Genesis 16-18

A couple of thoughts this morning. First, I've always found the Angel of the Lord's command to Hagar intriguing, "You must go back to your mistress and submit to her mistreatment." (16:9) Are you kidding me? Is that a mistake. Shouldn't it have either read that she was free to leave because of her mistreatment or that she was free to go back and make a public spectacle of Sarai because she deserved to be exposed for her inhumane behavior or that she was to return and God was going to change Sarai's heart toward her...yet none of this was to be. Hagar was to return and then it comes, the dreaded "s" word, submit, and not to one worthy of respect but to mistreatment. We must never forget the old cliche, that God is not so concerned for our comfort as much as He is our character. If we ever find ourselves being mistreated, we would do well to read this story and pray vigilantly before we assign assumptions to God's intention.

I also realized something this morning that I had not seen before in the history of Abram/Abraham. His son was not conceived until after the rite of circumcision had been established. May it be a reminder to us that God has promises for us to possess that we can not behold until we have submitted areas of our lives to Him that we have formerly withheld. And in thinking of those promises, how wondrous they will be, think of the meaning of Isaac's name, laughter. The Apologetics Study Bible I am reading points out the "play on words" here. Both Abraham and Sarah laughed at the Angel's news that they would give birth to a child naturally, even though they were 100 and 90 respectively (17:17 & 18:12).

God's promises for us are so grand, they cause the unbelieving mind to laugh at the impossibility...they inspire the heart of faith to look expectantly!

Pastor Fred

Genesis 13-15

The Genesis narrative continues to amaze...a great portend for the rest of the year, Holy Scripture living, powerful, inspiring, life giving!

In chapter 13 we are reminded that prosperity does not just come by way of reciprocity of financial gifts but by being a peace maker. Our material wealth is tethered to righteousness and an unrelenting faith in God. Abram new that his financial success was not dependent on natural circumstances but rather a super-natural God!

318 is a favorite number for us at City Life. We use this number to challenge people to get involved in ministry. Abram needed all his trained men to join in the fight and that with God's sovereign intervention, not even the armies of four kings could overcome them. Evil is just as pervasive in our cities today as was in the days of Abram. We too have the promise of God's sovereignty working on our behalf to evangelize our communities. The only remaining question is whether or not our "318" will join in the struggle. Every person has been gifted by God with a unique ability to complete the Body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12, Romans 12)...you have been divinely "trained!" Will you add your name to one of Abram's house today, your local church, and rescue the Lot held captive by evil in your community?

Our reading wraps up today with an astounding prophetic statement, the prediction of the 400 year captivity of the many descendants of Abram, who by the way, at the time of the prophecy, still had no children! See if you can find in the book of Exodus where this prophecy is said to have been fulfilled, specifically the 400 years.

Godspeed in 2010!

Pastor Fred

Genesis 10-12

How we view God strongly impacts how we understand the Bible. For example, if we view God as a detached, domineering, uncaring divine being, we read the historical account of the Tower of Babel as a god who realized his creation is encroaching upon divine glory and out of insecurity, frustrates their progress. However, we know the the God is none of those things. He is only loving, caring, merciful, perfect in every way! I object to the view that God is all about judgment in the OT and about forgiveness in the NT. He is only always about forgiveness. All the judgment in the OT and the NT is only every motivated out of love to bring people to repentance so that we might know His forgiveness!

Something I saw this morning that I have not noticed before is that the statement in the account of the building of the Tower of Babel that they wanted to "make a name for themselves" mirrors the blessing that God would soon speak over Abram. The very thing for which they longed to have was an integral part of the blessing that God spoke over Abram. Read the two together and compare.

I love Ecclesiastes 3:11 where we read that God has put eternity in the hearts of men. There is something present in us that longs for all that God has in store for us. Where we misstep is the same as those in the planes of Shinar, we take matters into our own hands. The only way we should ever hope to have a name made for ourselves is as we make a name for God in our world! Any fame we muster should only be through our efforts in making Him famous among everyone within our sphere of influence!

Pastor Fred

p.s. - Lesson number one to husbands out of Genesis, no lying about your wife being your sister!

Genesis 7-9

Someone asked me a great question after church last night. We partake of the Lord's Supper, Communion, on the first Saturday of every month. The question was why we did not partake every week. We love questions at City Life!

