Genesis 12:1-9 The Call

My commentary started, “Man originally knew the true God, but he would not glorify Him or give thanks to Him for His gracious provision… before long, the Gentile world was so corrupt that God had to give it up.  Then He called Abraham, the first Jew, and made a new beginning.”

God called Abraham to get away from the corruption around him.  Abraham obeyed, but not fully at first.  God said, “Leave your relatives and your father’s family.”  But Terah went with him, as did his nephew Lot.  God said, “Go to a land I will show you.”  But Abraham settled for Haran until his father died.  My commentary said, “First steps of faith are not always giant steps … Whatever you bring with you from the old life into the new is likely to create problems … The life of faith demands total separation from what is evil and total devotion to what is holy … Faith and a double mind never go together, and you cannot serve two masters.  Faith demands commitment.”

It continues:  “God brings us out that He might bring us in … Faith also brings us on … God kept Abraham moving so that he would meet new challenges and be forced to trust God for new grace to help in time of need … Faith is not believing in spite of evidence; it is obeying in spite of consequence … Even in the place of obedience you will face tests and trials, for that is how faith grows.”

Father, help me always to trust You and to obey in spite of consequence.  Thank You for actively guiding my life!

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Genesis 11:10-32 What Happened?

The genealogy in Genesis 5 kept mentioning, “… and he died.”  The one here had more hope, saying repeatedly, “… his son was born.”

Somewhere between Noah’s son Shem and Abram things went wrong, because we see Shem watching and worshiping as Noah sacrifices doves upon leaving the ark, but Abram, Shem’s great-times-seven grandson is living in Ur worshiping idols.  Abram will receive his call from the God of glory as chapter 12 opens, but it may have happened just before the end of chapter 11, my commentary says.  Abram was to take his wife only and go where God would show him, but his dad also wanted to go, and seemed to have directed the travel out of Ur to Haran.  But there he settled though they’d planned to go to Canaan.  Abram’s brother Nahor was the man who stayed, whether because he believed God’s message and knew he wasn’t included, or because he thought Abram was crazy!

Abram’s dad was the man who stopped.  Again, perhaps he finally got God’s message, or else God took him out of the family through death.  That left only Abram’s nephew Lot, who became eventually the man who strayed by moving to Sodom.  Finally, later in the story, Abram and Sarai, the old childless couple whom we’d probably vote “least likely to start a family, much less a nation” would be where God would have them.

My commentary also contrasted the start of the chapter with its end.  At Babel, “the world depended on large numbers of powerful people in order to accomplish things, but God chose two weak people and started a new nation.  The people of Babel wanted to make a name for themselves, but God promised to make Abram’s name great.  The workers at Babel followed the wisdom of this world, but Abraham and Sarah trusted the Word of God.  Babel was built by the energy of the flesh and the motivation of pride, but the nation of Israel was built by the grace and power of God and in spite of human weakness.”

Father, You know how I love seeing “but God” in Your Word.  I immediately pay attention.  I want my life to reflect a trust in You like Abraham’s, despite what the world’s wisdom says.  Keep me on the path You’ve chosen for me, wherever it leads.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Genesis 11:1-9 Rebellion #4

God had given Noah and his sons and their wives a command:  “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.”  They were growing in number, but a rebellion was taking place about the “filling the earth” part.  They didn’t want to scatter.  Nimrod had built the city of Babylon, and pride was causing the people to want to create a nation-state that would rule a vast territory.  My commentary called this “one of the most arrogant revolts against God recorded anywhere in Scripture.”  Satan would try to make us believe that mankind was achieving greatness and God was wanting to push them back down.

Mankind appears to still have not learned an important lesson:  “Man proposes, but God disposes.”  Other versions include:  “Man does what he can, God does what He will,” and “There are many plans in a man’s heart, nevertheless the Lord’s counsel – that will stand.”  My commentary continues, “God has demonstrated repeatedly that it doesn’t pay to rebel against His will,” and “God in heaven is never perplexed or paralyzed by what people do on earth.”  This confusing of the languages was not a power trip by God to keep humans from becoming all that they could be.  “By confusing their language and scattering them over all the world, God graciously spared their lives and gave them opportunity to return to Him.  He could have destroyed the builders, their city, and their tower, but He chose to let them live.”

