Category: Genesis

Love.Listen.Live.

8/9/2024

The multitude of believers was one in heart and soul. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they owned. With great power the apostles continued to give their testimony about the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And abundant grace was upon them all.
There were no needy ones among them, because those who owned lands or houses would sell their property, bring the proceeds from the sales, and lay them at the apostles’ feet for distribution to anyone as he had need.
Joseph, a Levite from Cyprus, whom the apostles called Barnabas (meaning Son of Encouragement), sold a field he owned, brought the money, and laid it at the apostles’ feet. Acts 4:32-37

Love.

At the end of Acts 3 we find the church, alive, thriving, growing and reproducing. It is in absolute unity. They are one in heart and soul. They are listening and actively obeying the Apostles’ teachings on the Word of God. They are in koine with one another, sharing generously all that they have because they are in common equality with one another in the gospel. Because of Jesus’ ultimate sacrifice to bring fallen humanity back into a loving relationship with their Creator God, the Church had become a return to the paradise of God, the Garden of Eden—the Garden of Delights. It is what God has made us for—an equality and love with one another that shares and gives out of love. Everything in this Garden is for the common good of all. Their attitude toward one another is “how can we ensure that each of us is thriving and rejoicing in God’s goodness?”
The Church was a new creation. It was a new beginning, where the old, dead, stony heart of people was replaced with a living heart: one that wanted to love and please God; one that was willing even to lay down one’s own life for one another.
While the one command in the Garden to humanity was “do not eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,” God knew that the very reason we chose to disobey that command was a lack of love for God. As a result, God gave a new command, the greatest command of all. It was one that would give us a reason to choose to walk in obedience: love for God.
This command the Israelites were to recite every morning and evening. It was to be their first thought before starting their day and their last upon ending it:

Listen, O Israel: The Lord our God [plural\, the Lord is One. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your physicality [nephesh\ and with all your everything [me'od\.
Deuteronomy 6:4-5

Because God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are One, we are to be one in our unity and love. The Church was now obeying God’s command to love Him and love their neighbor with all their heart, all their soul and all their strength, unified in its focus. When we love, we automatically choose to do things that are in line with God’s laws and commands because genuine love comes from God and aligns with His purposes for His people. Like God, we naturally start to choose what would be good and best for others, even at our own cost.
God wants our whole, entire selves—our hearts, everything that we feel and make decisions on; our nephesh (often translated souls, it more accurately is our physical body), every part of our physical humanity, desires and appetites; and our me’od, our ability in every circumstance to be wholly and completely given back to God in complete love and trust for our Creator.
While we find ourselves drawn to stay in this delightful fellowship of the Church, into this perfect Garden we see the plot begin to thicken:

Now a man named Ananias, together with his wife Sapphira, also sold a piece of property. With his wife’s full knowledge, he kept back some of the proceeds for himself, but brought a portion and laid it at the apostles’ feet.
Then Peter said, “Ananias, how is it that Satan has filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and withhold some of the proceeds from the land? Did it not belong to you before it was sold? And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal? How could you conceive such a deed in your heart? You have not lied to men, but to God!”
On hearing these words, Ananias fell down and died. And great fear came over all who heard what had happened. Then the young men stepped forward, wrapped up his body, and carried him out and buried him.
Acts 5:1-5

Listen.

Cue the villain.
Into this Garden, this New Creation, this paradise of love and goodwill and kindness, we find evil creeping in.
The Serpent is back.
The very Hebrew letters used to spell out the serpent’s name, nachash נָּחָ֑שׁ, describe the kind of adversary we face continuously:

נָּ nun: life/son/heir/seed
חָ֑ chet: divide/cut/separate
שׁ shin: teeth/two/devour/consume
"One who devours an heir in order to divide and cut off life"

his name, satan שָּׂטָ֛ן, is similar in meaning:

שָּׂ shin: teeth/two/devour/consume
טָ֛ tet: basket/surround/ensnare
ן nun: life/son/heir/seed
"One who surrounds life in order to ensnare and devour it."

The serpent's plan not a new scheme; it’s a very ancient one. In fact, he must have thought, ‘it worked last time!’

In fact, that ancient serpent has been waiting to devour life from the beginning and continues even now. But he will never win!

