Sarah43

God is my shield because without God I am nothing and cannot protect myself. The exceedingly great reward He promises me is eternal life and freedom from sin, the honor to know Him through His Son Christ Jesus. God is my Protector and I will, with His guidance, serve Him.

The king of Sodom is evil. Abraham knows this and understands that to accept riches from an evil man allies him with evil. By Abraham's refusal, he is refuting the concept of "the ends justifies the means." We learn here that we should disassociate ourselves from evil people although we might gain from them somehow. Abraham knows that he does not need evil profit. God will take care of him. We should have the same knowledge.

Abraham, with his tithe, is thanking God and giving glory to God for his success. Tithing today does represent the same thankfulness. We should tithe to God to acknowledge that all our glory is a blessing from Him.

Abraham's military expedition to rescue Lot tells us that Abraham values blood ties, is powerful with resource, has great networking abilities, and is confident that he is walking with the Lord. We also learn that he is not afraid of greater might and that he is a skilled military strategist. I would emulate Abraham's trust in the Lord and regard for his kinsman.

I think Abraham is blessed by God and material wealth is part of this blessing. However, material wealth does not always reflect God's blessing, nor does poverty reflect God's curse.

We do need teachers in the church, but we must beware and use the inward dwelling spirit of Christ as the ultimate and final teacher. We are all human. We can all stray, and lead others to stray. Only Christ is perfect. I think of a story my husband told me about a church he used to attend, where the pastor himself seduced a women of his congregation, or maybe she was the originator of temptation. Who started it does not matter. Neither one helped the other and identified Satan for who he was. Neither sought the Holy Spirit to help them. Anointing is a symbol of the indwelling Spirit.

Abiding in Jesus, Remaining in Him, continuing in Him is exemplified partially by the buzz phrase "What would Jesus do?" or its spinoff "What wouldn't Jesus do?" While I out of hand dislike buzz phrases because often times they are too cutesy and simplistic, I think this one means that daily we should seek his guidance, surrender ourselves to His will, actively proclaim to Him a surrendering of our will to His. Our arrogance and self will is limitless. Daily prayer in every decision to our King is abiding. Tell me, O Lord, what it is you want me to do. Daily reading of the Word. We need to ask and be able to receive, having left our will in the dust by the roadside. This is not as easy to do as it might seem. The symptoms of a Christian who is not abiding in Jesus might include, not praying, not being accountable to other Christians, stopping going to church or prayer, or study, or active and unashamed sinning.

If we seek Christ through the indwelling spirit, humbly and with an understanding of our own limitations, then the Spirit will guide us, reminding us of Christ's teachings, directing us to a study of the Word, and to fellowship with other Christians who can help us walk with the Lord.

I believe that John is referring to baptism. Anointing is traditional a mark of the Holy Spirit in the Bible; in the OT, the anointing is with oil; in the NT it is with living water. I think every Christian has received this anointing through baptism. However, all of us are sinners and need daily renewal through seeking the Lord and the Holy Spirit. It is too easy to succumb to the world by being smug and prideful about anointing.

I think the antichrist is an actual person who is a true adversary of Christ. The antichrists in the church are those who behave immorally and/or deny that Christ was God in the Flesh, that he was at once divine and a man. We see the spirit of the antichrist at work in our day as it was in John's time, in our dark walk toward the end, where we slaughter each other, destroy the gifts that God has given us, the earth and each other. We live in a materialistic world where little thought or only lip service is given to Christ and His teachings. We must strive daily and be humble about our strivings, and thankful, to accept the sacrifice Christ has given us and to feel Spirit and let it direct our paths. It seems that if we are not constantly striving, we can be swayed by the World, which is indeed Godless.

John gives the sinful examples of: ****, greed, and pride. These are difficult to discern in ourselves because we are imperfect in our flesh. Worldliness is harmful to our future because it leads us away from God and his kingdom of salvation.

John references a world that is inimical to the Word of the Lord. It is the world of pleasure seekers.

As Christians, we are supposed to encourage each other, see Hebrews !0:24-26 (And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: 25Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching. 26For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins) to help each other stay on the path of Christ. John encourages by reminding all that Christ's sacrifice has saved them, that they are strong, that they do know God the father, can overcome Satan, and have the Spirit in them.

,We are supposed to be like Christ. He gave us the Spirit and the Word, His own example, to be able to do so. If He could forgive all of us, in our imperfection, our pettiness, our scathing idiocy regarding love and forgiveness, then we can be like him. I have been darkened by hurt and hate. I have stumbled around for years. I stumble still. To come into the light, to be accountable for the sin of my imperfect emotions and psychological blinders, I must pray for the living waters to wash over me, so that I may be like Him. The first step toward accountability is to confess. The second is humble and ask for help. This I do, O lord. Help me to climb out of the darkness and be able to forgive as you forgave us. Help me to draw near you and feel your Spirit. Help me to leave my pride in the dirt of the roadside and admit sin instead of feeding it like some gruesome and dangerous pet. Help me to trust in your ability to protect my soul and lead me to right behavior. I love you with all my heart and mind and body and soul. Amen.

We must not forget that we are sheep too, and none but Christ exalted and adored. My mother used to call judgemental people "holier than thou-ists" or "plaster saints." But we are all guilty of the sin of arrogance and pride and judgement at one time or another. Love is having compassion for someone who sins, as Christ does for us, not forgetting that we too sin. We can pray to the Lord and to Jesus to take away our propensity to regard ourselves as better or holier than others and remember that all wer made in God's image. We can also rebuke and encourage each other. Sometimes one calls for the other.

