“Come unto Me “

Chat’s with my Younger Self Series

Younger Self, you are a free spirit.  I have seen it since you were little.  You liked big imaginative play that few others understood or participated in.  You’re a bit of a rebel too.  You like taking charge and doing things your own way.  I like how God created you to be able to jump in the deep end of the pool before you knew how to swim.  God gave you a risk taking sense of adventure.  I remember all the school plays you were in and all the backyard productions you hosted. He also gave you a confidence in your voice. This has gotten you into a lot of scrapes and you’ve died on the sword of having to be right many times, but it IS the voice He gave you.  I now can see why.  The story that He’s been building in you, with all its twists and turns and highs and lows, needs to be told.

Younger self, there is coming a day when you will start telling this story.  His story.  That wonderful love story of our great God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ  and empowering Holy Spirit.  The story where you are lost and broken.  The story where he is the hero.  The story of His pursuit, redemption, and restoration of you.  Its a story full of danger and excitement.  Many times, you will want the story to end. But He is faithfully writing it, from the your first breath to your last and all the ones in between.

Younger self, get ready to go and tell of the great things that HE HAS DONE!

So, now that I am living as my older self and telling the story, means I am risking more than ever. Telling His story in my life involves a lot of painful vulnerability.  Admitting to the world that I am an absolute wreck.  That I have blown it as a mom and wife the better part of the last 30 years.  Sometimes it seems that as I look at the effort of my life, all that I can see are piles of ashes.  BUT GOD!  In the Messianic prophecy chapter of Isaiah 61, God has promised to a despairing, hopeless, and captive generation, just like me,…

to comfort all who mourn;
³ to grant to those who mourn in Zion—
    to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes,
the oil of gladness instead of mourning,
    the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit;
that they may be called oaks of righteousness,
    the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified.^[c]
4 They shall build up the ancient ruins;
    they shall raise up the former devastations;
they shall repair the ruined cities,
 the devastations of many generations.

We all want the comfort, the beauty, the gladness, the praise, the planting, the building up, the raising up and the repair.  But I can’t think of a single person that wants the mourning, the ashes, the faint spirit, the planting process, the ruins or the devastation.

However, that is exactly what YEARS of my life have been filled with.  Why?  The easy answer is sin and the sin cursed world we live in.  The mysterious answer is that God has allowed great heartache as the canvas for contrast. The hard answer is MY sin.  My sin of idolatry.  My sinful pursuit of  validation and praise and worth in anything other than the Lord Jesus Christ.  My jealousy.  My discontent. My anger. My rebellion. My becoming the pharisee and placing the burden of perfectly keeping the law, what ever the law was in my own mind, on my children.  My sin of the bitter and mocking spirit I had for my husband who could not fix all the problems. Oh the ashes.  Oh the locust swarms that I sent out.

If I did not believe that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living, I would despair. If He had stopped pursuing me, I would be undone.  If He hadn’t convinced me of my right standing with him, I would fall and never get up.  BUT God has wooed me and has never forsaken me.  He has kept hold of me.  I think my ashes have sat long enough that they have turned into soil.  He is allowing me to see green shoots poking their heads up from those piles of rubble.  He is allowing me to see the beauty that can and will be made from my ashes.  He has, as Paul writes to the Ephesians:

“caused the eyes of me heart to be enlightened, that I may know what is the hope to which he has called me, and what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, ¹⁹ and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe.”

This process, my friends, is called the Christian Life.  It’s called sanctification and redemption.  Its called promise.  Its called hope.

Its called Jesus. 

The name above all names.  The name by which we must be saved.  There is no other name!  JESUS!  Fly to him!  Answer the call of Matthew 11:28-30

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

 

A Half Truth is also a Half Lie

Being God’s Child Series – Genesis 20

After the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, we find Abraham on the move in Genesis 20.  Perhaps he is a little unsettled and afraid after God’s act of judgment.  Perhaps he is still growing in his trust of the Righteous Judge and the God that he is in a Covenant Relationship with. Perhaps, being a herdsman, he is in search of new pastures and water.

Whatever the case, he travels southwest to an area that is now known as, “BeerSheba.”  He pitches his tents between Kadesh/Barnea but begins to free graze his herds near Gerar, a Philistine City.  Abimelech, whose name means, “My Father is King” is the ruler of Gerar at this time.

Earthly kings like demonstrating their power and authority and most abuse it.  Abimelech was no different.  As soon as he hears of a new clan in his territory and perhaps of Sarah’s renowned beauty, he sends for her and took her into his possession.

No permission was asked for and none was given.  He took her.

20+ years Abraham had known God and yet he still relied on old schemes.  He and Sarah had agreed early in their married life that they would use the fact that they were half siblings for protection in foreign lands.  What about El Shaddai, God Almighty?  What about El Elyon, Universal Ruler of All?  What about Jehovah, the Self-Existent One?  What about the Covenant that God alone established?  Was all this meaningless?

In this deceitfulness, we see Abraham’s true humanity and ours.  We all have familiar sin patterns of self- preservation.  We can all fall into old deceitful ways of doing things when we find ourselves in frightening, uncomfortable and unknown circumstances.  The heat gets turned up and we rely on lies.  It had worked before, in Egypt….sort of.  Forget the fact that because of their lie, people in Pharaoh’s house died. Forget the fact that Sarai had been taken into Pharaoh’s harem and was no longer free.  Forget the fact that Pharaoh now owned her and she was subject to his whims and desires.  Forget the fact that Pharaoh had an army.  Forget the fact that God was all powerful and his protector.  Forget the fact that God had promised to curse anyone who brought a curse on Abram.  Forget that he was in a relationship with a Living God!

God did not forget.  God delivered them from Pharaoh and Egypt.

The current deceptive plan has backfired in the same way and Sarah has been taken into Abimelech’s harem.  Abraham’s aged wife, the one who is to bear the promised child, has been taken into captivity.  What have they done?  Would God be faithful in this second, deceitful scheme?  Would God leave them to endure the consequences?  Would God abandon the Covenant because Abraham sinned?

God cannot do anything but be faithful.  He alone walked thru the Covenant of Blood.  He alone established it and He alone will keep it.

