a child of god
this is the way, run in it
"How lovely are Your dwelling places, O LORD of hosts!" cries out the writer of Psalm 84. This was one of my mother's favorite psalms, and it is one of mine, as well. Every phrase rolls around on my tongue delightfully, like a fancy chocolate dessert, to be savored, to be enjoyed, to want more of. And God Himself is like that! The psalmist also says, "taste and see that the LORD is good!" (Psalm 34:8). And once we have had that taste of God's love for us and the magnitude of His blessings on us, His hand over our lives, we want more. There is nothing and no one else like God. He is beautiful and awesome and powerful and compassionate and true . . . and so much more. Psalm 84 talks about how even birds find their place to build their nests for their chicks on the Lord's altar - that is how safe it is in the Lord's presence. For me, right now, grieving about not having my Mom with me, with my family, right now, until we all are in heaven together again, in the glory of the Lord's fully revealed presence (can't wait! that's going to be awesome!), verses 5-7 are special. They speak to me about this time period I'm going through. They say this: How blessed is the man or woman whose strength is in You; in whose heart are the highways to Zion! Passing through the valley of Baca, they make it a spring. The early rain also covers it with blessings. They go from strength to strength, every one of them appears before God in Zion." Even when we are going through a time of grief, people - even when we are in a desperate place of grief, or just an overwhelming time of sadness - even when we feel like we are in a dry and dusty place, slogging it out across an all encompassing and endless desert - there God uses our tears to bring blessing! His word says that He keeps each and every tear we have shed in a bottle (Psalm 139) - God sees, He knows, and He cares. When we go through this kind of time period trusting in God, even in times of tears, God makes us strong. Isn't that amazing! The more we lean on Him, the more we are dependent on Him to get us through this time period, the stronger He makes us. It doesn't mean the tears go away, but He uses those tears to bring blessing. It is possible to cry and to laugh for joy at the same time. This is truly possible with God. When our hearts cry out to God - I need You! - I just wanna be where You are - then we will find that kind of refuge that we need, deep down within us we will find God's presence is our anchor. Psalm 84 goes on to say, For the LORD God is a sun and shield; the LORD gives grace and glory; no good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly. O LORD of hosts, how blessed is the man or woman who trusts in Thee! We can trust God - with everything, our loved ones, this time period, the next, the outcome of a particular time period, or God task. He is the LORD God. He is in control and when we belong to Him, live in Him, make our nest on His altar, entrust our young to Him, He always comes through. Praise Him!
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My family and I have been through an earthquake, a seismic change, if you will. I'm not quite ready to write about it in depth; although, there is a lot to be thankful for, glimpses of glory in the midst of agony. My mother had a stroke and died in December. She is seeing more than just a glimpse of glory now! I would love to know what that's like - being with Jesus and God the Father in heaven.
So I was out of pocket from "normal life" for the month of December, and I'm now back trying to move forward in a time period that feels so very different from before. I'm not worried about it. I know who I belong to, and I know God has a purpose and a plan for this time period. He always does. I simply feel the need of His help, and the help of my family, friends and church family, in figuring out how to go forward from here. I was reading in Romans this morning. I love the book of Romans! And in chapter 5, Paul is talking about how when we believe in God, believe that Jesus is the Son of God, and that He came to save us from our sins - when we believe in God, God forgives us our sins and clothes us with Jesus' righteousness. We become right in God's eyes, just like Abraham did when he believed in God. Abraham (Genesis 15) believed in God, in what He said to Abraham, in what He promised even though it seemed crazy and impossible (for nothing is impossible for God), and God equated that belief with righteousness for Abraham. The bit about Abraham believing in God and looking to God even though he couldn't see how God was going to take him forward and fulfill that promise to him - that bit speaks to me now, when I don't see the way forward clearly. And that's ok. When we are walking, or climbing a mountain, and we don't see the path clearly, we slow down, even stop, until we see the path to take. That's where I am now. Romans, chapter 5, also goes on to talk about exulting - love that word. Not only can we exult before God in who He is, but He, Himself, the God of the universe, exults over us - He shouts, sings, and broods with love over us (Zephaniah 3:17). And we can give that right back to Him! But in this Romans' passage, it is talking about how we can exult in difficult times (which blows our minds), because we can know that going through those difficult times with God helps us develop perseverance, sticking with it with the Lord, and helps us by developing our character - who we are when the chips are down, when we are put to the test (and my family and I faced that in December) - and ultimately leads to hope. Here is what the Bible says about this kind of hope, God's kind of hope: "and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us." That hope, the living, sure and certain, hope of God, is poured out into us, like custard spilling over and running down over sticky toffee pudding (one of my favorite British deserts), or like a well of living water gushing up, fresh, clean, cold and just what we need on a hot and dry, dusty day. Satisfying, refreshing, delicious, life-giving. That is our God and that is what He does in us when we believe in Him, no matter what our circumstances look like. Let's shout back to Him today how much we love Him and delight in life with Him, even death with Him when we know He is the One who will raise us up again! Our lives are in His hands. Always. When we believe in Him and trust Him. On Friday, at Staff Morning Prayers (at St John's Church), the Morning Prayer service opened up with this.
