Tag Archives: genesis

I will SURELY bring you back…

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Pastor Leon’s SOAP:  Scripture, Observation, Application, Prayer
January 18, 2026:  SOAP #5890   Genesis 44-46; Luke 18

SCRIPTURE:  Genesis (NIV) 46:2 And God spoke to Israel in a vision at night and said, “Jacob! Jacob!” “Here I am,” he replied.
3 “I am God, the God of your father,” he said. “Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for I will make you into a great nation there. 
4 I will go down to Egypt with you, and I will surely bring you back again. And Joseph’s own hand will close your eyes.”

OBSERVATION:  Jacob has just recently learned that the son he had long considered dead was alive and in charge of all Egypt, second only to Pharaoh!   Now he had stopped for a night on his way to see Joseph.  God appeared to Him in a vision.  “Do not be afraid to go to where you are headed.  I am going to make you a great nation there.  I’ll take care of the rest of my plan.  I will go with you and I will SURELY bring you back!”

APPLICATION:  In my youth, God led me out of Kansas and went with me.  Each place He led me He was with me.  In 1989 He brought me back to Kansas.  After 20 years of pastoring Andover Assembly of God, I resigned as the senior pastor.  It was then that God assigned me to write and post daily SOAPs (Scripture, Observation, Application, Prayer). 

God has taken the simple SOAPs I write and accomplished more than I ever dreamed.  Being faithful in little things makes them available for His use.  And when He uses something that He planned, it moves in His power and with His anointing.  It has the potential of heaven.  He is working out His plan!

PRAYER:  Heavenly Father, you are the God who is with me.  You are the promise-keeping God.  You are the God who cares for me and is working out your plans.   Your plans include using me for your glory.  Your plans for me include being your dwelling place for a short time here on earth, then joining you in your dwelling place for all eternity!  Wow!!!  Amen

Pastor Leon
Making friends for time and eternity!   
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A lesson from the Old Testament

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Pastor Leon’s SOAP:  Scripture, Observation, Application, Prayer
January 08, 2026:  SOAP #5880   Genesis 20-22; Luke 8

SCRIPTURE:  Genesis (NIV) 22:9 When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. 10 Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. 11  But the angel of the LORD called out to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!” “Here I am,” he replied. 12 “Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. “Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.” 13 Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son.

OBSERVATION: Through the years, I have heard many sermons preached about Abraham and his faith.   God’s promises for Abraham’s future were all in Isaac. 

But today, the Lord is speaking to me through Isaac.  Isaac had surely heard the stories of how he was the son of promise.  He surely knew that he would inherit all of Abraham’s possessions.  He was greatly loved and valued by his father.  Yet laying on the wood, bound as a lamb would be for a burnt offering, I believe Isaac came to know that God was more important to Abraham than even he was.  Isaac, who had been the center of Abraham’s world, came to know that there was someone more important!   There was no struggle, Isaacs trusted his father. 

APPLICATION: This passage should remind us of another Son who willingly submitted Himself to his Heavenly Father’s will. For Isaac, there was a voice from heaven stopping the sacrifice.  But for Jesus, no voice came.  He was not only laid on the cross, but He was also crucified; He died; and He was buried. 

The wages of sin is death, and because He had no sins for which to die, He died for my sins, and for your sins, and for the sins of all who will accept Him as the Lord of their lives.  But, more than die, He rose from the grave showing that death is not the end. 

PRAYER: Lord it is my joy to live with you now here on earth, AND to live with you in heaven for eternity!  Amen  

Pastor Leon
Making friends for time and eternity!   
On Facebook:  Today’s SOAP from Pastor Leon
Also on:  soapsbyleon.wordpress.com

Sharing life with the Lord!

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Pastor Leon’s SOAP:  Scripture, Observation, Application, Prayer
January 07, 2026:  SOAP #5879   Genesis 18-19; Psalm 3; Luke 7

SCRIPTURE:  Genesis 18:1 The LORD appeared to Abraham near the great trees of Mamre while he was sitting at the entrance to his tent in the heat of the day.
8  He (Abraham) then brought some curds and milk and the calf that had been prepared, and set these before them (The LORD and two others). While they ate, he stood near them under a tree.

OBSERVATION:  Revelation 3:20 ends with “…and I will eat with him, and he will eat with me.” 

Here in Genesis 18 is an example of the first part.  God came and ate with Abraham.  God ate what Abraham had provided and what Sarah had prepared.  God participates with us; Our provisions can never compare with heaven’s ,but He enjoys our provision in life. What He enjoys is the fellowship and visiting between us as we are together doing what I do and eating what I eat. 

Later (Exodus 24:11) we see Moses taking 70 elders of Israel to the mountain where they “saw God and did eat and drink!” There, they partook of His provision. 

APPLICATION:  Whatever my lot in life, how special it is to know that God partakes with me.  He sanctifies each segment of my life (my home, my work, etc.) by being a part of them.  It is His way of having dinner at my house.  

And how very special to know that God invites me to partake with Him!  I get to enjoy His word and talk with Him each day.  I get to participate in His body, the church.  And soon I will participate with Him in the place He has gone to prepare for us!   What a day that will be!!! 

PRAYER:  Lord, I like to sing, You walk with me, and You talk with me, And You tell me I am Your own.  And the joy we share as we tarry there, none other has ever known.   Amen. 

Pastor Leon
Making friends for time and eternity!   
On Facebook:  Today’s SOAP from Pastor Leon
Also on:  soapsbyleon.wordpress.com

Obedience/Provision

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Pastor Leon’s SOAP:  Scripture, Observation, Application, Prayer
January 08, 2025: SOAP #5515:  Genesis 20-22; Luke 8

SCRIPTURE:  Genesis (NIV) 22:11 But the angel of the LORD called out to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!” “Here I am,” he replied. 12 “Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. “Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.” 13 Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. 14 So Abraham called that place The LORD Will Provide. And to this day it is said, “On the mountain of the LORD it will be provided.”

OBSERVATION:   In obedience to God’s command, Abraham had taken his son, Isaac, to the mountain designated by God to sacrifice him to the Lord.  This was the son they had hoped for and prayed for through many years of Sarah’s barrenness.  This was the son God had promised.  This was the son God had given them.  Was Abraham willing to sacrifice something so precious and special?  Did Abraham hold God in even higher regard than he did his own son?    

The answer was YES.  And as Abraham was beginning the action, God stopped him and there in the thicket they saw a ram which was then sacrificed in the place of Isaac.  What relief and joy must have flooded the heart of this 100+ year old father!!! 

APPLICATION:  What God speaks to my heart through this passage, is that God is faithful to provide for me when I am faithful to do as He says.  My obedience and God’s provision are strongly tied together.  My obedience gives me confidence that I please God as well as brings joy to God in accomplishing His will.  It makes Him kindly disposed towards me. 

This ministry of SOAP is a modern example of this.  SOAP was not something I was excited to do.  But it was clearly God telling me to write SOAPs.  The sacrifice of my way of doing my daily devotions in no way compares to Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son, but the miraculous provision sometimes overwhelms me as the ram in the thicket surely did Abraham. 

PRAYER:  Lord, when I know that I am doing your will, I know I can count on you for the needed provision.  Your provision may come through a job I can do for which I will receive a paycheck (like driving a school bus).  It may come through the work of my hands (like planting a garden or harvesting fruit trees).  It may come like manna from heaven or a money gift through the mail.  But however you provide, it comes in response to my faith and it is received with thanksgiving and praise.  Amen

Pastor Leon
Making friends for time and eternity!   
On Facebook:  Today’s SOAP from Pastor Leon