sjb

It seems ages since I've logged on. After the hacker attack, I just let the lessons pile up while I worked on other projects. I can't even exactly remember where I was. Hopefully, I will get back in the groove and do a lesson a day in my daily devotional time. This is my second study with Joyful Heart. I have learned so much, and my faith has grown. I am from Arkansas and actively involved in the Emmaus Community. Any others out there? If so, DeColores!

Both Melchizedek and Abraham put emphasis on "God Most High" and the God the Creator. It is obvious that they're worshiping the same God. How the meeting with Melchizedek must have warmed Abraham's heart and strenthened his faith!

This is the first on-line Bible study I've ever done, and I was hesitant to enroll in it at first. After all, I have my church activities three days (or nights) a week, my Emmaus community in which I am involved, plus daily devotionals and Bible readings here at home. However, I've been preparing a study on Genesis which I'm to teach. I had already worked up material for the first 11 chapters when I began searching for resources for the rest of the book. When I took the plunge and signed on to the Abraham study, I have never been so awed. The questions inspired in-depth thinking. I could hardly wait to get a question so I could get in here and answer it. But, more often than not, I would not leave the question at my desk. I'd think on it all during the day. I'd discuss it with my husband. Then, I'd discuss it with my friends. I knew my friend Mike loved Genesis, so I told him about it. He is now coming up just behind me on the study. So, Pastor Ralph, if your plan is evangelism, it is really working in this part of southwest Arkansas. I thank you so much for this gift, and I thank God for blessing me through your study. We Christians tend to think of the Pentecost, the coming of the Holy Spirit, as the core beginning of our church. From what I know about my Jewish friends, they seem to count from Moses and their deliverance from Egypt as a beginning. But since this study of Abraham, I am ever mindful that God put His plan into action long years before either event with a pagan tribesman who had the faith to be led by the One God, a god that he could not see, but who spoke to him and made promises to him--promises He's still keeping to this day.

What impresses me the most is Abraham's true friendship with God. He could hear God. He could talk with God. Can you think of anything more awesome?? What really gets to me is that I know that we, too, can hear God and talk with Him. We, too, can have God as our best friend. I drove 52 miles one-way to my job for five years. During that time, I truly communed with God. I talked with him on the way to work and then on the way back. My friends and relatives tried to give me audio books and music tapes to pass my time. I laid them aside and talked to God instead. When I began a job 10 minutes away from my home, it didn't take me too long to realize that I was missing my time with God. I was no longer in my little cocoon two hours per day. I was letting outside "static" and my "busy-ness" interfere with our friendship. Have you ever lost friends like that really? Special bonds are formed through mutual interests, careers, etc. Then a change occurs in your lives so that the bonds are broken. You go one way. Your friend goes another. As for me, God called me back. But as I think about Abraham, I think about how easily he could have gone his way without God. He had been given material wealth. You know that he had "the static and busy-ness" of running his enterprises. But Abraham's faith just grew stronger. God grant that I walk in the faith of Abraham and never move so far that He is not within earshot!

In one way, the servant's prayer almost seems like the prayers some people pray when they go to the Bible and say, "God will give me the answer to my prayer by guiding me to the correct scripture when I open the book." Most of us know when we do that, we're likely to get "the begats" or something similar. However, we must remember that the servant was there on faith--his faith and that of his master. To me, that was simply his way of asking God's help--and God must have been expecting it. I think he made sure the right girl was there.

Well, I certainly don

Lot and his family evidently had a lot of clout in Sodom. After all, the angels had found Lot at the city gate where men of influence and politics stayed and took care of business. If we think back to the times in our spiritual life when we hesitated, it would probably be quite akin to that of Lot's family. We hesitate within our spiritual life when its growth is going to affect a secular life of ease. It's hard to say "Yes" to God when, in doing so, our physical situation will suffer. I always think of the story of Jesus and the "rich young ruler" who admired Jesus so much, but just could not make that final cut and give up all his material wealth to follow Jesus.