O Lord, open our lips All: And our mouth shall proclaim Your praise. Your faithful servants bless You. All: They make known the glory of Your kingdom. Blessed are You, Sovereign God, Ruler and judge of all, To you be praise and glory for ever. In the darkness of this age that is passing away May the light of your presence which the saints enjoy Surround our steps as we journey on. May we reflect Your glory this day And so be made ready to see Your face in the heavenly city where night is no more. Blessed be God, father, Son and Holy Spirit. All: Blessed be God forever. This bit of liturgy caught my attention. At the start of it, it declares that God's faithful servants (that's you and me) bless the LORD God, and that our task is "to make known the glory of God's kingdom." How do we do that? The liturgy talks about the darkness of this age that we live in - well, we can all see that! Wars, rumors of wars, oppression, poverty, rioting, violence and violent rhetoric, uncertainty . . . and the list goes on. It then paints this lovely picture of the saints, God's people, walking through this darkness with steps of light, spotlights of light around their feet, around them, as they walk forward. What is this light? It is the reflected glory of God's presence. "May the light of your presence which the saints enjoy surround our steps as we journey on." As we spend time in God's presence, spending time with Him, His glory rubs off on us! Not for our glory, but to display God to the world. "May we reflect Your glory." In doing this, spending time with God, living our lives in such a way that we reflect Him to the world, we are preparing ourselves to see Him face to face one day. It's like someone you get to know through what they have written and what they have done, whom you then get to meet in person and see face to face. One day, we will see God face to face - those who belong to God through Jesus Christ, His Son. 1 Peter 1:8-9 says this, "...and though you have not seen Him (Jesus), you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, obtaining as the outcome of your faith the salvation of your souls." In the Old Testament, the Bible records that Moses, a servant of the LORD God, got to see Him face to face. God said Moses was His friend, as well as His servant (Exodus 33:11). Exodus chapter 34 talks about how when Moses met with God, face to face, he would come out of the tent of meeting and his face shone, the skin on his face shone with the reflected glory of God and His presence. This was alarming to the people of Israel, so Moses would put a veil on his face so they would not be afraid. Moses would take the veil off when he was with God, but he put the veil back on when he came out of the tent to be with the people of Israel. That veil is a foreshadowing of the veil in the temple of God in Jerusalem. That veil (both in the tabernacle and in the final temple) separated the holy of holies where God's presence resided above the mercy seat of the arc of the covenant, just as Moses' veil separated the people from seeing the reflected light off Moses' face from His being in the presence of God. That veil in the temple was torn in two - broken, removed - when Jesus died on the cross (Mark 15:38). It is no longer necessary! Through Jesus, and His sacrifice on the cross for you and me when He paid for our sins, He made a way for us to be able to enter the holy of holies any time we want, as God's children (Hebrews 6:19-20; 10:19-25). We can with confidence approach God, through Jesus and His shed blood for us, as His children - cleansed, loved, forgiven, restored - we can spend time with God in His presence and live our lives in such a way that people see the glory of God, see Him, know Him, like we do. Most people say Thank God it's Friday because they are ready for the weekend to arrive and the fun to begin. Its acronym has even become a colloquial expression, TGIF. I like Fridays because I get to go to work! On Fridays, I work at a Church of England local parish church, where I have a lowly job of making sure the services are in the system for Sunday, the rotas are prepared and distributed (did you know that there are rotas in the Bible! so the priests could rotate off and go home and spend time with their families? True. ), and the weekly bulletin is printed and distributed. Someone has to do it! But, on Fridays at this church, we have Staff Morning Prayer, at the beginning of the work day. This is a short 30 minute service, where we go through set liturgy (prayers, canticle, bible readings, more prayer, intercessory prayer) following the Church of England Lectionary. I absolutely love it. Where else do you get to spend time with God and get paid for it? My colleagues laugh at me because when we assign tasks - who is leading the