Some churches believe that there is a mandate for partaking of the Lord's Supper every week, primarily based on Acts 20:7 which speaks to the Apostle Paul in Troas. The verse reads, "On the first day of the week, we assemble to break bread. Paul spoke to them, and since he as about to depart the next day, he extended his message until midnight." (remember that the next time you thing your pastor preached to long!)

There are just some things, as a commitment to mutual respect, that we must acknowledge will not be sorted out until we all get to heaven. I believe the frequency of the Lord's Supper is one of them. But mutual respect does not mean we cannot have humble, affirming dialogue about why we have different beliefs and different practices.

Why am I writing about this in reference to today's reading? Because in Genesis 9, God gives Noah and his family some basic instructions in preparation of the creation of new society. One was that no meat could be eaten that still contained blood and secondly that in any case of one person taking another person's life, the perpetrator must be killed. Does this mean that any person today who professes faith in Christ can never eat such foods or must support a criminal code that only calls for capital punishment in every instance of murder? Of course not, because as the Apologetics Study Bible notes point out (my current favorite daily reading Bible), we recognize the difference between teachings in Scripture that are timeless and those that are time bound. Paul commands that women must wear head coverings in church...I can't speak for every church, but at City Life we do not have a knitting ministry to provide head coverings to our ladies! This is one of the primary sources of the multitude of denominations today, disagreements between what is time bound and what is timeless.

Did the early church celebrate the Lord's Supper every time they met for their weekly worship service? Personally, I don't think Acts 20:7 is a very strong support of this since Paul was only there in Troas for 7 days. This was Paul's last day with them so one could make a strong argument that the context of Acts 20:7 is that they "broke bread" with Paul because he was a special guest and they wanted to share in this sacred moment with him. For me, I have to ask the question, if God intended us to share in The Lord's Supper every time we gathered, it seems that the instruction would be much more clear throughout Scripture. The only other mention the implies frequency is in 1 Corinthians 11:33 where Paul wrote, "Therefore, my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait for one another." But here again, there are many scholars who point out that the dominant word here is "when" meaning that every congregation must decide for themselves about frequency.

I thumbed through a book not too long ago by an author name Perry Stone who said he believed that The Lord's Supper was something to partake of every day that the this was the practice of the early church. I think that is quite a stretch and has little historical support but still, in the end, we just don't know, it is unclear.

I would argue that the frequency of The Lord's Supper is not a timeless principle. We must make room for one another's preferences without perceiving others as being wrong if we are not dealing with an absolute. If someone were to argue that the deity of Christ is not a timeless principle, well, that would be a problem! But if we take matters that are supposed to be relative from one congregation to another and make them absolutes, we end of with division and legalism. By the same token, if we take absolutes and reduce them to relativity, we end up in compromise. My definition of unity is that we must let absolute commonalities transcend relative dissimilarities.

So, for my brethren who partake of the Lord's Supper every week, go for it! If you want to partake every day, then by all means do! Or, if you want to celebrate it once every month, then enjoy! Let's make room for one other in love, devotion, and respect!

Pastor Fred

Genesis 4-6

You can't help but ask the question, "how did they live so long?" in reading todays chapters. Methuselah for 969 years! There are lots of theories out there and one that I like is that in the Garden of Eden, there was the Tree of Life. I tend toward the position that it was in eating from this tree, which is a prophetic picture of Jesus, that Adam and Eve had the hope of eternal longevity. Once they had to leave Eden, they were no longer able to eat from this tree yet the effects of it carried forward for generations. Remember, in Genesis 1 a principle of life was established, that all living things would reproduce after their own kind. The effects of Tree of Life were passed down from generation to generation but so too was the sinful nature of our humanity. Without continuing consumption of the Tree of Life, the effects of the sinful nature of our humanity eventually overcame us, in part physically, and our lives ceased to be supernaturally lengthened.

This brings up another interesting question, "what is the difference between prescriptive and descriptive?" I am more descriptive than prescriptive. For example, the curse on mankind we read in Genesis 3, is this God prescribing what He is going to do to mankind or describing what mankind has done to themselves? I think God is describing what mankind has done to themselves. God did not curse us which would be prescriptive but rather we cursed ourselves and God is describing how we will suffer as result of our own disobedience. Thus, once we get to Genesis 6:3 and God says that the number of mankind's years will not be 120, I see this as descriptive, not prescriptive. God is describing what is now happening to man a result of not having access to the Tree of Life generations later.

