was Abram’s answer? “Well, I knew you were ungodly people that would kill me and steal my wife, so I lied. Besides, it wasn’t really a lie.” (Genesis 20:11–13)

What do you think Pharaoh’s and Abimelech’s response to that was? “Oh, I really want to get to know your God now! Your words and actions make him look so attractive to me!”

No way. They were probably thinking to themselves, “I’m more righteous than Abram. And look at what curses he brought on my life!”

It’s easy to criticize Abram. But how often can people say the same thing about me? How often am I a curse to the people around me, rather than a blessing? How often am I a curse to my wife? To my coworkers? To my friends? To my neighbors?

I’d seriously hate to know the answers to those questions.

Lord, forgive me for the times I’ve failed to trust you, and did things my way. Forgive me for those times when I’ve been a curse to the people around me rather than a blessing.

God, I want others to be attracted to you because of me. Show me where I need to change. And give me the strength to change.

In Jesus’ name, amen.

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Genesis

To be blessed, and be a blessing

Genesis

I suppose one of these days, I’ll actually get off of these verses. Maybe even tomorrow.

It’s very interesting here that God actually offers Abram what he denied the people of Babel—a great nation, and a name that would last. Which I guess goes to prove that these things aren’t bad in themselves.

But what’s even more interesting to me is what God added: “You will be a blessing… all the peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”

God didn’t just want to bless Abram, but he wanted Abram to be a blessing to the people around him. Of course, this ultimately came through one of Abram’s descendants, Jesus himself.

But even while Abram was living on the earth, God’s desire for him was that he be a blessing to others.

So often, Christians pray, “Lord, bless me!” But how often do we pray, “Lord, let me be a blessing?”

“Let me be a blessing to my wife. To my husband. To my kids. To the people at church. To the people at work. To the people in my neighborhood.”

The funny thing is that as we are a blessing to others, we find that we ourselves become blessed as well.

It says in Proverbs 11:25,

The generous man will be prosperous, and he who waters will himself be watered.” (NASB)

The NIV puts it another way:

He who refreshes others will himself be refreshed.

Lord, sometimes it’s so easy to get wrapped up with myself, asking for my needs and my wants to be met. But change me.

I ask not that you bless me. Rather, I pray that I may be a blessing to the people around me. That when people come away from me, they come away from me refreshed, and encouraged.

Let me be a blessing to my wife, to my daughter, to my coworkers, to the people at church, and to the people in my neighborhood.

More than anything, may they see you in me, and may they become attracted to you because of me. Get my eyes off of myself, and onto the people you have placed in my life. Change my heart.

In Jesus’ name, amen.

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Genesis

Get out!

Genesis

Generally speaking, I like reading out of the NIV, but today I happened to read out of the New King James, and two words jumped out at me. “Get out!”

Somehow, it sounds much stronger than “Go from” (NIV) or “Leave” (NLT) or even “Go forth” (NASB). It just seems like there is more urgency when you say it that way.

Why did God tell Abram to get out from his country, his family, and his father’s house?

Probably because these things were having a bad influence on him. The culture they were living in wasn’t honoring God, and it was having an effect on Abram’s family, as they were serving false gods along with the one true God. (Joshua 24:2)

Already, Abram’s and his wife Sarai’s way of thinking had been affected as you could see from some questionable decisions they made even after deciding to follow God. So God said “Get out.”

What is influencing us? What is shaping the way we think or act? Is it our culture? Is it our friends? Is it our family?

God tells us the same thing. Get out from under the influence of a world that would shape our minds and our lives in a way displeasing to him.

In Romans 12:2, the apostle Paul wrote,

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

All around us, there are pressures trying to influence us. Some of them even have benign intentions. But benign or not, they can take us away from God and his way of thinking if we’re not careful.

And if there are people or things in our lives that are shaping us in a way that pulls us away from God, God calls us to get out from under their influence.

It doesn’t mean necessarily that we need to cut them off. But when we need to pour out our problems, when we’re seeking advice, we need to do so with people whose values come from God.

Too often, we seek comfort and advice from people whose values come from the world, and though they may care for us, they’re still leading us away from God and the life he has for us.

“Go ahead and date that guy. I know he’s not a Christian, but I’m sure things will be okay. Maybe he’ll even become a Christian later.”

“Go ahead and sleep with your boyfriend. You love him right?”

“Go ahead and marry that woman. It doesn’t really matter that she’s not a Christian. You love her right?”

“Go ahead and divorce your husband already. He’s making your life miserable, right?”

“Go ahead and take the job. So what if it means you have to work Sundays and can’t go to church anymore. God will understand.”

“It’s okay if you offer incense at the Buddhist funeral. You don’t really mean anything by it, right?”

All of the advice is well meant. But all of it is wrong. And if we are under the influence of these people, it will lead us away from God.

So what does God say?

“Come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you.”

And,

“I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.” (2 Corinthians 6:17–18)

Again, this doesn’t mean you have to cut these people out of your lives. But it does mean that you need to take yourself out from under their influence.

Do you want to know God’s will in your life? Do you want to live a life pleasing to him?

Then let his Word be the transforming influence in your life. Make sure that the advice you get comes from people who also have made the word of God the transforming influence in their lives.

If you do, you’ll find his good, pleasing, and perfect will, and a life as sons and daughters to a Father who loves us more than any other.

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Genesis

Holding back

Genesis

My decision to move to Japan was not an easy one.

I grew up in Hawaii, and went to school there all the way through college. All my family and friends were living there, and quite frankly, I was just plain comfortable living there. I figured I’d stay there the rest of my life.

And then came the call. It didn’t come by lightning. And it didn’t come all at once. But it came.