service that day, who reads the Old Testament and who reads the New Testament - I like to bag the Old Testament. I love the New Testament as well, don't get me wrong, but I absolutely adore the Old Testament. The reason for that is the Lord so often speaks to me through it. Those of you who have been reading this blog for a while won't be surprised at that! But, today, at work, I claimed the New Testament reading, to the vocal surprise of the others. It was Revelation - need I say more? Some Fridays, the Lord will surprise me and speak to me at Staff Morning Prayer when I'm not anticipating it. He's done that in the past. But today He blew my socks off. Every single bit of liturgy, every bible reading, even the Canticle, seemed to have been picked especially to prick my heart, stir my spirit, wash my soul and it was amazing. It was exactly what I needed (God is good about that!). He was speaking to me through the whole thing, so that by the time we got to the Intercessory Prayer time, watch out! That prayer time was special. The Spirit of God was hovering over us. When I think about the fact that when we praise God, when we call Him holy, holy, holy, we are echoing the whole host of heaven, who also are doing that very thing. In this season of All Saints until Advent in the Lectionary, the liturgy says this before we all said the Lord's Prayer together. It says, Uniting our prayers with the whole company of heaven, as our Savior taught us, so we pray... Our Father, in heaven ... How amazing is that to think that when we pray the Lord's Prayer together, we are joining our voices with the whole company of heaven?! When we say "Our Father" that 'we' is really big.
The Psalm for the day was Psalm 51, and the Curate Ben said, "Who wouldn't love Psalm 51? Washed whiter than snow? Come on!" The OT reading was Daniel 3:19-end, where Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego are thrown into the fiery furnace and Jesus is with them, untouched, walking around, with them in the midst of the furnace - and He brings them all out safely, with unsinged hair and garments. Whoo! Jesus is with us, family of God! The NT reading was Revelation 3:14-end, the message to the church in Laodicea. And I was moved, so moved, at how God is wooing His people in that passage. Yes, He tells them off for being luke-warm, like tepid used bath water. He wants us to be passionate about Him, about life with Him, about truth and justice. I can understand His getting impassioned Himself as He tells His people off for thinking they don't need Him. But He also woos them, calls them to come and open the door to Him. God's love for His people, even though it won't supercede His judgement, is always there. It moved me. He moves me. So to end this blog today, I'll leave you with the Canticle, taken from Isaiah 43, selected verses: I will make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert. "I am the LORD, your Holy One, the Creator of Israel, your King." Thus says the LORD, who makes a way in the sea, a path in the mighty waters, "Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert, to give drink to my chosen people, the people whom I formed for Myself, that they might declare My praise. Let's declare His praise, family of God! And keep our spiritual eyes open to see God's hand in the wilderness with us, in times of plenty with us - let's keep our eyes on Him! I love this picture of unity, of intent together, of going on a God adventure - together.
Exodus 13, the people of Israel have just been released by the hand of God from Pharaoh/bondage/slavery - following signs and wonders and resistance and great fear and danger. And they set out on their wilderness journey, following God, who led them with a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night; everyone went, and they even took Joseph's bones with them, as he made them swear to do - because he knew, he believed God when He said to him (as He said to Abraham and Issac before him) that He would bring His people into the land He promised them. I want to do this, too. Follow God on a God adventure, with the people He has brought together for that step of faith. What would that look like? The big adventures, the big steps of faith, always are preceded by the little steps of faith. God loves obedience. He loves faithfulness, for He is faithful. I love stepping out with Him and for Him, even though sometimes it feels a bit challenging. It's ok, because He is with us, with me, in it. And He loves us, His people. I'm reading in Acts at the moment, and in Chapter 2, we see God's Pentecost Suddenly unfold. We are so familiar with this passage, I am so familiar with this passage, that I was surprised to see new aspects in it this time round. He gave me a God light-bulb moment in His word.
