The Heartbeat of Heaven

Do you want to hear God’s heartbeat? God’s thoughts are expressed in the Bible, but his heartbeat can be heard in the words that are repeated in that book, age after age. 

An example is found when Jesus spoke for the last time with his disciples, before leaving this earth. He said, “Go...”

When the living Word spoke that word “Go” to the ones he had called, I hear a heartbeat. How could Jesus’ heart not have harkened back to a day long before, when God said, “Go” to one pivotal person? Nearly 2,000 years before Jesus told his disciples to “Go,” God called a man and said, “Go,” and promised to bless every nation through his obedience.

“The Lord said to Abram, ‘Go...’” – leave what you know to pursue my plans so that many people will be blessed (Gen. 12:1). That word is a heartbeat from heaven. “Go,” God said to him, and I will make you a blessing to nations. Then centuries later, Jesus said to his followers, “Go,” and I will send you to nations that I want to bless.

God’s heartbeat says “Go” and obedience to God’s heartbeat means believing God’s heart for us. Abraham obeyed God because he believed God. He trusted God, which is why he was so willing to relinquish his past as he set out on a journey to lay hold of an unknown future in God. We too are invited to believe God – to trust him – and to relinquish our lives as we begin a journey of living for God, going to others with all the blessings received from him.

And the sound of God’s heartbeat goes back many centuries further. When Jesus, through whom “all things were created, in heaven and on earth” (Col. 1:16), said “Go and make disciples of all nations” (Matt. 28:19), how could his Creator’s heart not have harkened back to when God blessed his creation and said, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth” (Gen. 1:28)? Each of those moments is a commissioning. 

With each new disciple, God’s people are multiplying and filling the earth as God commanded the first people he created. That’s the fulfillment of a Father’s heartbeat – a Father of creation, and of a family of many nations. It’s the heartbeat of Father who not only sent his servant Abraham, and every follower of his Son, but it’s the heartbeat of a Father who also sent his Son.

“Go” is the heartbeat of a living God that has been beating since the first days of creation, and is beating still as God says, “Go” and share the life-changing love you have found in my Son, Jesus.

© 2021 Ken Peters

Never too messy for Him

Genesis chapter 4 is such a mess. Cain murdered Abel, and then he's exiled, the First Family of Creation so soon divided — fractured — followed by Cain’s offspring, Lamech, murdering a man and a boy, and then boasting of it to his wives. We're told that Eve found some solace in the birth of Seth, but the mess had been made, beginning with Adam and Eve’s initial disobedience in the Garden, all so very quickly after God had previously called His spotless creation “very good." Three chapters and a few generations later, all I can see is very messy.

Then, surprisingly amidst the prolonged focus on the growing mess of mankind, Genesis, chapter four, ends with, “Then men began to call upon the name of the LORD.” So that too had been part of the mess — God’s creation had forgotten Him and had stopped calling out to Him. But amidst all that, we're told that God drew them back to Himself once again, to call out to Him. God drew near to them, amidst the mess. 

And the same is true today. Today's world is a mass reflection of Genesis chapter four, and yet God is continually drawing near to people in every dark corner and on every lonely road. No matter how messy it gets, and no matter how far a person has drifted away, God is truly among us. He is Emmanuel, God with us — even amidst the mess. And He wants to save us from our messes. 

Maybe you're praying for someone who has gotten lost in the messiness of this world. Or maybe you feel that you've contributed a little to the mess that began in Genesis. Whatever the case, whatever pigpen that anyone is in, we can be certain that God is still causing sin-stained people today to "call upon the name of the LORD." Praise God for His infinite grace!

© 2019 by Ken Peters

The Crooked Path to Christmas

Hello. My name is Joseph. I realize it may be a bit of a surprise hearing from me, as not many people think much about me in light of the far more important people in the story I’m known to be a part of. But I was there – I was a part of the story that I understand you call the Christmas story. In fact, I believe you have a day in your calendar called Christmas on which you celebrate the birth of Jesus. I could tell you a thing or two about that birth, for as I said, I was there. And it was all quite unforgettable! But it did not seem very festive at the time. No, quite the contrary.