I still remember the first day I heard the call.

I was talking to my friend one day, and somehow, we got to talking about being missionaries. And I remember telling him, “God is not calling me to be a missionary.”

To which my friend asked, “How do you know? Did you ask him?”

“Well….no….”

Later that night, I was talking to God, and I said, “Oh, my friend was saying I should ask you about being a missionary.”

And while it wasn’t an out loud voice or anything, I got a very distinct answer: “Yeah, ask me.”

I remember my response just as clearly: “But I don’t want to ask you. What if you say yes?”

The next two years of my life were a struggle of God calling me to Japan and me trying to fight it.

The funny thing is, when I got here, I found myself happier here than I ever was living in Hawaii. And I came to realize, “I guess God knows what he’s doing after all.”

That was 15 years ago.

As I read the story of Abraham, I can’t help but wonder if he struggled with the same kind of feelings.

In verse 1, it says, “The LORD had said to Abram, ‘Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you.’”

It doesn’t say that at that point in time, “The Lord said…”

It says, “The LORD had told him” before to leave everything behind to follow him.

How long did it take for Abraham (then called Abram) to leave? We don’t know.

It seems, though, that he convinced his dad (Terah) to move the family in the direction of Canaan only to stop before they arrived there (Genesis 11:31).

Why did they stop? Again we don’t know. Maybe Terah told Abram, “I’m too old to keep moving around like this. Let’s just settle down here.”

But whatever the reason, they established their own little town (Haran, apparently named after Abram’s deceased brother), and stayed there for a number of years, until the day Terah died.

It seems that it was at that time that Abram finally remembered God’s call again, picked up, and left everything behind to follow God.

Why did it take so long for Abram to go? God had given him some pretty amazing promises. Maybe it was for some of the same reasons I had. He was comfortable where he was. He had no desire to leave family and friends behind.

Maybe he had other reasons like loyalty to his father and family obligations. But you have to wonder how many years of God’s blessing he missed out on because he held back and didn’t obey God.

How many times do we miss out on God’s blessing, because we’re too comfortable with where we’re at to follow him? How many times have we held on to what’s good, but missed out on what’s best?

It’s something I still struggle with. I like being comfortable. Stepping out in faith is very uncomfortable. But if there’s one thing that I’ve learned, it’s that God knows what he’s doing. And if I follow him, I will find blessing.

As Jesus said,

“Truly I tell you,” Jesus said to them, “no one who has left home or wife or brothers or sisters or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God will fail to receive many times as much in this age, and in the age to come eternal life.” (Luke 18:29–30)

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Genesis

Something queer is going on here

Genesis

It’s often said that there are only two things certain in life: death and taxes.

But that wasn’t always true. Taxes certainly were not always around. And neither was death.

In the beginning, Adam and Eve were created as eternal beings. People say death is a natural thing. But it wasn’t always so.

As I look at this passage, it’s truly fascinating (to me anyway) how the life span of humans went down after the flood.

It’s also fascinating to see who was alive when others were alive. Noah’s son Shem, if I’m calculating correctly, lived all the way until the time of Jacob. Abraham died before Shem did.

You’ve got to wonder how Shem felt seeing his descendants dying one by one before he did.

He must’ve been wondering, “What’s going on here? Why is everyone dying before I am? Why has life become so short? Something queer is going on here.”

And there certainly was. Somehow, something had happened to people’s genetic structure that greatly shortened their life spans until we have the current lifespans of today.

Nobody likes the idea of death. It’s hard to believe that I’m nearing 40, and could very well be halfway through this life.

I already know of two guys from my high school that have passed away. Neither of them were particularly close friends, but I did know them personally. One died of a heart attack, which is especially stunning to me.

Some people try to console themselves saying it’s just a part of life. That it’s just the nature of things. But if that’s so, then why do we find ourselves rebelling against the thought?

Solomon wrote,

[God] has set eternity in the hearts of men. (Ecclesiastes 3:11)

And it is so true. Try as we might, we can’t help but fight the feeling that there should be something more. That death cannot be the end. And it’s not.

Someone once said that life is like driving a car. Eventually, the car gets old and conks out. But that doesn’t mean you stop living. It just means you start living in a different reality. You’re walking instead of driving.

Well the bodies we are in are just like that car. Eventually, it’s going to get old and conk out. But that doesn’t mean you stop living. It just means you start living in a different reality.

There’s an old song that says, “If I know Jesus, I’ll live forever. If I know Jesus, I’ll never die.”

Well the truth is, it doesn’t matter if you know Jesus or not. You’re never going to die. All of us are eternal beings. The question isn’t if we’ll live forever, but where.

Are we set for eternity when our time comes? The apostle John sets forth the key to the question:

And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. (1 John 5:11–12)

But not only do we need to ask this of ourselves, it’s a question we need to ask about our loved ones as well. Where will they go when their bodies go? And what are we doing to make sure that we’re all going to the same place?

As the apostle Paul wrote in Romans 10:

How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in?

And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard?

And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?

And how can they preach unless they are sent?

As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!” (Romans 10:14–15)

Sooner or later, death comes to us all. Are your family and loved ones ready for it? Are you?

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Genesis

Life without God

Genesis

Yes, I know I skipped a chapter. I suppose it had to happen sometime. I’m sure there will be other chapters in the future that I’ll skip too.

For the most part it won’t mean I didn’t read it, just that I didn’t particularly get anything out of it. Maybe I’ll tackle them the next time around.

At first glance, the story of Babel seems to portray God as a big bully that just knocks down some helpless little kids’ sand castle and chases them all away.

I suppose the biggest reason it seems this way to me is that his motives for doing so are not spelled out. At least it’s not spelled out clearly enough to my liking.

