Test Your Heart.

Abraham had it all—land, cattle, crops, gold, 300 employees—but no children. His peers might have had 60 descendants at his age, but Abe had none. SIX times God repeated his promise of a son—and of heirs that would outnumber the stars. Then at 86, Abe had a son, by Hagar.  Finally at 100, God gave the couple Isaac.

Then God asked Abraham to give him back. The two hike 60 miles. 

Little Isaac: “What’s wrong, Daddy?”

Abraham smiles and says, “I’m fine.” 

But he is in turmoil, remembering lonely years, promises from God, good times with Ishmael.  He relives good times with this delightful child, Isaac, whose name literally means ‘laughter.’  He remembers laughs they had, smiles, the way the boy listens and tries to please, the way he works hard, he’s game for anything.  Abraham is confused—God made a promise, surely He will keep it? Isaac must live, but Abraham must obey. He looks at his boy and treasures his face, memorizing every expression, every sound of his voice.

Too soon, they reach the peak.  Abe ties up Isaac.  Grief breaks him and he doubles over, hands on his knees, weeping.  But he is resolved.  He smiles at his son’s face. How can he make this painless for him?  He lifts the knife…

and God stops him.

“Do not lay a hand on the boy… For now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your only son from me….  I swear… because you have done this, I will indeed bless you and make your offspring as numerous as the stars of the sky and the sand of the seashore….” Genesis 22:12-17.

Sometimes God asks us to surrender things we love.  Some of them we get back—but not all.  Test your heart. Is there anything you cling to that you cannot give to God?

Let it go!

God, help us to sacrifice ALL to you. We give you our hearts, loves, dreams. Do your will.  You are the boss.

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Sacrifice.

What could you give up for God?

God promised Abraham descendants that would outnumber the stars, and land in all directions. He called Abe his friend, and told him about Sodom and Gomorrah in advance. But in exchange, God asked a lot of the ultimate “founding father.” 

“Take thy son, thy only son Isaac, whom you love, and offer him as a sacrifice to me on Mount Moriah.” Genesis 22:2.

Wow. That’s harsh. Who could obey that? And how? Well—you put one foot in front of the other and hope God changes His mind.

But it was 60 miles. They walked there in three days—20 miles a day. Carrying a lit torch and keeping it lit all day and all night. Pulling a donkey burdened with firewood, food, water, and supplies. And all the time Abraham was carrying a burden of his own that no one could imagine. And on the third day, Isaac asked him, “Where is the lamb?” I imagine Dad couldn’t even answer that for a few minutes.

Finally: “God will provide the lamb.” Wasn’t that PROPHETIC—in two ways? 

But Abraham didn’t know what was to come. He climbed the mountain. Piled the wood. Tied up his son. He TIED. HIM. UP. Can you imagine? And he’s over 100 and Isaac was at least a teen and some believe he was in his 20s or 30s—Isaac could have run or resisted. He may have been scared and confused, but this amazing young man honored his father and submitted.

Then Abe laid him down on the pyre. Took one final look. Wiped his tears so he could see. And in one final, desperate moment, said yes to God and grabbed the handle of his knife.

“Abraham! Abraham!”

“Yes, Lord.”

“Do your son no harm! For now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld your son, your only son from me!”

—And God revealed a lamb caught in the thicket. Abraham untied Isaac and sacrificed the lamb. And now God really heaps on the blessings and promises. No one—absolutely NO ONE in history has a role like Abraham’s. But no one else was tested the same way.

Is there anything you could not sacrifice for God? What are you holding back? Tie it up. Lay it on the altar. Pick up the knife. Surrender to God. And THEN His greatest blessings will come. Remember, God sacrificed His Son on the altar (and there was no other lamb that could take his place). What’s your sacrifice?

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Remember Lot’s Wife.

Jesus warns in Luke 17:33, “Remember Lot’s wife!” He makes it sound like life and death. But what does that mean?

In Genesis 19, God sends angels to rescue Lot’s family. The people are warned to run from the city. The sons-in-law ignore it. The family hesitates. The angels (who look like men) grab their hands and lead them out. They say, “Run! Don’t look back. Run for your lives!” But Lot’s wife looked back.

“And she became a pillar of salt.” Gen. 19:26.

(Say what!? Salt?) What is the point of this weird punishment? And why does Jesus bring it up 20 centuries later? He did not say, “Remember Korah, Dathan, and Abiram.” They also died suddenly. He did not say, “Remember Nadab and Abihu,” who were burned by the fire of God. He did not say, “Remember Uzzah,” whom God struck dead in a moment.[1] Jesus could have named others. But the warning is, “REMEMBER LOT’S WIFE.”

