Abraham, An Example of Righteous Faith

Covenant with God

Called into Covenant with God

God's Covenant with Abraham

Romans 4:1-5 The Message

Trusting God

4 1-3 So how do we fit what we know of Abraham, our first father in the faith, into this new way of looking at things? If Abraham, by what he did for God, got God to approve him, he could certainly have taken credit for it. But the story we’re given is a God-story, not an Abraham-story. What we read in Scripture is, “Abraham entered into what God was doing for him, and that was the turning point. He trusted God to set him right instead of trying to be right on his own.”
4-5 If you’re a hard worker and do a good job, you deserve your pay; we don’t call your wages a gift. But if you see that the job is too big for you, that it’s something only God can do, and you trust him to do it—you could never do it for yourself no matter how hard and long you worked—well, that trusting-him-to-do-it is what gets you set right with God, by God. Sheer gift.

For Reflection Pray

How are you playing your God Story? Does your God Story help people find a new way of doing things? God has opened the door for you, and you have entered into the God Story playing your part as a co-conspirator in restoring the world in God's image, inviting all who would pass through the portals into their own role in the God Story.  

Pray

Pray so that like Abraham, your life becomes the story of God's reconciliation of humankind.

Promises of Land and Prosperity Fulfilled

Covenant with God

Called into Covenant with God

God's Covenant with Abraham

1 Kings 4:20-25 The Message 

Solomon’s Prosperity

20-21 Judah and Israel were densely populated—like sand on an ocean beach! All their needs were met; they ate and drank and were happy. Solomon was sovereign over all the kingdoms from the River Euphrates in the east to the country of the Philistines in the west, all the way to the border of Egypt. They brought tribute and were vassals of Solomon all his life.
22-23 One day’s food supply for Solomon’s household was:
185 bushels of fine flour
375 bushels of meal
10 grain-fed cattle
20 range cattle
100 sheep
and miscellaneous deer, gazelles, roebucks, and choice fowl.
24-25 Solomon was sovereign over everything, countries and kings, west of the River Euphrates from Tiphsah to Gaza. Peace reigned everywhere. Throughout Solomon’s life, everyone in Israel and Judah lived safe and sound, all of them from Dan in the north to Beersheba in the south—content with what they had.

For Reflection Pray

Solomon was blessed by God. Israel wanted a king, so God complied.   Solomon's call came with a cautionary word of advice to keep God's precepts.  At first, there was peace and abundance. Obedience to God's call means keeping God's precepts.

Pray
Pray so that you do not lose sight of God's will for obedience to God's principles.

An Angel Will Lead Conquest of Canaan

Covenant with God

Called into Covenant with God

God's Covenant with Abraham

Exodus 23:23-27 The Message 

20-24 “Now get yourselves ready. I’m sending my Angel ahead of you to guard you in your travels, to lead you to the place that I’ve prepared. Pay close attention to him. Obey him. Don’t go against him. He won’t put up with your rebellions because he’s acting on my authority. But if you obey him and do everything I tell you, I’ll be an enemy to your enemies, I’ll fight those who fight you. When my Angel goes ahead of you and leads you to the land of the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, I’ll clear the country of them. So don’t worship or serve their gods; don’t do anything they do because I’m going to wipe them right off the face of the Earth and smash their sacred phallic pillars to bits.
25-26 “But you—you serve your God and he’ll bless your food and your water. I’ll get rid of the sickness among you; there won’t be any miscarriages nor barren women in your land. I’ll make sure you live full and complete lives.
27 “I’ll send my Terror on ahead of you and throw those peoples you’re approaching into a panic. All you’ll see of your enemies is the backs of their necks.

For Reflection Pray

As God prepared a place for God's people so also will Christ prepare a place for His followers.  Christ precedes us and paves the way for opportunities for righteousness.  The enemies of the Church will be subdued little by little. Corruptions will be driven out of the hearts of the righteous.  God's people will avoid relationships with idolators. In keeping away from bad company, God's people will avoid the snares of other's sins.

Pray

Pray that you will trust the way of Christ and rely on His preparation of the path He lays before you.

