As We Forgive Those Who Trespass Against Us

“And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations” Luke 24:47 NKJV

Joseph’s brothers had been glad to get rid of him, the troublesome dreamer. He had declared to them his superiority and they thought they had proven him wrong. But he wasn’t just a dreamer; he was a prophet. Moreover, however much they may have believed it to be true; they were not done with him either. Their evil had produced salvation for the whole world, including themselves. But it was going to take a while to bring it about for those ten spiteful brothers.

When they met Joseph they did not recognize him, just as the Jews did not recognize their Messiah. They were not honest with Joseph either. They tried to play down their wickedness and prove their own self worth to be saved by him. It didn’t work. Finally they had to fall on their faces and admit their unworthiness to be saved. They had to repent and then he revealed himself to them and gave them both bread and hope and a new home. Jesus wants us to come to Him for salvation without the pretext of our own worthiness. We are not worthy. He wants us to repent and take the new way, His way, for our eternal salvation. Then He will give us hope and a new home.

Dear Father, Thank You for offering us salvation through Jesus Christ. Help us to always understand that we are not worthy of salvation and that only Jesus can make us that way. Amen.

  The Friday Benediction

Until Monday, my friends, may the good God envelop you with His grace; may you prove the common confession of faith, “I believe in the holy Christian church and in the fellowship of the saints”, and may you be enriched with joy and hope as you exercise that confession this weekend.  Amen

  

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The Well Laid Plans of God

“The Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.” I John 4:14 KJV

After Joseph had spent years in slavery or in jail, he was finally exalted to the position as second only to Pharaoh in Egypt. In that office he was given a new name which loosely translated means “savior of the world”. That is quite a title. Then Pharaoh took an Egyptian girl, a Gentile, and gave her to Joseph as his wife. He was going to save Egyptians and all the people from the entire world who came to buy bread in Egypt. He would provide the bread of life for the whole world. He didn’t just save the Israelites; he saved all who came to him.  

What a picture we have of Jesus Christ. He was crucified, dead, buried and raised again from the dead and then declared by the apostles to be the Savior of the world. The message was taken to Jews and Gentiles alike. Jesus even took a Gentile bride (spiritually speaking) to bring all mankind into one community of faith in Him. All could come; anyone who would could come and be saved. He offered Himself as the Bread of Life to feed the multitudes of mankind. Joseph turned no one away who came to him for bread. Neither will our precious Savior. Thanks be to God for such a Redeemer as ours. 

Dear Father, Thank You for sending us the Savior of the world. Amen.

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Not the Plans We Would Make

“In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” John 16:33 NKJV

Suppose you are obeying God and someone who hates you upsets your whole life. They take your home, your job and your sense of earthly security. When you settle in a new place this happens again. You are obeying God and a hateful person upsets your whole life again and you find yourself in jail. Do you begin to wonder if God cares for you, or if God is even real? We do this because we expect God to keep us in pleasant pastures if we are good little boys and girls. But Jesus said, “In this world you will have tribulation.” We have no further to look for an example of this than Joseph.

Ambushed by his brothers he was thrown into a pit, sold as a slave and declared to his father to be dead. He rose from this humiliation and defeat to become the chief servant of a powerful man. Then the man’s wife spun a web of lies about him and he ended up in jail. He could have acted like many modern “so called” Christians and thrown in the towel on God. Instead he went on believing and obeying. Then one day he became master of the powerful man who had thrown him in jail and master of his conniving brothers. We may not receive the same accolades. We may have to wait until heaven to be repaid, but we will be repaid. When tribulation hits, don’t despair. Christ has overcome the world and those who live in Him have done the same. Rejoice and press on for the high mark of the calling of God in Christ Jesus.

Dear Father, You have called us to the opposite of what men crave. Help us to keep our eyes fixed on You and the certain victory that will be ours in Christ. Amen.

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Be Sure Your Sins Will Find You Out

“Be sure your sin will find you out.” Numbers 32:23 KJV

Most people would like to think that those sins we have committed in the past are in the past to stay. Yet we read quite often in the paper about someone who escaped justice twenty years ago who is now found living a respectable life believing the consequences of their sin is behind them. Still the consequences catch up and the illusion that our past doesn’t matter is shattered. While the confessed sin is forgiven with God, the human authorities might take a different opinion.

