Reflections

Then God appeared to Jacob again when he came from Paddan-aram, and He blessed him.

 ¹⁰God said to him,
         “Your name is Jacob;
         You shall no longer be called Jacob,
         But Israel shall be your name.”
         Thus He called him Israel.

 ¹¹God also said to him,
         “I am God Almighty;
        Be fruitful and multiply;
         A nation and a company of nations shall come from you,
         And kings shall come forth from you.  Genesis 35:9-11

In God’s plan of redemption, He chose a nation to reveal Himself.  God had earlier made a promise to Abraham that he would be a father or many nations.  Abraham had Isaac and Isaac had Jacob.   In this passage of scripture God changes Jacob’s name to Israel.  It is the nation of Israel that God uses to reveal Himself to the world.  Israel received God’s love and mercy and was a demonstration of His glory to other nations.

It was Israel who was given the law and given specific instructions in how to atone for sin and to not associate themselves with the pagan world.  Unfortunately, Israel continually fell into sin and the animal sacrifices were never enough to atone for Israel’s sin.  God constantly gave Israel chances to redeem herself but always fell back into disobedience.  So God promised a Messiah who would come and redeem Israel of her sin and save her.  Not only was this promise made to Israel but to the entire world.  There was no sufficient person on earth that could atone for the world’s sin and return man back to God.  It was prophesied that a messiah would come and deliver Israel from her enemies and save the entire world.  God’s purpose was that sin would be atoned for and man would be reconciled to God.  God chose Israel as the nation that would birth the messiah.

Read Full Post »

Then the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” And the woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”  The LORD God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you more than all cattle, and more than every beast of the field; on your belly you will go, and dust you will eat all the days of your life; and I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise Him on the heel.”

We know that Jesus was in the beginning before the creation of the world and man.  After the serpent deceived Eve and Adam in eating the forbidden fruit, God cursed the serpent (Satan).  God began to set in motion man’s plan of redemption.  By sinning Adam gave up his dominion over the earth and gave power to Satan.  Adam gave Satan power over man.

In verse 15 God says that “He shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise Him on the heel.”  In this verse God is referring to Jesus’ defeat of Satan and Jesus death on the cross.  So as soon as man had sinned God already planned man’s redemption.  It has always been God’s will that man be united with God.  God knew that the only one who could destroy Satan and take dominion back was Him.

Despite Adam and Eve’s sin God determined to show forth His love and mercy through Jesus Christ.  What happened in the garden was foreseen by God.  The bible tells us that our names were written in the Lamb’s book of life even before the foundation of the earth.  So even before creation God had a plan for man’s redemption through Jesus.  Satan is a defeated foe and we have victory through Jesus.

Read Full Post »

Then to Adam He said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat from it’;
         Cursed is the ground because of you;
         In toil you will eat of it
         All the days of your life.
    “Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you;
         And you will eat the plants of the field;
    By the sweat of your face
         You will eat bread,
         Till you return to the ground,
         Because from it you were taken;
         For you are dust,
         And to dust you shall return.”

When God created Adam, He walked in the garden with Adam and had complete communion and fellowship.  God told Adam that he had dominion over the entire earth and could eat from any tree except the tree of knowledge of good and evil.  God said that if Adam ate from this tree then he would die.  Adam and Eve both ate from the tree and sinned against God.  Sin was introduced to the world through Adam.  God removed Adam and Eve from the garden and they lost the fellowship they had with God.  Mankind was now destined to a life of sin and separated from God.

One of the reasons Christians celebrate Christmas is because Jesus was born to undo all that Adam had done.  Jesus was a promise from God to save us from sin so that we may once again be reconciled with God.  This is not a holiday we should take for granted or be consumed by the commercialism of it all.  Instead it is a time for us to reflect on what God has done for us through Jesus Christ His Son.  Despite man’s fall, God is determined to have the kind of relationship with man that He intended from the beginning of creation.  All of this is possible through Jesus.

Read Full Post »

Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” Genesis 1:26

In the Gospel of John we are told that in the beginning was the word, the word was with God and the word was God and the word became flesh which is Jesus Christ.  In Genesis when man is created God made man in His image.  Since Jesus was in the beginning and the beginning was the word then man was created in the image of Jesus.  God made us in His image and according to His likeness.  God then gave man dominion over all the earth

So from the beginning we were created to be like Jesus.  This was God’s plan from the beginning.  December is the month that we celebrate the birth of Jesus.  Jesus is the reason we celebrate Christmas.  There are many who want us to take the “Christ” out of Christmas, but this is the season we reflect on the purpose of Jesus’ birth and life.  So over the next several reflections we will look at the purpose of Jesus’ birth and why He came to live among us.

Read Full Post »

“‘Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,’ says the LORD Almighty, ‘and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.  I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not cast their fruit,’ says the LORD Almighty. ‘Then all the nations will call you blessed, for yours will be a delightful land,’ says the LORD Almighty.” Malachi 3:10-12

In the book of Genesis we are told about the story of Adam and Eve.  God gave Adam dominion over the earth and could eat of any tree in the Garden of Eden except for the tree of knowledge of good and evil.  God said they were not to eat from this tree or they would surely die.  They could eat from every other tree but not this one.

God tells us in Malachi to bring Him the whole tithe which is 10%, this belongs to God and the other 90% we can keep.  But just like Adam and Eve we want to take that which God said not to touch.  Adam and Eve believed the lie of the devil, instead of God’s truth, ate of the tree and lost their eternal life.  They chose to take from the one tree God said not to touch.  Many of us take from the tithe and keep it from ourselves and in verse 8 of Malachi we are told that we actually rob God when we do not bring Him the whole tithe.