 God does act faithfully on Abraham’s behalf.  Look at the differences between His intervention with Pharaoh in Genesis 12 and Abimelech:

 

 

Genesis 12                         

-Famine in the Land

-Journey toward Negev

-Spread deception of half siblings

-Pharaoh takes Sarai

-Pharaoh sends wealth as payment to Abram

-God strikes Pharaoh’s house with plagues

-Pharaoh confronts Abram and returns Sarai

-Pharaoh’s men escort them out of Egypt

 

Genesis 20

-Sodom and Gomorrah Destroyed

-Journey toward Negev

-Spread deception of half siblings

-Abimelech takes Sarah

-God closes all wombs in Gerar.  God confronts Abimelech in a dream and tells him we will die if he does not return Sarah. Abimelech declares innocence and victim of a lie. God agrees but repeats warning.

-Abimelech is afraid, confronts Abraham and returns Sarah. –Abimelech gives wealth and offers Abraham choice of land             

During this study, my mantra has become:

God is principled but not predictable

This dramatic scenario proves this point beautifully.  God is faithful but how He chooses to act cannot be predicted!  Why the different approach?  I don’t know but that is why God is God.  He is a God of mystery and righteousness.  We know He will always act in accordance to His divine and holy character but He gets to be GOD!

Perhaps God’s dealings with Pharaoh reflects His knowledge that Pharaoh had a hard heart and would not listen to warning.  This certainly characterizes a certain pharaoh generations later.  Abimelech, while not in relationship with God, at least has a healthy fear of Him.  Maybe Abimelech knows that the god in his dream is the same God who judged the people of Sodom and Gomorrah and consumed them.   In any case, he hearkens to the warning and returns Sarah.  He also takes the restoration a step further.  In an expensive and very public manner with witnesses, he tells Sarah that he has given 1000 pieces of silver to Abraham to declare her innocence.  In a sense he is saying,

“I did not touch her.  She was not known by me in a physical way.  She was innocent in this matter and was not uncovered by me!”

Why would this public declaration matter?  Remember, Sarah has not yet conceived or given birth to the God promised son. There would always be doubt, murmurings, and assumptions as to who the father was.  “Well, you know Sarah was in Abimelech’s harem for a while…” God orchestrated this public testimony to erase all doubt; He alone would have credit for giving a child to 100 year old Abraham and 90 year old Sarah!  How humiliating for a sovereign to declare that he did not exercise his rights to have sex with a woman in his possession.  And yet, this is exactly what Abimelech did.  He is clearing his name with God and God is clearing all lineage speculation!

It is important to note these events this did not unfold overnight.  This entire drama involved some time.  How do we know that?  First, the way that God affected fertility in the women of Gerar is a factor.  Did all the women suddenly stop menstruating?  Did all the pregnant women suddenly experience miscarriages? While we do not know these details, we do know that His closing of wombs had such an effect that was KNOWN.  Secondly, the proof that God had lifted the curse was that Abimelech’s wife, maids and household bore children!

Where was Abraham in all of this?  He was given the role of interceding in prayer for Abimelech.   He was charged with praying for the very man and people who had captured his wife!  He was to ask for healing for the man that he had deceived and wronged!

In praying for the victim of his deceit, he would also have to be confronted by God! We cannot pray on another’s behalf if we have sin in our own heart.

God demonstrates again that He is committed to the Covenant Relationship.  He was still changing Abraham into the man that He called him to be. God demonstrated again that he is greater than our sin.

God is the faithful one.

Rejecting Relationship = Utter Destruction

Being God’s Children Series – Genesis 19

I began this study of Genesis asking the question, “What does it mean to BE God’s child?” Having spent years DOING for God and allowing others to wrongly define me by the DOING, I had really forgotten how to BE.  I wanted to go back to the place where God first re-established relationship with people after Adam and Eve had rejected Him.  That led me to Abram.  I wanted to know who Abram was and what did he bring to the relationship table, if anything.  I wanted to be reminded of what God brought and how it applies to me.  I am learning much about the man Abram/Abraham and his character and humanity.  I am learning much about myself.  What I am really learning, however, is who God is!

God is the God of the impossible.  He is Jehovah, the Self-Existent one.  He is El Elyon, the Ultimate Ruler of All.  He is El Shaddai, God Almighty of all Power.  He is Yahweh, the God who WAS, IS, and WILL BE.  He is Adonai, The Lord who is Master.

I am also learning that it is EASY to say that I am a child of God but the real proof of relationship is being yielded to the relationship.  A child of God is given a purpose for living with the relationship and that purpose is to be pleasing to Him in all areas of life.  God promises to change us and to make us like His son, Jesus.  He will do for His children ALL that He has promised.  The real question is, am I willing to give up my life to this process?

In Genesis 19, right smack in the middle of a story of relationship with Abraham and all the benefits and blessings that God has promised to him, we find a group of people who have rejected God and His name.  We also find Lot, Abraham’s nephew who once knew of God but has chosen to call wicked people his family instead of Abraham or God.

The people who dwelled in the cities of the Jordan Valley Plains have rejected God, His Name, and the offer of relationship with him.  This reality presents a stark contrast to people living in Covenant Relationship.   I am going to arrange the contrasting points using the information given in Genesis 12-19. We will see a contrast between people who have embraced being God’s child and have yielded their lives to His will vs people who have rejected God and are living for themselves.  In simpler terms, this is the difference between BEING a Child of God vs being an Orphan.  Genesis 19 shows us the ultimate end of people who reject God and live according to their own will and not His.

There are similar circumstances to be sure, but look for the differences in choices and responses by Abram/Abraham and Lot and by people in general.

Abram Called by God to leave his home

and be established by God.  Abram obeys and follows God.

Lot followed Abram

Abram redeems a barren woman with marriage

The Lord appears to Abram and makes a

promise of land.

Abram builds an altar to worship God.

 

Abram moves near Bethel and builds an

altar to worship God.

 

Abram goes to Egypt to avoid famine.

Lot followed Abram

 

Abram comes out of Egypt with great wealth.

Lot followed Abram

 

Abram sees a conflict and humbly initiates peace by

offering for Lot to choose any land as his own and to go

his own way.