Lot’s wife showed regret for the destruction of evil. God sent His holy fire of judgment on Sodom and she looked back on the city with fondness. She had a worldly heart. The Bible says, “Do not love the world nor the things of the world, for if you love the things of the world, the love of the Father is not in you.”

Mrs. Lot read questionable romance novels. She binge-watched stories that put her head in dark, ungodly places. When Lot asked her about her choices, she said, “it’s fine,” and ignored him. When she saw drunks passed out in the French Quarter, she giggled and said, “those are my people.” When her daughters were engaged to men without integrity, she never gave it a second thought. “It’s fine,” she told herself. “Time’s are changing.” And when God sent angels to protect her family, she was sad about the destruction of “sin city.” She lost sight of the holiness of God. She did not think He would really do it. By looking back, Lot’s wife proved that her ‘treasure’ was not in heaven, but in the world.

So God turned her into a statue of salt, a bizarre but vivid reminder of the holiness of God. Why salt? Because salt destroys life. Nothing can live in salt. The grass will die all around it. There is nothing but death there. God is saying if you love the world, you are living in a place of death, and you are living under God’s judgment. He WILL NOT bless us if we are so fond of the world that we regret God’s judgment.

“Do not love the world or the things of the world, for anyone who loves the world does not have the love of God inside him.” 1 John 2:15.

Ask God to show you ways in which your heart is similar to that of Lot’s wife. Ask Him to help you love Him more completely every day.

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[1] See Bible Tools Commentary at https://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Topical.show/RTD/CGG/ID/1350/Remember-Lots-Wife.htm

A Story is a Map for Life.

When I was a little boy I was fascinated by the mailman.  Every day Mr. Richard walked our neighborhood dropping letters into mailboxes at the front doors.  I loved to see him coming because you never knew what he might bring.  And his daily walk blazed a trail.  In spite of the incredible rain and sunshine on the Gulf Coast, the grass could never erase his tracks. 

Stories do the same thing.  Each plot carves a path, and similar plots can turn a path into a highway.  If enough police officers on TV are corrupt, audiences assume officers in real life are corrupt.  If enough sit-com characters sleep together on the first date, audience members facing that choice may consider it normal.  To give a positive example, if fathers in the movies make sacrifices for their families, perhaps dads facing tough choices will choose to put their families before themselves.  Stories are maps that make certain options appear better than others.

Similarly, God gave us Old Testament stories in part to prepare us for the truths of the New Testament.  The sacrificial system helped God’s people understand the crucifixion.  But why does God ask Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, the Son of Promise?  Particularly knowing He will stop him at the last minute, and provide a sacrificial lamb instead? Yes, it is a test.  Yes, God reveals He is our Provider.  But there is more.

When Abraham places Isaac on the altar, He illustrates what God the Father would experience with His Son.  The near-sacrifice of Isaac creates a mental path helping us understand the death of the Son of God—who is both the Son of Promise AND the Sacrificial Lamb.  Down through the centuries, surely countless Jewish people have heard of the death of Jesus and understood that it was the Abraham and Isaac story all over again—only ‘for real’ this time.  Abraham’s obedience is an illustration, probably responsible for an incredible harvest of souls.

“All the nations of the earth will be blessed by your offspring because you have obeyed My command” Genesis 22:18.

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God’s Secret Sign.

There have always been secret signs, codes that allow you to trust a stranger. George Washington used a small band of trusted spies to fight the British, and he was known among them by a number “711.” Spies today often employ a series of passwords to vet each other. You’ve seen the scenes in movies—two meet on the street:

“The moles snuck into the garden last night.”

“What was the gardener’s response?”

“He said to send the exterminator.”

“May God have mercy on us all.”

After this exchange of unique dialogue, the two know they can trust each other, right?

God initiated a seemingly bizarre “password” in Genesis 17: circumcision. Everything about it seems weird at first. It requires surgery, blood, pain, healing. It’s permanent—and most of all, it’s in a vulnerable and most-personal location. Think about it—if it weren’t in the Bible, it would sound like something invented to mock God—it would be a dirty joke and we would hide the story from children. 

But it is in the Bible. And here’s why: surgery, blood, pain, healing—it’s permanent—and most of all, it’s in a vulnerable and most-personal location. 

By placing the mark of His covenant where He did, God ensures that virtually NO ONE will fake it. After all, it is in the MOST intimate location. If anything is done to surgically alter the appearance, a man is mortified with embarrassment. And it hurts for days. This is the ultimate sign of the tribe. Forget Indian War paint or Polynesian tattoos, or facial scarification (signs of tribe or clan), or stretched necks and lips and earlobes on various indigenous peoples. Those things are bush league compared to carving the genitalia. 