God is now at work, through His Holy Spirit, “using the church as an agent of reconciliation to bring things together in Jesus Christ.  The day will come when people from every tribe and nation will worship Jesus Christ and the judgment of Babel will be done away.”

Father, help me not to let pride lead me to places You don’t want me to go.  Keep my heart open to hear Your will for my life.  Correct me gently, and keep me on the path You have set out for me.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Genesis 10 -- God's Sovereignty Making Nations

My commentary suggests that this chapter is a genealogy plus an atlas plus a history book.  “We’re watching the movements of people and nations in the ancient world.”  Many times we can’t determine where some of these old nations were located.  “Over the centuries, nations can change their names, move to different locations, modify their languages, and even alter their racial composition through intermarriage.”

It also finds several things of significance:

n  Jehovah God is the Lord of the nations.  God gave the nations their inheritance and determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation… Jehovah is the God of geography and of history; He is in control.

n  All nations belong to the same human family.  God made us all “of one blood” and no race or people can claim to be superior to any other race or people.

n  God has a purpose for the nations to fulfill.  Just as He used Israel, He also used Egypt, Babylon, Assyria, Media-Persia, and Rome to accomplish His purposes.

n  God is concerned for all the nations.  The Bible expresses a universal vision that all nations of the earth come to know God and serve Him.

Father, Your Wisdom and sovereignty shine forth here as You direct these families to the places You’ve appointed for them as they became nations.  I thank You for Your wisdom and sovereignty as You shaped and pruned my own family tree, grafting in my two sons and their families, helping us to become one family in You.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Genesis 9:18-29 A Fall And A Prophecy

“All of the people on earth came from these three sons.”  That’s probably hard for many people to accept, unless they use it, as I was once told, to explain the races of men.  But my commentary had specific things to say about this section of the Bible that for years was used as a justification for slavery.

First, the event that caused the stir:  Noah’s father, Lamech, had been a farmer, and Noah started a vineyard after the flood, which produced grapes, raisins, and yes – wine.  As my commentary put it, this man of faith – a preacher of righteousness who had saved his household from death -- sinned by becoming drunk, and his position made the sin even more repulsive.

“As Spurgeon said, ‘God never allows His children to sin successfully.’  There’s always a price to pay,” my commentary said.  Noah suffered disgrace, but his sin also impacted his family.

Perhaps Ham was concerned about his father’s welfare when he chose to enter his tent.  Noah might have overslept due to his drunkenness.  Would this story have turned out differently if he’d quietly covered his father’s nakedness and never said anything to his brothers?  We’ll never know.  “How people respond to the sin and embarrassment of others is an indication of their character.”  In telling his brothers about his father’s nakedness, he effectively gossiped. 

Shem and Japheth backed their way into their father’s tent with a garment between them and their eyes averted, and they covered Noah’s naked body.  My commentary compared it to “Love covers all sins … It doesn’t cleanse sin … nor does it condone sin … but it doesn’t go around exposing sin and encouraging others to spread the bad news.  When people sin and we know about it, our task is to help restore them in a spirit of meekness.” 

Finally, my commentary doesn’t list Noah’s speech (his only on in Scripture) as a curse, but says it was a prophecy.  “The word curse is used only once, but it’s directed at Ham’s youngest son Canaan and not at Ham himself.  This suggests that Noah was describing the future of his sons and one grandson on the basis of what he saw in their character, not unlike what Jacob did before he died … If Noah had wanted to pronounce a curse, it would have been directed at Ham, the son who sinned against his father, but instead he named Canaan three times.”  History bears out the results of Canaan’s character and how his descendants rose against the people of Israel.

I’ve been helping my son to understand the book Uncle Tom’s Cabin which he’s reading for a class.  It has taught me much of how the Bible was wrongly used to justify slavery.  Perhaps those who did so were actually descendants of Canaan and didn’t know it.

Father, thank You for the reminder that You never allow Your children to sin successfully.  The next time I’m tempted to sin willfully against You, remind me of Noah’s fall and help me to turn from the sin before I commit it.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Genesis 9:1-17 New Beginnings

“When Noah came out of the ark, he was like a second Adam about to usher in a new beginning on earth for the human race.  Faith in the Lord had saved Noah and his household from destruction, and his three sons would repopulate the whole earth.”  Wow, that one heck of a mandate!