Lot ‘lifts his own eyes’ and chooses rich valley land

near the Sodom city complex with a known evil King.

 

God ‘lifts Abram’s eye’s and shows him land He will give

to him.

Abram builds an altar to worship God

 

In time of war, Lot is captured.

In time of war Abram acts bravely and

rescues Lot from captivity.

 

Abram worships High Priest of El Elyon and gives him

a portion of recovered spoils. Abram rejects offer to keep

ALL other war spoils by King of Sodom.

Abram declares an oath that wants no part of

King of Sodom.

Lot accepts being controlled by King of Sodom

and returns to Sodom.

 

God speaks to Abram and declares to be

His shield, his reward and give him offspring.

God establishes a Covenant Relationship

with Abram and seals it in blood.

 

Abram sins but God STILL acts in accordance

to the Covenant Relationship and appears to Abram.

 

God changes Abram’s name to Abraham and restates

promise to establish and make him blessing to entire world.

 

God charges Abraham with valuing the promise as a treasure

and to communicate its worth to his offspring and household.

 

God gives Abraham a permanent seal of the Covenant

Relationship and commands all Abraham and all his men to

be circumcised.  Abraham Obeys that very day!

 

God charges Abraham to value this seal and to communicate

it’s worth to his offspring and household.

Abraham obeys the same day and he and

his entire household take the seal of circumcision.

 

God changes Sarai’s name to Sarah.

Abraham again expresses a desire for a legacy/child.

Sarah honors her husband by calling him her leader.

 

God restates his promise to give them, at their

advanced ages, a child.

 

God visits with Abraham again with two angels and Abraham

serves God and begs him to stay.

 

Abraham continues to live in the Land of Promise.

Lot has abandoned previous way of life

and continues to live in Sodom.

 

God communicates to Abraham that the sin of Sodom

Is exceedingly great and He is going to destroy the city

As well as surrounding cities.

 

Abraham asks God if He will spare the cities if any

Righteous people can be found.  God says yes.

 

God sends angels to Sodom to warn Lot.

Lot serves them but hastens them to leave.

 

All the men of Sodom, both young and old, demanded the unknown

men be given for their sexual lusts and brutality.

 

Lot calls the men of the city his brothers, and asks them

not to do evil toward the men and offers his daughters to them for

them to rape and abuse.

The men refuse and threaten Lot with violence if he does not comply.

 

The angels intervene and strike the men with blindness.

The angels forcibly pull Lot into his house.

The men continue to try break Lot’s house door down

and become exhausted in the effort. 

Angels again warn Lot to gather his family to

avoid coming judgment and destruction.

Lot’s has no influence and future son-in laws

openly mock him.

 

Angels command Lot and family to leave.

Lot hesitates and angels have to forcibly remove

him and his family.

 

Angels command Lot to flee to mountains.

Lot argues and complains and asks to go to small

city that was also slated for destruction.  Angels allow it.

 

Angels command that no one look back at the destruction.

Lot’s wife looks back and becomes a pillar of salt .

Angels fulfill God’s judgment on all Sodom like cities

Of the Jordan Valley.

 

Out of fear, Lot leaves city and goes to mountain cave.

Lot’s daughters lie to themselves by declaring there are

no men on the earth to have children by.

Lot’s daughters contrive evil plan to have children.

Lot allows himself to be made drunk by his daughters. 

Lot’s daughters have sexual relation with their father and each beget a son.

 The people groups from those incest created sons, became Moab and Ammon and were enemies of God’s chosen Covenant People.

 God offers a Covenant Relationship to humanity.  This relationship includes an intimate relationship with the Living God, sins forgiven completely, purpose filled living, eternal life beyond this earthly home, and abundantly more! Relationship with God provides right, healthy and unselfish relationships with our fellow men.  Instead of using humans, young or old, for our own lustful purposes and threatening each other with violence, we will protect, serve in unselfish ways and value each other.

People who reject this offer of relationship are in the same dire place as the ancient people of Sodom.  They are under a sentence of judgment which God will carry out at a time of His choosing.  The good news is, that as long as He tarries, there is time to heed the warning and repent!  There is time to accept His offer of relationship!

Paul in 2 Corinthians 6 says,

(I) urge you not to receive the grace of God in vain— ² for He says,

“At the acceptable time I listened to you,
And on the day of salvation I helped you.”

Behold, now is “the acceptable time,” behold, now is “the day of salvation”

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Permanent Sign

Being God’s Children Series – Genesis 17

Abram was 75 years old when he first heard the call of the Lord.  He was 86 when Ishmael was born and now in Genesis 17, Abram is 99 years old!  God has been growing Abram’s faith and revealing his role in the Kingdom Story by degrees.  God has also been revealing Himself in degrees and the many facets of His character and nature.

We have learned that God is relational and interacts with his people.  He establishes families, tribes, and nations and works thru them for the magnifying of His name.  He is a protector and shield for his people.  He is a faithful God and has established a covenant of relationship and blessing in which he named the terms and sealed it himself.  He alone is responsible for the fulfillment of this promise.  He is known as Jehovah, the self-existent one; El Elyon, the Ultimate Ruler of All; and now he introduces himself to Abram as: El Shaddai, the All Powerful God Almighty.

This name implies God’s power as being all sufficient. He is the God who rightly judged the Earth and destroyed every living thing with a flood.  He possesses ALL power and Abram, like us, are to trust in HIS ability and not ours.  In a sense, He is saying, “I am an intimate, loving and relational Being but DO NOT FORGET that I am HOLY and POWERFUL!  Do not make me into your image!  Don’t limit me and what I can do by what you think I cannot do! Do not take matters into your own hands and forget who I AM!”

I am God Almighty;
Walk before Me, and be blameless.
² “I will establish My covenant between Me and you,
And I will multiply you exceedingly.”                                                                     ³ Abram fell on his face, and God talked with him, saying,                                                  ⁴ “As for Me, behold, My covenant is with you,
And you will be the father of a multitude of nations.
⁵ “No longer shall your name be called Abram,
But your name shall be Abraham;
For I have made you the father of a multitude of nations. (Genesis 17:1-5)

God is not presenting Abram with an if/then scenario.  Instead, God is reminding Abram of all the terms and benefits of the covenant relationship that HE is establishing with him.

