Posted in Family on 14. Jul, 2010
At this point in the scripture, there were several kingdoms in or near the land of Abram and Lot that were fighting for years now. The kings of Sodom and Gomorrah had dispersed and fled into hill county due to the fighting and Lot was caught up in the mayhem as well. (This was the land that he choose in the last chapter)
Once Abram hear about Lot’s plight, he sent out 318 “trained men”, defeated the enemy forces, brought back all the goods, possessions, people, and of course Lot. After the enemy’s defeat (there were several kings representing the defeated forces) Abram gave a tenth of the spoils for God.
Genesis 14:21 “The King of Sodom said to Abram, “Give the people to me and take the goods for yourself.” 22 Abram said to the king of Sodom, “I have sworn to the LORD God Most High, possessor of heaven and earth, 23 that I will not take a thread or a sandal thong or anything that is yours, for fear you would say, ‘I have made Abram rich.’
What I get out of this scripture is how Abram is putting God first. Abram recognizes that everything that he has comes from God, his trained men, his riches, his family, even his victories! Abram does not want to even give the appearance that he was blessed by anything or anyone else than our God!
I will pray that everyone that reads this will put God first in all that they do and give God the glory for all that is accomplished that is good.
Posted in Family on 13. Jul, 2010
Last chapter Abram left Egypt with his wife, belongings, Lot (his nephew) and great wealth. Abram and Lot were so wealthy at this point with livestock, silver, and gold that they had to split up. Later, the scripture tells us that there was strife between the herdsmen of Abram and Lot. This is when Abram offered Lot a choice of the land of his choosing.
Genesis 13:6 “And the land could not sustain them while dwelling together, for their possessions were so great that they were not able to remain together.”
Genesis 13:9 “Is not the whole land before you? Please separate from me; if to the left, then I will go to the right; or to the right, then I will go to the left.”
Lot had spotted valley of the Jordan where it was well watered and a great spot for his herds. So Lot went eastward and Abram settled in the land of Canaan. Once Lot left, God spoke to Abram.
Genesis 13:14-15 “The LORD said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, “Now lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward; for all the land which you see, I will give it to you and to your descendants forever.”
What spoke to me in this chapter is Abram’s attitude. So far he has gone where God wanted him to go and has been blessed tremendously! Even when Abram and Lot’s holdings caused them to split. The scripture talks about Lot choosing an area that I imagine to be lush, green, and teaming with resources presumably near a water source (River Jordan). Lot took what seemed to be the best land for himself. I like the fact that Abram accepted his decision, avoided strife, and above all built an alter to God.
Posted in Family on 12. Jul, 2010
Chapter 12 starts the beginning of Abraham’s Journey to the land of Canaan as well as shows another side of Abraham that I have not seen or heard preached before. We have to start off with the verses that explain why I believe Israel is so important even to this day.
Genesis 12:1-3
“Now the Lord said to Abram, Go forth from your country, And from your relatives And from your father’s house, To the land which I will show you;2 And I will make you a great nation, And I will bless you, And make your name great; And so you shall be a blessing;3 And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”
Dr. Stanley had a sermon recently that spoke of our nation’s relationship with Israel and how our country “cannot recover” from what will happen if we turn our back on Israel. Israel is surrounded by enemies and many people (including myself) believes that one of the reasons that God has blessed our nation so much is because we are being blessed for our support for Israel.
Abraham was 75 when he left Haran for the land of Canaan. During the journey, there was a famine so Abraham took his family and spent some time in Egypt. (Because of the Nile River, the food supply was usually plentiful). Now Abraham’s wife Sari was beautiful and Abraham knew that the custom in Egypt was that the Pharoh would take Abraham’s wife (presumably because of her beauty) but would have to kill Abraham first in order to do this. Abraham told Sari the following:
Genesis 12:11-13
11 It came about when he came near to Egypt, that he said to Sarai his wife, “See now I know that you are a beautiful woman;12 and when the Egyptians see you, they will say, “This is his wife”; and they will kill me, but they will let you live. 13 Please say that you are my sister so that it may go well with me because of you, and that I may live on account of you.”
Needless to say, when Pharaoh heard word of her she was taken to his house and made his wife. Later verse 17 reads that the Lord “struck Pharaoh with great plagues because of Sarai”. Pharaoh had given Abraham sheep, oxen, donkeys, male and female servants, ect because of Sarai. Because of God’s work, the Pharaoh sent Sarai, Abraham, with all his new wealth away.
This passage shows that God’s people are not perfect. So far we have seen Noah’s drunkenness/nakedness, Adam of Eve, Cain and Able, and a few other examples. I cannot imagine how hard it would have been to give up my wife to the Pharaoh. I think I understand the fears and motivations behind his decision and I thank God for his grace and mercy in our lives in spite of our mistakes and shortcomings.
