Author: Christine Wyrtzen

The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep.  And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.  Genesis 1:2 ESV

Our earth originally had no order.  The darkness that is described in Genesis is not something void of light.  Darkness doesn’t even mean evil.  It means that everything was in original chaos.  It didn’t stay that way.  It was about to be overcome by the power of God’s Spirit.  Earth would never be the same.  The chaotic would become ordered and functional.  What had been dead would pulsate with stirrings of life.

There have often been segments of my life that were chaotic.  Things swirling.   Disorderly.   There appeared to be no way to set things right.  A relationship was dysfunctional at every angle.  Certain events occurred that threw normalcy into confusion and I had absolutely no control over them.  There was no peace.

If someone asked me what was wrong, I would try to find the words to describe the chaos.  I would usually give up and just say that things were messed up.  Such is the nature of the chaotic.

My turmoil needed the hovering Spirit of God.  He awaited my invitation to come and, like a mother eagle, hover over my disordered and poorly functioning world.  The Word of God entered my chaos like sharp arrows of clarity; one after another until things began to clear.  God, my Teacher and Counselor, began to breathe into my life.

If a soil sample of our formless earth had been put under a microscope, there would have been no sign of life.  But when the Spirit of God came and hovered, the brown wilderness began to morph into a green wonderworld.  That’s because wherever the Spirit of God hovers, the landscape changes.

I make a hovering prayer part of my New Year.  Come to every situation that begs the breath of Your Spirit.  Transform my parched landscapes.  Amen

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.  Genesis 1:1  ESV

When I set out to create something, I begin with pre-existing pieces.  To make a cake, I will have a list of ingredients that already exist.  If I mold a piece of pottery, there must be clay to mold.  I am only an artisan, but God is a Creator.  He made the earth out of nothing.  There was only a void for a canvas.   If He wanted water, He had to make water where there had been nothingness.  Water didn’t even have a name!

This is what makes God ~ God.   He works with omnipotent power.  He has not changed with time.  His power has not diminished.  This same creative God of Genesis spoke again through the prophet Isaiah and said, “Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?  I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.”  Isaiah 43:19  Once again, something out of nothing.  His power is displayed time and time again in the events of my life. 

Throughout my life, I have stood on this powerful truth in prayer. My Father can bring something about when I see absolutely no evidence that such a thing will ever exist.  He can bring reconciliation when there is hatred.  He can bring repentance when there is stubborn rebellion.  He can bring opportunity when others haven’t yet thought of it.  He can bring provision when cupboards are empty.  He can bring hope to the hopeless and honor to the shamed. In destitution, He creates plenty.  In nothingness, abundance springs forth.

Let me ask you ~ What needs to be created that, as of now, doesn’t exist?  If we are God’s, His power and promises are at work over the expanse of our lives, over the deep and the unseen. 

 Speak Your Word over my life and bring into existence what is not yet there yet.  When it appears, I will fall to my knees in worship.  Amen

In the beginning God… Genesis 1:1a ESV 

Knowing where we come from has become of more important to us in recent years.  With websites like Ancestry, 23andMe, and Cryigenics, it’s possible to trace our histories like never before.  I can’t count how many meals I’ve shared with people who are anxious to talk about the discoveries they’ve made.  They are animated as they tell from whom, and from where, their family originated. Questions they’ve had about themselves often disappear as they discover that they are not alone and, in fact, are quite like their families of origin. They will deeply connect with great, great grandparents and explore family heirlooms, journals, and pictures to see what they can learn.  Old photos are restored and hung on the walls.  Journal pages are displayed in scrapbooking projects

Along with feeling validated are also the discoveries about depravity in their family lines.  Seasons of prayer follow as they ask God to sanctify what needs cleansing.  They seek freedom from predispositions to certain patterns of sin, not only for themselves but for their children, and their children.  

If I’m willing to live by faith, I can believe that my beginnings are rooted in someone earlier than Adam.  “In the beginning God…”   Before the likes of someone like Adam ever existed, God was there.  He is the foundation of everything created and not yet created.  He is ordered.  He is structured.  He is holy.  He is trustworthy.  Behind every genealogy is a Person, not nothingness. 

To understand who I am, I must know where I came from.  And I must know why I was created.  I can’t ask a four-hundred-year-old ancestor such a question, but I can ask someone who is called the Ancient of Days.  He’s talking.  And He’s answered my deepest questions in the revealed Scriptures because the Word doesn’t withhold critical information from His creation.  My journey through Genesis will give shape and form to my personal history.

