Sun, Jul 22nd - 5:05AM

Abraham, Sarah, and Hagar - Blog 6

Sun, Jul 22nd - 4:48AM

Abraham, Sarah, and Hagar - Blog 5

Read Jeremiah 2:11-13     "Has a nation ever changed its gods?  (Yet they are not gods at all.)  But my people have exchanged their Glory for worthless idols.  Be appalled at this, O heavens, and shudder with great horror," declares the Lord.  "My people have committed two sins:  They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water..."

The Almighty Creator knows exactly what the created need. He is the Source that satisfies our every need. When we forsake Him, we then have to fill our own need. So what do we fill it with, if not God?

Read Galatians 5:16-21      So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature.  For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature.  They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want.  But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law.  The acts of the sinful nature are obvious:  sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like.  I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Broken cisterns. They cannot hold water. We will be thirsty again and again and again when we choose anything but God to satisfy the longings of our souls.

Read Romans 6:8-14     Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him.  For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over Him.  The death He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life He lives, He lives to God.  In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.  Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires.  Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to Him as instruments of righteousness.  For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.

Now read Galatians 5:22-26     But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.  Against such things there is no law.  Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires.  Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.  Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.

Jesus paid for our sin with His blood. He is our sacrificial Lamb. When you accept His sacrifice for your sin, depending on the perfect blood He willingly shed on the cross - and nothing else - to save you, you become part of the new covenant with God.   He will be your God and Father, and you become His child.  "Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life."  Revelation 22:17b

Sun, Jul 22nd - 4:23AM

Abraham, Sarah, and Hagar - Blog 4

It has been 13 years since Ishmael was born. Abraham and Sarah still do not have the son promised to them by God. Is this because they "played God" by manipulating the circumstances to have a son, instead of waiting for God? Abraham was left with plenty of time to wonder about God's silence. Now God appears to Him and reminds Abraham that He is God Almighty. The presence of God is so overwhelming that it would seem unnecessary to remind Abraham Who He is. But God is about to establish His covenant with Abraham, something of eternal importance, and rule number one is that Abraham is never again to forget Who God is.  This is where God changes Abram's name to Abraham, meaning "father of many".  God says He will increase Abraham's descendants until they are as the sands on the seashore or the stars in the sky--without number. Abraham will be the ancestor of royalty. The land He is standing on for many miles around Him will be His and His descendants'. As He is Abraham's God, He will be his sons' God. This will happen because God Almighty has decreed it.  How would life be different for you if uppermost in your mind always was that He is God Almighty? We make poor choices because we don't take into account Who He is. We stumble because we forget the covenant He has made with us, if we have in fact entered into covenant with Him by the blood of His Son--the new covenant. We sometimes live as if we don't remember that He is God Almighty. Can He deliver me from the addictions that threaten to destroy me and those I love most? Will He fill the emptiness inside if I choose not to manipulate the circumstances to fill the void? Is He faithful, like He says He is, to be the living water I need?  I'm so thirsty. . . 

Sun, Jul 22nd - 3:46AM

Abraham, Sarah, and Hagar - Blog 3

Read Galations 4:21-23, 28-31     Tell me, you who want to be under the law, are you not aware of what the law says?  For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and the other by the free woman.  His son by the slave woman was born in the ordinary way; but his son by the free woman was born as the result of a promise."

"Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise.  At that time the son born in the ordinary way persecuted the son born by the power of the Spirit.  It is the same now.  But what does the Scripture say?  "Get rid of the slave woman and her son, for the slave woman's son will never share in the inheritance with the free woman's son."  There fore, brothers, we are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman."  

Hagar changed direction after this encounter. This wasn't just Abraham's and Sarah's God, but she now "saw" the God who saw her (Jehovah El Roi). It was personal. At that time, God was establishing His covenant with Abraham, and that's how people of faith related to Him. But we are under the new covenant that came into effect with the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. As this scripture makes clear, we are children of the promise if we live by faith in Jesus, the Son of God, as they lived by faith, looking forward to the Son God had promised. Knowing how much He loves us and all He has done and now does for us, does this make you want to be obedient to Him? Does reading the Bible daily and spending time in prayer help you do this? What is your commitment to the Lord Jesus?