Posted in Family on 09. Jul, 2010
After the time of Noah, the world had one language. Genesis 11:4 “Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth.”
Genesis 11:6-7
“The Lord said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. 7 Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.”
This chapter shows the arrogance and pride of man. Once God confused the language, scattered the people, they stopped building the tower. These descendants of Noah, must have been more focused on themselves instead of God. Even today, we see certain leaders have a desire to unify the world without God. It’s almost like man’s attempt to rebuild Babel. We were created to worship God, let us honor Him, not ourselves!
The rest of the chapter is dealing with Shem’s lineage to Abraham. We will cover Abraham on Monday (God willing).
Posted in Family on 08. Jul, 2010
God lays out in Genesis Chapter 10 our family tree after the great flood. I put all of the descendants of Noah in a flowchart style graphic. Read along in Chapter 10 and take a look at the abundance of sons and children of Noah. Read along while you look at the chart and let me know if I missed something.
There were Kingdoms formed in this chapter as well:
Babel, Erech, Accad, Calneh in the land of Shinar
Nineveh, Rehoboth-Ir, Calah in the land of Assyria (I think Resen was here as well)
Noah Descendants
Sidon, Gerar, Gaza, Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboiim, Lasha were cities or territories all mentioned in verses19-20 as well.
Look how abundantly God has blessed Noah! This is not only Noah’s family tree, but it is also our own history as well!
Descendants of Noah Chart
Click Here to Download Descendants of Noah Chart (Word Doc)
Posted in Family on 07. Jul, 2010
Genesis Chapter 9:1 “And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth.”
Once Noah and his family moved out of the ark (he waited for God’s instruction, see last post) God told him to “fill the earth”. There are other verses in the bible speaking favorably of having children and children being a blessing. As a father of three wonderful girls I can tell you that a child is one of the greatest blessings one can receive! Later in the chapter, God states again (verse7) “As for you, be fruitful and multiply; Populate the earth abundantly and multiply in it.” It seems to me that God always intended for his children to populate the earth abundantly. Because God created all things and knows all I trust that he create a world able to sustain his command for us to populate abundantly!
Genesis 9:4 “Every moving thing that is alive shall be food for you; I give all to you, as I gave the green plant.” Genesis Chapter 9:2-3 tells of how the “fear” of man will be on every beast of the earth, every bird, fish, ect. In the above quoted scripture, God gives us the flesh of animals to supplement our diet. However, verse 5 God instructed Noah to not eat the “lifeblood” of the animal (blood I am assuming).
Later in the chapter, God spoke to Noah and his sons and made a covenant with them. God promised never to create a flood to destroy the earth. Verse 13 “I set my bow in the cloud and it shall be for a sign of a covenant between Me and the earth.” God said later in verse 15 that He will “remember My covenant which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh;…” Years ago when I first read this, I never look at rainbows the same way again. What a beautiful creation and reminder!
The last part of the chapter Noah started farming and planting a vineyard. I guess he drank too much of his own wine and became drunk and was naked inside of his tent. Ham, father of Canaan saw Noah in this drunken state, naked inside the tent and instead of covering him up (he will pay for this in a minute) he told his brothers Shem and Japheth outside. Shem and Japheth covered Noah by coming into the tent backwards so that would not see him in his naked state and respectfully covered him up. Needless to say Noah woke up angry and said (Genesis 9:25) “So he said, Cursed be Canaan; A servant of servants. He shall be to his brothers.”
I will have to put a note to find out what happened to Canaan’s descendants as I read on. If you have scriptures that you can cite that will help me please post them!
Posted in Family on 06. Jul, 2010
In Genesis Chapter 8 Noah’s travels in the ark were soon to be over. God’s word says in Genesis 8:2-3 that the “…fountains of the deep and the floodgates of the sky were closed, and the rain from the sky was restrained.”
I noticed the significance of the number seven (7) again here as on the seventeenth day of the seventh month the Ark finally rested on Mount Ararat. Noah also waited seven days both times he sent the dove from the Ark to check if the waters had subsided. The first time, the dove brought back an olive branch, the second time the dove did not return.
Based on my reading of the scripture, it appears that Noah knew the water had receded. Genesis 8:13 -14 “Now it came about in the six hundred and first year, in the first month, on the first of the month, the water was dried up from the earth. Then Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked, and behold, the surface of the ground was dried up.”
Noah stayed in the ark for approximately another month before God spoke to Noah and told him to go out of the Ark with his family and all of the animals. Noah seemed patient and obedient to wait on God even though his surroundings seemed ok, he still waited on God!
