Have you ever prayed and it seemed like the answer wasn’t ever going to come? Have you ever wondered if God was really listening to you? Have you ever counted the days and nights after the fact? Well, if you have you are not alone. I can say that I have been where you are. As a matter of fact, I am right there right now. I know it takes time to wait for God to answer our prayers. We want answers right then when we pray, but it doesn’t work like that. God has His own way and time how He does things. Things will never be done when we want them to be done. When God does something, He is always on time, He’s never late. Our problem is this: We don’t know how to be patient. Patience is a virtue that we all need to learn how to be. We can’t rush God no matter what the circumstances may look like at the time. Things are not always what they seem to be. We may see things one way, but God sees them another way. He can take a bad situation and turn it around for good. That is something we need to remember.
Waiting is hard. It’s never easy when you have been waiting for an answer for a long time. I can truly say that He hears all of our prayers. He hears our every thought. He knows everything that we need before we even ask. It is important to thank God for everything. So, when you feel like God isn’t listening, He is. Sometimes when He is silent, He is just giving us a little more time to pray, a little more time to grow our faith and trust in Him.
Life becomes hard sometimes. We never know what’s going to happen from one day to the next. There is so much going on in the world right now, that I often wonder if things will ever be normal. We are still going through COVID-19 and all of its counterparts. There are vaccines, but people are still getting sick with it. I hope that one day there will be a cure for it so we will not have to get vaccinated every time a vaccine comes out. I know they are doing all that they can to keep us protected, but I can’t say that it is 100% accurate whether it will or not. It is going to take lots of faith to stay strong through all of this. This is why it is important to stay prayed up and follow all of the rules that have been set for us by the CDC (Centers For Disease Control). I think in some cases it is still alright to wear a mask, but it is the choice of the person whether they want to still wear it or not. All that I can say is that God is in control of everything, and as I once said before, it is going to take a lot of prayer, faith, and trust in God to make it through these hard dark times. God knows how I feel about all of this, and He knows how you feel about it too. Maybe this is something that will only last for many seasons and then will disappear as if it was never here. I hope to one day get to tell my grandson about all of this. I hope that when he is older this will no longer be an issue.
Well, I pray that everyone has a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year in 2024.
In his first letter to the believers in the Greek city of Corinth, the Apostle Paul said this:
“And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love.”
1 Corinthians 13:13 NIV
This well-known verse is the conclusion of what’s often referred to as the “love chapter” of the Bible. In it, Paul explained that spiritual gifts (like prophecy or knowledge) are helpful to the Church but simultaneously meaningless without an undercurrent of love.
Faith and hope are at the top of the list, but love is the greatest.
Think about it…
Faith is crucial to Christianity. In fact, “Without faith it is impossible to please God…” (Hebrews 11:16). “Faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see” (Hebrews 11:1). But one day, faith will give way to sight and what was once foggy will suddenly become clear.
Hope is also essential to those who follow Jesus Christ. And we certainly have a great hope—based on facts, evidence, and witnesses—in the God who created us, gave His life for us, and will return for us once and for all. But one day, the future we hope for will become reality.
And so, Paul says, love is the greatest. Earlier in the chapter (1 Corinthians 13:4-8), Paul defines love in action.
Faith and hope are important, but love is the greatest of them all.
We’ve all gotten to those places in our reading and studying of Scripture where we come across an ancient genealogy and suddenly lose all our momentum. We find the notion of someone else’s family tree to be completely irrelevant to our own lives in the 21st century and often succumb to the temptation to skip over this “boring” part of Scripture. That’s where the best-selling, newly revised and expanded edition of the Life Application Study BibleNLT and KJV can help us.
1 Chronicles 1-9
The longest genealogy in Scripture is 1 Chronicles 1-9, coming in at a whopping ten chapters. It takes an incredible amount of concentration to read through this dense material, but the Life Application Study Bible can help break it down for us in an understandable way. The Life Application notes help explain the significance of this genealogy from an Israelite’s perspective.
It also includes a helpful chart of “Who’s Who in the Bible.” Though we may not recognize every name in this genealogy or know anything about some of these people, the chart can help us locate and become more familiar with people who show up in other places in the Bible. In traversing this difficult terrain, we can have something solid to stand on as we work our way from one generation to the next.
Personal Profiles
Another unique feature of the Life Application Study Bible is the profiles of key people in the Bible. These profiles can help you dig deeper into some of the characters that show up in the genealogies, further strengthening our grasp of the biblical story. Here’s a profile of Noah.
Genealogies of Jesus
Another reason to not simply skip or dismiss the genealogies in the Bible is that they help us to know the Messiah, Jesus Christ. The Life Applicationcommentary notes speak to this in the two places Jesus’ genealogy shows up—Matthew 1:1-17 and Luke 3:23-38. Here is some content adapted from the Life Application commentary notes on Matthew’s genealogy:
“1:1-17 Beginning his book by presenting this record of ancestors (called a genealogy) was the best way that Matthew could interest a Jewish audience. Because a Jewish person’s family line proved his or her standing as one of God’s chosen people, Matthew began by showing that Jesus was a descendant of Abraham, the father of all Jews, and a direct descendant of David, fulfilling Old Testament prophecies about the Messiah’s line. The facts of this ancestry were carefully preserved. Matthew used this and many other proofs to show that Jesus is the true Messiah.”