With circumcision, God initiated the ultimate password, secret code, gang sign, or membership card. His followers would be forever identified as children of the covenant, believers who have “cut away” the old, worldly life of sin and walk by faith. 

MORE IMPORTANTLY, CIRCUMCISION IS AN OUTWARD SIGN OF A HEART THAT UNDERSTANDS IT IS GOD WHO SHARED HIS CREATIVE POWERS WITH US: IT IS GOD WHO GIVES A MAN THE POWER TO FATHER CHILDREN. 

We are encouraged to “circumcise our hearts” in Deuteronomy chapters 10, 30, and Jer.4. Cut the worldliness out of your life. Reduce your intake of media—all media—and increase your intake of God’s word.

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Is it Possible to Laugh Too Much?

“Laughter doeth good like a medicine” Proverbs 17:22.  God created laughter.  One favorite quote says, “You were created out of the LAUGHTER of the Trinity.”  God laughs.  And He gave us the gift of laughter—and its healing properties have now been verified by science.  Turns out, laughter actually CAN do good like a medicine. 

But our culture has transformed comedy into a gold mine. We’ve done to laughter what we did to sugar and corn, scientifically refining each into the two most powerful sweeteners in history—and we wonder why we have an obesity crisis.  The quick laugh has become our cultural JUNK FOOD.  While we feed our minds with jokes, gags, and physical comedy, what more nutritious options are we missing?  Television sit-coms, stand-up comedy, and prank videos have transformed the serious, hard-working, somewhat devout nation of the past into a silly, “jokey” culture.  Like a good TV audience, we are always primed for a joke, ready for the quick punch line.  It’s hard to take anything seriously. 

I LOVE COMEDY.  I DO.  But even those with college degrees rarely choose the healthier diet of a book over the endorphin rush of junk food laughs streaming from a TV or phone.  We are missing the deeper, richer, inner life that God intended and many of our ancestors surely experienced.

And sometimes you simply must take things seriously.

“Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who were going to marry his daughters. ‘Get up,’ he said. ‘Get out of this place, for the Lord is about to destroy the city!’  But his sons-in-law THOUGHT HE WAS JOKING” Genesis 19:14.

Lot told them to run for their lives, but they laughed at him and died.  What kind of a non-serious, jokey culture did they have in Sodom that two young men would laugh at such a warning?  Perhaps a mocking sense of humor is characteristic of all cultures about to collapse. It was true of ancient Rome, true of Europe’s most hated royals, and it is sadly too common today.

God, never let us joke our way through life, missing the things that matter most.

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El Roi: The God Who Sees. Genesis 16:13-14.

Do you ever feel abandoned, like no one knows what you are going through? Like God is not really paying attention? Do you ever just want to cry out to God, “Hey, are you listening to me? Do you see what I’m going through here?”

GOD SEES. 

Jacob worked seven years to marry Rebecca and was tricked into marrying Leah.  Laban gave him Rebecca a week later, but made him work another seven years. Then Jacob worked six more years tending Laban’s flocks. “For 20 years I have worked in your household… and you have changed my wages 10 times!” Genesis 31:41.  But God saw Jacob’s suffering:

“I HAVE SEEN all that Laban has been doing to you. I am the God of Bethel… get up, leave this land, and return to your native land” Genesis 31:12-13.

What did God say?  “I HAVE SEEN.” God sees it all.  He SEES your hurts, suffering, illnesses. He SEES what people say and your hurt feelings. He SEES your problems and challenges.  He SEES your unfulfilled dreams.  He SEES your unanswered questions.  You do not suffer alone—and you will not suffer forever.

Hagar gained status when she became pregnant by Abraham. But then Sarah drove her into the desert alone, an unwed pregnant woman with no plan, no future, and certainly no status. But God showed up, talked to her about her problems, and sent her back to Abraham.  And Hagar, probably a pagan until then, coined one of the Bible’s names for God, El Roi:

“So she called the Lord who spoke to her, ‘THE GOD WHO SEES,’ … and she named the spring ‘a Well of the Living One Who Sees Me.’” Genesis 16:13-14.

Whatever you are going through—God sees you! 

God, thank you that you are El Roi, the God Who Sees! Remind us that you are with us and you see all our problems and all our needs.  Thank you that you never leave us alone, but you are with us.  You SEE us.  You SEE me. Thank you.

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Abstinence is Weight Lifting for the Soul. Genesis 16:9.

Why abstinence? How can God give young people such strong desires, then expect them not to act on those desires? After all, these are immature kids—most young people are weak and soft and lack the character to abstain from anything. 

