God – Page 11 – Michelle Lesley

For further study on the book of Genesis, try my study, The Women of Genesis.

Genesis 1

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. ²The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

³And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. ⁴And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. ⁵God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.

⁶And God said, “Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.” ⁷And God made the expanse and separated the waters that were under the expanse from the waters that were above the expanse. And it was so. ⁸And God called the expanse Heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, the second day.

⁹And God said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.” And it was so. ¹⁰God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good.

¹¹And God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, on the earth.” And it was so. ¹²The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. ¹³And there was evening and there was morning, the third day.

¹⁴And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years, ¹⁵and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth.” And it was so. ¹⁶And God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars. ¹⁷And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, ¹⁸to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. ¹⁹And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day.

²⁰And God said, “Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens.” ²¹So God created the great sea creatures and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarm, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. ²²And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” ²³And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day.

²⁴And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds—livestock and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds.” And it was so. ²⁵And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds and the livestock according to their kinds, and everything that creeps on the ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.

²⁶Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

²⁷So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.

²⁸And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” ²⁹And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. ³⁰And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. ³¹And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

Questions to Consider:

1. Who created the world?

2. How many times is the phrase “according to its/their kind(s)” used? What does this phrase mean?

3. What was different about the means by which God created man compared to the means by which He created everything else? (Hint: Check out the first three words of each day of Creation and compare to Genesis 2:7 & 22)

4. What is the significance of the words “us” and “our” in verse 26? (See also verse 2 and John 1:1-14.)

5. Why does it matter whether or not Christians believe the Genesis 1 account of Creation?

Faith, Hell, Salvation, Sin, Throwback Thursday

Throwback Thursday ~ Are you a Bin Laden?

February 5, 2015May 15, 2017 Michelle Lesley

Originally published March 2, 2011

Osama Bin Laden is dead. Across the globe, people are celebrating. There’s a general sentiment, even among non-Christians, that he is in hell, because that’s what he deserves.

I’m guessing that, some of those people, if you had shared the Gospel with them two days ago, would have said they didn’t believe in hell. Or that a loving God wouldn’t send people to hell. Or that God just forgives everybody when they die, and everybody goes to heaven.

If you hold any of those beliefs, the law of non-contradiction requires that they be applied across the board to everybody. In other words, you can’t say you don’t believe in hell and at the same time believe that Bin Laden is in hell. If it doesn’t exist, he can’t be there.

So I’d like to pose two questions to people who hold the aforementioned beliefs:

1. If God decided not to send Bin Laden to hell, but rather allowed him into heaven, has justice been done?

2. Do you think it’s fair that you will have to spend your own eternity in heaven with Bin Laden? And Hitler, and Nero, and Mussolini, and Caligula, and Jack the Ripper?

As broken and messed up as we are, even we humans demand that there be justice –punishment– for people who have committed such heinous crimes. If God doesn’t punish these awful people, what does that make Him? How could He be perfect in every way and let such people off scot free?

I can tell you how. Because I used to be Bin Laden. And Hitler, and all of those other people rolled into one. Me. A good little Sunday School girl. Guilty. James 2:10 tells us:

For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all.

In God’s eyes, when I broke curfew to stay at Bible study just a little bit longer, I was as guilty as a serial murderer. When I said, “Oh my G-d!” I was on par with a child molester. When I refused to forgive someone, I might as well have flown one of those planes into the Twin Towers myself. And I deserved the same punishment as all of those horrible people. Hell.

God is perfect. He’s perfectly holy and perfectly just. And that’s why He can’t let any sin slide, no matter how small. But He’s also perfectly loving and compassionate. He knew none of us would measure up to his standard for us –perfection, no sin whatsoever– so He made a way for us to escape punishment, yet still serve justice: Jesus.

God Himself came here and lived out His perfection as a human being. And when it was time, on the cross, He took the punishment for our crimes against God. He got our sin and our punishment, and because of His death and resurrection, we can get His sinless perfection.

We can get it, but it’s not an automatic thing that just happens to everybody when they die. As I said in a previous post, you can’t have it both ways. If you decide to get married, you give up the single life. If you decide to become a star athlete, you give up being a couch potato. And when God enables you to turn from your sin to faith in Christ, He empowers you to give up a life of embracing sin, and, instead, embrace Christ and the new life He has for you. Here. Now.

Is Bin Laden in hell? I can tell you with certainty that if he did not, in the last moments of his life, sorrowfully turn from his sin and bow his knee to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, yes, he is indeed in hell.

And there, but for the grace of God, go I. And you.