What’s wrong with trying to establish unity?

What’s wrong with trying to accomplish great things?

What’s wrong with trying to make a name for yourself?

At a guess, they were trying to make their culture man-centered, not God-centered.

They said, Come, let US build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that WE may make a name for OURSELVES. (Genesis 11:4, emphasis mine.)

The last time people started to think that way, things got so bad in the culture that God had to wipe them out in the flood.

And here it was, not so many years later, and the same pattern was cropping up again. And so God stopped it before it could begin.

Verse 9 is very interesting, saying the city was named Babel (which sounded like the Hebrew word for “confused”) because the Lord confused the language of the whole world.

It strikes me that confusion is the result of any culture or person that tries to live without God.

People stray from God’s way of dealing with people, and then wonder why they have relationship problems.

People stray from God’s pattern of marriage, and they wonder why their marriages don’t work.

People stray from God’s pattern of raising kids, and they can’t understand why their kids are going berserk.

People stray from God’s ideal for sex, and then wonder why we face the social problems of unwanted babies, abortions, teenage single moms, kids raised without a father, poverty, not to mention numerous broken hearts.

People try to find joy apart from the Joy-giver, and then can’t figure out why what joy they do find never seems to last very long.

Life without God can be spelled very simply: C-O-N-F-U-S-I-O-N. That’s what the people of Babel found. That’s what people find even today.

What’s the solution? Go back to the one who created life. When you do, you not only find a life that works, but you find life itself. For God is life.

Jesus said,

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. (John 10:10)

Would we only believe that.

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Genesis

Saints, but sinners

Genesis

When I was in university, I took a world religions class. When we came to Judaism, one of the things taught was the story of Noah.

And towards the end of the story, my professor noted that in another flood story from another culture, after the flood, the hero went to some island and lived in paradise (or something like that).

“But in the Bible,” he said, “it’s quite different. After the flood, Noah got drunk, and then he died.”

Everyone in the class roared.

Following a question from a student, he then amended the story saying, “Well, he didn’t die right after he got drunk, but…”

Needless to say, my professor wasn’t a Christian, but he did bring up a very important point.

When you look at most of the characters in the Bible that are dealt with at length, no matter how godly they are, you also see them in their doubts, in their weaknesses, and yes, in their sin.

Noah was no exception.

Here was a man that God called blameless in his sight, someone who stood out from the crowd. And yet in this story, he’s lying on the floor drunk and naked.

I take some comfort in that. If I never saw flaws in the godly men the Bible talks about, it could get pretty discouraging, considering how often I have doubts, how many weaknesses I have, and how often I fall into sin.

Yet while God doesn’t hide these things about these men, you don’t generally see God dwell on these things.

Whenever God refers to Noah from that point on, he never brings up that failure again. Instead, he only points out his righteousness.

And that’s how God sees us. It says in Psalm 103,

The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love.

He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever; he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities.

For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. (Psalm 103:8–12)

In another place, God says,

I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more. (Hebrews 8:12)

I titled this post “Saints, but sinners,” but that’s from a purely human point of view.

In God’s eyes, he doesn’t see us as “saints, but sinners,” but only as “saints.”

And when he writes about you in his book, he may make mention of the times you failed or sinned, but that will only be part of the larger story. A story where Jesus redeemed you and washed away all of your sin.

And a story about how because of the blood Jesus shed on the cross, you have become his beloved saint, holy and blameless in his sight, to the praise of his glorious grace. (Ephesians 1:4–14)

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Genesis

A covenant of mercy

Noah's Rainbow
Jan van 't Hoff/Gospelimages.com

Steak for dinner! Well, maybe not. It’s a bit pricey in Japan.

Anyway, it occurs to me that we probably won’t have steaks in heaven. And any barbecues we may have will probably be vegetarian.

At least, that’s what life was like before the flood. It was only after that, that eating meat was permitted by God.

Hmm…think we can have any meat substitutes in heaven? I’m sure some people won’t miss it too much, but I think even the Japanese would miss their sushi and sashimi.

Genesis 9 is a time of firsts. The first steak, for one thing. The first barbecue. I don’t know about you, but I don’t know how people lived without these things.

But it was also the first time fear entered the relationships between humans and animals, and I would guess also between animals and animals. The lion would no longer live with the lamb, and will not until Jesus comes back.

Finally, it also saw the first covenant made between God and man. And it was a one-sided covenant. It was a very rare thing when God made a two-way covenant in the Bible where both sides had to do something to fulfill it.

I think God knew that if he made covenants two-sided, they would quickly be broken, because with us being human, we are weak and sinful, and can’t keep our side of the deal. That’s what happened in his two-sided covenant with Israel.

But the first covenant was one-sided. The humans didn’t have to do anything at all. It was all on God. And he said, “Never again, will I ever send a flood to wipe out all of mankind again.”

It’s probably a good thing this covenant wasn’t two-sided, and dependent on how good humans behaved, because it didn’t take very long before mankind became corrupted again.

And God knew that. He knew we were weak. He knew things would get really bad in a very short period of time. Maybe it was because he knew how corrupt we would become that he made this covenant.

As I’ve mentioned before, God does not take any pleasure in the death of the wicked. He weeps over it.

I think you could say that every drop of rain that destroyed the earth came from the eyes of God. And maybe he didn’t have the heart to do it again no matter how bad things got.

The awesome thing is that the covenant of mercy that God set in place thousands of years ago still holds. And things have gotten pretty bad in this world. Yet the rainbow is a continuing sign of his mercy.

And yet as great as that covenant of mercy is, there is another covenant of mercy that’s even greater.