The internet provides access to Ancestry.com.  The Scriptures do better than that.  They provide access to Ancestry.God

My history began in the cradle of Your heart.  You created me. Write Your story of Genesis in my heart. In Jesus’ name, Amen

The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh [Messiah] comes.  Genesis 49:10

If I look for a human being to emulate, Joseph is always a good choice.  His fidelity to God amidst great suffering has inspired us down through the ages.  Of all of Jacob’s sons, Joseph gets the most attention.  Yet, it is not from the line of Joseph that Jesus was born.  The extremely flawed sons of Jacob didn’t mess things up so badly that God disqualified them from His blessing.  The promises of God prevailed over sin. 

What was the purpose of Joseph’s life?  To save Judah and His descendants.  If Joseph had not assumed a place of power in Egypt, he could not have brought his father and brothers to a place of abundance.  Jacob and all of his descendants would have perished in the great famine.  It’s hard for us to grasp that Joseph was used by God to save a brother who had sold him into slavery.  It seems twisted.

But God is wild and wonderful.  He is also unpredictable.  He exalts the likes of Judah.  He blesses adulterers like King David.  He forgives betrayers like Peter.  He saves persecutors and murderers like Paul.  Judah, at the end of his life, offered to give his own for the life of another brother.  His father, Jacob, lived long enough to see Judah choose righteousness. The common thread in all of these stories was a heart of repentance.  God’s forgiveness was, and is, so radical that an entire past is put under His atoning blood.

No family is perfect. In the past few days, I’ve heard from more than a few who say that they have not seen their grandchildren in years. They grieve over that and feel embarrassed in public when others ask if they have children and grandchildren. Is the Gospel of Jesus Christ relevant to them? Is it relevant to us in the very places we long to see the righteousness of God revealed in the lives of our family members? Oh yes.

This Christmas, as we hear the Christmas story and are tempted to zone out at the reading of the lineage of Jesus, let’s wake up and sit on the edge of our seat.  When Judah’s name is mentioned, we can rejoice that God works in family messes.  No one is out of His reach.  We should never stop praying for forthcoming repentance.  God is good for every promise He has made.

For every family ‘Joseph’, there are tears of joy.  For every family ‘Judah’, there are tears of faith.  You are God over every family drama that is brought to your feet in prayer.  Amen

All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ.  2 Corinthians 5:18 

What a package of explosive potential lay in the manger.  He was the little Lamb and the little Shepherd, each one offering life altering implications for those who needed a Lamb to be slain for their sin and for those who needed a shepherd to show them the way home. Baby Jesus would do far more than that though.

He was also the little Reconciler who had the power to bring together two enemies and make them, not only compatible but, intimate.  Reconciliation rarely has such stunning outcomes.  It is one thing to bring together two parties who are at odds over an issue.  It is quite another thing to cause two people, far apart in every way, to eagerly join hands and become one in their mind and heart.

Oh, how deep was this fracture in the Garden of Eden.  God had made man perfectly.  It was man who wanted more, who bought the serpent’s lie, and then opened their mind to evil.  It was a world mankind was not created to understand nor be compatible with.  Evil corrupted him and he began to choose everything that God wouldn’t choose and to think all the things God wouldn’t think. Alienation ensued and the two were separated by a great gulf.  Holiness could not reconcile with sinfulness without a miracle.  God’s answer?  Send a Reconciler who would also be the Lamb to forgive their sin and restore them to what they once were ~ holy before God.  Jesus would be the game changer.   Perfected natures would not want to sin and would indeed hate sin.  Man’s mind would be washed completely of defilement.  He would think and feel like the indwelling Spirit who inhabited him.

The baby didn’t automatically reconcile enemies at His birth.  God’s timetable moves slowly.  It took thousands of years for God to send this Lamb.  It would take thirty-three years more for the Lamb to die for the sins that separated creation from His Father.  But how necessary the three decades were.  The only way for people to trust the Lamb and forsake their sin would be to know Him.  They would watch Him live and hear Him speak. They would experience Him through direct interaction.  His Light would woo the sinner and warm up their icy relationship.  Light would draw some to His Father and repel others.  Not all would hate their sin and mourn the estrangement.

Ah, but for the ones who did, for them it would be different.  The great gulf that separated them from their Creator would break their heart.  They would own their sin that caused the breach and trust the Lamb to bring them to the foot of His cross.  His blood would wash them clean and present them faultless to His Father. Complete compatibility.  Impeccable restoration. Perfect reconciliation.  

If there is tension in our relationship, it can be fixed now by the One who still reconciles.  Thank you, Jesus. Amen