Genesis 12:1-9 Bruce...
Illustration
Object:
Genesis 12:1-9
Bruce Catton, Civil War historian, told of Civil War veterans of his youth and a war memorial they built. "The monument they built ... was completely homemade. It was a fat column of field stone and mortar ... four or five feet tall, capped by a round slab of rock ... it looks like an overgrown toadstool, and it would be funny if it were not so unmistakably the work of men who were determined to have a monument and built one ... because they could not pay for a professional job."
That memorial was much like the altars that Abram built -- rough stones piled together. That's all worship needs: a way to remember that God appeared to us on our journey and revealed what life is about. Abram learned that he didn't travel for himself alone. He journeyed toward a land that would belong to his descendants, who became a light to the nations. Worship reminds Christian descendants of Abraham that we don't live for ourselves, but to glorify God and to love others.
Genesis 12:1-9
The term "Old Testament" both misleads and confuses. Some think the Old Testament is obsolete; others that it's just partly applicable. What should we make of the "fat part of the Bible" as one of my students called it? It actually contains several covenants or agreements. The Lord made one with Noah. He wanted the old guy to build a ship with specific dimensions (see Genesis 6). That covenant was with Noah, not us.
The Lord also made a covenant with Israel in the Ten Commandments -- Law of Moses (see Exodus 19-20; Deuteronomy 4:13). Israel didn't keep its part so the Lord promised a new covenant (Jeremiah 31). Jesus bought that new covenant with the blood he shed for many (Luke 22:20). This new covenant actually fulfilled a covenant he made with Abraham (Genesis 12, 15). It's a covenant based on belief as Abraham had, not works of the law. By receiving Jesus, we become true sons and daughters of Abraham.
On the cross, Jesus fulfilled the covenant with Israel (the Ten Commandments -- Law of Moses). The covenant with Abraham can forever bless us (Galatians 3-5). Which covenant controls your life?
Genesis 12:1-9
When no one else was tuned in to God, Abraham was tuned in. When no one else was hungering and thirsting for righteousness, Abraham was. At a time when there were many idols, Abraham heard the still small voice of God calling to him. Verse 4 of Genesis 12 says it well: "So Abram went as the Lord had told him." And as Psalm 96 tells, "For all the gods of the peoples are idols, but the Lord made the heavens." From this array of false gods Abraham was in tune with the one true and living God.
"Ascribe to the Lord, O families of the peoples, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength" (Psalm 96:7). When there seemed to be little reason to praise God, Abram and those with him came with praise that was noticed by neighbors.
We can learn about a strange but wonderful tradition of forest people. When the pygmies of the forest faced great needs from drought, or other natural disasters, they would get out a special instrument set aside to use for singing praise. Instead of having some strange ritual of sacrifice, their custom was to sing to the forest. The forest would be awakened and would produce the needed warmth, or rain, or whatever. When they faced their greatest need, that was the time for the most splendid praise. With the forest awakened, the needed gifts from nature would be available.
Romans 4:13-25
Anne Lamott, in Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith, says the two best prayers she knows are "Help me, help me, help me," and "Thank you, thank you, thank you."
There's nothing sophisticated about those prayers. Anyone can pray them. You don't have to have been to seminary -- nor even to Sunday school. And that's precisely the point: "It all depends on faith," as Paul says in Romans 4:16.
Jesus' words to the thief on the cross, "Today you will be with me in Paradise," are a shocking reminder, Philip Yancey suggests, "that grace does not depend on what we have done for God but rather on what God has done for us. Ask people what they must do to get to heaven and most reply, 'Be good.' Jesus' stories contradict that answer. All we must do is cry 'Help.' God welcomes home anyone who will have him and, in fact, has made the first move already."
(From Philip Yancey, What's So Amazing about Grace? [Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, 2001], p. 56)
Romans 4:13-25
In verses 20-21 of Romans 4, Paul reminds us that Abraham dared to believe the promise of God: "No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, being fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised."
Oswald Chambers, in his book My Utmost for His Highest, says:
By the discipline of obedience I get to the place where Abraham was and I see Who God is. I never have a real God until I have come face to face with Him in Jesus Christ. The promises of God are of no value to us until by obedience we understand the nature of God. We read some things in the Bible three hundred and sixty-five times and they mean nothing to us, then all of a sudden we see what God means, because in some particular way we have obeyed God, and instantly His nature is opened up.
