Scripture Impressions

Everlasting Covenant

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Read Genesis 16-17

 

Abraham’s privilege is our great blessing. We are his spiritual descendants and benefit from the Lord’s promises made to Abraham. Believers can rightly apply God’s Word as true, even future promises as good as done. The land of Canaan, the Promised Land, will be made new for us in a new heaven and new earth. Our Home is with the Lord, our Father, forever.

The Abrahamic covenant still stands, brought under the New Covenant instituted by Jesus Christ- no more shedding of blood for our sins. Christ has done this and it is magnificent and sufficient. Abraham’s lineage is marvelous because God made it so. People from every tribe, every tongue, every nation come together as One Family in Christ.

We can hold onto these forever promises, a bound covenant in which God cannot/ will not lie. El Roi is with you, He sees you, and watches over you in His love. He is good enough to even call us not just servants and friends, but sons and daughters. Believer, you are eternally His.

“The Lord your God is with you, He is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing.” -Zephaniah 3:17

 

Grace upon grace,

April

Knowing God

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Read Genesis 11:1-13:4; Psalm 5; Proverbs 1:24-28; Matthew 5:1-26

 

In the Genesis account, mankind continues to flourish in population but their lifespan becomes shorter after the Flood. Under one language the people work together, to build a tower attempting to reach the heavens. In man’s hubris we seek to be equal with God. The Lord then scatters the people by confusing their speech and then scatters them over the face of the earth.

God later calls Abram into a relationship with Him. Abraham responds by obediently following God, not to be like God, such as the people at Babel. His life after this encounter is never the same. Abraham still sins in his lifetime out of fear and passivity, not trusting the Lord in those times, yet He obeyed with great faith and was considered “a friend of God”. The Lord mercifully and wonderfully works through His flawed creation!

Jesus’ sermon in Matthew 5 directs us in how we relate to others and to God. The people at the tower of Babel failed to see how people can honor the Lord when working together to glorify Him. So God frustrated their plans. Abraham demonstrates how we properly relate to our Creator through his faithful obedience and humility.

Our call today is to seek the Lord while He may be found. We can follow Him and into eternity but this opportunity to know God will not always be available. Either our lives will end or Christ will come.

God makes Himself known to those who desire to follow Him like Abraham. Do I know God this way? As a friend? What would others say of your life at the end? Do you live a life of faith like Abraham? Do you know God? Jesus Christ has made this relationship possible bridging the gap between our sin and God’s righteousness. Hallelujah, what a Savior!

 

Grace upon grace,

April

Operation Redemption

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Read Genesis 8:1-10:32; Psalm 4; Proverbs 1:20-23; Matthew 4:12-25

 

In the Genesis section Scripture shows the flourishing of mankind on the earth. Our struggle in a fallen world and natural inclination for wickedness are noted. Psalms 4 and the Proverbs portion go on to describe how men love delusions, distractions, and false gods, rejecting the wisdom God offers, which is Himself. The world rejects Christ.

And then in Matthew 4 we see the plan of redemption put into motion, with “feet on the ground”. Jesus incarnate begins His earthly ministry and changes the course of history for mankind. He brings light to a dark, spiritually desolate world.

Over time and many generations later, we defer back to our flesh, forgetting God or what He has done. Our hearts are calloused, our ears deaf and our eyes blind to the truth of the Gospel. Jesus came to break free the captive from sin and death. He offers eternal life in Him and with Him. He only calls us to follow Him.

“The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor…”  (Isaiah 61:1-2; fulfilled in Luke 4:16-21)

“Let the light of Your face shine upon us, O Lord. You have filled my heart with greater joy…” (Psalm 4:6-7)

 

Grace upon grace,

April

 

Noah’s obedience

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Read Genesis 5:1-7:24; Psalm 3; Matthew 3:7-4:11

Noah was a righteous man who walked with God. He obeyed the Lord’s commands to build an ark. What’s important to note here is that Noah could not have done this in his own strength. Noah like the rest of mankind, is corrupt, inclined to wickedness.

Men and women in the Bible commended for their godliness operate out of obedience to God’s power in them. This is part of the mystery concerning God’s Sovereignty and man’s will. It is the Lord’s grace. He gives us the desire and faith to follow Him, yet we have to be obedient to this call. It is a lifelong process, as the old nature is being removed and our new nature in Christ becomes what we want (Romans 7:14-8:4). As the righteous live by faith, our desires begin to match the Father’s will.

Jesus demonstrated perfect obedience even under great temptation and physical weakness. When Satan seeks to destroy Him in the desert, Christ clings to the Word of God. Knowing the Scriptures, Jesus refutes the Enemy by speaking what is true. Satan knows the Bible as well yet perverts it for his own gain, mishandling the verses he quotes.

Our habits, how we spend our time, is a reflection of what is important to us. We become what we behold. We have examples in the Bible of obedience through imperfect people, as well as our Perfect Example in Christ. This is a great comfort because it means that Jesus understands what it’s like to be tempted as we are yet He did not sin (Hebrews 2:14-18; 4:15).

Do you pursue holiness or abuse God’s grace with indifference? Do you rely on the Lord’s strength or your own? We are called to be faithful and obedient. This is why Noah is considered righteous before God. He believed and obeyed. Do you?

 

Grace upon grace,

April

The Cursed Serpent

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Read: Genesis 3:1-4:26; Psalm 2; Matthew 3:1-6

Christ became sin for us, becoming a curse, bearing God’s wrath so that believers will never have to. Jesus has made us free (2 Corinthians 5:21).

It’s interesting that Satan is identified as a serpent in Genesis 3, to tempt the first man and woman to sin. Later on in the book of Numbers, Moses obeys the Lord’s command to construct a bronze serpent for God to heal the Israelites bitten by venomous snakes. They had complained against God’s provision and Moses’ leadership. Realizing their sin, the people repented. When they looked at the bronze snake set up on a pole, the people who were bitten lived. (Numbers 21:4-9; John 3:14-15).

From the Fall the serpent foreshadows Jesus becoming sin for us and His sacrificial death on a cross. We see directly after the Fall how sin corrupted mankind. But God in His mercy sends Jesus to redeem His people from eternal death and give us life in Him! The serpent symbolizes our curse, but God uses this very image as a means to save us through Jesus taking on our sin. He is lifted up on a cross, like Moses placed the bronze snake on a pole. Anyone who looks to Christ will be saved from death and the serpent of Satan will not have victory over you.

Jesus crushed the head of the serpent overcoming death and sin, restoring His Beloved (Genesis 3:15). Those in Christ Jesus are called to continue this mission of mortifying the flesh, crushing the will of Satan as we engage in spiritual battle every day (Romans 16:20). This is the power of Christ at work in us. Satan does not have the final victory. The war does not belong to Him. God has already won. Praise be to God!

“He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by His wounds you have been healed.”  1 Peter 2:24

 

Grace upon grace,

April