The truth is, the path that Mary and I took to the first Christmas (as you call it) was a very crooked path – which took me off guard, actually – you know, given the importance of what the angels told Mary and I.

You see, I've got this idea in my head that if an all-powerful God has a big and important Plan (one so important, he sends angels to explain it in advance!), then He must intend to accomplish that Plan the way an arrow takes a straight and steady path toward its target. And you’d think that when almighty God sets out to achieve His Master Plan to do with the Messiah, it would happen with such great deliberateness that it would firmly push through any and every obstacle, straight as an arrow, with immediate effect!

And the coming of Jesus was God’s Master Plan – the most important of all God’s plans for the human race! The coming of Jesus as that little baby represented God’s greatest expression of love ever expressed. It was all about how God was going to save us from the power of sin in this world – how God was going to re-unite us as God’s children with our heavenly Father – and how God was going to reveal His glory in the greatest demonstration of mercy and grace that the world had ever seen! The coming of Jesus represented God’s Plan with a capital “P” – the Master Plan of the Great Creator for uniting God the Father’s family with God the Father! It was God’s loudest “I LOVE YOU!” of all time!

I mean seriously, when the great God who created all things sets His will to do something so incredibly important, how can any created being -- human or otherwise -- hinder Him, right?! It'd be like little flies trying to push that arrow aside!

So that’s why it strikes me as strange that an all-powerful God’s Master Plan would happen on a road that wasn’t all that smooth and straight, despite the infinite greatness of its Author and the supreme importance of its objective. I say this because it was a road that included disappointments for Mary and I. It was a road that included unanswered questions – things that God has never sent any more angels to explain to us! And it was a road that felt confusing at times as we travelled that road.

I’m sure that surely you’ve seen turmoil or disappointments or unanswered prayers in your life as well – twists & turns on rocky roads. And you’ve probably wondered the same thing I did: Couldn’t God have made this path a little straighter?!

Well, even though the path to that first Christmas was a crooked one – and your path to this Christmas might be as well – I can tell you from experience: God wants to use those twists and turns to express how great He is and how great His love is toward us!

So perhaps you’ll allow me to share a little about Mary’s and my crooked path to Christmas, and perhaps it will be a help to you on your path.

A man named Luke recorded this small but important part of the story I want to talk with you about… “In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria. And all went to be registered, each to his own town. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.”

There were so many twists and turns that created turmoil on that path to the very first Christmas…

·         A pregnancy before marriage (Luke 1:31-35),

·         A marriage about to be called off (Matthew 1:19).

·         A marriage plan restored, but amidst the public disapproval of a pregnancy before marriage (Matthew 1:24).

·         Then an unwelcome donkey ride in the last days of Mary’s pregnancy (Luke 2:1-6).

·         Then a dirty stable is all God reserved for the baby's birth (Luke 2:7)

·         Then Mary and I and Jesus had to flee for our lives to avoid King Herod's sinister plot (Matthew 2:13).

·         King Herod then murdered all the male babies of Bethlehem (Matthew 2:16).

·         And finally, though all seemed well to return from Egypt, Mary and I were afraid to dwell in Judea because of Herod’s relatives, so we had to return to Nazareth to live among the people who knew Jesus was conceived before marriage (Matthew 2:22-23).

Turmoil.  Discomfort.  Fear.  Tragedy.  Disruption. …Crooked lines. And rather than looking at all of those circumstances, I just want to talk with you about two of them… What I’ll refer to as…

·         A poorly timed summons in the mail…

·         And an example of…“How much more can I take?”

I’ll start with the Poorly Timed Summons in the Mail… I’ll never forget that day! Mary was in the last month of her pregnancy, feeling very uncomfortable, and suddenly our entire region receives a pronouncement from ROME that we must all return to our home towns IMMEDIATELY for a census!