As I have said in the past, I just have trouble with Sarah. To me, she is one of those women who uses her femininity to manipulate and control her spouse. But she was chosen by God despite her shortcomings. Isn't everyone?? Sarah showed little faith and a lot of human frailty in her dealings with Hagar and Ishmael. She was spiteful and jealous. Did you ever think about how she would have dealt with her daughter-in-law Rebekah, had she lived? I think she would have probably made Rebekah's life about as miserable as she had Hagar's in the past. According to 1 Peter 3:6, Sarah's virtue lay in her submission to Abraham. After all, she had followed him throughout all his wanderings and had submitted to the half-truth of her being his sister in dealing with the pharaoh and Abimilech. (I won't accept Hebrews 11:11 as showing Sarah's faithfulness. The way I read that scripture is that Abraham is the faithful one--in spite of his age and Sarah's being barren.) I am sure that Sarah made a good mother to Isaac. And that, after all, was her God-chosen role she played in the history of the Hebrew people.

Every time I read the story of Abraham's offering of Isaac, I cry...not for Abraham and Isaac, but for God's son who was the ultimate sacrifice to save my sorry soul. I can't remember how old I was, probably in my teens, before I read this scripture and connected it to John 3:16 which I had memorized earlier. From the word usage alone we hear God's prophetic voice. It's as though He is saying, "Remember how you feel about your son now so you will know how I feel as Mine is truly sacrificed." I especially lose it when Abraham tells Isaac that God will provide the lamb. All of us recognize from personal parent-child relationships that Abraham's mission was one that most of us would probably fail at. How far Abraham has come in his faith journey!! God grant that I, too, can make the journey of faith in all aspects of my life! Amen and amen.

As I have mentioned in other postings, I have had to battle my willfulness, my pride, and just plain old contrariness that I can "fix-it" to let God take His rightful place in my life. God has always provided for me. I found that out many times when I had made a mess of things in my own muddling way. As I look back, I find that God has been caring for me all along, making sure I made the right decisions--or at least decisions that would lead me to the place where I am now with the people I share my life with now. I don't know why. I don't know for what purpose. But I know there is a why and a purpose that he did not let me stray too far or make too big a mess. Right now, God is leading me through trials as I help my children.

Yes, I surrendered my all to Jesus a long time ago. There is only one battle I face now, and I've had a full dose of it just here lately. It's about worry. I know without a doubt that there is no need for me to worry, that I belong to God and that He will take care of things that crop up in my life. However, I have four children and six grandchildren, so there is always something for me to fret over. I say I'm giving a particular trouble to God, but if I'm not careful, I've taken it back away from Him and am trying to fix it myself. I pray for forgiveness for that. I recognize it as being about as big a sin as I can commit.

Satan wants us to think that we are going it alone...that we might as well give up...and that God isn't there. God gives us trials for a growing and maturing process. And God is there...just a call away...to strengthen us and guide us. I am sure that we've all had our trials. I'm afraid I wasn't an inspiration to anyone during my most trying time... and it took God, with me weeping and whining all the way, to get me through it. My youngest son has provided our family with inspiration in his trials. When my daughter-in-law was in her 20th week of pregnancy, she was hospitalized for what was to be the duration of her pregnancy. At 25 weeks, still in the hospital, she came down with a SAARS-like illness that threatened her life. The doctors decided that in order to save her, they had to take the baby. Our little Joshi came into the world weighing 2 pounds. His mother stayed on a respirator and at the point of death for 6 more weeks. Joshi grew to weigh 3 pounds during that time, but he was having trouble with taking feedings, so the doctor asked for permission to do a biopsy of his intestines. During the procedure, his intestine was nicked and he developed peritonitis. From February through May, my son made the hospital his home. To the best of my knowledge, he just left the hospital once, and that was when he took us to his home so we could spend the night there. He went from pulminary ICU to neo-natal ICU and back again. And then started the round again. During that time, he did not question God. He just became aware, for the first time in his life, how much he needed God. He was baptized in the hospital chapel when Joshi was a week old. It took God to heal mother and baby and it took God to give my son the strength and faith needed for that ordeal. May God be praised!

