Renewal

God continued, I am The Strong God. Have children! Flourish! A nation—a whole company of nations!— will come from you. Kings will come from your loins; the land I gave Abraham and Isaac I now give to you, and pass it on to your descendants. (Genesis 35:11, 12 MSG)

One of the most interesting things about reading the story of the Patriarchs in Genesis is the fact that with each succeeding generation, God always renews His covenant. He is faithful to people who are unfaithful to Him and to each other: they lie, cheat, steal, and withhold good from one another. Yet God stays true to His original promise.

How can this be? Does God wink at sin or overlook grievances? No! He sees these grievances, and works in spite of them. Many times, we read where Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are not wholly obedient to God's commands. Yet He is fully obedient to His promise. I don't normally play the "What if?" game while reading Scripture, but I do wonder sometimes just how much easier things would have been for these men had they been 100% obedient from the first time God spoke to them.

So it is with us. With each generation, God's promise of blessing and offer of salvation is renewed and available. It really began with Adam, was clearly laid out with Abraham, and is still freshly renewed daily 6,000 years later. Where will I live today? In God's blessing or outside of it?

Conceived in iniquity

You're the One I've violated, and you've seen it all, seen the full extent of my evil. You have all the facts before you; whatever you decide about me is fair. I've been out of step with you for a long time, in the wrong since before I was born. What you're after is truth from the inside out. Enter me, then; conceive a new, true life. (Psalm 51:4-6 MSG)

This past weekend I was able to travel back to my hometown for a few days. A little over a year ago, my paternal grandmother passed away. She was quite an interesting character, and led a pretty interesting life. She was always a writer of sorts, and wrote a lot of short stories, histories, etc., on her old Remington typewriter.

One morning my dad handed me four sheets of paper and said, "Read this." So, I sat down and ready through it. It was my grandmother Frankie's biography in four pages. (All other things aside, it takes a great writer to squeeze 70 years and a lot of information into 4 pages.) I have noted previously that my grandmother was quite the character, and have heard a lot of stories by and about her. I had these as my background as I read about her life.

I learned quite a few things I didn't know: she was a seamstress, had worked as a reporter, and had a dream of building a high fashion dress shop and passing it down to her daughter. I also saw that she glossed over quite a bit, such as her divorces and affairs. But you know what surprised me the most? The fact that my great grandparents had divorced and had the first custody battle in Coke county, Texas over her in 1928.

It impressed upon me that God's mercies are way greater than I've ever imagined. As an independent minded free thinking "Texan American", I've always known about personal responsibility. And I always thought that your personal sins are what you deal with when you ask God for forgiveness and believe in Jesus. But that's just not how God's economy works. Because of Adam everyone is condemned to death. Scripture even tells us that God blesses those who love him and keep his commandments to the 1,000th generation, but he remembers the sins of a father to the 3rd and 4th generation.

But there's much more to it than that: we are the products of our ancestry, and bear the sins of our predecessors. Oh, I've heard the tales about my grandmother (and the rest of my family), but for some reason I've always felt like I came from a "good family." In four pages of glossed-over autobiography, I realized that not only am I guilty of sin, but I come from a long line of sinners.
How can I escape the wrath of a Holy God? Only through the one man who sacrificed to take away our sins. The only one who was perfect, and gave a greater gift than the sin: Jesus Christ.

Millionaires

There's a quote that says, "If if we could sell our experiences for what they cost, we'd all be millionaires." by Abigail Van Buren

Earlier today I watched a short video posted by one of my students. It was titled "Life" or something like that. It was a bunch of scenes of city life, art venues, nature scenes, things like tha. It was narrated by someone whose voice sounded wise. The entire monologue was about students graduating from college and not knowing what to do with their lives.

His advice to them was to choose what they'd do if money didn't matter and follow that. It wasn't necessarily a "follow your heart" speech, but it was a "do what makes you happy" speech. He made a big point concerning the fact that money doesn't matter, but happiness does.

