Hopeful Messages from The Bible: Volume 2: An Ordinary Man Finds Meaning

By Richard Holland

After forgiveness, what mankind needs most is encouragement, and there is no place where hope can be found like the Old and New Testaments of the Bible. In Hopeful Messages from the Bible: An ordinary Man Finds Meaning Volume 2, Rich Holland shares more of the encouraging messages of God's love, redemption, and provision, that he began in Hopeful Messages Volume 1. The author's reflections are a result of his struggles with loss, sin, and disappointment, which led him to the hopeful messages found in the Bible; hope that is offered to everyone!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Covenant Books, Inc.
• Release date: May 14, 2020
• ISBN: 9781646703333

Book preview

Hopeful Messages

In this volume, I have selected more verses that have been, and continue to be, meaningful to me because they have given me hope! Assurance that God loves me. Assurance that Jesus redeemed me. Assurance that I am filled with the Holy Spirit. Assurance that Jesus wants to have a relationship with me. Assurance that I am never alone. Assurance that I have an eternal reward when this earthly life ends. Hope!

The first time I read the Bible cover to cover, I selected about 120 verses that were meaningful to me. I learned that the Bible is God’s love letter to me (and you) and with my relationship with him blooming, I reread his love letter and found more verses that were reassuring of his love. And I read it again; it is such a beautiful, meaningful, life-altering, life-saving, and reassuring love letter. And I discovered that he had written even more verses that were personally meaningful to me—615 are included in volumes 1 and 2. I am certain that more verses will be meaningful to me, providing even more hope as I read the Bible again.

I want to encourage you to read the Bible as a love story, a love letter to you from your loving Father in heaven. The Bible assures us of his love. He allowed his holy, perfect Son to die to pay the debt for our sins; he raised Jesus back to life so that we could be redeemed to him; and he sent the Holy Spirit to dwell in us so that we could live a life that glorifies him—forgiving our debts and delivering us from the evil one. He has shown his love for us in amazing ways. He is the bread of life and only when we commune with him daily do we receive our daily bread. In the valley of the shadow of death (Psalm 23:4) or on the high mountain (Mark 9:2), his provision sustains and empowers us. Only he can. Only he will. Only he does.

Why Read This Book?

In volume 1, you learned that I am not a Bible scholar. I am a Bible newbie. Maybe that is who you are too. And if you are new to it, like I am, I am so excited for you because you are about to begin a journey of discovery that will fill you with the bread of life.

It is tempting for Christians to pray for our daily bread only during times of hardship. And I, too, have done exactly that. And I needed it. And God provided it. But we tend to think we don’t need it when times are good, and this is a mistake. We need it every day. That is why Jesus told the disciples to pray for bread daily. We depend on God’s provision daily, in good times and bad times. We depend on him for life; after all, his breath of life (Genesis 2:7) gave us life, and without it, we would expire.

I hope what I have to say about these verses is helpful to you, but it isn’t what I have to say about them that is so important. What God is going to reveal to you as you read his Word is what is important. The more you read, the more he will reveal. The more you read, the more you will receive your daily bread. You will learn that God loves you unfailingly, and there is nowhere else you can find such love. And that is why you should read his Word. And if reading this book helps you understand his love for you, and gives you hope, I will be happy.

Old Testament

Genesis

1

Then God said, Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness.

—Genesis 1:26

Read this carefully because God is not alone here. We have already read in verse 1, that the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters, and we know from Colossians 1:16–17 that Jesus was present at creation too. For in him all things were created; things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

This is the first clue that God has a triune nature, God the Father, Jesus Christ his Son, and the Holy Spirit. This idea of three persons in one is hard for the human mind to understand, but it is also evidence of his majesty and magnificence. It also reminds me that his mind is not our mind and his thoughts are not our thoughts (Isaiah 55:8). It should not surprise us that we have a hard time understanding God’s nature. He is God; we are not.

I think it is amazing but not surprising that God is going to use Jesus and his Spirit throughout history to save, sustain, and empower the people that he made in his image and likeness. Jesus and his Spirit didn’t just arrive on the scene in the New Testament. They were with God the Father all the time right from the beginning.