I can't help wondering when Abraham realized that he was dealing with El-Olam, Eternal God. My husband says I wonder and question too much. He himself is quite satisfied with what Paul tells him in 1 Corinthians 13. I don't question God. I just like to think about those great people whose lives are depicted in the Bible and try to watch them as they mature in their faith journey. To me, the title El-Olam strengthens my understanding of God as the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. The great truths at the very beginning of creation were the same as the truths for today. How awesome!

Well, it is easy to see Abraham's blessings at the beginning of Chapter 21 (Isaac's birth) and the end of the chapter (his successful negotiations with Abimelech). It is harder to see anything in mid-chapter that is a direct blessing for Abraham. We know it must have been almost more than he could bear to send Ishmael away. But he was blessed in that he knew that was what God had told him to do, instead of his just giving in to Sarah's bitterness and rage. Evidently, what was prophesied to Hagar before Ishmael's birth was fulfilled in later life (Genesis 25:18) and there would have been nothing but strife in Abraham's family for him to have to deal with had he not sent Ishmael away. As it was, Ishmael must have somehow stayed in contact because we learn later that he came back to help Isaac bury Abraham. Isaac was blessed because it is through his line that God's promise to Abraham comes about. Yes, I personally have faced rejection from my mother. I was an adult before I realized that my mother controlled my father through me. When I refused to play the game, she rejected me. She went to her grave calling me names. Now that hurts! It has only been through God's grace and Jesus' love for me that I am even partially healed. Sometimes the old hurts are brought back to mind, but I can wipe away my tears in a hurry when I remember that God loves me. I can even think now that the rejection may have been a blessing because I cherish my own children and make sure that nothing but love and affection enters our relationships.

I think the same emotions drove Sarah to demand Ishmael's expulsion as earlier when she drove Hagar away: jealousy and frustration that her plans had gone awry. She used the excuse that Ishmael was "playing" with her son. There is great debate whether this means Ishmael was "picking on" Isaac or whether Sarah thought Ishmael, as the son of a servant, shouldn't be allowed to treat Isaac as an equal. Having seen older children coming to accept a younger sibling, I can see where there may have been some teasing and tormenting where Isaac was concerned. Considering how Ishmael's personality is described, this is a distinct possibliity. But the last sentence in V. 20 leads me to believe that, even if Ishmael were totally innocent, Sarah would have made the same demands. I come from a dysfunctional family where my mother used me in my childhood as a lever to control others, especially my father. I guess that is why I find Sarah so disturbing. I've been here searching my heart to remember if there were ever a time when I demanded my husband to act against his principles. Earlier in our marriage, my husband's family placed so many demands on his time and energy that our children and I were placed last...or so I felt. I'm not sure I ever tried to force him to act against his principles, but I know that I must have said and done things that compromised his loyalties.

Sarah laughed with joy and belief. This is the first time we see Sarah actually recognizing and crediting God for anything. When God heard her laugh before, her laugh was in unbelief. It has taken this miracle of giving Sarah a son to bring her to her belief. Aren't we all like that to some extent? We must see God working in our own lives before we accept Him on a personal level. Don't you just love God's sense of humor?! Most of us have had at least one punster friend in our lives where we learn to groan as soon as he opens his mouth and before he can make a play on words. It's fun here to see God as the Ultimate Punster in establishing Isaac's name.

Hi. I have been on the Abraham studiy for several weeks now, but I just found this page tonight. I am Mike's friend and I was the one who told him about this study. I am semi-retired, and do adjunct work at the same college in the same field-- mathematics. I have my little ritual time--early morning--to talk to God and devote time to studying His Word. This study is helping me grow! I love it.