...And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she bore her child he might devour it. She gave birth to a male child, one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron, but her child was caught up to God and to his throne,...Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon. And the dragon and his angels fought back, but he was defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death. Rev. 12:4-11

Listening, as the Greatest Command says, involves more than just allowing the sound or voice or someone to enter our ears. It encompasses hearing, understanding, and taking action that follows through with the intent of the speaker.
The Bible tells us that we become slaves or servants to the one we listen to and obey:

Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient servants, you are servants of the one you obey—whether you are servants to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness?
Rom. 6:16

The serpent roams around seeking to find people to listen to his voice, to become his slaves, so that he can accuse us before God. In Acts 5, Ananias wasn’t listening to God’s command to love. His motivations for participating in the selling of his property, inaccurate donation and lies were all rooted in a desire to gain something for himself rather than serving the crucial needs of those around him. Just as Eve listened to the voice of the serpent and saw that the fruit was “good for success,” he wasn’t just withholding some of the value of the land. He was withholding himself from His Creator. What he was bringing to God was representing the value that he placed upon God and his relationship to Him. His giving was only as a show to everyone else. Barnabas had given out of the gratitude and love of his heart; Ananias was giving in order to get something out of them all. It wasn’t a gift of love.
While neither Ananias nor we have an obligation to sell all our property and give it all away, when we see people in need our Spirit-filled response should be a desire to ask the Lord how we can give out of the great abundance that He has entrusted to us. God wants our whole selves, nothing withheld. He wants us to listen and respond to Him in this love by giving Him our whole selves in every moment, obeying every Word that He speaks to us. This will often “cost” us, sometimes a great amount. But it is never even close to the incredibly abundant grace that He has given us.
In the Garden, the serpent came and deceived the woman, telling her that she would not die. When she decided to eat the fruit, her body, her nephesh, did not die immediately. Her spirit, however, did. When Adam agreed with her to eat, his spirit also passed from life into death. Into their bodies, their nephesh, however, death entered as a slow and inevitable process.
After they sinned, when they heard God’s voice in the Garden, they were no longer in loving fellowship with God. As a result, they were afraid and hid from His faces (panim).
In Hebrew, the word for “hide” is chabah חָבָא.

חָ chet: divide/cut off/wall off
בָ beit: house/household/family
א aleph: ox/strong leader/God the Father/first

In choosing to hide from God and wrapping themselves in fig leaves, trying vainly to cover up their own shame and sin, they were effectively causing themselves to be cut off and divided from the household of their loving, heavenly Father. This was exactly what the serpent had intended: to ensnare and to cut off life and the heirs from the inheritance of the Father.
However, at the voice of God, Adam and Eve together made a decision to come out of hiding. They presented themselves before God the Father and confessed to Him what they had done. The Word in Hebrew, “confess,” (todah יָדָה) means to cast or throw down something, to be lifted up to enter through the door and behold. It is an accurate accounting, a numbering of our sins according to how we have transgressed the loving commands of God. Conversely, the word also means to give thanks or praise. In essence, when we confess our sins to our Father, we are doing it in gratitude that He has provided forgiveness and justification through the Door, His Son, Jesus. We are casting away our sins, the ones that ensnare and enslave us, and throwing our thanks at His feet in humble gratitude as we are brought back into the household as a family member.
In response to Adam and Eve's confession, in His grace God provided a covering for their clothing. A blood sacrifice was made so that humanity could be covered, symbolically representing the sacrifice of Jesus’ blood that would be given to cover over our sins for all eternity.

Sadly, Ananias did not have a heart that would receive this grace.
Ananias. His name means, “Grace of God.” It is what God intended and willed for him, but not something he chose to receive for himself.
The Apostle Paul makes it clear in Romans how we should not take God’s grace lightly, as if it is not costly. It is precious and extremely valuable. It is the blood of our Savior given for the world. When we continue to live a lifestyle of practicing sin without listening and obeying God, we trample the grace of God under our feet:

Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not!
Romans 6:1

Or do you show contempt for the riches of God’s kind grace, forbearance and mercy, not realizing that it is his kind grace that leads to repentance?
Romans 2:4

This kind of contempt for God’s grace is the kind of evil that comes when people want the free blessings of God but are only using the Church as a way to gain for themselves selfishlessly. They think that God will not see, but He certainly does. Just as He saw Adam in the Garden, hiding, He also sees the true heart motivations of all of us. None of us can hide from the eye of His faces.
Ananias’ response to the extreme grace and kindness of God was to despise it, to withhold from God His very self, and to lie instead of to confess and thank God for His grace. As a result, he stayed hidden, separated and cut off from the family of God.