2

Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man become a living being.

—Genesis 2:7

Here, the Creator is at work creating man. Think about how powerful God is; he only needed some dust to create man. Dust! What we sweep out of our houses, he used to make a man! And he only needed to breathe his breath into man to bring him alive! It is inconceivable. It is magnificent! It is our omnipotent God!

When I read this verse, I not only think about God creating the first man, Adam; I also think about how he created me and every other person. Science doesn’t create life; anatomy doesn’t create life; biology doesn’t create life; and man doesn’t create life. Unless our Lord God breathes the breath of life into us, there is no life.

3

The Lord God said, It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.

—Genesis 2:18

I think this verse shows that (1) God is loving, and (2) God expects a positive response from us. Not only did God give Adam a garden, but a helper too. Not just any helper either. A helper suitable for him, a woman, Eve. Think about how good this was: Adam and Eve were both naked, and they felt no shame (2:25).

4

But the Lord called to the man, Where are you?’

—Genesis 3:9

Adam and Even had hidden from the Lord because they had eaten fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. God is walking in the garden and calls out, Where are you? not because he couldn’t find them hidden in the garden. He was asking them about the condition of their hearts. Like, where is your heart? God was asking them where they stood in relationship to him.

I have always found this message comforting. God created us and wants a relationship with us and cares enough to ask us about our relationship with him—not to condemn us, but rather to remind us of his love and compassion for us. The greatest evidence of this, of course, is giving us his Son Jesus to insure we no longer have to hide from him.

5

She said, With the help of the Lord I have brought forth a man.

—Genesis 4:1

Eve has just given birth to her first child, Cain, and this is her exclamation. I found it interesting, and oh so appropriate, that she credited the Lord for the birth of her son. When my children were born, I knew I was witnessing a truly divine miracle, not a miracle of science or medicine. The birth of a child only happens with the help of the Lord. He is the child’s creator!

6

Then the Lord said to Cain, Where is your brother Abel?

—Genesis 4:9

Cain has just killed his brother Abel when God asks him this question. What God is really asking Cain is What is the condition of your heart? Just like when God asked Adam in the garden of Eden, Where are you? God’s question to Cain is designed to expose the condition of his heart. God knew what Cain had done. Truthfully answering the question about where his brother was would require Cain to answer what he had done, how he had done it, and why he did it.

Confessing our sin to God is the first step in making our relationship right with him. Asking for his forgiveness and repenting of our sin follows. None of this eliminates the consequences of our sin, but it restores our relationship with our holy, righteous Heavenly Father. Sin doesn’t only hurt ourselves and others. It hurts God, too. This is a natural consequence of sin.

Unfortunately, Cain was not ready to confess his sin, telling God, I don’t know. Am I my brother’s keeper? Lying to God is a sin too, and God was not amused. Listen! Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground (4:10). Read that carefully. God gave Cain a chance to tell the truth, and when he didn’t, God had enough of his insolence and forcefully told him to Listen! Now, God would tell Cain what his punishment was.

Where is your heart, Adam? Where is your heart, Cain? Where is your heart, Christian?

7

The animals going in were male and female of every living thing, as God had commanded Noah. Then the Lord shut him in.

—Genesis 7:16

This verse shows how protective God is of those who love him. And how faithful he is to us. The human race had become evil: every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time (Genesis 6:5). But Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God (Genesis 6:9). So, God tells Noah to build an ark for the animals and his family. Noah does and then the Lord shut him in to protect him from the flood.

8

By the first day of the first month of Noah’s six hundred and first year, the water had dried up from the earth. Noah then removed the covering from the ark and saw that the surface of the ground was dry.

—Genesis 8:13

This verse reminds me that you are never too old! Noah was 500 years old when he became the father of Shem, Ham, and Japheth (Genesis 5:32). This shouldn’t really surprise us after all. Noah’s father, Lamech, lived for 777 years, and his father, Methuselah, lived 969 years!