Sun, Jul 22nd - 3:34AM

Abraham, Sarah, and Hagar - Blog 2

Sarah is handling her own pain in the wrong way - again - complicating matters, after she has taken things into her own hands to give Abraham an heir, since she has been unable to conceive.  Abraham is caught in the middle, and extricates himself -- affirming Sarah, by acknowledging that Hagar is still her servant  and she must handle it herself.  

Read Genesis 16:6-15  "Your servant is in your hands," Abram said.  "Do with her whatever you think best."  Then Sarai mistreated Hagar; so she fled from her.  The angel of the Lord found Hagar near a spring in the desert; it was the spring that is beside the road to Shur.  And he said, "Hagar, servant of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?"  "I'm running away from my mistress Sarai," she answered.   Then the angel of the Lord told her, "Go back to your mistress and submit to her."  The angel added, "I will so increase your descendants that they will be too numerous to count."  The angel of the Lord also said to her:  "You are now with child and you will have a son.  You shall name him Ishmael, for the Lord has heard of your misery.  He will be a wild donkey of a man; his hand will be against everyone and everyone's hand against him, and he will live in hostility toward all his brothers."  She gave this name to the Lord who spoke to her:  "You are the God who sees me," for she said, "I have now seen the One who sees me."  That is why the well was called Beer Lahai Roi; it is still there, between Kadesh and Bered.  So Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram gave the name Ishmael to the son she had borne.  Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore him Ishmael."

Now Hagar is the one who takes matters into her own hands. She leaves the protection of the tribe she was with, and runs into the desert from Sarah. Presumably on her way back to Egypt, she encounters the angel of the Lord--possibly the Lord Jesus, in pre-incarnate form.  The well where she has this life-changing encounter is now called, "Beer Lahai Roi," meaning "the well of the God Who sees me."  Hagar is encouraged and changed, and she returns to submit to Sarah, as instructed. 

Do you have a habit of running when things get hard? If so, what are some of the ways you do this? What have some of the consequences of this been? Do you think it's better to face difficulty, or run away from problems?  Does it amaze you the way God worked in the lives of these people so long ago to bring about the plan He had for the salvation of imperfect people--people who would one day torture and kill the Son He sent to save them? What kind of a God does that?? Not only is the story awesome, but He made sure it would be written down, to survive thousands of years so people everywhere could read it and know how much He loves them and that He wants a relationship with them. Do you know you can have a relationship with God the way Abraham did? 

Fri, Jul 20th - 6:37AM

Abraham, Sarah, and Hagar - Blog 1

Read Genesis 16:1-6     Now Sarai, Abram's wife, had borne him no children.  But she had an Egyptian maidservant named Hagar; so she said to Abram, "The Lord has kept me from having children.  Go, sleep with my maidservant; perhaps I can build a family through her."  Abram agreed to what Sarai said.  So after Abram had been living in Canaan ten years, Sarai his wife took her Egyptian maidservant Hagar and gave her to her husband to be his wife.  He slept with Hagar, and she conceived.  When she knew she was pregnant, she began to despise her mistress.  Then Sarai said to Abram, "You are responsible for the wrong I am suffering.  I put my servant in your arms, and now that she knows she is pregnant, she despises me.  May the Lord judge between you and me."

God has promised to give Abraham an heir, but impatience wins out, and they take matters into their own hands. Sarah isn't as happy as she thought she would be about her plan's "success," blames Abraham for the resulting trouble, and wants him to do something it.  Have you ever taken matters into your own hands instead of waiting for God? If so, what were the consequences of this? Sarah blamed and lashed out when her plan backfired. What might we do differently that would better serve God, ourselves, and everyone else?

Fri, Jul 20th - 5:40AM

Hello, I am so glad you found your way to my blog. I will be posting Bible studies that we have been doing at the county jail with the female inmates. My prayer is that you will benefit from these, and I would love to hear from those who God has touched through these studies.  I hope as we visit together we will all be strengthened and encouraged.  May God bless you, and keep you, and make His face to shine upon you, and give you peace.