Salty Zebra

  The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled.  Genesis 6:5-6  Our verses today share that, at the time of Noah, “every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time.” Do you think God feels the same way now? If not, what’s different? I’d like to think that humanity has come a long way from this place. We have good people that love God and do good things all over the world, from the Billy Grahams and Luis Palaus to the Sunday school teachers and church janitors. But, if I’m being really honest, there are still evil thoughts and inclinations in my heart all the time.  I rarely act on them, mind you, but yesterday was an example to me of how, even as a new creation redeemed by Christ, I am definitely NOT perfect. I wa...

Image created with the aid of Gemini's Nano Banana 2 and Microsoft Designer    Have you ever heard someone say, "Sweet Baby Jesus!" or refer to His mother as the "Virgin Mary"? Oftentimes, we take an image, an impression, of someone from a particular point in their life and then apply it to them as a whole. Sunday morning, during worship, God impressed upon me the idea that we tend to "live" in one of the mindsets of the days of Jesus' crucifixion. On Friday, Jesus was executed on the cross. On Saturday, He lie dead in the tomb, and on Sunday, He was gloriously resurrected. Whether intentionally or by default, we operate with one of these perspectives.   Friday was a dark day. Our LORD was tortured mercilessly. He fulfilled all of the prophecies about Him and He gave up His Spirit, dying the death that we owed. It is a day for which I will be forever grateful, and one that I must remember, but it was not the end! Think about it. How often do you se...

  To the woman he said, "I will greatly increase your labor pains; with pain you will give birth to children. You will want to control your husband, but he will dominate you."   Genesis 3:16  In the last post, we looked into how sin is essentially believing someone or something else over God. We might believe we know better, or that the powers of this world are more powerful than God, but the truth is we’re wrong. No one is wiser, no one is more powerful, no one has better thoughts or intentions for us. And when we choose someone or something else over God, that’s sin. Sin separates us from God because we have chosen something over Him, we have chosen to follow another path than the one He placed us on. It never works out well. In that choice, that sin, we experience spiritual death, the separation from God. That essential part of us that lives on forever is now dead. Our body may still be walking around on earth, our heart beating, our mind thinking, our mouth talking...

  And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”   Genesis 3:11  When God came to meet with Adam and Eve in the Garden that evening, He knew what He would find. He was not surprised. Saddened maybe. Disappointed perhaps. But not surprised. And yet, when he calls them to Himself, He asks them two questions. What we need to realize is that these questions are not for God to understand the situation, but for us to.   “Who told you that you were naked?” They had been naked from creation and had never known it. Nothing on earth wore clothing, so naked was the standard. In order to realize that they were naked, in order to feel the need to cover themselves, someone had to have pointed it out to them. They had to listen to someone other than God, and believe them over what God had already taught them. And in that lies the problem. They were given an alternative viewpoint from what their creator and fri...

  When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.   Genesis 3:6  Adam and Eve catch a lot of flack for their choice in the Garden and how it has led to all of humanity being slaves to sin ever since, but if we’re honest, I’m not sure any one of us would have done differently. Sure, with the benefit of hindsight we can say that we would choose to obey, but they didn’t have that. That’s a key fact we, as humans, tend to overlook. You don’t know what you know until you know it. Before that, we’re all ignorant.   Just imagine Adam and Eve bopping around in the Garden of Eden. Every day is wonderful and fresh and new. They have the animals. They have each other. They have God walking with them every evening. How cool is that? At this point in human history, there is no sin . Realistically, we can’...

  That is why a man leaves his father and mother and unites with his wife, and they become a new family. The man and his wife were both naked, but they were not ashamed.   Genesis 2:24-25 NET  Can you imagine being naked and not ashamed? I can’t. As a distant concept, maybe, but I don’t think it will ever be my lived reality on this earth. Why do you think they were able to be this way?   At first, you might argue that they were made by God and there was nothing in them to be ashamed of. They didn’t have a bulging belly or cellulite or blemishes. They had never gotten a bad haircut or dye job. No wrinkles, no gray hair. All the things we count in ourselves to be “bad” they didn’t have yet. This is because they were made by God, but wait, so were you and I! God made each one of us, formed us in our mother’s womb ( Psalm 139:13 ).   Also in their favor was a lack of comparison. Eve was the most beautiful woman on earth, because she was the only woman on eart...

