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.

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. 

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.

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.  

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

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.  

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

 

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