7 posts tagged “jesus”

Okay, a couple steps backward for Abe again as we go back to the "sister" routine complete with lame excuse when he gets called on it. "Well, she is my half sister. " But God is in control and not only protects Abimelech from sleeping with her but also establishes a relationship between the two men that is beneficial to both of them. What's interesting to me is that Abimelech, when confronted by God is able to plead his case with a clear conscience. I wonder how many, if any, accusations God might bring to me where I would feel comfortable defending my actions. Anyway, on to ch. 21. Promise kept. Prophecy fulfilled. Faith grows. This is what we see in the arrival of Isaac and throughout the rest of Scripture. I, like Abraham, find the matter of the banishment "very displeasing". God is in charge and Ishmael has his own promise of a future, but Sarah seems a little full of herself since Isaac showed up. However, after pointing too many fingers in yesterday's post, I'm gonna extend grace, humility, and understanding to Sarah.(like she could have done for Hagar) The good thing here is thay we get to see God's loving and tender response to Hagar's sorrow. What a loving Father! Ch. 22 brings us the first use of the word love, and the biggest test of Abraham's faith yet. Hey Abraham. You were able to pack up and leave ypur family, able to let Lot go his own way, and able to give up your plans for Ishmael. Now, you know that son you waited so long for, the one God promised would be a great nation. Sacrifice him as a burnt offering to God.........Can you imagine? What would my response be? Yours? What was his?...."So Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey..........and went to the place of which God had told him." Wow! How could he do this? Faith. I think he had finally been tested so much that he didn't doubt God about anything. "God just told me to slay my son, but He also told me that he would be a great nation....okay. I don't understand, but okay." The point is this. He had spent so much time with God, like we're doing in His word right now, that he recognized God's voice and was confident in His leading. So, he did what he was told and left the outcome to God. That is where the rubber meets the road with true faith and discipleship. Could I do it? Could you? I don't know. I'm so fickle with the easy stuff God asks of me now that I just don't know. Pray for me, and I'll pray for you, and we will keep moving forward.
Love ya' Kent

Man, there's a lot(no pun intended) going on here. In these chapters we see a whole lot of worldliness, a whole lot of patience and understanding by God, an example of His wrath, the first patriarchal intercession, and the creation of a huge antagonistic nation to plague Israel and Christianity....whew! Okay, Sarai and Abram had both lost faith in God's promise and the culture they were in was largely ruled by the Code of Hammurabi, which stated that an infertile wife should provide a surrogate child bearer for her husband. So, just like in the garden, the woman was tempted to do something out of doubt and the husband firmly took a stand and said "Yes dear". This gave us Ishmael, who is the father of modern Arabs, and specifically the prophet Muhammed(creator of Islam). What a blessing. Still, God shows mercy and appears again to Abram thirteen years later to reaffirm the original promise and to institute circumcision as a reminder that they were a set apart people and to be a public declaration of allegiance to Him. (sidenote: Why wait 'til 8 days old? "Modern" science has discovered that a newborn's blood doesn't coagulate until then.) The public declaration aspect is so important that those who refuse are to be "cut off" from their people. We see the same concept in the New Testament as professing believers who cling continually to a lifestyle of sin are to be seperated from the congregation so they can't tarnish it's testimony. Sadly, at the specific prophecy of a son by Sarai, Abraham laughed. This isn't a giggle of wonder and amazement, but rather in the Hebrew it means "laugh outright: mock or scorn". However, God firmly restates the prophecy in clear terms, and once again we see a faithful and obedient Abraham who immediately seys about the carrying out of the circumcision commandment. Still, afterward when God repeats the promise within earshot of Sarah, she inwardly has the same reaction Abraham did. It is so hard to be totally faithful and patient at the same time. We jave to stand firm against the "common sense" of the world and remember that even if He tarries God always fulfills His promises. Always. Speaking of worldliness, that brings us back to our old pal, Lot. He finally moves right into Sodom, gets acclamated, marries his daughters off to locals, and has some position of authority. He is in.......until he's out. See, wicked people know they're wicked, and they know who else is wicked, and they can smell a hypocrite a mile away. So, when Lot tries to be their moral compass they turn on him. As soon as we give in to their morals, we lose our testimony and are no longer light or salt. Amazingly, he still didn't wanna leave and had to be dragged away. So, does our relationship with God affect others? Lot and his family were spared destruction because God "remembered Abraham". Conversely, the daughters raised by Lot became so morally perverse that they rationalized tricking him into impregnating them as a good idea.............So, does our relationship with God affect others? Love ya', Kent

Here are a couple interpretations for "sons of God" with "daughters of men. It could speak of descendents of Seth(the good guy) marrying the descendents of Cain(the bad guy) leading to a possible corruption of the blood line to Jesus -or- Maybe it was fallen angels mating with human women leading to a race of superhuman giants and possibly corrupting the blood line to Jesus.....Here's the important part. Satan tried really hard to corrupt the blood line so that it wouldn't bring forth a Savior for us and a Conqueror for him. Amazingly enough, somehow God new of the plan and protected the line anyhow. It's really hard to outsmart God. You can quote me on that! By the way, I lean toward the fallen angel scenario just because I don't see how the giants are relevant to the story unless they came about because of the story, and I don't see how 2 different human bloodlines intermarrying would lead to a large group of giants. The flood. Even in His grief and anger, God searched for one who's heart was true to start over with. Also, I choose to believe that He had Noah build the ark(which took a really long time) instead of just providing one so that it could be a sign for others that judgement was imminent and that they needed to repent. At any rate, as usual with stories in the O.T., look for symbolism of Jesus. Judgement and its consequence, death, was a given and the only way to escape was to accept the invitation to get in the ark(Jesus) before it was too late. No matter whether anyone believed the story of impending doom or not it came. And there was only one way to be saved. There are two more things about today's reading that grab me. First, as soon as possible after hitting dry ground Noah builds an altar and worships. This is something we need to do every time we realize that God has chosen to be merciful and bring us through a rough time. Remember that the offering was pleasing to God, and still is today. The other thing that struck me was that Noah, one of two described as "walking with God", a champion of faith, a worshipper at heart, later became a lush who embarrassed his sons and dishonored himself. If he wasn't safe from temptation to lose focus and become a bit too worldly, how silly it seems when we don't worry with fear and trembling about the same thing happening to us. God never mentions retirement from our discipleship as we linger in this place, resting on the laurels of our past faith and works. We should remember Paul's exhortation to run our race with conviction, keeping our focus on the goal and not being distracted by anything. You can quote him on that! Love ya' Kent

