MyBeloved

There have been many trials in my life and they have brought me closer to the LORD and also they have made me more sensitive to others who are going through trials. No, I have not let Satan destroy me through the trials. I knew GOD was there all of the time and the trials made me go to Him for strength. When I see others going through trials I pray for them as I never would have if I had not been through trials. GOD is faithful, praise His name!

What great love is this that He was willing to take my place on the cross, suffer and die and rise again from the grave. There is no love in this world that can compare to that love. What a great GOD we have!

I learned to trust GOD to provide salvation by grace through faith. His Spirit identified with my spirit that He had forgiven all of my sins. In the past He has provided for me in answering my prayers, not always the way I wanted but according to His will. What a privilege to go to Him in prayer and know that He listens and answers.

We cannot really know GOD until we can trust Him with our whole lives. When we place our trust in Him for salvation by grace through faith we are placing our lives in His hands. Yes, I have surrendered by life to Jesus Christ, my Lord and Savior who took my place on the cross, died, and rose bodily from the grave. Surrendering to the Lord has blessed me in that I can come to Him directly because the righteousness of Christ has been placed to my account. He is involved in every part of my life and without Him I would be most miserable.

When we have trials in our lives Satan wants us to doubt GOD and his wonderful love for us. He wants us to lose our testimony and our direction in the Christian walk. GOD wants us to come closer to Him in our trials and trust Him to bring us through those trials. He wants us to commit the trials to Him and trust Him to work out the problems. Yes, I have been through trials that have strengthened me and have brought me closer to the LORD. He has been faithful to show His love and care to me through all of my trials since I came to know Him.

What a privilege we have to know the Eternal GOD personally through Jesus Christ. If this life is all that we have we would be most miserable, but we have a wonderful future for which to look forward. One day we will live with Him forever and ever. Praise His Name! This fact alters the way I live in that I try to please Him in my everyday life. Since I still have a sinful nature there are times when I fail Him but I can go to Him and He will forgive me of my sins.

Helen Spaulding answered the questions much better than I could, I aggree with her. Yes, I have been rejected because of greed on the part of those who rejected me but my LORD knows all about it and He knows my heart.

Sarah's motivation to demand Ishmael's expulsion from Abraham's family encampment was the fact of Ishmael's mocking of Isaac. He could have been hurting him in some way as older boys sometimes do to younger boys. She definitely did not want Ishmael inheriting any of Abraham's property. Sarah was not righteous in her actions because it was her idea for Abraham to have the child by his handmade. That was wrong and she is reaping what she had sown. No, I have never tried to force my husband to act against his principles.

Sarah's laughter in Genesis 18:12-15 was of unbelief, she thought it was incredible that she would have a child in her old age. Abraham's laughter in Genesis 17:17 was a delightful laugh at the impossibility of a son for him in his old age. Sarah's laughter now that Isaac is born is full of joy and realization that GOD keeps His promises. Isaac's birth was miraculous and his parents realized that and believed that GOD was with them and that He would always do what He said He would do.

Lot's daughters turned to incest because of the kind of environment where they had been living. They had the values that were prominent in Sodom and they evidently had no faith in the true and living GOD. The Bible does not tell us they were born in Sodom, but they could have been and since the Bible does read in Genesis 13:13 that "the men of Sodom were wicked and were sinning greatly against the LORD.," they were reared in a city full of wickedness. Lot turned to intoxication because he was far from the LORD and he had lost everything including his wife. He didn't have faith in the LORD and he had no hope for his future. Even when he was in Sodom he had no influence that would cause anyone to want to know the LORD. He should have gone to the town where the angels told him to go instead of where he wanted to go. We should learn from this story that we should seek the LORD's direction in our lives and strive to walk in fellowship and obedience with Him and not let our surroundings influence us.

Lot's wife stopped and gazed at Sodom rather than escaping, I believe, because her heart was in Sodom. She didn't want to leave because she loved Sodom. It could be that she really didn't believe what the angels told them would happen. Jesus was telling us in Luke 17: 31-33 that we should not be so attached to the things of this life that we would not want to leave them.

Unbelief, attachments, satisfaction with the life in Sodom, could all have been the reasons that Lot and his family hesitated. Too much of the world was in his life and that is a lesson for us today, not to let too much of the world in our lives. We are in the world but we should not be of the world, we are to be set apart. I am not saying that we should be totally separate from all unsaved, how else could we tell them of Jesus? Rather we should live so as to please the One Who redeemed us and not join in with the lifestyles of those around us.

For a Christian to keep balance on the issue of homosexuality in our day we should be familiar with GOD's Word on the subject. He condemned it throughout the entire Bible. If one reads Romans 1:18 - 32 there is no way to get around this sin. Yes, a Christian can be loving and compassionate toward practicing homosexuals but we should tell them what GOD's Word says about it and we must pray for them. No, the church should never be silent about homosexuality, the entire Word of GOD must be preached condemning all sin. It should be said from the pulpit and anywhere else where the opportunity presents itself.

If a husband loves his wife just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her then a woman will be submissive to her husband as Paul teaches in Ephesians 5: 22-30. If a husband loves his wife as he does his own body a wife will want to submit to him. The husband that puts Christ first and his family second is living the way the LORD wants him to live and a wife should be willing to let him lead the family spiritually and every other way. Then there will be harmony in the home.

We can tell if we really believe in GOD's present willingness to do miracles in our day by the fact that when we come to Him in repentence and faith for salvation we know by His Spirit witnessing to our spirit that we are saved. There is no indication in Scripture that GOD will stop doing miracles. He answers every sinner's prayer of faith for salvation. Every new believer is a miracle. Every time one is born into the family of GOD it is an indication that GOD continues to do miracles. Every new baby that is born is a miracle. The intricate workings of the human body is a miracle. To regain an active faith in the GOD of miracles we need to confess to Him the sin that has caused us to lose our faith. When we allow sin to have its way in our lives we will no longer have an active faith in the GOD of miracles.

Circumcision was given to Abraham and his descendents as a sign of the covenant that GOD made. It was not given to believers in Christ. Water baptism for the believer is a sign that we now belong to GOD our Savior and we want to walk in fellowship with Him.

Circumcision of the heart is when we receive the Lord Jesus Christ as our own Savior. His shed blood cleanses the sin of our heart, the sin is taken away. Circumcision of the heart is necessary before anyone, Jew or Gentile can become a believer in Christ. To keep our faith active we need to be in GOD's Word, praying, confessing sin and seeking to walk in obedience and fellowship with Him each day. Every believer struggles with having victory over the flesh, it is part of having a sinful nature.

Circumcision for Abraham, his household, and his descendents signified they are members of the covenant people. GOD made the covenant and their circumcision was a sign that they were in that covenant. Abraham's act did not confirm the covenant, GOD confirmed the covenant. Abraham's act showed that he was a member of the covenant that GOD had made. Abraham's quick obedience showed that he believed GOD as the Scripture says.

When GOD told Abraham to "Walk before Me and be blameless," He was not telling him to be morally perfect. He was telling Abraham that He wanted him to surrender his heart to Him and walk uprightly. If he was seeking to walk with the LORD he would seek to do that which was right. Ephesians 5:15, 16, "Be very careful, then, how you live--not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil." We have the written Word and GOD's Holy Spirit within us so we should walk in fellowship and obedience with our LORD. We still have the sinful nature so it depends on which nature we feed as to how faithful we are to our LORD.

The significance of Hagar's name for GOD is that she was amazed that He would see her, an insignificant slave girl. She had probably heard the creation story and now the GOD Who created the world and everything on it is aware of her. How happy she must have been. The knowlege that GOD sees a person who has lost hope would mean everything to them. To me personally it means that He is not a GOD Who created the world and then took His hands off everything. He is very aware of us and He loves us enough to provide salvation for all who will take of it.

The angel asked Hagar the question so that she would realize what she was doing in that she was trying to make such a long journey across desert. She and the child probably would have not survived. Hagar was sent back to Sarah because that is where GOD wanted her. He had a plan for her life as well as Ishmael's. Yes, I have reacted an gotten myself out of the place GOD wanted me but He has never let me go.

GOD went through the covenant ritual with Abraham because He was confirming the covenant that He had already made with Abraham and from verse 8 we can see that Abraham needed that confirmation. GOD binds Himself to a solemn promise because He does not change. If He has said something will be we can count on the fact that it will be. Abraham responded to GOD's promises by believing what GOD said. The promise in Galatians 3:29 "And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." John 3:36 "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life:" Ephesians 1:7 "In Whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace" Hebrews 13:20 "Now the GOD of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant."

I cannot recall a time when I have been frustrated with GOD for not fulfilling His promise to me immediately. There are times when I feel discouraged because my son is so far away from the LORD and the two Aunts who are atheists and get angry with me for speaking to them about the LORD. GOD sometimes delays the fulfillment of His promises to a future time because He is omniscient and He knows the beginning and the end, His ways are best.

The amazing thing about this verse is that it was solely on Abraham's faith in GOD that righteousness was given to him. The significance of this verse is that it is solely on our belief in the death, burial, and bodily resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ that His righteousness is applied to our account. We have a wonderful GOD!

To call GOD my "Shield" means to me that nothing can come into my life without first coming by Him. It is as though I am in a circle and He is all around me. Everything must first pass through that circle, "shield" before it can get to me. Even greater than (an heir of the promises to Abraham) is the fact that according to Hebrews 4:7 I am "no longer a slave, but a son; and since I am a son, GOD has made me also an heir." To call GOD my Sovereign means that He is in complete control, the all powerful One Whom I love. I have nothing to fear when I have such an awesome GOD.