It isn’t that God is trying to keep something from us but He is actually seeing where our heart is.  He could simply take 10% or could have just not put the tree in the middle of the Garden to prevent Adam and Eve from eating from it.  God wants to know that we will trust and believe Him and not the lies of the devil.  God even said that if we bring the whole tithe we will have more than enough.  The lie is that if we tithe then we will not have enough to take care of our bills.  Without faith it is impossible to please God and God wants us to trust and believe what He says.  By bringing God the tithe we are saying to Him that we trust that He will take care of us and supply all our needs.  Keeping the tithe tells God that we do not trust Him and we actually believe the lies of the devil.

God wants to bless us and for us to prosper, one of the keys to this is giving God what belongs to Him and in return He will give us more than we deserve and can even contain.  He is more than enough.

Read Full Post »

“He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves abundance with its income. This too is vanity.” Ecclesiastes 5:10

Usually the ones with the greatest debts are the ones who have the most money or make the largest incomes.  They never seem to be satisfied with the money they have and live outside of their means.  So the more they buy and want, they are never satisfied with their incomes. 

Money is simply a tool and never should be something we covet or love because we will never be satisfied.  When the focus of our love is money, it will never fulfill our deepest desires, neither will things.  I believe that is why givers are the happiest people.  Those who do have and give to others always have more than they need and want.  When you learn how to give away what God gives you, you open the door for God to give you more.

There are well known wealthy people who are great givers.  They seem to take such joy out of helping others and giving away the money they have.  But what is even more impressive is they always have abundance and never seem to lack for anything.  Money is simply a tool to allow them to do the things they love to do.  Our money should work for us we should never work for money.  Our love should be toward people and never money.

Read Full Post »

“The rich rules over the poor, and the borrower becomes the lender’s slave.” Proverbs 22:7

The holiday shopping season has officially started.  Many people are out shopping for Christmas and looking for the best deals of the year.  Some reports say that retailers do their most business for the whole year during the holiday season.  Since the recession people have cut back on their spending and not buying things like earlier in the decade when sales were high.

Unfortunately, most people back then spent money they did not have.  The credit squeeze has taken hold on many people and people are struggling to pay back debts they built up over the years.  Many people can’t even make basic household payments because of pasts debts.  They have become slaves to the lenders.  The lenders are cutting back and making it more difficult for people to borrow and raising their rates and fees which is in turn hurting even credit worthy individuals.

God never intended us to be in constant debt.  He knew that if we were we would be slaves to the lenders.  The lenders can take your house, your car, and your wages if you do not pay the money you owe.  There is nothing good that comes out of borrowing money we don’t have on things we really do not need.

Now is the time to take back our finances, give them over to God and trust that He will deliver us from our lenders.  Once He does then we must make every effort not to return to that slave mentality and handle our money with wisdom and the way God intended.

Read Full Post »

“Of what use is money in the hand of a fool, since he has no desire to get wisdom?” Proverbs 17:16 New International Version

Today is Black Friday and retailers are hoping that people will come out to their stores and buy items to get them back into profit mode.  Many stores opened at 4 am and 5 am some were even open on Thanksgiving.  The stores are claiming this is the time to buy and get the best deals.  Is it really the best deal?  Retailers are only interested in getting you in the store and buying.  They are not concerned about your money and whether or not you are getting the best deal.

They are using tricks to get you to buy something.  Some products may not be the best quality for the price.  Some stores are limiting items per store.  For example, a store that may service a town of thousands will only have three items that are advertise in their black Friday ads. 

So let us be wise with our money.  This is a good day to shop but don’t be afraid to ask God for wisdom.  There is nothing to small for God.  Make sure you get the best deal and bang for your buck.  Don’t let these retailers fleece you of your money.  Do you research and comparison shop, make the retailers work for you.  Enjoy your shopping.  Don’t spend money you do not have.

Read Full Post »

“Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice! Let your gentle spirit be known to all men.  The Lord is near.  Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.  And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.  Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.  The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.”  Philippians 4: 4-9

Today is Thanksgiving and it is a time to reflect on all that we are to be thankful about.  Paul admonishes us to rejoice in the Lord always, not to worry about anything, take everything to God in prayer and to think on positive things.  So as we reflect on this Thanksgiving let us do so with a grateful heart and thanksgiving in our heart.

This past year God has been so good to our family.  Even though we faced some trials God showed Himself faithful as always.  So we thank God for everything both small and great.  He is always with us and will never leave nor forsake us.  Enjoy this day and to God be the glory.

Read Full Post »

“For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship.  And by him we cry, ‘Abba, Father.’  The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.  Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.”  Romans 8:15-17

Today is one of the busiest travel days of the season.  There are many who are going to see their families for the Thanksgiving holidays.  As families gather together they will be enjoying each other’s company and eating good food.  Some people will be getting together will family they have never met or have not seen for a long time.  It will be indeed a time of rejoicing and celebration.

As the body of Christ we are one family.  We are God’s children and we are also heirs of God and co-heirs with Jesus.  We have the Spirit of sonship and have all the rights as children in God’s family.  So let us celebrate that our names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.  We are God’s children and we have the example of our big brother Jesus.  Let us join together thanking God for all He has done, and helping usher our lost brothers and sisters into the Kingdom of God so that they too will experience the same joyous celebration and reunion.

Read Full Post »