God was describing children as a blessing, not a curse.  My commentary quoted the statistic that through all of American history, the total number of American soldiers killed in all wars now exceeds 1.2 million people.  However, in just one year over 1.6 million babies are legally aborted!  We’ve declared war on ourselves.

There were bound to be changes after the flood, for there had been vast upheavals and vegetation had to recover.  God expanded the human diet to include meat.  Of course they’d need to wait until some young were born and not destroy any of the pairs present on the ark!  Adam and Eve had been given dominion over the animals and Adam had even watched as God paraded them in front of him to be named by him.  But now, with the change in diet, my commentary says God put the fear of humans into animals, allowing them to do everything possible to escape humans.  So the peace of Eden was gone.

God also told Noah that humans could not eat a still-living animal.  The blood was to be drained first, for it represented the animal’s life, which had been given by God.  And as far as human life, God said that since humans were made in His image, He would demand life for a life.  Any animal which killed a human was to be killed, and any human who killed a human would be killed by another human.

Finally, God covenanted never to destroy the earth by flood again, and He used the rainbow as a reminder of that covenant for all time.  I have twice been fortunate enough to see rainbows from the air – from God’s point of view – and while to us they appear as half-circles, from His point of view they appear as rings – much like a wedding ring – sealing that covenant forever.

Father, we will not know in this life what it was like in Eden with animals having no fear of us.  Most of us can’t imagine a diet without meat.  We simply trust the changes that You made to be for our good, and we thank You for the promise of Your faithfulness each time we witness a rainbow.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Genesis 8 -- God's Promises

This chapter starts with, “But God remembered Noah.”  It’s important to understand what it’s not saying.  This doesn’t mean that God forgot Noah and suddenly remembered what He’d forgotten.  Noah didn’t slip God’s mind for awhile while He was busy with other things.  My commentary says, “Rather, it means ‘to pay attention to, to fulfill a promise and act on behalf of somebody,’ and it ‘implies a previous commitment made by God and announces the fulfillment of that commitment.’”

Once the ark came to rest on a mountain, Noah did not open the door.  He waited on God and trusted His timing.  They’d been in the ark exactly a year when Noah removed the covering and surveyed the world around him.  It was twenty-six days later before God gave the order to disembark.

It’s important to remember that Noah didn’t just put one pair of the clean animals used for sacrifices on board.  He put seven pair.  And he sacrificed some of those clean animals in thanks and worship to God for His watchcare.  Those animals were saved from the flood to be sacrificed to God.

God had cursed the ground after Adam’s sin and again after Cain’s sin.  But here God says that He will not add to those curses anymore.  He guaranteed that the natural cycles would continue, including the proper orbits around the sun and the earth’s rotation on its axis, “as long as the earth continues,” which should mean until the new earth is given.

Father, thank You for being sovereign over every part of our existence.  Thank You for keeping it all together.  What would we do without Your unfailing promises?

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Genesis 7 -- Waiting On God

Waiting on God seems to be this chapter’s theme.  Noah had spent years constructing the ark and God had then commanded the animals to load up.  Finally, Noah and his family entered the ark, and God Himself shut the door.  It was another week before the first raindrops fell.  By that seventh day, anyone else would have been wondering if it had all been simply a bad dream, but Noah and his family trusted God and the first raindrops ever eventually fell. 

They also didn’t have any idea how long they’d have to remain in the ark, “but the Lord knew, and that’s really all that mattered,” my commentary said.  One year and ten days after those first raindrops fell, they watched as God opened the door to His freshly cleansed world.

Of course God had waited on mankind for over a century to repent so that the flood wouldn’t be necessary, and that speaks of His mercy and longsuffering.  Unfortunately, mankind didn’t repent.

It’s also important to remember that God didn’t use only rain to flood the earth.  He unleashed vast reservoirs of underground springs that welled up to help accomplish His purposes.

My commentary concluded this chapter with words from a British preacher:

“For a hundred and twenty years the wits laughed, and the common sense people wondered, and the patient saint went on hammering and pitching at his ark.  But one morning it began to rain; and by degrees, somehow, Noah did not seem quite such a fool.  The jests would look rather different when the water was up to the knees of the jesters; and their sarcasms would stick in their throats as they drowned.  So is it always.  So it will be at the last great day.  The men who lived for the future, by faith in Christ, will be found out to have been the wise men … while they who had no aims beyond the things of time … will awake too late to the conviction that they are outside the ark of safety, and that their truest epitaph is, ‘You fool’ .”