About three hours later his wife also came in, unaware of what had happened. “Tell me,” said Peter, “is this the price you and your husband got for the land?”
“Yes,” she answered, “that is the price.”
“How could you agree to test the Spirit of the Lord?” Peter replied. “Look, the feet of the men who buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out also.”
At that instant she fell down at his feet and died. Then the young men came in and, finding her dead, carried her out and buried her beside her husband.
Acts 5:7-10

Sapphira. In Hebrew, her name means “scribe,” or “accountant.” A saphar סָפֵר was one who would render an accurate accounting of the saphan סָפַן: the treasures that had been covered and hidden. The scribes were entrusted with the task of ensuring that the hidden, covered treasures in the storeroom or the message of the word of the king would be accurately relayed to the people.
In this part of the passage, the word “price” or “valuation” comes up repeatedly. The word is Tinos, and it means value, weight or honor. Agreeing with her husband, Sapphira purposely and inaccurately rendered an account of the value or the land. God also had given her a part, one who would accurately call to account the treasures He had entrusted to them for the benefit of His people. She, in her own turn, would choose to willfully turn away from listening and obeying God’s voice because she also lacked love for God and others.
In the advent of the Church, the spiritual rebirth and resurrection of God’s people, the deaths of both Ananias and Sapphira would represent physically the spiritual death that was already inherent inside of them. Their outward death only mirrored their inward death.
Ananias and Sapphira’s deaths were merely a physical representation of their spiritual, inward reality. They were already dead in their spirits. They had chosen to listen to the voice of the Serpent. It wasn’t about who messed up first, it wasn’t about whose idea it was. It was that they both agreed to be unified in their disobedience to God.
            In addition, God wanted to be very clear about our individual responsibility to listen and obey His voice. In the Garden, God reprimanded Adam because he “listened to the voice of [his] wife” instead of to God’s voice. To some, the curse and the fall feels like it lands unfairly on humanity because of the woman’s choice. God is setting the record straight: this time it the choice is first the husbands, followed by his wife’s agreement.
            Both of them, however, in each case, are listening to the voice of the Serpent. It goes both ways. The point of this reversal is that at the heart of it all they are listening and obeying the voice of the serpent.

Woman
Man
            Serpent
Man
Woman

They both alike despised the grace of God and refused to render a just account, a correct confession of their wrong before God. In turn, God could no longer listen to them:

Behold, the LORD'S hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither His ear heavy, that it cannot hear: But your iniquities have separated between you and your God [plural\ and your sins have hidden His faces from you, that He will not hear. Isaiah 59:2

Rather than coming out of hiding in truth before God, they remained hidden by their own sins, remaining disconnected and divided from the family of God.
Feet. Another word that keeps coming up in this passage is feet. It the beautiful feet who are bringing the good news of the resurrection of Jesus. It is at the feet of the apostles that the Church is laying down their rights to their physical possessions. Conversely, it is at Peters’ feet that Ananias and Sapphira fall and die, and it is the feet of the young men, no longer bringing good news, that are standing at the door to take her away to her burial.
There is another who stands at the door, the door to our heart, the seat of our affections and love. He pleads to us to listen to His voice and live:

Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone listens to my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me. The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne. He who has an ear, let him listen to what the Spirit says to the churches.’”
Rev. 3:20-22

While this is a sad story, it is also crucial to understand that this time the serpent loses. This time, the life of the Church remains uncorrupted. The true Church remains in completely unity and fellowship with their Creator. This time, the evil cannot destroy and ensnare the life of the Church—yes, perhaps some were choosing to listen to the voice of the serpent, but the Church, the living Church of God, cannot be overcome. Instead, glory is given to God. Instead, we conquer in Jesus’ name. Instead, there is complete oneness and unity as The Son sits on the throne of the Father and we sit with Him on the same throne. It’s about fellowship, oneness, and love.