John assures us we will be forgiven if we seek forgiveness from Christ for our sins. This comforts us because only Christ is without sin, and we are imperfect, ie likely to sin. We seek to become like Christ because He offers us Hope and Love. He believes in us, and offers us Mercy and Encouragement to not sin.

Confession is admitting in words what your are doing that is sinful. Sometimes brutal honesty, the specific confession, is the only way of being honest. It is important to confess sin so that we may receive forgiveness and the Spirit so that we may be directed away from sin and to righteousness. Cleansing is what happens after confessing sin, after the sinner is forgiven and receives Spirit. Thank you Jesus for forgiveness and cleansing.

The result of walking in darkness, willful sinning, is loss of fellowship, and deceiving ourselves that this is okay to do, and a resultant denial of Christ. We have to confess our sins and ask for forgiveness and sin no more. Praying and going to church and being with other Christians helps.

We believe, I think, that going to church and knowing the Word, is enough. We go and study the Word but we don't share the particulars of our lives sometimes because we are afraid that, if they know our struggles with sin, others will think we are not really Christians, that we are not perfect. Only Christ is perfect. I was discussing someone I know and have some strife with to my pastor, and I complained, pettily enough, that this person "has a church face, but is a different (more sinful?) person outside of church." My pastor enlightened me by telling me we all have a church face. Every single one of us. Discussing our struggles with sin with other Christians, praying with them and asking for Spirit to inform and direct us is accountability. Accountability is walking the walk, not just talking the talk.

Q5. (12:2-3) What relationship does God's promise to Abraham in 12:2-3 have to do with the incident of Sarah's abduction in 20:10-20? Sarah's abduction and consequent return to her husband show the fulfillment of God's promise.

Q4. What do you think about Abraham's and Sarah's ethics and faith? Are they ethically and morally wrong? Does the Scripture intend to show that their actions as a lack of faith? What lessons should we disciples learn from these stories? While I don't doubt that Abraham and Sarah had faith and ethics, their behavior regarding deception and adultery did take me aback. One cannot justify and say, well they were only a little bit sinful, but altogether they were justified. That is like being a little bit pregnant. I believe they were trying to survive, and I also believe that, as Pastor Ralph has indicated, Abraham did not just stop seeking God and start sinning. God put a stop to the behavior through punishment of the Pharoah and Abimilech. I do not know what lessons we should learn from thse stories, except that adultery is wrong and God will punish it if allowed to continue. Also, Abraham was truly watched over by God.

Q3. (20:3-6) What does this story teach us about God's view of adultery? Can God forgive a person who has committed adultery? This story teaches us that adultery is a sin, and will bring punishment. God can and does and will forgive adultery, or any other sin, if we ask forgiveness and repent and seek Him to guide our behavior, and not use the idea of forgiveness as a type of carte blanche to justify sin. 1 John 2:4 " He that saith he abideth in him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him."

Q2. (12:17-20) Why did Pharaoh and his household get sick? What effect did this have? What was God seeking to accomplish through this affliction? Did it have the desired effect? Pharoah and his household got sick because Pharoah took Abraham's wife. The sickness caused Pharoah to question what he had done and to question Abraham as well. God was seeking to accomplish the safety of Abraham and Sarah in a strange land and also the sanctification of their marriage. And He did accomplish both. God works in mysterious ways, indeed.

Q1. (12:10) What dangers faced Abraham and his family as aliens and sojourners in Egypt and elsewhere? Who might oppress them? What "aliens and sojourners" live in your community? Why did they come? How are they being oppressed or discriminated against by employers and others in the community? What can you and your church do to "love those who are aliens"? A sojourner's life is fraught with peril, as he or she is at the mercy of the natives in the strange land. He or she might be robbed, assaulted, killed, cheated, or raped, tormented in a variety of discriminatory ways. What comes to my mind is Tennessee William's words through his heroine, Blanche Dubois, who says at the end of the drama A Streetcar Named Desire, "I have always depended on the kindness of strangers." Also, Chaucer's words somewhere (I forget where exactly--it's been a while)embedded in The Canterbury Tales, "Life is a thoroughfare full of woe, and we are but pilgrims passing to and fro. I also think of the Greek concept of guest friendship, which honors and gifts the stranger, who might be the master of the house in disguise, or God. Finally, I am moved by the Word in Hebrews 13:2, " Be not forgetful to entertain strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unaware." A stranger in a strange land, Abraham and his retinue faced the perils of any sojourner and anyone might have oppressed him/them. I live in a rural non-diverse neighborhood, but thirty minutes away, aliens abound. Latinos and Africans and Pakistanis in particular. They came to live in this city from their homeland to make a better life for their families. They tend to band together to form their own communities, but outside those new communities, they are teased and denigrated, perhaps paid less and/or made to work more and unsafely, as they don't always understand the laws and customs in America. Sometimes they are shunned by others, or ignored. I learned last week that in 1926, a community of Jews, living on the land where my daughter's high school is today, was slaughtered by some locals down to the last child, and buried in situ in a communal pit grave. The name of the road/grave site on which the high/school is built on is Gettile, a derivative of the word ghetto. In my church, and outside of it, if there is an outside of the church, I can do well to treat sojourners as made in His image, as are we all.