Father, thank You for shaking me out of my spiritual slumber and for showing me what a fool I’d been, and for waking me to Your truth.  Help me to help others to find what You’ve shown me before it is too late for them.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Genesis 6 -- The Run-up To The Flood

Noah’s great-grandfather had been Enoch, who’d walked with God, suddenly taken to heaven.  That action by God rescued him from the judgment of the flood.  Noah’s grandfather was Methuselah, the oldest man who ever lived, and he was living in a world that was getting more evil by the second.  Enoch must have passed his beliefs on to his son, and those same beliefs helped Noah to trust and obey two generations later.  Once Methuselah had died (his son Lamech had already died), Noah knew that nothing stood in the way of God’s judgment, for there were no other righteous men left on earth but himself.

Noah didn’t become a dad until he was 500 years old.  He knew that judgment was coming and likely wondered how a 499 year old man and his wife could be part of God’s plan.  But a year later he knew there was hope for the human race.  The Bible calls Noah “righteous”, and this was the first time that term is used in the Bible.  My commentary said, “Noah’s righteousness was God’s gift in response to his personal faith.  He believed God.”

Noah is also called blameless, which doesn’t mean he didn’t sin.  “Noah’s conduct was such that his neighbors (remember everyone else was very evil) couldn’t find fault with him,” my commentary explained.

Despite the fact that it had never rained and the fact that Noah lived far from any ocean, he believed God and followed God’s instructions for building a floating box that would protect his family and two of every creature so that the earth could be repopulated.  He endured the ridicule and scorn of his neighbors as he labored to build the ark.

My commentary said this is also the first use of the word covenant in the Bible.  God’s words were addressed specifically to Noah, but God also included Noah’s family in the covenant.

God also showed His sovereignty as He brought the animals to the ark and controlled them so that they did his bidding, my commentary said.  “The birds, beasts, and creeping things knew their Creator’s voice and obeyed Him, but people made in the image of God refused to heed God’s call!”

Father, I thank You for allowing me to hear Your voice and to respond.  Forgive me when You know I’m listening but I fail to obey.  Help me to see that doing so represents a lack of faith and trust in Your goodness and Your care for me, for You know better than me what I need.  Help me to bow to Your sovereignty as those animals did.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Genesis 5 -- A Tiny Branch On Adam's Family Tree

Most people are fascinated by the long life spans mentioned in this chapter, but from Adam’s point of view, the telling words were repeated eight times here – “…and he died.”  Adam and Eve, and even their children, could have lived eternal lives with God, had they chosen never to sin.  God had made Eden for them.  But now the consequences of that sin are showing up.

When Seth had his son Enosh, people began to pray to the Lord.  My commentary deemed it “a revival of public worship and believing prayer as the descendants of Seth met together in the name of the Lord.”  I wondered if God removed His presence from among them, no longer walking in the cool of the evening with them, and therefore rather than speaking with Him directly as Adam, Eve, Cain, and Abel had, people began to communicate with Him through prayer.

Generations later, Enoch walked with God in such faith that, like Elijah, God took him straight to heaven without having to face death!  My commentary challenged us to imagine how difficult it must have been to walk with God during those years before the flood, for by the time the ark was closed, only 8 people on earth worshiped God!

Father, thank You for the godly remnant who remained faithful to You during their lifetimes, despite what was happening in the world, so that our Savior and Redeemer could come to us through them.  Help me to be a faithful part of that remnant, too, and I pray that the world will be changed by my faithfulness.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Genesis 4 -- God's Warnings and God's Mercy

Despite their choice to sin, God blessed Adam and Eve with children, and in those early days, God was still present in some physical way on earth, as evidenced by His conversations with Cain in this chapter, even after Cain sinned.  In fact, God had taught this first family to offer sacrifices to Him.  On one occasion, Cain’s brother’s sacrifice was accepted by God, but Cain’s wasn’t.  My commentary said, “Cain wasn’t rejected because of his offering, but his offering was rejected because of Cain:  his heart wasn’t right with God … Had Cain brought animal sacrifices and shed their blood, they wouldn’t have been accepted by God because of the state of Cain’s heart.”

