Monthly Archives: September 2011

(Pre-meditation Note:  I have not seen as many “comments” on each-day’s reading of Stott as I thought might be the case.  That’s okay.  Interaction with a blog can take place in more than one way.  I have received some feedback … Continue reading →

Week 4 Read:  Genesis:6:17 No matter how bad things get, there is always someone who “walks with God.” When God finds that person, a way out of deterioration and difficulty is made.  God is always the deliverer, but God enacts … Continue reading →

Week 4 Read:  Genesis 6:5 When I come to chapter six of Genesis in my Bible, it has this title for the first eight verses: “The Wickedness of Humankind” The “downward spiral” of sin which began in the Garden of … Continue reading →

Week 4 Read Genesis 4:20-22 Immediately after the story of Cain murdering Abel, we find a long geneology.  We do not know all the people who are listed, but we do learn some important things. We see that God continues … Continue reading →

Week 4 Read:  Genesis 4:8 The situation which gave rise to Cain’s murder of his brother is difficult to determine.  Stott points out that scholars have come up with various explanations. But the result is not subject to misunderstanding.  Jealousy … Continue reading →

Week 3 Read:  Genesis 3:14-15 The creation story—complete with the fall—gets to a point of resolution.  But it is not what God had in mind originally for the world or anything/anyone in the world. Stott does a good job in … Continue reading →

Week 3 Read:  Genesis 3:8-9, 21 It is in this section of the biblical narrative that we see two of the most touching aspects of grace. First, there is the grace of longing.  As Stott pointed out, God was accustomed … Continue reading →

Week 3 Read:  Genesis 3:16-17 I think Stott’s comments speak largely along the same lines that I might think to write about.  The “relational rupture” is at the heart of the Fall, simply because it is a violation of what … Continue reading →

Week 3 Read:  Genesis 3:7 Their “eyes were opened”!   The devil was right on that part of the temptation.  But it was not eye-opening as satan had said it would be.  That’s another insight into temptation. Yesterday, we saw that … Continue reading →

Week 3 Read:  Genesis 3:5-6 I appreciate John Stott’s blending of “likeness” and “otherness” in the God-human relationship.  I also believe, as Stott does, that “the very essence of sin” (Stott’s words) is revealed—Adam and Eve’s thinking that if they … Continue reading →

Week 3 Read:  Genesis 3:1-5 It’s almost impossible to imagine that God would deliberately establish the divine-human relationship to knowingly prevent Adam and Eve from becoming everything they could be.  But that’s what satan suggests.  “Your eyes will be opened” … Continue reading →

Week 3 Read:  Genesis 3:1 This week we work our way through the Fall narrative.  We discover how God’s plan became perverted through humanity’s actions.  We move from not much more than a glimpse of “good news” to a recurring … Continue reading →

Week 2 Read:  Genesis 2:24 Today’s reading would be “too hot to handle” for some people today.  One of the swirling controversies of our time is the definition of marriage.  For all his life, John Stott threw his hat into … Continue reading →

Week 2 Read: Genesis 2:21-22 I’m glad that Stott lifted up Eve as we move through this section of the Bible.   The person she was in her own creation and the wife she was in her relationship to Adam are … Continue reading →

Week 2 Read:  Genesis 2:18 Stott’s comments today are very interesting, because he lived a single and celibate life.  He came to believe as a young man that this was God’s will for him. But he approaches this section of … Continue reading →

Week Two Read:  Genesis 2:16-17 We are moving through significant territory.  We are moving through the story of how we took the glory of our creation and turned it into a curse.  And as Stott points out, it has largely … Continue reading →

Week 2 Read:  Genesis 1: 26, 28 We are exploring the two primary manifestations of human creation: work and marriage.  Both are acts of collaboration with God to achieve the doing of God’s will on earth as it is in … Continue reading →

Week 2 Read:  Genesis 2:15 We are not the makers of creation, but we are the maintainers of it.  All honorable work is divine in nature and sacred in purpose. Genesis gets it right:  God takes us and puts us … Continue reading →

Week 2 Summary:  Having explored the natural aspects of God’s creation, the Bible turns to the relational aspects:  work and marriage. Stott helps us explore these two facets of life in our next seven readings. Read:  Genesis 2:3 We can … Continue reading →

Week 1 Read:  Genesis 2:3 Creation was not simply God’s way of getting things going, it was also God’s way to get things going properly.  The rhythm of working and resting is part of the creation story. Probably the most … Continue reading →