And great fear came over the whole church and all who heard about these events.
The apostles performed many signs and wonders among the people, and with one accord the believers gathered together in Solomon’s Colonnade. Although the people regarded them highly, no one else dared to join them. Yet more and more believers were brought to the Lord—large numbers of both men and women.
Acts 5:11-14

Live.

Fear. The Hebrew letters give us a better understanding “yarah יִרְאָה .”
יִ yod: mighty work/hand stretched out
רְ resh: head/ruler/source/Prince
אָ aleph: strong leader/God the Father
ה hey: behold/worship/revelation

The first letter is “yod,” which is a hand outstretched to do a mighty work or deed; the second is resh, which looks like a head and signifies one who is a prince or ruler, originator; the third is aleph, which refers back to the Father as our strong leader; and the fourth is hey, which looks like the figure of a person with arms and hands upraised to behold and worship, revealing something to be in awe of.
In English, we often think of fear as negative. Its synonyms are to be terrified, scared, or alarmed. However, Hebrew word describes more the feeling that we get when we behold the mighty deeds of the Prince (Jesus) who has come from the Father. When we are in fellowship with God, those feelings are awe, amazement, comfort, peace, excitement and relief, worship. We are full of wonderful feelings that we have a mighty God who comes to rescue us from our enemies.
On the other hand, when we are in disobedience to God, when we are using our words, actions and provisions to hurt and abuse others, the mightiness of God becomes a terror to us. Our feelings can be very negative as we realize that the Judge of all the earth sees and knows everything we do and think and will call us to render an accurate accounting for how we have treated others and how we have treated the grace of His Son.
The Church, instead of being overcome by terror and hiding from His presence, the kind of awe and amazement that the mighty work of God in their midst in the judgment of Ananias and Sapphira brought increased growth and a dire warning to those who would, in pretense, seek to join them for evil reasons. Those who wanted to come out of hiding and take hold of the grace of God for themselves continued to join them and the Church grew mightily.
For those who chose to be in awe and deep reference and gratitude for God’s mighty works, it created even greater unity. In a deeper effect, it created a strong purity among the believers. Though “no one else dared join them,” yet more and more people were truly becoming saved and were being accounted to their numbers.
When Adam and Eve came out of hiding, they truthfully confessed to God what they had done. As a result, they received a promise of an eternal redemption coming in the form of Jesus and a covering for their shame. They were given life for eternity.
Ananias and Sapphira lied to God. There was no more redemption. There was no life for their dead spirits. They had abused the abundant grace of God.
One day we will all give an account, a rendering to God for how we responded to His grace. Do we receive it with confession and thanksgiving? Do we abuse it, as if we can use it to keep sinning in a lifestyle that says God’s grace is cheap? Do we give the count the correct value and honor and weight to God’s grace?
The apostles were preaching the resurrection life in Jesus, both in this hour and in the one to come! There is no value on earth that can ever come close to the price that Jesus paid for us, to the value of eternal life in Him forever in Paradise!

"An hour is coming and is now here when the dead will listen to the voice of the Son of God, and those who listen will live!" John 5:25

This week, let’s dwell on the sh'ma—to listen to his voice out of a deep love that encompasses our entire selves. Let’s embrace the life that comes from living in unhindered unity with God through Jesus!

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The Confidence of Peace

8/11/2021

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Peace:
eirḗnē from eirō, "to join, tie together into a whole") – properly, wholeness, i.e. when all essential parts are joined together; peace (God's gift of wholeness). 1