It continued, “The Lord warned Cain that temptation was like a fierce beast crouching at the door of his life, and he had better not open the door.”  That showed that God was still concerned for Cain and trying to help him see where he was going wrong.  “Cain was envious of his brother because of his relationship with God, and yet Cain was unwilling to get right with God.”

Cain failed to heed God’s specific warnings and with premeditation he killed his brother, leading to God’s curse on him, preventing him from continuing as a farmer. “Cain never repented of his sins; his words reveal only remorse and regret … he opened the door to temptation and closed the door on his family, God, and his future.”

Yet God had mercy on him, somehow marking him with something that no human would dare to ignore, sparing Cain’s life from revenge by any of Abel’s (and Cain’s) relatives.

One idea I’d not considered or heard before showed up in my commentary, as it talked about Seth’s line, which will show up in the next chapter:  “The tragedy is that these two lines came together and merged.  The wall of separation came down, and this eventually created the wicked society whose sins brought on the judgment of the flood … by the time of the flood, only eight people believed God’s warning and acted upon it by faith.  The rest were destroyed.”

Father, all of our troubles come back to one thing:  sin.  When we choose not to listen to You and to make You the center of our lives, we are working toward our own destruction.  Please remind both my sons and me about this often.  Don’t allow Satan to blind us to this truth.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Genesis 3 -- A Temptation Is ...

This chapter is chock full of so much stuff!  My commentary says that without it, “There’d be no Bible as we know it, because the rest of Scripture documents the sad consequences of Adam’s sin and explains what God in His grace has done to rescue us.”

It said, “A temptation is an opportunity to accomplish a good thing in a bad way … in essence, Satan said to Eve, ‘I can give you something that you need and want.  You can have it now and enjoy it, and best of all, there won’t be any painful consequences.  What an opportunity!’”  That about says it all.  And there’s a sucker born every minute to believe the lie, too.

It also described how Satan operates.  He disguised himself, he questioned God’s word, and then he denied God’s Word.  “Satan leads people to the place of disobedience.  Once we start to question God’s Word, we’re prepared to deny His Word and believe Satan’s lies.  Then it’s just a short step to believing Satan’s promises and disobeying God’s commands.”

Something important:  Eve was deceived, but Adam sinned willfully with his eyes wide open, and I’ve often read that the Old Testament makes no provision for offerings to set aside willful sin.

The main attractants Satan uses to bait us are the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, and we see that in Eve’s sin – “Good for food … pleasant to the eyes … and desirable for gaining wisdom.”

God didn’t want His creation to have to know what sin was and what it felt like to commit it.  That’s why He warned them not to eat from that tree.  That was His act of love, not something He was unreasonably withholding from them.  Had He not placed that tree in the garden, though, we wouldn’t have had free choice.

Father, it’s hard to stomach how through Adam we chose Satan over You.  How Your heart must have broken by that choice.  Thank You for loving us enough to make provision for our rebellion through Your Son’s death for our sins.  Such love!

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Genesis 2 -- What Is Missing

My commentary noted that this chapter is a series of firsts:  The first Sabbath, the first home, the first covenant, and the first marriage.

God instituted the first rest but He also knew that in the way He’d created man, “to not be needed is slow death to a man.”  We naturally strive to create and tend.  God also created man with another need – not to be alone.  He then proceeded to help Adam discover that need, by parading animals with their mates before him to be named.

Something that made Adam whole was removed from him by God to create Eve.  I don’t believe it was only a rib, though, for our basic natures cause us to desire what we see in the other gender.  When Adam saw Eve, he realized that everything about her completed him.  And it was at that realization that God instituted monogamous, lifetime marriage between a man and a woman. 

Father, I pray that You will show me a woman to complete me.  In the same way, I will be completing her, too.  Lead us to find each other and to know that this has always been Your divine plan and Your will for us.  Not our will, but Yours.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Genesis 1 -- Not Really The Start Of Things

My commentary mentioned that the beginning of the Gospel of John speaks of a time incredibly older than the events that open Genesis, for Jesus, with God and the Holy Spirit, had always existed.  The Genesis story began when the Trinity decided to create.