  And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”   Genesis 2:16-17  These verses describe the institution of human agency. God could have made us as automatons that would blindly obey Him, but He didn’t. He gave us choice. He gave us independent minds that could understand our options and weigh our decisions. Later this week, we’ll look at what humanity did with that gift (spoiler alert, it wasn’t good), but for today I want to focus on the gift itself.  Why did God make us with the ability to choose for ourselves? Well, I’m not God, so I can’t speak for Him, but I have a pretty good guess. I wrote a long time ago about how forced love isn’t love at all. If you were to use a love potion, as happens in movies, on the person you desired and they instantly became infatuated with you, you’d know they didn’t re...

   God's timing is... eerily perfect. I got home from my radiation therapy setup appointment, and this study was in my mailbox. At no point in my past did I think that God would lead me into a season of brain radiation, but here I am. So, here comes the test of if I will truly follow God into whatever season He leads me into...  Obedience to God is not something we do to earn our salvation or atone for our sins. It is not a burden placed upon us, but rather the product of a grateful heart overflowing with joy and love of its Savior. The commands of God are not harsh or heavy. They were given for our benefit and blessing. In this next study, Where He Leads I Will Follow , we will look at key figures in the Bible, their decisions about whether or not to obey in pivotal moments in their lives, and the outcomes of those decisions. Looking at the list in the Table of Contents, if I didn't already know the stories of these brothers and sisters of mine in the past, this would al...

   Sometimes life is hard. Things just don’t add up. You hurt. You’re worn out. You’ve waited and waited, and reprieve doesn’t seem to be on the horizon. The Bible doesn’t shy away from these difficult seasons in our lives. It doesn’t shame us, or tell us we’re wrong to feel sad, scared or lost. Instead, it comes alongside us and says, yes, your brothers and sisters have felt that way too. You are not alone. The Bible teachs us about Lament.  What is lament and how are we, as Christians, to use it in our spiritual life? Lament isn’t something that is often talked about in church or by the Christian influencers online that we follow. According to  Bible Hub , lament is, “a form of prayer and expression that encompasses sorrow, mourning, and a plea for divine intervention.” It is a spiritual discipline, much like prayer and Bible reading. But lament is not just an expression of grief, it is also an articulation of trust in God amidst suffering and injustice. Lament...

  Blessed be the LORD God of Israel from everlasting to everlasting: and let all the people say, Amen. Prase ye the LORD.   Psalm106:48 KJV  Amen. You’ve read it. You’ve said it. Do you know what it means? What do you mean when you say it? Charles Spurgeon in his commentary on Psalm 106 shares that, “It has been adopted, and without translation retained, in all languages in which the gospel of Jesus the Son of David is preached.” Webster reflects similarly that, “This word, with slight differences or orthography, is in all the dialects of the Assyrian stock.” He goes on to share its meaning, “As a verb, it signifies to confirm, establish, verify; to trust, or give confidence; as a noun, truth, firmness, trust, confidence; as an adjective, firm, stable. In English, after the oriental manner, it is used at the beginning, but more generally at the end of declarations and prayers, in the sense of, be it firm, be it established.” As Spurgeon so neatly summarized, amen mean...

  How can I repay the LORD for all his acts of kindness to me? I will celebrate my deliverance, and call on the name of the LORD.   Psalm 116:12-13  Jesus’ last night on Earth, prior to His resurrection, was one filled with drama. He sent His disciples to prepare the Passover feast in a room that had already been made ready for them. There, He told them ahead of time that one of them would betray Him, someone who had dipped their bread into the same bowl. He shared with them the first communion, telling them that the bread represented His body, broken for them and the cup represented the blood of the covenant, His blood poured out for the forgiveness of sins. They sang hymns together, one of which was Psalm 116, our passage for today, then they went out to the Garden of Gethsemane. Here Jesus prayed deeply and poignantly, to the point where He sweat drops of blood ( Luke 22:44 ), but the disciples were so worn out that they could not stay awake, keeping vigil with Him....