When Noah was six hundred years old, he built the ark, loaded his family up and all the animals, and went sailing for 150 days! Now that is an adventure for anyone, let alone a man six hundred years old.

Imagine what it was like to be Noah. He is the only remaining righteous man on earth, and God speaks directly to him, telling him that it is going to rain for forty days and forty nights and all of the earth and all the people and all the animals will be destroyed. Terror? Sadness? Wonder? Awe?

I don’t know what Noah thought, but my first response would have been, I’m sorry. What? And then, why me? Or maybe, But I am 600 years old! Noah didn’t protest, and even if he had any reservations, he faithfully went to work and did what God commanded him to do.

Imagine what Noah did. He built an ark so big, it could hold every pair of animals on earth. Actually, it had to hold seven pairs of the clean (sacrificial) animals and one pair of the unclean animals. And he built it on dry land! And it wasn’t raining when he built it. Imagine what people thought of him; imagine how they talked about him. Crazy old Noah!

And then Noah watched all the pairs of animals entering the ark. I don’t know about you, but I would have some questions. Like, how are we going to feed them? and where will they go to the bathroom? But this just shows how feeble my faith is and how absolute Noah’s was. He didn’t let questions stop him from doing what God commanded him to do. Sometimes, I forget that I don’t have to have all the answers to all the questions. He does, and that is what matters.

I love the story of Noah. I love Noah’s faithfulness. I love that he was righteous. I love that he did all that he did when he was six hundred years old. I am only sixty, but I, too, want to do what God commands me to do. Maybe I can’t build an ark, but with God’s might and provision, I can do fantastic things too!

9

But you must not eat meat that has its lifeblood still in it. And for your lifeblood I will surely demand an accounting. I will demand an accounting from every animal. And from each human being, too, I will demand an accounting for the life of another human being.

—Genesis 9:4–5

This verse reminds me that while God is loving and protective of his people, he is also just and holds us accountable for how we live our lives. In this verse, the flood has receded, and God has told Noah and his family to be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth (9:1). God has promised never again to destroy the earth with a flood (9:11). He has shown his love for Noah and his family; he has protected them; and now he has given Noah and his family freedom to rule over the earth.

But God is also just, and we are reminded of this in this verse. We are accountable to him for how we live. It was true for a righteous and blameless man like Noah, and it is true for us too.

10

But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower the people were building.

—Genesis 11:5

This is the story of the Tower of Babel. The people are building a tower that reaches to the heavens (11:4), so that they may make a name for themselves (11:4). Here, we can see the beginning of the sin of pride and arrogance. They were not building the tower for the glory of God but to gain notoriety for themselves. They were forgetting about God.

Notice also how active God is in the lives of his people—The Lord came down to see the city and the tower (11:5). He did not remain distant; he came and saw what the people were doing with his own eyes. Amazing! Why would we think he doesn’t do this still today?

Notice also, that he doesn’t say, I will go down and confuse their language. He says, Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other (11:7). Who is us? It can only be Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Isn’t that amazing!

So why did the Lord confuse their language? Why did he stop the construction of the tower and scatter the people over the face of the whole earth (11:9)? I think it was a consequence to help the people remember and maintain a right relationship with the Lord. Otherwise, the people might begin to think nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them (11:6), and they would believe they were self-sufficient. The danger of thinking we are self-sufficient is in thinking God is not necessary.

11

So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Harran.

—Genesis 12:4

This simple sentence means more to me now than the previous times I read it. Abram’s great commission began at seventy-five years old! God gave him his great life purpose at seventy-five! In our culture, he was no spring chicken. And yet, he went on to have children with his wife, Sarai, and he founded the nation of Israel from which came our Messiah. Now that is a meaningful life purpose, and it began at seventy-five!

We know that God’s timing is perfect, so why did he wait until Abram was seventy-five to give him his purpose? Simply said, because the time was right. All of Abram’s previous seventy-five years experience helped pave the way for God to use him. Abram was learning and growing into the man God could use. Remember that Abram’s father, Terah, took him, Sarai, and Lot from Ur