Once Noah went out of the Ark, he built an altar to the Lord and offered burnt offerings of some of the clean animals and birds. The supplemental reading explained that this is why Noah took seven (there is that number again) pairs of clean animals while only taking one pair of unclean animals. (Genesis 7:2)
Another verse that stood out to me was Genesis 8:22
“While the earth remains, Seedtime and harvest, And cold and heat, And summer and winter, And day and night, Shall not cease”
This passage reminded me to worship, love my family, and work hard no matter what is going on around me. In these times, many people get worried about what is going to happen with our nation, the planet, ect. Instead of worry, we can trust God, fulfill our mission in life and enjoy our eternity with the King of Kings!
Posted in Family on 01. Jul, 2010
Today, I thanked God for his forgiveness and mercy over my life. I need him to complete my goal of reading his word thoroughly within one year. When you set out to follow God’s will, I pray that he will give you the strength to overcome any opposition against God’s perfect will. Let’s begin.
Genesis Chapter 7 deals with Noah, his mission, his family, and the flood.
Genesis 7:1 (NASB) “Then the Lord said to Noah, “Enter the ark, you and all your household, for you alone I have seen to be righteous before me at this time.”
Remember that in Chapter 6:8 Noah had found favor in the eyes of the Lord. Chapter 6 also called Noah a “Righteous man, blameless in his time; Noah walked with God”
So I am thinking that his steadfast walk with God has something to do with him being seen as righteous in the eyes of God.
In Genesis 7:2-3 you will see that God has specific instructions for clean versus unclean animals. For “every clean animal” God wanted 7 pairs of male and female, and for every “unclean animal” God wanted just 1 pair. (male and female)
Significance of the number seven in this chapter:
7 pairs of clean animals
7 pairs of the birds of the sky
7 days after Noah and his family went into the ark, the floods came
My wife told me that the number seven was symbolic of completion. (She wanted 7 diamonds on her wedding ring…) As we continue reading, I should be able to develop a better picture of this.
So Noah loaded up the ark as God instructed and the floods came. This chapter references the flood coming by rain (Gen 7:4),”fountains of the great deep” and “floodgates of the sky” (Gen 7:11). So water is coming from everywhere and it rains for 40 days and 40 nights. It covered the mountains and everything that had the “breath of the spirit of life” died. (Gen 7:22) The water prevailed upon the earth for 150 days.
Posted in Work on 22. Jun, 2010
Have you ever been in the hot, humid, Houston heat trapped inside of a building with no AC? Imagine if you signed a lease in an office building and the chillers (AC) shut down for 4 weeks. What would you do?
One of my clients sent me a referral to work with several tenants that were in this very situation. When I walked inside of the building at 11 a.m. it must have been at least 90 degrees in the buildings. There were tenants in the parking lots working out of their cards to avoid the heat and get AC. Other business where shut down, some had already relocated, some even purchased portable AC units!
I can tell you several other stories like this, (especially after the last hurricane hit Houston) but I would rather share this for now. Tenants, know your landlord! Even though most of my clients do not ask, I volunteer the management history of a building so that the tenants have an idea of who they will be “living” with for the next several years.
Any tenant that has had a bad experience with a landlord will not sign a lease without having some kind of comfort level with the landlord’s history. A good management company or landlord is like a good insurance policy. You really don’t care about what they are doing until something breaks down. When something happens, (something always happens) talk to your broker before you sign a lease to make sure you know background of the landlord and management company.
Here is the plug for using a Tenant broker like myself:
As a Tenant broker, I am able to present the most objective, accurate view of a property because I work for the tenant, and not any specific property. The landlord broker is hired to get a tenant to sign to a specific building. We help our clients select the absolute best building based on the client’s criteria.
Posted in Work on 18. May, 2010
First off, let’s start with the BOMA definition of each building:
Class A
Most prestigious buildings competing for premier office users with rents above average for the area. Buildings have high quality standard finishes, state of the art systems, exceptional accessibility and a definite market presence.
Class B
Buildings competing for a wide range of users with rents in the average range for the area. Building finishes are fair to good for the area. Building finishes are fair to good for the area and systems are adequate, but the building does not compete with Class A at the same price.
Class C
Buildings competing for tenants requiring functional space at rents below the average for the area.
I can add from my own experience that Class A buildings many times will have a restaurant, bank, 24 hour manned security, covered parking, ect. Class B will have some of the amenities of Class A, but not all of them. Class C buildings (greatest value, fewest amenities) may possibly have a deli, video surveillance, fewer floors, ect. Every time I think the market will follow a standard, CoStar goes ahead and will turn a Class C building into a Class “A” building because of pressure from a REIT, owner, or broker listing the space.
Ultimately, a good tenant rep broker will make sure the market decides the true value of a building, not the letter classification!
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