Genesis 21:8-23:20, 11:32, 24:1-67 Abraham was willing to sacrifice that which he treasured more than anything else to obey God. He put God’s commands above his own wishes by being willing to sacrifice his son if that is what God demanded of him. It is not hard to imagine the quiet, depressing walk as Abraham and Isaac walked up the mountain to the place of sacrifice. Yet at the final moment, God ...  Read More

Genesis 18:1-21:7 God shows his desire to enter a relationship with his creation in innumerable ways in the Bible. We have seen God enter covenants to express his desire for relationship, and in today’s reading we see God's willingness to enter into conversation with us. When God announced that judgment would fall upon Sodom and Gomorrah, Abraham seeks to intervene by entering a dialogue with God....  Read More

Genesis 15:1-17:27 The main story of the Bible is God seeking a relationship with his wayward creation. One of the primary ways he does this is through a series of covenants. A biblical covenant is a contract or agreement entered by God for the blessing of humanity, and especially those who trust in him. One of these covenants is the Abrahamic Covenant; a promise from God that land, seed, and bles...  Read More

Genesis 11:1-26; 1 Chronicles 1:24-27; Genesis 11:27-31, 12:1-14:24 God's plan seems to be consistently thwarted throughout the Bible. God choose to work through Adam and Eve and they rebelled. God worked through Noah and his lineage, but their righteousness was short-lived. Today we see God choose to work through Abram who would become the father of a great nation. He promised an old childless ma...  Read More

Genesis 7:1-10:5; 1 Chronicles 1:5-7; Genesis 10:6-20; 1 Chronicles 1:8-16; Genesis 10:21-30; 1 Chronicles 1:17-23; Genesis 10:31-32 We should ask these critical questions as we read: 1) What did my reading teach me about God? 2) What did my reading teach me about myself/humanity? Today we discover the grace and justice of God. His justice is seen in sending a flood to destroy/cleanse a sinful wor...  Read More

Genesis 4:1-5:32; 1 Chronicles 1:1-4; Genesis 6:1-22 It is not hard to imagine the hopeful expectation that Adam and Eve must have had at the birth of their first son. Would Cain be the one to crush the head of the serpent and be their savior? He not only failed to crush Satan's head but would actually crush his brother's head in an act of murder. By the time of Noah, God saw "how great the wicked...  Read More

Genesis 1:1-3:24 The first two chapters of Genesis are like the beginning of a traditional roller coaster ride. These chapters take you up, up, up to see the grand, beautiful world God has made. You see God's hand creating a very good world. Yet like the rest of a roller coaster, chapter 3 takes us down a steep drop. We find ourselves plummeting toward disaster as Adam and Eve rebel against God. S...  Read More

Malachi 3:1-4:6; Revelation 22:1-21; Psalm 150:1-6; Proverbs 31:25-31 What are you looking forward to next year? Are there things you are anticipating and eagerly expecting to happen? Do you have certain dates circled on your calendar and are counting down the days until they happen? Both the Old and New Testaments end with a call for people to look to the future and live with anticipation for wha...  Read More

Malachi 1:1-2:17; Revelation 21:1-27; Psalm 149:1-9; Proverbs 31:10-24 Do you ever find yourself asking questions of God? Why did you allow this to happen? Why did you not act in a particular situation? We all have questions of God and some of them will not be answered until eternity, but we can always ask God anything.The people in Malachi’s day had lost sight of God’s love and so even when God t...  Read More

Zechariah 14:1-21; Revelation 20:1-15; Psalm 148:1-14; Proverbs 31:8-9 The Bible ultimately tells one story. 66 books that all tell the same tale. They speak of a loving God who wants to dwell with and rule over his people. This is our hope and this is the future of God’s people to live with God forever.Zechariah points us to this reality when he speaks of the day when “The Lord will be king over ...  Read More

Zechariah 12:1-13:9; Revelation 19:1-21; Psalm 147:1-20; Proverbs 31:1-7 Our culture talks a lot about purity, but it is mostly relegated to food and the environment. We have long ago discarded the ideas of moral purity and instead talk about whether a food is organic, whole, or pure, or has lots of ingredients and chemicals added to it. Yet God is not concerned about the foods we eat but about wh...  Read More

Zechariah 10:1-11:17; Revelation 18:1-24; Psalm 146:1-10; Proverbs 30:33 Where do all the blessings in your life come from? Can you take the credit for where you are or is someone else to be acknowledged? Are you to give ultimate thanks to things of this world or God?Revelation 18 pictures the destruction of Babylon, the city pictured as a woman in Revelation 17. The nations of the world are sadde...  Read More