The covenant God first made with mankind when the flood ended is limited in that it only prevents judgment by water.

But on the final day of judgment, judgment will come to each man and woman. And this time, it won’t be a judgment by water, but a judgment by fire. (2 Peter 3:6–7)

The covenant of mercy God made to Noah will not apply on that day.

But there is another covenant of mercy that God has made that will see us through the judgment of fire. It’s a covenant where through the blood of Jesus, our sins may be forgiven if we’ll just put our trust in him and his work on the cross.

Paul says,

But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. (Titus 3:4–5)

Noah and his family were spared from the flood by the mercy of God. We’ve been spared from being wiped out from this earth by that same mercy.

And on the day of judgment, when we see God face to face, those who have put their trust in Jesus will find mercy on that day.

May you know the mercy of God in your life.

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Genesis

When it’s hard to wait

Noah
Jan van 't Hoff/Gospelimages.com

Several years ago, when I was traveling to Hawaii from Japan, I decided to save a few yen and go through Korea.

Bad choice. As we arrived in Korea, there was a fog, and the plane couldn’t land.

After circling for a while, we landed at the old Korean airport, and there we stayed for at least an hour, perhaps two or three.

And that entire time, I had to stay in my cramped economy class airplane seat, bored to tears.

Finally, we were able to take off and land at the new airport. Needless to say, I vowed never to go through Korea again.

I kind of wonder if that’s how Noah and his family felt in that ark.

We often talk about how it rained for 40 days and nights, but we don’t think very often about how long they actually stayed in the ark. Five months after the flood started, they finally land on dry ground.

Sort of, anyway. They landed on the top of a mountain. So the motion sickness part of their trip was over. But their cabin sickness part didn’t end for another 7 months.

Altogether, Noah and his family were in the ark for a year before God finally said, “Okay Noah, it’s okay to leave the ark.”

I can’t imagine having to do that. I mean it’s bad enough waiting five months on water. But then the boat actually lands on sort of solid ground, and you have to wait another 7 months after that.

Every day, you have to feed a ton of animals and deal with the manure. And that was the fun part of the day. The rest of the time, you’re just twiddling your thumbs waiting for the go-ahead to leave. Talk about going stir crazy.

How many times does God ask us to wait in our lives for his timing? And how do we react to it?

I remember wanting to go to Japan right after I finished college. But for whatever the reasons, the doors kept closing on me. I had to wait a full year before I could finally go.

But in that time, God gave me a job at a computer firm. Literally. I didn’t go searching for the job; it came to me. And God kept me there just long enough for me to know that it wasn’t the life for me.

If I had gone to Japan right away, I probably would’ve wondered what would’ve happened if I had actually done something with my major (management information systems). But by being forced to wait, now I know, and I have no regrets.

I remember waiting for the right woman to come into my life. I figured I’d get married sometime in my mid-twenties and ended up getting married in my mid-thirties instead.

But at the point when I had reached ultimate frustration, once again God provided and placed just the right woman into my life.

For the past several years, I’ve felt like I’m in somewhat of a holding pattern concerning my ministry. And it’s been a bit frustrating.

I still don’t know all that God holds for me. But I’m starting to feel God is moving again, and I know that whatever he has in store for me, it will have been worth the wait.

I wait for the LORD, my whole being waits, and in his word I put my hope. (Psalm 130:5, NIV)

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Genesis

The judgment of God

Genesis

The last few verses of chapter 7 end with a few poignant words.

Every living thing that moved on the earth perished—birds, livestock, wild animals, all the creatures that swarm over the earth, and all mankind.

Everything on dry land that had the breath of life in its nostrils died. Every living thing on the face of the earth was wiped out; men and animals and the creatures that move along the ground and the birds of the air were wiped from the earth.

Only Noah was left, and those with him in the ark. (Genesis 7:21–23)

A lot of people wonder how God could do such a thing. How could God just wipe out all those people and animals?

Throughout the Old Testament, you see God bringing judgment on people, even commanding that entire races of people get wiped out.

Some people say, “I don’t like the God of the Old Testament. He seems so cruel and unmerciful. I like the God of the New Testament much better. He’s much more filled with love and grace.”

But that’s not really true. There are many instances of the love and grace of God in the Old Testament, while there are many instances of the judgment of God in the New Testament as well.

The Bible ends with a revelation of God’s judgment before the heavens and earth are made new again.

Why does God command such things? I think there are two misconceptions that people have about God.

One is that God is only a God of love. And so they say, “How can a God of love do these things?”

But what they don’t understand is that God is a holy God too. He is so pure, he cannot look on evil.

And he is a God of justice. He cannot allow evil to go unpunished forever. Sooner or later, he must bring judgment. Otherwise God can no longer be called a God of justice.

The other misconception people have is that God must take great delight in bringing this kind of judgment. But that’s not true either.

In Ezekiel 18:23, he says,

Do I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked? declares the Sovereign LORD.

Rather, am I not pleased when they turn from their ways and live?

Later in Ezekiel 33:11, he says,

Say to them, ‘As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign LORD, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live.

Turn! Turn from your evil ways! Why will you die, O house of Israel?’

The truth is that while there is the justice of God, there is also the patience of God. That patience sometimes frustrates the very same people who complain about the judgment of God.

They say, “If God is really just, why does he allow evil on this earth now? Why doesn’t he just wipe out all of the evil people on earth?”

I wonder when people ask this if they realize they’re including themselves among those evil people. The Bible says, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

If God were to bring instantaneous judgment on all the evil in the world, there would be no one left on this earth.

But back to the patience of God. Throughout history, you see God’s patience before judgment. You see him waiting and waiting, hoping for repentance, before passing judgment.

