Latest / Cumberland Trace Church of Christ (Formerly Lehman Ave Church of Christ) / Equipped 2026: Panel Discussion: "Tough Questions from Genesis" by Todd Crayton, John Moore, and Denny Petrillo

Transcript

Equipped 2026: Panel Discussion: "Tough Questions from Genesis" by Todd Crayton, John Moore, and Denny Petrillo · Cumberland Trace Church of Christ (Formerly Lehman Ave Church of Christ)

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Just to know about formatting, and I'm sorry if you folks in the back, you probably can't see this, but I know you can still hear us.
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I'm going to throw these questions to one of our panel participants first to give kind of a primary or beginning answer,
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and the others will feel free as they would like to add to whatever is being said.
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As we get into tough questions in Genesis, if we were to look in an order starting from the beginning of the book of Genesis,
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one of the big questions that so often comes up has to do with how literally that we take the days of creation in Genesis chapter 1.
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And so we're going to ask Todd that first question, how literally should we interpret the days of creation in Genesis chapter 1?
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And as a follow-up to that, does it matter for faith and science discussions?
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So as we look at this literally and of course as we engage with our community.
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So I just want to open this discussion of I think great important questions with a passage from the book of Hebrews in chapter 5 and verse 8.
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Though he were a son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered.
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And he became through that suffering the author of eternal salvation to all those who obey him.
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And then down in verse 11, the writer mentions of whom we have many things to say and are hard, some translations say difficult,
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to be uttered or understood. And so one of the first things I want for our audience here as well as online to know is that
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all of us as men here on this panel respect scholarship. That there is biblical as well as archaeological and geographical research
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that has been done to establish these statements by God's word as factual.
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And so when we think about questions surrounding the literal 24 hour days of creation,
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we will find on the internet and other media sources many different opinions and many different ideas surrounding it.
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But we must center our faith on that which is spoken by God. And so as the account would tell us in Genesis chapter 1,
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that God set the moon as the light over the night and the sun as the light over the day.
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And that then implies a 24 hour literal period. One of the factual things that we can reference surrounding the 24 hour day
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at the center of this question is the fact when the Hebrew word yom is used with a nominative digit,
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it exclusively applies to the literal translation of a day. Now there are of course other uses of that word,
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but beyond other conclusive scriptures that may conflict, we must then interpret that as a 24 hour period.
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I want to quote here what one writer describes, if I don't eat the microphone, there we go,
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that this 24 hour period as a general rule must be taken from the interpretation that it demands.
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And that is that this time period must be covered as a 24 hour day.
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Of course Brother Wayne Jackson writes this surrounding this particular idea,
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literally unless there is compelling reason for giving them a figurative sense.
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And so primarily we don't have any compelling reason to give this 24 hour period any other sense in the figurative
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and certainly any other use other than a 24 hour period would conflict with other scriptures biblically
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that clearly state a 24 hour period as a day and then that 24 hour period accumulating the summation as 365 days one year.
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If not, how could we know the age of each of the patriarchs?
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How could we know the age or time periods that are described even in the son of God that he was in the tomb three days?
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Now we can understand that that is figurative in the sense that it did not qualify three 24 hour periods,
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but we know what 24 hours is and what it is described as in the New Testament and comparatively in the Old.
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Amen, and I would also add what Moses says in Exodus 20 verse 11 where there he makes reference to God
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created the earth in six days and rested on the seventh day.
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The whole context of Exodus 20 is remember the Sabbath and what God was expecting from them
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and there is no way that you can read Exodus 20 verse 11 and come up with a time age theory that is proposed.
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I think part of the issue has arisen because people believe that the earth is millions and millions of years old
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and so therefore it can't be compatible with scripture.
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It also then assumes that somehow Christians are, at least who take the Bible literally,
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that they are opposed to science, but nothing could be further from the truth.
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We as Christians believe in true science. We believe in ascertaining information based on the scientific method.
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And so the question becomes then in my mind, well is there any evidence?