Wednesday's Word

Wednesday’s Word ~ Isaiah 64

February 4, 2015June 22, 2021 Michelle Lesley

Isaiah 64

Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down,
    that the mountains might quake at your presence—
2 as when fire kindles brushwood
    and the fire causes water to boil—
to make your name known to your adversaries,
    and that the nations might tremble at your presence!
3 When you did awesome things that we did not look for,
    you came down, the mountains quaked at your presence.
4 From of old no one has heard
    or perceived by the ear,
no eye has seen a God besides you,
    who acts for those who wait for him.
5 You meet him who joyfully works righteousness,
    those who remember you in your ways.
Behold, you were angry, and we sinned;
    in our sins we have been a long time, and shall we be saved?
6 We have all become like one who is unclean,
    and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.
We all fade like a leaf,
    and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.
7 There is no one who calls upon your name,
    who rouses himself to take hold of you;
for you have hidden your face from us,
    and have made us melt in the hand of our iniquities.

8 But now, O Lord, you are our Father;
    we are the clay, and you are our potter;
    we are all the work of your hand.
9 Be not so terribly angry, O Lord,
    and remember not iniquity forever.
    Behold, please look, we are all your people.
10 Your holy cities have become a wilderness;
    Zion has become a wilderness,
    Jerusalem a desolation.
11 Our holy and beautiful house,
    where our fathers praised you,
has been burned by fire,
    and all our pleasant places have become ruins.
12 Will you restrain yourself at these things, O Lord?
    Will you keep silent, and afflict us so terribly?

Questions to Consider:

1. Who is speaking, and who is being spoken to in this chapter? Summarize in a sentence or two the thrust of what is being said.

2. What type of discourse is this chapter? Is it a historical narrative? A hymn of praise? A prayer? A genealogy? A lament?

3. What is the reason, given in verses 5 & 9, that God is angry?

4. What are some of the things verses 10-12 say that Israel has suffered as a result of her sin? What is God’s ultimate goal in allowing Israel to suffer?

5. Is God still angered over sin today? (Romans 1:18) What solution to God’s wrath over our sin does He offer us? (John 3:36, Romans 5:9, 1 John 1:9)

Wednesday's Word

Wednesday’s Word ~ Jude

January 28, 2015January 27, 2015 Michelle Lesley

Jude

Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James,

To those who are called, beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ:

2 May mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you.

3 Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. 4 For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.

5 Now I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it, that Jesus, who saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe. 6 And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day— 7 just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire.

8 Yet in like manner these people also, relying on their dreams, defile the flesh, reject authority, and blaspheme the glorious ones. 9 But when the archangel Michael, contending with the devil, was disputing about the body of Moses, he did not presume to pronounce a blasphemous judgment, but said, “The Lord rebuke you.” 10 But these people blaspheme all that they do not understand, and they are destroyed by all that they, like unreasoning animals, understand instinctively. 11 Woe to them! For they walked in the way of Cain and abandoned themselves for the sake of gain to Balaam’s error andperished in Korah’s rebellion. 12 These are hidden reefs at your love feasts, as they feast with you without fear, shepherds feeding themselves; waterless clouds, swept along by winds; fruitless trees in late autumn, twice dead, uprooted; 13 wild waves of the sea, casting up the foam of their own shame; wandering stars, for whom the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved forever.

14 It was also about these that Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied, saying, “Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of his holy ones, 15 to execute judgment on all and to convict all the ungodly of all their deeds of ungodliness that they have committed in such an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things that ungodly sinners have spoken against him.” 16 These are grumblers, malcontents, following their own sinful desires; they are loud-mouthed boasters, showing favoritism to gain advantage.

17 But you must remember, beloved, the predictions of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. 18 They said to you, “In the last time there will be scoffers, following their own ungodly passions.” 19 It is these who cause divisions, worldly people, devoid of the Spirit. 20 But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, 21 keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. 22 And have mercy on those who doubt; 23 save others by snatching them out of the fire; to others show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh.

24 Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, 25 to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.

Questions to Consider:

1. What is the overall theme of Jude?

2. According to verse 4, why did Jude feel it necessary to write on the topic of contending for the faith instead of the topic of salvation?

3. What are “the way of Cain” (Genesis 4:5-8), “Balaam’s error” (2 Peter 2:15), and “Korah’s rebellion” (Numbers 16), mentioned in verse 11? What led Jude to give the false teachers these labels?

4. According to verses 17-19, who is it that causes division in the church, the false teachers or those rebuking the false teachers?

5. How does the book of Jude apply to the church today?

New Testament, Salvation, Suffering, Sunday School

3 Reasons to Rejoice ~ Sunday School Lesson ~ 12-14-14

December 14, 2014April 5, 2019 Michelle Lesley

These are my notes from my ladies’ Sunday School class this morning. I’ll be posting the notes from my class here each week. Click here for last week’s lesson.

Through the Bible in 2014 ~ Week 50 ~ Dec. 7-13
Acts 20-26, Romans
3 Reasons to Rejoice

Background

Paul wrote the epistle of Romans to the church at Rome while he was still in Corinth, around A.D. 56. His main purpose in writing was to instruct the Roman believers in basic Christian doctrine, beliefs, and practices, since neither Paul nor the other apostles had yet been able to instruct them in person.

