In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Genesis 1:1
The Grace of the Lord Jesus be with all the saints. Amen. Revelation 22:21
John Grisham is an American novelist and attorney, best known for his legal thrillers. His books have sold more than 300 million copies and been translated into dozens of different languages. He is one of the most famous novelists of all time.
He says that one of his rules is to not write the first scenes until he knows the last one. He says he writes the last sentence before he writes the first sentence. I realized that from Genesis to Revelation, the Bible is written the same way. Between those two beginning and ending books are sixty-four books that tell the story of the Christian world.
Genesis answers two big questions: “How did God’s relationship with the world begin?” and “Where did the nation of Israel come from?” Most of the famous Bible stories you’ve heard about are probably found in the book of Genesis. The book of Exodus is the story of God rescuing the children of Israel from Egypt and forging a special relationship with them. In Leviticus God gives Israel instructions for how to worship Him. In Numbers Israel fails to trust and obey God, and wanders in the wilderness for 40 years. In Deuteronomy Moses gives instructions on how to love and obey God in the Promised Land…… and the Old Testament story goes on for 39 books.
Then follows the New Testament which includes 27 books about Jesus’ ministry and what it means to follow Him. The first four books of the New Testament are called the Gospels, followed by the history of the early church and letters to the early churches, ending with John seeing visions of things that have been, things that are, and things that are yet to come.
There are books of law, poetry, history, and prophets and when placed together in the right order, they tell the story of Christianity from Genesis to Revelation, the Alpha and the Omega from the beginning to the end.
It is the collected works of God which demonstrate both His love and requirements for us and our privileges and responsibilities toward Him. Jesus fulfills all God’s promises in the Old Testament by proclaiming and inaugurating the Kingdom of God through a new covenant.
The one who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!” – Revelation 22:20 The end.
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SOMETIMES TRUE STORIES
According to Bruce Feiler, the linear life is dead. By the “linear life” he means the idea that life follows a series of carefully calibrated progressions—childhood to young adulthood to middle age to old age; dating to marriage to children to empty nest; low-level job to mid-level job to senior-level job to retirement.
According to Feiler’s research, this idea seems preposterously outdated. He discovered that the average person experiences a life disruptor every twelve to eighteen months and a life quake (one big event or multiple disruptors at the same time) three to five times in adulthood.
In addition, he reports, the average worker today will hold twelve different jobs before the age of fifty. Those with higher education can expect to change their jobs fifteen times and alter their skill set three times. The typical job now lasts four years; among those under thirty-five years of age, it drops to three.
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TRUISMS:
▪ Where there’s a will, I want to be in it.
▪ Since light travels faster than sound, some people appear bright until you hear them speak.
▪ If I agreed with you, we’d both be wrong.
▪ We never really grow-up, we only learn how to act in public.
▪ War does not determine who is right – only who is left.
▪ Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
▪ They begin the evening news with ‘Good Evening,’ then proceed to tell you why it isn’t a good evening.
▪ To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism. To steal from many is research.
▪ Buses stop in bus stations. Trains stop at train stations. On my desk is a workstation.
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QUOTES YOU CAN USE
If you ask the wrong question you will always get the wrong answer. Chris Dotson
Our greatest fear should not be of failure, but of succeeding at things in life that don’t really matter. Francis Chan.
If You Contain a Fire, It Will Die; If You Let It out, It Will Spread. Ken Whitten
Sometimes I tell myself that I don’t want to develop hardening of the attitudes. Sharon Boehm
You can run faster by yourself, but you can run further with others. Ken Whitten
Are we playing marbles with the diamonds God has given us? Marty Stubblefield
Jesus warned people about worrying about their possessions. For Jesus, greed is not only greed of money, but excessive anxiety over it. Tim Keller
The greatest leader is not necessarily the one who does the greatest things. He is the one that gets the people to do the greatest things. Ronald Reagan
Forgiveness is a lot easier when we remember how God has forgiven us, and we certainly didn’t deserve it…but that’s grace. Dwight Short