Monday, October 26thDay one of this week’s Faith Challenge. I’m wondering What’s the Faith Challenge suppose to be? Where’s the challenge? What’s the challenge? Is it to read something new? To be challenged in your faith walk? An opportunity to grow? Yes, probably some of all of that. But this week my challenge is for you to be with God, hear from God and respond to God. I don’t know what that wil...  Read More

Thursday, October 22This week we’ve been discussing how the flood is more than just devastation, or even God wipe out the entire world and starting creation over. It is God, handing humanity over to the ruin in created and out of severe mercy, chose to recreate again with Noah, the man of comfort and rest. We said, God gave us a path from ruin to renewal.Folks, I know that firsthand and God used a...  Read More

Wednesday, October 21 Noah waited, we wait, we grow when we trust in the waiting. But trust what and who? Back to the flood narrative. Genesis 8:16-19- 16 “Come out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and their wives. 17 Bring out every kind of living creature that is with you—the birds, the animals, and all the creatures that move along the ground—so they can multiply on the earth and be ...  Read More

Tuesday, October 20Read Genesis 8:10-16a- 10 He waited seven more days and again sent out the dove from the ark. 11 When the dove returned to him in the evening, there in its beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf! Then Noah knew that the water had receded from the earth. 12 He waited seven more days and sent the dove out again, but this time it did not return to him. 13 By the first day of the fir...  Read More

Monday, October 19thWe are still in the flood narrative, let’s pick up where we left off last week.Read Genesis 7:22-24- 22 Everything on dry land that had the breath of life in its nostrils died. 23 Every living thing on the face of the earth was wiped out; people and animals and the creatures that move along the ground and the birds were wiped from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those with h...  Read More

Saturday, October 17Remember John Walton’s statement, “what God does through the flood is most important of all”? The last and foremost thing that should get our attention about this narrative is God’s deliverance- His rescue and redemption in chaos.The critical verse for this declaration is Genesis 6:13, but here’s the challenge. The translation from Hebrew to English in the NIV is stifling or I ...  Read More

Friday, October 16thWhat else do we notice about Noah? Genesis 7:7- 7 And Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives entered the ark to escape the waters of the flood.Don’t slide past that, that has practical and theological implications.Think about it, the world was being handed over to its ruin because that’s what it chose. Noah and his family are rescued because of Noah’s righteousness....  Read More

Thursday, October 15thReadDid you notice that Noah never speaks a single word in the flood narrative?He asks no questions. He voices no complaints. He makes no dramatic declarations of faith. He simply does what God commands, again and again. The narrator describes him as a flat character on purpose.Notice that passages- Genesis 6:8-9, 22, 7:5, 16- 8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord….9...  Read More

Wednesday, October 14th For those of you wondering where Tuesday’s daily faith challenge was, you didn’t miss anything. I didn’t finish it in time and we as a staff had an awesome day serving in Howards Grove Tuesday, so I made the executive decision to bump it from Tuesday to Wednesday and go into Saturday. If you need a refresher from Monday, go back and read Genesis 6:13-7:24, yes, it is a lot,...  Read More

Monday, October 12thYes, I want you to take your time today and read the bulk of the Flood Narrative (Genesis 6:13-7:24). I want you to take your time. TRY not to read it with what you think you already know. TRY to read it with fresh eyes, which means slow, deliberate, with intention of God showing you something “other.”Then, when you are done deliberately reading it, what did you notice? What go...  Read More

Greetings New Lifer-s! Pastor Bill here.This week I encourage you to work through Romans Chapter 12 with me. I have a suggested reading portion for each day and a verse I have chosen for you to focus on.I love nature. (the fact that almost EVERY message I do has a nature illustration might hint at that!)The amazing migration of salmon up the rivers, against the current and against all odds to achi...  Read More

Greetings New Lifer-s! Pastor Bill here.This week I encourage you to work through Romans Chapter 12 with me. I have a suggested reading portion for each day and a verse I have chosen for you to focus on.I love nature. (the fact that almost EVERY message I do has a nature illustration might hint at that!)The amazing migration of salmon up the rivers, against the current and against all odds to achi...  Read More