MosaicRC

Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. 5 Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6 These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates. Deuteronomy 6:4-9

In chapter 18 of Genesis, God tells Abraham that he has been chosen to direct his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing what is right and just (Genesus 18:19).  God’s call to Abraham goes out to us today.  Like Abraham, we are to teach, train, direct, or impress God’s ways to our children and/or our household, impressing on them God’s truths.  As a people that follow Jesus, our call is to be salt and light to a dark world - to live before them a life that seeks out goodness and justice.  These instructions to us are found also in Proverbs 22:6 and in Psalm 78:3-7.  It is also scattered through the New Testament.

This must be important if God has chosen to relate it to us a number of times.  If He says it once, notice what He said.  If He says it twice, pay attention.  If He says it a third time, understand it.  If He says it more than that, do all of the above and practice it.  Whether we are parents with kids at home or childless, the call is the same: take the people who are within your influence and train them up in righteousness and justice.  Let those in our influence see what it looks like to live within God’s ways.  In these uncertain times, our actions will speak louder than words.

The way we live our lives around others will impress upon their hearts what we believe.  This is a sobering call for Christians.  Hopefully we are communicating with our actions the same message we proclaim with our mouths.  Remember that God is with us, has chosen us, and will lead us.

Go out and make impressions that last,

Rod

Some say that laughter is good medicine.  Doesn’t it feel good to laugh?  There is nothing like laughing until your belly begins to hurt and your eyes are watering.  It makes all of life’s problems seem to melt away.  No question, laughing is good.  But what about scoffing?

Scoffing is laughing to yourself in disbelief about something that seems too good to be true like Abraham and Sarah laughing to themselves about God giving them a son at the ripe old ages of 90 and 99.  In Genesis 17, God reminds Abraham that a   promised son is coming through his wife Sarah.  Abraham, prostrate on the ground laughs and to himself saying, “Will a son be born to a man a hundred years old?  Will Sarah bear a child at the age of ninety?”  Then in chapter 18, Sarah, listening to the conversation between God and Abraham, hears God tell her husband that in a year he will be a father and Sarah a physical mother.  Sarah’s reply?  She laughed to herself as she thought, “After I am worn out and my master is old, will I now have this pleasure?”

I love God’s reply, “Is anything too hard for the Lord?”  If Abraham knew anything, he knew that God was able.  Was Abraham doubting God?  Maybe.  Remember it was 24 years ago when God first promised him descendants.  So when God’s timing came due, Abraham may have thought God was able but wondered if he was?  I wonder if he may have doubted himself?  I find this to be true for me; that when God calls me to something, I sometimes doubt if I am up to the challenge. But  God doesn’t doubt me for a second.  Because it is all Him.  I am only working through His strength, knowledge, abilities, timing, etc…

Wow!  Did you catch that?  Though I may doubt myself, He never doubts me… when it is His calling on my life.  It is the same for you.  So, who is calling you to whatever your doing in your life, is it working out?  When Abram and Sarai moved on their own strength with Hagar, separate from God, it failed.  But God’s plans never fail.  This will become more obvious in a couple weeks.  Stay tuned.

Is there anything worse than waiting? For instance, the waiting room or any waiting area is usually drab and boring. Why is that? It only makes it harder and time tic by seemingly slower. Waiting for things can be painful, especially “good” things. A luxurious vacation, moving into a new home, or having a baby — these are a few things that are hard to wait for. In chapter 16 of Genesis, we find Abram and Sarai in this very predicament, waiting for their promised son. In Chapter 12:7, God had promised them an offspring to inherit the land they were now living on. In chapters 13:15 and 15:4, God again reminded Abram of His promise of a son, from his own body, not an adopted heir but born into his family.

** tic toc tic toc ** After 10 years of waiting and Abram 86 years old talking about it with a 75 year old Sarai, it must have seemed like God had forgotten. Sarai, deciding that God Almighty must need help, turns Hagar, her Egyptian maidservant well within her child bearing days, over to her husband, Abram — a form of surrogate motherhood. Not waiting for God to fulfill His promise and deciding to “help Him out” usually has lots of complications. It is always a mistake to interfere with what God is doing and planning.

