Promise and Hope: Good News of God's Anointed One

By Kevin D. Shell

When unexpected events cause us to question what we have previously "known," do we stop and reexamine the foundation and content of our own beliefs and values? Do we seek to learn and separate "truth" and "facts" (i.e., reality) from the "knowledge" that we acquired simply by rote memorization or that we thought "felt right" -- what we wanted to be true. The most profound truth is acquired by correcting our mistakes or errors. This is especially relevant to the most crucial of life's concerns: our spiritual health and relationship with our Maker. At times, we need to be reminded of, reeducated in, or encouraged in the basic foundations of life itself.

Come, take a journey through God's inspired message to mankind and experience what God has done and seen taking place over time. He welcomes and desires your accompanying presence, as well as your thoughts and questions, as you journey with Him through His story with His beloved mankind.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Covenant Books, Inc.
• Release date: Feb 29, 2024
• ISBN: 9798886444568

Book preview

Table of Contents

Title

Copyright

Preface

At the Beginning of It All

God's Covenant of Promise and Hope

How Long, O Lord?

Faithful Relationship Desired

God Foretells a Special Anointed One

Epilogue

Addendum

About the Author

Promise and Hope Anew

cover.jpg

Promise and Hope

Good News of God's Anointed One

Kevin D. Shell

ISBN 979-8-88644-455-1 (Paperback)

ISBN 979-8-88644-456-8 (Digital)

Copyright © 2024 Kevin D. Shell

All rights reserved

First Edition

Scripture Sources:

Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB)

New American Standard Bible, Copyright © 1995

by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Emphasis added.

www.lockman.org

The Holy Bible, Berean Study Bible (BSB)

Copyright ©2016, 2020 by Bible Hub

Used by Permission. All Rights Reserved Worldwide. Emphasis added.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Covenant Books

11661 Hwy 707

Murrells Inlet, SC 29576

www.covenantbooks.com

In honor and memory of my mother,

Allene Fern (Wigfield) Shell

Preface

In life, we are faced with events or situations — sometimes a crisis — that cause us to pause and examine our beliefs, values, principles, and goals, even the foundation of our lives itself, what we consider to be true. These things, that we first learned from our parents and other relatives, our school teachers, our friends, our religious organizations, and other adults and then honed through our own life experiences, are called into question, requiring us to evaluate and perhaps modify what we have known up until then. This is especially relevant to the most crucial of life's concern, our spiritual health and relationship with our Maker. At times, we need to be reminded of, reeducated in, or encouraged in the basic foundations of life itself.

Many centuries ago, a devout religious man, educated and trained by the most prestigious religious teachers and leaders of his day and well on his journey to advance his own religious credentials and status, is suddenly met with an unexpected, out-of-the-norm, even supernatural event. This experience is so profound that it causes him to stop on the present path of his life's journey and take a three-year sabbatical to study in-depth his revered scriptures and reexamine the very foundation of his beliefs and values. This study and reexamination leads him not to abandon the scriptures he knew so well, but to reinterpret with divine assistance their meaning. This also reoriented the meaning, path, and trajectory of his life's journey.

When unexpected events cause us to question what we have previously known, do we stop and reexamine the foundation and content of our own beliefs and values? Do we seek to learn and separate truth and facts (i.e., reality) from the knowledge that we acquired simply by rote memorization or that we thought felt right — what we wanted to be true? The most profound truth is acquired by correcting our mistakes or errors.

At the Beginning of It All

Placing ourselves at the beginning of what now exists, there is only a void of darkness and emptiness, nothing with form or substance. Out of this nothingness, God creates an expanse which He makes into the heavens and the earth (Gn 1:1). Then the Spirit of God moves over this expanse (Gn 1:2). Through His Spirit's omnipotent power in six distinct events, God wills (speaks) and

creates light to counter darkness (verses 3–5), illumination even though there is yet neither physical body to give light nor one to see,

creates physical elements distinct from the void (verses 6–8),

gathers elements together, separates dry elements, calling it earth, from watery ones (land from seas), and creates all various forms of vegetation (verses 9–13) — greenery, fruiting plants, and a vivid array of colorful vegetation,

creates various lights in the heavens outside the earth, including the sun, the moon, and the stars, to separate periods of light (day) from periods of darkness (night) and for signs and seasons and for days and years, creating time itself as we now know it (verses 14–19),

creates various forms of swimming creatures for the seas and flying creatures for the sky (verses 20–23),

creates (a) various forms of land creatures, including beasts, livestock, and creeping creatures and (b) then, in the midst of His vast created universe and as His crowning touch, (immortal) mankind after His own image — both male and female — to steward and bask in God's creation (verses 24–31) with Him, and

having completed His creation, God establishes the seventh day as a time for resting from life's labors and toils (Gn 2:1–3).

At each event, God declares that all His creation — with no wickedness present — is good, even very good, with only beauty, perfection, and harmony present among all living things.

At their beginning, Adam and Eve, created in the Lord God's image (Gn 1:27), are placed within His creation in a beautiful garden in Eden (Gn 2:8–9) where they freely walk among, enjoy, fellowship with, and care for God's wondrous creation (Gn 2:15–18, 21–22, 24–25).

Adam and Eve not only freely enjoy each other's company and union and fellowship with all living things but also freely, openly, and intimately commune with God as they enjoy His wondrous creation with Him. There, they enjoy true life and experience (know) only goodness for a time known only to God until…

After disobeying God and experiencing (knowing) evil firsthand, they hear God moving through (walking in) the garden — as is His custom — and hide themselves because of their shame and guilt (Gn 3:8–10). Because righteousness can have no communion with unrighteousness and because of their sinful disobedience, God expels them from the beautiful garden that He had created for them — which they had enjoyed and of which they had taken care — away from the tree of life.

They now (and their subsequent descendants) experience (know) darkness, gloominess, extreme storms and other weather conditions, animosity and enmity among people and animals, indifference or apathy, aggression, greed, envy, anger, molestation, frustration, confusion, pain, loneliness, fear, guilt, shame, degeneration and decay, destruction, death, murder, and genocide. They can now measure the magnificence of all of God's creation: the harmony, pleasantness, enjoyability, goodness, comfort, and peace…that are now only memories — specific memories that soon begin to fade away. They now can only lament,

What have we done?

Once they are expelled and history's clock begins, they must labor and toil — contending with each other, animals, weather conditions, and health issues — to cultivate and produce that which in the beginning had been cultivated for them by