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By Richard Wamsley on
10/24/2011 8:52 AM
God’s Grand Deliverance Chapter 4
Dick asked me (Jeff) to blog when my turn came so here it is. This week’s reading took us into the book of Exodus 1, 3-4, 7-13. You good Bible students will already know that God foretold this exact situation back to Abram over in Genesis 15.
“Know for certain that for 400 years your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own and that they will be enslaved and mistreated there. But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves and afterward they will come out with great possessions.”
We learned that Randy Frazee and Max Lucado have a very high regard for this portion of the story,
“The two main events of the whole Bible are the Exodus and the Christ. The importance of either cannot be underestimated. The first event points directly to the second.”
We unearthed that God powered His grand deliverance by revealing Himself in three ways:
God reveals Himself by revealing...
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By Richard Wamsley on
9/27/2011 8:29 AM
"Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, 'Abraham!' 'Here I am,' he replied. Then God said, 'Take your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac—and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you.'” (Genesis 22:1-2) Can you even imagine how this command of God must have hit Abraham? I would have probably responded, "You want me to do what?!" I have two grown sons, and I cannot fathom how I could sacrifice one of them at God's command. I would have immediately questioned whether that command actually came from God. Maybe Satan was imitating God's voice. That command is completely beyond reason!
But the very next verse says, "Early the next morning Abraham got up and saddled his donkey. . . . he set out for the place God had told him about." Abraham didn't beg for more time or wait for a confirmation that it was indeed a command from God. He just obeyed.
Unquestioning faith leads to unconditional obedience. The writer of Hebrews sheds some light on this text when he writes, "By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. . . . Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead, and figuratively speaking, he did receive Isaac back from death." (Hebrews 11:17,19) Abraham was so sure of God's promise that through Isaac he would have descendents as many as the stars in the heavens (Genesis 15:4-5, 17:19), that he trusted God to somehow resurrect Isaac if he did obey God's command and sacrifice him on an altar.
Abraham had the knife in his hand ready to offer Isaac when an angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven not to lay a hand on the boy, for "Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son." (Genesis 22:12)
Is there any command of God that you would consider "unreasonable?" How about Romans 12:1-2? "Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind." Unquestioning faith leads to unconditional obedience.
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By Richard Wamsley on
9/20/2011 8:14 AM
Whenever someone talks about the account of the great flood recorded in Genesis 6-9, questions arise as to whether it was a global or localized flood. It would seem that the text clearly answers that question (see Genesis 6:13, 17, ; 7:4, 19-23; 8:21; 9:11, 15). I mean what is there in the text about "Everything on earth will perish." (Genesis 6:17), "Every living thing on the face of the earth was wiped out..." (Genesis 7:23), and "...never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth" that is didifficult to understand? Yet there are still naysayers to the notion that there could be a flood that covered the entire earth.
I would propose some questions whose answers deal with a more significant issue. Here are the questions: What did God promise Noah before the flood (Genesis 6:9-13)? Did God keep his promise (Genesis 7:19-23)? How long did it take to build the ark (Genesis 6:3)? Assuming it would take the same amount of time, what year would the ark be finished if you were to start building...
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By Richard Wamsley on
9/13/2011 10:06 AM
Well, our Journey Through the Bible is underway, and I'm looking forward to all the exciting places we will visit and the people we will come to know better. I hope this blog site will be a good place to interact on your observations and insights throughout the journey. Looking toward this Sunday's message, "Paradise Lost," you will be reading Genesis 1-4. These chapters set the foundation for the entire Bible. If you are not on solid footing as far as the creation account is concerned, you will have trouble with much of the rest of God's Word. Here are some comments by Rubel Shelly in his book, Genesis: The Beginnings of Faith, about these crucial first chapters of Genesis.
"Ideas have consequences. And few ideas have more far-reaching consequences than one's view of the opening lines of the Bible. If the stories of the creation and fall are not historical in your mind, you have pulled the single thread that unravels the entire fabric of the Word of God. . . . Here is the opening sentence of the Bible: 'In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.' Here is the opening sentence of Carl Sagan's Cosmos: 'The cosmos is all there is or ever was or ever will be.' The former puts humanity on a search for truth, meaning, and ethical behavior; it grounds a worldview that demands we find answers outside ourselves and live in time with a view toward eternity. The latter rejects theism as an outmoded faith and seeks to define all value and meaning in relation to mankind in this present world; it grounds a worldview that dismisses the supernatural as nonsensical. . . .If Genesis isn't true, everything that follows in the Bible is suspect. There is no reason to believe in or prepare for a future life." (Rubel Shelly, Genesis: The Beginnings of Faith,: College Press Publishing Co., 1997, p. 10)
I look forward to fleshing out this and other important "begninnings" from Genesis 1-4 this Sunday. Hope to see you in worship!
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You Want Me to Do What?!Posted on: Tuesday, September 27, 2011 Questions About the FloodPosted on: Tuesday, September 20, 2011 THE JOURNEY BEGINS!Posted on: Tuesday, September 13, 2011
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