Abram Called and Blessed

Covenant with God

Called into Covenant with God

God's Covenant with Abraham

Genesis 12:1-3 The Message

Abram and Sarai

12 God told Abram: “Leave your country, your family, and your father’s home for a land that I will show you.
2-3 I’ll make you a great nation
        and bless you.
    I’ll make you famous;
        you’ll be a blessing.
    I’ll bless those who bless you;
        those who curse you I’ll curse.
    All the families of the Earth
        will be blessed through you.”

For Reflection Pray

It is significant, I think, that God so often singles out ordinary people to become extraordinary confederates.  So it is with Abram.  He and his wife living somewhat barren lives have been selected to be the source of the chosen people and God's greatest gift to humankind. God gives these two unlikely people and all of humanity the promise of hope, of protection, of comfort, of joy, and of a fearless existence.  God makes a promise that will make all barren places teem with abundance.  God will do this for you too.

Pray

Pray that you will trust in God's promise.  Pray so that you will find all of that which you deem barren full of life in the fulfillment of God's will for humankind.

The Lord's Words become Action

Covenant with God

Called into Covenant with God

God's Covenant with Abraham

Ezekiel 37:24-28 The Message

20-24 “Then take the sticks you’ve inscribed and hold them up so the people can see them. Tell them, ‘God, the Master, says, Watch me! I’m taking the Israelites out of the nations in which they’ve been exiled. I’ll gather them in from all directions and bring them back

For Reflection Pray

God's salvation is not just a spiritual event.  God's salvation is real, a here-and-now reality.  God physically saved the Israelites from a life of slavery. God's saving grace is real today.  God will save you.  Believe it! Pray for it! Watch for it! Give God praise and thanksgiving. In response, become a God collaborator.

Pray

Give praise and thanksgiving to the God of Grace.  Pray for the salvation of those whose lives are painfully tragic.  Pray for the salvation for those who suffer loss.  Pray for the salvation of all who need healing.  Praise God, who gave us God's son so that we might know God and understand Gods will for humankind.

Profitable Actions for Everyone

Covenant with God

Signs of God's Covenant

Spirit Filled Heart

Titus 3:8-11 The Message 

3-8 It wasn’t so long ago that we ourselves were stupid and stubborn, dupes of sin, ordered every which way by our glands, going around with a chip on our shoulder, hated and hating back. But when God, our kind and loving Savior God, stepped in, he saved us from all that. It was all his doing; we had nothing to do with it. He gave us a good bath, and we came out of it new people, washed inside and out by the Holy Spirit. Our Savior Jesus poured out new life so generously. God’s gift has restored our relationship with him and given us back our lives. And there’s more life to come—an eternity of life! You can count on this.
8-11 I want you to put your foot down. Take a firm stand on these matters so that those who have put their trust in God will concentrate on the essentials that are good for everyone. Stay away from mindless, pointless quarreling over genealogies and fine print in the law code. That gets you nowhere. Warn a quarrelsome person once or twice, but then be done with him. It’s obvious that such a person is out of line, rebellious against God. By persisting in divisiveness he cuts himself off.

For Reflection

Christianity is not about doctrine alone.  Belief without action is an empty sham.  While good works do not warrant God's favor neither does belief in doctrine. Living in the household of God is not about any special knowledge or concern for the common good. Residing in the home of God is about penultimate trust that leads one to act selflessly in service to God and each other, loving as God loves, protecting as God protects, serving as God serves.

Doctrine is the product of human invention. It is our imperfect attempt to understand God.   God cares little about doctrine.  God cares about trust and obedient faith.

Pray

Pray that you will worship God for the enhancement of and commitment to faith in God. Pray that you will follow Christ, not for a reward in the present or future but because as the pure manifestation of God in human form and as a measure of God's love for us, Jesus reveals God's pathway to experience God's will for human existence. 