The thing I was struck with as I reread these verses was how over the centuries scientists has worked so diligently to “prove” just how insignificant the earth appears to be in the grand scheme of things – a small planet orbiting around a nondescript sun in a “suburban” arm of just one galaxy, which is itself a small part of a vast universe.  Science also disagrees with the Bible’s timeline for creation, with their belief that the earth formed after the heavenly bodies.  But God says He formed the sun, moon, and stars for specific purposes here on earth.  There could have been only the sun and moon and earth making up this universe, but God says He added the other stars to provide light at night for us and to be used to mark the seasons.  Philosophers say this is just a human-centered hubris.  But God says otherwise, so who should we believe?

Father, Your creative genius amazes me!  Only You could start with the earth and then add the sun and all of the stars.  Only You could place fish and birds and animals all over the earth and then tell them how to multiply to fill it!  Only You could start with nothing and out of that nothingness create all that we know.  Thank You for Your generosity and Your watchcare over us.  Help us not to worship Your creation, but You alone.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Zephaniah 3 -- The Company Of The Concerned

The author of my commentary, Warren Wiersbe, saw in this chapter the great care of God over His believing remnant – those who had kept the faith despite the times they were living in.  And he relates this remnant to our current times, for the Minor Prophets are relevant for us, not just for the Jewish people.  He wrote about the company of the concerned – “a small group of people whose devotion to the Lord can make a difference in the nation … people who are truly concerned about the will of the Lord and the character of their country … people who are distressed by evil and want to do something about it … people motivated not by anger, but by anguish … as they behold the moral and spiritual decline of the nation … people who are separated from sin, but who are not isolated from the real world … they have the courage to be different and to walk the narrow road no matter what it may cost them.  They are people who pray consistently for those in authority … people who have a proper fear of God in their hearts … who will obey 2 Chronicles 7:14 and intercede for their country … who flock together and not try to do everything alone … To be sure, every local church has its weaknesses and faults, but it’s the family of God, and that’s where we belong.  Nobody was born into a perfect family … The company of the concerned realize the importance of righteousness and justice in the land … they seek to be salt and light … Remember what Edward Hale wrote:  ‘I am only one, but still I am one.  I cannot do everything, but still I can do something.  And because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do the something that I can do.’ And, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me … for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.’  It’s time to be concerned.”

Father, lift us up in Your strength to separate us from sin, to intercede with You for our country, and to be the hands and feet of Jesus to the world.  Help us to be doers of the Word and hearers only.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Zephaniah 2 -- Warnings For Today

Zephaniah had started out with words of warning to his own people.  Now, he warns the Gentile nations in all directions from Israel that judgment will come.  They will disappear and God will give their land to Israel.  All of the nations mentioned have ceased to exist, so we should pay particular attention to Zephaniah’s other prophecies!

I found something in my commentary that really personalized what I was reading:

“Even if the majority of the nation followed false gods and turned away from the Lord, God would still protect HIS OWN PRECIOUS REMNANT when the day of Judgment comes.  Zephaniah and Jeremiah … both begged the rulers to trust God and turn from sin, but the kings, officials, and priests REFUSED TO OBEY.  God would have rescued the nation at the last minute, but the leaders were insensitive to God’s call and disobedient to His Word.”

History repeats itself, and these words fairly describe our nation’s problems today.

Father, open the ears, eyes, hearts, and minds of our nation’s leadership.  Remove the blinders Satan has placed upon them.  Cause them to seek after You and to repent and obey Your Word and Your will.  Even at the last minute You will relent and save us, but not without obedience.  Thank You all the more for Your care for Your own precious remnant.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Zephaniah 1 -- Big Trouble Coming

About this book, the sidebar of my Bible says, “God does not want to destroy people or nations, but God’s moral perfection means that He cannot overlook sin.”  The Jews remembered how He had called them to be His covenant people, and for some reason they believed it didn’t matter what they did – that covenant would keep them from harm.  Their neighbors influenced them to worship Baal and Molech in addition to God.  But God will not share His glory.  Their continued refusal to listen was going to cost them dearly.  The Babylonians would be God’s invited guests at a sacrifice, and the sacrifice would be the Jews!