Rome was a dangerous place for Christians at that time. There was persecution of the sort that, today, we can only have nightmares about. But even in the midst of that horrific situation, those who were in Christ had good reasons for hope and rejoicing. Paul shares three of them in Romans 5:1-11 to comfort and encourage the Roman church.

Romans 5:1-11

Reason to Rejoice #1: Our Standing (1-2)

What is our standing before God before we’re saved? We stand guilty in our sin before God. There is no way out of that sin, and no way out of its eternal consequences. There is complete uncertainty about what will happen to us after we die. For the lost, there’s no hope that, no matter how bad things get in this life, God will set all things right in Heaven. Without Christ, the best we can say about our eternity is, “I guess,” “I hope,” or “Maybe.”

Verses 1-2 remind us that because we have been justified (legally exonerated of our crimes against God) by faith in Christ, our standing has been changed. Because of Christ’s sacrifice for our sin, we now stand before God as righteous, not as guilty. And because of that standing which we now experience dimly here on earth, we have the hope of one day standing before God in all of His glory– not ashamed and cowering before Him, but loved, welcomed, and accepted. We have that certain hope, and we rejoice in it.

Reason to Rejoice #2: Our Suffering (3-5, Hebrews 12:2)

Every one of us has suffered or will suffer. Even the richest, most powerful, most popular, most famous person you can think of suffers. In this life, the question is never, “Will I suffer?” but “Will I suffer with Christ or without Him?”

I have a friend who’s a physical therapist. Physical therapy can be excruciating, but one thing my friend helps her patients to focus on is that the pain they experience is not pointless. It is “pain with a purpose.” That pain means that one day that patient will be past the injury and able to walk better. There’s a reason for it. It’s the same way with suffering.

The reason God allows lost people to suffer is to cause them to cry out to Him for salvation. Paul explains, in verses 3-5, the reason God allows saved people to suffer: it grows and matures us in Christ.

We need endurance. Most of us have many years ahead of us to live for Christ. Coming through suffering builds the endurance we need to depend on God’s strength, keep on keeping on, and finish our lives out as faithful servants who refused to give up on following Christ, no matter how hard it got.

The Greek word translated “character” here means “proof.” When gold is refined in fire, all of the impurities burn away and what comes out is the proof of what was there all along: pure gold. When we endure passing through the fire of suffering, what comes out on the other side is the proof that the “pure gold” of Christ in us is what survives the flame. And the world desperately needs to see that proof -through our endurance of suffering- that Christ is their only hope. Not only that, but that very same proof that Christ carries us through suffering gives us hope that He will continue to carry us through suffering until He carries us Home. Just as Jesus endured the cross for the joy set before Him (Heb.) we endure suffering for the joy of what’s waiting on the other side– another hope to rejoice in.

Reason to Rejoice #3: Our Salvation (6-11)

There are so many reasons to rejoice in our salvation, but I’ll limit myself to the ones Paul outlines here.

6-8- We don’t have to clean ourselves up before coming to Christ. (Mark 2:17, Romans 3:10)
In fact, we can’t. It’s not possible. Jesus Himself said, “I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.” (and, by the way, “None is righteous, no, not one;” so that’s all of us). Before we ever drew breath, before we ever thought about getting our lives in order before we could come to Him, while we were enjoying our sin and shaking our fists at God, that’s when Christ died for us. That’s why even the worst sinner can have the hope that Christ will save him, because God’s desire to save us doesn’t hinge on who we are or what we’ve done. It hinges on Him and His love for us in spite of our sin.

9– We no longer have to fear God’s wrath. (Romans 8:1)

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

None. Zero. Zip. Unsaved people should rightly fear God’s wrath being poured out on them for their sin. That fear should drive them to run to the loving arms of the merciful Savior who stands ready to welcome and forgive them. But Believers can rejoice in the fact that Christ has already absorbed God’s wrath –all of it– towards us when He endured the cross.

10-11– We are reconciled to God.
Have you ever had a big fight with your husband, your sister, your best friend, or someone else you’re really close to? Think for just a moment about how you feel during the hours or days before you and that person make things right with each other. You feel separated from that person- disconnected -maybe like there’s a huge wall between you. You don’t feel bonded with that person. You don’t feel at peace. You wake up every day feeling like something is off kilter. But then think of the peace, and joy, and reconnection you feel when you and that person make up, forgive, and move ahead in your relationship.

That’s what it’s like to be reconciled (brought back and reunited with) to God through faith in Christ. We’re no longer separated from God. That disconnect is gone. We’re not enemies with Him anymore! We can rest in Him, enjoy Him, be at peace with Him, and be in harmony with Him. “God and sinners reconciled!” Rejoice!

When I first started putting this lesson together, I thought, “Hmm…Romans 5 is a great passage, but it isn’t very Christmasy.” But if you think about it, the rejoicing in Romans 5 is the very reason we rejoice in the birth of Christ. He was born so that, through Him, we could stand before God as righteous. He was born to shine the light of the gospel -and give us hope- through our suffering. He was born to reconcile man to God. Those are reasons to rejoice at Christmas and every other day!