Posts Tagged ‘ Abram ’

Rants 11 January 2013 Matthew 4:18-25; Acts 5:17-42; Psalm 9; Genesis 16-17

feels as though he has left so little to follow Christ, wonders how much he’s willing to leave to follow Christ. Mat 4:20&22 @WeeManWest

believes that men need to spend more time listening to God than to anything else as we wait for God’s timing. Gen 16:2 @WeeManWest

Matthew 4:20 & Matthew 4:22 Jesus called His disciples and they each had to leave something to follow Him. What are we willing to leave in order to be obedient?

Acts 5:28 The Jewish leaders were concerned about being found guilty of the blood of Christ. Maybe they knew their guilt and hence persecuted the church to keep it quiet. I am drawing from this that some may have been very well aware of the reality of who Jesus is.

Acts 5:33 How sad a state it is for one to be found that even the very Gospel of their deliverance drives them to rage and murderous intentions.

Acts 5:39 What wisdom to see that God’s hand may very well be in the events of the early church. Yet, it was unheaded wisdom. How often have we, through our pride or selfishness, stood directly in the path of what God was trying to do?

Acts 5:41 The disciples rejoiced because they were considered worthy enough to suffer for the Gospel. What does that say about the church today?

Psalm 9:7-8 God is always on His throne. He is in control. He will be the final judge of this world. We can trust that in the end He will make things right. No matter the difficulty or trouble of our circumstance, He will be the final judge.

Psalm 9:18 We need to understand that we are indeed needy before God. Our spiritual poverty is the greatest prison in which we reside.

Genesis 16:2 Abram, the man of faith, is tempted as Adam was tempted. His wife comes to him with a solution to their problem. A solution that will not require them to wait around in dependence on God. Why not just use the means at you disposal, the plans you’ve imagined, to make things happen on your own schedule? Why should they continue to wait around for God’s schedule when it is apparent to them that Sarai is the problem.

We seek our own human, fast, solutions when God has told us simply to wait for His timing. Abram listened to the voice of Sarai. He gave in. Satan seems often to attack the woman, for she is the quickest path to perverting the heart of a man.

Genesis 16:9 The angel of the LORD finds Hagar as she is afflicted and driven to the wilderness. Christ will always find us in the wilderness if we are willing that He come into our lives.

Genesis 16:13 God sees. Isn’t this such a comforting thought in the midst of our afflictions? God sees our afflictions. In our every affliction we must look to Christ. Instead, we look to the world and its ways and methods for our deliverance.

Genesis 17:11-13 God institutes circumcision. Such is a picture of what God desires to do in our hearts. God desires to circumcise our hearts so that they will be tender and receptive to Him. Circumcision is to occur on the 8th day, which is the 1st day of a new week. 8 is the number of new beginnings. Circumcision is to be an 8th day thing.

Some believe the 8th day is significant for other reasons. They believe that Adam and Eve sinned on their first day in Eden, which would have been the 7th day. Thus the 8th day was inaugurated with the sacrifice that gave them new clothing.

We are a new creation in Christ Jesus, hence a new beginning, the 8th day for our life.

All of God’s covenants have accompanying signs. God’s covenant with Abraham had circumcision as its sign.

Genesis 17:5 & Genesis 17:15 God adds an “h” or the Hebrew letter “hey” which is considered a breath. Some say this passage, this renaming, is God breathing into the lives of Abraham and Sarah. Even in the Hebrew, the one letter makes a difference in the meaning of their names.

Abram meant exalted father while Abraham means father of a multitude. Sarai meant princess while Sarah means noble woman.

God’s word makes a difference in this world. It’s what we learn in Genesis 1 with the Creation story. It’s what we learn in every story of the Bible.

