Monday morning kicked off with an impassioned call by Patrick Williams, pastor of the Asheville Foster Seventh-day Adventist Church, to not leave God’s “birthday card” unopened. Williams began by telling a nostalgic story from his childhood. His father, a former World War II pilot, got Patrick a birthday card for his 15th birthday. Upset that this was his only gift, Patrick left the letter unopened. The pain his father felt at this inaction was visible.
Remorseful, Patrick opened his birthday card. His father had written, “Happy birthday, PD. For your birthday present this year, I have decided to pay for you to take flying lessons.” Williams noted somberly, “As long as the card remained unopened, the gift could not be given. As long as our
Bibles are unopened, the gift cannot be received.” The Bible is God’s love letter to His children; we need to open it to receive the gift of Jesus Christ.
Williams also spoke of three ways to see Jesus in the Old Testament: predictions, theophanies (physical manifestations of God’s presence), and typologies. In Genesis 15 the flame that walked between the sacrifice making the covenant with Abraham was not just a flame, it was Christ himself.
According to Williams, typologies are “stories of the Old Testament that don’t give you the substance [Christ], but a shadow of the substance.” He pointed to the story of Judah betraying Joseph as a foreshadowing of Judas’ betrayal of Christ. Williams then presented three ways to receive the gift of
God’s letter in the Old Testament by finding Jesus in the center. Join us each morning at 8 a.m. as another Carolina pastor starts the day focusing on Jesus.
—BENJAMIN LAWSON