This week we will be exploring Genesis 35 together, Rededication According to God.
Jacob's life is filled with ups and downs. One victory in his life seems to be followed immediately by a failure. Right after he wrestles with God and reconciles with his brother, Esau, he finds himself in a place of complacency, hanging out in Shechem longer than he should and exposing his family to great danger.
God finally has to wake Jacob up and tell him to get out of Shechem and go to Bethel.
In modern words, God would be telling him, "Get out of your complacent, apathethic, self-pitying, half-hearted commitment to Me and do what I have called you to do!"
We all need this reminder.
Complacency is easy. Half-hearted commitment comes naturally. Mindless, passionless apathy seems to always invite us into its comfortable doldrums.
But God calls us to more.
He calls us to wake up! He calls us to set aside our idols! He calls us to remember who we are! He calls us to remember Who He is!
God calls us to live for Him no matter what happens around us.
The world likes to lull us to sleep and conform us to its image.
May we have the courage and strength to get out of Shechem and go to Bethel, the house of God!
This Sunday we will also celebrate communion together as fellow partakers of God's grace and members of His body!

This Sunday, September 7 (9am, 10:45am), we will have a special guest speaker for our Genesis series, Dr. Terry Mortenson of Answers in Genesis.
Dr. Mortenson has a Ph.D. in the history of geology from Coventry University in the UK. He has taught on creation and evolution issues for over 50 years in 37 different countries. It will be an encouragement to have Dr. Mortenson with us this coming weekend to address some of the controversies surrounding the book of Genesis and how science supports the Bible.
This Sunday morning, Dr. Mortenson will be speaking in both worship services on the topic, Creation vs Evolution: Does It Matter?
Dr. Mortenson will have six more sessions while he is here at CBC. Here is the schedule for this coming Sunday and Monday (September 7-8).
Origin of Species: Was Darwin Right? (Sunday, 6pm)
Ape-Men, Adam, and the Gospel (Sunday, 7:30pm)
Seven C's of History (for children, Monday, 9am)
How to Think about Origins (for teens, Monday, 10:30am)
Millions of Years: The Idea's Unscientific Origin and Its Catastrophic Consequences (Monday, 6pm)
Noah's Flood: Washing Away Millions of Years (Monday, 7:30pm)
The Monday morning sessions are open to all children, teens, and adults who are able to attend.
We are not sure of the number of people who may be coming to CBC for these sessions. Please be patient with our limited space and, if you are able, please park towards the rear of our property or on the other side of our youth building to allow some of our visitors to park toward the front. We plan to have overflow seating in our CBC Cafe area if needed.
May God fill our hearts with awe as we consider the reality, majesty, and beauty of His creation!

This week we will explore Genesis 33 together, Reconciliation According to God.

Here are four basic truths that I have learned in life:
Relationships are essential.
Conflict is inevitable.
Ongoing conflict is miserable.
Reconciliation is beautiful.
Let's face it...relationships are hard! It is nice to talk about love, fellowship, forgiveness, and reconciliation but they are so hard to live out in our daily relationships.

We can irritate one another, disagree with one another, argue with one another, and even hurt one another.

Jacob and Esau have been fighting since they were in the womb. They were different personalities with different interests going in different directions. And, unfortunately, their parents took sides which made their conflict with each other even more magnified.

For twenty years, Jacob and Esau never talked with each other. They lived separate lives. They pursued different goals.

But as Jacob heads back to Canaan, he is motivated to seek peace with Esau. Perhaps he is motivated primarily by fear...but he is also changing in his character and he knows that this ongoing conflict with Esau needs to be resolved. Especially since Esau at one point had wanted to kill him!

Things are tense. Jacob sends a message of peace. He receives the news that Esau is coming with 400 men. Jacob is tied down with a large company of women, children, and flocks. There is no escape. They are going to face each other face-to-face again.

What will happen? Will Esau execute his plan of vengeance? Will Jacob try to run? Will there be a cold reception? Will there be a fight? Will there be a war? Will there be a slaughter?

What happens is not necessarily what anyone expected, particularly Jacob.

Esau runs full speed to Jacob and embraces him with the love of a brother.

They both break down in tears.

It is a beautiful scene of restitution, restoration, and reconciliation.

But, at the same time, is not the movie type ending. Esau and Jacob still have their issues. They still have their differences. They are still headed in different directions. And Jacob has to navigate a precarious situation with every step with his brother.

There are so many principles to learn in this passage about relationships, about forgiveness, about reconciliation, about practical wisdom. We will explore these principles on Sunday.

May God fill our hearts with His grace, wisdom, and peace so that we can relate to one another with the unity of the Spirit and the love of Jesus Christ!