2013
01/13
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Rants 10 January 2013 Matthew 4:12-17; Acts 5:1-16; Psalm 8; Genesis 14-15

must first apply Christ’s message of repentance and His kingdom to himself daily then to those he meets. Mat 4:17 @WeeManWest

loves to ponder how the universe works because such pondering always lead to worship and awe of Almighty God. Psa 8:3-4 @WeeManWest

Matthew 4:15-16 I’m certainly glad that God doesn’t wait for us to repent and become light before He begins working among us. He works among us in our darkness so that we may respond to Him by His Spirit.

Matthew 4:17 Jesus’ message was always the same. Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Our message should be the same daily, first to ourselves, then to those we encounter.

Acts 5:4 I’m left with the impression that Ananias and Sapphira were trying to garner respect in the church as Barnabas (Acts 4:36-37) had in selling some land and giving all the money to the apostles. Yet, these two sought to fool the church. They sought to gain notariety for doing something that they actually weren’t doing at all. They gave part of the proceeds under the guise of having given all.

We will never fool God, only ourselves. The most dangerous and dire message from this text is that of our salvation. We may fool others into believing we belong to Christ, but God will not be fooled. He knows who are His.

Acts 5:16 God’s power was being unleashed through the ministry of the apostles. Such power was necessary to secure the firm foundation for the church built around the cornerstone which is Christ. My belief is that the apostles in this sense were a one time phenomenon for the specific purpose of laying the foundation upon which the church for all generations would be built.

Psalm 8:2 God is able to bring glory to Himself from the mouths of children. Such is amazing to me as I raise my brood of 3!

Psalm 8:1 & Psalm 8:3-4 God’s glory is higher than the glory of the heavens, yet we can look to the heavens and be in awe. The massiveness of creation should lead us to worship our God instead of reject Him. We have a place, hung in the midst of this huge cosmos. We reside on this ball that is hurtling through space at crazy speeds and directions, yet we’re ok.

We should spend more time pondering the heavens and how our existence works. Such pondering only leads one closer to God.

I remember my first roller coaster ride. It was The Great American Scream Machine at Six Flags in Atlanta, Georgia! I recall being terrified as the coaster took us up the first hill. I remember the sense of helplessness as we plunged down the initial drop. I was thankful for the builders once the ride was over because at those speeds we were not thrown from the tracks.

We should be thankful to God, that as we ride this roller coaster we call earth as it orbits around the sun which in turn is orbiting around the center of our universe that we are not thrown from the tracks, but held steadily in place by the design of our Creator.

Psalm 8:4-8 Yet we have little mankind, small on the basis of the vastness of creation, yet large in the eyes of our Creator. We are to have dominion. All things are put under our feet, moreso in Christ Jesus. What are we doing to express that dominion on this planet?

This is Christ’s world, what are we doing today to express and represent His dominion and kingdom?

Genesis 14:8-9 Here we see the first “world war” in terms of multiple nations battling mutiple nations.

Genesis 14:17-20 We now encounter one of the most intriguing persons in the Bible. Melchizedek enters the scene with no lineage (either before or after) but only known to us by his titles. As is noted in Hebrews his name is interpreted “King of Righteousness” and yet his title is King of Peace (Salem). So here we have a man, without father or mother, without children, whose name is King of Righteousness and whose title is King of Peace.

We see clearly a picture of Jesus Christ as noted in Hebrews 7 .

Melchizedek is also priest of God Most High, which Jesus also is. Furthermore, he blesses Abram and receives Abram’s tithe. So herein we have a man of greatness, so great that he blessed the Father of our faith and received his tithe.

Melchizedek is a picture of Jesus Christ. No lineage, King of Righteousness, Prince of Peace, High Priest of God, Author of blessing to those of faith, Rightful owner of the tithe of those of faith.

We are in the priesthood order of Melchizedek through Jesus Christ.

Genesis 14:21-24 Yet, instead so many of us are like the King of Sodom (king of burning). We demand our piece without recognizing the earthly representative of our deliverance (Abram) nor God who provided the deliverance!

Would we be like Abram and deny ourselves the bounty of this exploit? Abram had full right to all that he had rescued for the King of Sodom. Yet, Abram sends it all away so that his praise, glory, and provision may come from God alone.