 “Abram, if you walk in my presence then you will be complete!  In my presence you will be blameless.  I am making you!  I will do as I have sworn to do.” The “And” statements are for emphasis meaning, “In addition to” so that God is saying:

“In addition to ME establishing this covenant relationship, I WILL do this and this and this and this!” “I am making you…You are not making me!”  Psalm 100:3-5 also confirms this truth about God establishing us like Abram when we are in covenant relationship:

³ Know that the Lord Himself is God;
It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves;
We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.                                                           ⁴ Enter His gates with thanksgiving
And His courts with praise.
Give thanks to Him, bless His name.
⁵ For the Lord is good;
His loving-kindness is everlasting
And His faithfulness to all generations.

Being God’s children means we must embrace the terms of the covenant also.  God is God alone.  It is He who is making us.  We don’t contribute anything except being yielded to the process of being made. We are His people and he is caring for us as a shepherd cares for sheep.  Sheep don’t tell the shepherd what to do or manipulate things to graze better.  They are completely yielded to being led and their very survival depends on it!  Where the sheep graze is NOT a reflection on the sheep’s performance but rather the choice of their shepherd.  This Psalm tells us we are the sheep of HIS pasture!  What a glorious thought; we are being fed and cared for in God’s own grazing lands!

This amazing truth is what enables us to worship like what is described in verses 4 & 5.  Worship flows out of encountering the Living God, understanding who He is and who we are, and that He has promised to make us and bless us in the process!   Being God’s children, in covenant relationship, causes our hearts to erupt with thanksgiving!

God continues to move Abram from the general calling to more specific realities of this relationship.  By changing Abram’s name to Abraham in verse 4 of Genesis 17, God is again stressing legacy.  Abram means, “Exalted Father.’  Abraham means, “Father of a Multitude.”  The name Abram is about earthly reputation.  The name Abraham is about God’s Kingdom building.  One is man centered and the other is God centered.  One shows the limited nature of man’s ability and the other shows the limitless nature of God! Verses 6-8 reveal how God’s covenantal actions that will impact the future.  God alone can use language that includes ‘forever and everlasting and throughout the generations’.  God alone can guarantee royal offspring.  God alone can grant land ownership.  Abraham’s life span and power is limited; God’s is not!  That is the beautiful reality of being God’s children.

In this chapter, God changes Sarai’s name also with similar implications.  The name Sarai means, “Princess, wife of Abram.”  A meaning that gives her a place of honor but limits her role in the story as being simply the wife of an earthly man.  God renames her, Sarah.  This name also means princess but has eternal and God proportion implications by meaning, “Mother of Nations.” This unlikely pair are part of God’s story that extends beyond their mortal lives.

⁶ I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make nations of you, and kings will come forth from you. ⁷ I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your descendants after you. ⁸ I will give to you and to your descendants after you, the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.”

I love and appreciate how God is communicating here.  He has gone to great lengths to be known and make His will known.  He patiently explains the terms of the Covenant Relationship again and again to Abraham.  God, in verse 4, says, “As for me, My covenant is with you.”  He is so intimate and intentional in his communication.  Basically God is saying, “Don’t forget this incredible relationship and ALL the benefits of it.  Don’t forget this relationship that I initiated.  Don’t forget!”  DON’T FORGET!

Then in verse 9, God says:

⁹ God said further to Abraham, “Now as for you, you shall keep My covenant, you and your descendants after you throughout their generations. ¹⁰ This is My covenant, which you shall keep, between Me and you and your descendants after you:

“Abraham, I have re-explained the covenant, who made it, who will establish it and the benefits. Now let us talk about your responsibility.”  The word, “keep” does not imply if/then conditions, instead it means: to guard, to protect, to hedge about, to preserve, to give careful heed to.   Abraham is being entrusted with regarding the covenant as a treasure worth guarding and passing this valuable treasure on to his offspring.

God is establishing the covenant; Abraham is to establish the valuing of it. 

In a sense, God is sending Abraham on the great commission!  “Abraham, go tell others what you have seen and heard.  Go tell others what it looks like to be in relationship with me!  Go tell others what a powerful and good God I am to my people! Go and bless the entire world thru by telling them my Kingdom Story!” “Guard this covenant as a valuable treasure and explain the value of it to the World!”

God is so desirous that Abraham doesn’t forget the covenantal relationship that he explains a forever symbol of it: circumcision.

Every male among you shall be circumcised. ¹¹ And you shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskin, and it shall be the sign of the covenant between Me and you. ¹² And every male among you who is eight days old shall be circumcised throughout your generations, a servant who is born in the house or who is bought with money from any foreigner, who is not of your descendants. ¹³ A servant who is born in your house or who is bought with your money shall surely be circumcised; thus shall My covenant be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant. ¹⁴ But an uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, that person shall be cut off from his people; he has broken My covenant.”

I find it interesting that God chooses to place the sign of the covenant on the male organ involved with producing seed.  Remember, this entire story is about God’s Kingdom being built, His offspring and legacy, and not man’s.  He is giving a sign that will be seen daily, several times a day and also with every intimate act that has potential to produce children.  God entrusts Abraham to communicate the value of the covenant and its sign and he obviously handles the responsibility well. The text tells us that the very same day that he heard this word from the Lord, all the males of his household were circumcised.  Abraham shared the treasure of the covenant in such a way that everyone agreed to bear the symbol of being God’s children!  This wasn’t a sign like the rainbow given to Noah that he would see sometimes, this was a permanent mark to remind Abraham of a permanent God who is offering relationship and so much more.

Breaking the covenant is when we forget God and all of his benefits and look elsewhere for our name.  Breaking the covenant is when we build our own towers, our own reputation and trust in those things for strength to live.  Breaking the covenant does not do away with God Almighty or his promises, it is saying that we don’t value or want Him or his gifts or to be complete in God’s presence.  Abraham understands this perfectly and expresses a desire that Ishmael might be part of the covenantal story.