Making a Covenant of Peace

Covenant with God

Signs of God's Covenant

Spirit Filled Heart

Ezekiel 37:24-28 The Message

20-24 “Then take the sticks you’ve inscribed and hold them up so the people can see them. Tell them, ‘God, the Master, says, Watch me! I’m taking the Israelites out of the nations in which they’ve been exiled. I’ll gather them in from all directions and bring them back home. I’ll make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel, and give them one king—one king over all of them. Never again will they be divided into two nations, two kingdoms. Never again will they pollute their lives with their no-god idols and all those vile obscenities and rebellions. I’ll save them out of all their old sinful haunts. I’ll clean them up. They’ll be my people! I’ll be their God! My servant David will be king over them. They’ll all be under one shepherd.
24-27 “‘They’ll follow my laws and keep my statutes. They’ll live in the same land I gave my servant Jacob, the land where your ancestors lived. They and their children and their grandchildren will live there forever, and my servant David will be their prince forever. I’ll make a covenant of peace with them that will hold everything together, an everlasting covenant. I’ll make them secure and place my holy place of worship at the center of their lives forever. I’ll live right there with them. I’ll be their God! They’ll be my people!
28 “‘The nations will realize that I, God, make Israel holy when my holy place of worship is established at the center of their lives forever.’”

For Reflection

Why do we struggle so, questioning the will of God?  Is God's will not plainly stated? God's will is that we fulfill our human potential as Gods holy people. God's will is that we rest in God at peace with Creation.

Pray

Pray in the worship of our creator and follow the example of God's self-revelation, Christ.

Restored as One People

Covenant with God

Signs of God's Covenant

Spirit Filled Heart

Ezekiel 37:15-24 The Message

15-17 God’s Message came to me: “You, son of man: Take a stick and write on it, ‘For Judah, with his Israelite companions.’ Then take another stick and write on it, ‘For Joseph—Ephraim’s stick, together with all his Israelite companions.’ Then tie the two sticks together so that you’re holding one stick.
18-19 “When your people ask you, ‘Are you going to tell us what you’re doing?’ Tell them, ‘God, the Master, says, Watch me! I’ll take the Joseph stick that is in Ephraim’s hand, with the tribes of Israel connected with him, and lay the Judah stick on it. I’ll make them into one stick. I’m holding one stick.’
20-24 “Then take the sticks you’ve inscribed and hold them up so the people can see them. Tell them, ‘God, the Master, says, Watch me! I’m taking the Israelites out of the nations in which they’ve been exiled. I’ll gather them in from all directions and bring them back home. I’ll make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel, and give them one king—one king over all of them. Never again will they be divided into two nations, two kingdoms. Never again will they pollute their lives with their no-god idols and all those vile obscenities and rebellions. I’ll save them out of all their old sinful haunts. I’ll clean them up. They’ll be my people! I’ll be their God! My servant David will be king over them. They’ll all be under one shepherd.

For Reflection

How many sticks can God hold? Some of us tend to hold dear only one stick and claim our stick is the greatest stick that ever was.  No other stick can give greater power and majesty than our stick.

God is not holding that stick!

Pray

Pray for the universal church.  Pray that all of God's people will see that under God we are one.  Pray for the humility that characterizes authentic Christianity.  Pray so that each day you more fully understand what it means to live under God's awesome sovreignty.

Nations Will Know the Lord

Covenant with God

Signs of God's Covenant

Spirit Filled Heart

Ezekiel 36:33-38 The Message

33-36 “‘Message of God, the Master: On the day I scrub you clean from all your filthy living, I’ll also make your cities livable. The ruins will be rebuilt. The neglected land will be worked again, no longer overgrown with weeds and thistles, worthless in the eyes of passersby. People will exclaim, “Why, this weed patch has been turned into a Garden of Eden! And the ruined cities, smashed into oblivion, are now thriving!” The nations around you that are still in existence will realize that I, God, rebuild ruins and replant empty waste places. I, God, said so, and I’ll do it.
37-38 “‘Message of God, the Master: Yet again I’m going to do what Israel asks. I’ll increase their population as with a flock of sheep. Like the milling flocks of sheep brought for sacrifices in Jerusalem during the appointed feasts, the ruined cities will be filled with flocks of people. And they’ll realize that I am God.’”