Romans 4:13-25
Kathy attended church along with her family while growing up. As a child, she says, her faith was important to her. When her parents divorced, her world "blew apart" and she stopped attending church. In college, she attended an occasional service but she says of that experience, "It really didn't resonate with me." Later she married a man who did not go to church. Kathy says that during this time she felt something was missing in her life but could not put her finger on it. After the birth of their daughter, Kathy felt the urge to return to church.
A coworker of her husband recommended a church that they began attending, "It felt like home," Kathy reflects of her experience. Her faith was beginning to be rekindled.
That summer, the church held a family day at a local park. There was a maze where participants were encouraged to navigate looking for various things along the way. Kathy began walking and found a sign that read, "Trust." She continued and found another sign, "Be brave." It was at this point that she began crying. This was a turning point in her life. Her faith "came back." What was broken was made whole again.
As she exited that maze she found the word, "Thanks," to which she gave thanks to God. After years of floating she felt grounded in the faith once again.
Hoping to inspire faith the apostle Paul reminded the Romans of the great faith of Abraham. Paul writes, "No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God."
Romans 4:13-25
In Through The Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll, when Alice exclaims to the Queen of Hearts, "One can't believe impossible things," the queen retorts, "I daresay you haven't had much practice. When I was your age, I always did it for half-an-hour a day. Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast."
Abraham believed in impossible things, too. God told him that Sarah would conceive and have a son despite her old age. His belief was reckoned to him as righteousness and demonstrates that all who believe in Christ will likewise be reckoned righteous.
Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26
Often we make important decisions quickly, instinctively. Not that such decisions don't lead to lifetime consequences good and bad, but many people make their biggest decisions fast and fritter away their time on the little things. Maybe all you need is margarine, but people have to steer their shopping carts around you as you read the side of each container.
Malcolm Gladwell's book, Blink: The Power of Thinking without Thinking, reports that often in an instant we're able to correctly assess a situation and make the right snap decision, as did Matthew. One day at the tollgate outside of Capernaum he looks up from his paperwork and, instead of another caravan to shakedown, he meets the eyes of a teacher from Nazareth who says, "Follow me." Here is where the gears of the universe either mesh smoothly or grind him to pieces. "And he got up and followed him."
Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26
About fifty years ago, in response to the Lord's call, my wife and I put all of our belongings in the back of an old Chevy and headed south from Portland, Oregon, with our son to Los Angeles so we could finish schooling for ministry preparation. Some friends and family thought we were crazy. We'd starve. Norma would wind up barefoot and toothless and who knew what would happen to our son.
After school, no church wanted me to serve them. The oil company for whom I worked to support the family offered me a position in northern California. Promotions came regularly. Life was good. Then a church in Hollywood asked us to serve. After much prayer, we loaded our few possessions and now four children, heading south again. That move required a small van. We heard the same warnings and skepticism about our future. Again the Lord provided. If the Lord should call once more as in earlier days, it would really be tough. I pray for Levi's faith. He left his business to follow Jesus. Are you ready for the Lord's call, "Follow me"?
Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26
The designation of being unclean (Matthew 9:18-26) was a devastating thing for the Jewish female. What she wore was unclean, what she touched was unclean. The bed she slept on was unclean (see Leviticus 15:25- 27). Whoever touched the things she had touched was unclean.
There were many superstitious ways to stop the hemorrhaging. One was to carry the ashes of an ostrich egg in a linen bag in summer and in a cotton bag in winter. Another was to carry a barleycorn, which had been found in the dung of a white donkey. This woman had tried everything and became worse.
In summary, a woman with an unnatural discharge of blood was unclean. Touching someone else made them unclean, and the unclean person was not eligible to worship with others.
This woman should not have been in a crowded place. But believing in Jesus, she was willing to risk further reproach. And Jesus, knowing all along what she was facing, did not pull back from her as everyone else did.
For a moment it seemed that no one else existed. She alone had the full attention of Jesus. No one is lost in the crowd when Jesus comes.
Her faith was evident when she said, "If I only touch his cloak, I will be made well ... and instantly the woman was made well" (Matthew 9:21, 23).