God’s answer in verse 19 is clear:

“No, but Sarah your wife will bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac; and I will establish My covenant with him for an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him. 

God has not forgotten his promise of an heir for Abraham.  He continues to move from a general promise to a specific son, name, time and location.  He tells Abraham that in one year’s time, Sarah will have a son who is part of God’s Kingdom Legacy and that son is Isaac.

How old will this unlikely pair be then?  Abraham will be 100 and Sarah will be 90!  Only El Shaddai, the God Almighty of all power, could come thru on a promise like this!

That is the point. The opening verses of Psalm 103 captures the call to remember the covenant, the God who made it and all of its beneficial terms! DON’T FORGET!

103 Bless the Lord, O my soul,
And all that is within me, bless His holy name.
² Bless the Lord, O my soul,
And forget none of His benefits;
³ Who pardons all your iniquities,
Who heals all your diseases;
⁴ Who redeems your life from the pit,
Who crowns you with loving-kindness and compassion;
⁵ Who satisfies your years with good things,
So that your youth is renewed like the eagle.

DON’T FORGET!

Timing is Everything

Being God’s Children Series – Genesis Chapter 16

It might seem strange to start an exegesis on Genesis Chapter 16 with a quote of Jesus’ from the New Testament but he expressed, in just a few sentences, God’s intentions from the beginning of Creation.  In what we call, “The Lord’s Prayer”, he gives us a profound look at those intentions:

‘Your kingdom come. Your will be done, On earth as it is in heaven.

With Adam and Eve as His children and legacy, God intended for his kingdom to go beyond the heavenly realm.  It was to spread over the face of the Earth with humanity as its agents and ambassadors.  However, their sin and expulsion from the Garden of Eden, postponed this reality  until God chose for himself another couple that would continue his lineage.  Unlike Adam and Eve, who were probably created as young adults, God chooses a couple who are not only elderly, but the woman is known to be barren; Abram and Sarai.

With this unlikely pair, God will reveal much about his character, his power, and the scope of his Kingdom restoration.  He grows their faith and understanding of His plan by degrees as he does ours.  It is an unbelievable plan.  A plan that includes a promise of an heir for Abram and innumerable descendants.  He first speaks to Abram at age 75 but there is no mention of children in this encounter.    Approximately 10 years later, God promises Abram a child from his own body.  This promise and covenant discounts the heir that Abram had chosen to inherit his possessions and continue his legacy.  That brings Abram to the advanced age of 85 and still childless!  Could God really make good on his promise?  You rarely find a father at age 75 but now he is 85!  Maybe Abram’s God encounters and visions had been the empty hopes and dreams of an old man.  It is likely that Sarai doubted the reality of God and the promise that had been made.  In any case, after waiting 10 additional years, she took matters into her own hands.  Little did she know that her doubtful and impatient actions would have ramifications that are still bearing fruit today.  We find Sarai at the opening of Chapter 16 expressing how she, “might obtain children.”

“Now behold, the Lord has prevented me from bearing children.

Sarai declares rightly that God was in control of child bearing but her admission of this truth implies blame rather than being yielded to His will.  I am sure that with at least 318 men in his company, and known male and female servants that were given by Pharaoh, that child birthing was happening with frequency in Abram’s encampment.  He was growing his clan and establishing a tribe, just not from his own loins.  I am also sure, that with every painful cry of a woman in labor and the cries from every newborn that followed, Sarai’s barrenness became all the more humiliating.  Pregnancy is to the woman what the child becomes to the man.  An extended belly is a badge of honor and confirms her status.  In this case, barrenness was doubly bitter because Abram was the patriarch of this clan of people.  His lack of children, heirs, and legacy was to her shame.  At her advanced age, no one any longer expected her to bear children and this too, increased the sting of an empty womb.  She would go to her grave with this shame and stigma.  Her grave marker might read, “Sarai, Abram’s wife – The Barren One.”  We get a glimpse of her motives and heartache by looking at her actions. Her desire to have a child was not to increase God’s name and legacy but to remove dishonor from hers.

“Please go in to my maid; perhaps I will obtain children through her.”

What Sarai had forgotten was that God’s promise to Abram went way beyond an earthly child and heir.  When God compared his descendants to be like that of the stars in the sky, He was talking about a Kingdom Legacy and not merely an earthly one.  Sarai had not yet gained understanding of the kingdom plan that they were a part of.  She, like ALL of us, thought that God was becoming part of their story instead of realizing that she and Abram were becoming part of His!  God does not exist for us and our desires but we exist for Him and his will.  Her limited view combined with the longing to remove the disgrace of being a childless woman, leads her to a plan that superseded God’s promise.

That plan was not about an heir for Abram or a lineage for God, but rather it was all about her reputation.  Having her own child would remove the scourge of barrenness. Perhaps 10 years of hearing Sarai’s self-pitying rants and impatient tirades against this ‘so called promise’ brought Abram to a place of doubt also.  The text tells us that he listened to Sarai with the intent of obeying.  Anything to shut her up.  Anything to have a child.  Anything to have an heir.  Anything to hasten the process and end the waiting.  Anything became a carnal scheme that resulted with Sarai giving her Egyptian handmaid to Abram in hopes of her becoming a surrogate mother.  Schemes have a way of backfiring, however, and this one was no exception.

When her menstruating stops and her stomach begins to grow, Hagar realizes she is carrying the Patriarchs offspring.  In an instant, she assumes an attitude of superiority over Sarai and no longer takes orders from her mistress.  In fact, she despised her.  Maybe she always had.  Was there a lingering and embittered resentment from having been taken out of Egypt as a slave?  Did Sarai’s own bitter spirit make her a harsh task master?  Whatever the dynamic, an ugly scenario was unfolding.  Sarai’s scheme was begetting its first fruits: bitter and envying regret.

As often happens when we find ourselves in a mess of our own making, we cast blame and lash out at others.  Sarai challenges Abram that God himself should judge between the two of them.  In essence she was saying, “You didn’t have to listen to me!  You’re the man of the family….you could’ve said, “No!”  I only suggested the idea but you agreed to it and probably enjoyed it!”  “Let God decide who the worse sinner here is!”  Rancorous and harsh words laced with accusations.  Abram basically claims to be an innocent victim and tells Sarai that Hagar is her problem and for her to deal with it.

Wives can have such sway in the lives and affairs of their husbands.  Our words can build them up and inspire them to reach their full potential.  But the same tongue can also tear them down in a second and cause them to compromise their convictions in pursuit of domestic peace.  We must seek to yield our motives and desires to the will of God so that we can become women of Godly influence instead of women of regret.

Truth be known, they were both guilty.  They both followed the desires of their hearts instead of God’s revealed plan.  They both pursued building a ‘tower’ and a name for themselves instead of magnifying the name of the Lord. And neither of them asked God what his thoughts on the matter were or yielded to the process.  They hurt themselves, each other and Hagar.  Sarai’s handling of the situation was to treat her so harshly that she ran away.  Egypt was likely her destination and she made it as far as a spring of water near Shur following a southerly route back to her homeland.

However, God has seen all.  He has heard all.  He knows all the motives behind the actions and ugly words.  He has seen Hagar, a pawn in this short sighted and selfishly devised plot.  As a servant, she may or may not have had choice in regards to participation but she is far from innocent. Her attitude toward Sarai tells us she also longed for a position of status instead of servant hood.  She too had selfish desires that resulted in hateful actions.  Trying to climb the ladder of fame, we always step on others in destructive ways.

God reminds her that her role is not as Abram’s wife, concubine or lover.  She was the handmaid of Sarai and she was to return to that occupation.  She was to yield to the process.  In a conversation that is similar to the New Testament dialogue between Mary and a messenger from God, He tells her:

“Behold, you are with child,
And you will bear a son;
And you shall call his name Ishmael,
Because the Lord has given heed to your affliction.”

In these few declarations, we are reminded of God’s omniscience and that our children should remind us of who God is as the giver of life.  We see God’s intimate and compassionate care for Hagar and the situation she was in.  He promises to bless Ishmael with a multitude of descendants also but also describes the character of the man he will be.

“He will be a wild donkey of a man,
His hand will be against everyone,
And everyone’s hand will be against him;
And he will live to the east of all his brothers.”

This is probably not the prophecy an expectant mother wants to hear.  Her son, Abram’s first born, will not be established with Abram.  He will actually go east to the very place that God called Abram out of!  He will be a wild, stubborn, obstinate, aggressive man who gets along with no one.  Perhaps Hagar gloried in this description knowing that her son would not be subject to Abram or Sarai but would have his own kingdom.  Perhaps that would make her servitude more bearable.  She obeyed the word of the Lord and named the boy Ishmael which means, God Sees.  Hagar declared that God also sees and the well that she had stopped at was renamed as a testimony to the Living God who sees!

Therefore the well was called Beer-lahai-roi; behold, it is between Kadesh and Bered. (Genesis 16:14)

 Abram was 86 years old when Ishmael was born.  Can you imagine starting father-hood and parenting at that age?  The more important concept here is that maybe Abram started true son-ship at that age!  I am learning, by degrees, that “Being a child of God” is vastly different than what I have previously thought.  The truths that He has revealed about Himself are becoming more real and tangible and believable.

• God IS slow to anger and rich in love!
• There is NO condemnation for those who are in relationship with him in Christ!
• He has offered me everything and my only responsibility is to yield to the process!
• My humanity and sin that I have left to commit, cannot break or undo the Covenant or relationship that Christ made with his own blood!
• All my sin is already forgiven! When I sin, I do not have to ask for forgiveness as if God might not, but I can praise Him that He was right and thank Him for providing the atonement in Jesus!

God’s invitation to become His child is still open, will you answer it?

John 3:16 

 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.

God calls us to go ALL the way.

Part 1.

Looking at the saints of old, I see a mysterious and Holy pattern.  God doesn’t stop short of the miraculous.  He doesn’t go half way or do anything in a less than complete manner.  God takes his people to the very edge, He brings them to the last-minute rescue and the midnight hour desperation and then reveals himself with such power, glory and might that we are left speechless.  His plans are for his works to be displayed in such a way, so that there can be no other explanation for what has happened except that God has intervened.

However, these gripping stories are also to build our faith.  Our lives are not so unlike the people of old.  Sometimes our trials bring us to very edge of disaster and if God does not work, we are done for.   If God does not part the Red Sea, we will be destroyed.  If he does not dry up the Jordan, we will drown.  God calls us to go all the way to see the miraculous.  It is necessary to go the distance. Consider this example:

Genesis 37 relates a tale of a very dysfunctional family where sibling rivalry and hatred peaked with a brother being sold into human trafficking by his older brothers.  Let’s look closer at the pattern. It was necessary for Joseph to go ALL the way down into the pit that his brothers cast him into.  There he learned that God had a plan to preserve his life.  Thru the long dark night, with each passing hour, he survived.  As dawn broke over the wilderness, he realized that his body was whole and preserved and that he had lived to see the sun’s rays pierce the darkness.  It was then necessary for Joseph to be sold into slavery and taken hundreds of miles away from his home and family ALL the way in Egypt.  On an auction block, his favored son status was stripped away and he became the property of someone else.  He had no say, no input, no nothing.  His elevated status in an affluent family was cruelly ripped away as he was inspected and chosen solely for his physical build.  His father, his family, his lineage meant nothing.  It was then necessary for him to be accused falsely and sent ALL the way to prison.  Ultimate humiliation and unfairness became his daily bread.  It was in prison, however, that he learned to trust the God of the dark.  Totally constricted and unable to dictate the terms of his life, he was helpless before God.  How easy to lose faith and hope in such a circumstance.  Who would have blamed him if he had.  The evidence, however,  tells a different story.  The evidence speaks of a young man who continued to work with excellence not to please men but God.  The way he ordered his cell, his habits, his time was of such a nature that it captured the attention of his guard.  He was then placed over other prisoners so that he could teach them the same order and habits.  But still his case and cause were overlooked.  Year after year he remained in his confinement and was able to contribute nothing to change the outcome.

