This week we will be exploring Genesis 24:1-28, Guidance According to God.
Genesis 24 is a love story unlike any other love story (unless you can remember someone coming to your hometown on a load of camels with gifts galore and enticing you to travel 500 miles to marry someone that you have never met or even seen before 🙂.
Though it appears as merely a love story, Genesis 24 is the longest chapter in Genesis indicating its importance to the redemptive narrative.
Isaac, the promised seed, receives a bride!
How that bride is found is what makes this story so interesting, inspiring, and informative.
This week we will focus on the servant and his prayer for guidance.
Have you ever had a massive decision to make and did not know what to do?
Have you ever wondered what God's will is for your life?
Have you ever prayed that God would make your next step clear to you?
Life presents us with a multitude of choices every day...and sometimes those choices have major implications for our life, for our family, and for our future.
Genesis 24 provides us with some biblical principles for discerning God's will in our lives. We will explore those principles on Sunday.
May we trust in the Lord with all our heart and lean not on our own understanding and may we acknowledge Him in all our ways so that He will direct our paths!

This week Pastor Zach will be teaching through Genesis 23, Grief According to God.
Genesis 23 kicks off the epilogue to the life of Abraham and the transition to the generation of Isaac. This transition begins with the death of the matriarch--Sarah.
Abraham grieves the death of his beautiful bride.
Grief and loss are realities in this world that we all have to face sooner or later. Often moments of grief and loss can cause us to doubt God. But when Abraham's moment of loss comes, his faith has matured. Abraham fears God and trusts that God's promises are not exhausted in this life.
God's people have a hope beyond the grave! Jesus conquered death in His resurrection. Therefore, God's people can persist in faith and look forward to the complete fulfillment of God's promises in the future.
With that kind of faith, Abraham buys a small plot of land and a cave in which to bury his bride. In the midst of his loss and grief, Abraham anchors himself to the land of promise with this purchase. There would be no turning back for him now.
May we rejoice in the hope of Jesus Christ as we face the realities of grief and loss in this world and may we remember that every promise of God will be fulfilled!

Genesis 22 is holy ground.
This chapter is the climax of the Abraham story and one of the most powerful and beautiful pictures of the love of God and the sacrifice of His only Son.
Genesis 22 is called the Akedah ("binding") by Jews and it is perhaps the most read portion of Scripture in the Jewish faith. Seven days a week, twelve months a year, the story of the Akedah is read and prayed over in the Jewish morning prayer service. It is also read on Rosh Hashanah, as the blowing of the shofar looks back to the ram sacrificed as a substitute for Isaac.
We will reflect on the great love that Abraham had for his son.
We will walk with Abraham and Isaac to the mountain of Moriah.
We will consider God's provision of a substitute sacrifice for Isaac.
And we will rejoice in the powerful promise given to Abraham regarding his Seed, Jesus Christ!
May God captivate our imagination, deepen our faith, transform our hearts, and fill our mouths with His praise!