He waited 120 years between sending the warning and sending the flood.

He waited four generations of people before sending the Israelites to pass judgment on the land of Canaan (Genesis 15:16).

When the Israelites sinned, he sent prophet after prophet with warnings to turn.

And now, God says this:

First of all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires.

They will say, “Where is this ‘coming’ he promised? Ever since our fathers died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.”

But they deliberately forget that long ago by God’s word the heavens existed and the earth was formed out of water and by water.

By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed.

By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.

But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.

The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness.

He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. (II Peter 3:3–9)

Yes, God is a God of love. But God is a God of justice.

Yes, he is a God of justice. But he is a patient God who wants all to be saved.

Yes, he is a patient God, but his patience won’t last forever.

So remember the words of the Lord Jesus:

As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.

For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away.

That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.

Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left.

Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left.

Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. (Matthew 24:37–42)

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Genesis

Grieving God, pleasing God

Genesis

Verses 5–6 really strike me in this chapter.

The LORD saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.

The LORD was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain. (Genesis 6:5-6)

When we see evil in this world, we often weep or are disturbed, but how often do we think about God’s feelings on the matter?

God weeps too. And his heart gets filled with pain too from seeing all the hurt that comes from a broken, sinful world.

How often do my actions cause God to weep? How often do my actions cause God pain?

I’ve mentioned before that because God is invisible, it’s easy to ignore him at times. And it often becomes convenient to ignore him when I choose to sin. But when I do, God sees, and it fills his heart with pain.

But when God saw Noah, he saw someone that brought a smile to his face. In verse 8, it says that Noah found favor in the eyes of God. At a time when everyone was doing all sorts of evil, God called him blameless.

It would’ve been so easy for Noah to say, “Well, everyone else is doing whatever they want. Why shouldn’t I?” But instead, Noah dared to be different.

Even when God gave him a difficult task that probably didn’t make much sense (building a huge boat in an area where there was no ocean or lake even remotely in sight), he didn’t complain. He didn’t argue.

When his neighbors and perhaps even his relatives ridiculed him, he didn’t waver in his obedience.

Instead, he did everything just as God commanded him.

If only I could be the same. If only my life could bring a smile to the heart of God.

Lord, forgive me for the times when I’ve ignored you and fallen into sin. Forgive me for the times I’ve caused you pain and made you weep.

Lord, let me be like Noah. Let me be different from the people around me. Help me to trust you and obey you in everything, even when it’s difficult. Even when I don’t know the whys.

And let my life bring a smile to your face whenever you see me. In Jesus’ name, amen.

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Genesis

Walking with God

Genesis

Admit it. You usually skip over these sections in the Bible where so and so gave birth to so and so who gave birth to so and so. So do I.

But from time to time you can glean some interesting information.

Methuselah, for example. He was the longest living person who ever lived. When did he die?

Well, if I did my calculations right, he died the year of the flood.

He lived 969 years in total. He had Lamech when he was 187 years old and lived 782 years after that. He actually outlived his son by 5 years.

Lamech had Noah when he was 182, and lived 595 years after that. Noah was 600 years old when the flood came, which means that Lamech died 5 years before the flood, while Methuselah died the year of the flood.

So the question comes, “Did Methuselah die just before the flood or did he die because of the flood?”

Noah’s great grandfather (probably—the word “father” in Hebrew can also mean “ancestor” so it’s not 100% clear what their relationships were) was Enoch.

Enoch and Noah were both known as men who “walked with God.”

It makes you wonder about Methuselah and Lamech. Did they walk with God too? Or were they as corrupt as the rest of the world around them?

When Lamech named Noah (“Noah” means “comfort”), and said, “Noah will bring me comfort in this God-cursed land,” was he complaining against God, or was he thanking God that despite the troubles in the world, God had given him a blessing?

I don’t know.

Lamech never had to make the decision whether to enter the ark or not. But there’s a chance that Methuselah did.

Did Methuselah argue with his crazy grandson about this ark Noah was building? Did he think that Noah was as crazy as the rest of the community did? Was that why Methuselah perished?

Interesting questions. We’ll never know this side of heaven.

But considering that the Bible took the time to say that Enoch and Noah were notable for walking with God, you’d think that the Bible would make note of it if it were true about Lamech and Methuselah too.

But what does it mean that Enoch and Noah walked with God?

I think it’s a relationship with God where you’re constantly aware of his presence.

I’m not saying that you think about him 100% of the time. Obviously, we have to work, or we spend time with friends or family, etc.

But for example, when I’m at home, although I may not be talking with my wife 100% of the time, I’m usually aware of where she is in the house and generally what she’s doing.

And I’m always aware that she’s there to talk to whenever I want to or need to.

Of course, there are also times when she interrupts what I’m doing to talk with me too.

It’s the same with us as we walk with God throughout the day. We may not be praying 100% of the time, but we’re consistently aware of his presence, we’re quick to talk to him as things happen in our day, and we notice the things that he’s doing in the world around us.

I do some of those things. I do pray a lot throughout the day, even if it’s just mundane things like, “Wow Lord! That last English student was really tough to teach.”

I also have more serious conversations like, “Well, Lord, my wife and I got into a fight. Now what do I do?”

But how often am I aware of what God is trying to do around me? And how often am I willing to interrupt my schedule to cooperate with what he’s doing?

Sometimes I’m at work, and I’m trying to read while eating lunch. And someone comes in and starts talking to me.

Sometimes I’ll put the book down and chat, but other times, I’ll just give short answers, and go back to reading.

Did I just miss an opportunity God was giving me?

It’s so easy to kind of read our Bible at home, and pray, and then say, “Okay God. Good talking with ya. See ya later.”