Zephaniah’s prophecy also heralds the great day of the Lord yet to come as well, and the destruction that will occur on that day makes the Babylonian invasion and captivity pale in comparison.  This book therefore wasn’t just for the pre-captivity Jews.  It’s for us as well.  And when we hear God say, “I will punish those who are satisfied with themselves, who think, ‘The Lord won’t help us or punish us,’” it ought to make us redouble our own efforts to rid sin from our lives, to depend solely upon Him, and to never be satisfied with our own holiness or our efforts to lead others to Christ.

Father, help me to examine my own life and remove that which is not of You.  Increase my care for the lost.  Make me passionate about helping them come to faith in Christ.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

3 John 1-15 Kinds Of People In A Church

John wrote to his friend Gaius about a people problem in his church.  Gaius wasn’t the problem.  He was an encourager who practiced practical ministry, assisting true ministers through hospitality.  My commentary listed several motivations for doing this:  It honors God, it witnesses to the lost, it’s an obligation that we have if we are obeying God, and it makes us a joint worker in furthering the gospel.

But John couldn’t say the same about Diotrephes.  He was a dictator who sought to rule the local church.  He was motivated by pride.  According to my commentary, “Many churches have members who insist on being the boss and having their own way … Sometimes it is the pastor who assumes dictatorial powers and forgets that the word minister means a servant.  But sometimes it is an officer, perhaps a longtime member of the church who thinks he or she has seniority rights … Whenever a church has a resident dictator in its membership there are bound to be problems … The Holy Spirit is grieved when the members of the body are not permitted to exercise their gifts because one member must have his own way.”

Diotrephes wouldn’t receive John, he lied about John, and he rejected John’s associates.  “To break personal fellowship with a brother because I disagree with his circle of friends is going beyond Scripture,” my commentary said.  Diotrephes even disciplined those who disagreed with him.  “Church discipline is not a weapon for a dictator to us to protect himself,” my commentary warned.

It also said that church dictators are easy to recognize.  “They like to talk about themselves and what they have done for the Lord.  They also have a habit of judging and condemning those who disagree with them.  They are experts in putting labels on other Christians and classifying them into neat little categories of their own invention.  They base their fellowship on personalities.”

But then there was Demetrius.  “He walked in the truth and obeyed the Word of God … He was a man of God and John was not ashamed to confess it … He was the kind of man who, like Gaius, would support the truth and submit himself to authentic, spiritual authority.  He was one we should emulate.”

“When God’s people love Him, the truth, and one another, then the Spirit of God can work in that assembly to glorify Jesus Christ.  But when any member of that assembly, including the pastor, becomes proud and tries to have the preeminence, then the Spirit is grieved and He cannot bless.  The church may outwardly appear successful, but inwardly it will lack the true unity of the Spirit that makes for a healthy fellowship,” my commentary said.

Father, work out Your will in our church.  Help each of us to be more like Gaius and Demetrius.  Deal with any Diotrephes we may have, so that Your Spirit will not be grieved and can still bless our fellowship!

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

2 John 1-13 Truth In Love, Love In Truth

My commentary explained that “the truth” is “a subjective experience in our personal lives.  We cannot only know the truth, but we can live in the truth and live for truth’s sake.”  The false teachers of that time were trying to say they had “new information” and Christians could easily get sucked into it, thinking God was giving new revelations.  But John said they weren’t telling the truth about the Truth.

I loved this:  “God is not at war with lost sinners; it is sinners who are at war with God.  God had been reconciled to sinners because of Christ’s work on the cross.  Now sinners must repent and be reconciled to God by faith in Jesus Christ.”

John also told us that walking in the truth means “to obey it, to permit it to control every area of our lives … Each commandment is an expression of love and not simply law.  The will of God is the revelation of God’s heart, not just His mind.  Consequently, obedience to His Word should be a revelation of our love, not an expression of fear … The greatest freedom is in obedience to God’s perfect will.  No believer who loves God would ever consider His commandments to be harsh and unbearable.”

Abiding in the truth also means opposing error.  The false teachers had come from the church.  “It takes constant spiritual vigilance to protect a family or a local church from the insidious attacks of false teachers,” my commentary said.  We don’t even want to be hospitable to false teachers because “they will use every opportunity they can to secure the endorsement of true Christians.”

Father, please help truth to reign through Christ in my life and in my home.  Help my family to understand that we cannot live in the world without guarding our lives from false teachings.  Remind us of our witness and that who we run around with can spoil it quickly.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford