This week we will explore Genesis 21:1-34, Faithfulness According to God.
FINALLY! After many, many years and many, many heartaches and doubts, Isaac (aka Laughter) finally arrives!
Sarah is overjoyed! She sings in amazement at God's faithfulness!
Abraham is overwhelmed. He holds his son in his arms with unfathomable awe.
But all is not well.
Isaac's birth brings turmoil into the family. While Sarah laughs with joy, Ishmael and Hagar laugh in mockery.
Abraham is caught in the middle.
Genesis 21 is a chapter filled with laughter and anger, joy and heartbreak, delight and desperation.
Just like most of our lives today.
But God remains faithful! Through the ups and downs of life, He is the steady Rock. His goodness gives us reason to rejoice, His power carries us through times of pain, His mercy meets us in our desperation, and His peace gives us peace.
In the midst of the storms and the waves of emotion, may our eyes be fixed on Him!

This week we will explore Genesis 20:1-18, Providence According to God.
Abraham is growing in his relationship with God. In Genesis 18, we see him welcoming God into his home, showing great humility and worship, interceding for the city of Sodom, and receiving the greatest news that he could receive... that his wife, Sarah, would bear a son in a year's time.
He seems to be the model of faith.
But then, in chapter 20, Abraham fails again.
Out of his fear and unbelief, he falls right back into an old sin. He lies about his true relationship to Sarah and jeopardizes her and the promise of God.
It is a reminder to us all that let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall (1 Corinthians 10:12).
Old patterns of sin have a way of resurfacing whenever we are stressed, depressed, bored, annoyed, or just distracted from our fixed gaze on Jesus Christ.
Abraham fails. Again. But God remains faithful. Always.
God's providence superintends over all events. His grace is always operational. His sovereignty is always in control. His faithfulness is always our comfort and our rock in difficult times.
Even in this predicament, God is at work.
And even in this pagan land, God is on the move.
We can rest in the providence of God!
May God protect us from the sin that so easily entangles and empower us to walk with Him day by day for His glory and our good!
This Sunday, we will celebrate communion together as fellow partakers of God's grace!

This week we will explore Genesis 19:17-38, Tragedy According to God.
Lot's story is tragic.
He began well. He was blessed. He was loved. He was joined to Abraham in family and friendship. He was enjoying the goodness of God.
But the world's lure was too strong.
His eyes were attracted to the wealth, popularity, and carefree lifestyle of Sodom.
Slowly, step by step, he moved closer and closer to its worldview, its values, and its temptations.
Soon he and his family were fully engulfed in the city life of Sodom.
When two angels arrive to announce God's judgment on the city, Lot is caught in the middle. He is literally torn between the lusts of Sodom and the life of his family. He freezes. He falters. He fails.
He loses it all.
This week we will explore the second half of Genesis 19. We will look at the historical and archeological evidence for the destruction of Sodom, the reality of God's judgment, the danger of the world's influence, and the amazing, redeeming grace of God.
May God open our eyes to His truth so that we will not be conformed to the world but transformed by the renewing of our minds!

This week we will explore Genesis 19:1-16, Compromise According to God.
Lot's story is tragic.
He began well. He was blessed. He was loved. He was joined to Abraham in family and friendship. He was enjoying the goodness of God.
But the world's lure was too strong.
His eyes were attracted to the wealth, popularity, and carefree lifestyle of Sodom.
Slowly, step by step, he moved closer and closer to its worldview, its values, and its temptations.
Soon he and his family were fully engulfed in the city life of Sodom.
When two angels arrive to announce God's judgment on the city, Lot is caught in the middle. He is literally torn between the lusts of Sodom and the life of his family. He freezes. He falters. He fails.
He loses it all.
This week we will explore the first half of Genesis 19. We will look at Lot's slow conformity to the world, his futility in trying to protect his family, and the depravity and sexual immorality of the city around him.
May God open our eyes to His truth so that we will not be conformed to the world but transformed by the renewing of our minds!

This week we will explore Genesis 18:16-33, Intercession According to God.
In Genesis 18, God not only reveals the miraculous birth of Isaac to Abraham and Sarah but He also reveals the impending judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah.
Abraham is certainly aware of the sins of Sodom. His nephew, Lot, has been living in Sodom for some time and Abraham has even rescued the people of Sodom from their captivity to four eastern kings. So he is not ignorant of the city's sin, rebellion, and depravity.
But he still has a great concern for Lot, Lot's family, and the people in the city.
So when God reveals His intent to judge, Abraham immediately stands in the gap and intercedes.
Abraham's prayer for the people of Sodom reveals his heart.
A.W. Pink once said, "The measure of our love for others can largely be determined by the frequency and earnestness of our prayers for them."
It is a quote that has always convicted me and challenged me. If my prayers for others is weak or non-existent, then it reveals that my heart toward them is cold.
There are a lot of principles on prayer that we can learn from Genesis 18. We will explore these principles on Sunday and spend some time in confession, intercession, and supplication for one another, for our church, and for our city.
May our love for Christ and for others grow so that our prayers to Christ and for others will grow as well!

