Who is remembering?

Genesis 30:22-24 Then God remembered Rachel, and God listened to her and opened her womb. She conceived and bore a son and said, “God has taken away my reproach.” And she called his name Joseph, saying, “May the Lord add to me another son!” In this chapter we have the ongoing soap opera of Jacob's wives and their maidservants who bore him children. In their envy and competition Rachel finally has son, and then she names him "May The Lord give me another one! We are never satisfied. Despite this, the LORD remembers us. He keeps His promises. He wants to bless us. May we stop our striving and stand back and allow Him to do things His way in His time; may we remember that He is good and He is God

How awesome is the presence of The Lord!

Genesis 28:15-17 Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land. For I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.” Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.” And he was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.” There is something wonderful when you realize God has revealed Himself and His truth to you. May we each experience His voice and His presence as we worship Him today!

Like father, like son...

Genesis 26:1-7 Now there was a famine in the land, besides the former famine that was in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went to Gerar to Abimelech king of the Philistines. And the Lord appeared to him and said, “Do not go down to Egypt; dwell in the land of which I shall tell you. Sojourn in this land, and I will be with you and will bless you, for to you and to your offspring I will give all these lands, and I will establish the oath that I swore to Abraham your father. On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from afar. I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and will give to your offspring all these lands. And in your offspring all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.” So Isaac settled in Gerar. When the men of the place asked him about his wife, he said, “She is my sister,” for he feared to say, “My wife,” thinking, “lest the men of the place should kill me because of Rebekah,” because she was attractive in appearance. Isaac seems in many ways like his father Abraham - good and bad alike. He listened when God spoke to Him and went where he was told. But he also had the same fears and failures. As I look at my sons, I see how they all do many things I have done or wanted to do so much better than I ever could. But on rare occasion I see them struggle with some of the same things I did, and I know - they are truly my sons; they learned that from me. May we never deny the influence we have on our children, for bad, or for good.

The One Who Sees keeps Showing up...

So she called the name of the LORD who spoke to her, “You are a God of seeing,” for she said, “Truly here I have seen him who looks after me.” (Genesis 16:13 ESV) Hagar has been shut out and sent out by Sarah, because she is having Abraham's child. She is all alone - except that the Angel of the Lord comes to her. He is the God Who sees, and cares. And it is not just to Hagar, but Abraham and Sarah as well. In the next chapter He will come and visit them, and hear Sarah's laughter when she does not believe His message that she will also bear a son. God sees, and hears, and He keeps showing up in our journey. Do we see Him?

The Journey: Learning that the Lord is enough...

After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision: “Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.” But Abram said, “O Lord GOD, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” And Abram said, “Behold, you have given me no offspring, and a member of my household will be my heir.” And behold, the word of the LORD came to him: “This man shall not be your heir; your very own son shall be your heir.” And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” And he believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness. (Genesis 15:1-6 ESV) This is not the first time God had spoken to Abram. There had already been the detour of disobedience in Egypt. God is trying to make a point. His is our shield. He will defend us. We don't need to go through life thinking if we don't watch out for ourselves no one else will. He will. We need to learn to trust in Him more than we do ourselves. He will keep His Word.

Sent packin'...

Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. (Genesis 12:1,20 ESV) It doesn't take long in Genesis to realize there is quite a journey going on. After the fall, Adam and Eve are sent packing. After killing Abel, Cain is sent packing. As things devolve, Noah is sent on a voyage. As mankind continues to worsen, the peoples are sent out over the earth. And then we come to Abram. He is sent packing toward a promised land, and when he gets sidetracked in Egypt and cowers in fear, he is sent packing again, this time by Pharaoh. It seems that all men do is get sent packing by God or by others, searching on a journey. What is boils down to is which path are we going to choose? Our own? That of others? Or God's

The first softball game: God Hits a Grandslam and more...

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day. (Genesis 1:1-5 ESV) There's an old joke about Genesis 1:1 being the first baseball game in the Bible ("In the Big-Inning...") Baseball games usually have 9 innings, but softball and youth games often have seven, so I'll choose to call it that. The opponent here is the darkness. God's performance in each inning is more than impressive, and then the bottom of the inning comes, all there is is evening - to sit back and gaze on God's performance. What a place to begin - God creating all that is, for His good pleasure, and sharing it with us.