Bruce Catton, Civil War historian, told of Civil War veterans of his youth and a war memorial they built. "The monument they built ... was completely homemade. It was a fat column of field stone and mortar ... four or five feet tall, capped by a round slab of rock ... it looks like an overgrown toadstool, and it would be funny if it were not so unmistakably the work of men who were determined to have a monument and built one ... because they could not pay for a professional job."
That memorial was much like the altars that Abram built -- rough stones piled together. That's all worship needs: a way to remember that God appeared to us on our journey and revealed what life is about. Abram learned that he didn't travel for himself alone. He journeyed toward a land that would belong to his descendants, who became a light to the nations. Worship reminds Christian descendants of Abraham that we don't live for ourselves, but to glorify God and to love others.
Genesis 12:1-9
The term "Old Testament" both misleads and confuses. Some think the Old Testament is obsolete; others that it's just partly applicable. What should we make of the "fat part of the Bible" as one of my students called it? It actually contains several covenants or agreements. The Lord made one with Noah. He wanted the old guy to build a ship with specific dimensions (see Genesis 6). That covenant was with Noah, not us.
The Lord also made a covenant with Israel in the Ten Commandments -- Law of Moses (see Exodus 19-20; Deuteronomy 4:13). Israel didn't keep its part so the Lord promised a new covenant (Jeremiah 31). Jesus bought that new covenant with the blood he shed for many (Luke 22:20). This new covenant actually fulfilled a covenant he made with Abraham (Genesis 12, 15). It's a covenant based on belief as Abraham had, not works of the law. By receiving Jesus, we become true sons and daughters of Abraham.
On the cross, Jesus fulfilled the covenant with Israel (the Ten Commandments -- Law of Moses). The covenant with Abraham can forever bless us (Galatians 3-5). Which covenant controls your life?
Genesis 12:1-9
When no one else was tuned in to God, Abraham was tuned in. When no one else was hungering and thirsting for righteousness, Abraham was. At a time when there were many idols, Abraham heard the still small voice of God calling to him. Verse 4 of Genesis 12 says it well: "So Abram went as the Lord had told him." And as Psalm 96 tells, "For all the gods of the peoples are idols, but the Lord made the heavens." From this array of false gods Abraham was in tune with the one true and living God.
"Ascribe to the Lord, O families of the peoples, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength" (Psalm 96:7). When there seemed to be little reason to praise God, Abram and those with him came with praise that was noticed by neighbors.
We can learn about a strange but wonderful tradition of forest people. When the pygmies of the forest faced great needs from drought, or other natural disasters, they would get out a special instrument set aside to use for singing praise. Instead of having some strange ritual of sacrifice, their custom was to sing to the forest. The forest would be awakened and would produce the needed warmth, or rain, or whatever. When they faced their greatest need, that was the time for the most splendid praise. With the forest awakened, the needed gifts from nature would be available.
Romans 4:13-25
Anne Lamott, in Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith, says the two best prayers she knows are "Help me, help me, help me," and "Thank you, thank you, thank you."
There's nothing sophisticated about those prayers. Anyone can pray them. You don't have to have been to seminary -- nor even to Sunday school. And that's precisely the point: "It all depends on faith," as Paul says in Romans 4:16.
Jesus' words to the thief on the cross, "Today you will be with me in Paradise," are a shocking reminder, Philip Yancey suggests, "that grace does not depend on what we have done for God but rather on what God has done for us. Ask people what they must do to get to heaven and most reply, 'Be good.' Jesus' stories contradict that answer. All we must do is cry 'Help.' God welcomes home anyone who will have him and, in fact, has made the first move already."
(From Philip Yancey, What's So Amazing about Grace? [Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, 2001], p. 56)
Romans 4:13-25
In verses 20-21 of Romans 4, Paul reminds us that Abraham dared to believe the promise of God: "No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, being fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised."
Oswald Chambers, in his book My Utmost for His Highest, says:
By the discipline of obedience I get to the place where Abraham was and I see Who God is. I never have a real God until I have come face to face with Him in Jesus Christ. The promises of God are of no value to us until by obedience we understand the nature of God. We read some things in the Bible three hundred and sixty-five times and they mean nothing to us, then all of a sudden we see what God means, because in some particular way we have obeyed God, and instantly His nature is opened up.
