What kind of legacy are you leaving behind?

The Lord judged the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah for their wickedness, but in His grace He spared Lot and his family by taking them out of the city. After years of compromised living in a wicked society, what kind of life will Lot and his daughters go on to live?

This week we finish Genesis 19 and see what kind of legacy Lot will leave behind him. We'll read about the culmination of the choices Lot made over his life and see how his compromises would go on to have a lasting impact on his life and his daughters. And we'll discuss how Lot's story becomes a cautionary tale for us of the dangers of living by sight and not by faith.

Won't the judge of the whole earth do what is just?

After the Lord visited Abraham and shared a meal, He told Abraham the purpose of His visit: to investigate the great cry from the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to see if the time for judgment against the cities had come. With concern for his nephew, Lot, Abraham intercedes for the cities, asking God whether He would judge the righteous with the wicked. The Lord's answer made it clear that He would not. But what about when the "righteous" aren't so righteous?

This week we read from Genesis 19 and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. We'll examined what had become of Lot since he last parted ways with Abraham and look at what happens in the lives of believers when we live too close to sin and allow compromise into our lives. The Lord will save those who trust in Him, but we hinder our testimony and risk great heartache when we live lives of compromise with the world.

I prayed for someone else one time--isn't that enough?

When the Lord Himself passed by Abraham's tent in Hebron, Abraham rejoiced to play host to three heavenly visitors, who shared a meal and an encouraging promise with Abraham and Sarah. As the meal ended and the visitors rose to leave, the Lord would go on to share with Abraham the reason He passed by that day: to investigate the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah and see whether it was time to judge these cities for their wickedness.

This week we finish reading through Genesis 18 and see Abraham's response to the Lord's intentions to judge the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. We'll learn why it was important for Abraham to know about the justice of God and see how Abraham intercedes on behalf of his nephew Lot who was living in the midst of a wicked city. And through it all we'll challenge ourselves to draw closer to God in order to intercede on behalf of our own loved ones today.

Is the impossible possible?

When God visited Abraham and shared a meal with him and talked to Abraham face to face as a friend, God spoke His promise again that Sarah would bear a son to be Abraham's heir. As Sarah eavesdropped on the conversation, she laughed in unbelief, for surely it is impossible for a barren woman of 90 years to give birth to a son!

This week we continue reading Genesis 18 and ask ourselves the same question the Lord posed to Sarah in response to her unbelief: Is anything impossible for the Lord? When God makes us a promise, do we respond in faith or in unbelief?

What if you heard Jesus was coming to visit?

Would you spend time cleaning up or preparing a big meal? Would you rush out to meet Him? Well, when the newly-renamed Abraham received a special visit from the Lord, he went above and beyond to share a meal with God and became a great example of what it means to be the friend of God.

This week we return to our study in Genesis with a message from Genesis 18. We'll see how Abraham responds when he receives three heavenly messengers and dig into what it means to be a friend of God. We'll look at some of the common things that can hinder our close relationship with God and what it means to us today that Jesus calls us friends.

What's in a name? A nose by any other name can still smell.

While Shakespeare can poetically question the significance of names, when God comes along and changes someone's name, it's something to pay attention to. For the man born Abram, life had been a long journey of highs and lows, successes and failures. But constant through all of that was God's faithfulness. Thirteen years after the birth of Abram's son, Ishmael, God appears to Abram again to confirm His promise, and to change Abram's name.

This week we study through Genesis 17 and dig deep into the meaning of four important names in this chapter. We'll look at the significance of God calling Himself "God Almighty;" we'll compare and contrast Abram and Sarai's new names that God gives them; and we'll look at the meaning of Abraham's promised son, Isaac, as God continues to bring about the promised Messiah.

God may hold the whole world in His hands... but does He see me?

Abram and Sarai took it upon themselves to fulfill God's promises according to their own wisdom apart from God. The unforeseen results left their household in turmoil as Hagar, pregnant with Abram's son, held Sarai in contempt and Sarai did everything she could to put Hagar back in her place. Until Hagar reaches a breaking point and runs away with no plan on what to do next.

This week we finish reading through Genesis 16 and see the Lord Himself meet Hagar in the midst of her struggles. We'll briefly look at the way slavery is discussed in the Bible and look at the implications of what it means that Sarai mistreated Hagar. But more importantly we'll see the God who shows up in the midst of our trails, whether those trials were caused by others or by ourselves, and offers us the thing we really need: Himself.

What do we do when we're waiting... and waiting... and waiting... and waiting... and waiting...

Since God first called Abram from his homeland and into a relationship with Him, Abram has learned many practical lessons on what it means to walk by faith. He's learned to rely on God's wisdom and not his own; he's learned how to be generous with what God provides and how to live by self-sacrifice rather than self-preservation. And in the middle of his doubts, Abram met God and found he could believe God's promises to be true despite his worries. But what happens when God's timing on the fulfillment of those promises doesn't line up with what Abram thinks that timing should be?

This week we begin studying in Genesis 16 and see Abram's wife, Sarai, suggest a way that they might see a fulfillment of the promises apart from the God who made those promises. We'll learn what happens when Abram and Sarai follow their surrounding culture rather than trust in God. And we'll see how it is one thing to believe that God is able to fulfill His promises, and harder to trust God for when he will fulfill His promises.