We then give him nary a thought the rest of the day.

But when we do that, we miss a lot of the things he’s trying to do in us, and in the people around us.

I don’t know about you, but I want to be like Enoch and Noah. I want people to see me as someone who “walked with God.”

Lord, help me be more aware of your presence in my life every day. Help me also to see what you’re doing in the world around me.

And help me be willing to interrupt my schedule to join hands with you in what you’re doing. In Jesus’ name, amen.

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Genesis

Hardened hearts

Genesis

It sure didn’t take long after Adam and Eve sinned for hearts to become hardened to God. Cain tried to worship God on his own terms, and God rejected it.

When Cain got angry, God said,

Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted?

But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it. (Genesis 4:6-7)

Yet Cain hardened his heart to God and instead murdered his brother. When God confronted him, he didn’t even try to make an excuse like Adam and Eve did. All he said was, “My punishment is too great!”

One of his descendants Lamech was even worse. He murdered a man who offended him, and he wrote a song celebrating that fact.

He boasted in the song, “This man hurt me so I’m going to kill him (or ‘I killed him’). If Cain was avenged 7 times over for anyone trying to hurt him, I’ll make sure I’m avenged 77 times for someone trying to hurt me.”

How can a heart become so hardened?

The key is found in verses 6-7. We are in a constant battle with sin. Either we will conquer it or it will conquer us. But the more we give in to sin, the harder our hearts get.

Often times, when we’re first tempted to sin, God uses our conscience to warn us, and if we give in to sin, we feel guilty.

But if we don’t repent, our hearts become harder. The next time God warns us, he becomes easier to ignore, and we don’t feel so bad when we sin again. And if we don’t repent, our hearts become even harder.

Soon we get to the point where we can’t hear God’s voice anymore, and so we don’t feel any guilt at all for doing this act that once made us feel so guilty.

How do we avoid this? Keep a soft heart. When your conscience strikes you, don’t ignore it. Listen to it. Repent. Keep your heart open to God and his voice.

There’s an old song by Petra that I love. It says:

Don’t let your heart be hardened
Don’t let your love grow cold
May it always stay so childlike
May it never grow too old

Don’t let your heart be hardened
May you always know the cure
Keep it broken before Jesus
Keep it thankful, meek, and pure

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Genesis

By faith

Genesis

Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living. (Genesis 3:20)

It’s nice to see in this passage that there was reconciliation between Adam and Eve after the fall.

I kind of wonder, however, when Adam actually gave her the name Eve? Did he just call her “woman” all this time?

Still, I love the name he gave her. Eve literally means “Living.”

I get the impression from the passage that Adam gave her that name when God promised to bring a Savior through her seed. And when Adam heard that, he named his wife Eve, saying “Through you comes life.”

Is there a more beautiful name he could’ve given her?

Anyway, I digress. As I read the story of Cain and Abel, the obvious question pops up. Why did God accept Abel’s offering and not Cain’s?

Some people think it’s because it was a sin offering and therefore had to be a blood offering. Others think it’s because Cain didn’t offer his firstfruits.

What we do know for certain is what the author of Hebrews wrote:

By faith Abel brought God a better offering than Cain did. By faith he was commended as righteous, when God spoke well of his offerings.

And by faith Abel still speaks, even though he is dead. Hebrews 11:4 (NIV)

Whatever the exact reason was, it’s clear that Abel offered his sacrifice in faith. Cain did not.

Maybe for Cain, it became just a habit. Maybe he couldn’t see the point of giving his best to God. Maybe he just couldn’t see why the sacrifices had to be a blood offering.

But whatever his reasons, his attitude did not please God.

I have to wonder sometimes how often I make unacceptable offerings to God.

I must admit that sometimes I’ve seen tithes as a kind of a tax. One of those unpleasant things that is very painful to do, but I kind of have to do.

Yet that’s not really giving by faith, is it?

The apostle Paul writes in II Corinthians 9:7,

Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

Too often I’m not giving cheerfully, but reluctantly. I still struggle with that sometimes…actually to be honest, I struggle with it often.

At a time when it’s hard to save any money, it’s easy to look back and count all the money I’ve given to the church.

So the question is, “Why am I giving? Is it because I have to? Or because I want to?”

I sometimes also wonder how often I offer prayers unacceptable to God. Sometimes when I’m praying over the food, I find myself just saying words.

Or when we’re praying in church, I find my mind starting to wander. I can’t say that I’m praying by faith in those situations either.

God forgive me. Help me to never have the attitude of Cain which takes you lightly. Which despises you. Which makes prayer a dead ritual. Which makes giving tithes a tax that’s painful to give.

Instead let me have the heart of Abel, who gave every offering out of a heart of faith and who did everything out of his love for you.

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Genesis

Broken

Genesis

I watched a documentary recently on a couple of basketball players, Vlade Divac and Drazen Petrovic, called “Once Brothers.” If you haven’t seen it, you should watch it on YouTube.

It documents the friendship between these two men and how it was broken during the civil war in Yugoslavia. Divac said in the documentary, “To build a friendship takes years. But to destroy it, it takes one second.”

As I read Genesis 3, it brought those words to mind. We don’t know how many years Adam and Eve spent in the garden of Eden before the fall, but during that time, they had a wonderful relationship of openness, honesty, love, and acceptance with each other and with God.

So many people long for the perfect marriage. That’s exactly what Adam and Eve had. So many people long for a close relationship with God. That’s exactly what Adam and Eve had.

Day after day, Adam and Eve worked in the garden with each other, perhaps went for hikes when their work was done, enjoyed the great food God had provided, and in general just enjoyed each others’ company throughout the day.

