There we go. Hey, Carlton. How you doing, Scott? Good. Welcome to a cold day.

Very cold here in sunny Virginia today. I know. Well, hey, here we are. We're going to do something we've never done. It's not choreographed.

We just want to sort of be a blessing to families who are listening in. Sure. And to be an encouragement to them. So here's the deal. We just read what really are the first 2, 000 years of world history right up to Abraham.

Abraham is in 2000 BC. In a week we covered 2, 000 years. That's right. That's right. It's pretty amazing when you think about it.

You can miss that little detail because you're reading those chapters pretty quickly. Many of us have read them before, but many, many years passed during those times and critical years for the formation of our faith. Yeah. You know that this song that we have at the beginning, this is my father's world. It really, it was a, it was a help to me in this sense.

There's this, this line, I rest me in the thought of rocks and trees of skies and seas. You know, this was it was a message of hope for me, you know, you have the God who created everything there is. That's right. He created us. He created us!

How about that? That's right. It's amazing. Oh, isn't it? It's absolutely incredible that from the beginnings of time, from the foundation of the world, just in His sovereignty, He was thinking about the sinners like you and me.

And all of us who are watching and who are listening, and despite our sin and despite all of our issues and problems, it is our Father's world, and He loves us so incredibly much. It is absolutely amazing. Even in Genesis, that wonderful passage that you highlighted in your book in Genesis 3, in the midst of our sin, the Lord is, He's already promising a Redeemer. He's already promising the Messiah that would one day come and deliver us from ourselves. It's pretty amazing indeed.

Yeah, I was reading this to some of my grandchildren and we're also memorizing the prologue in the Gospel of John. Okay. In the beginning was the Word. Right. Word was with God and the Word was God.

That's right. And you know all that was made was made by Him and nothing was made that wasn't made by Him. And so you have this eternal Son of God who creates everything there is. Right. And I was I was trying to, you know, this whole thing of eternity.

My little grandchildren, what is eternity? You know, that's so hard for anybody to understand. Right. And so I've been trying to explain it to them, you know, and here's what I kind of came up with. Well, here's how wonderful eternity is.

Jesus Christ, the Son of God is eternal. He never ends. That's right. And When he adopts you, he adopts you and he puts you in his bosom and he carries you through all eternity. That's right.

That's right. That's all I know about eternity. It never ends and I'm with Him. That's right. Again, it's incredible just walking with our children through the creation narrative, and just the authority and the power of God, And then to be able to point them right at the beginning, that's one thing I love about reading through the Bible, because you see Jesus in every book of the Bible, and you see this redemption in every book of the Bible in one way or another, And to be able to point them to this king who came to earth and suffered and bled and died for our iniquity and our sin, and then to remind them again and again, even in Genesis, that one day we'll be with Him, as you said, for all eternity.

And I love trying to explain that to my daughter. I didn't do nearly as good a job as you did with your grandchildren, but just my little one, my middle child, trying to explain to her what eternity is, and she just kind of looks and says, well, does that mean we're going to be with Jesus? And that's right, sweetie, we're going to be with Jesus. He's never going to let us fall. He's never going to, He's always going to hold us.

Yes, sweetie, He's always going to hold us forever and ever and ever if we repent and believe in him. So this journey through the Bible already has been a blessing in my household. That's great. There was one part that really cracked us up when we were reading it. You know, God is creating everything.

And then there's this phrase, this statement, he made the stars also. Yeah, he just, he made the stars. Yeah, exactly. Wow! That's right.

As if it was antecedent to the story or something, and about the way you made stars. Wow, what a God. That's amazing. Have you guys, what have you thought about just what you've learned so far and read so far through family and from the New Testament portion in Matthew. Yes, I mean, I think it's really interesting.

You know, Matthew starts with Abraham. John starts it in eternity. Matthew starts with Abraham right where we've just kind of read where Abraham is. So it's interesting that the Gospel of Matthew goes right up to the place we've just read and begins to trace the line of the Messiah, you know, all the way up to the birth of Jesus. That's right.

And as many know, that was one of his primary goals, the Spirit of God through Matthew, to demonstrate the Messiahship of Jesus and the kingship of Jesus. And interestingly, when we started this, our church just so happens to be working through the Sermon on the Mount right now. So just in the last couple days to reread Matthew 5, we're in Matthew 6 in the church, but to reread Matthew 5 and to see this, these Kingdom, these precious and sweet Kingdom commands unfolding again and again. And what a blessing it would be in any family to talk about peacemaking, to talk about meekness, to talk about a desire for righteousness, talk about turning the other cheek. There's one that siblings can… You know, here's one cheek, oh by the way, here's the other!