What did he dream the outcome to be?  To be set free at some point and make his way back home?  To be free so that he could take revenge on his brothers?  While we are not privy to Joseph’s private thoughts and agonies of soul, we are privy to God taking him to the limit and then some.  Just when it seemed it could not get any worse, it did.  God had set an against all odds scenario so that if God doesn’t act and save, Joseph is toast.  I am sure that no matter what Joseph longed and dreamed for, he could not have imagined the outcome that God  accomplished.  He went from the prison cell to the right hand of pharaoh.  Who but God could bring such a conclusion?  Revenge to his brothers?  Joseph ended up not only saving his immediate family from starvation but the entire known world at the time.  It was necessary for God to take Joseph ALL the way so that the work accomplished was so incredible, no one could deny God.

Yes, God often calls his children to go to the brink of disaster.  But no matter where God takes us and calls us to go, we are not alone.  We have His promise never to leave us or forsake us.  If He takes us to the very edge, He is there.  We are not alone.

If you find yourself in a prison cell of unfair life’s circumstances, falsely accused and forgotten….Wait and watch.  You are primed to see a miracle.

To be continued.

 

“I Your Teacher”

Isaiah 30:20-21…..”I your teacher will no longer hide myself, but your eyes will behold your Teacher and your ears will hear a word behind you, “This is the way, walk in it” whenever you turn to the right or left.

What does it look like to be in the Holy classroom of God?  I am sure it looks differently for different people but here is what it looks like for me.  I might be listening to a sermon, a friend, or even a stranger when a truth gem is exposed.  Its beauty begins to resonate deep within my soul and I know God has spoken.  I usually journal these nuggets of gold and meditate on them for days and weeks.  I find that over the course of those next days and weeks, I will hear the same truth in varying ways.  God will keep instructing me and reminding me of what He has said.

Like all good teachers, an opportunity to practice the truth ALWAYS follows the instruction.  What good is anything learned if you cannot use it in everyday life?  So it is with God, he does not waste His words, instruction or his time.  If He has been so intentional as to instruct, He has a purpose in it.

Several weeks ago I heard a message that contained more truth nuggets than I could write down.  I jotted down what I could and have actively thought on what I couldn’t.  Here’s the gist of what I was instructed in:

• The fear of the future is often worse than the future.

Anytime God gives the command, “Do not fear”, it is ALWAYS coupled with a why not to.  For example:

Joshua 1:9 (NASB)

Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous! Do not tremble or be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”

When we face our fears because of the realization that the God of the Universe is beside us, then we can take steps forward in faith and courage.  Personal victory has the potential to unleash corporate blessings. Consider the personal victory of David against Goliath.  The outcome had actually been dictated by the giant; whoever was victorious, their nation would enslave the losers.  David’s victory was applied to the entire nation of Israel!  He declared that he had come in the name of the Lord; he was living in faith and gained a courageous victory!

• Do not entertain any thought reduces God or your position in Him.

1 John 4:1 (NASB)

Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God…

Our loving Father does NOT use discouraging or despairing language with his children.  If you hear any “head talk” that is hopeless, filled with failure and fear, rest assured it is from our enemy and NOT our Father.  Years ago, our pastor at the time, gave me some very good practical advice for when the enemy was on the attack in my mind.  He encouraged me to say aloud,

“My Father said I am not to talk to strangers.  You are a stranger and if you want to talk about me, go see my Father!”

We are the sheep of our Father’s pasture.  We hear and know His voice.  Make truthful declarations to yourself and others about His character, His love, His power, His faithfulness and His glory.  What God has revealed to us in His written Word is for our instruction.  His past works declare who He is, not who He was!  Read and be encouraged and declare who our God is.

So, true to form, God gave me these nuggets and has also given me a test.  From where I am standing, the bay has emptied and a tsunami has formed and is poised to come crashing down.  However, by God’s grace, I will look beyond the wave to the creator of the wave.  The wind and waves still know His voice.  I know His voice.

Friend, if you also find yourself in God’s Holy Classroom, you are not alone.  He is right there with you as well as countless other saints who are in similar trials.  Remember that God is for you and me and has purpose in our tests:

James 1:2-4 (NASB)

Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, 3knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. 4And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

God desires that we lack in nothing and be perfect and complete!  What a good, good Father He is.

God is the Faithful One!

I am telling you again, I have been in a 3 week slump.  I have not been able to pray, or read the Word or do anything that I would consider spiritually uplifting.  Sadly, I have been able to get angry, be selfish and manipulative, and lazy.  Ugh.  Guilt fests and emotional toilet flushes have abounded.

This week, I am faced with a scheduled trip to fulfill a speaking engagement on the subject of encouraging women!!  I awoke this morning, full of dread and fear realizing that I have not prepared at all!!  This is not false humility but harsh reality; I am not ready.  Lying in the hotel bed, I feebly eeked out a prayer of desperation….”God, you have brought me here but I am unprepared and need you.”  Then, my mind wandered away and UGH, again!  “God, help please!”

Mind wanders again and I find myself deleting emails from my phone.  As I am selecting which ones to delete, my eye catches the word, “Arise” in the subject line of an email that I am automatically sent from crosswalk.com.  Curiousity more than anything compelled me to open the email.  I began reading the writer’s telling of Jesus healing the young daughter of Jairus.  As I read, the tears began to flow.  God heard my cry and like the good shepherd He is, reached down and gathered me in His arms.  Here is the excerpt from the devotional:

…..And though she was already dead, Jesus went to the little girl and said one thing: “Get up.” (Mark 5:41)

And she did.                                                                                                                                       

Is He calling you to do the same today?

Hear this: it doesn’t matter who you were before He told you to get up. In fact, I love how little we know about the characters in this story because it speaks volumes about who our Savior is. There was only faith by the grace He supplied–everything else was Him bringing death to life.

The new basis of her identity was this: she was dead and Jesus brought her back to life. If you believe in Him, that’s your story too.

Last year, last week, even what you did last night does not define you. Your sin, your shame, your accolades, your family name–none of these details matter compared to the truth of who He is and who you are in Him. The fruit God produces after He raised you from the dead can be beautiful and glorifying to God, but you are everything you are because of the moment when He said: “Little girl, I say to you, get up.”

You are everything you are because he brought you back.