Mistakes

• Sarai — Taking God’s place to make something happen.
• Abram — Going along with Sarai’s plan.
• Abram and Sarai — Not asking God’s counsel on this issue.
• Hagar — Pride and arrogance toward Sarai after conception.

Consequences

• Sarai — Marital discord with her husband for giving him into the intimacy of another and the loss of Hagar as a loyal supportive servant.
• Abram — Confusion and marital stress with Sarai due to his passivity and not consulting God.
• Hagar — The loss of a good position within the family system and the vengeance of Sarai.
• Ishmael — He will be a “Wild donkey of a man and be the enemy to all and be an enemy of all.”

So here we have an example of what happened when someone decided to help God out near the beginning of humanity, not good. And so it is today. I have a hard time keeping my nose out of God’s business and often lean toward the ignorance of Sarai. I have seen time and time again, when I or others get into the role of “God’s unwelcome helper” and find it gets quite messy. So how do we wait on God?

I think Noah is a good place to see how to wait on God. Noah is the only righteous man in God’s eyes as God sees it fit to wipe out the evil humanity of Noah’s day. God meets with Noah and tells him His plan, “I am sending floodwater, make an ark.” Throughout the story we see these words, “God said to Noah.”  God said to Noah, “Make an ark.” God said to Noah, “Get in the ark.” God said to Noah, “Come out of the ark.” God said to Noah, “I now establish my covenant with you.” God revealed to Noah His plan a hundred years before it came. All the way through, God guided him; and Noah was obedient to His every word. Noah didn’t act until God directed him. The Bible says, Noah did all that the LORD commanded him (Genesis 6:22, 7:5).

Abram and Sarai took God’s matters into their own hands and made a mess out of things. Thankfully, God is gracious; and He worked around the situation. Noah waited and was obedient to what was asked of him by God. Both men are known in the Hebrews 11 as fathers of faith, but Noah’s example seems cleaner and easier than that of Abram and Sarai’s. As it has been penned and sung by Tom Petty and the heartbreakers, “The waiting is the hardest part.”

It had been 10 years since God had eluded to Abram that he would have an offspring. In chapter 12:7 The LORD appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” Abram still waiting for this particular promise feels like precious time is slipping away from him, and his heart longs for a child of his own. After an incredibly lucrative rescue victory of his nephew Lot and an encounter with Melchizedek the pre-incarnate Christ (Jesus before he was born on earth), Abram gives all of his worship (not to mention the treasure) to God (chapter 14).

Chapter 15:  In a vision, God speaks to Abram and tells him not to worry, He will protect him, and God is his great reward. Abram is an enormously wealthy man. Rewards mean nothing to him at this point, because he has nobody to leave them to. He subtly reminds God (as if God didn’t know) that he “Still” has no heir of his own; and when he dies, all of his inheritance will go to servant who is not a blood relative.

God instructs Abram to look up into the night sky and count the stars. He reminds Abram of His promise (10 years earlier) that his descendants will exceed the stars. A light bulb went off in Abram’s head and fell down to his heart; Abram believed God! Amazingly, Abram’s status went from an unrighteous man to being reckoned as righteous. It has been said that there is no longer distance for man than the distance between his head and his heart. This is just what God needed in order to make a (Covenant) formal agreement with Abram.

God sends Abram to collect the necessary animals for the covenant sacrifices and to make ready the alter and preparations for the ceremony to officiate the contract. A bull, ram, goat, dove, and pigeon must be cut in two and laid out opposite each other with room enough for two people to walk between as the vow is made. Abram, waiting for the presence of God to show up to finish up the contract, falls asleep and sees the future of his descendants: slavery under the Egyptians for four hundred years and finally they will possess the land where Abram is living. As for the man himself, he will die peacefully at a ripe old age and be buried in the land.

A groggy Abram, seeing through blurry eyes, looks upon the severed animals in the middle of the night to see God in the form of a smoking pot and burning torch walking between the sacrifices. God has promised Abram an offspring, descendants, land, blessing for himself, cursing of enemies, and that through Abram the entire world would be blessed. These promises were so gigantic that God left Abram’s name off of the covenant. By walking between the sacrifice Himself, we are assured that these promises will be fulfilled. God doesn’t make promises that don’t come true!