It's easy to see that money doesn't matter. Millionaires spend fortunes on therapists, celebrities cover their misery with drugs, star athletes burn theirselves out with lies, and poll after poll "discovers" that people aren't satisfied no matter how much they make. A life chasing happiness is a wasted life; only a life with purpose matters.

And how do we find purpose? By finding wisdom. Proverbs tells us to trade silver and gold to buy wisdom and to get insight. But how exactly do we get wisdom? If scores of college students are seeking help after attaining a degree, is there hope for anyone? YES! We find purpose by finding wisdom, and we find wisdom in the Lord!

Job 28:23-28 Fear-of-the-Lord: that's wisdom! "God alone knows the way to Wisdom, he knows the exact place to find it. He knows where everything is on earth, he sees everything under heaven. After he commanded the winds to blow and measured out the waters, Arranged for the rain and set off explosions of thunder and lightning, He focused on Wisdom, made sure it was all set and tested and ready. Then he addressed the human race: 'Here it is! Fear-of-the-Lord—that's Wisdom, and Insight means shunning evil.'" (Job 28:23-28 MSG)

Guilty As Charged

They say people who sleep with their pets consistently speak of a lack of rest. Guilty as charged. Pete and Dapple sleep with us (me, really). I like to say that it's for survival; that we sleep together for warmth because Kara keeps the house so cold! In reality though, every pet I've had that could fit in the bed with me slept with me. Even when I was little our dogs would sneak down the hall to my room late at night. It probably had something to do with the fact that I was the late night snacking night owl of my family, but I like to think it was because they liked me.

Either way, 34 years later our pets sleep with me. If you asked, I'd tell you that more nights than not they disturb my sleep. Pushing me with their paws, crawling on me to find a cooler spot, sticking their cold noses on me for warmth, scratching, flapping their ears, the list is endless. Every night about 3am one of them wakes me up by licking me or flapping their ears so I'll take them outside to use the restroom.

Maybe it's because of my early experiences, but I'm a weather watcher. Night after night, I watch the clouds, the stars, the wind. I feel the humidity, sense the wind, check the moon's phase, all the little things like that. I enjoy watching the stars move, the moon cycle, and the skies change through the seasons. I enjoy the cold snap of winter, the slight muggy warmth of spring, the heat of summer, and the cool hint of fall. But it's the cold clear nights that impress me. The stars seem so clear, so perfect hanging in the dark blue night sky.

But appearances are deceptive. The stars may look perfect, but they aren't. Not when they're compared to God. If the stars that seem so cold, so perfect, are flawed in God's eyes, what hope do we have? As we look to space, we are forced to feel our smallness, our finiteness that can't save us.

Bildad the Shuhite again attacked Job: "God is sovereign, God is fearsome— everything in the cosmos fits and works in his plan. Can anyone count his angel armies? Is there any place where his light doesn't shine? How can a mere mortal presume to stand up to God? How can an ordinary person pretend to be guiltless? Why, even the moon has its flaws, even the stars aren't perfect in God's eyes, So how much less, plain men and women— slugs and maggots by comparison!" (Job 25:1-6 MSG)

Mine is Better Than Yours

Out of the past 14 days, I've spent 5 back in Odessa, TX. That's more time there than I've spent in a few years. Throughout 2012 I spent almost a full month in Georgia. So much so that I began to like sweet tea, want biscuits with meals, and look for dessert after every meal. (I don't know that I'll ever like white cheese dip, though!)!While a lot rubbed off on me and I've grown to appreciate Southern culture, I will never remove the desert's mark on me.

The first thing we did when we arrived in Odessa was go out for steaks. (Thank you Mom.) I had become accustomed to the hickory and pecan flavor of southern grills, and the first bite was a shock of mesquite smoke. I don't know how I ever convinced myself that sweet woods and barbecue were so good. One bite of the delicious-yet-harsh, slightly acrid taste of mesquite smoked meat and I shed all my delusions. I am a West Texas man.