Genesis 15:1 Abram has basically provoked a fight. God promises to be his shield and his reward. God has a specific purpose for Abram’s life. He does ours as well.

Genesis 15:2-3 Abram does like so many of us do. We haven’t seen the promise. We live by the promise yet it seems the promise is producing little or no fruit in our lives. Abram questions God on the matter. Why do we act as though talking to God is taboo?

God isn’t only interested in our praise. He’s not only interested in our prayer list. He’s interested in us intimately. We are so afraid to come to God with our “Why?” and our “How?” and our “When?” God is never intimidated by our questions. Our ability to come to God with those questions shows that we really trust Him to answer.

Genesis 15:4-5 God answers Abram. God doesn’t provide all the details, but the few He does provide are enough. Abram will have a son as his heir. Abram’s people will be many!

Genesis 15:6 Abram’s belief is counted to him as righteousness. We will see the evidence of Abram’s belief in his life. God does the same with us. Do we believe God? He has promised us salvation in Christ. Do we believe Him? Believing Him will motivate us toward acting on our beliefs. If our beliefs are not followed by actions then we don’t really believe!

Genesis 15:11 It is essential to us that when we are acting on our faith that we protect our fruitfulness from the “birds of prey”. These are the nasty scavengers of Satan that seek to rob our life and ministry of its fruitfulness toward God. We must be on guard and watchful against their tactics and influence.

They will corrupt and destroy our works of faith.

Genesis 15:13-16 God promises the land to Abram’s descendants. First they must endure slavery in Egypt, followed by the judgment of Egypt and their deliverance. Then they will conquer the land. However, this will take four generations for the Amorites to fill up their iniquity.

Genesis 15:17 I believe what we are seeing here is again a picture of what would happen in Christ, our sacrifice. God’s glory and wrath passed upon the offering and spared the offerer thus making a covenant between God and the offerer.

2013
01/11
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Rants from 9 January 2013 Acts 4:23-37; Psalm 7; Genesis 11-13

is daily thankful for the righteousness of God that is now our righteousness in Christ Jesus. Psa 7:17 @WeeManWest

Acts 4:29-30 I wonder what our prayer would be? What would happen if we were persecuted by religious leaders and felt as though we were living under the threat of death? Would we pray for God’s protection from our persecutors or would we pray for the boldness to continue proclaiming His Gospel to them until they convert or kill us?

The early church was operating under the power of the Holy Spirit in ways that the modern church greatly lacks. We’ve become masters of our methods and servants of our security when our calling is to be more than conquerors living lives of bold conquest in a world filled with darkness. Our lives are supposed to be daily dangled from a cliff of danger but instead are holed up in our comforts.

Acts 4:32-37 I’m afraid that we’ve lost the common care for one another. We fight, argue, and sue to claim what is ours when our calling is honestly to be misused if such means the Gospel is powerfully proclaimed.

Psalm 7:3-5 I don’t know about you, but personally I would be afraid to pray this prayer to God. My life is littered with the wrong of my hands. My life is littered with damage due to my sin. The last thing I want to have happen is all of my past sin coming back for a visit.

Psalm 7:17 I praise God because of His righteousness that is now my own in Christ Jesus. His righteousness is worthy of all praise, my righteousness isn’t worth wasting my breathe on!

Genesis 11:3-4 The inhabitants of Babel, led (I believe) by Nimrod, have come together in opposition to God. God’s command was that they disperse and spread out, but instead they have chosen to congregate together. They make three “Let us” statements. Let us make bricks. Let us build ourselves a city and a tower. Let us make a name for ourselves. Humanity was again defiant. My guess is that the tower was being built as a refuge against the next flood. Who knows?! We are all so rebellious in our hearts.

We live out our lives trying to build our own little kingdoms to make a name for ourselves when all that really matters is building Christ’s kingdom and making much of His name. We’ve got to be humble and allow God to exalt. When we exalt and promote ourselves we are on the cusp of ruin.

