You Gotta Love Max Lucado!

 Excerpts from Grace for the Moment:

The purpose of life 

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.               Matthew 22:37

Mine deep enough in every heart and you'll find it: a longing for meaning, a quest for purpose. As surely as a child breathes, he will someday wonder, "What is the purpose of my life?" 

Some search for meaning in a career. "My purpose is to be a dentist."  Find location but hardly a justification for existence. They opt to be a human "doing"  rather than a human "being." Who they are is what they do: consequently they do a lot. They were many hours because if they don't work, they don't have an identity. 

For others who they are is what they have. They find meaning in a new car or a new house or new clothes. These people are great for the economy and rough on the budget because they are always seeking meaning in something they own.... Some try sports, entertainment, colts, sex, you name it. 

       All mirages in the desert of purpose.,..

      Shouldn't we face the truth? If we don't acknowledge god, we are floatsom in the                universe.

The Dungeon of Bitterness 

If you forgive others for their sins, your Father in heaven will also forgive you for your sense.                                                                                                                                          Matthew 6:14

Bitterness is its own prison. The sides are slippery with resentment. A floor of muddy anger stills the feet. The stench of betrayal fills the air and stings the eyes. A cloud of self-pity blocks the view of the tiny exit above.

Step in and look at the prisoners. Victims are chained to the walls. Victims of betrayal. Victims of abuse 

The dungeon, deep and dark, is beckoning you to enter..... You can, you know. You've experienced enough hurt..... You can choose, like many, chain yourself to your hurt..... Or you can choose, like some to put away your hurts before they become hate.....

How does God deal with your bitter heart? He reminds you that what you have is more important than what you don't have you still have your relationship with god. No one can take that.

Fall 2026

 Story begins September 17 9:30

As a general rule, women had fewer rights, social status, and power than men in the ancient world in which the Bible was written. But Jesus regularly defied these social conventions, fulfilling his mission and purposes through faithful women and giving them dignity and purpose.

In this One book Daily-Weekly study, Suzanne Nicholson highlights the qualities of several women in the New Testament that Jesus asks all believers to faithfulness, persistence, and a boldness to follow him even at great personal cost to ourselves. These stories help us to better understand not only our own calling, but the very nature of the gospel itself.

Summer thoughts

  Obeying and Honoring God 

Isaiah 29:13: “These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is based on merely human rules they have been taught.”

I dearly love this quote from Max Lucado:

Is there any emotion that imprisons the soul more than the unwillingness to forgive? 

If you suffer for doing good, and you are patient, then God is pleased.         1 Peter 2:20

 Everyone who is a child of God conquers the world. And this is the victory that conquers the world - our faith. 1 John 5:4 ncv

 As we study women of the Old Testament, I find remarkable women in my path and marvel at their contributions to God's Kingdom. Here are excerpts from two such women found on Christian radio stations,  Leanna Crawford and Samantha Ebert. Even if you've heard them before, I invite you to listen to these songs and read the excerpts below. God is surely speaking through these women!

Excerpts from: Still Waters (Psalm 23) by Leanna Crawford

"Write scripture on your heart for when you need it                                                                            'Cause anxiety hates Psalm 23.                                                                                                                   So just say it to yourself 'til you believe it"

Lord, I believe You can set mе at ease                                                                                                         Turn this broken piеce in me to peace and quiet
I know there's power in Your word                                                                                                              So I'll say it over and over 'til my soul's reminded

Still waters run through any valley I could find                                                                                        I'm laying fear down here at Heaven's riverside
Your word has been true in every season of my life

Oh, the Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want
He leads me by still waters 'til my fears are gone
Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death
Oh, I know You are with me, my Father, my friend
Your goodness and mercy will follow me all of my days
I know by Your still waters I'm safe

Excerpts from: Flowers by Samantha Ebert

Well, blue skies and hillsides feel so far away
And I wrote in my notebook that I've seen better days
Than the ones as of late
I can't bear that weight

I wish something would change
'Cause I'm losing faith

So I brought it up in a desperate prayer
Lord, why are you keeping me here?
Then He said to me, "Child, I'm planting seeds
I'm a good God and I have a good plan
So trust that I'm holding a watering can
And someday you'll see that flowers grow in the valley"

So whatever the reason, I'm barely getting by
I'll trust it's a season knowing that you're by my side
Every step of the way
And I'll be okay

When I'm on the mountain and looking down below
I'll see a valley of flowers that needed time to grow
And I'll thank you for the rain
The hurt and days of pain

And I'll bring it up in a grateful prayer
Thank you, Jesus, for keeping me there
You know just what I need and you've planted seeds
'Cause you're a good God with a real good plan
And you hold my world in a watering can
So I can have peace 'cause flowers grow in the valley

Session 8 Noah

 I.   Noah in real time & Space

II.  Post-Adamic world had come full circle Matthew 24:38-39

     A. Noah's flood as an epoch divider?

1. The Adamic age comes to an end

       a. Noah = "rest"

       b. The Sumerian Kings List

2. An historical flood?

                              a. The Gilgamesh Epic

                              b. The Story Atrahasis

                              c. The Sumerian Flood Story

III. Judgment comes in the form a "de-creation" event

      A. Genesis 7:11-12

      B. The great tehom bursts open and the earth is returned to a watery chaos

IV. Restoration comes in the form of a "re-creational" and universal covenant

      A. Genesis 9:1-7

1. Edenic mandates repeated, but this time in a fallen world

2. Made with all flesh and even with the planet itself. re-establishing contact between God and man in a fallen world

3. Oath promise of the rainbow

B. Genesis 9:24-27

1. Canaan = "to be subdued"

2. Japheth = "to increase"

3. Shem = "name"

4. An etiological map of the holy land

V. Where does the Noahic covenant leave us?

A. The people of God: the offspring of Shem

B. The presence of God: with Shem's offspring

C. The place unidentified

Tehom is a Northwest Semitic and Biblical Hebrew word meaning "the deep" or "abyss". It is used to describe the primeval ocean and the post-creation waters of the earth. 