And when evening came, and God came into the garden for a visit, they enjoyed sweet fellowship with him too.

I’m sure God enjoyed hearing about their activities and adventures throughout the day. He probably answered a lot of the questions they had as they learned more about the world he had created just for them.

For years, perhaps, they enjoyed building their relationship with each other. But then in an instant, it was gone.

You know the story. Adam and Eve ate the fruit God had forbidden them to eat. As soon as they did, shame and insecurity came into their relationship. They tried to hide their bodies from each other by making clothes from fig leaves.

Gone was the openness that they had previously had in their relationship. Instead questions like, “Can he accept me?” and “Can she really love me?” started to pop up in their minds.

And when God walked into the garden, instead of racing out to meet him, they ran away. They hid.

When God confronted them, the brokenness in the relationship between Adam and Eve and in their relationship with God became even more evident.

“God! It’s not my fault I ate. It was this woman! It’s her fault! I never asked for her! YOU gave her to me!”

How must Eve have felt when she heard those words from Adam’s lips? Condemnation. Rejection.

How must God have felt? “Not only have you rejected me, but you have rejected this precious gift I made especially for you.”

All those years of sweet fellowship…broken in a moment.

And yet…from the moment that fellowship was broken, God started working to restore that fellowship.

He made clothes for them, and in doing so, he showed the way that fellowship would be restored.

Death came into the world for the first time, as God killed an animal and used it to make clothes to cover their shame. And in the same way, thousands of years later, God would send his Son, and through his death on the cross, our sin and shame would be covered for all time.

Our relationships are a struggle now. We struggle with each other. I’d be lying if I said my marriage is perfect. There are times my wife and I fight. There are times we let each other down.

I struggle in my relationship with God. I really wish I could be closer to him, as Adam and Eve once were. I wish I could hear his voice more clearly. I wish I could enjoy sweet fellowship with him every day. But I don’t.

And yet, the way to restoration has already been established in Christ. Pursue it.

It’s easy to throw relationships away. Don’t do it. Pursue your relationship with God and with each other.

It takes effort, and it takes humility.

But by God’s grace and power, that which is broken can be restored.

God did it with Adam and Eve.

He can do it with you.

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Genesis

No shame

When I look at this passage, I’m struck by the goodness of God. How as he created man, he took such care to provide for him.

He plants a garden with trees that he made sure were good for food and not only that, but pleasing to the eye as well. He also gives him pleasant work to do within the garden.

Then, perhaps even before the man realized his own need, God realized that the man needed a companion, one who would be “just right” (NLT) for him. So God created Eve.

And the reaction by Adam is instantaneous. “WOW! This is what I’ve been looking for. This is the one for me!”

And the Bible says that both were naked, but not ashamed. (Genesis 2:25)

That’s what marriage should be. Complete nakedness. I’m not just talking about sex. But nakedness of the soul. And complete acceptance. Knowing each part of the other person, and accepting them, and even celebrating who they are.

How many marriages fail because they lack this. All of us long to know and to be known. And be accepted.

The ability to laugh. To play. To share. To be intimate. How much has the thief of John 10:10 taken away from what marriage is? And all because we refuse to bare our souls completely to each other because we’re too afraid of rejection.

Maybe we’ve already suffered the scars of rejection and that prevents us from trying again.

But as we turn to the Author of Life, as we learn about his unconditional acceptance of us and find his healing.

And as we learn how to accept the people around us as he does, he is able to breathe new life into our dead marriages and relationships and make them as they were in the beginning: naked, but not ashamed.

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Genesis

So God created man in his own image

God's image and homeless man

I’ve read these words a thousand times, so it’s easy to just read right past them without thinking about it.

But apparently, they’re words that God thought were so important, he took the time to have it written twice in the same verse.

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. (Genesis 1:27)

In other words, when God created the human race, he created reflections of himself.

Every time we show kindness to another, we reflect God’s image.

Whenever we show mercy and grace to another, we reflect God’s image.

Everything that is good within us reflects the image of God.

So whenever we look at another person, we should see them as images of the God who created us.

I have to admit, though, that sometimes it’s hard to see, because unlike Adam and Eve in the beginning, we are all distorted reflections of God. The brokenness that comes from sin has marred that image.

Sometimes when I’m walking in the underground mall in Umeda, I smell a horrible smell, and when I look up I see a homeless person that apparently hasn’t taken a bath in weeks. It’s hard for me to see God’s image in him.

Or sometimes when I’ve taught elementary or high school students that are disrespectful and stir up a lot of trouble, it’s hard for me to see God’s image in them.

And because of that, it’s easy in my heart to devalue them. To despise them. To see them as of little worth.

And yet, God sees these very same people and says, “They were created in my image, distorted though that image might be. What right do you have to look down on them? What right do you have to despise what I have created? I valued them so much that I sent my Son to die for them.”

And it’s not like the image of God in me is not distorted either. By judging these people and despising them, I can see that the image of God in me is clearly marred as well.

When I look at my life and all the sin that’s there, I have to wonder how people see me? How distorted is the image of God I reflect when people look at me? Honestly, I’d rather not know.

Yet God doesn’t give up on me. He keeps on working in me to renew me and make me more like himself. As it says in II Corinthians 3:18,

And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

And if God doesn’t give up on me, who am I to give up on others as lost causes? Who am I to despise others?

For by the mercy that I myself have received, others may be transformed back into the likeness of the God that created them too.

So the question for me is, “How much will I reflect God’s image to those around me whose images have been marred by sin? Will I show them the same mercy that I have received?”

Lord, all I want for others to see
is a reflection of you inside of me.