How could the timing have been worse?!  We lived 120km away from my home town of Bethlehem! I immediately wondered resentfully why God couldn’t have arranged that better. But there was no choice in the matter – and it was beyond our control to change it. It was inconvenient and it was uncomfortable. Have you ever ridden a donkey? It’s not very comfortable! But no matter how bad the timing seemed – no matter how difficult the journey would be – we eventually realized that God was in this, because the Scriptures actually taught that God wanted the Messiah to be born in Bethlehem!

And when we realized that Jesus being born in Bethlehem was part of God’s plan – as foretold in ancient prophecies – we had to then conclude that the awkward – difficult – uncomfortable and unwelcome journey to Bethlehem was actually a part of God’s plan.

So that means that just like the exciting fulfillments of prophecies – or the wonderful answers to prayer – or the plans God calls each of us to accomplish – are all loving examples of God’s will for us, so too must be the journeys God chooses for us to get there – even if they include twists and turns that we ourselves would never choose.

It reminds me of when Joseph-of-old was sold into slavery in Egypt, and he summed that journey up with: “God meant it for good!” Something that terribly difficult was actually God’s will for Joseph. And he could say “God meant it for good” because he knew that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God – to those who are called according to His purpose­ – and that nothing can separate us from God’s love.  Not even tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or dangers or the sword!

Well, it’s a fact that Mary was called to a very great purpose, and that she certainly loved God, and her response to being told she’d bear God’s Son as a virgin might’ve been similar to her thoughts about the donkey ride: “Behold, I am a servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.”

How about you?...  …Have you received a summons in the mail lately?... Something unexpected? Something uncomfortable? Something that feels like a mountain before you? Something beyond your control to change it? And the timing couldn’t be worse? Something from someone close to you? Or something from a doctor, or from a Roman officer? Some of the best lessons I’ve learned from the Lord have been when I’ve been stopped by the Romans. God has used fines from the Romans to send me timely messages that I needed to hear… to tell me to, yes, to slow down – to tell me to stop & spend more time with the Lord – and to tell me to listen to my wife!

But rather than reacting in anger or resentment, I suggest taking time to allow God to speak to you through the unexpected circumstances of life – because He’s fully in control of every circumstance! And if God wants to use all things for good, it’s vital that we pause before we react, and listen carefully to what God is trying to say to us, and look for God’s sovereign hand in whatever you’re going through. If you’re on a journey this Christmas, then pause, look and listen for God in whatever part of the journey you’re experiencing right now.

But now comes the “How much more can I take?” part! When Mary and I finally reached Bethlehem, it was no silent night! We found the town’s only inn to be full to the brim, and all that was left was a stable. Bethlehem was a very busy place during that census!  It was hectic!

At this point, I would’ve been able to forgive Mary if, after that long donkey ride, she lost her composure when she discovered God hadn’t saved a simple room for her to have the baby in.

I mean think about how you feel when you can’t find a single spot to park your donkey in at one of your big mall parking lots a day or two before Christmas! I’m a model of patience when stuff like that happens, but you might struggle with that!

So after 120km of donkey riding, an innkeeper tells us that, “No vacancy means NO ROOM!”

And we wondered, “How much more can we take?” Have you ever had a week where something in your home breaks, then an unexpected bill arrives, then your donkey starts making funny sounds, then you get pulled over for trotting too fast…?

I believe God has a two-fold purpose for all such situations: something to do with God’s glory and something to do with our good. And I believe that this is true for why God wanted His Son to be born in a stable. The angel who visited me in a dream told me that Jesus would save His people from their sins! Salvation at last! The mercy and grace of God! Nothing reveals God’s glory like God’s grace does!

