FAMILY RESEMBLANCE. 2 Timothy 1:3-5.

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We are family–each person begins life as part of a family. We inherit traits from our parents. But shouldn’t we focus on today and forget the past? Does ancestry matter?

YES. The Bible contains over 25 genealogies, and while readers often skim them, God put them there for a reason.

Genealogies prove:

1) God LOVES families,

2) He was in control of your destiny—generations before your birth, and

3) God can use ANYONE. Jesus’ ancestry included Rahab the harlot, David (who committed adultery and murder), Ruth the Moabite, and more.

Knowing your ancestry does not mean pretending everyone was perfect. It means seeing God’s grace work through fallen people.

And just as you inherit physical traits such as height, weight, and eye color, you also inherit spiritual traits. If your forebears were givers, you may have the gift of giving. If they were preachers, God may make you a preacher. Paul explains this to Timothy, speaking not only of Paul’s ancestors, but of Timothy’s:

“I thank God, whom I serve with a clear conscience AS MY ANCESTORS DID, when I remember you in my prayers night and day…. clearly recalling your SINCERE FAITH THAT FIRST LIVED IN YOUR GRANDMOTHER LOIS, THEN IN YOUR MOTHER EUNICE, AND THAT I AM CONVINCED IS IN YOU ALSO” 2 Timothy 1:3-5.

Paul knows Timothy’s family well, and recognizes in Timothy the faith he saw in Timothy’s mother and grandmother. Clearly spiritual traits can be passed from parent to child.

And that should give us wisdom. If you are looking for God’s plan for your life, look at God’s plan for your ancestors’ lives. Yours will be different, of course. But it may employ similar skills.

I once wrote down the occupations of every member of my family living or dead, going back generations. Of those whose occupations I knew, a full 50%—HALF OF THEM—were teachers. That was staggering to me. And guess what? My primary spiritual gift is the gift of teaching. You too may find guidance in your ancestry.

(And for the person who does not know their ancestry, consider the high priest Melchizedek. The book of Hebrews reports on this man “having no [known] father or mother” (Hebrews 7:3) and compares him to no less a hero than Jesus Himself.)

God, in His Grace, can miraculously use even those with NO known ancestry.

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Inherited Faith. 2 Timothy 1:5.

Yesterday I found a copy of a detailed family tree that I thought was lost. It goes back nine generations! It is mostly Germans, Brits, and a single line of Frenchmen. Most common vocations? Teachers, farmers, lawyers, and business owners.

I suppose you can inherit leadership and the gift of gab. I’m sure you can inherit a talent for teaching. But can you inherit faith? At first, the answer may seem to be No. Each person must choose Christ for himself. But 2 Timothy has an interesting passage. Paul writes:

“For I am mindful of the sincere faith within you, which first dwelt in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am sure that it is in you as well” 2 Timothy 1:5.

Paul believes that the faith he sees in Timothy is the same faith he saw in the young man’s mother and grandmother. I like that idea—because my kids come from a long line of faith. Many great and faithful men and women of God have gone before. Each had a crisis of belief, and chose to walk by faith and believe His word. Sure, there have been a few failures, but the majority have loved and served Jesus. Sometimes I look at my two kids and see in them the faith of their parents and grandparents.

The key in this verse may be that Paul describes Timothy’s faith as “sincere.” Is your faith sincere? Take that sincere and honest faith, the faith that comes from you being REAL, and build on that.

Pray, obey, read, and study the word. Grow in Christ. Cultivate faith, belief, and TRUST. Put aside doubt, skepticism, and mocking. Choose to love God and trust Him.

Now, how do you serve Him? It’s not about gifts. Just a few verses later Paul says if you purify yourself, God can use you.

“If anyone purifies himself from anything dishonorable, he will be a special instrument, set apart, useful to the Master, prepared for every good work” 2 Timothy 2:21.

So that’s all it takes—purify yourself, and God will use you as a special instrument. But I know that’s not so easy. Your ancestors in the faith did not have smart phones or even TVs, or so many other things. But don’t kid yourself—they had choices. They had temptations. And many of them purified themselves, walked with God, and raised their children in the faith. May we do the same.

May we be worthy of the ones who have gone before us.

Dear God, make us faithful. Help us love you and choose faith. Help us to purify ourselves so we can be “special instruments” for you. Teach us to drop the doubts and to choose faith. Help us to “walk in a manner worthy of the Lord,” and worthy of the “great cloud of witnesses surrounding us” Hebrews 12:1. Give us an extra measure of the faith of our ancestors. Help us purify ourselves so we can be special instruments for you. Use us in any way you choose. We give our lives to you!

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The Death Penalty: Pros and Cons. Numbers 35.