Genesis 11:5 I chuckle every time I read this verse. Humanity built a tower in defiance of God and yet the tower is so small that God must “come down” just to see it. No matter how great we think our works are, they will never measure up. Only the work of Jesus Christ bridges the gap between us and God.

Genesis 11:6 God recognizes the ingenuity and creativity of mankind. We are made in His creative image. We have been able to do just about everything we have put our minds toward achieving. However, there is one thing we cannot achieve: peace with God. Christ achieved that for us all.

Genesis 11:7-9 God’s plan for mankind was for us to fill the entire planet. So God confuses the language so that everyone seems to everyone else to be babbling and confused. Babylon was the launch point of the global world. We lost the heavenly language that day. Slowly we have gained it back in the form of technology. I can’t help but think that our “global” society is a great achievement, but also a tremendouse opportunity to reach the nations with the Gospel.

Genesis 11:16 Eber was 14th from Adam through Seth (two 7s Enoch & Eber)…Eber is where the handle Hebrews (Eberews) came from.

Genesis 11:26 Abram was 20th from Adam (two 10s Noah & Abram/Abraham) I think you can see where I’m going with this. I’ll go ahead and spit it out. Isaac was 21st from Adam through Seth (thee 7s Enoch, Eber, Isaac) and Isaac was the child of promise…just saying.

Genesis 12:1-3 Abram, like Noah, was called out by God. Abram was commanded to leave his country, his kin, and his siblings and just follow God to wherever God is leading. Honestly, Abram is told to uproot and go to nowhere on the promise that eventually it will be a somewhere.

Here we see the turn…Nimrod and the people at Babel sought to make their own name great…to exalt themselves. Here, God tells Abram that He will make his name great…God will exalt him. Abram just needs the humility to obediently follow God to an uncharted destination. Most of us would recoil at the thought of relinquishing everything to follow God to nowhereville. Admittedly, I cringe at the thought of it as well. Yet, God promises to make Abram’s name great.

In Abram all the families on earth would be blessed. This points to Jesus Christ and the work of the Gospel as it spreads to all of mankind. Our daily prayer should be that we would be a blessing to everyone we encounter.

Genesis 12:4 Abram takes Lot with him. Satan will easily use people we are attached to as entaglements that keep us from being fruitful. Have we ever stopped to consider that maybe sometimes we ourselves are the entanglement that is preventing someone else from being fruitful in Christ? Abram’s attachment to Lot seems to me to show just a hint of disobedience, if not a lack of trust altogether.

Genesis 12:8 Abram calls on the name of the Lord between Bethel and Ai. This is significant because it was the launchpoint of Israel’s invasion and conquest into Canaan.

Genesis 12:10-20 The hint of distrust is now the aroma of doubt. Abram schemes with Sarai to avoid problems in Egypt. He seeks his own way rather than trusting God to deliver them both. If we since a hint of distrust we can be assured that eventually the aroma of doubt will begin to emanate from our lives.

Genesis 13:6-7 So the “attachment” becomes an “entanglement” as the herdsmen of Abram and Lot were in strife with one another in front of lost souls (Canaanites and Perizzites). Our entanglements will surely cause our witness to take on damage as we walk among the lost.

Genesis 13:13 We see that the men of Sodom were wicked. Descended from Ham’s line through Canaan. Yet in Sodom we should see our own wicked potential as well. We are all cut from the mold of Adam. Sin is within us all desiring to master us, yet in Christ we can master our sin.

Genesis 13:14-17 Abram fully obeys God’s call by separating from Lot and guess who shows up? God shows up and reveals to Abram that he is in the land and that his lineage will be bountiful. Note: Abram was already IN the land prior. The land was in famine and Abram was in disobedience, still attached to Lot. Now Abram can begin his claim on the land, his spiritual heritage, because he is in full obedience. Our spiritual heritage will always be limited by the compromises we make in obedience to God’s commands.

2013
01/10
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