Bible Coolness: Group Effort

The Bible isn't one single book, written by one single person, but it's rather a collection of books from dozens of contributors over a span of thousands of years.

Contributors include:

Moses

Pharoah's adopted grandson, turned desert nomad

David

A shepherd boy and a warrior-poet who slayed a giant and became a king

Ezra

A priest

Nehemiah

A king's cup-bearer

Daniel

A slave turned statesman

Amos

A farmer

Jeremiah

A life-long prophet

Peter and John

Fishermen

Matthew

A tax collector

Luke

A doctor

Paul

A religious zealot

The cool thing is that although these writers have varying backgrounds and they wrote across varying eras, they agree with each other regarding who God is and how He acts.  This shows true testimony (the authors are testifying about something they truly experienced) and common inspiration (all authors interacted with the same God who inspired their writings).

2 Peter 1:21 For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.

2 Timothy 3:16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God....

Hewing Your Own Tablets

Exodus 34:1

And the LORD said unto Moses, "Hew thee two tablets of stone like unto the first: and I will write upon these tablets the words that were in the first tablets, which thou brakest."

The original tablets... God prepared.
The second ones... Moses had to.

Fellow Christians, think about this: when God's Word and saving grace first came, it was all God's doing -- all we did was receive it.

But now, sometimes we have to prepare.

Think about the parable of the sower -- which ground produced much? Not the footpath, nor the rocky soil, nor the brier patch, but the prepared ground.

Have you prepared to receive what God wants to tell you?

Don't Let Your Past Abort Your Future

From Genesis 11:

²⁷Now these are the generations of Terah: Terah begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran begat Lot. ²⁸And Haran died before his father Terah in the land of his nativity, in Ur of the Chaldees. ²⁹And Abram and Nahor took them wives: the name of Abram’s wife was Sarai; and the name of Nahor’s wife, Milcah, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah, and the father of Iscah. ³⁰But Sarai was barren; she had no child. ³¹And Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran his son’s son, and Sarai his daughter in law, his son Abram’s wife; and they went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldees, to go into the land of Canaan; and they came unto Haran, and dwelt there. ³²And the days of Terah were two hundred and five years: and Terah died in Haran.

Terah had three sons: Abram, Nahor and Haran.

His youngest son, Haran, died early, “before his father”, which means “before his father died,” but could also mean, “before his father’s face” or “in front of him.”

Terah packs up his family, and leaves Ur, headed for Canaan, but he halts his journey when he comes to a place named after his dead son: Haran.  Possible that the town Haran could’ve been founded by his son Haran — that happened often in those times.

Terah dies in Haran, without ever seeing Canaan.

Don’t let the memories of some dead thing from your past keep you from obtaining the promise God has for your future.