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Is there any other reason besides just the Bible, and of course that is good enough for me at that point,
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but to answer people who are outside of believing in scripture.
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And yes there is, and we don't have the time to go into all of this here,
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you can go to Apologetics Press, it's a great resource, and many other apologists that are out there
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that reveal that the earth is actually a young earth.
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And so we don't have to somehow try to squeeze in all those years into a so-called day age theory.
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So we're not opposed to science, we're not opposed to knowledge.
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We very much are on the side of all that and we believe that the creation model actually fits science perfectly.
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I just wanted to add one closing remark. There was an excellent lecture that was done this morning
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by Brother Caleb Colley on the theistic evolution.
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One of the things that he pointed out is if we take that theory as reality,
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it makes every event before Genesis Chapter 12 arbitrary.
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That it would just be left up to an undefined, undetermined time period.
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And that would be completely against, contradictory to everything that we accept before it,
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even that Abraham himself would be the father of many nations in the beginning of the seed promise.
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In the realm of apologetics, not everything falls into a category like we have in Genesis Chapter 1.
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Very much in the heart of difficult questions in Genesis are reflections on the character of God.
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When we think about skeptics and unbelievers, a lot of the argumentation they'll make is to disparage the character of God.
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So our next question falls in that particular vein.
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We're going to have John to take the lead on the second question.
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A question you may have often heard.
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How do we reconcile God's holiness and justice with the violence or difficult events in Genesis?
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So think about some examples of that.
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A global flood in response to sin.
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Or the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.
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Or the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.
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And the flames there that were destroyed.
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And so forth.
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How do we answer that?
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How do we reconcile God as presented to us in his nature, character, holiness and justice with these events?
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I would say first of all, it's a great question.
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And we don't want to be dismissive of anything.
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Sometimes I think we can be sort of callous and dismissive of that.
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Because we believe and know that we are Christians and have the truth and we can look forward to.
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But somehow someone asks a question like that and we maybe accuse them.
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And I don't think we should.
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We need to realize that they're very sincere in what they're asking.
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So how do we respond to that?
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I would say, number one, let's think about whether or not God's love and God's wrath are incompatible in and of themselves.
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I would suggest to you that true love actually demands anger and wrath.
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And I think all of us could probably relate to that.
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Have you ever...
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Well, let's just say, for example, and I use this a lot with different circles.
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But let's say that after this service was over, you went outside and maybe one of the dear sweet ladies of this congregation
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who's older and feeble on a wheelchair, maybe on a walker.
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And some young person came running up here, pushed her down.
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You know, somebody from the community.
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She hits her head on the ground.
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Blood goes everywhere.
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They run off with her purse.
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Would it anger you?
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Would it bother you?
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I think any rational person would say, absolutely that bothers me.
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That someone would do something like that to someone so helpless.
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Alright?
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So anger is a part of the natural process of who we are as individuals.
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And we recognize there are some things that we ought to get angry about.
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Injustices.
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But somehow it's wrong for God to be angry about injustice.
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That God could never punish wrongdoing when yet we in our own court systems do it all the time.
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It just doesn't seem right.
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In fact, I would suggest that if there's any conscience about us all, we would be angry about that.
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So that's number one.
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It's not incompatible.
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In fact, I think love demands it.
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But secondly, we have to ask the question, well, why did God punish an entire earth?
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Well, God's not ever whimsical and capricious.
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And we need to realize when we study through Scripture, God has carefully laid out for us
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not only a righteous plan to follow and warnings given in that regard,
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but then lots of years of patience and long suffering.
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That's what 2 Peter 3, verse 9 says, right?
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God was long suffering.
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So when we start talking about the events of the flood, does our heart break?
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Yes, just like God's heart broke.
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He's not willing that any should perish.
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He wants all to come to repentance.
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But what is it just God to do about an earth that was utterly corrupt and evil?
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I'm going to trust what the Bible says, that it must have been pretty bad, okay?
