A Prayer of Praise

Lord God, great are the works of your hand and great are the mercies from your throne. Your rule over all things is perfectly just and good and all that you have made reveals this. The sun, moon, and stars shout out in declaration of your glory, the rocks and trees show your creativity, the mountains and animals reveal your wisdom. Who is like you, O Lord, and who can stand before you? The grandeur of your creation amazes us, but still we pile up one sin and betrayal after another. We should meet with the just judgement of death in your presence, but instead we find life. We find life because Christ has taken on himself every sin we have committed, paid for them with his own blood, and redeemed us from death. This gives us great confidence to enter your presence and sing praises of your love, power, and perfect dominion. So in your throne room now we give all glory, laud and honor to you alone, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.

Ice Age?

Do you think there ever was an Ice Age? I am inclined to think there never was based on Genesis 8:22 "While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease." God gave this promise to us through his covenant with Noah and it seems like to me that a prolonged period of God would run counter to this verse. Any thoughts?

Interesting Patterns in Genesis

I have been enjoying opportunities to look at Genesis in several different arenas. One benefit of studying Genesis in this way is that some interesting patterns have come to light. At a Bible study a couple of nights ago, we were looking at Cain and Able. As the story goes, Cain ends up falling into sin, Able, the second born, is the one that God looks upon with favor. We see similar sets of brothers all throught the rest of Genesis (Ishmael and Issac, Esau and Jacob, Joseph and his brothers). So throughout Genesis, God is looking with favor on the second son. What really popped out about this is that, given Genesis is the book of beginnings, this pattern of the second son continues until we find the ultimate fulfillment in Christ. All throughout the book of Genesis, we see God points us forward to the second Adam. So the explanation of the two Adams in Romans 5 is a nice completion of the second son pattern in Genesis.