Isaac stood, watching in awe as they--his once hostile enemies—walked home across the dusty valley. Just yesterday, they had been divided. Strife and turmoil had dogged his steps.
After the death of his father Abraham, Isaac had begun to travel in the nomadic life with their extensive flocks and herds, migrating through the land of Canaan. Directing his servants to reopen the wells dug by his father, they had found water.
But there they had been--the neighboring Philistines--watching their progress just until the water had been pulled up, cool, and clear, from deep in the ground. They had immediately insisted the newly found water to be their own.
  Hot, dry, dusty, and thirsty—feelings of anger and frustration battling within him--Isaac had turned away from the fight. Naming the well, Esek, or “Dispute,” he redirected his team to the next well site his father had dug.
But this the Philistines too, had watched and then disputed. With mounting frustration, as well as an increased need for water and irrigation for the land, Isaac turned once again from the fight over his rights and poured out his need before the God who alone could provide for his needs. He had called that well, Sitnah: “Opposition.”
It wasn’t until the third well that the Philistines had left him alone. Rehoboth. “Room. There would be room enough in the land to dwell side by side without fighting.
But God wasn’t done.
The Promise that God had given his father had yet to be walked out. He was the child of the Promise. And then again, God had promised him His help when Isaac had started out on this journey. Where was that help now? Isaac wrestled with a Promise that didn’t seem to have its basis in his circumstances.
That night the Lord God had appeared to him: “I am the God of your father Abraham. Do not be afraid, for I am with you; I will bless you and will increase the number of your descendants for the sake of my servant Abraham (v. 24).”
The next morning, Isaac had gotten up, built an altar, and worshipped.
  And dug a well.
As the water dripped from the ladle, Isaac's attention was drawn by a movement in the distance.
  And then he saw them. Just when he thought he had moved on. Just when he thought that he could be done with dealing with their strife and theft—there they were again, armed, intimidating, and dauntless. King Abimelek. His personal adviser. And Phicol—the military commander.
Summoning his courage, Isaac had drawn on the Promise. The Promise of peace with God.   Of wholeness. Of relationship. Of a Divine Plan that no one could steal from him.
Stepping forward, Isaac had confronted his enemies with the truth: “Why have you come to me, since you were hostile to me and sent me away?”
They had answered, “We saw clearly that the Lord was with you; so we said, ‘There ought to be a sworn agreement between us’—between us and you. Let us make a treaty with you that you will do us no harm, just as we did not harm you but always treated you well and sent you away peacefully. And now you are blessed by the Lord (v. 27-29).”
Isaac’s heart roiled at their words. Hadn’t harmed him? Treated him well? Sent him away peacefully! Keeping his face controlled, he had sorted through their words and his own emotions. There were, perhaps, things of which Abimalek hadn’t been aware. In his mind, the words of God to him had kept speaking: “Do not be afraid. I am with you. I will bless you….”
In that moment Isaac had made a decision. He didn’t need their agreement about their actions. He didn’t need to depend on their choices to be at peace. He could choose peace because of the gift God had given him—because peace is a gift. And it’s meant to be given away.
Turning, Isaac followed his decision with swift action. Directing his stunned servants, Isaac had ordered them to prepare a feast for their enemies.
Now, as he gazed off into the distance, the dust of their retreat lifting lazily in the slight breeze, Isaac wondered at the ways of God. A God who could take enemies, and prepare a feast for them. A God who could turn strife into peace. A God who could create a covenant bond between those who once were at war, and make them united.
The next moment, Isaac’s meditations were cut off—his servants were coming back with a message: “We’ve found water!”
And he named it Sheba—the well of the "seven”. The covenant was completed, the work was done.
It was finished.
~Fictionalized account of Gen. 26:17-33

Eirene. Peace. It is the binding together of that which was once fractured. Divided. At war.

Jesus is the one who came to bring “peace on earth to those on whom His favor rests” (Luke 2:14). In Matthew 10:34-36, Jesus explains that this peace with God and others is not for the world—those who refuse to come to Him to find peace will continue in strife: “Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth…..A man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.”
In contrast, though, those who come to God to be made whole by Him through Jesus Christ, will have no more strife and enmity between them and God---or between them and others. Regardless of the choices of others, we can be at peace with them because the gift of peace with God is enough both overflow our cup to bless others:

Never repay evil for evil to anyone. Respect what is right in the sight of all people. 18If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all people. Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written: “VENGEANCE IS MINE, I WILL REPAY,” says the Lord. “BUT IF YOUR ENEMY IS HUNGRY, FEED HIM; IF HE IS THIRSTY, GIVE HIM A DRINK; FOR IN SO DOING YOU WILL HEAP BURNING COALS ON HIS HEAD.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
Romans 12:17-21

What was once divided and fractured can and will be made whole and healed in Him. He will give us friendship for enmity, healing for brokenness, relationship for those estranged.
It all hinges on Jesus. He is our peace.

"Remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility,
by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations.

His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility.

He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near.

For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit."

