Author: Dwight Clough

He [God] took him [Abram] outside and said, "Look up at the heavens and count the stars — if indeed you can count them." Then He said to him, "So shall your offspring be." — Genesis 15:5God always has a plan, and it’s always bigger than we are able to imagine. Who can understand the stars? The more we know, the more we realize how much we don’t know. No one can count the stars. No one knows how big the universe is. In the middle of Abram’s doubt and discouragement, God came to him with the encouraging truth: Look…

"So Abram moved his tents and went to live near the great trees of Mamre at Hebron, where he built an altar to the Lord." — Genesis 13:18The man of faith has just been edged out of the best portion, and asked to take the leftovers, the hand-me-downs, the dry crust, the worthless land. So what does he do? I don’t see any sign of resentment, whining, or complaining. Abram just moves on and sets up shop. And notice how he sets up shop: Abram builds an altar to the LORD.Things are not what they appear. Abram knows that abundance…

So Abram said to Lot, "Let’s not have any quarreling between you and me … for we are brothers." — Genesis 13:8God wants to be the solution to our quarrels. Kim and I argued for years and years about the same old things, and we never got anywhere. We were just mad at each other, until one of us got around to finding the humility to apologize. No matter the issue, it was always the other person’s fault.Then we started taking our anger to the Lord. We each made a startling discovery. My anger had almost nothing to do with…

But the LORD inflicted serious diseases on Pharaoh and his household because of Abram’s wife Sarai. — Genesis 12:17Abram succumbs to fear and tells his wife to tell everyone that she is Abram’s sister. In that culture, that gets Abram off the hook (they won’t kill him to get his wife), but leaves Sarai in a vulnerable spot. Along comes Pharaoh. Sarai is beautiful, Pharaoh is impressed, and she gets added to the harem.This whole scenario reminds me of a television soap opera. What a mess! Abram is getting rich on his own lies, but he’s lost his wife. Sarai…

The LORD appeared to Abram … — Genesis 12:7I wonder how many times Abram felt like turning back. Clearly he felt vulnerable; he felt the need to lie about his wife to protect his own skin. The years were going by and the promise that he would be made into a great nation hadn’t even resulted in a single child. Every day he was reminded that he was a stranger, a guest, a pilgrim in a land he did not own — a land where shepherds fought over grazing rights and watering holes, and if you lost the fight you…

The LORD had said to Abram, "Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you." — Genesis 12:1God was up front with Abram about the cost. It would cost him citizenship. It would cost him things familiar. It would cost him relationships. God asks us to pay a price.For ten years I lived a sleep deprived life. My four kids were a big part of the reason. It took them a long time to get used to the idea of getting to sleep and staying that way until morning. Kim did…

God remembered Noah … — Genesis 8:1Wait a second! Hadn’t God been thinking about Noah all along? How could God "remember" Noah?On the surface it looks like God was preoccupied with something else, and then the kitchen timer went off, and God looked up and said, "Oh, yeah, that guy in the boat. I’d better do something about him."Let me suggest another passage that might help explain this one: Psalm 78:65: "Then the Lord awoke as from sleep, as a man wakes from the stupor of wine." Did God really wake up? Was God really asleep? Of course not. But…

As long as the earth edures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease. — Genesis 8:22I love the spring. May is one of my favorite months. Two of my children were born in May. And May always signifies to me the end of winter and the beginning of summer.God has built into our lives certain rhythms. They give us a sense of security. A sense of knowing what to expect. Although I find beauty in winter, my enthusiasm for cold, snow and ice isn’t what it was 35 years ago. But every…

… on the seventeenth day of the seventh month the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. — Genesis 8:4It’s easy to forget that what is now history was once experience. We have no record of Noah being informed how he would get out of the ark, of how God would keep the timbers together no matter how high the waves got to be, of how God would prevent the hull from being torn apart by some rock formation, of how the door that was shut would open again.Many of us find ourselves in the same "boat." We…

Then the LORD shut him in. — Genesis 7:16Was Noah able to close the door on the ark he built? I don’t doubt he knew how to close the door. But the LORD shut him in. The writer didn’t need to add this little phrase, but he did, because God wanted to underline an important thought.In this violent world, where righteous men had been murdered, God was preparing two plans: the flood and the ark, devastation and shelter, wrath and mercy. Noah was not just in the ark of his own making. God shut him in. God assured his salvation.And…