Genesis Day 30: God does not give up on you—even when you are as good as dead
Genesis Day 30: God does not give up on you—even when you are as good as dead

here is this inner (spoiled) child in me that shouts, “I want it now!” How about you? Now before you tell me you are not like that; can I just point out how “two-day free shipping” has become the norm? For a quick up-charge, you can have it tomorrow!

Then there are the drive-thru lines. Are you good at waiting in them? Do you have an internal clock that at some point starts alarming because your personally established 45-second wait limit has been violated? Don’t believe me? Time yourself next trip through.

Today I want to ask you to observe that Abram’s five encounters with God cover 24 years. In each encounter God is making the same promise—and He has yet to fulfill it…

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Books of the BibleDavid J CollumGenesis Day 30, Genesis 17, Abram, Abraham, Genesis
Genesis Day 29: Sometimes you hear a plan, and you just know that nothing good can come of it
Genesis Day 29: Sometimes you hear a plan, and you just know that nothing good can come of it

As you read Genesis 16, did you just get a sense, “This is not a good plan”? I did. I don’t care that it was 4,000 years ago. And even if you ignore the fact that God promised Abram… and Abram said he believed… and then Abram asked how he would know… and God did that “cut the animals in half thing”…

Even if you ignore all that, you just have a sense that this (sleeping with your wife’s maidservant) is not a good idea.

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Books of the BibleDavid J CollumGenesis 16, Genesis Day 29, Abram, Hagar, Genesis
Genesis day 28: My favorite verses of the Bible
Genesis day 28: My favorite verses of the Bible

Okay…straight out teaching…I just have to do it! I love these verses. First off, just yesterday I am gushing all over Abram and how he is believing God and how God is counting Abram a righteous. I went “on and on” about belief. And then we come to Abram saying, “How will I know…” Really? Isn’t this the same thing as “Help me believe”? Not quite. There is a difference.

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Books of the BibleDavid J CollumGenesis Day 28, Genesis 15, Abram, Genesis
Genesis Day 27: The power of your belief
Genesis Day 27: The power of your belief

“Believe in yourself!” This mantra is a favorite for coaches seeking to encourage, cajole, and use whatever means they can find, to help their protégé excel.

To be sure, self-confidence goes a long way to success. Not too many people stood at the start of a race and said, “I’m going to lose”—and then actually won. I’m sure there are exceptions, but more winners began with a positive outlook.

The point: belief is powerful.

Today, I want to invite us to ponder the power of Genesis 15:6. Abram believed—God noticed. In fact, God “counted it to him as righteousness”.

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Books of the BibleDavid J CollumGenesis 15, Genesis Day 27, Belief, Abram, Genesis
Genesis Day 26: Our motivation is tightly linked to our hoped-for reward
Genesis Day 26: Our motivation is tightly linked to our hoped-for reward

After you accomplish something really hard, what do you hope for?

For some it is the satisfaction of a job well done. For others it is a simple pat on the back by your boss. Perhaps it is a bonus or pay raise. Maybe a trophy. The list is long.

Why do I bring this up? Because in Genesis chapter 14, beyond all the names (which are meant to ground us in the fact that a war really happened), we see Abram not wanting an excessive reward. Why?

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Books of the BibleDavid J CollumGenesis Day 26, Genesis 14, Abram, Genesis
Genesis Day 25: The one thing to stay connected to God
Genesis Day 25: The one thing to stay connected to God

Management gurus study what makes people successful. The goal is to learn and share the lessons, so we can all be more effective. Throughout the years, while there have been a variety of lessons and techniques identified, Focus and Discipline consistently appear.

It is not that successful people never get off-track. They (we) all do. It is that they know what their Focus is supposed to be, and they have the Discipline to ask if they are indeed focused! (Harvard Business Review, What to Ask the Person in the Mirror, reprint R0701H)

The same is true with our walk with God. In Chapter 13 we see the One Thing we need to do to stay connected with God!

