January 27, 2014 Fatih Breaks Down

Faith Breaks Down

Genesis 16

Gen 16:1-3 Now Sarai, Abram's wife, had borne him no children. She had a female Egyptian servant whose name was Hagar. 2 And Sarai said to Abram, “Behold now, the Lord has prevented me from bearing children. Go in to my servant; it may be that I shall obtain children by her.” And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai.

HERE is one of those Bible stories that can cause us to ask, “Where was your faith, Abram and Sarai?” After all, they had just head from God a reaffirmation of his plan to bring a great nation to life through them. It seems they could have waited to allow God to work to do his will in his time.

      Waiting, though, is hard, isn’t it? Waiting is even harder when you’ve been promised something.

      “We’ll go to Disney World.”

      “When, dad?”

      “I’ll get you a pony.”

      “When, dad?”

      “I’ll give you a son.”

      “When, Lord?”

      As children impatient for the promise sometimes devise their own schemes to get dad to act more quickly, Sarai and Abram devise their own scheme to fulfill God’s Word. Sadly, we see how the faith break down immediately causes conflict. Hagar disdains Sarai with a feeling of superiority. Sarai rejects her. Abram refuses to protect Hagar from Sarai’s anger. These faith breakdowns caused the Lord to step in to right the wrong, as he saved the lives of Hagar and her unborn son Ishmael. He also saved Sarai and Abram from the guilt of murder.

      Then God judges Sarai’s and Abram’s failure to trust his word with a plan of conflict between the descendants of Hagar’s son Ishmael and the descendants of Abram’s future son. The people from these sons are still in conflict today.

      As in the Garden of Eden, mankind failed in their faithful commitment to God’s Word. Conflict came. And conflict still exists today.

LIFE Link: Faithfully wait on God and build a family of peace.

January 26, 2014 Faith

Faith

Genesis 15

Gen 15:13-14 Then the Lord said to Abram, “Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years. 14 But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions.”

NOW faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. (Hebrews 11:1)

      God promises two extraordinary things to Abram in this chapter. First, he reaffirms his promise to Abram that his descendants will be greater than the stars in the sky. Second, he promises to Abram that his descendants will be in a foreign land for 400 years. In that time, God will afflict the people of the land, and his people will leave there with great possessions.

      That is exactly what happened to the Hebrews in Egypt. Exodus tells you that story in all the details of Moses administering God’s justice over Egypt. It defines the first Passover, and it tells of the great wealth the Hebrews took with them as they left that land.

      God’s promises are promises of provision—a huge nation of people, a rescue from slavery and great wealth to aid them on their journey.

      God is not a casual, flippant promise-maker. He commits to Abram with a very personal ceremony as he walks between the sacrificed animals. God has a plan to bring mankind into a personal relationship with him. He called on the person Abram to use his faithful heart to be the foundation of his redemptive plan.

      Yes, Abram believed God would come through with the acts of very impossible promises. And God credited his belief to him as righteousness.

      What is God saying to you? Do you believe him?

LIFE Link: Faith grows and strengthens when you exercise it.

January 25, 2014 Stop and Call

Stop and Call

Genesis 13

Genesis 13:3 From the Negev he went from place to place until he came to Bethel, to the place between Bethel and Ai where his tent had been earlier 4 and where he had first built an altar. There Abram called on the name of the Lord.

ABRAM, who will become Abraham, has experienced some remarkable life changes in a short time. He has traveled on foot, with his servants and his livestock about 1,000 miles from his home in Haran ultimately to an area called Bethel, about 10 miles north of the future city of Jerusalem. Abrsm went from there to Egypt, got into some trouble there (See Gen 12.) Then he returned to Bethel in this account today.

      Bethel means “house of God”. Of course, there was literally no house or building here. These nomadic people and small tribes only lived in tents. But “house” contains a larger meaning as it points to a place of safety and refuge. A house is a place where you can sit down to have a meal and to rest at night. A house is where order and peace reign as a wise, godly man oversees it.

      Abram goes to Bethel after his trouble in Egypt, it seems to get his “faith feet” back under him. He needs to rebuild his relationship with God. So he goes to a place he has previously experienced God. Note how he goes to worship. He built an altar and “calls on the name of the Lord”.

      “Father,” he might have said, “help me. I need to know your care, your tender touch, your firm direction.”

      Abram worshiped God to reconnect with God, and he was prepared for the next challenges God would send his way.

LIFE Link: Worship connects you with God.  

January 24, 2014 Prepareing the Promise

Preparing the Promise

Genesis 11

Gen 11:10 This is the account of Shem…26 After Terah had lived 70 years, he became the father of Abram, Nahor and Haran…29 The name of Abram's wife was Sarai…31 Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, the wife of his son Abram, and together they set out from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to Canaan. But when they came to Haran, they settled there.

ONE of the Bible’s “famous” stories in Genesis 11 is the tower of Babel. In the story we learn about the sin of pride and the need to be humble as God acts at Babel. People cannot go to God on their own.

      That lesson happens in the other story of Genesis 11. As the scripture focuses on the generations of Noah’s son Shem, you see how it ultimately points to Abram and Sarai. They will become Abraham and Sarah, the people God will call to begin building the nation Israel to be a blessing to the world.

      As we read this deliberate description of the generations, we see how God acts to form a man and a woman for his great work. Does it not make us humble? As the people of Babel, we can become very proud thinking we can work our own way to God.

      But the sovereign God could not allow us to decide on our own, “I’ll go to God.” We are unworthy, too dirty in sin, to go our own way to God. He would show to his creation, instead, how he would make a way for us to be clean in Christ because he is the God who saves.

      Thus he saved Shem. Shem had sons and they had sons and on it went to Abram. In his love, God is preparing to make his next promise to save the world through Abram.

LIFE Link:  For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith — and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. (Ephesians 2:8-9)

January 23, 2014 A New Creation

A New Creation

Genesis 10

Genesis 10:32 These are the clans of Noah's sons, according to their lines of descent, within their nations. From these the nations spread out over the earth after the flood.

ONE great truth of scripture is Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! (2 Corinthians 5:17) The Apostle Paul wrote those words to remind the church in Corinth that God had done a great work through Jesus to, in effect, start the world anew as people now had a way to die to their sins and to be born anew in Jesus’ sacrifice.  

      Today ‘s scripture comes at the end of a list of the generations of people who came from Shem, Ham and Japheth. You might wonder, “Why bother?” But the Holy Scriptures record these generations to show that God was re-creating mankind to fulfill his promise to Satan in the Garden of Eden, “he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” (Gen 3:15)

      God promised Satan that he would send a Savior to destroy Satan. He had promised Noah he would destroy the world but save him and his family. He promised he would not destroy the world again.

      The flood was done. God had made a promise. It was time to flood the world with people again and move his covenant forward through the generations to one day reach Corinth where Paul would write “in Christ you are a new creation”.

      Generation to generation, God moves his plan to destroy sin and to give life. Now is your generation. Will you accept his call to be a new creation? Will you act into his grace to tell the next generation?  

LIFE Link: You are part of God’s re-creating story. Rejoice, be glad and go tell.