So to make His grace abundantly clear, God made a way – through His Son Jesus – to forgive us for every sin we ever committed against Him and to be freed from the power of sin! What great grace! To accomplish this, God’s Son would have to lower Himself to the lowest place – and would start His life in the lowest of places – emptying Himself of heaven so that He could take the form of a bond-servant – and as a servant among men, He would be a substitute for every sinner when He eventually died on a cross to pay the penalty for all our sins.

That’s God’s glorious grace revealed! The glory of God revealed in a baby in a stable! But He was also born in a stable because God wanted it to be clear that His Son was to be accessible to ALL – even to the lowest in society, like carpenters like me, and to shepherds. No one should be afraid to approach Jesus, and Jesus would be willing to approach anyone.

At first, being in the stable felt like a disappointment to us, but as we gazed at that baby in a manger, we wondered at how much this baby in a stable revealed God’s glory for our good! Are you also dealing with disappointments that God has a purpose for in your life – to reveal His glory for your good? What may feel to you like a detour from God’s plans may actually be a part of God’s plan. The right response to such turmoil is trust.

A man named Jon Bloom has written that “maybe what we need most this Christmas is not less turmoil, but more trust. For God chooses stables of desperation as the birthplaces of his overwhelming grace.”

If that’s true, why would I want to be kept from the kind of challenges that Mary and I faced on that crooked journey into Bethlehem and into that stable? Those difficult circumstances happened to be God’s will for our lives.

And God is committed to not only accomplishing His plans through us, but also to lovingly accomplishing plans IN us as well – and I think He finds that crooked lines on the paths of our lives achieve that much better than straight lines.

Crooked lines teach us to listen – to trust – to obey – and to persevere amidst resistance.

And because our sovereign God is also a loving God, we can be sure that He will still be able to fulfill all that He has planned for our lives as we follow Him around every unexpected corner we face!

© 2016 by Ken Peters

Behold!...

There are verses in the Bible that really capture my imagination! Some produce striking images in my mind, and others leave me in wonder at the depth of their meaning. Among the many examples, I've always been fascinated with the final phrase of 2 Corinthians 5:17... "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come."

Imagine with me on this one. Our union with Christ is a mysterious concept, but what the Apostle Paul reveals here is that if we are "in Christ", we are a "new creation."  I can't help but wonder if Paul's mind is harkening back to Genesis 1-2 where we find the original creation story in which we're told of God creating the first man and woman amidst the grand backdrop of Him speaking the earth and the universe into existence. What a wonder as Paul imagines glorious light displacing the darkness, stars flung into space in every direction, and the formless void on the surface of the earth suddenly taking shape and growing a lush green carpet of vegetation with creatures of all varieties roaming its hills and plains. To crown it all, a man and a woman are created to bear the image of God in this beautiful new world. The creation story captures the imagination in its everything-from-nothing life-explosion like no other Bible story! 

And then, Paul picks up the language of that wonderful story in 2 Corinthians as he seeks to give us a picture of the Christian's union with Christ. "...if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation..." But this is not like some new craft project to put on the shelf with one's previous crafts. The old creation from that beautiful story in Genesis is tainted. Sin has spoiled it. Something has died in us due to sin corrupting our hearts. So when Jesus came 2,000 years ago – just as we know he was there in Genesis 1-2 – He came to replace something old and broken with something fresh from heaven! He came to make new creations, providing a life-explosion of resurrection life to supplant the old creation that was dead in its sins. This doesn't mean our personalities are replaced, but that our sin-stained spirits are made alive! And as wonderful as it must have once been to be created in the image of God and to sometimes walk side by side with God in the garden, it's now possible to be born again into a life of right-standing with God and to walk with Christ continually living in our hearts by God's Spirit every moment of every day! 