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Books of the BibleDavid J CollumGenesis Day 25, Genesis 13, Discipline, Focus, Genesis
Genesis Day 24: God doesn’t need you to be Wonder Woman or Superman
Genesis Day 24: God doesn’t need you to be Wonder Woman or Superman

Nowadays, most TV and Movie superheroes have human character flaws. Not so when I was growing up. My superheroes were perfect! That had (and ridiculously continues to have) an effect on me. I have unrealistic expectations for myself—and somehow think everyone else has these expectations—not just including God—but especially God. Up until recently, writers for centuries would present heroes to be super-terrific people. They would wax over their flaws. It is why I love the Bible. It presents real people: complete, with all their warts. The people of the Bible remind me of me.

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Books of the BibleDavid J CollumGenesis Day 24, Genesis 12, Abram, Perfectionism, Genesis
How do I follow the Holy Spirit?
How do I follow the Holy Spirit?

“But God told me to do it!” Thoughts about how and when God leads:

We’ve all heard the news reports: someone carries out a horrific act, and then claims that God told them to do it. Now we know that it wasn’t God, but somewhere along the way, God’s reputation, and the reputation of the Church, takes a hit. People who don’t believe in God note that we, Jesus’ followers, are crazy and one-step away from making our own horrific news story.

Add to this situation our own real dilemma. How do we make decisions? How do we know when God is leading, as compared to when we are possibly projecting our desires on God?

So, just how do we navigate the big and small decisions of our lives? How do we hear His voice? How do we know His voice?

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Scripture and LifeDavid J CollumSix Steps, Hearing God's voice, Holy Spirit
Genesis Day 23: When God says go
Genesis Day 23: When God says go

“I think God is leading me to be a pastor” I informed my wife. Her response: “Funny, God hasn’t talked to me about it!”

Her next question: “So, how long has God been talking to you about this?” After a big gulp, I said, “About a year.”

Now, as an aside, here is a tip for husbands—don’t wait a year to tell your wife this kind of news.

But what do you do when you are trying to determine whether it is God’s voice, or simply those really old leftovers in the fridge that you ate last night, telling you do something crazy?

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Books of the BibleDavid J CollumGenesis Day 23, Genesis 12, Abram, Decisions, Hearing God's voice, Genesis
Genesis Day 22: Not another list!
Genesis Day 22: Not another list!

By this point, I am not sure if I find the list a break from some of the global catastrophes, or not. Regardless, we have another list. At times in my reading, I welcome passages like this one. They give me a bit of a break. They slow me down. They let me ponder the text. Pondering lets me move from information to understanding. And I don’t know about you, but I don’t want more Bible information, I would rather have such deep understanding, that my life is transformed by God. So, what is God up to in chapter 11?

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Books of the BibleDavid J CollumGenesis 11, Genesis Day 22, Lists, Genesis
Genesis Day 21: Learning from God
Genesis Day 21: Learning from God

If you pause for a moment, you will notice that we have gone from a world-ending flood to a ginormous earth-shaking-language-confusing-event of sorts, that has scattered humanity across the globe.  The Bible is like summer blockbuster movie season! I write that not to be derogatory towards God’s Word, but to point out that you should not be finding this story boring… quite the opposite! More than entertainment, what might you and I be gaining from our reading in Genesis 11?

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Books of the BibleDavid J CollumGenesis Day 21, Genesis 11, Tower of Babel, Genesis
Genesis Day 20: Why does the Bible have all these lists of people?
Genesis Day 20: Why does the Bible have all these lists of people?

I know, I know, you are trying to read Genesis and keep up with these posts—and then you hit another list of names here in Genesis 10. You’re thinking, “Didn’t I just read one of these?” Answer: Yes. Yes, you did. Beyond reading them, it is pronouncing those names. The question might be, “Do we really have to bother with them?” There are at least two quick reasons I can offer you to read these lists.

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Books of the BibleDavid J CollumGenesis 10, Genesis Day 20, Genesis
Genesis Day 19: When you’re reading the Bible, do you ever think, “That’s just weird”?
Genesis Day 19: When you’re reading the Bible, do you ever think, “That’s just weird”?

If you have been reading along, you may be concluding I am one of those “Bible people”—yeah, I am. After all, I just told you I believe the Flood really happened. Here’s the deal. If I am going to take that sort of a stand, then I better be willing to deal with some of the strange parts of the Bible—like the verses we read today. So just what is going on in this part of Genesis 9? Noah proclaims a curse for what Ham did to him because he “uncovered his nakedness” or “saw his father’s nakedness.” The tricky thing about that is how best to understand what this phrase means.