Like the sun on the still water,
let me be a mirror of your heart.

I want to walk in the image of you,
like a child imitating what his Father would do.

A mirror of your heart. — Chris Christian

Categories
Genesis

The power and wisdom of God

Genesis

As I read Genesis 1, God’s power and wisdom really strike me. With a word, God created. “Let there be light,” and bang! There is light. “Let there be plants and animals,” and bang! They appear.

I kind of wonder how God revealed all of this to Moses. Did he just say, “Okay, Moses, on the first day, I created light. Then on the second day…”

Or did he give Moses a time lapse vision of the whole thing. That would’ve been awesome to see.

If God did give a vision to Moses of the creation events, it might give credence to the theory that the earth is very old. Moses saw everything happening in a very short time, but actually, it took millions of years.

I know, I know. There are some of you out there that are ready to shoot me now for even suggesting this.

But considering that neither you or I were actually there, we’re just going to have to wait until heaven to find out.

Honestly, I don’t know if creation was done in 7 literal days or not. All I’m saying is that IF…IF God gave Moses a time lapse vision of the whole thing, it COULD give credence to the 7 “time period” interpretation of Genesis 1.

Speaking of how God revealed all this to Moses, I wonder how God would have explained all this if he had been talking to modern day scientists?

I wonder if God did explain it all to the scientists, could they grasp it all even now?

We’d like to think we’re so advanced. We’d like to think that if God explained it all we could grasp it.

We certainly understand more about our world and our universe than Moses did. But if God explained it all, could we really grasp it? Maybe. Maybe not.

I think scientists will have a fascinating time talking with God about all this when they get to heaven.

“Oh! Is that how it worked? We were close to the answer, but we were a bit off.” Or “Wow! We were way off on that one!”

So what’s my point? Stand in awe of God’s power and wisdom.

Sometimes we look at this world and we question God. We look at the evil that is in this world and we question why? Why does God allow earthquakes? Why does God allow murder?

In my case, I sometimes ask, “Why do I have to have diabetes? Why do I have to have ulcers?” (I have to have a checkup for both next week. Ugh!)

Some answers are simple. “Bruce, you have diabetes because you drank too much Pepsi!” Other questions, though, are much more difficult. And we struggle with them.

But if we can’t grasp the scientific questions, how can we hope to grasp the philosophical questions of life?

God’s wisdom is so much greater than ours.

There are simply some things that we’ll never understand while we’re on this earth.

There are simply some answers God will never give us because we won’t be able to grasp them even if he does give them to us.

What he does ask us to do is to trust him.

Even if we don’t understand.

Even if we never get the answers this side of heaven.

Just trust him.

Trust that he knows what he’s doing. Trust that he’s good. And even more, trust that he still does love you and that he still does care for you despite your circumstances.

That’s the lesson of Job. God never did give Job any answers to his questions of why he suffered so much.

All he said was, “You’re not qualified to judge me and what I do. You have neither my power nor my wisdom.”

And Job fell to his knees and said:

I know that you can do all things; no purpose of yours can be thwarted.

You asked, “Who is this that obscures my plans without knowledge?”

Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know.

You said, “Listen now, and I will speak; I will question you, and you shall answer me.”

My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you. Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes. (Job 42:2–6)

And as Job humbled himself before God, as he put his trust in God despite the circumstances, God worked to turn his situation completely around.

So whatever our situations, whatever our questions, whatever our struggles, let us stand in awe of the God who knows more than we can grasp.

More, let us trust that he does know best and has the power to transform our worst problems into something glorious.

As the apostle Paul wrote:

Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out!

“Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?”

“Who has ever given to God, that God should repay him?”

For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen. (Romans 11:33–36)

Categories
Genesis

In the beginning, God…

Hmm…I think I said earlier that this wouldn’t be a verse-by-verse commentary. Yet here I am, and I can’t get past the first four words. But I have to say that those words brought me to a complete stop as soon as I read them.

In the beginning, God… (Genesis 1:1)

Why do these words stop me short? I think they’re a reminder to me that everything starts with God. If we want to find meaning in life, it all starts with God. If we want to find true satisfaction in life, it all starts with God.

Yet so many people’s starting point is not in him, but in themselves. They’re always thinking about “How do I make my life work?” “How can I be happy?”

And they bounce from one thing to another, trying to find something that brings satisfaction, but they can never find it because their focus was wrong from the very beginning.

As one writer has put it, “It (your life) is not about you.” You are not the center of the storybook. You are not the lead character. But as long as we think that way, all we’ll find is what King Solomon found in the book of Ecclesiastes: meaninglessness.

Meaningless! Meaningless…Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless. (Ecclesiastes 1:2)

Why? Because the starting point of everything is God. God is Life. And if from the start, you walk away from the one who is Life, your life becomes an empty shell. Utterly meaningless.

I have to think, though, is God the beginning with me? As I live my life every day, does my day start and end with God? For that matter, is he a part of everything in my life? Or do I kind of leave him out of parts of my life.

It’s so easy to do, I must admit. I suppose it’s one of the problems when dealing with an invisible God. He can be so easy to ignore.

Far too often, I’ve found that things like sports, or books, or the internet have come to dominate my day.

But as Solomon pointed out, even if we spend our time on good things, learning things, working, or just enjoying the life God’s given us, they all become empty if we leave God out of them. These are the gifts God has given us.

Yet the gifts are temporary. The Giver is eternal. That’s why the gifts can never satisfy for very long. The gifts God gives us on this earth should never be the focus of our lives. Our focus should be on the Giver of the gifts.

And if we put our focus on the Giver of the gifts, then we’ll find meaning in everything we do. We’ll find something that truly satisfies. Because he is forever.