During this whole chapter, something has been niggling at the back of my mind. Remember, Abraham was the person who had interceded with the Lord on Lot's behalf--not Lot himself. Lot had not been negatively portrayed up until this point, although we did see a "grabby" part of his nature when he chose what he assumed to be the best of the land in Chapter 13. Now, we see him, his wife and his family in a different light. For one thing, Lot evidently dealt with the scum of Sodom and was "one of them," or he would not have been at the city gates as a leading citizen when the angels arrived. The only thing going for Lot in the whole deal was his hospitality, something that had probably been ingrained in him by his Uncle Abraham. The angels had literally dragged Lot and his family from their home in order to save them. We've seen now that Lot's wife was having second thoughts about leaving "the good life." And now this! Lot was afraid to go to Zoar. Did he ask God for guidance? No. Nowhere in this story do we see a shred of faith and trust in God in Lot or Lot's family. Lot and his family were saved as far as they got just by Abraham's intercession. What does this prove? Well, to me, I thought back to my teenage years here in the very rural part of the Bible Belt where I still live. In the summer time, we would have church revivals. Preachers from the various churches would almost vie for the "unsaved." Family members would begin to pressure their kids to join the church. By the end of a revival, everything would have reached a fever pitch, and bunches of kids would come up to "be saved" at the same time. Then the revival would be over, the kids would start back to school and begin again doing what most kids do--following a crowd. Had their hearts really been changed? I am not one to judge. But I do feel that is where a lot of our Sunday Morning Christians came from. The point? Families and friends can intercede only so far. God will always be there waiting with outstretched arms. But until a person is convicted for himself, giving up his old way of life in repentence, and accepting Christ as his Lord and Saviour, nothing will actually change. You've got to know that old Satan is in there struggling for that soul all the while! Lot is proof of that.

Lot's wife really had not given up that the life she knew was being destroyed. I think we've all been like that at times. We look back and think about what might have been. The further into our faith journey, however, the less likely we are to do that. We are content with where God is leading us and trusting in HIS judgement instead of our own.

I have a close family member who is an alcoholic. He is an alcoholic even though he has been sober for two years now. He was clean for two previous years when he "fell off the wagon." He must battle his disease at all times. He has found that he does not have the strength to battle it alone...that he must have God's help. Doctors say that alcoholism is a disease. Would that excuse this dear man from any wrongdoing if he were to get falling-down drunk? I am a diabetic. I must control my sugar intake. This, too, is hard. I am fighting a disease. I must have God's help. Most of us do have physical battles to face of one sort or another. Doctors now say that homosexuals were "born that way." Just because they were born that way does not mean they have God's blessing to act on their tendencies--any more than an alcolholic has or any more than a diabetic has. God's Word makes it clear what He thinks about homosexuality. In our particular church, we have an ongoing debate about homosexual clergy. To me, to condone a homosexual minister would be the same as condoning a heterosexual minister committing adultery. I do not think I could accept a situation like that, and probably that would be the only way that I could ever think of leaving my church. As Dr. Wilson said, we are of an age in our society where the push is on to accept homosexuality. I have had people to argue the point WWJD? First of all, they say that Jesus did not mention homosexuality. Therefore, He must have condoned it. Then, they say that Jesus accepted all people and tell me the story of Him eating with the sinners. People who use this argument fail to tell "the rest of the story": Jesus' reply. Sure He ate with the sinners--but in the capacity of The Great Physician--to heal them. When we accept Jesus, we repent of our sins. That means that we do not willfully continue our lives as before, doing what we know to be wrong. The story of the distruction of Sodom does depress me. We, as Christians, must continue to lead lives where our light can shine and quit yielding to the pressure of a permissive and perverse society.

By this time in Abraham's life, there was not a doubt in his mind about his God. He had learned to trust God completely. He knew God to be just. In a teacher-student relationship, this was Abraham's midterm test--we know what his final was to be. The reader of 18:17 can actually hear God's thoughts: "Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do?". He answered His own question in v. 19. It was time to take off the training wheels. I think God was especially pleased with Abraham because Abraham was not thinking of himself, but of others. Is this the first example in the Bible of intercessory prayer? I can't think of a prior instance. God expects us to speak up boldly. After all, we have been charged with living righteously and justly just like Abraham. God loves us as a parent and wants only good things for us, but most of all, I think, He wants to see us loving and caring for one another. We please God most with our prayers, I think, when He sees our honesty and genuine feelings. We will never be on an equal footing with God, so we can't try to boss Him around. But I think He likes for us to call things to His attention. In that way, He can record our spiritual growth, just like He did Abraham's.