  Your loyal followers trust in you, for you, LORD, do not abandon those who seek your help. Psalm 9:10  Do you ever come to God with a request, secretly wondering in your heart if He can or will fulfill it? I think David and the other psalmists definitely felt this way, so you are not alone. You see over and over in the psalms where they remind God of His promises and essentially call Him out, saying “Surely You won’t fail us!” But as they wrote these words to God, they were writing them for themselves as well. They were telling themselves, “Of course God will not let us down. He never has and He never will!” Oftentimes we need to be reminded of this truth, and what better way than by praising God for all He has done.   We can “know” that God is good and mighty to save, but when we focus on our problems , it’s easy to forget that. Here the psalmist encourages us to trust in God’s promises and truth, knowing that He will not leave us to shame. Over and over this is ...

  Then you turned my lament into dancing; you removed my sackcloth and covered me with joy. So now my heart will sing to you and not be silent; O LORD my God, I will always give thanks to you.  Psalm 30:11-12  Earlier in this study, I wrote about the four steps of lament: turning to God, complaining, asking for what you need, and trusting God for its outcome. This week it looks like we are focusing on the fourth step, trusting God.  When we express our trust in God that He will take care of us, provide for our needs, and deal with whatever situation we are facing, in that very moment our prayer is answered. Once we’ve come to a place where we can say, “So now my heart will sing to you and not be silent; O LORD my God, I will always give thanks to you” (Psalm 30:12), our hope is secured and our heart can be at peace. We don’t have to wait to see the fruition of our hopes because they are certain and we can live in them today! When we enter into this frame of mind...

  For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.   Romans 8:38-39 RSV Nothing can separate us from the love of God: Not Death : For absent from the body means I will be present with the Lord. ( 2 Corinthians 5:8 ) Not Life : There are many distractions and temptations in this life. But, in Christ, as we walk in the Holy Spirit, we will see them for what they are and be able to choose life with Him instead. ( Galatians 5:16 ) Not Angels : Ok, this one confused me a little. Why would angels want to separate us from God? But as I looked into it, according to Matthew Henry , this can refer to both “good angels” and “bad angels,” or demons. Remember, Satan and his army of demons were once angels and fell from heaven when they rebelled against God. And God’s Word s...

  In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words;   Romans 8:26 NASB  On Friday nights, I get to hang out with my family, including my little nephews. They are 3 and 5, full of energy and spunk. The littlest has a thing for cookies. He always wants cookies. Before dinner. After dinner. While he is actively eating another cookie, this guy wants a cookie! If we gave him a cookie every time he asked for one, he’d never eat anything else, and as you can imagine, that wouldn’t go well for the growth and strength of his little body. But it’s awfully hard to say, “No” to that sweet little ask. As adults, we know that it is not best for him to eat cookies all day long every day, but he doesn’t understand that. Cookies taste good and they are fun to eat! That’s all he sees. If we say, “No,” he is deeply disappointed. He doesn’t get what he wants. We seem m...

  We were given this hope when we were saved. (If we already have something, we don’t need to hope for it. But if we look forward to something we don’t yet have, we must wait patiently and confidently.)   Romans 8:24-25 NLT  Hope. We delved into it yesterday, but today it becomes more real, more palpable. Let’s dig in! Today’s verse says that we were given “this” hope when we were saved. What hope is that? Well, it came in the previous verse: And we believers also groan, even though we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, for we long for our bodies to be released from sin and suffering. We, too, wait with eager hope for the day when God will give us our full rights as his adopted children, including the new bodies he has promised us.   Romans 8:23   When we were saved, God gave us the future hope of realizing our full rights as His adopted children, including our heavenly bodies. These bodies will not know pain or suffering, decay...

  For I consider that our present sufferings cannot even be compared to the glory that will be revealed to us.   Romans 8:18  Suffering is real and difficult. Living in the midst of it can be overwhelming. How do we make it through? How do we hold on in the hardship and persevere in the challenges? Hope. Hope is the only thing that can outshine the darkness, that can make things worth it, even when they don’t make sense in the moment. So, what do we put our hope in? Getting better? Our situation improving? What if those things don’t come to pass in this life? Was our hope in vain? I think it is so important that we are careful about what we place our hope in.   The Bible has a lot to say about hope. Here are a few verses that stand out to me this morning: Isaiah 40:31  - But those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint. Micah 7:7  - But as...