Yet God places high expectations on us.  God allows temptations that seem overwhelming (though they are not, see 1 Cor. 10:13), and He tells us to say NO.  Is God crazy?

Change your perspective.  Don’t consider kids or yourself as immature, weak, soft, and lacking in character.  God is building you into a MATURE ADULT, who is STRONG, TOUGH, and filled with CHARACTER and INTEGRITY. 

Think of it this way—parents do not “raise children.”  Parents raise adults.  That boy who is out of control will wake up tomorrow a MAN.  God is preparing him for MANHOOD.

Perhaps the sex drive hits ten years before marriage.  Does God ask young people to abstain for TEN YEARS?  Yes!  Why? Because abstinence in this area builds character that will help those future adults in many other areas. Abstinence is weight lifting for the soul.  One day God will call you to a job—then He may be silent for ten years.  Perhaps you will be tempted to quit for eight of those ten years.  But you pray and God says nothing.  So BY FAITH, you stick with what He said before and you hang in there.  You are strong now, and you ABSTAIN from every job offer that tempts you away from the place God put you. 

Such abstinence actually characterizes the lives of mature believers: you constantly see opportunities or “open doors,” but you pray and God is silent and you realize you must persevere where you are: Keep that job. Stay at that church. Mend that relationship. Work out that marriage. You must ABSTAIN from the temptation to quit. 

When Hagar ran away from Sarai and complained to God, He said, “You must go back  and submit to her mistreatment” Genesis 16:9.  God told her to ABSTAIN, to stay and endure, to “bloom where you’re planted.”  Is He saying the same to you?

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WHY DID GOD CHOOSE ABRAM? Genesis 12:1-3

We don’t know. But look at what He says in Genesis 12—

“Now the LORD said to Abram, ‘Go forth from your country, and from your relatives and from your father’s house, to the land which I will show you, and I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great; and so you shall be a blessing; and 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 will be blessed.’” Genesis 12:1-3.

Imagine being Abram. You don’t know God. You’re probably a pagan idol worshiper, and he comes to you, forgives you, chooses you, and promises to bless you more than anyone.

“I will make you a great nation. I will bless you. I will make your name great.” These are huge riches to Abe’s culture—the blessing of your descendants is incredibly important, and God promises kings and nations will come from Abram.

“And I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse those who curse you.”—So God will be on Abram’s team, blessing his allies and thwarting his enemies. Isn’t that an amazing promise?

But my favorite may be verse 2: “You will be a blessing.”

That’s what I want—to BE a blessing to others. To bless my wife. To bless my kids. To bless my family and friends. To be a blessing in the office, so good things happen around me, and those who interact with me are the better for it. I want to be a blessing to students, so kids assigned to my classes are better off than those elsewhere. I want to work hard and be kind and forgiving and humble and helpful to others.

And I want the same for you.

Dear God, make us a blessing. Use us in the lives around us. Fill us with the blessing of your Holy Spirit, and use us to bless others. Amen.

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DO YOU BELIEVE GOD? Genesis 15:6

First, God told Abram “Go … to a land that I will show you. I will make you into a great nation” Genesis 12:1-2.  Later God spoke a second time: “To your offspring I will give this land” 12:7.   Then He spoke a third time: “I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth, so that if anyone could count the dust, then your offspring could be counted” 13:16.  Abram continued to worship God, but years ticked by and he remained childless.  Then God spoke a FOURTH TIME:

“‘Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield and your reward will be great.’ But Abram said, ‘Lord God, what can you give me, since I am childless ….’ And the Lord said ‘No, but one who comes from your own body will be your heir. Look at the sky and count the stars, if you are able. Your offspring will be that numerous” 15:1-5.

That was the FOURTH time God spoke to Abram.  How did Abram respond?

“Abram believed the Lord and it was credited to him as righteousness” 15:6.

Abram believed. God knew his heart and God credited his belief.  But did Abram believe God perfectly?  Apparently not—because it was AFTER this that he took Sarai’s advice and had a child with her slave, Hagar.  

I can relate.  Sometimes I think I believe God perfectly, but then I am tempted to take matters into my own hands.  It is hard to be patient. It is hard to watch the years roll by and dreams go unfulfilled.  And remember how old Abram was?  He was 100 years old when Isaac was born!  100!  Who wouldn’t take matters into their own hands?  You hear the clock ticking. You see the sands slipping through the hourglass.

It is hard.  Sadly, it can even be hard when you have heard the voice of the Lord. But remember: God is not concerned with the timeline.  He is building your CHARACTER and shaping your HEART.

God, give us faith and patience!

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