I love it. Not just the independent mindset, the make-it-against-all-odds, Western mentality, but the desert itself. It has such stark beauty. You can see the horizons, dotted with pumpjacks, windmills, and rigs. The brown and red hues, the blue sky, white clouds, and the greens that come with Spring rains. The desert is harsh, and full of harsh scenery. It doesn't hide behind trees and leaves, but shows itself for what it truly is: rugged, harsh, and beautiful.

It rubs off on the people. Good people, hard-working and generous. A little too honest for some. People who know common sense as opposed to media spins or philosophical viewpoints. Friendly people who know where they stand and who they are. The desert won't let you hide. It's barrenness doesn't allow room to fool yourself into thinking that comforts will always be available, but reminds you they only come from hard work.

You can't mistake it, and you can't fake it. Not everyone likes it, and that's okay. Regions are different for a reason, and they're all cool! Not just because God separated us with the Tower of Babel, but because of the creativity that is shown in each region's food, language, and landscape. Romans 1:20 lays it out in plain language: For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God. (Romans 1:20 NLT)

OCD

Have you ever wondered if God is really in control? When the bottom drops out and everything goes wrong, we naturally do one of two things: blame God or ask Him "Why?" Every action we take in crises falls into one of these categories. We realize that we are not in control of even the smallest things, and it frightens us. We have to perform a gut check and ask ourselves, "What do I trust?" It's really, "Whom do I trust?"

The more life experience I gain, the less I trust people. They will let you down, lie to you, promise things and not follow through, and sometimes seek to harm you. And these are the people you know with good intentions! So who can you trust? Yourself? Your efforts, hard work, knowledge? Once again, we come to a conclusion: our efforts can be swept away by one small tragedy. All the money, discipline, and walls we build to protect ourselves can come crashing down in a second.

Job experienced this. His entire family and assets disappeared in a flash. He begins by defending himself and pointing to all of his good works as his friends work to convince him to come clean before God, to confess his sins and be given back his life. As his argument develops, he moves from defense to despair. If death is all that awaits man at the end of life, there is no hope! He begins to ask and look for a redeemer beyond himself to stand before God. Job wants a champion.

Job is brought to the end of himself, and finds he has nothing. We've all been there when we realize life can have its way with us and we have no say. We need a champion, a redeemer. We cannot trust ourselves? So who can we trust? The only one powerful enough to control life. The only one powerful enough to save us from ourselves and our control issues. We have to trust God!

Genesis

In 2011, after years of reading Scripture and spending time in meditation almost every day, I decided to read the Bible from cover to cover. In a way that made sense: chronologically. Not only did a lot of things tie themselves together, but my life changed. For the better.

However, after reading through the Bible in a year, I was ready for some focused reading. Following the kiss system, I chose Proverbs for 2012. 31 chapters, 31 days in a month (mostly). My life changed again. For the better. Even my own Dad commented on the change. He didn't know what I was doing, which was GREAT encouragment!

While I loved reading Proverbs and focusing on the application side of Scripture, I missed constantly immersing myself in the mega-story of Yahweh. Watch all the action movies and read epic after epic, but you won't find anything better. (Most of it's even biblically based even if the authors never intended it!) So I find myself going back to the Chronological reading plan this year.

This morning I read Genesis 1-11 in The Message with the expectation of learning something. I learned 6 things: 1) God speaks- throughout the first eleven chapters, God speaks constantly: to himself, to man, to creation, etc.... He's a communicator. 2) Satan speaks- and he's got a different message than God. 3) Man is capable of knowing everything- both good and evil. Which means we can choose one or the other.  4) Integrity goes a long way with God- it's what saved Noah. 5) Since the Fall, we're evil from day one. And God knows it, but still holds back his wrath. He even says it in Genesis 8:20-21. 6) It we don't do well, sin is lying in wait for us. We have to master it, or it masters us.

While I do believe we're saved by grace alone, there is an idea of work seen throughout the Genesis story- hard work. After the Fall, Adam goes from tending a garden to tending the soil. Cain's warning by God implies works and actions. "If you do well, won't you be accepted? And if you don't do well, sin is lying in wait for you, ready to pounce; it's out to get you, you've got to master it." 4:6-7 We are responsible for our actions- so let's "do well."