I Lift My Eyes to the Hills, From Whence Does My Happiness Come?

“I lift my eyes to the hills, from whence does my happiness come?”

Okay, maybe that’s not what Psalm 121:1 says, or any other verse in the Bible. However, joy is a trademark of the Christian life. It’s a fruit of the Holy Spirit who lives within every born again child of God! So what does this mean about happiness? Today after preaching on the life of Abraham and in particular, the story of Isaac on Mount Moriah, I wonder . . . does “The God Who Provides” provide for our happiness? Is that His promise? This occurs to me:

Abraham modeled a life of blessed endurance.

Endurance is  not the watchword of “happiness.” Picture a person enduring. Are they happy? Determined, yes. Purposeful, definitely. Happy? . . . When we think of endurance we think of hardship, trials, suffering, even danger. And that’s because this is usually why endurance is required. Abraham lived this. He is not just the father of blessing and faith; he is the father of blessed endurance. 

Those of us who are reading through the whole Bible in 2015 are 10 glorious chapters from finishing the Book of Exodus. Talk about endurance! Way to go. We are just one chapter away from finishing Matthew’s Gospel. Jesus was just betrayed, arrested, tried, tortured, crucified, and buried. Our Savior endured and suffered gladly so that we might be part of the blessing promised to Abraham. And we continue  to hear preaching through Genesis and the stories of the Patriarchs. Incidentally, one of the Patriarchs, Abraham’s grandson, is named Jacob. The Hebrew name Jacob translates in Greek to the name James. They are the same name. And James in the New Testament tells us this:

² Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, ³ because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. ⁴ Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. . . ¹² Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him. (James 1:2-4, 12)

Prayer: Oh God, everything I need is found in You. The life you call me to, the life of obedience and faith, is not easy, but it is blessed. It is good. Anything else is counterfeit. I want the real thing. Help me endure. I choose to be happy, because you have set me free. Amen.

Like Father Like Son Like Grandson

Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are the Patriarchs of the Jewish faith. Jacob would have the twelve sons, Abraham’s great-grandsons, from which the twelve tribes of Israel get their names. Of these patriarchs Jacob is the one known for lies and deception. But did you notice what happened right after God’s covenant with Abram in Genesis 12?

¹⁰ Now there was a famine in the land, and Abram went down to Egypt to live there for a while because the famine was severe. ¹¹ As he was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai, “I know what a beautiful woman you are.¹² When the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife.’ Then they will kill me but will let you live. ¹³ Say you are my sister, so that I will be treated well for your sake and my life will be spared because of you.” (Genesis 12:10-13)

What just happened? Well . . . Abram lied. Sort of. The bizarre thing is that Pharaoh and his household faced consequences for thinking Sarai was an available woman and pursuing her as such.

Then in Genesis 20 the scenario repeats itself in Gerar with a King named Abimelek. This time the Lord came to Abimelek in a dream telling him the truth and warning him against taking Sarah, a married woman, and sparing him the consequences. He approaches Abraham.

¹¹ Abraham replied, “I said to myself, ‘There is surely no fear of God in this place, and they will kill me because of my wife.’ ¹² Besides, she really is my sister, the daughter of my father though not of my mother; and she became my wife. ¹³ And when God had me wander from my father’s household, I said to her, ‘This is how you can show your love to me: Everywhere we go, say of me, “He is my brother.”’” (Genesis 20:11-13)

Guess what happens in Genesis 26? Isaac goes through the same situation almost verbatim! He has the same fear in the land of Gerar his dad had, he lies about his wife Rebekah, and Abimelek king of the Philistines is once again the victim of deceit.

So the deceiving ways of Jacob are not totally foreign to his father Isaac and his grandfather Abraham.

I bring this up today to say one thing about Bible study. There are two ways to read the events of The Great Story. We have to ask, is this prescriptive or descriptive?

Prescriptive means we should read something with value attached, with positive enforcement, as if the writer is saying, “This is the way it should be,” prescribing a way of life or character. Example: The Ten Commandments or the Sermon on the Mount.

Descriptive refers to those events described or classified without expressing feelings or judgment. The writer is simply describing what happened, not saying, “This is the way it should be.”