For Reflection

What if?

What if we all listened to God's plea for reconciliation?
What if we all sacrificed ourselves for each other?
What if kindness ruled our action?
What if healing was a priority?

WHAT IF?

Pray

We know the connection between human competence and spiritual maturity. Pray that we act as though that knowledge makes a difference.

A New Covenant of the Heart

Covenant with God

Signs of God's Covenant

Spirit Filled Heart

Jeremiah 31:31-34 The Message

31-32 “That’s right. The time is coming when I will make a brand-new covenant with Israel and Judah. It won’t be a repeat of the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took their hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt. They broke that covenant even though I did my part as their Master.” God’s Decree.
33-34 “This is the brand-new covenant that I will make with Israel when the time comes. I will put my law within them—write it on their hearts!—and be their God. And they will be my people. They will no longer go around setting up schools to teach each other about God. They’ll know me firsthand, the dull and the bright, the smart and the slow. I’ll wipe the slate clean for each of them. I’ll forget they ever sinned!” God’s Decree.

For Reflection

Though we may loose our way, forget who we are, and deny our creator, God will never give up on us.  We are made in God's image and we too are God's people. We have a direct line to God, who celebrates with us and cries with us. God holds no hidden agenda, no grudge. God only holds on to the hope that we will reconcile with God.

Pray
Give praise and thanks to God for never giving up hope in humankind. Pray for the reconciliation of all people to the living God.  Pray to continue to grow into grace.

A Psalm for the Sabbath

Covenant with God

Signs of God's Covenant

Sabbath Observance

Psalm 92 The Message

A Sabbath Song

92 1-3 What a beautiful thing, God, to give thanks,
    to sing an anthem to you, the High God!
To announce your love each daybreak,
    sing your faithful presence all through the night,
Accompanied by dulcimer and harp,
    the full-bodied music of strings.
4-9 You made me so happy, God
    I saw your work and I shouted for joy.
How magnificent your work, God!
    How profound your thoughts!
Dullards never notice what you do;
    fools never do get it.
When the wicked popped up like weeds
    and all the evil men and women took over,
You mowed them down,
    finished them off once and for all.
You, God, are High and Eternal.
    Look at your enemies, God!
Look at your enemies—ruined!
    Scattered to the winds, all those hirelings of evil!
10-14 But you’ve made me strong as a charging bison,
    you’ve honored me with a festive parade.
The sight of my critics going down is still fresh,
    the rout of my malicious detractors.
My ears are filled with the sounds of promise:
    “Good people will prosper like palm trees,
Grow tall like Lebanon cedars;
    transplanted to God’s courtyard,
They’ll grow tall in the presence of God,
    lithe and green, virile still in old age.”
15 Such witnesses to upright God!
    My Mountain, my huge, holy Mountain!

For Reflection

On your Sabbath do the things that bring you closer to God.

Pray
Praise God.  Give thanks to God.  Pray for those in need.  Pray for your enemies. Pray so that God may fill your soul with righteousness.

Worship on the Sabbath

Covenant with God

Signs of God's Covenant

Sabbath Observance

Acts 16:11-15 The Message

11-12 Putting out from the harbor at Troas, we made a straight run for Samothrace. The next day we tied up at New City and walked from there to Philippi, the main city in that part of Macedonia and, even more importantly, a Roman colony. We lingered there several days.
13-14 On the Sabbath, we left the city and went down to the river where we had heard there was to be a prayer meeting. We took our place with the women who had gathered there and talked with them. One woman, Lydia, was from Thyatira and a dealer in expensive textiles, known to be a God-fearing woman. As she listened with intensity to what was being said, the Master gave her a trusting heart—and she believed!
15 After she was baptized, along with everyone in her household, she said in a surge of hospitality, “If you’re confident that I’m in this with you and believe in the Master truly, come home with me and be my guests.” We hesitated, but she wouldn’t take no for an answer.

