Interesting Insight

After reading todays sections of scripture I read this commentary by D.A. Carson about Hagar and found it very interesting:

Genesis 16; Matthew 15; Nehemiah 5; Acts 15
IN ALL OF ANCIENT NEAR EASTERN LITERATURE, so far as I am aware, Hagar is the only woman whom Deity directly addresses by name (Gen. 16:8; 21:17). The woman in question is not one of the great matriarchs of the Old Testament — Sarah, perhaps, or Rachel, or Rebekah — but a slave who resents her mistress and flees. Yet God addresses her, tells her to submit to Sarai (16:9), promises that the child she is carrying in her womb will be a son, and later tells her that that son will be the progenitor of a great nation (21:18).
The account has many interwoven layers to think about. Placed after God’s covenant with Abram in Genesis 15, this incident reflects well on neither Abram nor Sarai. Desperate for children, they think they have the right to bring God’s purposes — and their own desires! — to pass by legal but shady means. The result is not only tension in their household for years to come — tension that spills over into the next generation (Gen. 21, 25), but the beginnings of the Arab peoples, who frequently find themselves locked in hostility with Israel to this day. One of the great features of the Bible is its sheer honesty: great men and women are portrayed with all their warts. This remains a broken world, and the very best are fallen. This should warn us against untamed hero-worship.
Yet there is another connection with the previous chapters. God had promised Abram that all peoples on earth would be blessed through him (12:3). The election of Abram is a means to that end. However focused on Abram’s offspring his purposes will be, God remains the sovereign Lord of all. In the book of Genesis, the account of Abram is nestled into the broader account of the creation of all, and the Fall of all. And so here, at the very beginning of the history of the nation of Israel, God displays his concern for the despised and the outcast, people who are not organically connected with the promised line.
We may detect the same concern in the Lord Jesus. In Matthew 15:21-18, Jesus well knows that during the days of his flesh his mission is in the first instance directed to “the lost sheep of Israel” (15:24). There is a redemptive-historical primacy to the ancient covenant people of God. But this does not prevent him from acknowledging the remarkable faith of yet another woman, a Canaanite, who wisely changes her plea. She no longer addresses Christ as “Son of David” (15:22), on who she can make no direct claim, and simply pleads for mercy (15:27). Another “Hagar” finds that mercy abundant, as countless people do today.

If you've taken up the challenge to do a reading plan for the year keep it up! If you haven't started then take up the challenge and start today!

Large Churches vs. Small Churches

As someone in whom God has birthed a love for smaller churches I thought this teaching from James MacDonald was awesome:

http://blog.harvestbiblefellowship.org/?p=3589

his teaching is called "Large Churches vs. Small Churches" and the video is great!

Brit Hume

Brit Hume, a Fox News contributor, recently encouraged Tiger Woods to "embraced the forgiveness Christianity offers". This has set off a shower of disdain toward Hume. May vigorous and slanderous attacks have been rendered toward Hume. I read this article by Michael Gerson and found it quite interesting:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/07/AR2010010703244.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns

This definitely challenges us to think about who it is that is really intolerant in the situation.

I am now eligible and available

I turned 35 in September and I just realized that I'm now eligible to be President of the United States of America. I am officially "throwing my hat in the ring" for 2012 and all elections thereafter. From what I've seen there is no prior experience needed for the position so I'm qualified. For write in puposes (if the funding for a campaign somehow doesn't show up by 2012) my name is spelled D-A-L-E M-Y-E-R-S. I'm pretty sure this will be a "grassroots" effort so I thought I'd declare now.

What a great way to start the year

What a great way to start the year! Listen to what D.A. Carson has to say about Genesis 1:

January 1
ALL FOUR OF THESE CHAPTERS (from the Robert Murray M'Cheyne Bible Reading Plan) DEPICT NEW BEGINNINGS, but the first reading – Genesis 1 – portrays the beginning of everything in this created universe.
On the face of it, this chapter, and the lines of thought it develops, establish that God is different from the universe that he creates, and therefore pantheism is ruled out; that the original creation was entirely good, and therefore dualism is ruled out; that human beings, male and female together, are alone declared to be made in the image of God, and therefore forms of reductionism that claim we are part of the animal kingdom and no more must be ruled out; that God is a talking God, and therefore all notions of an impersonal God must be ruled out; that this God has sovereignly made all things, including all people, and therefore conceptions of merely tribal deities must be ruled out.
Some of these and other matters are put positively by later writers of Scripture who, reflecting on the doctrine of creation, offer a host of invaluable conclusions. The sheer glory of the created order bears telling witness to the glory of its Maker (Ps. 19). The universe came into being by the will of God, and for this, God is incessantly worshipped (Rev. 4:11). That God has made everything speaks of his transcendence, i.e., he is above this created order, above time and space, and therefore cannot be domesticated by anything in it (Acts 17:24-25). That he made all things and continues to rule over all, means that both racism and tribalism are to be rejected (Acts 17:26). Further, if we ourselves have been made in his image, it is preposterous to think that God can properly be pictured by some image that we can concoct (Acts 17:29). These notions and more are teased out by later Scriptures.
One of the most important entailments of the doctrine of creation is this: it grounds all human responsibility. The theme repeatedly recurs in the Bible, sometimes explicitly, sometimes by implication. To take but one example, John’s gospel opens by declaring that everything that was created came into being by the agency of God’s “Word,” the Word that became flesh in Jesus Christ (John 1:2-3, 14). But this observation sets the stage for a devastating indictment: when this Word came into the world, and even though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him (John 1:10). God made us to “image” himself; he made us for his own glory. For us to imagine ourselves autonomous is, far from being a measure of our maturity, the supreme mark of our rebellion, the flag of our suppression of the truth (Rom. 1).

God's Word is amazing! the Author loves us dearly! Let's seek HIS Face through HIS Word this year together! You can follow along daily on the For the Love of GOd link on the left.

For the Love of GOD

Starting Robert Murray M'Cheyne's reading plan for the year and found blog based on D.A. Carson's devotional "For the Love of GOD" that is based on readings from M'Cheyne's plan. I added a link on the left for you to follow along with if you're willing to cowboy up and follow along with the plan with me!

(see the link "For the Love of GOD" on the left)