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We're not talking about a few people who maybe forgot to go, quote, to church on Sunday, right?
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That's not what we're talking about.
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We're talking about a society and a world that had become so corrupt and so evil.
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God knows, by the way, a whole lot better than I do about where that line is and when He's going to exact justice.
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So I trust Him in that.
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But realize, just as Genesis 6, I think, depending on the timetable that you look at, verse 3,
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how long did Noah preach?
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120 years!
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How many of us are in this room that patient?
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I don't think there's anybody in here.
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Much of what the Bible does, especially when people read about, for example, Jeremiah or Isaiah,
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and they see God's anger and wrath, and they kind of look at that,
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and they think about where Isaiah and Jeremiah are in the divided kingdom timeline,
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and how much time God gave His people to come back to Him.
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He did everything.
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He controlled them to come back to Him through sinning and prophets and on and on and on.
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So we must look at the totality of Scripture to see, yes, God's love and goodness, but also His severity.
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When does severity come?
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On those who rebel, and who continue to do that.
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So while, again, some of these things are difficult, look at the totality of Scripture.
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It's not incompatible.
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Realize God is extremely long-suffering.
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And number four, I'm not going to put myself in the place of God.
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He knows what He's doing.
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I trust Him.
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I do.
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I taught an online class for one of the universities
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that was specifically designed for people that went to college but didn't finish their degree,
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and now they're circling back to finish up their degree.
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Well, as it turned out, one of those persons in my class was an atheist.
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I'd never had an atheist in class before.
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And this atheist, we were studying the book of Job, made a very interesting statement.
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She said, you Christians love to run to the defense of your God.
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Your God cannot fail.
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And I thought a lot about that since she made that statement.
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Your God can't fail because you always are running to the defense of God.
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And so I appreciate the question here because it does give us the opportunity
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maybe to see the way someone on the other side that isn't coming from a Christian perspective
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is going to look at the Genesis text.
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That was me.
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But I don't know why it was me.
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So when you look at the text in Genesis,
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you see that God was not one that was impulsive, irrational.
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He demonstrated patience.
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He demonstrated opportunity for people to change their course.
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He was one that gave mercy when we think about, for example, the flood.
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You had 120 years of opportunity.
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But even in the midst of that, there were those that seized God's love and God's offer of patience.
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His judgment is one that always was purposeful,
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always was that which was an expression of the very nature of God.
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And so we might be, Christians might be accused of always running to the defense of God.
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But when someone is going to look at the portrayal of God,
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for example, in a book like Genesis,
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they've got to see, they need to see,
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and it's our job to help them see the full picture of God.
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And as John said, Romans 11-22,
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both the kindness of God,
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but there's also that flip side of God as well.
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I wanted to add one aspect.
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I really appreciate what O'Connor did mention,
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and maybe this thread will tie it together.
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One writer has said that the Bible is a narrative,
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but it is not to be taken as normative.
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In other words, the same Bible that lists the violence that happened to women,
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the violence that happened to children,
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even to the sacrificing of a child in Isaac,
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doesn't mean God agrees with child sacrifice.
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And sometimes I think critics of God want to attach those human feelings, emotions, and characteristics to Him.
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But what it actually does for us,
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to those who believe in the inspiration of God,
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is another factor about its beauty.
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God, in His inspiration, has given His word with the ring of truth.
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It means it does not have bias to say,
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we're only going to show God in this good light.
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He shows man's weaknesses,
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He shows man's severe, macabre ugliness,
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but also his beauty.
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And in that we see the relationship, maybe, between God and humanity.
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That seeing violence, and seeing some of the ugly things,
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does give us that contrasting appreciation for God's supreme beauty and goodness.
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And so, if anything, it, for us as humans,
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inspires us, it moves us to long for something above this world,
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something good and supreme,
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not tainted by the things of a humanistic nature.
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It's interesting that, Mike, the problem of evil and suffering,
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is based on moral argument,
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which takes us to the moral standard,
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and so we're driven back to God even in that.
