Gen 17-18. Abrahamic Covenant

There's a ton of information in chapters 17-18: the origin of circumcision, the promise of Isaac, intercession for the fall of Sodom, etc... So I'm not going to try to summarize it in writing. Instead, I've attached Jon Courson's video sermon on it. It's about 11/2 hours. He also goes on a number of interesting tangents in biblical ethics and practices that's worth watching.. Enjoy!

Gen 17-18, with Jon Courson

Jon and his dog PawDre!

Gen 16 pt. 2, Hagar-Ishmael-Islam

The angel of the LORD found her (Hagar) by a spring of water in the wilderness, the spring on the way to Shur. And he said, “Hagar, servant of Sarai, where have you come from and where are you going?” She said, “I am fleeing from my mistress Sarai.”
The angel of the LORD said to her, “Return to your mistress and submit to her.” The angel of the LORD also said to her, “I will surely multiply your offspring so that they cannot be numbered for multitude.”
And the angel of the LORD said to her, “Behold, you are pregnant and shall bear a son. You shall call his name Ishmael, because the LORD has listened to your affliction. He shall be a wild donkey of a man, his hand against everyone and everyone's hand against him, and he shall dwell over against all his kinsmen.” -Genesis 16:7-12

As for Ishmael, I have heard you; behold, I have blessed him and will make him fruitful and multiply him greatly. He shall father twelve princes, and I will make him into a great nation. -Genesis 17:20

Islamic traditions consider Ishmael to be the ancestor of Arab people,[2] excluding Arabs who are descendants of Ya'rub. Arabs who are from Ishmael-descendant tribes are occasionally referred to as "Arabized-Arabs" to highlight their ancestry. The Prophet Muhammad was of these Arabs
-Wikipedia

Come to Jesus

Psalm 4- Hear me when I call, O God

Give ear to my words, O LORD; consider my groaning.

Give attention to the sound of my cry, my King and my God,

for to you do I pray.

O LORD, in the morning you hear my voice;

in the morning I prepare a sacrifice for you and watch.

For you are not a God who delights in wickedness; evil may not dwell with you.

The boastful shall not stand before your eyes; you hate all evildoers.

You destroy those who speak lies; the LORD abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man.

But I, through the abundance of your steadfast love, will enter your house.

I will bow down toward your holy temple in the fear of you.

Lead me, O LORD, in your righteousness because of my enemies;

make your way straight before me. For there is no truth in their mouth;

their inmost self is destruction; their throat is an open grave;

they flatter with their tongue. Make them bear their guilt, O God;

let them fall by their own counsels; because of the abundance of their transgressions cast them out, for they have rebelled against you.

But let all who take refuge in you rejoice; let them ever sing for joy,

and spread your protection over them, that those who love your name

may exult in you.

For you bless the righteous, O LORD;

you cover him with favor as with a shield.

Gen-16 pt. 1, Abram-Hagar-Ishmael

My top three favorite video's telling of the birth of Ishmael

Gen 15- Living in the Gap

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”—yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” -James 4:13-15


Most times it feels like I’m just standing in a room with my hands at my sides while God tosses random items in a suitcase for me. And as he takes some things from my shelves and throws them in, still others are picked up and thrown directly in the garbage as he says, “You gonna need this" and "You’ve never needed this.” All while I politely stare in dazed amusement wondering, “Where are we going?”


But it’s become a large part of my life with Christ to simply trust in Him to guide me. And that means learning not to worry about my future.


And it’s easy to worry isn’t it? In fact in a twisted way it’s almost fulfilling to be immersed in our worries. We’ve simply allowed ourselves to be shaped into worrisome people. All too easily letting our fears guide us more than our hopes.


Ah, the awesome power of the “What If’s.”- What if I lose my job? What if my spouse leaves me? What if I get sick? What if the kids get sick? What if our house burns down? It really can be paralyzing. So we bubble wrap our dreams in a sort of padded room of plans for our future. We plan, plan, plan as though we're tightening the straps on a straight jacket to be sure we've taken as few risks as possible.