But we know that we have access to the Tree of Life today, in a sense! Not that a vow of devotion to Jesus ensures the longevity of these physical bodies but rather a promise of a greater longevity, a heavenly body! In Revelation, the New Jerusalem has at its center, the Tree of Life! See if you can find the reference and read for yourself!

Godspeed in 2010!

Pastor Fred

Genesis 1 - 3

I am endeavoring to share a thought or two from my daily readings in 2010. Our church (www.thecitylifechurch) is reading through the Bible every year. This year, we are using the chronological reading plan. I hope you join us! If you are new to reading plans, any number of Bibles at your local Christian bookstore contains reading plans, there are even Bibles designed specifically for daily reading, like the Chronological Bible. We like to use online services so that you receive a daily email prompting you and listing your reading for the day...check out www.crosswalk.com for example.

It's still The Way today!

For today...I am always struck by what God does to Adam in Genesis 2:18. God acknowledges that it is not good for man to be alone. But does He proceeds, not in the creation of woman, but of animals! If one was not familiar with the nature of God from the rest of Scripture, it would appear rather sadistic, taunting. God then proceeds with giving the task of naming all the animals to Adam, with each naming event, a reminder of his loneliness. Who is this God? A sovereign One, all wise! For here we see one of the great principles of God's Kingdom, that it is in waiting without what God intends for us to have that we are able to recognize His will more clearly once it arrives. Verse 23, "An the man said, This is now bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh..."

I also reflect on how the devil works. In chapter 3, verse 5 he promises, "...you will be like God..." I believe one his most successful approaches in temptation is to play on appetites that we have that are pure, noble, righteous. All of us are called to be like God. In chapter one we read that He created us in His image. The devil takes desires that are God given and perverts them. God gave us an appetite for pleasure, rest, relationship, prosperity...yet we know all of them can be perverted. Be wise to the devil's schemes!

My last thought touches on something controversial. I strongly believe that The Church has failed in its calling to reach the homosexual community. I believe Cal Thomas got it correct in his book Blinded By Might where he accuses some popular evangelical groups for picking certain social issues not out of divine calling but because they were strategic issues for fund raising. I believe The Church has failed miserably in loving the sinner and hating the sin on this one. We have hated both. But we me must not let our mistakes cause us to fall into accommodating a life style that robs people of the abundant life Jesus promises. Genesis 2:24 and 25 are the best verses in the Bible to uphold romantic relationships being only between one man and one woman. Here again the insight above comes into play. Satan understands our innate need for romantic relationship, sexual fulfillment so he plays on this need in people and leads them astray. Genesis 2:24-25 teach us that the only way that need in us is going to be completely satisfied is with one of the opposite gender.

See you tomorrow!

examiner.com

In February of this year, I spent 8 days in one of the poorest countries of the world, Niger Africa. Without costing you anything but a few minutes each week, you can help support an orphanage I visited there. If you go to www.linkniger.com you can find under Projects & Partnerships more information about this home to parentless children. Niger is one of the poorest countries in the world. In fact, it is a fourth-world nation. Never heard of fourth-world? Me too until a friend told me how Niger was too poor for third-world so a new global classification has been created.

How can you help? I recently started writing for an online editorial of sorts, www.examiner.com where I will be contributing twice each week. Funds are generated simply by the number of views. 100% of what is generated is going to support this orphanage in Niger. I hope you help! Simply by going to the Examiner website, then to the link Meet The Examiners, you will see all the examiner categories. Select Religion & Spirituality. You will find me there in the Norfolk group. Open my page and then you can subscribe by entering your email. As long as you don't check the box for other updates, the only emails you will receive will be to notify you of my articles posting. Each time I post, if you take just a few minutes to open the article, a page view is generated which translates into funds for orphans! If you don't find the articles are worth the read, you can simply unsubscribe...but if you do, I'd ask you to invite your friends to join.

We all see the commercials on television, print ads in magazines, headlines...about poverty in the world. This is a real opportunity to make a difference. Much of the worlds poverty remains due to a lack of links between the under-resourced and families like yours and mine. Between working for The Christian Children's Fund and living in the inner-city of Richmond, I spent 15 years working directly to help improve the conditions of the lives of impoverished people. During that time I always heard people say the same thing..."I just don't know how to get involved." If you could translate a few minutes each week into real dollars for orphaned children in one the poorest nations of the world, why wouldn't you, why not get involved?

If you have any questions, please feel free to let me know! I won't be posting to this blog for a while since I'll be focussing on the Examiner articles...thanks for your help!

Pastor Fred