The disciples were being obedient! I love that! They were obeying Jesus, their Lord's, last words to them, "...to wait for what the Father had promised , 'Which,' Jesus said, 'you have heard of from Me; for John baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now' " (Acts 1:4-5). So the disciples had seen Jesus being taken back up into the sky, through the clouds, to heaven, and told by some angels that Jesus would come back for His own in just such a fashion, and they had then obediently gathered together in Jerusalem and were waiting. Waiting and praying. And God brings a suddenly. We love it when God breaks in and does something we can't do, when He comes in power and lives are changed and we feel His presence in a way we don't always. We wait and we pray for suddenlies, when God gives us a promise and we wait and pray for it to happen. This one, though, was BIG. It was so BIG that the sound of a huge rushing wind that came down from heaven, "a violent rushing wind" the word says, not only was it heard and felt by the disciples, but the people who lived around them heard it. Verse 6 says that "when this sound occurred, the multitude came together (outside)" to see what had happened! The disciples not only heard and felt the wind of God, the Holy Spirit, but something like tongues of fire distributed themselves on each one of the disciples. And then the word says, "and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues" (other languages), as the Spirit was giving it to them to speak (vv. 2-4). And the baptism of the Holy Spirit takes place on Jesus' disciples, sent by God the Father, bringing God the Holy Spirit to fill His believers with power and supernatural gifting to preach the gospel to those around them. This was the start, and it required a suddenly of God, of the activity of the Church for the Kingdom of God. For the disciples, and for some of the crowd, this was an amazing act of God, and they believed. Sadly, for others, they didn't believe but made fun and mocked the disciples, refusing to believe the evidence before their eyes and ears. This is our job now, as the Church, as believers in Jesus, carriers of the Holy Spirit of God. As we allow Him to move in power through us, as we are obedient and wait and pray, and then act when God provides the right moment - speaking out the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ which does not change, for He does not change, people have an opportunity to believe in Him, or not, as they choose. Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father but by Me" (John ). And the bible says that Jesus is "the same, yesterday, today and forever" and that He will come again for His own, the people who say yes to believing in Him. This requires accepting the fact that we are sinful people by nature, that we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, and that we need a Savior. Jesus, who did not sin ever, died for the world, for us, so we could say yes to Him as Lord and Savior, and be part of God's family. I know that a lot of us know this already, but it is our testimony and it is the truth. We need to speak it out where God provides the opportunity. I need to speak it out where God gives me an opportunity. And we can be faithful to wait and to pray for God's suddenlies - where He does break in and open a door. What does it take to get our attention? When God chooses to reveal Himself to us, individually or as a group, how many of us will stop what we are doing to look? to really look and want to know what God is saying or revealing?
What if what God is showing us is something we don't want to see? How long does it take before we are willing to set aside our own desires or ideas to accept His? The LORD God Himself said, "My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord. “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts" (Isaiah 55:8-9 NLT). He is not saying this in a taunting fashion, to say we won't be able to get it or understand, or to make us feel feel bad. The amazing aspect of this passage in the bible is these verses 8-9 follow an incredible "come to Me, draw near to Me" section (vv.1-7) where God is begging His people to come back to Him, to return, to draw near, and listen to Him! God wants to share His thoughts with us, He wants to talk with us, He wants us to listen to Him - He loves us. He also knows what we really need. So when the Lord said to me, "Come up this mountain. I have something to show you." I said, Yes, Lord. Then I asked Him, ok, how do I go up this mountain with you, then? I'm beginning to understand from Him that it will be a process, and it will be a process of letting go, so I can climb that mountain, with open hands, empty hands, to see what it is He has for me to see. A group I pray with laughed with me and said, Franci, you have to pace yourself. It will take longer than you think, and there will be rest places along the way, up your mountain with God. You see, I like to run. I like to go fast, and I love a God adventure! Both feet in, jump when He says jump, but I think they are right. This will be a slower paced adventure with God, and it feels deep, deeper than anything I have done with Him before. I want to see what it is He has for me to see. I want to do this with Him. I love living life with God. There is nothing else like it. And I know there will be a bigger purpose in it - don't know what that is yet, but it will come. When Moses turned aside to see the burning bush, a miracle, a supernatural occurrence - a bush on fire but not being consumed - he saw, he drew near to understand it better, and he met God, Yahweh, the Great I AM, and Moses' life was changed. He stepped onto holy ground. It started with God setting that bush on fire to get Moses' attention. So the next time your spirit is stirred, and you sense God is trying to say something to you or show you something - stop. Stop what you are doing, and draw near to God. He has something for you to see or to hear and understand. Something that has to do with eternity, with your life with God. Don't pass it by. Our very lives can be given to God as worship.