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I appreciate you being up for the final lecture today.
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Alongside of this, and I think one of the large categories of issues that can be had,
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that would see Genesis as a difficult, or having these difficult dilemmas,
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is, we're going to ask Denny about,
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kind of similar in its overall nature to the question previous.
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Denny, why would God put the tree of knowledge of good and evil in the garden?
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We read about that in Genesis 2, verse 15-17.
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And a very important follow-up to that is,
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was he setting humanity up to fail?
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Someone might say, was he trying to trick us,
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before ordaining that fall?
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So, Howard, would you like to address that?
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I'd like to address that by passing the microphone on to John.
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The short answer is, no.
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God was not setting humanity up to fail.
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Because the tree is that which established real moral freedom.
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Provided the opportunity for that moral freedom.
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Now, the way I look at it, there were four purposes of the tree.
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First of all, was to establish genuine devotion.
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To establish genuine devotion.
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Love without choice is not really love.
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Secondly, trust.
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The command to obey regarding that tree,
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invited humans to trust God.
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To trust his wisdom over their own.
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To trust if God really was going to be their God.
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And I guess, related to that,
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is it really trust if there's no alternative?
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If that's the only choice, then how is trust really established?
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And then third, establishing moral boundaries.
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The boundaries of good, evil, right and wrong.
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And the tree was that which needed to function in order to establish those moral boundaries.
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Even in paradise, God had to establish what was good and what was not good.
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And then fourth, is defining roles.
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Humans don't make the rules. God does.
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And Adam and Eve needed to learn, and all of humanity since then,
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that he's in charge, we're not.
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He's the one that establishes the rules,
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and there it's our responsibility then,
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if we are genuinely following God,
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to submit to those rules.
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And so the tree was not a trap.
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It was that which was the context to establish genuine love,
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devotion, the role of God in his position with humanity.
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Maybe we can see the tree of the knowledge of good and evil
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in an indirect sense in the account of Abel and Cain.
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Note that when Cain's offering was refused by God,
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it wasn't left as in, that's just the way I plan it.
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He went to Cain and said,
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why is your confidence falling to King James?
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Sin is waiting, crouching at the door, waiting to devour you,
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but you must master it.
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Just by that statement it implies, we have a choice.
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We are not given to our impulses.
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We are not given to the response that he saw in Cain,
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which was, why did you do this to me?
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Instead of rejecting Abel,
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because in his mind, we are evil.
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But God sets the standard.
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And that's so good, what Brother David mentioned,
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for what is acceptable to him.
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But certainly it is clearly implied,
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he gives us also instruction on how to offer what pleases him.
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And so I just really think we can take away from that
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this complete refusal that God set us up.
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If anything, he gave us the circumstances
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so that we can show the very best of ourselves again.
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I think two things.
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One is, basically it was required, right?
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If God truly loved, he had to do it.
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Give him a choice.
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But secondly, and I see this over and over again,
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through Scripture, is that God gave plenty of warning.
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And I mentioned the Kings, and going through the Chronicles,
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and even when Kings saw all that,
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you think about God's punishment.
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But we forget to read Kings, 1 Kings,
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in light of Deuteronomy.
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God carefully laid out a law,
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and he warned them about what would happen,
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and gave them this information about the blessings
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and the cursings, that they were to recite.
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And so Deuteronomy is very much a part of that.
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Well, I see the same thing with what we're talking about here, right?
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This is the God that we serve,
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a God that's going to do always right,
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and that he's going to warn us because he cares about us.
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So, instead of it being a trap,
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it's actually a reflection of the beauty and the greatness of God.
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We've been laid out as to when we got through these first three questions.
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You've done a thorough job,
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and that leaves us a little bit of time at least to handle one more.
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Not all the difficult questions in the book of Genesis
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center around something controversial,
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but there's sometimes a reconciliation between our humanity and God's perfection.
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And how do we wrestle through that as we live life every day?
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One of the questions that we have is,
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Genesis shows humanity's sin alongside of God's promises.