When we see Abraham deceiving kings and God still having his back we can mistakenly think God approves of these events. Really its just further evidence that the Patriarchs are human and that God is redemptive.

Midweek thoughts on Genesis 16-18

The story of Abram starts out beautiful and hopeful, the promise of the impossible, life brought forth from a dead end. That’s Genesis 12 and 15. But the first line of Genesis 16 is a sobering punch of reality: “Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children.” Clearly the people of God walking in the promise of God are experiencing the human condition. Questions arise. And what is Sarai’s explanation? “The Lord has kept me from having children.” This seems to make no sense to a contemporary reader. Wasn’t it the Lord who promised a child even from your barrenness? But in the worldview of these characters we have to understand that everything was understood to be controlled and orchestrated by God. Indeed Job was rebuked for declaring of God, “You give and take away.” God’s rebuke is a message to us that there are other elements at play. We aren’t to give Him credit (sometimes in the form of blame) for things He doesn’t do or cause.

God has a plan, and it’s good. God is capable of making Plan B even better than Plan A. For example, when He gets His humans back into the Garden (Rev 22:1-5) there will only be one tree in the center, the Tree of Life. There will be no more curse, no more slithering lying snake in the grass, no presence of evil. The story of Sarai and Hagar is not one of those examples. This is a story about how Plan B can be full of pain and negative consequences even when redeemed. Why? Because it’s not God’s Plan B. Even Abram and Sarai deviated from the Plan. Yet redemption never ceases to be in God’s vocabulary. When you question the will of God or the way of faith, even after it has been made known to you, when you feel the urge to “help God along” taking His plan into your own hands out of fear, frustration, or some other emotion that is not from Him, you are not alone. Even Abraham, perhaps the character in The Great Story most known for His faith, faltered in sticking to God’s script.

Yet we continue to see the heart of God. In the very next scenes God shows compassion toward Hagar: “I have heard your misery.” She named the place of her pain and brokenness “The One who sees me.” God renews His covenant with Abram, giving him the new name of Abraham and the new sign of the covenant – circumcision. Three visitors, messengers of God Himself visit Abraham revealing that intimate relationship that he and God would continue to have.

Even Abraham had moments of inconsistency. Still, he believed in the One who is always consistent, never changing, and it was credited to Him as righteousness. Therefore, there is hope for us too.

How Good Is It?

Today at Shalimar UMC we are hearing about “God’s Good Plan.” Christians along with Jews can truly refer to “Father Abraham,” because the father of the Jews is the father of the promise on which Christians base our faith. However, this father of our faith was not perfect, and neither was his wife. This week we reflect on that question they must have had that those of us trying to live by faith wrestle with too: “How good is it?”

Yes, God has a plan, a rescue mission, a project of restoration and salvation. It’s a good plan. Jeremiah 29 tells us that God’s plan for His people Israel was “to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” But this is written to a people in exile, punished for not living in God’s world God’s way. Once we join God in faith, we encounter stipulations and situations that make us question how good it really is. It certainly isn’t good if good is supposed to be synonymous with easy. God came to Abram and Sarai when they were past the age of believing the promise of a child could be possible. Then, God made them wait some more. He didn’t tell them exactly how the promise would come to be. He didn’t tell them exactly what to do in the meantime, at least not step by step. So there was a lot of room for interpretation and a frustrating lot of room to improvise. So that’s exactly what they did. Is this sounding familiar to any of us reading this today trying to live according to God’s plan and promises, but who want a turn by turn map of instructions?

Two thoughts. A friend once told me: “If you’re ever wondering what God wants you to do, just keep doing the last thing He told you. He’ll tell you the next move when it’s time.” Second is the very reason Abraham is such a revered man in our faith history: he was a friend of God. He wasn’t just a servant. He knew God, like personally the way friends know each other. So, God didn’t have to tell Him everything step by step. Abraham knew God’s heart and was able to act accordingly. We can too.

Holy Smoking Firepot Batman!