You know how when you love and live with someone, you direct your thoughts, time, attention towards them? We spend so much time angsting over how people view us or feel about us - that all takes time and energy and spirit. When we have felt the love of God, the LORD God almighty, the only true and living God, whom this world saw and experienced in the body and life of Jesus and whom the world now sees through you and me who belong to God through Jesus (sobering thought, isn't it?), when we belong to God in that way, then our time and energy and spirit and heart and hope should be focused on Him, on God, on Jesus and God the Holy Spirit who comes to live inside those who believe in Jesus. We can live our lives in such a way that we live them for God. We can give Him our time and attention. When He wants us to stop and care for someone else, we do it, because He would have and His Spirit is prompting us to do the same. When He wants to spend some time with us at the end of the day, in prayer, in sung worship, in reading His word, the Bible, and learning from Him, we do it - because that is what sustains us in this life spiritually. We have to be fed physically. We have to be fed spiritually as well, and God and His Spirit and His Word is where we get that food. Jesus Himself said that this kind of spiritual food is better than physical food - and He knew what it meant to be hungry physically. Jesus quoted Deuteronomy 8:3 to refute the devil when he was trying to tempt Jesus into sinning in the desert, "But Jesus answered and said, "It is written, 'Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.'" Jesus even puzzled the disciples when they came back with lunch to the well where Jesus had just been talking with the Samaritan woman, and He said to them, "I have food to eat that you do not know about" (John 4:32). He was talking about doing the work of God the Father was better than physical food, more satisfying to do kingdom work than eating, even though He was physically hungry. Do we know what it means to be hungry spiritually? Have you ever had a promise from God, a word from God that you were praying for and the hunger to see it come to pass grew as you waited and prayed for it? Once we have encountered God personally, spiritually, we want more - more of Him, more of life in Him. It is better than physical food, even though we need physical food. Even more do we need spiritual food! This is a biblical principle. Are we feeding ourselves in God's presence? Are we feeding the people of God we live and worship among with true spiritual food? Are we giving our lives - all of us - to God in worship? As His people, that is who we are and what we should be doing. And, it is better than anything else. The LORD God - Father, Son and Holy Spirit - He is better than anything else. I've been loving reading in Genesis these last few weeks. So many gems from that book, but tonight what I'd like to write about is blood - blood lines and family, to be exact. Abraham was promised by God, in a covenant no less, that he, Abraham, would be the father of a huge nation. A nation as large as the stars in the sky or the sand on the beach by the ocean - uncountable. "I am God Almighty; walk before Me, ad be blameless. And I will establish My covenant between Me and you, and I will multiply you exceedingly...you shall be the father of a multitude of nations" (Genesis 17:1-4).
The only problem with this scenario is that Abraham and Sarah, his wife, were childless. They couldn't have a child. So they tried to make the promise happen in their own way - Sarah talked Abraham into taking her maid, Hagar, as his wife as well and having a child with her. Which he did. And Ishmael is born. What a mess! 13 years later, God reiterates His promise to Abraham, that Abraham and Sarah will bear the child of the promise, and Abraham is like - but what about Ishmael?! And God says, that wasn't My plan. My plan was and still is for the child of promise to be born through you and Sarah. God promised an Isaac. Abraham and Sarah, via Hagar, produced an Ishmael. Sometimes the waiting is hard. When we have a promise from God, we have to wait and pray until He brings it to pass. We need to wait for the Isaac and not create an Ishmael. After Isaac is born, Ishmael gets run off, with his mother, as Sarah couldn't stomach having them around. There was tension. But God promises to look after and bless Ishmael for Abraham's sake. Nevertheless, Ishmael is sent away. Now this is what got me when I read it afresh this week. When Abraham dies, Isaac and Ishmael bury their father. Genesis chapter 25 says this, "And Abraham breathed his last and died in a ripe, old age, an old man and satisfied with life; and he was gathered to his people. Then his sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave ...and there Abraham was buried with Sarah his wife" (vv. 8-11). The two brothers, half-brothers if you will, together, bury their father. Ishmael gets to come back for this. Isaac and Ishmael do this thing together. When it comes to family, and when it comes to burying the dead, blood will tell out. Family matters. And it matters to God. He keeps track of everyone's genealogy. But I love that. And today, I got to speak on the phone with one of my two brothers, and I miss him. I miss them both. When I think of my brothers, my heart wells up. They are mine, and I belong to them in a blood way that nothing can change. We have history together. We are family. God understands that. We are His family. And look what He did to get us back again! He, God the Son, Jesus, came down to earth as a human, as a baby, to live and die here, to rise again after 3 days, defeating death and sin, so that we could be forgiven of our sins and restored to family status with God the Father. How amazing is that? It is the one thing that really matters. I've been profoundly moved today by Genesis, Chapter 15. It is prefaced by Abram and Lot going separate ways, and Abram gives Lot the first choice of which way to go. Lot took it. He didn't defer to his elder, his uncle. He looked and he said, "I'll have that," the way and land that looked good on the outside, lush, green, prosperous, but was actually full of sin and wickedness - yes, Lot set out for Sodom and Gomorrah - taking first the way that looked better.