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How do we understand God's faithfulness in the midst of human failure?
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While man is continually falling short and not meeting his side of things,
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how do we understand God's faithfulness in light of that?
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I don't know which one of you want to begin.
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Whoever, take your pass and take it, keep it.
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One of the things that I think, as far as God's faithfulness,
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is in reference to Jesus himself.
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That the idea that Jesus came, Philippians chapter 2,
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and verses 3 down to verse 5,
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he emptied himself and took the form of a servant.
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That he came not to be served, but to serve.
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That he shows us an idea about God's faithfulness toward man.
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And the fact that many times we look at God as human beings,
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and we look at him in these terms of,
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well, you promised this, and it's never come to fruition.
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And the Genesis record, to me, really helps us to look into the life of these patriarchs.
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Even at the beginning of Genesis 11, verse 10, with Abraham choosing.
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I mean, 14, verse 13, with Abraham choosing.
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But before him, 11, 10, with Shem.
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And in each of these generations, they showed their sense of impatience with God.
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When it comes to the sin of Sarah.
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Later, when it comes to the overwhelming picture of endurance,
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and long-sufferingness with God in the life of Joseph.
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Receiving that dream at 17 years old.
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And then 30, at the age of 30, being in that position, second in the kingdom to Pharaoh.
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But that period of time for him was long.
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From each of the aspects of him saying,
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Lord, when am I going to be able to rule over my brethren?
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I can read that thinking that.
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But what we can take away from it, as Christians,
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is that God is so patient toward us.
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And although the window that we're looking into in our lives,
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we see one picture.
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God sees the whole house.
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He sees everything that is going to happen.
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And for those that are faithful, Hebrews chapter 6,
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God is not slack to forget any of our kindnesses.
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He will reward every act of goodness that we have done.
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And so that gives us assurance.
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To know that every prayer, every time of faithfulness,
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every time I chose to obey God,
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and to endure temptation, and to resist sin,
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God is remembering those things.
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And so that should be a comfort for us.
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I really appreciate the question,
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because it gives us an opportunity to maybe take a step back
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and look at the book of Genesis as a whole,
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because it basically is a textbook on the very nature of God,
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and God's dealing with humanity,
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and how this book has kind of a cycle.
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And if you think about it from the perspective of a cycle,
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you see the failures of man,
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but yet a divine response of grace and mercy.
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You've got Adam failing, but God promises a deliverer.
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He still demonstrates love to them.
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Cain sins, God ends up protecting him.
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You have humanity collapsing,
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but God is that who saves and preserves Noah and his family.
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You have Abraham faltering,
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but God still comes through with his covenant promise.
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You have Jacob and his deception,
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but God still advances his promise.
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You have the mistreatment of Joseph,
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but God uses it for good to bring about salvation of the descendants of Israel.
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Constantly in the book of Genesis,
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we're seeing how God is working within the failures of mankind
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in order to advance the ultimate good of people.
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And if we're going to take away something from Genesis,
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that would be one of them,
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is that I kind of fit into the narrative with my own failures,
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and I can see just how God is always ready to respond
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with a promise of love, of forgiveness, of compassion,
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and that's a wonderful takeaway for us today.
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The question, I guess, in some ways,
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I've kind of struggled with just a bit,
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but to rephrase it again,
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how do we understand God's faithfulness in the midst of human failure?
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Well, I feel like that, number one,
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that Genesis records human behavior as it actually occurred.
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I think about some of the stories from Roman Greek history
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and the mythological basis for their heroes.
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Men tend to glorify the heroes, right,
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and only condemn the villains.
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And yet the heroes in Scripture,
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especially as we're studying through Genesis,
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the Bible tells us just like it is.
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So that makes me realize,
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okay, this is a believable story.
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I can trust God, His faithfulness,
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because He's not going to whitewash over the sins
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of the people that He's telling us are exemplars of faith.
