Pastor Leon’s SOAP:  Scripture, Observation, Application, Prayer
January 01, 2023: SOAP #4777: Genesis 1-2; Luke 1

SCRIPTURE:  Genesis (NIV) 1:1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. 2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. 3 And God said…

OBSERVATION:  God just appears in the first verse of the Bible.  There is no character development.  There is no background development.  All we know about God from the scriptures comes later in the Book.  In the beginning, He just is!

A person knowing nothing about God, and who picked up the Bible for reading, beginning on the first page would first learn that God is. He exists.

The second thing he would learn is that God is a creator.  In fact, He is The Creator.  The reader has learned nothing of His character, nothing of His holiness nor of His love.  He has learned only that God is and that God creates.

The third thing we learn of God in Genesis 1 is that God is a speaker.  This is the most dominate characteristic of God seen in the whole of the Bible.  Not only is the Bible the Word of God, it contains pages and pages on which His Word is given as quotation. God is a speaker.  God has something to say.  God communicates.

APPLICATION:  I am so glad I know God as a speaker.  One of my favorite songs is, “And he walks with me, and he talks with me…” It goes on to say: “…and the joy we share as we tarry there…”  (by C.A.Miles)  What a privilege is mine!  God talks with me!  

And even more amazing:  He feels the same way.  He created me to “walk” with Him and “talk” with Him.  He loves it when I walk and talk with Him. 

PRAYER:   Lord, what a joy is mine, to talk with you and count you as my Friend. May I live each day in a way that makes you glad that I am your friend.  Amen

Pastor Leon
Making friends for time and eternity!   
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Pastor Leon’s SOAP:  Scripture, Observation, Application, Prayer
December 31, 2022: SOAP #4776: Revelation 19-22

SCRIPTURE:  Revelation (NIV) 19:1 After this I heard what sounded like the roar of a great multitude in heaven shouting: “Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God, 2 for true and just are his judgments. He has condemned the great prostitute who corrupted the earth by her adulteries. He has avenged on her the blood of his servants.”

OBSERVATION:  Yesterday in chapter 16 we saw that the angels who poured out the judgment of God declared that God is “just” (verse 5).  Those at the altar responded that God is “true and just” (verse 7).   

Here, today, in chapter 19, we find a “great multitude in heaven” declaring the same.  “True and just are his judgments!”  It is a major theme of the worship in heaven. 

APPLICATION: Although I see things around me that do not appear just, and right, and fair, and true, I know that God has all the time needed to set things right.  His timeline reaches far beyond my temporal life into eternity.  God is the ultimate fair judge!  

I have every intention of being in that great multitude in heaven shouting, “Hallelujah!  Salvation and glory and power belong to our God for true and just are his judgments!”  The HOLY God could be no other than “True and just!”

PRAYER:   Lord, whatever I see around me, I know you are Holy and that you Love me.  Even now I can declare that you are true and just.  Amen

Pastor Leon
Making friends for time and eternity!   
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