Ephesians 2:12-18

While our enemies will not always come to peace with us, and loving others certainly comes at a high cost of sacrifice, there is a reward for those who “seek peace and pursue it” (1 Pet. 3:11).

Its effect in us is a quietness and confidence forever.

A quietness(2) that is restful and undisturbed by the chaos and frustration of people who are constantly trying to grab for their rights, scrambling over the rights of others to lay claim to a prosperity that can never buy their freedom from anxiety, fear, anger, and hatred. A quiet rest that allows us to not strive after what we need, but simple to serve Jesus with a trust that He will in His turn and perfect timing provide all that we need.
A confidence(3) that is a based in the security of the absolute place of refuge that is Jesus Christ. In this place of confidence, we know that, though people can take from us physically, they can never take from us the hope of eternal reward in Christ Jesus. This physical life is not the end.

The Resurrection will last forever.

So what are your wells?

What are the rights that you have worked for, even deserve, that you may place in God’s hands and from which you may walk away?
Who are those people who have tangled with you over what you know should have been yours, and how can you bless them with the free gifts of peace and fellowship?

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The Faith That Inherits

12/29/2020

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By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise; for he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God. Hebrews 11:8-10

My sister loved her home. I don't think I know anyone who has had such a dear affection for their home. It was a little nine hundred square foot place, two bedroom, one bath, with so little room that the bedrooms had pocket doors.

They lived just outside of town on a beautiful little property, with the sun rising above the misty hills, the llamas grazing peacefully. They had a flock of chickens, climbing trees for their boys, and a volleyball field. I remember admiring the sweet circle-stack of firewood my brother-in-law would create every year in preparation for winter with their warm and inviting wood stove.

Over the years, she enjoyed memories of birthing their babies in the home, with friends and family waiting to welcome each one.

Relationships were deepened, milestones were celebrated, love was shared, and memories were made that would never be forgotten.

But a few years back, God asked them to do a very hard thing.

He asked them to walk by faith.

I remember the tears and prayers and wrestlings that she shared with me, and how God sweetly and gently kept calling to her. I remember the day they finally sold their home, their non-portable possessions, and said goodbye to their family and friends.

As I was reading the passage in Hebrews this morning, I thought of my sister. Abraham's journey of faith to promise echoes in her life in a profound and meaningful way.

When Abraham was first called by God, he had a home, a city, a family and friends. He had a job, security and what he thought was a certainty in life.

But in order to gain an inheritance in a reality that is more real that anything that we call reality here, more valuable than anything we value now, Abraham had to leave.

I remember too, when we sold our first starter home, one we had long since outgrown. We had loved our home, but it was far too small for our large family, and we couldn't function properly in such a temporary space. We had always known it would be temporary, but the transition to our new home would be longer and more painful than we had envisioned. We knew though, that the only way we could ever move to our new place that fit our needs would be to leave the old. That transition was so very difficult because we had to trust that the next purchase wouldn't fall through.

We had to trust that the little we had left would be worth the leaving.

Whether physically, emotionally or spiritually, the walk of faith always requires that we leave what we have.

Leave our past with its failures, mistakes, sins and pain, leave our possessions in the hands of a God who in truth owns all of what we steward, and leave our places of reputation, security, ideals, and meticulously developed ambitions.

But God never asks us to leave anything without having somewhere to which He is leading us to go.

Our dear pastor recently retired, but this last Sunday he came back to preach while my brother took a rest with his family. In his sermon, he said, “For every departure there is an arrival.” He spoke of vacationing in Hawaii, where every morning he could see the plane taking off from the airport. Knowing the flight well himself, he knew the final destination: Oregon. Home. He knew that every time that airplane took off with its passengers, it was with the end landing in mind.

For Abraham, that destination looked uncertain. His route, the distance, the journey's length, and the final destination were all unknowns. They were unknown to him, but not unknown to God.

Personally, I have often questioned the route God is choosing for me. The distance, the journey's length...sometimes I really do not understand why God chooses certain relationships to have an impact on my soul. Why He doesn't act as quickly as I think would fit into my plans of how perfectly things should come together. I question sometimes if somehow He has forgotten me.

I had a few days this last year of that question battling around in my head. With all the unexpected twists and turns of following God, I wondered if somehow I had gotten off whatever path I was supposed to be on, and if He was still on that path--without me.