Abram: Do you remember what you said, God? You said you would give me a child. I was old then. Now I’m older. And still no child. I don’t know what I’m doing. It makes no sense. But you said, “Go,” so I did. You say, “Do not be afraid. I am your shield and your great reward.” But the very thing you promised me still hasn’t happened. How am I supposed to keep going on like this in blind trust? And even if I could, how am I supposed to convince my wife!

God: I made this covenant with you. Today I remind you of what I said. Every word is true. And I’ll show you how trustworthy I am. Bring me a heifer, a goat and a ram, each three years old, along with a dove and a young pigeon. Cut them in two except for the birds, and make a bloody path between the pieces. Now…you’re getting very sleepy…

¹² As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and a thick and dreadful darkness came over him. ¹³ Then the Lord said to him, “Know for certain that for four hundred years your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own and that they will be enslaved and mistreated there. ¹⁴ But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions. ¹⁵ You, however, will go to your ancestors in peace and be buried at a good old age. ¹⁶ In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.” -Genesis 15:12-16

As the day came to a close, a smoking firepot with a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces. The symbol of God Himself appeared and passed through the pieces that both parties would each walk through as they “cut a covenant.” Abram watched as God took it upon Himself to fulfill both parts of the covenant. And the sovereign Lord said,

“To your descendants I give this land,from the Wadi of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates— the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites and Jebusites.” -Genesis 15:18-20

This is the God who covered Adam and Eve with animal skins because their own effort of fig leaves was insufficient. This is the God who would send His only Son, Jesus, to accomplish for humankind and indeed the cosmos what we could never do or undo for ourselves. This is the God of The Great Story. He’s no Joker. On a dark night, He showed Abram His true character and revealed that there is no length to which He is unwilling to go in order to rescue, redeem, restore, rebuild, and renew the lost and the broken. This is our defender, our shield and our great reward. Today He is worth our trust, our allegiance, and our worship. His plan is good.

The Way of Abraham in Faith by Oswald Chambers

My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers

March 9th

He went out, not knowing whither he went. — Hebrews 11:8

In the Old Testament, personal relationship with God showed itself in separation, and this is symbolized in the life of Abraham by his separation from his country and from his kith and kin. To day the separation is more of a mental and moral separation from the way that those who are dearest to us look at things, that is, if they have not a personal relationship with God. Jesus Christ emphasized this (see Luke 14:26).

Faith never knows where it is being led, but it loves and knows the One Who is leading. It is a life of Faith, not of intellect and reason, but a life of knowing Who makes us “go.” The root of faith is the knowledge of a Person, and one of the biggest snares is the idea that God is sure to lead us to success.

The final stage in the life of faith is attainment of character. There are many passing transfigurations of character; when we pray we feel the blessing of God enwrapping us and for the time being we are changed, then we get back to the ordinary days and ways and the glory vanishes. The life of faith is not a life of mounting up with wings, but a life of walking and not fainting. It is not a question of sanctification; but of something infinitely further on than sanctification, of faith that has been tried and proved and has stood the test. Abraham is not a type of sanctification, but a type of the life of faith, a tried faith built on a real God. “Abraham believed God.”

Accessed on January 23, 2015 at http://utmost.org/classic/the-way-of-abraham-in-faith-classic/.

What’s in a Name?

Do you realize how many characters in the Bible received a new name? Abram becomes Abraham, his grandson Jacob becomes Israel. God instructs the prophet Hosea to marry a prostitute and commands him to name his children “Jezreel” (the name of a town Israel had massacred), “unloved,” and “not my people.” But God redeemed Jezreel and changed the name of “unloved” to “beloved” and of “not my people” to “my people.” Jesus gives Simon the new name of Peter, meaning “rock.” And to Levi, the shame-ridden tax collector, He gives the new name of “Matthew.”

What strikes me in the reading today is inconsistent name-calling. In Genesis 12 God makes a covenant with a man named Abram, a ridiculous covenant with an impossible promise attached. Abram immediately responds in obedience! God says go, and he goes. But it’s not until Genesis 17 that God gives him his new name, Abraham. To Jacob (meaning “usurper/deceiver”) God gives the new name Israel the night he wrestles an angel at Peniel and limps away a different and humble man. But in the very
last chapters of Genesis we read yesterday and today, we continue to see a going back and forth between the two names, God sometimes calling him “Jacob.” Why the inconsistency?