Well, we may whine and complain a great deal about our chosen path, but I haven't been thrown in a den of hungry lions recently! Sure, it is difficult to fight injustice and stand up for what is right and true. People have been known to have lost their livelihoods by doing so. From what I'm seeing in the news, it seems that our road will not be any smoother any time soon. When it becomes increasingly clear that all signs and semblances of Christianity must be erased from public view to keep from offending a non-believer, I'd say satan is working overtime. Clearly, we must follow the teachings of our Lord and Savior. We must pray, read God's Holy Word, and listen closely to the Holy Spirit. I think the hard part is that we must set ourselves apart from worldly things, yet live in that same world to witness of God's grace. In Ephesians 6, Paul gave us the formula: Put on the full armor of God. I have a need to pull out that scripture and read it quite often.

It has to differ in each household, but the common denominator has to be mutual respect and love for one another. My husband and I have been married for 44 years. As I think back, I think that our agreement has been more in terms of 1 Corinthians 12 as Paul describes the church rather than the husband leading and the wife submitting. We brought our own strengths to our marriage and each willingly used them. We also readily admitted our weaknesses and worked on them together. I was reading somewhere the other day the theory that what God meant when he gave Eve the punishment, "your desire shall be for your husband" (Genesis 3:16) is that woman would desire control over man. I have been thinking about that a great deal because I have noticed women who live under very domineering, controlling male rule are usually the ones who become very manipulative and conniving toward everyone. Such an arrangement becomes a lose-lose situation.

I sit at the computer, praying. I believe the miracle that Dr. Wilson described. I believe in a similar miracle that lets me enjoy the lives of my two-year-old grandchild and his mother. I see the miracle of God's intricate designs in the natural world each day. My heart never misses a beat. The earth does not stop on its axis. Jesus performed miracles and healings. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, Peter and John performed miracles and healings as recorded in Acts. Why, then, do I have this little niggling thought at the back of my mind that questions-- not God's ability--but God's willingness to perform miracles like those described in the Bible? I carry a lot of religious baggage from my childhood, as I guess we all do. My uncle had an incurable illness. He listened faithfully to a television evangelist-healer. I can still hear the evangelist. I can still see my dear uncle placing his hand over his chest. And yet my uncle wasn't healed. It has taken me forty years to come to grips that all prayers are not answered as we choose and that just because we have faith does not mean that God is going to give us what we want. Paul understood that. But he, too, must have had a hard time coming to grips with it. In 2 Corinthians, he describes how three times, he had asked God to get rid of the "thorn in my side." God's answer: "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness." So this is the lesson I have learned: God performs miracles through prayer. Nothing is too big or too small for God. When we pray and God is not forthcoming with the answer we cry for, His grace is sufficient for us and we, like Paul, can proclaim, "I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamiities for the sake of Christ, for whenever I am weak, then I am strong." (2 Corinthians 12: 10). Amen.

Circumcision of males was the mosaic symbol used to show that God's people were set apart, awaiting the coming of the Messiah. In modern times, male babies are circumcised to avoid health issues later on in life. Had the law been kept, there would not have been a religion called Christianity, but those who believed in Christ would have been a Jewish sect or "denomination." I think Paul, James, and the others hashed that out years ago. You see, Jesus told everyone that He would send the Spirit...and boy, did He! The Spirit works in the heart of the unbeliever to convict; then at the time of conversion, the Spirit comes into our hearts to dwell there. Because we need an outward symbol or ritual to help us remember, we use baptism. Again, by going through this study, I am going deeper into my thinking than I've ever done in the past. I've just sat here and talked myself into a better understanding of infant baptism. In my particular church, accepted baptism rituals can be sprinkling, pouring, or immersion--so infant baptism is included. But we also believe in one baptism only. I did not have my four children baptised as infants for that reason. To me, part of that wonderful feeling would have been lost for them--that true remembrance--had they been baptised as infants, and then gone through a confirmation ceremony only. Now, through this study, I see that if we are comparing circumcision to baptism, since male babies were circumcised at 8 days of age, that had to represent a ritual of dedication for the parents and family, rather than the babies themselves.