This week we will explore Genesis 18:1-15, Laughter According to God.
Have you ever noticed that there are different kinds of laughs?
There is the laugh of joy. The laugh of entertainment. The laugh of mockery. And the laugh of disbelief, usually a quiet laugh, under the breath, accompanied by a slight shaking of the head.
In Genesis 18, God visits Abraham and Sarah. He shows up in human form. He comes to talk with them and even to receive their hospitality and to share a meal.
It is a fascinating scene. Almost hard to imagine.
Can you imagine the sovereign God of the universe stopping by your house for a meal of steak, biscuits, butter, and milk?
God visits Abraham in order to give Sarah the confirmation that she would indeed bear a son.
Sarah laughs.
Not a loud, gut-shaking laugh.
No, just one of those inward, shaking of the head, kind of laughs. The kind of laugh you might have if someone told you that the LSU men's basketball team was going to win the SEC tournament and then go on to win the national championship. "Yeah, right." (snicker, snicker)
Sarah laughs because her heart and mind have faced too much disappointment, too much doubt, too much heartbreak to grasp at the fading hope of a child.
In some sense she can't even allow her heart to believe the Word of God because she can't take the thought of another painful disappointment.
I think many of us are just like Sarah. We hear the Word of God. We hear the promises of God. We hear the hope of the future. But our circumstances and pain are just too great to know how to respond. We want to believe but there is something in us that just wants to shake our head in quiet disbelief.
But God's Word is the only thing that is certain in this world.
And even in our quiet struggles to believe, God still remains faithful to His promise.
And one day all of our quiet laughs of struggle and doubt will be replaced with the joyous laugh of praise and wonder.
Hallelujah!
May God open our hearts to receive His Word...and to believe His promise!

This Sunday, February 23 (9am, 10:45am), we will have a special Sunday with Walt Heyer and Dr. Jennifer Bauwens on the topic of Embracing God's Design.
This week we will explore Genesis 17:1-27, Names According to God.
What is your name? How did you get it? What does it mean?
We all have names...and stories behind our names. Sometimes we like them, sometimes we don't.
In Genesis 17, God changes Abram and Sarai's names. Linguistically it is not a big change. Abram and Abraham are pretty close in meaning, so are Sarai and Sarah. But there is a world of difference in the significance.
Abram and Sarai are names given to them by their earthly fathers.
Abraham and Sarah are names given to them by their heavenly Father.
God declares to them their identity and their destiny.
The Abrahamic Covenant assures Abraham and Sarah that despite their failures and mistakes, God's faithfulness and love remain the same. God will bless them. He will multiply their descendants. He will give them the land. He will be their God for all generations.
As a sign of the covenant, God calls Abraham and all males in his household to be circumcised.
That seems like a strange sign of the covenant?! The rainbow seems a lot better
But God has meaning in this act. It is the dedication of the most intimate part of myself to Him. It is a picture of the cutting away of the flesh and the need for a new heart.
There's a lot to cover in Genesis 17! But, praise God, we also learn in this chapter that He is El Shaddai. He is all-sufficient and all-powerful. He is more than enough!
And we will celebrate communion together as a reminder that we are part of His New Covenant with us!
May we come to a deeper understanding of who we are in Christ and may we know our true name in Him!

This week we will explore Genesis 16:1-16, Failure According to God.
Have you ever failed?
Or perhaps a more important question...
Have you ever felt like a failure?
Deep down we all want life to work. We want to succeed in our plans. We want to feel secure, to be significant, to fulfill God's purpose for us.
But life often doesn't happen that way. Disappointments, discouragement, doubts, mistakes, fears, sorrows, confusion, conflict, loss of control...all have a way of confronting us with our own weakness and sense of failure.
Genesis 16 records the low point in the faith of Abram and Sarai.
They are tired. They are broken. They are confused.
Life is not shaping up the way that they expected. And God's promises seem like a carrot on a stick... always just out of their reach.
In their pain, Sarai decides to take matters into her own hands...while Abram grows increasingly passive and takes a backseat.
A young Egyptian servant by the name of Hagar is stuck in the middle.
In trying to fix a problem, Abram and Sarai create a mess.
Yet, even in their failures, God's faithfulness remains the same.
He is the God who sees.
He sees our deepest sorrows and failures and loves us still the same.
May God minister to the depths of our hearts like only He can do. And may we come to a deeper and deeper understanding of His incomprehensible compassion and grace!