In Genesis 38 Judah is found in just such a position. First he married a Canaanite woman which was contrary to the will of God. By her he had three sons and for the first he arranged a Canaanite marriage. The first son died childless and so she was given to the second son who sinned and was slain by God. In fear for his third son’s life Judah withholds him from marriage to the same woman which was contrary to law and custom. In the meantime Judah goes to visit a harlot who conceives by him. It is revealed that the harlot is really his son’s wife who was seeking her legal security. When Judah finds that she is pregnant he calls for her to be executed for playing the harlot. How is she saved? She has the token Judah gave her in payment for her services. He is exposed. His sin has found him out. It is a picture for us that with God nothing is hidden. If we don’t deal with our sins before God in this life, be sure our sins will find us out.

Dear Father, Thank You for the cross of Christ where our sins can be forgiven and forgotten by You forever. Help me to walk honestly with You regarding the sins of my daily life that I may have continued close fellowship with You. Amen.

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A Dysfunctional Family

“But his brothers hated him and could not speak peaceably to him.” Genesis 37:4 NKJV

Somehow the Christian community has become obsessed with the idea of dysfunctional homes. It would seem from Christian literature that such an institution would be the result of great failure on the part of parents who have failed to parent or children who are too rebellious to be parented. It is an unfortunate guilt trip that should be examined just a little more closely. What we actually find throughout Scripture, when home life is being discussed, is the very picture of the so called modern dysfunctional family.

Granted, our family discussed in Genesis 37 wasn’t marked by much godliness and yet they were God’s people, called by God’s promises and from whom great prophecies would be fulfilled. Jacob, the usurper, who God renamed Israel, Prince with God, was not the prime example of Christian marital partner or parent. His wives squabbled and his children hated each other. King David, the man after God’s own heart, had multiple problems with his offspring. King Hezekiah, one of the truly good kings of Judah, had a son who turned out to be the butcher of Jerusalem. Mary and Joseph had four sons after the birth of Jesus who tormented Him to no end. I am not endorsing sin as the proper choice for the Christian home. I am encouraging you to know that God cares for your home and that when it goes awry, as sinful people will do, God still cares for your home and wants the best for you and yours. Be thankful today that if you don’t meet the standards of some author’s concept of the perfect Christian home, you are still God’s child and He will still lead you on and can bring great success where today there seems to only be great turmoil.

Dear Father, Thank You for Your constant love and the hope that You can make eternal order out of our daily chaos. Amen.

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The Fate of All

“And when Bela died, Jobab the son of Zerah of Bozra reigned in his place.” Genesis 36:33 NKJV

This is probably not the most commonly memorized verse in Scripture, but maybe it should become one of them. It contains both an absolute certainty and a very great probability. First, Bela died. The Bible says that “it is appointed on to man once to die.” In Genesis 36 we find that death hits in about every other verse starting in verse 33 to verse 43. Everyone dies. That is a certainty. For all the plans that we make, we are not permanent. For the plans we even make for tomorrow we can have no certainty of fulfilling. Jesus said of the rich man, “thou fool, tonight thy soul will be required of thee.” Death is certain, our plans are not. So, we must know the second half of the verse about death, “it is appointed on to man once to die and after that the judgment.” That is certain.

The probability in this verse is that what we have planned for our children’s children may very well not come to pass. Notice that Bela’s son did not reign after him. Another man did and after him another man from another place and family reigned after him. What we store up on this earth has no guarantee that it will go to the ones we hoped it would. The house we built will be occupied by another. The business we built will be ruined by another. The money we saved will be squandered by another. Therefore Jesus says, “Lay up for yourselves treasure in heaven where the thief does not break in to steal nor the moth nor the rust will destroy.” The living we do in this life needs to be more eternally directed than we usually make it. It is a lesson from Genesis that we should learn well and apply faithfully.

Dear Father, You have given me today to know you and prepare for eternity with my soul and my goods. Help me to faithfully do so with both. Amen.

