Genesis 37-39

So many thoughts today! First, parenting, come on Jacob/Israel, what were you thinking! This idea of reciprocity and providence both moving forward concurrently is so striking in the Jacob narrative. God will not be denied in advancing history for the birth of the Savior, but He does not exempt the chosen instruments of His divine will from reciprocity. Jacob's deep sorrow he suffered in believing his son was dead was reeping the sorrow he had sewn into the lives of his family by having an openly favorite child and filling the balance of his children with years of sorrow growing up in a family where they were emotionally, and possibly financially, neglected.

As parents, we must NEVER create a dynamic where one child feels they have the favor of their parents above their siblings. We must create an environment where we understand the giftings, talents, promising aspects of each and every child and celebrate it! Too, we must create a culture where each child is expected to celebrate the unique giftings of their siblings! Each child should be just as much of an advocate of the success and triumphs of their siblings as they are for themselves. In addition, we know there is the possibility where one child, even younger children's giftings will lend themselves to leading their older siblings. Think about student government or sports captains where siblings play together and younger ones surpass older ones. We must teach our gifted younger ones, and older ones, humility. We must also work to make sure those who gifted to empower the leadership of others are celebrated and affirmed so that they see all callings and giftings are precious in God's economy (1 Corinthians 12)!

Men, we are so very vulnerable to the value system of our secular culture! What are we doing to protect ourselves? Lot's story of what his daughters did and here we have the story of Jacob's sons and their promiscuousness. Men, if we are not aggressively pursuing a Biblical stamp on our sexuality, both our daughters and sons are at risk! Talk to your children about their sexuality. If you are not sure how, there are so many great resources available. We just purchased some books at LifeWay that are written based on age and are planning to talk with each of our children to begin that dialogue. If you don't the world will begin shaping their sexuality and our society will continue to suffer because the Christians are just as vulnerable! This enrages me! Listen to my podcast (www.thecitylifechurch.com) entitled Sophronismos 1 & 2. We aren't expected to be completely perfect as Christians but let's not use that a license to struggle with commission sins that have no place in the life of the devoted follower of Christ! If we do not shape our children's sexuality, we curse them to curiosity. If we don't give them the answers they are desperate to hear from us, they are cursed to follow their curiosity. You show me a man or a women who struggles with sexual issues and I'll show you a child whose parents failed to shape their children's sexuality appropriately and curse their children to being shaped by curiosity and experimentation. Now, as adults, even in the midst of a loving, affectionate, Godly marriage, they struggle because of the foothold curiosity and experimentation gained in them early in life. Pornography, fantasy, even prostitution plays into their appetite for curiosity and experimentation. When will we learn!

It's going to be a great year!!

Pastor Fred

Genesis 34-36

As we continue to read through Genesis, we see the powerful truth being declared through all the genealogies that are recorded, that one generation impacts not just those of their time but many generations that follow. Returning back to our question of Eden in regards to the curse being prescriptive or descriptive, helps us better understand what will come later when God speaks of the sins of the father being visited upon their children and the righteousness of a the father likewise affecting generations to come (see Exodus 20). Ezekiel 18 promises us that God will not punish one generation for the sins of another. Here's an article, give it a read, that speaks to this: Beth Moore.

We see that the sin of deception continues to characterize this family. This is a sobering moment for each of us, or it should be. We must be willing to ask ourselves some pressing questions. What sins are prevalent in our lives, both ones of omission and commission, meaning sins that I actively commit, like angry outbursts, or omission being sin as a result of my inaction, like withholding my generosity from neighbors in need? What am I perpetuating, following the sinful patterns of generations before me? What am I beginning, new patterns of sin that will be perpetuated generationally through my children?

Why not perpetuate righteousness as with sin, it lasts for three and four generations but with righteousness, come on, a thousand generations! What kind of impact am I, are you?

Pastor Fred

Genesis 28-33

These chapters remind us that while it is impossible to out run providence, out running reciprocity is equally hopeless, forever futile.

Genesis 22-27

Waiting. If there was one recurring theme throughout the history of Abraham and Isaac to identify, it is waiting. God's promise of a child for Abraham. God's promise that the lands would be his and his descendants. Sarah's longing for a child. God's promise to Hagar and her son Ishmael. I had forgotten that Isaac and Rebekah too had to wait for their first born, two sons. Isaac was 60 when they were born...waiting. Are you a waiter? Am I a waiter?

I was struck how chapter 22 began, "After these things God tested Abraham..." Are you kidding me! What's been happening for the more than a century of his life to date? Waiting in testings.