For Reflection

We often think of Christian hospitality as an invitation, but sometimes it is also hospitable to accept an invitation. These passages recount the story of Paul meeting a wealthy business woman, Lydia, who had received the Gospel previously and been baptized along with her household. For Paul to decline an invitation to commune with a recently converted Christian may indicate his displeasure with her.  In fact, she prefaces her invitation with a request for confirmation.  She was not only looking for validation, but she was also testing Paul's authenticity.

Pray

Pray for those who accept Christ as their Lord and Savior.  Pray for those who follow the Way.  Pray for those whose faith journey is just beginning.  Pray for their courage, steadfast faith, and their ability to mature into the Grace of God.

Teaching on the Sabbath

Covenant with God

Signs of God's Covenant

Sabbath Observance

Mark 6:1-6 The Message

Just a Carpenter

6 1-2 He left there and returned to his hometown. His disciples came along. On the Sabbath, he gave a lecture in the meeting place. He made a real hit, impressing everyone. “We had no idea he was this good!” they said. “How did he get so wise all of a sudden, get such ability?”
3 But in the next breath they were cutting him down: “He’s just a carpenter—Mary’s boy. We’ve known him since he was a kid. We know his brothers, James, Justus, Jude, and Simon, and his sisters. Who does he think he is?” They tripped over what little they knew about him and fell, sprawling. And they never got any further.
4-6 Jesus told them, “A prophet has little honor in his hometown, among his relatives, on the streets he played in as a child.” Jesus wasn’t able to do much of anything there—he laid hands on a few sick people and healed them, that’s all. He couldn’t get over their stubbornness. He left and made a circuit of the other villages, teaching.

For Reflection

I started my teaching career at the high school from which I graduated.  I then worked along side with some of the teachers who knew me as a very immature teen. That they accepted me at all was a measure of God's grace. Perhaps they spoke of me as the people talked about Christ.  I understand Jesus's reaction.

As much as the Pharisees tried to undermine Christ with their constant attempts to demonize him, Christ knew that the religious law was insufficient to speak to all forms of worship.  Christ healing on the Sabbath was prayer, not work. The Pharisees would not have been capable of seeing the act of healing as it was because they were too invested in the law and oral traditions to be open to such a concept.  They were blinded by the desire to destroy the threat rather than to be changed by the truth.

Pray

Pray for those who are so blinded by their perceptions that the Holy Spirit cannot move them forward into enhanced Christian maturity. Pray that your understanding of an authentic Christian will enable you to meet challenges as opportunities to grow in grace.  

Healing on the Sabbath

Covenant with God

Signs of God's Covenant

Sabbath Observance

Matthew 12:9-14 The Message 

9-10 When Jesus left the field, he entered their meeting place. There was a man there with a crippled hand. They said to Jesus, “Is it legal to heal on the Sabbath?” They were baiting him.
11-14 He replied, “Is there a person here who, finding one of your lambs fallen into a ravine, wouldn’t, even though it was a Sabbath, pull it out? Surely kindness to people is as legal as kindness to animals!” Then he said to the man, “Hold out your hand.” He held it out and it was healed. The Pharisees walked out furious, sputtering about how they were going to ruin Jesus.

For Reflection

So, what is acceptable activity on the Sabbath?  In our house rest was taken literally.  I remember as a child begging my parents to do anything on Sunday but sleep and read the paper.  Sometimes they would give in and take me to get some ice cream or go for a drive in the country.

But that was the1950s.  Today the business climate, and cultural diveristy has changed.  Some Christians work on Sunday, their traditional Sabbath. So how does a Christian both honor the Sabbath and fulfill the Sabbath requirements?

It doesn't matter what day one designates as a Sabbath day. It only matters that one spends some time resting in the the presence of God.  It matters that one takes time away from the circumstance of his or her existence to feed one's soul.  It matters that one recharges one's spiritual life so that his secular life is not corrupted. How one chooses to do that and when is not nearly as important than recreating a spiritual life in the fellowship of believers.

Pray
Pray alone, outside of the watchful eyes of others.  Pray with your voice, your thought, and your action.  Pray so that your soul will find relief from the pressures of an harassing world.