  The Friday Benediction

Until Monday, my friends, may the good God envelop you with His grace; may you prove the common confession of faith, “I believe in the holy Christian church and in the fellowship of the saints”, and may you be enriched with joy and hope as you exercise that confession this weekend.  Amen

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God's Restoration Plan

“And {if you} shall return unto the LORD thy God, and shall obey his voice according to all that I command thee this day . . .  that then the LORD thy God will have compassion upon thee.” Deut 30:2-3 KJV

What do I consider to be one of the greatest promises of Scripture – repentance and forgiveness? John wrote, “If we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” In Genesis, right after the slaughter of the Shechemites, God tells Jacob to return to Bethel and dwell there. Bethel was the spot where God had openly revealed Himself to Jacob some twenty-five years earlier as he fled from Esau. Now, after all the wandering and sin, highlighted by the recent sin as Shechem, God said to Jacob, “Return to Bethel.”

What does this mean? It means that there is plenteous mercy and forgiveness with the Lord. God is always calling His people to return to the place of rest in God. He is calling them to put away the idols of this world, to come in repentance and be restored by the grace of our caring God. Some churches have a part of the service where the pastor declares the absolution of God for the confessed sins of the people. The pastor is telling the people clearly what God has done for them – forgiven them. What greater words can we hear than that we have been forgiven? This is the call of God to Jacob, “Arise, and go to Bethel. There I will meet with you and accept you and let you know that I am your God and that you are My child.” Arise today, friends, and go to Bethel and feel the warm cleansing from the blood of our blessed Savior.

Dear Father, Thank You that we are invited to come to You for cleansing for our sins and not just to hear the anger of Your righteous judgment. Amen.

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God Will Take Care of It

“Avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.” Romans 12:19 KJV

When Jesus told His followers to turn the other cheek, what do you suppose He meant? Too often today we don’t even quote that verse. The church militant has begun to think in terms of human instead of divine action. Is our militancy supposed to be against flesh and blood or against principalities and powers of this earthly darkness? If someone who lives under the forces of darkness were to insult my wife, am I supposed to punch him in the nose? Is that militant Christianity? If someone butchers babies in a clinic am I supposed to bomb that clinic or stalk that doctor and kill them? Is that militant Christianity?

This is not a random question. In Genesis 34 we find that Israel’s daughter, Dinah, has been raped by the prince of Shechem. Dinah was the seventh child of Leah and was probably only ten to twelve years old at this time. Her brothers, Simeon and Levi, conspired to get even, or take vengeance, on the people of Shechem and ultimately killed all the males in the city. Forty years later when Jacob is prophesying about the future of his children he had this to say about Simeon and Levi, “They are instruments of cruelty and my soul shall not enter their council nor my honor be united with them.” Since he was a prophet his words were uttered by the Holy Spirit and not just his own views. God was not happy that Dinah’s brothers took vengeance. God has called us to a walk that is hard to follow when our emotions get involved. But even then He is God and wants us to obey Him and glorify Him. That is the true church militant.

Dear Father, Help me remember You when I most want to react as me. Amen.

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Wrestling With God

“Then Jacob was left alone; and a Man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day.” Genesis 32:24

Have you ever or are you now facing a profound crisis? First, be not ashamed at having a profound crisis as if God has abandoned you. Jesus said, “In this world you shall have tribulation.” It is common to all men and not one from which Christians are immune. All who preach that believers are supposed to be successful and prosperous are preaching a false doctrine. But now that you are in crisis, what do you do? This was Jacob’s problem. He had stolen his brother’s blessing and his brother has sworn revenge. Now his brother was coming to meet him and he had an army of 400 men with him. That was a crisis.

After sending everyone else away Jacob stayed alone by the brook Jabok. There he was met by a Man. They wrestled all night. That is a long time to be engaged in mortal combat. All night was not a “Now I lay me down to sleep prayer”. All night was the “effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man.” Does a crisis bring us to effectual fervent prayer or to ineffectual belly-aching? Does it bring us to seek God’s blessing or convince us that God doesn’t care? When morning came the Man said to Jacob, “Your name shall be called Israel, for you have struggled with God and prevailed.” With that the Man blessed him and sent him on his way. Beloved, do we wrestle with God or complain to God? Do we believe He will hear an effectual fervent prayer, or do we doubt His care? Jacob wrestled and was blessed.