The death penalty is controversial, but it is not unbiblical. The United States is not ancient Israel. We do not enforce the 613 laws of the Old Testament, nor should we. We pick and choose among them, using them only as guidance and a role model. We clearly do not follow dietary laws, sanitation rules, or even the Old Testament tort laws embodied by the phrase, “an eye for an eye.” Instead we pay for lost eyesight with monetary damages. Similarly, we are under no Biblical orders to exactly follow the Old Testament law on capital punishment. But because it is in the Bible, it remains worthy of our consideration.

Some arguments against the death penalty: As it is practiced in the U.S., capital punishment is not the deterrent it once was—death may be delayed by twenty years of appeals. Criminals know that and are (presumably) less afraid to commit capital crimes. “Because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed quickly, therefore the hearts of the sons of men among them are given fully to do evil” Ecclesiastes 8:11.

In addition, the years of appeals are paid for by the taxpayers, so the death penalty is actually many times more expensive than life imprisonment. (Think of that–it costs more money to execute a man than to lock him up and feed him for fifty years.) There is also the small but not-insignificant risk that an innocent man might be put to death. Believing it to be “cruel and unusual punishment, ” or at best, “uncivilized,” many nations have simply abolished the death penalty.

Yet, there are also arguments in favor of the death penalty: To begin, the U.S. Supreme Court has restricted the death penalty to murder cases only. We no longer hang horse thieves.

Second, you might argue the U.S. is “modest” in its use of the death penalty because there are nations that put more people to death than the United States, including North Korea, Vietnam, Syria, Afghanistan, Egypt, Iraq, and others. China executes many thousands every year, putting to death more people than the rest of the world combined. (Sadly, this is not a convincing statistic–what civilized nation would proudly compare itself to China, North Korea, or Syria?)

A more persuasive argument is that the states have safeguards in place to ensure innocent people are not put to death. For example, in addition to providing free appeals to the convicted, our system cannot execute those guilty of “only” murder. Most capital cases must be what lawyers call “murder plus.” That is, a murder alone will not result in a death sentence. Criminals must be convicted of committing a murder while in the commission of an additional felony, such as murder plus rape, or murder plus robbery.

Another argument is that some criminals are so dangerous that the death penalty can appear to be the only way to ensure the public’s safety. Finally, it can be unsatisfying to know your child is dead but his murderer is in prison watching TV in the day room. Sometimes victims deserve the justice that only the grave can give.

In my opinion, there are valid arguments on both sides.

Consider what God told Moses about murder in Numbers 35:

“Do not defile the land where you are, for bloodshed defiles the land and there can be no atonement for the land because of the blood that is shed on it, except by the blood of the person who shed it” Numbers 35:33.

BLOODSHED DEFILES THE LAND.

That sounds serious to me. Murder soils the land. It pollutes it. If our nation tolerates murder, our land will become defiled. Perhaps a wise and merciful use of the death penalty is exactly what God expects of a righteous nation.

It is interesting that the shedding of blood dishonors the land, and only the shedding of blood can restore it.

Our hearts are the same way. Our sin defiles us. Only the shed blood of Christ can atone for us.

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Thoughts on the New Year. Psalm 90.

Have you ever been moved by time? It is staggering. NASA says the star Earendel is 28 billion light years from earth, meaning the light has traveled 28 billion years to reach us. But God has been seated on His throne LONGER than that. He is the Almighty. Nothing in our world surprises Him. No problem in your life is too hard for Him. We debate: is time linear, a straight line from Creation to Final Judgment, or cyclical, an endless repetition of circles like winter, spring, summer, and fall? I say both: a straight line made of circles, like the telephone cords we had in our kitchens in the 1980s.

The point is, time is HUGE, beyond our comprehension. But God is beyond time. He never changes. “Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday, today, and forever” Hebrews 13:8.

Slowly read the words of the hymn “O God, Our Help in Ages Past,” a paraphrase of Psalm 90 by Isaac Watts:

O God, our help in ages past,
Our hope for years to come,
Our shelter from the stormy blast,
And our eternal home;

Under the shadow of thy throne
Thy saints have dwelt secure;
Sufficient is thine arm alone,
And our defense is sure.

Before the hills in order stood,
Or earth received her frame,
From everlasting Thou art God,
To endless years the same.

A thousand ages in thy sight
Are like an evening gone,
Short as the watch that ends the night
Before the rising sun.

Time, like an ever-rolling stream,
Bears all its sons away;
They fly forgotten, as a dream
Dies at the opening day.

O God, our help in ages past,
Our hope for years to come,
Be thou our guard while troubles last,
And our eternal home.

GO INTO THE YEAR WITH COURAGE!

Remember: “there is nothing NEW under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 1:9). God has foreseen it all, and He is KING. He will take care of you!

FACE THE NEW YEAR WITH CONFIDENCE IN THE GOD WHO IS SOVEREIGN EVEN OVER TIME ITSELF.

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CORRELATION. Hebrews 12: 5-11.