But it's the final phrase that personalizes this verse for me... "The old has passed away; behold, the new has come!" When I read, "Behold, the new has come", I visualize a plush stage curtain slowly opening, bright lights shining on what will soon be revealed, and a packed audience waiting in hushed anticipation to see... you. Yes, you! You're just standing there on that big stage, wearing your usual jeans and favourite t-shirt, looking a little awkward from all the attention. But you've got a slight smile on your face that you just can't hide because Jesus is inside you and wants everyone to see that you are His new creation! You see, as ordinary as we think we are, and as often as we feel we fail Him, we live our Christian lives by the life and power of God, and can be encouraged that "we are His workmanship" (Ephesians 2:10) and that He loves us with "the immeasurable riches of His grace" (Ephesians 2:7). We're what He wants to show off to the world with the word, "Behold!"  Because Jesus then wants us to show everyone that He is the one who made us new!

© 2016 by Ken Peters

Something I never get tired of hearing

There are some statements in the Bible that never cease to amaze me. I'm talking about verses that stop me in my tracks nearly every time I read them, and perhaps they always should! It happened again when I read for the umpteenth time Romans 3:20-21... "But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe."

To think that the righteousness of God can be found in any of us apart from how well we've done at keeping God's law is staggering! It simply doesn't matter how many do's we've done or how many don'ts we haven't done. The righteousness of God is available to us all through faith in Jesus!

Righteousness apart from rules seems like an oxymoron. But here it is – God granting to us a righteousness that is the result of our faith in His Son, Jesus Christ, and in all that He accomplished for us on the cross. Such faith is Abrahamic faith: "Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him as righteousness" (Genesis 15:6). This is the ultimate pressure-reliever, as God takes the burden of performing perfectly off of our shoulders and lays on us the gentle robe of righteousness that His Son Jesus bought for us at the cross. 

I never seem to get tired of hearing that: "the righteousness of God apart from the law" – "the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ." So we can stop measuring ourselves, constantly checking if we're doing okay, worried that we're not good enough, and simply enjoy the God who not only makes us righteous in His eyes, but also helps us each day to live righteously in this world.

© 2015 by Ken Peters

Learning When to Look

You've probably heard of the silly portrayal of how dogs are so easily distracted by things they see -- a portrayal often imitated when people are making fun of someone who can't focus?

I can be like that. And sometimes it's not so funny. Like when I see things that aren't wholesome to look at, or that cause my heart to covet, or that cause me to lose heart because I end up focused on something sad.

There are two instances about two inches apart on a page in my Bible in which people lift their eyes and look at something. And in one case it's a good thing, and in the other case it turns out not so good. And only today did I appreciate a lesson to be learned from the contrast.

In Genesis 13:10 it says, "And Lot lifted his eyes and saw all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere (before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah) like the garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt as you go toward Zoar." Then four verses later, it says, "And the LORD said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him: 'Lift your eyes now and look from the place where you are -- northward, southward, eastward, and westward'" (13:14). 

I'm intrigued by the fact that Lot may have looked at things prematurely -- before looking to the LORD -- to identify what would be best for him from his own limited perspective. But Abraham seems to have waited until the Lord spoke to him before he looked closely at what was around him.

F.B. Meyer writes, "Abraham lifted up his eyes, not to discern what would best make for his material interests, but to behold what God had prepared for him. How much better it is to keep the eye steadfastly fastened on God till He says to us! -- 'Lift up now thine eyes, and look...'"

I'm so easily distracted from the great big God I love to follow, that I'm like that dog, except that I'm more likely to suddenly say "Trouble!" instead of "Squirrel!" But now I hear God telling me to look at Him before I look at things around me. He wants me to first gaze at Him, waiting until He tells me to lift my eyes and look, because He knows I'll find it difficult seeing some of the things around me without His help.

And then when I lift my eyes and look, I'll see with the eyes of faith that come when one has been given divine perspective. I'll see things with hope and trust, because what I see will be combined with what God has spoken to me when my gaze was fixed on Him.

© 2014 by Ken Peters

Walking blind. It's good for me.