This week, we will be exploring Genesis 32 together, Wrestling According to God.
Or perhaps it should more accurately be called Wresting with God.
Jacob literally wrestles God in this chapter.
It is a hard thing to imagine. In fact, most Jewish interpreters struggle to make any sense of this chapter. And it is the very chapter that explains where the name Israel came from!
Some see Genesis 32 as a dream or a vision. Some see it as a throwback to some kind of mythical battle against demons or "river gods." Some see it as an allegorical story on prayer or an inner psychological wrestling match in Jacob's own head.
But the text is clear: Jacob wrestled a Man whom he later realized was God. In fact, it had to be God because He is the one who blesses Jacob and changes his name. And Jacob had no doubt who had that kind of power, Yahweh Himself. That's why he stops in the morning to contemplate what just happened and he names the place, Peniel, "the face of God."
Jacob sees God's face...and lives.
Jacob wrestles God...and comes away with only a limp.
Jacob encounters the God-Man who would redeem his life and ultimately provide redemption for the whole world.
It's an amazing story...and one of the key chapters in the whole Old Testament.
And I think it is also the story of us all.
We are all "God wrestlers" to some degree. We are all "heelcatchers" trying to make life work on our own. And when we encounter God, He often feels like an antagonist, like someone trying to stop us from doing what we want or hinder us from having fun or interfere with our self-sufficient lives.
But in actuality, the God-Man is seeking to redeem us.
He is a Friend who comes to save.
And we have to learn to stop fighting Him and instead cling to Him alone.
That's when we find the blessing and receive a new name.
May God open our eyes to His truth and transform us into the image of His Son!

This week, we will be exploring Genesis 30:25-31:55 together, Hard Times According to God.
This is another passage that could be under the "Strange Stories in the Bible" category.
We have weird breeding strategies, a bunch of oddball sheep and goats, stolen household gods, a daring escape on camels, a showdown at Gilead, and Jacob's first country song.
It's better than any movie out there!
But in the midst of this crazy story, God is still at work. He is slowly molding and shaping Jacob into the man that He wants him to be. Jacob doesn't make this process easy but God is faithful to complete the work that He started in him.
Praise God...because we are not the easiest clay to mold either!
God takes Jacob through hard times, through his own "wilderness experience," to teach him to trust Him alone.
And there is much that we can learn from Jacob's story.
May God strengthen us day by day, give us peace in the midst of hard times, and fix our hope on the redemption that we have in Jesus Christ!

This week, we will be exploring Genesis 29:31-30:24 together, Dysfunction According to God.
"Wow! These people are messed up!"
I remember hearing that from a new believer who was reading through Genesis for the first time.
There are no real heroes in this passage of Scripture. Everyone fails on some level. You have an apathetic man. An unloved woman. An angry husband. An unhappy wife. Arguing parents. Neglected children. Sibling rivalry. Family conflict. Misused sex. Misused prayer. And misused people.
It is a messy, dysfunctional family filled with messy, dysfunctional people.
So what are we supposed to learn from all this? Why is this passage in the Scriptures? Why are God's people acting this way?
Welcome to reality!
All of us are dysfunctional. None of us "function," live, or love to the degree that God calls us to. We all fall short. And thus, every family, church, and community will reflect that dysfunction in some way.
All of us can find ourselves somewhere in this story...if we are willing to see.
And all of us desperately need God's amazing, abundant grace!
Even in this mess, God is at work behind the scenes, answering half-hearted prayers, showing love to the unloved, humbling the proud, encouraging the weak, healing the broken-hearted, and accomplishing His will in spite of the attitudes and actions of His people.
He redeems the mess for His glory.
And He redeems our mess when we are willing to humble our hearts, acknowledge our failures, seek His righteousness, and praise His name.
May God open our eyes to see our sinful ways and His amazing grace!

This week, we will be exploring Genesis 28:1-22 together, Grace According to God.
Grace, grace, God's grace.
Grace that will pardon and cleanse within.
Grace, grace, God's grace,
Grace that is greater than all our sin!
Grace is such a beautiful word and such a beautiful attribute of our God.
We see His grace in Jacob's life.
Jacob is a heelcatcher, a finagler, a deceiver, a coward.
There is not much "good" in him when we meet him in Genesis 25-27.
But God has a purpose for him and God pursues him despite himself.
Genesis 28 is a beautiful chapter of God's grace.
Alone, wandering, discouraged, uncertain, exhausted, fearful. Jacob does not know what is next in his life. He is on the run. From his brother, from his family, from God.
But in the middle of the darkness, God reveals His glory and His grace to Jacob. Jacob has a dream that reminds him that he is always in the presence of God and he is never too far for God to reach down to him.
He also has a revelation of the future glory and grace to be revealed in Jesus Christ!
May God open our eyes to His glory and His grace as we worship Him together this Sunday!