THE BIBLE IS PRIMARILY A BOOK ABOUT GOD At the new well that Abraham dug, at “Beersheba,” which means “Well of Seven,” he planted a Tamarisk tree and called on the LORD, the “Eternal God.” Two of the names of God revealed in the Bible are found in this verse. They are translated here as
KNOCKING ON HEAVEN’S DOOR Jesus used one verb and three participles to teach persistence in prayer. His verb was “keep on.” This gives the idea of persistent and ongoing prayer. Yet, it has a stopping point with a promise. We are to “keep on” until we receive, find, or have opened that which is the
TIME FOR A HEART CHECKUP So, how can we get a heart checkup? Jesus taught that one way to get a spiritual heart check-up is to consider what you treasure most. Because wherever your treasure is, that’s where your heart is. So, the question becomes not “where is my heart?” But “where is my treasure?”
CHASING AWAY DISTRACTIONS Abram had prepared the sacrifice as the Lord had commanded. Yet, as he waited on the Lord, vultures swooped down to eat it. Abram chased them away. He would not let them steal his offering, nor distract him from waiting on the Lord. He was focused on hearing from God. When
RETURN TO THE ALTAR After God rescued Abram from Pharaoh, having gone down to Egypt because of the famine, he returned to the old altar he had built near Bethel and Ai. There he once again called on the name of the Lord. Abram had a habit of going “down to Egypt” whenever famine
FACING A NEW YEAR How long did Noah, his family, and the animals live on the ark? Ten and a half months, plus two more months waiting for the earth to dry. They spent a little over a year, cooped up together on a boat with one window! That must have been some year. Everything
HAVE YOU ENTERED GOD’S ARK? There is much about the book of Genesis (From the Greek translation meaning “beginnings”) that troubles the modern mind. In today’s reading we encounter the incredible longevity of man (Methuselah lived to 969 years), the building of an ark to save Noah and his family, and a remnant of the
DO YOU QUESTION GOD’S WORD? The first temptation by the serpent was to question God’s Word. Not to understand it, but to challenge its veracity. Notice Satan’s use of the word, “really.” He did not ask, “Did God say?” He asked did God “reeeally” say. By inserting this one little word he planted a seed
NEW YEAR, NEW BEGINNINGS NEW YEAR, NEW BEGINNINGS It’s a new year and it can be a new “beginning” for us too. For the God that “created the heavens and the earth” is the same God today as He was yesterday. Just as He created all things in the beginning, so He can make us
THE BOOK OF REVELATION IS FOR THE CHURCH As John reported the occasion and purpose of his writing in Revelation 1, so now at its conclusion, he reminds us again. Jesus appeared to him and sent an angel to show to him the “things which must shortly come to pass” (Rev. 1:1). And John was