Archive for July 2021

The opening chapters of Genesis are some of the most beautiful in the entire Bible. God speaks everything into existence out of nothing. But the crown of His creation is humanity – men and women created in His image to represent and reflect Him to all the world.

Let’s be honest. When we get hurt, our natural reaction is not to go make peace with the person who hurt us, right? Our natural response is anger or even revenge. But Jesus calls us to be peacemakers – and He tells us exactly how to respond when we get hurt.

It’s so easy to let our anger get out of control. And when that happens, we can’t help but leave brokenness in our wake. What if instead of being quick to get angry we were quick to bring peace?

Throughout the Old Testament, the people of God turned away from Him over and over again. Because of their disobedience, God allowed them to experience the consequences of their choices. They were captured by foreign armies and taken into exile. They finally returned to their homeland many years later. God commissioned a man named Ezra to call Israel back to proper worship by reading God’s instructions to the people. They listened for six hours and when Ezra finished, they were overjoyed at what they had heard. What a good God to have stayed faithful to His people! What a good God to give them His law!

Elisha was causing major problems for the evil King Aram. Aram set trap after trap for the Israelites, but Elisha was a prophet of God. God told Elisha where the traps had been set which allowed the Israelites to avoid them. Aram was livid and sent his entire army to capture Elisha. Elisha’s servant was terrified, but not Elisha. Elisha prayed God would open his servant’s eyes to see what he could see. And God did. The servant could finally see that they were surrounded by an army of God’s angels – protecting them from their enemy.