January 6

Read Genesis 15-17 Believing the promises of God.

When Abraham was 100 years old and his wife Sarah was 90, God promised them a son. Abraham believed God, and God counted Abraham's faith as righteousness. The word righteousness means “having a right standing before God.” The words "it was credited to him as righteousness" show us the foundation of salvation throughout the Bible. Many people believe that the Jews were saved by keeping the law. No one can keep the law; we all fall short of God’s standard. To make it into God’s heaven, you have to be perfect because there is no sin in heaven. The bad news is that just one sin will cause you to see a NO VACANCY SIGN when you get there. The Bible makes it clear, right from the start, that we are not saved by being “Good People.” We are saved by believing a “Good God.” The words, “it was credited to him” were not written for him alone, but also for us. When we believe the promises of God, he also credits us with righteousness. Faith simply believes the promises of God.

The nature of the promises of God is revealed in chapter 15. God’s promise is unconditional. His promise is based totally on his faithfulness, not on ours. God obligates Himself in grace to bring about what He has promised. The word “covenant” means to cut. 15:18-21 When a covenant was cut, it was literally cut. Animals were cut in half and placed in a line, and then the parties making a covenant would walk between them. When they did this they were saying.... If I don’t keep this covenant let me become like these hunks of meat. Maybe this was the origin of the phrase... “I’m dead meat” no, that is a joke.

The question is, who passed through the pieces? Only God, this is a unilateral covenant.

The application to our lives in CT in 2010 is.... are you living by the promises of God? How many promises do you know that God has made and are you living by them? There are over 7000 promises given in the Bible. There is a huge difference between people who live by these promises and those who don’t. Be a person who believes God and his promises.

We are using a chronological arrangement of the Bible. The Daily Bible in Chronological Order 365 Daily Reading. Harvest House.

Bibles that are falling apart usually belong to people who aren’t.

Keep turning those pages!!