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