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So that's number one I think about,
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is that why I can trust God's faithfulness in the light of all this
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is because Scripture tells it just like it is.
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And then secondly,
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I'm thankful that it tells it just like it is
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because I can relate to it, right?
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I can identify with it.
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And that makes me love God all the more
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because how many of us can see ourselves in the shoes of Abraham
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who, I trust you God,
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but I'm going to maybe tell King Abimelech here that,
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yes, here's my sister, you know.
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I know what you said, God,
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about that you're going to give me a son,
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but I think maybe Eleazar is going to be the way to do it,
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or maybe a handmaid through Hagar or something like that.
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I'm going to work it out on my own,
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and we can really identify with that.
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And yet, when I read that,
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and I see just as y'all have spoken about,
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that God continues to teach, to learn, to mold,
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to shape those people
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with all of their quirks and all of their sinfulness,
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I can see myself there as well.
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And I'm thankful that God is patient with me.
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He's a good God.
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He is faithful and keeps His promises.
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And Genesis stresses this,
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He is a covenant maker and a covenant keeper.
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His faithfulness.
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The wisdom of this panel discussion is
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we have in one somewhat deliberately broad question
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three wonderful perspectives.
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You see the weaving together of this idea of the scheme of redemption,
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that's not just a Genesis question, that's a Bible question,
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where we see these same figures, not hidden but exposed,
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to show us that God, the perfect God,
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is working out a perfect plan to make perfect people.
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Genesis is a wonderful foundational microcosm of that very fact.
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And I know Paul had a different point in 2 Timothy 2.13
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when he speaks about a reminder for us
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that even if we're faithless, God remains faithful.
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And we certainly see that in some of the major epics
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of the narrative of the book of Genesis.
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Guys, we have about five or six minutes to hit one more,
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and I'd like to do that.
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We have set a new record for the discussion forum
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to have five whole questions.
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I'll refrain from that.
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So let me kind of have it in the same philosophical vein
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and ask this one.
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God's covenant promise often seems long-term and distant.
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How do we maintain trust in God's promises when results aren't immediate?
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That's a Genesis study, but it's a real-life study that we deal with every day.
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Who wants to start?
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Just thinking about people like Joseph.
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So 17 years was the season.
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How many years was it?
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Twenty years, I guess, for the time his brothers came back.
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Twenty years he was away from home.
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It takes time for things to be fulfilled in God's view
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of how he wants to work it out.
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A day is a thousand years, a thousand years is one day with God.
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He doesn't see it like we see it.
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And one of the questions that sometimes comes up,
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even in Genesis and related to this, is,
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well, why didn't God just send his son right away?
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Why do we have to wait all these thousands of years before he sent his son?
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And one of the illustrations I'd like to give has to do with this phone right here.
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I mean, can you imagine 300 years ago,
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someone dropping this phone out of the sky to our president, George Washington?
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What's he going to do with it?
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He has no concept, no idea what electricity is.
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I mean, is he going to look at it like a mirror?
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There's a foundation that has to be laid first
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in terms of knowledge and information before we can even get to this
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and use it properly and fully understand it.
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So what about God's redemptive plan?
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It took time.
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Things had to be laid out.
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Sacrifice, covenant, blood sacrifice, all of that, faith building,
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laying a foundation before we could get to the fulfillment
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of what God intended to bless humanity with.
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Can that not be said of every one of us in this room?
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We want things right away.
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Well, no.
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But God's on a different timetable.
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God has a different plan.
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And there's a lot that has to be laid out sometime
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before we get to the point where we come to truly love God the way we should.
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Maybe it takes a crisis in our life to wake us up, to get us to that point.
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And so I don't know if that answers the question
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or not unless it's kind of what comes to my mind.
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But if he does, I'm sure he gets what's coming.
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I can't help but think, because of one of our audience members here,
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looking in his eyes makes me think of this great sermon,
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Don't Curse Your Crisis.
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And from the book of Hebrews, the Hebrews writer says in chapter 5, verse 12,
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though by this time you ought to be teachers,
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you'd have needed someone to teach you again the basic principles
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of the oracles of God.