Dear Father, You have given us such great promises through prayer that we often ignore. Please renew our prayer life that we might find ourselves greatly renewed in You. Amen.

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Christ's Promises are Certain

“Yet your father has deceived me and changed my wages ten times, but God did not allow him to hurt me.” Genesis 31:7

The setting for this verse is important. Jacob had cheated his brother from his birthright and had stolen his brother’s blessing. As a consequence he had been exiled from the presence of Isaac, from whom the promises of God would descend, and cast into a pagan land and married pagan wives from a pagan family. He was a lousy husband. There is not much to commend Jacob to anyone. What he does have in his favor is that he is a child of God’s promise. From an earthly perspective his abundant sins would seem to exclude him from God’s care.  But God never forgot Jacob.

Way back in Genesis 28, which is twenty years before Genesis 31, God had said to Jacob, “The land on which you lie I will give to you and your descendants.” At that point Jacob made a vow to God. From that occasion until Genesis 31 we never hear the name of God from Jacob’s lips. What Jacob forgot, however, God remembered. Notice that God did not pad Jacob’s life with joy and happiness for those twenty years, but He did protect him. More than that, God fulfilled the promise He had made to Jacob twenty years before. As it says in II Corinthians 2, “All the promises of God in Him are yea and amen.” “Him” in this verse is Jesus Christ who was the promised descendant of Jacob. In Christ all the promises of God to us are certain.

Dear Father, Help us not to forget You as Jacob did, but to also always remember that all Your promises are sure in Jesus Christ. Amen.

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There are more wages to sin than death.

“The wages of sin . . .” Romans 6:23 KJV

We all know the rest of our lead verse today, “The wages of sin is death.” But there are other wages of sin long before death. Genesis teaches us about consequences for the actions of our life and the decisions we make. Adam and Eve decided to disobey God. They didn’t die physically at that point, but they did die spiritually. The process of physical death began and that contains all the maladies of life that accompany aging. They also were expelled from their home and forced to live a hard life of hard work and great frustration. That mankind is a slow learner is seen in the account of Jacob and Esau.

Esau had already sold his birthright to Jacob for a bowl of stew. But Jacob was not content. Esau still had the promise of their father Abraham waiting for him. Rebecca, their mother, wanted that blessing for Jacob instead so she conspired with him to trick Abraham into giving it to Jacob instead of Esau. What was the result? There was a fractured family. Esau wanted to kill Jacob. Jacob had to flee from Esau and that separated him from his mother who lost her most loved son. Jacob lived far away for twenty years and was cheated and tricked by his father-in-law multiple times. He worked day and night and ended up with an unhappy home. Oh, yes, there are wages of sin long before death. But, thanks be to God, there is also forgiveness when we come in confession and repentance to the cross of Christ.

Dear Father, Thank You for the clear teachings that your ways are best and my ways will end in disaster. Forgive me for choosing my selfish way and guide me in Yours. Amen. 

  The Friday Benediction

Until Monday, my friends, may the good God envelop you with His grace; may you prove the common confession of faith, “I believe in the holy Christian church and in the fellowship of the saints”, and may you be enriched with joy and hope as you exercise that confession this weekend.  Amen

 

For quality inspirational, educational, and fictional Christian books visit www.davidccraig.net

The Lasting Impact of a Foolish Act

“Love not this world, nor the things in this world, for the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life are not from the Father but from the world.” I John 2:15-16 paraphrase

In Genesis chapter 25 we find a brief few verses (29-34) that set the stage for some of the most dramatic teaching that will appear later in the Scriptures. These verses point out a need, an impetuosity and opportunism. We might shorten it to greed, speed and sorrow. Unfortunately the sorrow doesn’t come until much later and by then it is too late. What was the final cost of this rash act? It cost a nation, a heritage, and heaven. It reveals the true cost of setting our minds on our self and not on God.