It was through the blood line of Abram that Jesus came, a blessing to all who “Believe.” There are many promises given to us in the Bible, the greatest being in the book of John 3:16. When we believe, we have a life everlasting in heaven with God and Jesus, a life in true paradise. A wonderful thing happens when our heart “Believes” this truth: our status increases from our own unrighteousness to that of Jesus’ righteousness. That is, somehow when God looks at us, he doesn’t see our junk. He knows about it of course, but chooses to overlook it. He sees us like He sees Jesus: His one and only Son.

On our journey towards mature faith in God, there are certain areas that require action — tithing and serving others.  Both can be a little scary, but the benefits are amazing!  It is not so coincidence that the two things that we seem to have the least of (money and time) are the very things God wants us to give in His name.  Money is such a loaded issue for people (more couples divorce over money issues than any other), and it has gotten pretty abused within the Christian church.

God says that if we are not giving 10% (1 dime out of every dollar) of our increase (Income) then we are robbing from Him (Malachi 3:8).   That puts a pretty heavy spin on the subject doesn’t it? I think we all forget that it is not we who provide; but God provides to us through talents, abilities, skills, and jobs.  He goes on and says that if we will trust Him and are faithful in our tithing, then He will bless us by opening up the flood gates of heaven.  In fact, He says, “There will be so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.”

I know this is true, I have many stories on how our faith (trust) and faithfulness in tithing has resulted in abundance, money mysteriously stretching out beyond belief, and mysterious checks coming in at the perfect time.  God challenges us by telling us to test Him in this, telling us what the result will be.  It is like a teacher telling her students that if they take a test they will get an A+.  Really good odds that it will work out for us.  So, are you ready?

The other area we seem to want to neglect is looking beyond our own needs and desires.  Our culture has become so narcissistic that the needs or wants of others have become invisible to us.  If we are truely on a road to faith and Jesus is our example, then we should become students of His ways.  In Mark 10:45, Jesus tells His disciples (students), “For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

If that is what He was teaching them, it still stands for us today.  I am excited about the opportunity to serve my neighbors next Sunday and share time and food with them.  Getting out of the building this coming Sunday and actually doing what we so often talk about will be challenging and fun.

I hope the challenges and opportunities that have been put before you the past two weeks will strech you as well as bless you.  Time and money are precious commodities these days, so we need to be wise and get the most out of them.  By trusting God and asking Him to guide us with our time and money we are sure to win.

So, get out there and be the hands and feet of the King,

Rod

P.S.  What are some of the serving ideas?  Do you have room for others to come and partner with you? It is fun and more comfortable to have someone else to serve with.  Leave a comment and let others see your ideas and let us know if we can help you.

Abram had seen God’s faithfulness on more than one occasion, especially in Egypt.   Heading back to Canaan he is promised the land everywhere his eye can see.  Lot, Abram’s nephew, has followed him since Haran and has been blessed along side his Uncle because of God’s faithfulness to Abram (I will bless those who bless you).  With so much blessing from God, the two men have more livestock than the land can accommodate.  Gracious Uncle Abram offers Lot the choice of the land.  By what Lot sees (the green and fertile Valley of the Jordan), Lot chooses what seems like the choicest of land next to the cities of wicked men.  Abram humbly moves to Hebron, under the oaks of Mamre, a place in the opposite direction, understanding that God will provide for him and all of those with him.  This is the place that Abram settles and calls home for a time.

God gave Abram a place to call home - a place to dwell, raise livestock, and be a family of people.  I am aware of the leading of God, for us, to venture out and begin to look about the land of Rancho Cucamonga.  “This is the land I (God) have given you.”  Four years we have lived as nomads moving in and out of a school and a community center every week.  We have been a family of people living in the guest rooms of our city.  I believe God is going to give us a home of our own in our community.  In the months to come, I am asking Mosaic RC to begin praying that God woud lead us to that place He has set aside for us.  Like Abram at the “Oaks of Mamre,” it is time we began to set roots in Rancho Cucamonga.