Jesus came to undo what happened in Eden

Biblical Record	Sumerian Kings List
	kings before the flood long reins, after - shorter reins
Genesis: 10 patriarchs - average age 858 years	8 kings - average rein of 30,000 years
base 10 number system	base 60 number system
these two records relate to the same events
Semitic: term for ethnic cultural or racial group People of the middle east and the horn of Africa

Biblical authority is proved by: 3 different societies telling the same story.

Sumerian Kings List and others, Sumerian flood story

writing is developed at this time

Native American and Aboriginal peoples have flood stories in their culture.

Rescue- rebuilt with Noah read Genesis 9:3-5

Everything that lives and moves about will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything. “But you must not eat meat that has its lifeblood still in it.  And for your lifeblood I will surely demand an accounting. I will demand an accounting from every animal. And from each human being, too, I will demand an accounting for the life of another human being.

Session 7 God's Final Intent

Heaven From the book The Epic of Eden:

 Revelation 21-22 reveals that God's final intent is to restore humanity to a state of fellowship with Him, free from the consequences of sin and death, in a New Jerusalem that embodies a perfect dwelling place with Him.

The Tree of Life, which reappears in the New Jerusalem, symbolizes eternal life, healing, and the restoration of access to God's presence, akin to its role in Eden.

Originating in the throne room of God the Holy of Holies it brings life back to a fallen earth. Ezekiel 47:12 by the river on its bank, on one side and on the other, will grow all kinds of trees for food. Their leaves will not wither and their fruit will not fail they will bear every month because their water flows from the sanctuary, and their fruit will be for food and their leaves for healing. Hmmm...when did we last encounter a tree of life?

The New Jerusalem 

• This brings us at last to Revelation 21- 22 the end of the story. The biblical author is describing heaven as a new earth. The garden has been restored, the primordial deep (“chaos”) has been defeated, and Ezekiel's City/Temple is being lowered from the heavens to serve as the residents of the redeemed. Hear the voice from the throne ringing out into the silence and grief of Adam's wasted world: “I am making all things new!” Revelations 21:5 The Creator speaks and the earth and its inhabitants are finally free.
• Healing has come; mourning is past; death is no more. This is the New Jerusalem purified and whole. And with the New Jerusalem comes the presence, and God himself shall be among them.
• Then he showed me a river of the water of Life clear as Crystal coming from the throne of God and of the lamb, in the middle of its street. On either side of the river was the tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month and the leaves of the tree were for healing of the nations. There will no longer be any curse; and the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and His bond servants will serve him and they will see his face and his name will be on their foreheads and there will no longer be any night and they will not have need of the light of the lamp nor the light of the sun because the Lord God will illuminate them and they will reign forever and ever.
• The New Jerusalem (what we know as “heaven”) is all that the city of the man in Eden was meant to be. In fact it is Eden a fruit-filled paradise animated by a cosmic River and graced by the tree of life.

God's original intent is his final intent. Eden was the perfect plan, and God has never had any other. His goal was that the people of God might dwell in the place of God, enjoying the presence of God. This is all our heavenly father has ever wanted for us. And everything that lies between Eden's gate and the new Jerusalem, the bulk of our bibles, is in essence a huge rescue plan. In fact, we could summarize the plot line of the Bible into one cosmic question: " how do we get Adam back into the garden? " In Genesis 3 humanity was driven out; and Revelation 21 through 22 they are welcomed home.

Rock Climber Metaphor

In the Climber Metaphor, the climber represents humanity's fallen state, needing a series of rescues and interventions to restore him to health. This metaphor illustrates how God acts through covenants and ultimately Jesus to redeem humanity from sin.

Although designed to live out their lives in Eden, humanity chose rebellion instead. The result was the fall with all of its horrible repercussions. Like a rock climber having fallen from a great height, Adam now lies broken and bloody on the ledge of a cliff - too far from the top or bottom for a simple rescue it will take a series of rescues to bring this climber to safety. Let's pursue this metaphor for a moment. A climber who has experienced this sort of accident is too injured to do anything to help himself; he is probably unconscious. So someone is going to have to repel down that precipice to reach him in his need. That someone will need to do emergency first aid, brace the climber's neck and strap his battered body into a litter so that he can be hoisted back up or down the face of the cliff. But this is only the beginning of the rescue. An airlift will be needed to get this man to a hospital. Emergency surgery will be necessary to stop the bleeding, remove the irreparable organs and splint the bones. And now the real vigil begins. Placed in ICU on a respirator and IV, will our climber recover? the rescue of Adam is much the same as this metaphor. The Bible teaches us that redemptive history did not happen in one fell swoop. Rather, God has been leading humanity back to Eden by means of a sequence of steps, a series of rescues, a series of covenants. To mix metaphors, with a covenant of Noah the paramedic successfully reaches the fallen climber; with the covenant of Abraham triage is done and the climber is lowered down the cliff; with the covenants of Moses and David the airlift is accomplished and surgery begins; with a covenant of Jesus the surgery is successful and the vigil begins dash will our rescued climber endure to the end? The rest of this book is dedicated to detailing each of the covenantal administrations of this great rescue plan. Each step of the story, each state of the rescue may be organized under one of six covenants. Figure 5.6

Even in the New Jerusalem are the bookends of redemptive history. God's original intent is his final intent and everything that lies between is one extraordinary rescue plan.