Abram says ok, and he goes the other direction. Now I love this. God says to Abram, "Now lift up your eyes, and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward; for all the land which you see, I will give it to you and to your descendants forever" (Ch 13:14-15). Anytime God says to us "now lift up your eyes" we know He has something important to show us. And how amazing is that when the LORD God of the universe wants to show us something, and here He makes a promise to Abram, a big promise, before Abram even had one child. And Abram knows that he chose the right direction to go, even though it might not have looked like it on the surface. Genesis Chapter 14 is about Abram having to rescue Lot and the people of Sodom when they are defeated and taken captive by neighboring kings, which Abram does and then withdraws again, not accepting any reward from the King of Sodom, but saying that he relies on God alone. And then we get to Chapter 15. For the first time in the Bible, we read the words "and the word of the LORD came to...". God speaks to Abram in a special way - His word comes to Abram. So this is a bit different from God just speaking to Abram. The word of the LORD came to Abram, and God said, "Do not fear, Abram, I am a shield to you; your reward shall be very great." God gives Abram a word, a promise, to hold onto. So Abram asks God what to do about not having any children himself, to inherit this promise from God. And God gives Abram another word - He says, "This man (a person in his household but not his son) will not be your heir; but one who shall come forth from your own body, he shall be your heir." Then God surprises us again. He continues to reveal His thoughts and ways to Abram. God took Abram outside his tent and said, "Now look toward the heavens and count the stars, if you are able to count them" (v.5). And God tells Abram, "so shall your descendants be." And we get to a pivotal verse - pivotal for Abram and the people of Israel, and I think pivotal for all of us who choose to believe in God. Verse 6 says, that after God saying this about the number of Abrams descendants being like the number of the stars, it says, "Then Abram believed in the LORD; and God reckoned it to him as righteousness." Faith in God! Faith in what God says to him, to us! And God sees that faith and He says - that's my child! After that God makes a covenant with Abram, has Abram gather up the animals for sacrifice and prepare for the offering to be consumed by God. And then Abram waits. He waits for God to show up. He waits for God to come and receive this sacrificial offering. He even has to scare birds away from the prepared sacrifice as he waits. Waiting is important in the kingdom of God. God often has us wait, testing our faith, testing our belief in Him. He also has us wait because sometimes there are important times and places for events to happen. And so Abram waits, and the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram and terror and great darkness fell upon him. And God shows up. Then God surprises us again - He reveals to Abram, He foretells - prophesies - what is to come. God tells Abram about the 400 years of slavery in Egypt that Abram's descendants will go through, until the time, the particular time occurs, when judgement will ensue on Egypt and God will set His people free to go into the land He has promised Abram. And God passes between the sacrificial offerings, in the form of a smoking oven and a flaming torch, and He makes a covenant with Abram. He says, "To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt as far as the great river, the river Euphrates..." (vv. 18-21). I love it when God shows me stuff. I love it when God gives me a word to hold onto. And sometimes, as we live with a word from God, we have to hold on tight to it, through difficult times, times that make us question if we are on the right track. But when we believe in God, believe He will do what He said, and wait for it, work for it, talk to Him about it, walk out that faith in Him, when we do that He delights to call us His children. This is what a life of faith is. Believing in God and following Him no matter what. And it is always worth it. He is always worth it. Abram, who became Abraham, one of the fathers of the people of Israel, a man of faith, a brother to you and me who believe in the LORD God, he had to wait, walk in faith, and know that he would not be alive to see the total fulfillment of that promise. But he did it anyway, because he believed God, and God was faithful to him, to bring the promised son, to be a shield for Abraham, and God is always faithful to His people, to you and to me. |
Franci Ballwatching and working for the kingdom of God in Sutton Coldfield, Birmingham - UK Archives
January 2019
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