The Sabbath Commandment

Covenant with God

Signs of God's Covenant

Circumcision

Exodus 20:8-11 The Message

8-11 Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Work six days and do everything you need to do. But the seventh day is a Sabbath to God, your God. Don’t do any work—not you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your servant, nor your maid, nor your animals, not even the foreign guest visiting in your town. For in six days God made Heaven, Earth, and sea, and everything in them; he rested on the seventh day. Therefore God blessed the Sabbath day; he set it apart as a holy day.

For Reflection:

I think that the picture above was taken on a Sunday morning after attending church in Annapolis Maryland. The town was filled with tourists and commerce was flourishing. The old American blue laws that forbid most commerce on Sundays was struck down so long ago that many people don't remember those days.

Because so many American Christians work on Sundays the meaning and observance of the Sabbath is questioned.  How do we now define work? Is the Sabbath a strict 7th-day event or is God's intent that we just set aside time to contemplate God's favor and rest from the constraints and pressure of our material lives?

Pray 
Pray for those whose lives are so hurried that they take little time to examine their relationship to God and don't set aside time for the recreation of their souls.

Jesus, Mediator of a Better Covenant

Covenant with God

Signs of God's Covenant

Circumcision

Hebrews 8:1-8 The Message 

A New Plan with Israel

8 1-2 In essence, we have just such a high priest: authoritative right alongside God, conducting worship in the one true sanctuary built by God.
3-5 The assigned task of a high priest is to offer both gifts and sacrifices, and it’s no different with the priesthood of Jesus. If he were limited to earth, he wouldn’t even be a priest. We wouldn’t need him since there are plenty of priests who offer the gifts designated in the law. These priests provide only a hint of what goes on in the true sanctuary of heaven, which Moses caught a glimpse of as he was about to set up the tent-shrine. It was then that God said, “Be careful to do it exactly as you saw it on the Mountain.”
6-13 But Jesus’ priestly work far surpasses what these other priests do, since he’s working from a far better plan. If the first plan—the old covenant—had worked out, a second wouldn’t have been needed. But we know the first was found wanting because God said,
Heads up! The days are coming
    when I’ll set up a new plan
    for dealing with Israel and Judah.
I’ll throw out the old plan
    I set up with their ancestors
    when I led them by the hand out of Egypt.
They didn’t keep their part of the bargain,
    so I looked away and let it go.
This new plan I’m making with Israel
    isn’t going to be written on paper,
    isn’t going to be chiseled in stone;
This time I’m writing out the plan in them,
    carving it on the lining of their hearts.
I’ll be their God,
    they’ll be my people.
They won’t go to school to learn about me,
    or buy a book called God in Five Easy Lessons.
They’ll all get to know me firsthand,
    the little and the big, the small and the great.
They’ll get to know me by being kindly forgiven,
    with the slate of their sins forever wiped clean.

By coming up with a new plan, a new covenant between God and his people, God put the old plan on the shelf and there it stays, gathering dust.

For Reflection

Whom else would, could, or should be your high-status friend before the judgment throne of God? Christ is not only your advocate but also your friend. The old covenant is superseded, and you have a direct line to the Lord.  So, pick up the phone, lay your joys and your troubles at the feet of Christ be attentive and rest in the knowledge that God will provide a solution.

Pray
Pray prayers of praise and thanksgiving for the living God.  Pray so that you can trust more deeply in God.