Correlation. n. A statistical measure of the degree in which two variables move in relation to each other.

There are correlations between freezing temperatures and snow on the ground, between hard work and achievement, selfishness and loneliness, kindness and optimism.

Several powerful correlations involve everyone’s favorite topic: DISCIPLINE. There are correlations between parental love and discipline, between parental discipline and children’s self-discipline, between parents’ discipline and children’s success, between parents’ self-discipline and their ability to discipline children, and (SURPRISE!) between discipline and JOY.

It’s true—discipline leads to joy. And lack of discipline leads to disappointment.

God disciplines us too. He disciplines me by keeping me on a short leash. Some seem to get away with everything. I feel like I get away with nothing. But it keeps me from going astray. God’s discipline is an expression of HIS LOVE. Be thankful for it!

“My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor faint when you are reproved by Him, for whom the Lord loves, He disciplines, and He scourges every son whom He receives. … God deals with you as with sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? … And you respected your earthly father’s discipline—how much more should you be subject to the Father of spirits and live? … All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful. But afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness” Hebrews 12: 5-11.

Have you met children without discipline? I’ve seen a few so out-of-control it had become a handicap. The lack of discipline was crippling them in every area: relationships with peers and adults, academics, growth, maturity. To meet an undisciplined child is deeply disturbing, because you can see the destruction ahead, but they cannot. And without discipline, they are powerless to prevent it; their life has no brakes.

Welcome God’s discipline. And—STOP AND THINK HARD ON THIS:

The Old Testament is not about judgment. It’s about DISCIPLINE. God is desperate to guide and shape Israel’s destiny. He disciplines them (and you) out of LOVE!

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Hard Work Leads to Success. Hebrews 12:11

Self-discipline always pays off. It comes with its own rewards, whether dieting, sports, studying, or spiritual disciplines. Think about that as you begin a new year, a new semester in school, or simply a new week.

If you are a student–or NOT a student–the discipline of reading and studying and turning off the TV and phone will pay off. (Yes, you can silence the phone. You will survive.)

“All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful. Yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruits of righteousness.” Hebrews 12:11.

I memorized the wording above long ago. But I also like the NIV translation:

“No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.”

If you let discipline and hard work train you, you will experience great success!

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THE ROLL CALL OF THE FAITHFUL. Hebrews 11:2-38.

Are you familiar with Hebrews 11? Hebrews 11 is known as “the Faith Chapter” for its litany of people who lived by faith—people whose lives should inspire us. It is one of the great chapters of the Bible that everyone should know. It begins with a definition of faith: “the reality of what is hoped for, the evidence of things unseen” Hebrews 11:1.

Then the writer lists those who have lived out their faith:

“By faith, our ancestors won God’s approval…

By faith we understand God made the universe…

By faith Abel offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain.

By faith he was approved…

By faith Enoch was taken and did not see death….

By faith Noah….

By faith Abraham….

By faith even Sarah….

By faith Isaac….

By faith Jacob…. Joseph…. Moses…. The Israelites…. Rahab….

And what more can I say? For time will fail me if I tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and the prophets, who by faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, quenched the raging fire, escaped the edge of the sword…. Became mighty in battle, put foreign armies to flight. Women received their dead, others were tortured, not accepting their release…. They were stoned, sawn in two… afflicted, mistreated, men of whom the world was not worthy….” Hebrews 11:2-38.

Are you discouraged? Do you need faith? Read Hebrews 11! These people’s lives will inspire you to conquer any obstacle you are facing, as long as you are facing it with faith.

And chapter 12 offers the only wise conclusion:

“Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us [cheering us on!], let us lay aside every weight and the sins which so easily entangle us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfector of the faith….” Hebrews 12:1-2.

Be inspired by those who’ve gone before, fix your eyes on Jesus, and run with FAITH!

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FINISH WELL. Hebrews 10:36.

King Asa took the throne following two generations of idol-worshipers. Unlike his father and grandfather, Asa was devout:

“Asa did what was right in the Lord’s eyes, as his ancestor David had done” 1 Kings 15:11.

“Asa’s heart was completely devoted to the Lord his entire life” 1 Kings 15:14.

“Asa did what was good and right in the sight of the Lord his God” 2 Chronicles 14:2.

“No one made war with him because the Lord gave him rest” 2 Chronicles 14:6.

Near the end, God sent a prophet to encourage Asa: “Be strong. Don’t be discouraged, for your work has a reward” 2 Chron. 15:7. But when Israel was invaded, Asa sought help from an enemy nation rather than from the Lord. God rebuked him. “You have been foolish in this matter” 2 Chronicles 16:9. Then Asa developed a foot problem. “Yet even in his disease he didn’t seek the Lord but only the doctors” 2 Chronicles 16:12.