Romans 4:13-25
Kathy attended church along with her family while growing up. As a child, she says, her faith was important to her. When her parents divorced, her world "blew apart" and she stopped attending church. In college, she attended an occasional service but she says of that experience, "It really didn't resonate with me." Later she married a man who did not go to church. Kathy says that during this time she felt something was missing in her life but could not put her finger on it. After the birth of their daughter, Kathy felt the urge to return to church.
A coworker of her husband recommended a church that they began attending, "It felt like home," Kathy reflects of her experience. Her faith was beginning to be rekindled.
That summer, the church held a family day at a local park. There was a maze where participants were encouraged to navigate looking for various things along the way. Kathy began walking and found a sign that read, "Trust." She continued and found another sign, "Be brave." It was at this point that she began crying. This was a turning point in her life. Her faith "came back." What was broken was made whole again.
As she exited that maze she found the word, "Thanks," to which she gave thanks to God. After years of floating she felt grounded in the faith once again.
Hoping to inspire faith the apostle Paul reminded the Romans of the great faith of Abraham. Paul writes, "No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God."
Romans 4:13-25
In Through The Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll, when Alice exclaims to the Queen of Hearts, "One can't believe impossible things," the queen retorts, "I daresay you haven't had much practice. When I was your age, I always did it for half-an-hour a day. Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast."
Abraham believed in impossible things, too. God told him that Sarah would conceive and have a son despite her old age. His belief was reckoned to him as righteousness and demonstrates that all who believe in Christ will likewise be reckoned righteous.
Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26
Often we make important decisions quickly, instinctively. Not that such decisions don't lead to lifetime consequences good and bad, but many people make their biggest decisions fast and fritter away their time on the little things. Maybe all you need is margarine, but people have to steer their shopping carts around you as you read the side of each container.
Malcolm Gladwell's book, Blink: The Power of Thinking without Thinking, reports that often in an instant we're able to correctly assess a situation and make the right snap decision, as did Matthew. One day at the tollgate outside of Capernaum he looks up from his paperwork and, instead of another caravan to shakedown, he meets the eyes of a teacher from Nazareth who says, "Follow me." Here is where the gears of the universe either mesh smoothly or grind him to pieces. "And he got up and followed him."
Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26
About fifty years ago, in response to the Lord's call, my wife and I put all of our belongings in the back of an old Chevy and headed south from Portland, Oregon, with our son to Los Angeles so we could finish schooling for ministry preparation. Some friends and family thought we were crazy. We'd starve. Norma would wind up barefoot and toothless and who knew what would happen to our son.
After school, no church wanted me to serve them. The oil company for whom I worked to support the family offered me a position in northern California. Promotions came regularly. Life was good. Then a church in Hollywood asked us to serve. After much prayer, we loaded our few possessions and now four children, heading south again. That move required a small van. We heard the same warnings and skepticism about our future. Again the Lord provided. If the Lord should call once more as in earlier days, it would really be tough. I pray for Levi's faith. He left his business to follow Jesus. Are you ready for the Lord's call, "Follow me"?
Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26
The designation of being unclean (Matthew 9:18-26) was a devastating thing for the Jewish female. What she wore was unclean, what she touched was unclean. The bed she slept on was unclean (see Leviticus 15:25- 27). Whoever touched the things she had touched was unclean.
There were many superstitious ways to stop the hemorrhaging. One was to carry the ashes of an ostrich egg in a linen bag in summer and in a cotton bag in winter. Another was to carry a barleycorn, which had been found in the dung of a white donkey. This woman had tried everything and became worse.
In summary, a woman with an unnatural discharge of blood was unclean. Touching someone else made them unclean, and the unclean person was not eligible to worship with others.
This woman should not have been in a crowded place. But believing in Jesus, she was willing to risk further reproach. And Jesus, knowing all along what she was facing, did not pull back from her as everyone else did.
For a moment it seemed that no one else existed. She alone had the full attention of Jesus. No one is lost in the crowd when Jesus comes.
Her faith was evident when she said, "If I only touch his cloak, I will be made well ... and instantly the woman was made well" (Matthew 9:21, 23).