Genesis 12:10-20. God has lead Abram and all of his household (wife, nephew, servants, and livestock) on a 600 mile trek from Haran (Assyria) to Canaan (the land promised). Abram has now had three personal encounters with the Almighty God (Yahweh) and finds himself and family living peacefully in Canaan as foreigners. He is building altars in worship to God in plain sight as a form of evangelism and testimony to God. For a time, Abram has set up his tent between Ai and Bethel and is grazing his livestock in the pastures of the land. God has taken care of all of his needs to this time. God has shown Himself faithful to Abram.

A time of famine begins, and Abram witnesses his neighbors leaving for the fertile land of abundance in Egypt. Like I so often do, Abram seems to forget about God’s faithfulness and settles his thoughts on the circumstances around him. What should I do to keep food on the table? Where should I go for help? And how do I keep it all together?  So, like all of the neighbors, off to Egypt they go.

Nearing the border, Abram remembers all that he has heard about the Egyptians. They are hard and take whatever they want, including beautiful women for Pharaoh. He instructs his beautiful wife, Sarai, to tell the border patrol that she is his sister, so it all goes well for him and they won’t kill him. So she does; and as a result, Sarai is taken for a wife to Pharaoh while Abram is given many valuable possessions (gold, silver, servants, livestock). Abram wins materially but loses his prized possession, his wife. God’s grace and trustworthiness are evident by the way He protects Sarai from being taken (sexually) by Pharaoh. She is returned to Abram, and they are escorted by soldiers with all that was given to him and all that was originally his. Abram is more wealthy now then when when he first arrived in Egypt. God grants three promises to Abram in spite of his faithlessness:

1. He blessed him with fortune from Pharaoh
2. He made his name great in the sight of the people in Egypt through the escort out of Egypt
3. Through God’s evident presence with Abram, he was revered as a powerful man

Abram is an example of the way an ordinary person thinks and behaves. We all seem to see our situation and circumstance clearer than we see God’s faithfulness in our lives. Abram is the picture of a man who is trying to know and understand God’s ways but is living in a temporal world. In him God is showing us how to build faith through obedience. God never told Abram to leave Canaan; but even though he did, God was with him and protected him. So it is with us.

When we read the account of Abram in Genesis 12 how he was called and obediently/faithfully went, we could say to ourselves, “I wish I could have faith like that.” But when we search deeper into the bible and find out more of the life of the man Abram, we find him to be more like us than first meets the eye. In Acts 7 we hear Stephen, while being questioned, retell the history of Abram saying, “Brothers and fathers, listen to me! The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham while he was still in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran. ‘Leave your country and your people,’ God said, ‘and go to the land I will show you.’ So he left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. After the death of his father, God sent him to this land where you are now living.”

What’s more is that while he was living in Ur (lower Mesopotamia) and Haran (Assyria), Joshua 24:2 tells us that they (Abram’s family) were worshippers of idols/false gods. Abram/Abraham is a true life story that shows you and me that Abram, like us, was only flesh and blood. It was through God’s revelation and Abram’s quest for God that Abram turned into a man of great faith. As we walk with Abram, we will learn what it looks and feels like as God molds us into people like Abram, people of faith.  Walking with God is a long journey, but the destination is faith.

Isn’t this road called faith we are on kind of confusing?  I mean it seems easy enough, just trust in God and go.  Right?  But I find it isn’t as simple as it looks.  We are constantly having to choose which way to go, passing opportunities and having to turn around to retrieve them or learn from them.  It is a road filled with mystery and adventure at every turn, but when do we arrive?  Isn’t that a good question, and exactly how do we get to our destination?  Most people chart out on maps or Google the directions when taking a long road trip. How can we chart our course when it comes to faith?  I am glad you asked.  We go to the people who have already forged the trail and arrived to the destination.  For this trip we go to a man named Abram from Ur, i.e, lower Mesopotamia.  His address is found in the book of Genesis of the Bible.  He was the first everyday guy who took the trip and successfully arrived.  His story is great; he did it like someone like me.  He made mistakes, blunders, and had mishaps; but he went all the way.  Not only did he go all the way, but he was blessed beyond measure.  So come along with us as we retrace his story on Sundays.  It is sure to be encouraging, insightful, and comforting to see how God is patient with people just like you and me.

Hope to see you on Sunday,

Rod