Even in his disease he did not seek God? How could Asa forget God, after all those years of faithfulness? I’ll wager it was pride. After all, he was the king. Perhaps one day he looked around and said, “look at the great things I have done.” That’s all it takes. He took his eyes off God and put them on himself.

Imagine running a marathon. It is 26.2 miles from Marathon to Athens—thus the traditional length of the race. What if you trained all year, and ran fast on race day, but fell down in exhaustion after 26 miles? Only 385 yards separate you from your goal. Get up and finish! You can walk. Crawl if you must. But FINISH!

Some people accomplish great things then blow it at the end by scandal. The amazing phenomenally gifted speaker Ravi Zacharias died a few years ago and was honored by the world. Only after his death did we discover his many failures. I was a huge fan!

He DID NOT FINISH WELL.

“For you have need of endurance, brethren, so that you may not lose what you have accomplished, but that you may receive a full reward” Hebrews 10:36.

ENDURE! FINISH WELL!

Dear God, never let us become proud, taking credit for your amazing work in our lives. Keep us humble and obedient and worshipful and faithful to the very end. Help us FINISH WELL!

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Who Needs Church Anyway?Hebrews 10:25.

Why go to church? Does it make any difference? Can’t you be a good person without it? And have good friends? And be encouraged? Sure. So why bother getting involved in a local church?

Because God commands us. It is not a request.

“Do not forsake the assembling together of ourselves, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the day drawing near” Hebrews 10:25.

Church is not optional for the believer. If you are a child of God, you need to be there. When believers are assembling together—when the Body of Christ, the Bride of Christ, comes together for worship and fellowship, YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO BE THERE.

WHY?

  1. God didn’t make Lone Ranger Christians. The whole point of faith is being involved with a TEAM. A BROTHERHOOD.
  2. You will not grow in your faith without church, particularly older teachers and mentors.
  3. You will not be as useful to the Lord—outside of your family, most of the work believers do happens within the church, and you store up treasure in Heaven through your work with the church.
  4. You will learn God’s wisdom on moral, political, and cultural issues.
  5. You will be encouraged—you will be happier!
  6. You will be less vulnerable to temptation.
  7. You will find your lifelong friends in church.
  8. Your church involvement will be a blessing to your future family, your children, your neighbors, etc.
  9. There are people at church who need YOU, hurting people that only you can comfort.
  10. Because the church will help you grow so much, you will reach people that you never would have reached without the church. SOULS WILL BE SAVED because you attended church.

Don’t make excuses about missing church. Church should be your excuse for missing everything else!

Dear God, show us how to engage with the church and touch lives and store up treasure in Heaven. Use us to bless the church, and use the church to bless us!

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SACRIFICES. Numbers 7:87-88; Hebrews 9.

(Picture generated by Artificial Intelligence.)

Did you know that cultures all over the world use sacrifices? Many feel guilt and think if they sacrifice something they love, “the gods” will forgive. People have sacrificed fruit, grain, animals, even children.

God implemented a sacrificial system in ancient Israel, including sacrifices of grain, oil, doves, sheep, goats, and cattle. When Moses dedicated the tabernacle in Numbers 7, the number of animals slain was incredible. What’s the total?

“All the livestock for the burnt offering totaled 12 bulls, 12 rams, and 12 male lambs a year old, with their grain offerings, and 12 male goats for the sin offering. All the livestock for the fellowship sacrifice totaled 24 bulls, 60 rams, 60 male breeding goats, and 60 male lambs a year old” Numbers 7:87-88.

How many animals is that?

Each one with its throat cut and its blood drained on the steps of the altar?

It is 252 animals.

On the altar’s dedication day, the blood of 252 animals was poured out on the steps. That is A LOT of blood. The blood would have run down the steps and into the streets. Imagine the flies that must have gathered.

Bruce Marchiano explained that the JOHN film he is producing will open with a humming sound. Louder, and louder, and louder. A constant, mysterious hum. Viewers will wonder what they are hearing. Finally the camera reveals Jesus, hanging on the cross, a bleeding mess, and flies all over him. (Bruce got the idea from hanging 14 hours on a cross himself and being unable to brush the flies from his face.) Imagine.

But the blood of 252 animals could never do what the blood of One Perfect Man did. Jesus, the only holy man who ever lived, paid our sin debt with His holy blood. He is the one and only perfect sacrifice that every priest presenting every other sacrifice was looking forward to and hoping for. Jesus was the sacrifice all the others were seeking.

Jesus fulfilled all that was foreshadowed by the Old Testament system. Jesus IS our perfect sacrifice. There will never be another.

“Christ appeared as our Great High Priest, and entered the more perfect tabernacle… not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered the holy place once and for all, having obtained eternal redemption” Hebrews 9:11-12.

He is both the sacrifice-er and the sacrifice.

Read Hebrews 9. It’s deep.

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