God's Promise Realized Through Faith

Covenant with God

Signs of God's Covenant

Circumcision

Romans 4:13-25 The Message

13-15 That famous promise God gave Abraham—that he and his children would possess the earth—was not given because of something Abraham did or would do. It was based on God’s decision to put everything together for him, which Abraham then entered when he believed. If those who get what God gives them only get it by doing everything they are told to do and filling out all the right forms properly signed, that eliminates personal trust completely and turns the promise into an ironclad contract! That’s not a holy promise; that’s a business deal. A contract was drawn up by a hard-nosed lawyer and with plenty of fine print only makes sure that you will never be able to collect. But if there is no contract in the first place, simply a promise—and God’s promise at that—you can’t break it.
16 This is why the fulfillment of God’s promise depends entirely on trusting God and his way, and then simply embracing him and what he does. God’s promise arrives as pure gift. That’s the only way everyone can be sure to get in on it, those who keep the religious traditions and those who have never heard of them. For Abraham is the father of us all. He is not our racial father—that’s reading the story backward. He is our faith father.
17-18 We call Abraham “father” not because he got God’s attention by living like a saint, but because God made something out of Abraham when he was a nobody. Isn’t that what we’ve always read in Scripture, God saying to Abraham, “I set you up as the father of many peoples”? Abraham was first named “father” and then became a father because he dared to trust God to do what only God could do: raise the dead to life, with a word make something out of nothing. When everything was hopeless, Abraham believed anyway, deciding to live not on the basis of what he saw he couldn’t do but on what God said he would do. And so he was made the father of a multitude of peoples. God himself said to him, “You’re going to have a big family, Abraham!”
19-25 Abraham didn’t focus on his own impotence and say, “It’s hopeless. This hundred-year-old body could never father a child.” Nor did he survey Sarah’s decades of infertility and give up. He didn’t tiptoe around God’s promise asking cautiously skeptical questions. He plunged into the promise and came up strong, ready for God, sure that God would make good on what he had said. That’s why it is said, “Abraham was declared fit before God by trusting God to set him right.” But it’s not just Abraham; it’s also us! The same thing gets said about us when we embrace and believe the One who brought Jesus to life when the conditions were equally hopeless. The sacrificed Jesus made us fit for God, set us right with God.

For Reflection

The promise of God is not a contract.  It is a one-way covenant which God has promised never to break. It a covenant of grace which has also been extended beyond Isreal to us by Christ's birth, life, death, and resurrection.  All that is necessary is that we trust in God and strive to grow into the human beings God has intended us to be.

Pray
Pray often about everything.  Trust God to lead you 

Circumcision Event Remembered

Covenant with God

Signs of God's Covenant

Circumcision

Acts 7:1-8 The Message

Stephen, Full of the Holy Spirit

7 Then the Chief Priest said, “What do you have to say for yourself?”
2-3 Stephen replied, “Friends, fathers, and brothers, the God of glory
appeared to our father Abraham when he was still in Mesopotamia, before the move to Haran, and told him, ‘Leave your country and family and go to the land I’ll show you.’
4-7 “So he left the country of the Chaldees and moved to Haran. After the death of his father, he immigrated to this country where you now live, but God gave him nothing, not so much as a foothold. He did promise to give the country to him and his son later on, even though Abraham had no son at the time. God let him know that his offspring would move to an alien country where they would be enslaved and brutalized for four hundred years. ‘But,’ God said, ‘I will step in and take care of those slaveholders and bring my people out so they can worship me in this place.’
8 “Then he made a covenant with him and signed it in Abraham’s flesh by circumcision. When Abraham had his son, Isaac, within eight days, he reproduced the sign of circumcision in him. Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob father of twelve ‘fathers,’ each faithfully passing on the covenant sign.

For Reflection

Stephan is under attack from those who accuse him of blasphemy.  He defends himself by invoking Abraham's name.  Stephan uses the sign of his Jewish heritage to indicate his allegiance to God.  What argument could you use that would convince others of your love for God and your commitment to the "Way?"

Pray
Pray for all those whose faith have placed their lives in jeopardy. Pray that you will have the courage to stand on the side of your God and fight for the victory of truth, kindness, forgiveness, and justice. 

Abraham's Household Circumcised

Covenant with God

Signs of God's Covenant

Circumcision

Genesis 17:23-27 The Message

23 Then Abraham took his son Ishmael and all his servants, whether house-born or purchased—every male in his household—and circumcised them, cutting off their foreskins that very day, just as God had told him.
24-27 Abraham was ninety-nine years old when he was circumcised. His son Ishmael was thirteen years old when he was circumcised. Abraham and Ishmael were circumcised the same day together with all the servants of his household, those born there and those purchased from outsiders—all were circumcised with him.

