January - Day 8

If you are reading through this and wondering what reading plan I am doing, you can find it at www.gf.church/biblereading.  There are links to two reading plans - Whole Bible in a Year and New Testament in a year.  I am doing the former.  I would love for you to join us as we journey through scripture this year!

Here are a few thoughts from my reading this morning. 

Genesis 21 - The chapter starts by saying the God did exactly what he said he would do for Sarah. We must remember that God is a God of truth and will always do exactly what he says he will do.  Then I thought it was funny that Sarah said - all who hears that God gave Abraham a son in his old age will laugh with us.  Humans finds what God is capable of "laughable."  God is Able.  Then in Genesis 22, Abraham obeys God even though he doesn't know how it will work out, he is confident that God will provide.  This goes along with the them of Mega Faith that God wants us to have.  Faith stories follow faith steps.  If you never take faith steps, you will never get to tell faith stories.  Let me say that again for those in the back - if you never take faith steps, you will never tell faith stories... this feels like it could turn into a message sometime.

Psalm 8 - God's glory is evident in all creation.  I think it is important for us to remind ourselves that God is God and we are not.  We do not compare to his greatness.

Matthew 4:17 - Jesus' call to us, and the repeated theme throughout the new testament - repent of sin and turn to God.  Following God requires change.  

Acts 5:4 - I'm not sure why Ananias and Saphira Lied, but maybe they just wanted to appear more Godly than they were.  They wanted to use their faith to impress people.  Faith is meant to point people to God's goodness, not our own.  Their appearance of faith was fake - it was a lie.  Fake faith is futile.  God is truth and truth brings life.  Lies lead to death.  
Then towards the end of Acts, people brought the sick into the streets so that Peter's shadow could fall on them.  I'm not sure if that helped or not, but I do know this - the more God fills us with His Holy Spirit, the more the Power of His spirit in us and through us will spill out on those around us.