God had told Abraham that He would pass the eternal blessing onto Abraham’s son, Isaac. But Isaac had two sons. By nature the elder should have obtained the heritage of the full promises of God. But the Bible says that this elder son, Esau, despised his heritage, the promises of God and sold them for so little as a bowl of stew! Throughout the rest of the Scripture we find Esau (the nation Edom) condemned eternally in no uncertain terms. Jacob, the younger son, though a nasty rascal in his own right, ultimately finds forgiveness and he is eternally blessed. The love of a meal and the loss of heaven is a potent picture of the high cost of loving the things of this world above the things of God.

Dear Father, Strengthen me by Your Spirit to walk in pursuit of Your will and not my own desires. Amen. 

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What is the focus of our prayers?

“O Lord God of my master Abraham, please give me success this day.” Genesis 24:12 NKJV

Is God just another name for Santa Claus? Many people think so. False teachers tell their congregations that God has a bag of wealth for them tap into every day. Whatever you want, they say, just ask for it. Use the magic words, “In Jesus Name” and it’s yours. I read a sermon where the invitation was this, “How many of you want to be born again to a life of prosperity?” The Bible has some very harsh warnings for such false teachers. But, does that mean that God doesn’t answer prayer? No, but even Jesus taught that there was more to prayer than just asking for things.

In Genesis 24 we find that Abraham had sent his servant to get a bride for Isaac. The first thing we see about this servant is that he obeyed Abraham and went. A lot of our prayers would be more quickly answered if we were where God wanted us to be when we asked them. The servant was in the place where he was sent and being there he faithfully prayed for God’s blessing. As Paul was going on his second missionary journey he prayed for direction. As he was going, God gave him direction. These prayers were offered up for their Master’s glory, not the selfish ambition of the person praying. This part of Genesis 24 is just a small lesson in a big story, but it is a lesson from Genesis that we should not overlook.

Dear Father, Let the aim of my heart and prayer life be Your glory and not mine. Amen.

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Lord, what would You have me to do?

“I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do.” John 14:12 NKJV

How many of us have ever been hired by an employer so that we could just sit on our hands all day and do nothing? How many players are selected for the team and told they are not expected to train or play? Who would get a sled dog and then have that dog sit on the sled while the owner pulled the sled? Paul told Titus that he was supposed to teach the people in his churches to be zealous for good works. Too many people have come to believe that we are to come to God simply to be served by Him. They hop from church to church trying to find that church that will serve them best. Genesis teaches a different idea.

In Genesis 22 God told Abraham to take his son, his only son Isaac, and go to the mountain and offer him as a sacrifice. You see, He told Abraham he was supposed to do something and it wasn’t an easy task. While it was a task unique to Abraham, it illustrates that God calls us to “do” and not to “sit”. We are to be His servants. Jesus told His disciples that they were to be servants. Paul told the Ephesians that “we are His workmanship created unto good works that He foreordained that we should walk in them.” Genesis makes it clear it wasn’t all going to be sugar and spice, it wasn’t going to be all easy sledding; God calls us to serve Him.

Dear Father, Help me remember each day that You have called me to service and to look to You for the strength to do it. Amen.

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Be not in Despair; God is still There.

“Is anything too hard for the LORD?” Genesis 18:14 NKJV

The rationalist view of Scripture answers this question in Genesis with “Yes”. God is bound by this theology to work only within the sphere of observable and replicatable means. This empty teaching would strip all the miracles of Scripture from creation onwards. What Genesis teaches us is that God is not confined by the puny views of man but is greater than man and can do that which man would conceive of as impossible. Unless you are God, creation is impossible. Unless you are God, destroying the world with a flood and saving only eight people is impossible. Unless you are God, turning the dead womb of a ninety year old woman into a fertile womb would be impossible.

God had made a promise to Abraham, “In you all the nations of the earth will be blessed” and “in thy seed all the nations of the earth will be blessed”. It is hard to promise such a long term covenant like that to someone that has children; it is even harder to tell that to someone who doesn’t, especially if that someone is over ninety years old. But God is the God of the impossible. He can make the womb of an old woman to be young again. He can give heirs to a man who is a hundred years old. He can do what He wants to glorify Himself when He wants to do it. In our hours of doubt due to life’s crises, we must remember that God is God and can do the impossible.

Dear Father, Thank You for proving Your great power. In my hour of need help me to remember just who You are. Amen.