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I look at that verse and I think about where I started as a new Christian.
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And what I encourage every new Christian,
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when they have that wonderful moment of obeying the gospel,
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that they are starting on a lifelong journey.
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Don't measure their life by the next six weeks.
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Everyone will give you advice on what you need to do.
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But there's a reason why we're going to pray
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and we're going to wrap our arms in love around you
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to keep you from Satan, to protect you from temptation,
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that hope you to grow as a newborn baby.
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Because all of us have those faith struggles.
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All of us have those moments where those crises just overwhelm us.
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But we need them. We need them to make us stronger,
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to prepare us for the future, to mature us.
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And I'm just so thankful to be around men like this
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whose scholarship and whose faithfulness
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are not only an example to new Christians,
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but also to all of us, wherever we are in our faith,
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to continue to let the lessons that God allows
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to help us to lean more on him and not on ourselves.
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Amen.
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Genesis really is a great study in the importance of waiting.
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When you think about how God making these statements
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or these covenant promises,
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that the fulfillment of these things are going to take time.
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We think about the number of years Abraham had to wait for Isaac.
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We already talked about the length of time for Joseph
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waiting for the situation to pan out with his dreams,
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which were accurate,
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but they didn't become fulfilled immediately.
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They had to plan themselves out.
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Remember the discussion that God had with Abraham in Genesis 15
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about the land and how your descendants are going to have the land?
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God says, by the way, it's going to be over 400 years.
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Like, what?
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So, we're constantly waiting.
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2 Peter 3, where's the promise of his coming?
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For ever since the father fell asleep,
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all continues just as it was from the beginning.
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For when they maintain this, it escapes their notice,
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that by the word of God, the heavens existed long ago,
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the earth was formed out of water and through water.
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So, even in the New Testament,
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you have this same struggle that people have with time.
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And that things should have happened sooner.
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Things should have happened more quickly.
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And I often chuckle when I think about that passage in 2 Peter 3.
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If Peter knew that 2,000 years later,
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we're still waiting for the fulfillment of that promise.
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But we are waiting and we live our lives with faith,
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but it's going to happen.
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And so, it's the exercise of our faith by waiting on God's promises.
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God's promises, amen.
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Now, surely we can stop at the wisdom down there.
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Oh yeah, we're really just summarizing here.
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Genesis is a book that's so diverse, as we have seen.
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We have looked intentionally at different areas,
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at areas where folks struggled with,
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either the nature of God, the consistency of who God is,
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what the Bible says versus what man says in any given age.
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And the wonderful summation of this last question that these men have said
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is that our God has a track record.
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And we, as we look ahead at what's yet to be fulfilled,
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much of human history, those promises have been fulfilled.
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It's a great personal study sometimes to go through the Bible
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and look at all the statements that speak of the truth
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that God is faithful.
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And so, what he has done in Genesis is a great forum to look into that.
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As we see his faithfulness there, we know that based on that
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we can trust him for what's yet to be.
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We appreciate very much your being here.
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We're going to ask Sam Wilkins, if you will,
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to leave us in a word of closing prayer.
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And then we have a 3.30 session.
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We're going to continue the book of Genesis in the auditorium.
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I believe we have another ladies' session in here.
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And then we have a leadership session in room 116.
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So, I hope you'll avail yourself of one of those.
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And we'll have our dinner break to meet back again all together at 6 o'clock
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as Andy Baker leads us again in singing.
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So, Sam, if you'll leave us in a word of prayer as you close.
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Our Father in heaven, we are very grateful for this time
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that we've been able to spend together.
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May we continue to study thy word and drink deeply
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even through the difficult passages that we face.
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But, Father, we are grateful for all that we are able to glean
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about your character and your faithfulness.
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And, Father, may we strive to be faithful to you
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as a result of your love for us.
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Bless this time together.
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In Jesus' holy name we pray.
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Amen.