I smile even as I write it, because it sounds ridiculous now, but at the time it seemed very real. I couldn't see what He was doing, or even where He was. I didn't think that He had forsaken me, but I did think maybe I had somehow gotten lost off “The Plan.”

That day the Lord sent five different ways to tell me that He was with me and wouldn't leave me or forsake me. Some days I need a lot of underscoring!

But here's a comforting thought, and a true one:

The walk of faith always requires that we have uncertainty in the details.

Faith requires a going without knowing.

Now, as very hard as that is, I wish it were only as simple as that! Wouldn't it be nice and easy to just go...and then arrive, with no ellipsis in between? Those ellipses are some of the most difficult parts of our life sentences! Not only do they contain uncertainties, but they contain a wandering. They contain a sense of being in a foreign place.

One year I visited another of my sisters whose husband was in the military overseas. Since I knew we would try to travel together to sight-see, in preparation I studied the language, customs, culture and menus. I tried to prepare as much as possible for living temporarily in a nation in which I would not innately understand how to protect ourselves or to navigate.

On our first day, after waiting a sleepless 36 hours through a trans-atlantic flight, I arrived, met with my sister, and enjoyed a very caffeinated cup of espresso. Since I don't care for large cities, I had chosen a little village bed and breakfast in the mountains for our first night. We had to navigate the underground metro to some smaller cities, and then a bus station to take us farther into the mountains.

At first in the big cities, there were plenty of English speakers. But by the time we got to the smaller towns, and finally to the bus station, neither the station attendant nor any of the bus drivers understood English. I knew just enough of the language and maps to know that there was a little mountain village in the area called “Magno,” and that the one we were to arrive at was “Margno.” This unnerved me. I purchased “due biglietto,” and questioned repeatedly which bus of the many idling in the courtyard we were to get on. I asked the bus driver as well, who only responded with, “Si, si!”

As we wound our way up treacherously small and winding mountain roads, honking before every blind turn, I stayed on high alert for every bus stop, wondering if I had gotten us on the wrong bus and if we were about to have a much more adventurous vacation than I had hoped to plan.

After many small little stops, our bus stopped very momentarily at a small sign, “Margno.” We hurriedly got off and with a deep breath of relief found our way to a lovely bed and breakfast with a fantastic host—who also only spoke a few words of English.

While that experience held some excitement and a certain amount of anxiety, it does give me a good taste of what Abraham must have felt like dwelling in a strange land. Abraham lived the rest of his life dwelling in a place that he would “later receive as his inheritance.” Our language, our hopes, our eternal culture and perspectives, our values and our destinations feel unnatural to the world. We feel foreign.

In our faith journeys, the walk of faith always requires us to live as strangers.

For you who have read the story of Abraham in Genesis 12-25, you know that “later” did not mean while he was alive. While he lived, he was always a stranger in a strange land. And because of this, he had to wait.

Now, this “waiting” was not an inactive one. Waiting on God isn't like that. It does have an element of internal rest, but when God asks us to wait, there is an active participation in faith of physically setting in place the eternal boundaries of our inheritance.

If we go back to the whole story of Abraham in Genesis, we see God giving Abraham both the promise of his inheritance as well as an participatory action to accompany his wait:

"The LORD said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, “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. “I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth, so that if anyone can number the dust of the earth, then your descendants can also be numbered. “Arise, walk about the land through its length and breadth; for I will give it to you.” Then Abram moved his tent and came and dwelt by the oaks of Mamre, which are in Hebron, and there he built an altar to the LORD." Genesis 13:14-17

So first, he was to look from where he was.

If we were to look from where we are, what would we see? Sometimes we get so caught up in our present situation and in our limitations, that we don't see what God wants to give us. In our place of waiting, we need to seek a vision for what God wants to do through us. Just like Abraham was to look “northward, southward, eastward, and westward,” so God wants us to look into every part of our lives and situations to see how He wants to bring it all under His rule and dominion, and to give it back to us as a permanent inheritance.

The next thing Abraham was asked to do was to physically walk through every part of what God had promised him, to establish a claim and a boundary around the entire inheritance.

