Good day dear friends.
As you spend time in prayer today, please be in prayer for Nellie and I as we travel to Manchaca UMC this weekend. I will be preaching at that church at the very cordial and longstanding invitation of a dear friend and Christian brother, Dr. Steven Sweet. The sermon title is "The Bigger Dilemma" and it's based on life and death. Is that clue enough? Thank you for your prayers!
Here is today's study guide: Again in Genesis, chapter 12:1-5 we find the story of the “Father of the Faith.” Read these verses to discover why he’s called that.
Here is that text from Genesis 12:1 Now the Lord said to Abram, "Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. 2 I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed." 4 So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. 5 Abram took his wife Sarai and his brother's son Lot, and all the possessions that they had gathered, and the persons whom they had acquired in Haran; and they set forth to go to the land of Canaan.
Abraham, not Adam, is considered the father of the faith. There are of course, several reasons, but the greatest is that Abraham made an important decision of faith at God's request. It was a most difficult request to leave his country and his family, especially his father's house to go to an unknown land. The promise was that God would make of him a great nation complete with blessings. Not an easy request for anyone of any age, but keep in mind that Abraham was 75 years old when this request came. The only sweat most of us want to have in those days is from 18 rounds of golf, a nice tennis match, or a victory at shuffleboard (I'm showing my age, aren't I?). A nice cold glass of Metamucil (in the olden days it would have been two tablespoons of Geritol), a stroll through the garden, then inside to watch The Price is Right. Not to uproot and leave! Yet, that was God's request.
Abraham, not Adam, is considered the father of the faith. There are of course, several reasons, but the greatest is that Abraham made an important decision of faith at God's request. It was a most difficult request to leave his country and his family, especially his father's house to go to an unknown land. The promise was that God would make of him a great nation complete with blessings. Not an easy request for anyone of any age, but keep in mind that Abraham was 75 years old when this request came. The only sweat most of us want to have in those days is from 18 rounds of golf, a nice tennis match, or a victory at shuffleboard (I'm showing my age, aren't I?). A nice cold glass of Metamucil (in the olden days it would have been two tablespoons of Geritol), a stroll through the garden, then inside to watch The Price is Right. Not to uproot and leave! Yet, that was God's request.
What has God asked of you? Does it seem difficult if not impossible? Are you able to do it? Of course, you won't do it alone, you'll have God with you guiding you and using you, so what's holding you back? Our theme this entire week is making the God-decisions in all of our decisions. Not all are easy and yet all have consequences. What will you choose?
In many respects you and I are the fathers and mothers of faith for others whether we realize it or not. What are we showing by our parenting in the faith?
PRAYER: Loving God, help me to be a great father/mother in the faith to those who are looking upon me. May their decisions be made easier because they've seen me make mine trusting completely in you. I ask this in Jesus' Name, amen.
Have a great and blessed day in the Lord!
e.v.
