The Christian life is a lot like those rose bushes. In order for a rose bush to produce more flowers you have to remove all the dead roses from the bush. In much the same way, God gets a Christian to produce more Christlikeness when the dead weights and sins are pruned from a believer's life.

In January of this year I suffered a stroke which left me partly incapacitated. I’ve not been able to fully use my left leg or foot since then and am actively involved in exercise and rehabilitation. The Lord has been gracious and has helped me each day to “re-learn” the use of this leg. Thanks to the assistance of my wonderful wife and kind friends, I am well on the way to recovery. But we don’t know what it means to be without body parts until we are interrupted in the usage of them. The smallest tasks, especially of mobility, suddenly become daunting.

The first eleven chapters of Genesis tell big news: God creates everything, sees humankind fallinto sin, judges humanity by a global flood, spares only Noah and his family, and watchespeople try to build a tower to heaven their own way. But bigger news in Genesis will follow.