Later on with Moses and then again with Joshua, God gave the same directive to the descendants of Abraham coming to receive the inheritance:

"Every place on which the sole of your foot treads shall be yours: from the wilderness and Lebanon, from the river, the River Euphrates, even to the Western Sea, shall be your territory." Deuteronomy 11:24

Something I learned recently in studying the land of Israel is that the people of Israel, when they walked through the land and took possession, remembered the promise of God by building the walls around their cities in a foot shape! Even today, from aerial shots you can still see the outlines of the foot-shaped walls around many of their cities.

In our journeys, the walk of faith always requires an active wait.

What vision do you see of what God wants to establish as your eternal inheritance? What obstacles, strongholds, and enemies of your faith do you see?

How can we tread on these places, making monuments to the grace of God in our lives, setting up boundaries and staking our claim on the areas that God wants to give us?

For me, I journal. I write. I set down the stories of what God has done, and the promises I believe God has given me.

Sometimes for us it means going to the painful areas of our lives with our families, with our marriages, with our ministries, and declaring God's sovereignty over those places.

It can mean staying in a painful relationship showing love, knowing that your love isn't reciprocated.

It can mean training and teaching our children to honor and love God by faith when we can't see the heart or life style changes yet.

Wherever we are on this journey, whether still reticent to leave, in the process of going, struggling with being a stranger, or learning to actively wait, we can be absolutely certain of the hope of what God has promised.

As we journey together on this walk of faith that inherits, “let us hold unswervingly to that hope, for He who promised is faithful.” Hebrews 10:23

"These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland. And truly if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out, they would have had opportunity to return. But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them." Hebrews 11:13-16

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Love.Listen.Live.

Love.

Listen, O Israel: The Lord our God [plural\, the Lord is One. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your physicality [nephesh\ and with all your everything [me'od\.
Deuteronomy 6:4-5

Listen.

Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient servants, you are servants of the one you obey—whether you are servants to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness?
Rom. 6:16

Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not!
Romans 6:1

Or do you show contempt for the riches of God’s kind grace, forbearance and mercy, not realizing that it is his kind grace that leads to repentance?
Romans 2:4

Behold, the LORD'S hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither His ear heavy, that it cannot hear: But your iniquities have separated between you and your God [plural\ and your sins have hidden His faces from you, that He will not hear. Isaiah 59:2

Live.

"An hour is coming and is now here when the dead will listen to the voice of the Son of God, and those who listen will live!" John 5:25

The Confidence of Peace

Peace:
eirḗnē from eirō, "to join, tie together into a whole") – properly, wholeness, i.e. when all essential parts are joined together; peace (God's gift of wholeness). 1

The Faith That Inherits

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Love.Listen.Live.

Love.

Listen, O Israel: The Lord our God [plural\, the Lord is One. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your physicality [nephesh\ and with all your everything [me'od\. ​Deuteronomy 6:4-5

Listen.

​Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient servants, you are servants of the one you obey—whether you are servants to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? ​Rom. 6:16

Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not!Romans 6:1 ​ Or do you show contempt for the riches of God’s kind grace, forbearance and mercy, not realizing that it is his kind grace that leads to repentance? Romans 2:4

Behold, the LORD'S hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither His ear heavy, that it cannot hear: But your iniquities have separated between you and your God [plural\ and your sins have hidden His faces from you, that He will not hear. Isaiah 59:2

Live.

"An hour is coming and is now here when the dead will listen to the voice of the Son of God, and those who listen will live!" John 5:25

The Confidence of Peace

Peace:eirḗnē from eirō, "to join, tie together into a whole") – properly, wholeness, i.e. when all essential parts are joined together; peace (God's gift of wholeness). 1​

The Faith That Inherits

Author

Archives

Categories

Listen, O Israel: The Lord our God [plural\, the Lord is One. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your physicality [nephesh\ and with all your everything [me'od\.
Deuteronomy 6:4-5

Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient servants, you are servants of the one you obey—whether you are servants to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness?
Rom. 6:16

Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not!
Romans 6:1

Or do you show contempt for the riches of God’s kind grace, forbearance and mercy, not realizing that it is his kind grace that leads to repentance?
Romans 2:4

Peace:
eirḗnē from eirō, "to join, tie together into a whole") – properly, wholeness, i.e. when all essential parts are joined together; peace (God's gift of wholeness). 1