We’ll stay at our unhappy, dead end jobs for decades just to ride out our 401K’s instead of going back to school or starting a new career. We’ll turn down trips to new places in lew of staying home for our annual vacation, trimming our hedges and cleaning gutters. We buy insurance for everything we own (even our own lives). And some who can afford it might even retain lawyers on the side just to watch over it all in case there’s something we might’ve missed planning for.


And I’m not against planning but maybe we ought to stop and ask ourselves, what are our motives? Are we planning with a sense of hope or are we planning out of fear? Because as I understand it God has taught us not to focus so much on the ‘what if’s’ of tomorrow but instead to focus on our faith in Him right here, right now.


But if God so clothes the grass, which is alive in the field today, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith! -Luke 12:28


Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. -Matthew 6:34


And so at least in my life, living out this command has been challenging because it goes against my own normal, worrisome, social flow. So I’ve made it a point to pray regularly about it, asking for God to lead me.


And when I pray I like asking God to lead me with the easiest possible signs- “Lord, please lead me through opportunities. Lord, please lead me through mentoring. And Lord, please lead me by putting your own will on my heart.”


Then I can rest in God while comfortably soaking in new opportunities along with any trusted advice and by following my heart.


So with all that in mind I've included this next sermon entitled Living in the Gap. It was taught at the Village Church in Flower Mound, Texas by Pastor Afshin Ziafat.


In this sermon Afshin uses the covenant by God with Abram in Genesis 15 to teach us that we as Christians tend to focus on the gifts of God (fulfillment of the covenant) more than God himself.


Here’s how he puts it:
1. We need to recognize what the true reward is-The Lord came to Abram saying, "Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward” -Genesis 15:1
2. We need to take our eyes off whatever’s in God’s hands and put our eyes back on Him. (Quit worshiping what God gives you, worship Him.)


So using my little analogy from the beginning- Is it right for me to be asking the Lord, “Where are we going?” Or should I simply be strengthened in knowing wherever I am He is with me.


Give it a listen then ask your own self, “What am I expecting out of this relationship with God?”

Living in the Gap, Afshin Ziafat

Psalm 1, Blessed is the Man

Blessed is the man

who walks not in the counsel

of the wicked,

nor stands in the way of sinners,

nor sits in the seat of scoffers;

but his delight is in the law of the LORD,

and on his law he meditates day and night.

He is like a tree

planted by streams of water

that yields its fruit in its season,

and its leaf does not wither.

   In all that he does, he prospers.

    

The wicked are not so,

but are like chaff that the wind drives away.

Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,

nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;

for the LORD knows the way of the righteous,

but the way of the wicked will perish.

O Come, O Come, Emmanuel

Gen 15-18, with Chuck Smith

Chuck Smith has been the lead pastor of Calvary Chapel in Costa Mesa, Ca. since 1965. He's done a wonderful job of teaching through the entire bible verse by verse and then making those recordings available for free online. 


When I first started reading the Bible I realized right away that I wanted help understanding more about the scriptures so I asked around. Chuck's name came up right away. I didn't have a computer at the time but I was able to listen to his sermons using the internet on my cell phone. So week after week I avoided many phone calls while listening to Chuck take me through entire books of the bible.


So here's a section of his C2000 series from Genesis 15-18. I hope you enjoy him as much as I have. I've since bought the C3000 series on mp3 and read a number of his books but to me, nothing is as good as this first series. It's almost like sitting at the feet of your easygoing, funny and tender grandfather while listening to him teach. You can find the whole series at:
Chuck Smith, C2000 Through the Bible

Gen 15-18 with Chuck Smith

Down to the River to Pray

Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.

Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved... Mark 16:15-16

Gen 18-19, Search for Sodom and Gomorrah

These are two links to the same awesome video. The link above is a lower quality but watchable video in YouTube format. The link below is a perfect quality video in Windows Media format. So chose whichever works best for your computer.