And then of course, one of the ultimate goals in all that is to get to the heart of those of us who follow the Lord. What a sweet time in any family, I think, as a mom and dad lays those principles and those scriptures before their children in just such a sweet way. And just all by himself, the Lord has this wonderful ability to change us and to temper us and to encourage us. And so I'm really enjoying the Sermon on the Mount and all that he's teaching us there. You know, we were connecting Genesis with the Sermon on the Mount a little last night when we were reading, you know, in Genesis, you know, the first murder, you have brothers, brother being incensed with a brother and it rises up in his heart so massively kills his brother.

Right. And then in Matthew 5 you have murder, he talks about murder. You know, what is murder? Murder is hatred. Right.

Right. We have, I've got a lot of grandsons and we were talking about that. And I said, Are any of you angry with your brother? Are any of you bitter with your brother? Because if you let that run in your heart, it's so dangerous.

So, you know, if you have any anger, and these are little boys, right? These are, you know, 10 years and under, but brothers can develop offenses when they're young. Right. And if they don't deal with them in a godly way, if they don't forgive, then it could turn into a terrible separation later on. Yeah.

You know it usually doesn't end in murder like with Cain and Abel, but it can end with a murderous heart. That's right. The destruction of a relationship. Do you have any bitterness toward your little brother or your big brother? Sometimes big brothers, because they're bigger, they take advantage of the older brothers and they get away with it.

And depending on the disposition of that little brother, he might become silently enraged. But it'll come out when he's 16, 18, 20, maybe 30 or 40. Right. Yeah. My oldest came to me and said that sometimes she has some bitterness in her heart towards her sister, just the sisterly relationship.

And I'm so blessed by that because her heart is moved as she reads the word, her heart is moved to repentance and to contrition because she reads what the Lord has laid out about hatred, about how we're supposed to love and to forgive. And then I watch her and it's just interesting that sometimes as the teacher, I'm being taught in this process. You know, sometimes our children can be more sensitive to these things than we are in the moment. And so I'm watching her kind of lament her own inward, her own inward sins and how she's wrestling with it. And I'm looking at her going, wow, you know, Lord, I need to maybe learn something here.

I am, it makes me search my own heart. I was like, wait a minute, am I holding some bitterness against somebody somewhere? And it's so tender, these moments are so precious. And I'm so grateful to God for calling us to read through his word this year. Yeah.

Hey, one of the things that people find out when they read the bio with their little ones is they their kid they're reading a session and maybe kids are looking on in space and looks like they're checked out right you in my house my house aren't you yeah don't presume I don't know how many times. And then later on, they come back and they repeat the exact same thing we were reading about. Don't don't don't misread that a lot of times, you know, let the words fall in your ears. What's going on? Don't worry about if you don't think they get it.

They'll ask that you'll be reading you'll ask them a question you're thinking they're not even getting the simplest thing. Or ten days later it'll come back up and say whoa they actually did get it. Amen. And you know don't don't worry just let the words fall on your ears don't worry about it you know don't obsess about whether are they getting it are they getting it. The most important thing is you love it.

Right. You love the words. Can you hear that there's somebody walking by in a leaf blower. Can you hear that? Yeah, I can hear it a little bit.

It's okay though. Okay. Anyway, you'll be gone in a minute. But you know, the most important thing is that we find what's beautiful there. Yep.

I think the most important thing for us with our children is that they see that we love the words, that we really believe they're pure, they're true, that they've been tried seven times in the fire, and that they're precious, they're more precious than gold. That's right, they're living and active and sharp and they're good for us. The Lord reads us. We read the Word, but we're also read by the Word as well. In other words, who we are on the inside is laid bare as we read, if we read with the right heart.

And just to hear, I think one of the greatest blessings for me is, as we're reading through Genesis and to hear my little ones declaring God's power in creation, or His mercy in our fall, or all the way up until now, walking through the narrative of the Tower of Babel or Abraham, to hear their little voices declare, speak forth the word of God. And even at their level of understanding, you know, they're getting some things, other things will come later, but to hear the entire family taking turns reading through my wife and I and our children, You know, that's just the sweetest blessing by itself. And that's just one of many blessings of reading the word together as a family. We're, the whole family's focused on the Lord and on his goodness and on his mercy. What a wonderful means of grace that God has given us to just simply read the Bible and let it transform us as we read.