I will try to proofread everything from now on. Apparently, the tiny buttons on this phone were meant for someone with much smaller fingers. If you see a word that doesn't make sense, consider which letters are beside, on the keyboard, the ones in the seemingly made up word. Also, to get this site for free there are ads allowed at the bottom. I haven't seen anything too goofy yet and they all seem to be religious in nature. However, I have no control over them and pay little attention to them myself.

The serpent here sets the precedent for every false religion and watering down of christianity that has ever taken place. First, he disputes and tries to twist what God said, placing doubt in Eve's mind about what God revealed directly to her and Adam. Then he gave them the grass is greener over here scenario-"you will be like God". Yeah, I know you've got it pretty good walking with God literally daily, having all your needs provided, and frolicking around naked with your husband all day, but I can get you all the stuff God is keeping from you. Check out our modern false doctrine providers today and you can hear the same story. Still, the serpent had no power to force them to do the wrong thing. They had to make the choice on their own, just like we do. Remember scripture, we are tempted when we are drawn away by our own evil desires. In v. 21 we get the 1st sign that blood must be shed to cover sin and that the sacrifice must be provided by God.......cause our fig leaves(works) just ain't cuttin' it. I did see something new this time. I think it was mercy and not punishment to be blocked from the tree of life. Who wants to live forever in this fallen place with toil, pain, and suffering instead of returning to literal fellowship with God in Paradise? Hmm, let me think.........The offering incident in ch. 4 seems to point to the fact that Cain knew that his offering was incorrect, but that out of arrogance he wanted to do things his way. Even so, God tells him to do it right and he will be accepted......repent and follow by faith. He just couldn't do it though, and goes off to do his own thing. This led to a fabulously advanced and skilled civilization that focused on everything but God right up 'til the flood. Game over. Vanity and grasping for the wind? Ch. 5 is cool to me just because I think it's awesome that we have the geneology of Jesus' blood line all the way back to Adam. One more thing to strengthen our faith!!!!!! Somebody remind me how cool I think this is when we get to all the "begat so and so who begat so and so" 's in a few weeks
Love ya' Kent

"In the beginning God........ How wonderfully the entire Bible ties together.66 books,40 authors,3 languages, over a period of 1500 years and yet the orinciples of the story remain completely intact. God is one with 3 distinct personages, each of which is necessary for us to receive salvation. I just love how this complex concept is explained matter of factly by Scripture. In later books we learn that Jesus made everything-making Him God, that He prayed to God the Father while on earth, and that the Spirit of God(described as having distinct traits of a literal being) is here with us now. The worldly scholar will jump on this as proof that we are talking aboit 3 Gods, but that argument falls apart when later in the O.T. God will say that He is the only God and that there are no others before or after Him. The only explanation that reconciles all of Scripture is one God with three distinct personages each of which carries out specific duties. And it all syarys with the 4th word of Scripture-God. The Hebrew word is Elohim which, whadya know, is a plural form. It is obvious that this concept is hard for man's limited imagination to get hold of. That's why all the made-up gods of other religions either ascended to their position by working hard or defeating an enemy. The cool thing about serving my God is that He always was and always will be. He isn't subject to a previous master who gave Him His position nor is He contending with rivals who may by chance on a good day overthrow Him. I can trust everything He says with assurance by faith that His is everlasting and all powerful.........Pretty cool, huh? Love ya, Kent

In ch. 11, again, the author reverts to dispelling the idea of works righteousness . He explains how long before the works of the law the elders whom they respected greatly were praised and credited with righteousness because if their faith. Verse 13 goes further by pointing out that these leaders of old died with full faith even though they didn't receive the promise that was far off. He is still equipping them to receive Jesus as the fulfillment of what was far off but now has come. In ch. 12 I love the phrase "cloud of witnesses" because it reminds me of how pervasive the proof of the Creator is ariund us even today. If you are standing in a cloud, you can see nothing beyond it. It consumes you. I think the same thing is true of the evidence of Father, Son, and Spirit now. If you have an open mind, and look around honestly, the evidence consumes you, so much so that it protects you from doubt. Also, v. 17 jumps out to me as a reminder and warning that there is a time limit to our ability to respond in the affirmative to the offer of salvation by grace. At some point we will stand in judgement before Christ as to what we did with His precious gift. If we traded it for worldly treasure or pleasure, we will find no place for repentance even though we tearfully plead for another chance. Ch. 13 reminds me of James' writing, some straightforward advice given to beleivers who want to live according to God's will. What stands out to me, though, is the remembrance of our spiritual leaders and the significance of their calling. If you have a pastor/teacher who you can trust to equip and help you grow in spiritual maturity and is willing to suffer consequences if He missteps in doing this, then don't grieve him by ignoring or not even seeking advice. If you haven't found this kind of leader yet.....keep looking until you find one worthy of your trust. Love ya' Kent