Creation

For the next few weeks (Feb. 2007) our church is looking at, and listening to, the Creation account in Genesis 1.

Eugene Peterson has been a great help to me in dealing with the text. He says: "The most prominent feature of Genesis 1 is its rhythmic structure" (Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places). In reading the text aloud, something profound takes place. We are brought into the action, by faith. We are incorporated into the beat. We are called to keep in step with the Spirit. This is to be our way and flow of Life, in Christ. It is the mandate for all creation.

Genesis 1 should thus be read together with John 1, and Colossians 1:15-20.
Of God's Son, Jesus, the Christ, we read, amazingly: 'All things were created through him and for him'.
In hearing the Word of God, our Creator-Father, we are plunged into depths, which are full of sheer wonder.

Portent

Portent:
1. a sign or indication of a future event, esp. a momentous or calamitous one; omen.
2. momentous of ominous significance: a cry of dire portent.
3. a miraculous occurrence; marvel. (thank you to 'The Collins English Dictionary'.

Acts 2:19 "And I will show portents in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and smoky mist."

The days in which we are living, according to Scripture are the days of the Spirit of God being poured out upon "all flesh".
Whenever a person has faith, receives faith, receives Christ - something amazing takes place. They are a new creature, right here, amidst all that is dying and decaying.

This is a portent. An amazing sign to the human race, that another person has come richly into what life has ever been about - knowing God, being filled with the Spirit of God (no longer empty and aimless), and participating in hope, now, in Life.

Are you a Portent amidst your peers, your family, your community?
You really should be!
Cheers!

The old King James Version of the Bible had a verse which read:
"The blessing of the Lord maketh rich, and toil addeth nothing to it".

Meaning, that where a person is blessed by the Lord, they are rich in Life (even if poor physically or financially etc.).
Toil, or good works, are fine things in themselves - but in terms of the Lord's blessing, they do not add anything to it.
The blessing stands, of itself.

Cheers!

Faith is ImPortent

Hello. Human beings are made, created, formed - to have faith. It is an essential quality for our lives.

Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
Faith goes together with hope, and love.
Faith is a gift.
Faith receives all the benefits of God's kindness towards us, in Jesus Christ.
Faith is like trust.
Faith is based upon the fact, revealed to us, by faith, that God is a Faithful Creator, who can be trusted.
Faith is informed by the Spirit of God.
Faith is a miracle worked in our hearts, by God, in kindness.

A Portent is a sign, an amazing sign. Or a wonderful, wonder.

When people have faith, in God, something is imparted into, and thus imported into, their lives.
This faith - resting in the goodness, and merit of Christ, who deals once and for all with our sin and guilt - is sign of true life.

People of faith, whom I know, have a profound deep assurance about life, and the future.
Are you a person of faith? If not, seek the Living Christ Jesus.