3 Pillars For Eternity

Forward: How, What & Why Bother?

In 1989 after 10 years of being a very nominal believer and depending on a pastor and adult bible teachers, to advance my growth as a Christian, an event came that changed my spiritual life. A very rich believer annually paid for a dozen couples or more to show the Jesus movie in various countries worldwide for Campus Crusade for Christ . My wife and I were chosen to go on a 3 week screening of the Gospel of Luke film in Mexico. While I was there it struck me how much more most of the Christians knew their bibles more than I did. We came back from Mexico and I was on fire with a renewed thirst for the word of God like we first experienced at conversion.

Just about the same time my home church had gone through 3 pastors in my first decade as a believer. One was not a good enough preacher, one was very loving but a poor administrator and the third was a good administrator but too cold some thought. If the flock would have read their bibles they would have realized no one man has all the gifts and I had to learn in the future that all saints in the universal & local church have a gift that needs exercising. This was impossible where we were!

On top of all this the gathering had only one or two saints attend the midweek prayer meeting and the Sunday night gospel meeting was scraped which I never understood. So here we were on fire wanting more of God’s wisdom from his word and getting starved instead of being fed. It was then I got invited to attend a bible study and gospel meetings with a small group of believers some of which used to attend my existing church. They had no pastor but they all knew their scriptures light years ahead of me. To make a long story even shorter I left my first denominational meeting to attend this small gathering of Christians. That was 20 plus years ago. I had to learn it was my responsibility to grow in the things of God and not someone else’s to feed me milk.

Now to the heart of the matter about my book. I was in happy fellowship with this gathering of believers when God in his wisdom allowed me to have one of the Muscular Dystrophy illnesses. The last couple of years I was not strong enough to attend meetings. I knew I would wither on the vine spiritually as well as I was physically if I didn’t force myself to stay in the book. I had kept copies of my old Gospel messages and ministry so I decided to gather some of them in the form of a book. From past experiences I knew it was the only way to keep my soul happy. I was not concerned if it got published for I could leave copies for my grandkids, believer’s, friends & neighbors on a CD in this computer age.

So now a after a year tackling the 16 chapters of Romans, and finishing all 21 chapters of John's Gospel for this book, which took a couple of earlier years, I finally finish my work on the first biblical book...Genesis chapters 1 to 11. This first of the 66 books that make up the complete cannon of Scripture I didn’t fully engage in. But I decided to limit my writings to the all important first 11 chapters of Genesis. What is my purpose in doing so? Well, it's not because I'm a scholar. It was because just like Romans is the Magna Charta of the New Testament and John's Gospel proclaims the deity of Christ to the world, Genesis also helps keep this soul of mine on a solid foundation. This is not an easy thing in this 21st century with technology fueling entertainment, comfort, and materialism, laced with sin to defeat and devour God's people. I would be a hypocrite if I didn't admit it's a daily struggle for me and that at times, to my shame, I’ve come under the spell of this cosmos and it’s Princes trap only to seek forgiveness for my sin from the Lord.

God sure knew what he was doing when he gave regenerated man a conscience more strongly overseen by His indwelling Holy Spirit. Fortunately this signaled the need of my repentance, confession and necessary re-communion with God.

I'm speaking of the need to retain continuous fellowship with our Creator so we can remain steadfast, grow and learn more about the God of the Bible. Sin in anyone’s life will block the deeper things of God he wants to reveal to us in his word. I am not speaking of salvation, but sanctification for a true believer‘s sins are forgiven, past, present and future. If you manage by some miracle to get though some of my thoughts that I begged, borrowed, and stole from more godly men than me you’ve accomplished something. If you are to learn anything on your way through this introduction and beyond it will be because of the contribution of others who came before me and their desire to learn and teach. It is our responsibility to do the same for weaker and newer believers.

You will also discover as your pass through its pages that there's no rhyme nor reason nor pattern in my style of writings. Just forget about the poor grammar and try to appreciate my blue collar down to earth approach. Having looked at chapter after chapter you will discover it consists of a hodgepodge of various methods of teaching. You'll find a ministry approach in one chapter, a commentary vein in another and sometimes a comparative thought process rounding off yet another, all inter twined with a thread of Gospel. Putting pen to paper is the simplest way I forced myself to stay in the book. Making the truths of the Bible, your truths and practices is the only way, along with prayer, to keep one's soul happy, and especially mine. Thus writing this book was my means of preservation do to unfortunate and unwanted isolation.

So let us press on to the introduction of Genesis Chapter 1 and I hope you benefit from some of my thoughts down on paper regarding the 3 pillars of scripture before you. As you read on I pray it won't take you long to realize how these 3 books are pivotal in our preparation for our earthly walk and a home in eternity. So let's begin and look at the introduction of Why Genesis.