But the key is also found in chapter 22, "Here I am." Being a "waiting person" is being a "here I am" person, completely given to the sovereignty of God. I sometimes wonder if that wasn't Esau's downfall. He couldn't even wait for a few more moments for someone else in their families service, and servants they had in great abundance, to fix him a meal. He was willing to give up his birthright for something to eat. Now that's having a waiting problem.

I'm struck by this because one would think that being a lying, conniving, scheming, manipulating, man of deception would be flaw enough for the purposes of God to find another instrument. Yet, in the end, it was a waiting deficiency that disqualified Esau.

I'm not sure I really agree with the traditional view of what happened when Isaac blessed Jacob but thinking he was blessing Esau. There is one view, that Isaac's words have power, they are like a tangible gift, once given, not being able to be revoked. However, I believe that blessings are more of a prophetic moment. God giving insight to the one giving the blessing, speaking descriptively of what was to come. Jacob stole nothing. The future is the future and only God can see this, and God gave Isaac those words to speak over Jacob just as He had spoken to Rebekah when she inquired of Him in chapter 25 verses 22-23. Equally, Isaac's subsequent words spoken over Esau was born out of prophetic insight.

Are you a waiter? Am I a waiter?

Psalm 27:14 says, "Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and He shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord."

I woke up this morning feeling "thin" in the moments of my day. Sometimes I allow the weight of what is waiting for me to thin out my present. Let me give you a picture. If you were to take a bowling ball and place it in a stocking, it would thin out the upper portion of the stocking, its weight pulling all the fabric to itself. Sometimes the moments in our future are heavy maybe because of something unknown, maybe because of responsibility, maybe because of unavoidable consequences, maybe...just heavy. Some call it stress. I call it feeling thin. When I'm feeling thin, I'm allowing my future moments to weigh too heavily in my present and it causes me to miss the beauty of my now.

A Hebrew word for glory is "kabod" and one of its meanings is weighty. What can be weightier than Him?

Being a good waiter is being able to rest in the weightiness of His glory, the great counter weight of all things later.

Paul was a waiter which is why he wrote to the church of Philippi these sacred words: "Don't worry about anything, but in everything, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be made know to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses every thought, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."

Pastor Fred

Genesis 19-21

The challenge in blogging through the history of the OT will be where to focus, wow, so much in these three chapters. I feel however that the part most striking to me is the contrast of what at first glance appears to be between the grace of God and the judgment of God.

We have an entire region that is consumed by fire, don't forget that includes children, innocent. Then, we have a man who lies, manipulates, untrusting, and disobedient, that's Abraham. How can this be? As I have blogged before, I don't believe that we see God's judgment in the OT and His grace and the NT. The judgment of God is only ever out of His grace, in an effort to bring people to repentance or to protect them from a future where possibly they would have only suffered. I think of the story of Lot's daughters, getting their father drunk, having an incestuous relationship with them, how could this be? Well, when we read about the dynamic in their home, we shouldn't be surprised. If your father is willing to throw you into a sex crazed mob in deference to being hospitable to strangers, no wonder there was a glaring absence of character in them. If I believe the sovereignty of God then I must embrace that if He allows innocent children to be destroyed, as He did in Sodom and Gomorrah, that was an act of grace on His behalf and not indifference. We must not see His invitation to them to enter into their eternal bliss as an act of a callous deity but rather the compassion of a loving God.

So why is He so patient with Abraham who appears to be so very flawed? I believe there is an important distinction here. Abraham's flaws did not characterize him. Did he make the same mistake twice, sure, but does two times characterize? Have you lied twice in your life in similar circumstances? Does that earn you the label of liar? I believe we see a pattern throughout Scripture and that is God's loving judgment comes once we have crossed the line of characterization.

Judas and Peter are a great example for us. Did they not ultimately commit the same sin? Did they not both betray their loyalty? There is however a grave difference, characterization. Judas was characterized by it, he was dishonest more than he wasn't. God knows the heart of every person. Peter, however flawed as we all are, was not characterized by dishonesty and betrayal. He made mistakes but was ultimately always growing and maturing, not just availing himself to forgiveness but to transformation as well.

Who gets to decide the difference between the two, characterization and momentary laps of character? God. Jeremiah 20:12 says, "Yet, O LORD of hosts, You who test the righteous, Who see the mind and the heart; Let me see Your vengeance on them; For to You I have set forth my cause." He is the only one who is allowed judgment because He alone knows the heart.

Pastor Fred

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