God and Lists

God loves order. And details. And a bunch of other stuff but today we are going to focus on the orderly side of God's personality today. 

Did you know that God loves lists? 

He must because a great deal of the Bible is devoted to lists. Today we call these particular lists, genealogies. The genealogies in the Bible are some of the deepest, hardest to pronounce and harder to read passages in the Bible. From the surface, they look like barren landscapes, with sand swept surfaces of unyielding granite. But, if we can break through the surface, golden riches and sparkling jewels can be found. 

How do we know this?

Because they are Scripture and God put them there for a purpose. In 2 Timothy 3:16 we read that “All Scripture is God breathed and is profitable for teaching…” God intended every chapter, every verse, every word of the Bible to be profitable for teaching — yes, even the genealogies. In fact, God believes genealogies are so profitable, He devoted large portions of his Word to them. We have them several times in the book of Genesis, the book of Numbers is almost one long genealogy, and we have one at the beginning of 1 Chronicles and one at the end of 2 Chronicles. We also find them in Ezra, Matthew, and in Luke.

By skipping all the genealogies in the Bible, we are passing over a lot of what God thought was important for us to know. He put them there to teach us something, and if we skip them because we think they have nothing to teach us, we are missing out on all that God has for us.

Second Place Didn't Interest Me . . .

 

What Am I Doing Hangin' Round?

 One of my favorite Monkee's songs. 

The Second Act

Weird, somewhat intimate confession, I love all the intricacies that come with the second act. You know, that part of the play, book, or movie, where the hero faces his/her greatest obstacles and is seconds away from giving up, being destroyed, and losing everything. 

When there is no way out, no rescue is coming, and fate has once again extended it's winning streak. Grief, death, the extinguishing of hope, the penultimate breath.

That moment, that seems to last a lifetime where everything hangs in the balance. And then, without warning, suddenly everything changes . . . 

I love to listen to people's stories. I like to listen long enough to sense the arc of their stories, the ebb and flow that will pull back the curtain on the decisions and emotions that accompany most of our lives. And without exception if you listen long enough, you will uncover those crossroad moments, those cliff-hangers, where the destiny of their lives was there for the taking, awaiting a push, plotting the next step, pleading for a sign. And if your storyteller is being brutally honest, they might describe that moment when emotions were running rampant, they couldn't imagine taking one more step, and lacked assurance that they could even endure one more second in that season of their life.