You are everything you are because you are loved.

You are everything you are because you’ve been made alive.  No sin in your life is beyond the power of Christ’s forgiveness, and no brokenness is beyond the reach of His healing, restoring touch.  It’s time to get up. Arise.

(Excerpted from the She Reads Truth Bible. Published by Holman Bibles, Raechel Myers and Amanda Bible Williams, general editors. copyright 2017)

 

Wow!!  My God heard me.  He answered me.  He reminded me again that He is the faithful one.  Because of who He is, I can get up.  Because of who He is, I can fulfill my calling.  Because of who He is, I am restored. 

“Oh God, thank you for the new mercies of today.  Thank you, thank you, thank you.  Use me if you will, but thank you for your love and mercy.  Thank you that YOU are the faithful one!”

Will the Real Christian please stand up?

Do you ever feel like you’re blowing it as a Christian?  I do.  Stand?  Some days I am just barely able to make a shift in my horizontal position, much less stand.  Currently, I am in a 3 week slump and feel very unsure of my footing.  In my own strength, I cannot stand to answer this call.

As I reflect on Easter and the incredible mystery of death bringing forth life, I am overwhelmed by God’s grace for those, like me, who are unable to stand.  The cross of Christ stood high on a hill, erect and firm.  It was immovable.  Christ allowed himself to be nailed there and was immovable also.  There it was finished.  There the call was answered.  Every sin I have ever committed in the past, will commit now or in the future, was laid upon him.  He who knew no sin, became sin for me!  He stood in my place.

Not only did he stand in my place, he died in my place.  He knew the depths of the separation from God so that I do not have to.  He laid in the darkness of the tomb so that I would not have to.  Then, in glorious form, He stood again!  He rose from the grave so that I might have eternal life also!

“God, how merciful and loving and powerful you are.  Thank you for standing for me today and on Calvary.  Thank you for standing again in life!  God, thank you for the promise that your strength is made perfect in weakness.  Lord, I am desperately weak. Please, by your strength and might, help me to stand for you today.”

Me? Lord, Are You Sure?

Judges 6:6

So Israel was brought very low because of Midian, and the sons of Israel cried to the Lord.

Times were desperate and the people of Israel were in hiding.  Having been forced to leave their homes, they were barely surviving in caves and holes and animal dens .  With hardly enough food for themselves, their livestock was perishing also.  God’s people were, “brought very low.”

There is a pattern of the ancient Israelites and their interaction with God.  In times of plenty, comfort and ease, they tend to forget God and all that He has done for them.  They forget His past works, His present promises and His future plans for them.  Their attitude and posture becomes rather self-sufficient and seems to say, “Thanks God for all the blessings, we’ve got it now.  We’ll call you again if we need you, but we’re good for now.”  Treating God like a magician with a bag of tricks never ends well.  God is not a god among many or the best of the choices…..HE IS THE ONLY LIVING AND TRUE GOD!  He will not share His glory or our affections with any other!  Like the Israelites, I forget who He really is and the position He holds.  Often, God uses unpleasant and desperate circumstances to bring us back to our senses and the reality that HE IS GOD!

Oppression by the Midianites is where we find Israel in Judges chapter 6.  The Midianites were a cruel people who frequently teamed up with another enemy of Israel, the Amalekites.  Taking the harvest from the Israelites fields wasn’t enough.  The Midianites would utterly decimate the fields and leave nothing behind.  Killing and enslaving captives, stealing livestock and casting our their opponents from their homes, were all trademarks of the Midianites. Conquering was not the consummate goal; destruction and despair was the objective. This scenario is where we find God’s people;  totally defeated, hopeless, despairing with no champion among them.

A young Israelite named Gideon is among the defeated and cowering. We are introduced to him in a winepress but he is not, however, pressing out grapes.  He is threshing wheat instead.  I can almost imagine the scene: Him beating the sheaves, a few at a time, and peeking over the edge of the press to see if his enemies saw or heard anything.

Working as fast as he can, he tries to separate the wheat from the chaff.  Normally, you thresh wheat out in the open so that the wind carries away the unwanted parts but desperate times have called for desperate measures and Gideon is not only hiding, he is having to settle for a less than desirable end product.

I can imagine that while the sweat and dust and chaff cling to his face, he wonders how long will he and his people live like this. “God, where are you?  When will you deliver us?” I don’t know if he could even remember a time that was free of oppression, defeat and fear or when daily survival wasn’t literally a struggle between life and death.  A young man, in his prime, found himself living in fear among a family and nation who were crippled by fear. But God appears on the scene doing what He alone can do.  He greets Gideon with a salutation that is in direct contrast to Gideon’s self identity and circumstances.  He also reaffirms God’s relationship status for his people:

¹² The angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, “The Lord is with you, O valiant warrior.”

The Lord is with you, O valiant warrior.  I can almost see Gideon turn and look behind him to see who God might be talking to.  “Um…Are you talking to me?”  God is addressing the right person and the man of his choosing,  a fearful, oppressed young man hiding in a winepress.  Gideon’s response goes straight to the heart of the matter:

Then Gideon said to him, “O my lord, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all His miracles which our fathers told us about, saying, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the Lord has abandoned us and given us into the hand of Midian.”

God answers him with a calling.  The calling was that Gideon would deliver his people from the Midianites.  Again, I am sure Gideon looked over his shoulder.  His response backs me up in this:

“O Lord, how shall I deliver Israel? Behold, my family is the least in Manasseh, and I am the youngest in my father’s house.”

The least among the least, what a moniker!  Proving once again that God’s ways are not our ways, He chooses the least among the least to accomplish mighty things.  God is not a respecter of a person’s status, age, lineage, wealth, or social standing.  God chooses the base and weak things to confound the wise and strong.  God uses the Gideons of the world. There is great hope in that!  God did indeed work thru Gideon to defeat the Midianites.  Be encouraged if you feel like the least among the least in desperate circumstances.  God can use you!

God, let me remember that you are with me!  Even when I find myself fearful and despairing and hiding, you desire to accomplish great things thru me.  Lord, your power is perfected in my weakness.  Thank you for renaming me and being with me always, even to the end of the age!