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Books of the BibleDavid J CollumGenesis Day 19, Genesis 9, Ham, Noah, Curse of Ham, Genesis
Genesis Day 18: Family first – family always
Genesis Day 18: Family first – family always

I am a dad. My shortcomings are ever-present in my mind. Please, don’t try and talk me out of them. Partly it is how I am wired: seeing what could have been and lamenting what wasn’t. Partly it is this “bit in me” that wants to not duck my responsibility. Partly it is being raised on TV shows that portrayed families in such an idyllic way, that my sense of reality is warped. (Right now you are probably thinking you need to pray for my wife—you should.) I have written about family before, here, and here, and here, and here… Family is important. Noah and his three sons begin the human family again—or do they?

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Books of the BibleDavid J CollumGenesis 9, Genesis Day 18, Family, Noah, Covenant
Genesis Day 17: Getting ashore on solid footing
Genesis Day 17: Getting ashore on solid footing

I sailed in the Merchant Marines. When I first went to sea, I had to “get my sea legs” which is a polite way of saying that I did not get sea sick. It takes some getting used to, being at sea. I remember my first time on dry land after a 20-day crossing—it was a weird sensation, walking around and not having a ship move under my feet. Today we read about Noah and his crew coming ashore, on solid ground—and what’s the first thing they do? Thank God!

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Books of the BibleDavid J CollumGenesis Day 17, Genesis 8, Genesis 9, Noah, The flood
Genesis Day 16: How do you read your Bible?
Genesis Day 16: How do you read your Bible?

Why do I ask how you read your Bible? Because how you read/interpret your Bible will have a lot to do with how you process the Bible’s first chapters (which we just read), and how you are going to deal with the chapters we are about to read. Many people will say the Bible is the Word of God. Okay, sure. What do you mean by that phrase? And then, how do you read the Bible? Let me tell you what I mean by saying the Bible is the Word of God.

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Books of the BibleDavid J CollumGenesis 7, Genesis 8, Genesis Day 16, Genesis
Genesis Day 15: Courage to look in the mirror
Genesis Day 15: Courage to look in the mirror

“EVERYTHING IS WRONG!” I would cry as a young child, when my world was upside down. My mother would often point out that perhaps—as I was throwing my tantrum inside a heated home with a non-leaking roof, and only after I had eaten my latest meal—that perhaps everything was a bit of an overstatement. However, when in Genesis 6, God says, “the earth was filled with violence. And God saw the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth.” …when God says everything is wrong, perhaps we need to have the courage to look in the mirror.

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Books of the BibleDavid J CollumGenesis Day 15, Genesis 6, Genesis 7, Noah, The flood, Flood, Genesis
Genesis Day 13: Tell us again, Pop!
Genesis Day 13: Tell us again, Pop!

We would sit around my grandfather’s red leather chair, on the floor, as he smoked Tiperillo or Huntington cigars. We would beg him to tell us family stories. We would ask him over and over how different relatives were connected into the family tree. Family, we long for it, even though all of them have issues. The Bible celebrates family—with all its pluses and minuses—with all its beauty marks and warts. As we read the fifth chapter of Genesis…

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Books of the BibleDavid J CollumGenesis Day 13, Genesis 5, Enoch, Lamech, Genesis
Genesis Day 12: Sin: the gift that keeps on giving (until we call on God)
Genesis Day 12: Sin: the gift that keeps on giving (until we call on God)

Our lives are not Disney movies. As followers of Jesus, we sometimes forget that. We even project to people who are not following Jesus, that “if they just followed, they would live happily ever after.”
At times we quote a verse, Jeremiah 29:11 and note that God has great plans for us. He does. The point however is that His plans may not involve us having the perfect lives we are dreaming of.
Why do I say that? Lots of reasons, but one is that, if you know anything about Jeremiah’s life on earth (from whom we so often quote), you would know it was not prosperous by human standards—quite the opposite. I also say our lives are not Disney movies for another reason: our sin has consequences—generational consequences.

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Books of the BibleDavid J CollumGenesis Day 12, Genesis 4, Jeremiah, Lamech, Cain, Genesis