When we get out of bed each day, we really don't have a clue, do we? We may think we do, but when we really think about it, how sure can we be of what's going to happen each day? Yeah, we've got plans, but do we really know all that's going to come our way between waking up and hitting the hay? But even though certainty in circumstances is an illusion, we can walk each day with confidence when we know that God is leading the way. I think of this as walking blind. I don't know what's coming, but God does, and He has me by the hand.

Abraham understood this when God told him to get up and go to an unknown land that God would show him (Genesis 12:1). I love F.B. Meyer's almost poetic description of Abraham's response: "Whither he went, he knew not; it was enough for him to know that he went with God. He leant not so much upon the promise as upon the Promiser: he looked not on the difficulties of his lot -- but on the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God; who had deigned to appoint his course, and would certainly vindicate Himself."

Every morning, God calls us to get up and enter an unknown day. Where today will take me I don't know for sure, but it's enough to know that God is with me, that He loves me and has everything under control. It's enough to know that God is good and wants to guide me through each day. I just need to let Him as I pay attention to Him in every room I enter and on every road I travel. 

Walking blind takes faith, but if we choose to do so, God will lead us to yet unknown destinations we will only reach by trusting Him; exciting God-destinations that we will only get to with God leading the way. "Ah, glorious faith!" writes F.B. Meyer, "this is thy work, these are thy possibilities! – contentment to sail with sealed orders, because of unwavering confidence in the love and wisdom of the Lord High Admiral"!

© 2014 by Ken Peters

Letting God be God

There are times when I act like I know precisely what God must be thinking. Yet even if I can be absolutely certain that I've received a prophetic word directly from God Himself, who am I to think that I know how and when it's going to be fulfilled? Then when things don't unfold just as I expect them to, do I then tell God that He let me down? Am I so wise as to know exactly what the best plan is for such situations? It's almost as though when I no longer seem to know what God is really thinking, I figure I must know better than God.

But God is God and He knows best -- and will do His will His way, whatever we might be thinking. Take Genesis 50:25 for example. Joseph said to his brothers, "God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones from here." That sounds like a clear prophetic word spoken by a hero of the Old Testament that Joseph's brothers could have enthusiastically expected to be fulfilled in their lifetime. But Joseph died in Egypt not long after sharing this promise, and then Joseph's brothers all died in Egypt as well, followed by about 430 challenging years of waiting until the Israelites finally left Egypt! Whatever anyone might have thought the fulfillment of Joseph's prophetic word would look like, it didn't happen until, as Stephen of the New Testament later said, "the time of the promise" had come (Acts 7:17). God's time. The right time. Not to be rushed and not to be resented, but certainly to provoke God's people to cry out to Him, asking Him to do as He promised (Exodus 2:23-25)!

This both humbles me as well as instructs me in how I ought to view and respond to the promises and prophetic words God has spoken to my wife Fiona and I. And if I can embrace this valuable truth, I will have peace in the waiting as I let God be God and stop trying to tell Him the way things ought to be.

© 2011 by Ken Peters

Growing in faith

How on earth did Abraham keep believing God for promises that took 25 years to be fulfilled?  Abraham had no written Scriptures to read and be encouraged by.  There were no biographies written about saints who had gone before him to read and be inspired by. He was surrounded by a pagan culture with no faith community to support him through those 25 years of waiting (Genesis 12:1-4; 21:1-5).  And the longer things took, the more impossible it must have seemed that that promise would ever come to pass.  In fact, all those years of waiting would have given Abraham plenty of opportunities to second-guess God and to wonder, "Did God really say...?"

And yet, Romans 4:20 says "with respect to the promise of God, he did not waver in unbelief" (NASB) or "no distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God" (ESV).  How did he do that?!  Or perhaps I should be asking about how -- with the myriad of spiritual supports and encouragements that I'm surrounded by -- can I so easily fall prey to struggles with unbelief or a lack of trust in God?  Obviously I have something to learn from Abraham.

Paul tells us in Romans 4:20 how Abraham kept believing amidst so many obstacles:  "he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God" (ESV).  It was glorifying God that cultivated his convictions and strengthened his faith.  In other words, he firmly focused more on God than on the obstacles.

