Mon., Jan. 17/22
Maybe you’re like me at the start of a new year, marking it as a time to go back to the beginning and read through your entire Bible again. I was in the midst of this one day last week at the account in Genesis 8 and 9 where, now just after the great flood, God calls Noah and his family, plus all the creatures great and small out from the ark. Noah builds an altar to the Lord and the Lord responds with a promise:
“As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.” (Gen. 8:22).
A few verses later in chapter 9 God restates this promise, and then, for the first time ever in human history, the amazing miracle happens! And God says,
“I have set My Rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between Me and the earth.” (Gen. 9:13).
Right there, in that very spot, I stopped. ”My Rainbow,” God had said. He did not give us His rainbow; it remained His own. But He revealed it to Noah, his family, the birds and animals even fishes of the season. “…the sign of the covenant between Me and the earth.” God was willing to give mankind a second chance.
Now, every time the conditions are right God reveals to us His great sign as well. Every time the conditions are right we ought to remember that one Great Deluge and the sin which precipitated it. And every time the conditions are right we ought look to Him with thankfulness that He is willing still to give us a second chance. He promises it… with His Rainbow, not ours.
Grace and forgiveness are wholly works of His Hand.
You know, as I think about it, the Bible tells us of a LOT of things that really belong to God. “In the beginning God,” records Genesis (Gen. 1:1). “Through Him [Jesus] all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made,” records John (John 1:1-3). “…and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.” (Gen. 1:2). God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit working together to create all things. Everything belongs to God — even your very soul rightfully belongs to Him.
To what have you been holding that really belongs to God?
Press on…
Pressing on... 