“And Jacob rose up from Beer-sheba: and the sons of Israel carried Jacob their father, and their little ones, and their wives, in the wagons which Pharaoh had sent to carry him.” Genesis 46:5
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.
Grief has become once again a part of our family’s heart condition. The fact that I have a master’s degree in counseling and have done some counseling with those going through the grief process does not ease the feelings of loss I feel. Over the last few days, I have returned to my books and studies on the issues of grief. It is my way of dealing with my personal grief.
“Bless the LORD, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits.” (Ps. 103:1-2) It has been said that it is easier to preach ten sermons than it is to live one. I believe this is true. I have found too often in life that loud hosannas more easily come forth from a comfortable, blessed, relatively trouble-free existence than from the soul that is struggling to find the way through valleys of despair, pain, and hopelessness.
“But the end of all things is at hand: be ye therefore sober and watch unto prayer.” After all, only the Father knows.
“Thy words were found, and I did eat them…” (Jeremiah 15:16a)
Once there was a boy who wanted to become a chef. He admired pots and pans as a toddler, studied ingredients and recipes as a boy, and mastered double boilers and woks while still a teenager.
Fully human, Jesus wept. Fully divine, Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead.“Jesus wept” captures so much.
Resurrection Sunday is not about rabbits, baby chicks or colored or chocolate eggs. It is about the death, burial and glorious resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Corinthians 15:3-4 “For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also recieved, how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures; And that he was buried and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.” Are you washed in the Blood? In the souls cleansing blood of the Lamb? Are your garments spotless, are they white as snow? Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?
Let the lower lights be burning!
Send a gleam across the wave!
Some poor struggling, fainting seaman
You may rescue; you may save.
We dare not treat one another as first-class and second-class Christians. The case of Onesimus forbids it.