This means I've got to be ready to praise God amidst any circumstances, thereby declaring that I don't believe any circumstances can trump God.  Praise is the language of faith.  This means exalting and worshiping God regardless of delays or disappointments. And as I do all that from a sincere heart, this verse is proof to me that God will then grow in my perceptions and my faith in Him will rise.  That is the way to grow in faith so that no distrust will make me waver concerning the promise of God!  Praise and worship of God regardless of what's going on around me. That's a choice we face daily, and it's a choice with a certain outcome: increased faith.  Not to mention, wonderful promises fulfilled!

© 2010 by Ken Peters

Believe!

The last installment of a brief series of personal reflections on how I feel God has been posturing me for this new decade. Nothing profound. Just an honest and vulnerable look at where I'm at and who God is revealing Himself to be to me.

My wife Fiona has been looking for a specific kind of wall hanging for our front landing. She wants to hang the word Believe on the wall we see as we come and go through our front door (...and of course, she has a very specific style in mind that's made finding the right word Believe a bit of a challenge!).

The word believe can at times seem either ridiculous or inspiring, or both, depending on your circumstances. And from a Biblical perspective, it doesn't appear that God always wants to direct our lives in such a way that it's easy to believe. A good example of this is the very first place we see the word believe in the Bible. It says of Abraham in Genesis 15:6, "And he believed the Lord..." That phrase in that context flies in the face of all reason, of all biological realities, and of simple common sense. Picture it: Abraham and Sarah were very old and had no children, and God visits Abraham to tell him that his offspring will be as numerous as the stars! Abraham's response is what makes him the father of our faith: he believed God.

I don't know about you, but I don't find believing God in the face of extreme odds -- in the face of stiff opposition -- in the face of uncontrollable uncertainties -- in the face of great hindrances -- in the face of impossibilities easy. In fact, I often end up in unbelief when facing such circumstances. But not Abraham. He believed God when promised something that looked impossible. And even in the midst of his struggles to trust God, as details in the next couple chapters reveal (Genesis16:3-4 and 17:18), Abraham still chose to believe what God had promised him.

Believe. I want to get that through my head and into my heart. I'm a so-called "believer" on account of my belief in Jesus Christ as my Saviour, so can I be a believer in God's goodness and love as I walk with Jesus through hard times? Believe. That's what I want to do. "And I believed the Lord..." I want that to be said of me when people look at my life. By God's grace, I want to believe God's Word, God's love, God's promises, and God's prophetic words. I want to believe despite odds, despite obstacles, despite opposition, despite circumstances, despite delays, despite doctor's reports, despite popular opinion and despite myself.

May God help me to believe Him to be who He is and to do what only He can do. May God help me to believe Him for more than what my flesh would be quite ready to settle for. Because the God I know is truly worthy of such confidence.

© 2010 by Ken Peters

In the beginning, God...

It is the start of a new year, and as I begin reading the Bible at Genesis, it says, “In the beginning, God…”

It all starts with God. Genesis doesn’t begin with the earth being all formless and void or with creation or with light or with man. It begins with God. In the beginning - God... And then we hear about what God proceeded to do. As we read chapters 1-2 of Genesis, we experience an incredible barrage of ideas, events and subjects from light to heavens to water to land to plants to fish to animals. There’s the sun and the moon, man and woman - and it’s all good. But it’s not as good as where it all starts, which is with God.

That’s how I want 2008 to start for me - with God. In the beginning of 2008, God… And then let’s see what God does. When God is at the beginning - the Initiator of what then proceeds - I can be at peace no matter what. It will be valuable if we can always remember that, even in the most testing of times, which we know will come. God is in charge at the beginning of 2008 and throughout 2008. And God will be with each one of us throughout 2008, just as He was on January 1^st. And just as He was so powerfully and creatively present in Genesis 1, verse 1!

© 2008 by Ken Peters