Yeah that's great. Hey here's also something that I've been doing with we have a three-year-old, I have a three-year-old grandson and of course he can't read and you know the ones that can read we have them read a little bit. The ones that don't read, can't read, you know they love it like if you give them a chance to read, but you just give them the words. Right, right, right. In the beginning, God, in the beginning, God, you know, oh, that was so good, you know.

That's awesome. That is awesome. Yeah, it's, I tell you, One of the things I've been amazed at too is that there are some pretty good questions that come up about the various narratives. There have been a couple moments so far where I've had to say, oh, I don't remember. Let me, you know, let me go and find the answer to that.

But I've been amazed at just how they absorb, what they absorb and how, and the blessing that it's been to watch them ask questions, to watch them get convicted, to watch them search for answers, even in just in a week in this 2000 years that you spoke about. Pretty incredible. You know, I cracked up. One of these kids threw me a softball. They said, what is it, why does it say let us create man?

Oh boy, nice. The doctrine of the Trinity, you know, I could explain the whole doctrine of sin there. In the first three chapters, every major doctrine of the Bible is presented in its final form. And then of course, the knowledge of that truth is right you know all the way to the end but I was I was really struck when when that question was asked me what does it mean let us right right who is who is us yeah yeah you you you do have those moments that teach other doctrines as they come up. And one of the things that I found was interesting, not just the Trinity there from Genesis 1, but just the whole doctrine of sin to be able to have to deal with the fall, deal with paradise lost, to deal with the condition of man in Genesis 3, and to have to work through that a little bit and explain where did death come from?

They got kicked out of the garden, Daddy? Yeah, they really did get kicked out of the garden. So what does it mean, these curses that were mentioned? So some of those things, too, having to go in and refresh my own mind and check my own – make sure that I'm tracking along properly so that I can explain to them the doctrine of sin, of course, and that leads us into a discussion of the doctrine of salvation. Yeah.

Oh, man. Isn't that great? It is. It's really cool. You know, let's see, there was something I was looking for.

I've been making some notes in here. Um, I was gonna say something I can't remember what it was. Um, you know, I was I was writing down just the different manifestations, pictures of Jesus Christ that were here. And I mean, it's pretty significant how many things are mentioned that really refer to Christ, that really are the beginnings of the whole doctrine of Christ. I was just really struck by that.

But anyway, we just engaged this first part of Genesis and there's just there's so much here to take comfort in. Really, there really is. Just one other quick thing that had been a blessing to me as we're reading in Matthew 4, and I have it open here, where You see the Lord begin to call His disciples, and one of the points that came out while we were talking, is you see them straightway leave their nets. You see them immediately leave, and the question was, what does that mean? My wife gave this wonderful exhortation, quick one, but an exhortation to our children that when the Lord calls, we follow.

When he tells us to do something, we do it. And I just thought that was such a blessing, just a simple phrase, you know, Jesus calls and they move. And what would it be like to have in our families when the Lord speaks to us through his word and the family immediately, you know, is it might be a little naive, right, but immediately adjusts, you know, what would it be like in our churches if when the Lord tells us to do something and we move quickly in response to his love and into his mercy? I thought that was something that came up the other day and that was, that blessed my soul. Yeah.

And it's totally illogical that we would resist it. Right. It is. The creator of everything. Of everything, right.

Which we've already just read, right? Why would we turn away from the one who determines whether we're gonna live through the day or not? That's right. I mean, Why would we do that? The creator of all these things, all of it's good.

We know it's good. You can't get it. We can't get enough of it. That's right. Even right now, you have a foot of snow blanketing Chesapeake, right?

It's so beautiful, you know. Until you have to shovel it, but yes, it's beautiful. Yeah, which is probably what you're going to have to do when you go out. I did some of that yesterday. But you know, it is, it's amazing that the Lord has shown us such mercy, and he's been so good to sinners like us.

And one of my goals in 2018 is to respond quicker as a father and respond quicker as a husband when the Lord shows me something that needs to be done. And so it took this reading to, you know, bring that back to my remembrance again and remind me to not, you know, what am I waiting for when I know what the obedience is supposed to be? Yeah. So I need to move faster in love to respond to what he's told me to do. And me too, you know, I, this reading has just made me want to rest me in the thought of trees and skies.

That's right. It's his wonders. It's amazing. Okay, so there it is, we did it. Hey, I hope someone heard something good.

Awesome. Okay, well, we'll do it again. Love you. Yes, sir. Love you too.

Blessing, Scott. Thank you.