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God Keeps His Word

“Then the Lord rained brimstone and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah.” Genesis 19:24 NKJV

God can and does send a clear message about sin. He did it in the days of Noah, and he did it again in the days of Abraham. The message in Noah’s day came with worldwide destruction and in Abraham’s day with localized destruction. The common denominator was destruction followed the habitual and arrogant practice of sin. Some people are foolish enough to say that if God still cared about a particular sin He would still destroy the wicked. Since God doesn’t destroy the wicked He must not care about their sin. It is faulty logic that leads to destruction.

In the case of Sodom, God was making a statement that He intended to last for as long as men inhabit the earth. God has a moral standard for sexual behavior that He has and will enforce. Sadly many in the visible church today don’t believe that. Entire denominations have openly embraced homosexuality, and therefore all sexual immorality, as a matter of indifference to God. But God is the God who changes not. He destroyed Sodom for their sexual perversion; He cast the Canaanites out of the land (Lev. 18) for their sexual perversion; He expelled the Israelites from the same land for copying the Canaanite practices and He will still judge the same today. (My book, “Deceived: The Visible Church and the Homosexual Agenda” covers this topic in depth.) The lesson from Genesis is that God does care. He cares both about His own people and the people of this world who live in rampant sin. To the repentant that will turn to Christ, He offers forgiveness and salvation. To the rest He warns of certain destruction.

Dear Father, Thank You for being consistent. It is our joy to know Your love. Give us gracious words to share with those who are on the brink of eternal destruction. Amen.

  The Friday Benediction

Until Monday, my friends, may the good God envelop you with His grace; may you prove the common confession of faith, “I believe in the holy Christian church and in the fellowship of the saints”, and may you be enriched with joy and hope as you exercise that confession this weekend.  Amen

 

For quality inspirational, educational, and fictional Christian books visit www.davidccraig.net  

The Faith of Abraham

“For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice.” Romans 7:19 NKJV

When we think of the Father of the Faith, our minds automatically drift back to Abraham. Paul liked to use Abraham as proof of justification by faith and not by works. Those who know that they are saved by faith, he asserted, are children of Abraham. Now Abraham was a great man who did the unthinkable because God asked him to do so. Abraham took his son, his only son Isaac, and took him to a mountain to offer him as a sacrifice to God. He believed, according to Hebrews, that God would give Isaac back to him from the dead. Now that is faith.

But Abraham was also a man like any other man. He was saved by faith, walked by faith and did great works by faith. But he was also a man of the flesh. He had fears and often acted in direct disobedience to what God wanted. The lesson from Genesis isn’t that falling in sin is an alright thing to do, but that it is a human thing to do as Paul wrote about at length in Romans. The other half of the lesson is that God is gracious and doesn’t chop us off at the knees when we sin. He who is plenteous in mercy accepts our confession and cleanses us from sin. God was with Abraham in both times of sin and times of his greatest feats of faith. Just so will God be with the sons of Abraham as well.

Dear Father, I don’t want to sin and dishonor You, but I do. Thank You for forgiveness and Your constant presence with me. Amen.

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A Unique Blessing

“And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” Genesis 12:3 NKJV

Promises, promises, the world is full of promises. There are promises of peace, prosperity, a chicken in every pot and the whitest teeth ever to be seen. Promises are easy to make and hard to keep. Most promises have a disclaimer, the giant “if clause”. If circumstances change or if you don’t use this product only during the full moon just before the vernal equinox in years ending with a zero the promises are voided. Genesis teaches us that God is not like that.

God told Noah that there would be seedtime and harvest as long as the earth remained. There has, and that is a long time to keep a promise. God promised Abram that all the world would be blessed through Him. Jesus is of the family of Abraham and the promise has been kept. There were no codicils to God’s promise to Abraham. Through generations of sinful descendants, persecution of those descendants, exile of those descendants and near extinction of those descendants, Jesus was still born when and where God said He would be. Jesus is the seed of Abraham and He is the Savior of the world. More has been done to bless all mankind through Jesus Christ than through any other person who ever lived. On top of that He not only can bless in this life, but will give eternal life to all who believe in Him. That is a blessing that cannot be topped.