It clicks for me as I’m reading through the Bible in 2015 and turn today to Matthew 17 in the midst of these Old Testament passages. Jesus comes down the Mount of Transfiguration where His true identity has been illuminated (literally) and His disciples have failed to do the very thing He has commissioned them with power and authority to do – cast a demon out of a young boy. They ask Him later why they were unsuccessful, and I’m reminded of the church without the Holy Spirit. There is a reason the Risen Christ told the apostles gathered in the upper room to wait there until they had received the Holy Spirit – because without Him, they wouldn’t be able to engage in the mission of Jesus and succeed. This is who they are meant to be. This is their true identity, the fullness of who they can be in Jesus once He has all of them. Bingo.

God gives us a new name. Sometimes like Saul we are radically and immediately changed (Paul) and we do an instantaneous 180°. Other times we must grow into our new names. Personally, I can think of some names I gave up long ago, and I’m grateful that by the grace of God I have lived into the new name and think little of it today. There are other names, however, which I still struggle to live into. Like Jacob I wrestle. This doesn’t mean they aren’t my identity. It just means I struggle to accept them yet.

So, what’s in a name? Well, it depends on who gives it to you. If God . . . then, everything.

God Doesn’t Do Contracts

Today I write of afterthoughts of yesterday and foretastes of Sunday. The word covenant is one of the greatest words in all of scripture. It appears when God comes to Noah after the Flood, giving the rainbow as a sign. However, I don’t think Genesis 6 is the first place we see it. In fact, I think we have to look no further than Genesis 1 and 2. We see God with Adam and Eve (two parties), a promise given, conditions established, and the consequences of violating. Then, when the first humans break the covenant God Himself makes the first animal sacrifice clothing them in skin, doing for them what they could not do for themselves.

In the ancient near east, covenants were not like contracts with loopholes and escape clauses. They were established in blood of an animal as two parties would “cut a covenant” and then walk through the blood path essentially saying, “If I break the covenant, may it be done to me as was done to this animal.” Broken covenants usually required at least one life as settlement. What God did was unheard of, the only true Covenant-Keeper paying settlement Himself for the party who would consistently be unable to keep our part.

This week we read not about the first covenant in scripture, but perhaps the most significant one – the one that will see its final fulfillment in Jesus Christ, the one through which all nations of the earth would be blessed. God made it with a man named Abram and his wife, Sarai. God has a plan. It’s a good plan. And He chooses to use the very creatures that break trust time and time again. Why? Because He’s not interested in a broken contract. He made the covenant, and no matter what, He will keep it.

Guest post by Elijah Supper

This morning as we prepare to gather as the people of God I thought it might be fitting for today’s post to come from one of the people of God at Shalimar UMC. This is a post from Elijah Supper as he was reflecting last week on the reading for day 7. Enjoy!

As I think of the readings we have done and the readings ahead there is so much that is intriguing and as I just told my wife I could spend hours trying to research what I’m reading.

I guess I’m a day ahead on the readings of the marathon race we’ve set out on to read the bible in a year, but the readings for day 7 made me go back to the readings of day 1 and day 6 to and I noticed the reference to dust and ashes.  First in Genesis 2 as we were created from dust and ashes, then again in Genesis 13 when God tells Abraham he will make his offspring like dust and if anyone could count the dust they would be able to count his offspring. Then in Genesis 15 when God tells him to count the stars if he can, then so will his offspring be.  I don’t know what the significance of this is but it really stood out to me. 

When I think about it dust is almost invisible unless you have more than one dust particle next to each other, we would never notice our house is dusty if it was just one particle, but when the house is dusty its a lot of particles close together. God talks to Abraham about the amount of offspring he is going to have a couple times but yet only talks to him once about the son Sarah is going to have.  It makes me think how many times has God talked to me about the many different things of my life, but I miss the one thing he has said to me and as a result I try to take things into my control for that one thing.  Its just so interesting when the word of God grabs your attention.