“1:1-17 In the first 17 verses of Matthew we meet 46 people whose lifetimes span 2,000 years. All were ancestors of Jesus, but they varied considerably in personality, spiritual maturity, and experience. Some were heroes of faith, like Abraham, Isaac, Ruth, and David. Some came from outside Israel or had shady reputations, like Rahab, Tamar, and Ruth. Many were very ordinary, like Hezron, Ram, Nahshon, and Akim. And others were evil, like Manasseh and Abijah. Human failures or sins cannot limit or block God’s work in history. He works through both remarkable and ordinary people. Just as God chose all kinds of people to be part of the lineage of Jesus, he uses all kinds today to accomplish his will, in the present and for the future. And God wants to use you. This is one of Matthew’s main purposes—to show how you can be part of God’s Kingdom by following Jesus.”
“1:3-6 Matthew’s inclusion of four particular women (Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and Bathsheba) reveals his concern to do more than relay historical data. These women might have raised both ethnic and ethical questions for Matthew’s readers. All four of them were most likely not Israelites by birth, and all might seem scandalous to mention in an ancestral tree of the Messiah. Tamar acted as a prostitute to scam her father-in-law, Judah, but she was declared righteous for her actions by Judah for showing greater faithfulness to the family than he had (Genesis 38). Rahab was a prostitute and a foreigner, but she helped deliver the city of Jericho into the hands of the Israelites and had faith in God (Joshua 2:1-21; 6:22-25). Ruth was from Moab, an enemy tribe of Israel, but she faithfully took care of her mother-in-law Naomi and was praised for being better than seven sons (Ruth 1–4). King David committed adultery with Bathsheba, yet she became the mother of Solomon, the wisest king of Israel (2 Samuel 11; 12:24-25). This was the colorful line into which God’s Son was born.”
“Matthew’s genealogy of Jesus lists the good, the bad, and the ugly, and it intentionally does not leave out people who seemed questionable. The point Matthew is trying to make is that God sent his Son as the Savior of all people—Jews, Gentiles, men, and women. No matter who people are or where they come from, God’s plan of salvation is offered to all people.”
Here is some more content from the Life Applicationcommentary notes on Luke’s genealogy of Jesus (Luke 3:23-38):
“3:23-38 Matthew’s genealogy goes back to Abraham and shows that Jesus is related to all Jews (Matthew 1). Luke’s genealogy goes back to Adam, showing that Jesus is related to all human beings. This is consistent with Luke’s picture of Jesus as the fully human Savior of the whole world.”
“3:23 Imagine the Savior of the world working in a small-town carpenter’s shop until he was 30 years old! It seems incredible that Jesus would have been content to remain in Nazareth all that time, but he patiently trusted his Father’s timing for his life and ministry. Thirty was the prescribed age for priests to begin their ministry (Numbers 4:3). Joseph was 30 years old when he began serving the king of Egypt (Genesis 41:46), and David was 30 years old when he began to reign over Judah (2 Samuel 5:4). Age 30, then, was a good time to begin an important task in the Jewish culture. Like Jesus, we need to resist the temptation to jump ahead before receiving the Spirit’s direction. Are you waiting and wondering what your next step should be? Trust God’s timing.”
By noticing how Matthew and Luke crafted their genealogies, we can learn more about Jesus. Matthew wants us to see that Jesus is the offspring of both Abraham and David. In other words, he is Abraham’s offspring (see Gal 3:16) and David’s greater Son (see 2 Sam 7:1-17; Rom 1:3-4). Luke wants us to see that Jesus is the Son of God (Luke 3:22) like Adam (Luke 3:38), but where Adam succumbed to temptation (Gen 3:1-7), Jesus successfully resisted it (Luke 4:1-13).
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Through a combination of charts, personal profiles, and commentary notes, the newly revised and expanded edition of the Life Application Study Biblecan assist you in reading, studying, understanding, and applying some of the most challenging material you will encounter in the Bible.
This is a subject I never thought I would ever have to write about, but it has reared up in my thoughts because of the cough I had a few months ago. From all of the commercials I have seen on television, I literally thought I had COPD because of asthma as well. Everything was going through my mind. I was afraid to cough because it hurt so bad whenever I had to. My chest is what hurt the most. Because of that, I have to see a specialist. I never thought I would experience something like this.
Your lungs are very important. When something is wrong with them you can’t breathe properly. Your airways become restricted. This is why it is important to always get your check ups so you will know what’s going on in your body. If you do not take care of yourselves, who will?
It isn’t fun when you can’t breathe properly. It tires you out just trying to breathe. With that being said, always pay attention to your body. Consult your doctor if you feel like something is wrong. To your health.
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Food for the Soul 