Dear Father, Thank You for always keeping Your promises. Amen

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Talking About Heaven, or Going There

“Rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” Matthew 10:28 NKJV

While the flood clearly points us to the grace of God, it also points us to the judgment of God. There is increasingly less fear of judgment in our society. Fewer and fewer people will acknowledge that there is a hell. Those who do often think it is the here and now for the suffering of this world or that judgment is simply annihilation of the unbelieving. The vast majority, however, have bought into the lie of universalism, that God will just save everybody no matter what they did or how they believed. Jesus said in our verse today that this is foolish thinking.

As God destroyed all mankind, except Noah and his family, during the flood, He will also be able to punish to the uttermost those who reject the death of His Son as their Savior. His grace is offered in this life only and then the judgment. Genesis teaches us that God will indeed judge. He judged the great and the small, the weak and the powerful, the poor and the rich. He judged old men and children. All were swept away in His righteous judgment. We have one season of grace alone and that is in this season of life. As the author of Hebrews states quite clearly, “How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?” and then again states, “It is appointed on to man once to die and after that the judgment.”

Dear Father, Thank You for providing us such great salvation as is found only through faith in the death and resurrection of Your Son. Amen.

You can contact me and find inspiring Christian books at my website: www.davidccraig.net

If you don’t already subscribe to this blog, you can do so and receive it each day M-F by choosing the Abundant Grace section on my website and signing up for free delivery every day.  

Labor Day

Labor Day is a very special day at our house. I met my beloved bride on Labor Day and it has become a special family day as a result. While our children were growing up, they asked us what Labor Day meant, and I told them it was a special day to labor and get special projects done. They didn’t know until they went to college that I was kidding, but we did get a whole lot of special projects done. So, for family celebration and family projects, Labor Day is special at our house.

Labor Day is, of course, a day to honor our workers and give them a day of rest. But, that leads into a problem that our world has today that is unique to our time. It is the problem of idle time. Whether it is retirement, underemployment or the increased availability of free time from regular labor, we simply find too much time to be idle. If we are old enough to have heard ancient adages we know that the devil loves idle hands and idle minds. Certainly, we can be thankful that we are not compelled to work twelve-hour days six days a week like our ancestors, but that blessing has brought with it a curse of idleness.

Paul tells us to be doing something. “And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus.” Doing nothing is really doing something, but in a very negative way. Imagine someone saying, “I am doing nothing for God.” Paul says that in doing something, anything, we are to be mindful of God and do it for His glory. We can play with our grandchildren for the glory of God. We can recreate with God in mind by asking ourselves if He would enjoy the content of our recreation. We can visit with our neighbors with God in mind. We can use whatever time God has given us, work time, idle time, family time, to glorify God. Just let it not be said of us, “I am doing nothing for God.”

Grace Matters

Lessons from Genesis – 5

“For by grace are you saved by faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God and not of works lest any man should boast.” Ephesians 2:8-9

In Genesis chapter six we find God’s assessment of mankind, “that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” From sun up to sun down and all through the night men thought and intended evil. When God says in the psalms that “there is none righteous, no not one,” He is saying that mankind hasn’t really changed much since the days of Noah. With such an indictment against us, how then can we ever have a hope of heavenly life after death? Genesis 6:8 gives the answer, “But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.”

Noah wasn’t saved because he was righteous but because God was gracious to him. We find no one in the Bible except Jesus Christ who was perfect and righteous. Therefore the condemnation of God against mankind is fully just. But wait, as the infomercial goes, there is more. God gave His Son to die for us that while we are sinners we can find forgiveness and eternal life through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. God does this for us by grace. He calls us by grace, gifts us with faith by grace, washes away our sins by grace and gives us eternal life by grace. His gift of grace is sufficient for the entire world to believe it and be saved.

Dear Father, Thank You for Your abundant grace that freely saves all who believe. Amen. 

  The Friday Benediction

Until Monday, my friends, may the good God envelop you with His grace; may you prove the common confession of faith, “I believe in the holy Christian church and in the fellowship of the saints”, and may you be enriched with joy and hope as you exercise that confession this weekend.  Amen

 

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