For Reflection

Circumcision is a token of the covenant.  It is a sign that even in the physical absence of God, one abides in God and one is living in the grace and promise of God. All in the household of Abraham were received into the covenant. There was no distinction as to whether one was born into the house of Abraham or was a purchased slave.  The sign of the chosen was open to all in the sacred lineage of Abraham. Ishmael was also circumcised in his thirteenth year.

The visible church did not descend from Ishmael, but Ishmael reaped the benefits of God's blessing. Perhaps God's intention for all humankind is cloaked in God's answer to Abraham's prayer.

Pray
Pray that you will be as obedient to God as Abraham.  Pray that the sign of your abiding in the promise of God is visible in your kindness, humility, forgiveness, and justice.  Praise God for the wisdom of God's gift signified by the cross.  Pray that you will remember and have confidence and trust in God's promise.

Sarah, Mother of Many Nations and Ishmael Father of a Nation

Covenant with God

Signs of God's Covenant

Circumcision

Genesis 17:15-17, 20-22 Message

15-16 God continued speaking to Abraham, “And Sarai your wife: Don’t call her Sarai any longer; call her Sarah. I’ll bless her—yes! I’ll give you a son by her! Oh, how I’ll bless her! Nations will come from her; kings of nations will come from her.”
17 Abraham fell flat on his face. And then he laughed, thinking, “Can a hundred-year-old man father a son? And can Sarah, at ninety years, have a baby?”
20-21 “And Ishmael? Yes, I heard your prayer for him. I’ll also bless him; I’ll make sure he has plenty of children—a huge family. He’ll father twelve princes; I’ll make him a great nation. But I’ll establish my covenant with Isaac whom Sarah will give you about this time next year.”
22 God finished speaking with Abraham and left.

For Reflection

We, humankind, are so impatient.  As Queen sings "I want it all, and I want it now." We are as eager as Abraham to meet our Lord and Savior.  And also as Abraham, we sometimes become doubtful that the promise of God will ever be realized.  We forget that God's time is not our time. We abandon the mystery of God and we are skeptical when God promises that which we find unrealistic or impossible. Our spiritual insight is limited by the rationality of human perception and our faith is defined by our impatience.  With misapprehension, our tenacity wanes.

The procreation sanctified by God and re-established with Noah is now passed on to Isaac.  God grants Abraham's prayer for Ishmael but builds on the promise of Isaac.

Pray
Pray for the patience to wait for the attainment of the promise of God.  Pray for the wisdom to accept the sacred mystery of irrationality in a world that prefers rationality.  Pray that when your soul yearns for the unbelievable, the impossible, and the doubtful, you accept the mysterious truth.

Under the Rainbow The Angel Speaks

Covenant with God

Signs of God's Covenant

The Rainbow

Revelation 10:1-7 The Message

10 ^1-4 I saw another powerful Angel coming down out of Heaven wrapped in a cloud. There was a rainbow over his head, his face was sun-radiant, his legs pillars of fire. He had a small book open in his hand. He placed his right foot on the sea and his left foot on land, then called out thunderously, a lion roar. When he called out, the Seven Thunders called back. When the Seven Thunders spoke, I started to write it all down, but a voice out of Heaven stopped me, saying, “Seal with silence the Seven Thunders; don’t write a word.”

^5-7 Then the Angel I saw astride sea and land lifted his right hand to Heaven and swore by the One Living Forever and Ever, who created Heaven and everything in it, earth and everything in it, sea and everything in it, that time was up—that when the seventh Angel blew his trumpet, which he was about to do, the Mystery of God, all the plans he had revealed to his servants, the prophets, would be completed.

For Reflection

So, is this a description of a threat or celebration? God's sovereignty is placed between the God's people and the idolatry of the nonbelievers. The angel messenger descends in the rainbow halo of God's covenant of mercy, a sign of a peaceful mission. This vision is the hope of salvation; the triumph of the Kingdom of God.

Pray
Pray prayers of praise, adoration, and thanksgiving for the living God whose mercy abounds and whose will for human kind can not be thwarted.