The Tune of Self-Interest

After Adam and Eve disobeyed God for the first time—and sin entered the world—it didn’t take long for them to begin looking out for number one. Enter self-interest.

The Origin of Self

It’s been my experience that before I can fully conquer any problem, I need to understand the problem as well as possible, especially its origin. To do that with “self,” we must go back, way back.

Change Your Routine

Following the sixth day of creation, the Lord God deliberately stopped working. He rested. It wasn’t that there was nothing else He could have done. It certainly wasn’t because He was exhausted. Omnipotence never gets tired!

Relating with Our Friends

After God made man, He observed a need inside that life, a nagging loneliness that Adam couldn’t shake. “Then the LORD God said, ‘It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him.'” (Genesis 2:18)

Authority

“You will be accepted if you do what is right. But if you refuse to do what is right, then watch out! Sin is crouching at the door, eager to control you. But you must subdue it and be its master.” (Genesis 4:7) In a world hell-bent on having its own way, it is terribly […]

Going . . . Not Knowing, Part One

The statement recurs through Scripture like a repeating telegraph signal on a high frequency radio band. Sometimes faint, barely discernible—sometimes strong, clear. Over and over. Paul made the statement as he was saying goodbye to a group of friends standing with him on an Asian beach. Several of the men wept freely, realizing they would never see the missionary again.

In the Image of God

Then God said, “Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us. They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and the small animals that scurry along the ground.” So God created human beings in his own […]

Hope

Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned. —Romans 5:12 (NASB) The theme threaded from Genesis to Revelation is the plague of death, and all humanity has the disease. Being fallen creatures, we don’t want to face it. […]

Idols, Part Two

Yesterday we talked about how the Israelites began to worship what started out as a good thing but became too much of a good thing: a bronze serpent they called “Nehushtan.” We can make an idol out of anything or anyone in life. A church building can become an idol to us, when all the while it is simply a place to meet and worship our Lord—nothing more.

The Case against Vanilla

I cannot imagine anything more boring and less desirable than being poured into the mold of predictability as I grow older. Few things interest me less than the routine, the norm, the expected, the status quo. Call it the rebel in me, but I simply cannot bear plain vanilla when life offers so many other colorful and stimulating flavors. A fresh run at life by an untried route will get my vote every time—in spite of the risk.

Tag Archives: Genesis