Sep 27

The Promise of Deliverance

Exodus 12:1-13; 13:1-8

The time between Exodus 1 and 12 is more than 80 years.  The people of Israel were groaning under the burden of their taskmasters.  Their cries were heard by God.  There was the hope in this special child that was taken from the Nile River by the princess.  But the slavery continued.  When Moses was 40, he thought he could do something to deliver his people, but he failed miserably.  And the oppression continued.  At age 80, Moses returned with the word of the Lord to “Let my people go!”  Then things even got worse.  Nine plagues had to be endured, and so did the harshness of the taskmasters.

Sometimes we feel God is not working because it does not meet our schedule.  As we look around, we see our troubles, our anxieties, our problems, yet so often fail to see God’s working behind the scenes to bring about his deliverance.

God delivers Israel with a mighty hand from the Egyptians.  This deliverance changes everything.  It also means going into the desert.  Our expectations are often very different than the reality of God’s deliverance.  Ultimately God’s promise of “a land flowing with milk and honey” is fulfilled, but in God’s own way and for God’s own purposes.

Pastor Greg

Sep 12

Outlandish Promises

Genesis 15:1-6

We have a term, “Hedge your bets.”  This term means that we must have a contingency if our plans do not work out the way we would like.  God does not hedge his bets.  Instead of couching his promises in “if’s” and “probably’s,” God makes his promises in the most outlandish of promises.

This week we take up God’s outlandish promise to Abram in Genesis 15.  It was not a promise couched in my grandmother’s favorite, “If the creek don’t rise,” but it was the biggest comparison in the mind of Abraham, the same number as the stars in the sky.  And God made sure that Abram understood that God was the only one responsible in fulfilling the promise, “since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself.”

When we face the promises of God in the light of so many “realities” of our world, we are tempted to give up.  That’s why God tells Abram to “fear not.”  When we see that term in the Bible, we are about to be told good news.  Bad news comes after “woe unto you.” 

Don’t give up on the promises of God.  We have a God that delights in making outlandish promises to his people.  Abram, later renamed Abraham, confronted what he only saw as a hopeless situation, embraced God’s promise, and the Lord counted his faith in the promises as righteousness. 

Pastor Greg

Sep 06

The Snake and the Apple

Genesis 2:4-7, 15-17; 3:1-8

This Sunday we begin our preaching year. I enjoy the Narrative Lectionary
because it pays attention to the development of God’s story in a chronological
order. With the theme “Promises, Promises” as we develop the Old Testament
texts, we can see the attribute of God as the Promise-making and Promise-keeping God. And because we have that kind on God, we can live our lives with the assurances of the certainty of God’s promises.
This Sunday we hear the strange story of a talking snake and a forbidden fruit.
Though God does not make a specific promise within this story, God does tell
humans the consequences of their actions. We cannot call God unfair because we experience the conditions God warned about in this metaphorical account of
humans’ choices to obey God or not.
As we go into this passage, let us pay attention to the lessons given to us here; the understanding of ourselves and the way we fit into the created order; then the responsibility that comes to us when we have the knowledge of good and evil.
As we understand the promises of God, we grow in our relationship with God.
Prayer is one of the vital ways to deepen that relationship. So, continue to be a part of our prayer journaling as a congregation. Pick up your copy of the prayer journal and the prayer guide in the foyer.
Pastor Greg

Aug 29

Promises!  Promises!

  “(H)e has granted to us his precious and very great promises” (2 Peter 1:4)
This fall, our theme for the church services will be “Promises!  Promises!” as we consider the stories of men and women in the Old Testament that were given the promises of God.  The purpose of these messages will be to help us grow in our trust and dependency of our God that makes precious promises to us.

One way to increase our trust is to exercise us in prayer.  I have provided each person a personal journal for us to use in this exercise.  Weekly I will distribute an aid that will include daily readings that promote the lesson text and some exercises for the development of our prayer lives.  Also, I want to encourage us to experiment with prayer.  We will try different types of prayer, approaches to prayer, and places of prayer.  I would like us to use creative efforts in this prayer emphasis.  But in all this, remember that prayer is just talking to God and listening to God.

 A copy of this week’s prayer sheet is on our website (link is on the left hand side column), and we will have a link on our Facebook page.  If you need it another way, I would be glad to get it to you.

I am excited about this adventure as a church body, and hope it develops a deeper experience for you in prayer.

Pastor Greg