So this is a 1 hour documentary on the modern textual study and archaeological search for the locations of the two cities, Sodom and Gomorrah. And yes, you might have to either be a bible geek (like me) or maybe just a history nerd (like me) to appreciate this but I know I'm not the only one because 19,000 people already viewed it on YouTube!

Sodom and Gomorrah, 2009 Seattle Creation Conference

Gen 12-13, Abram and Sarai in Egypt

“When Abram entered Egypt, the Egyptians saw that the woman (Sarai, his wife) was very beautiful. And when the princes of Pharaoh saw her, they praised her to Pharaoh. And the woman was taken into Pharaoh's house. And for her sake he dealt well with Abram; and he had sheep, oxen, male donkeys, male servants, female servants, female donkeys, and camels.” Genesis 12:14-16




I’m almost ashamed that I’ve allowed myself to get this old. And now I sometimes feel like I’m left unwillingly wallowing in the social side effects of being in my late 30’s.


For instance, most all of my friends can be split into one of two categories- Married or Divorced. Having never been either, I usually stay awkwardly silent about the whole issue of marriage. Also because I’ve been warned by every former girlfriend to, “Never give anyone any type of advice on relationships, ever.”


So that in mind, I’ve used this sermon by Mark Driscoll (posted below) to interpret the blessings and woe’s of Abram’s first recorded dealings with Sarai, his wife. And for all its immature humor Mark does bring a curious peek into what might have been the early personality of Abram.


An important point to mention is that Abram was by no means a saintly man. In fact I think Mark may refer to him as a “lug-nut” more than once. However, that does create a beautiful setting for us as God’s children to understand. Because God does not call extraordinary people into service, He calls ordinary people into an extraordinary service.


In another key point during the sermon, Mark talks about the gifts Abram received from an ungodly pharaoh as rewards during Abram’s sinful acts. Mark say’s, “It looks like Abram is totally profiting from ungodliness. The truth is that everything he obtains later becomes for him, a curse. The point is this, you can obtain wealth and fame and power but if you do so apart from the kindness of God; what you perceived to be a blessing will actually consume you in the end.”


That hits home with me. I’ve often been confused in life by the imbalance of wealth and fulfillment. For me, they’ve always seemed to conflict. I do know that the times in my life when I’ve been most wealthy are those same times when I’ve been most destructive.


And that’s not to say that wealth is by any means a destructive thing. But it is important to understand that even a seemingly godly blessing such as wealth can be obtained sinfully, thereby being granted by Satan for our harm (see Luke 4:5-7).


Any-who, read Gen 12-13, listen to the sermon below and write your own damn commentary. I’m headin’ over to the Christian Singles website.

Mark Driscoll, Genesis 12:10-13

oh, to save time skip the first 10 minutes of the sermon.

(he's just doing some church announcements)

Don't Fade Away

Don't fade away

My brown-eyed girl

Come walk with me

I'll fill your heart with joy

And we'll dance through our isolation

Seeking solace in the wisdom we bestow

Turning thoughts to the here and everafter

Consuming fears in our fiery halos

Say what you mean

Mean what you say

I've heard that innocence

Has led us all astray

But don't let them make you and break you

The world is filled with their broken empty

dreams

Silence is their only virtue

Locked away inside their silent screams

But for now

Let us dance away

This starry night

Filled with the glow of fiery stars

And with the dawn

Our sun will rise

Bringing a symphony of bird cries

Don't bring me down now

Let me stay here for awhile

You know life's too short

Let me bathe here in your smile

I'm transcending

The fall from the garden

Goodnight

Somnambulist

Has anyone ever told you to be careful when waking a sleepwalker? Urban myth says it can send them into cardiac arrest. I did some sleepwalking as a kid. And if you've never had the experience then let me tell you- Being woken up in a strange place is weird but, then realizing you walked your own self there is terrifying.


You might flicker your eyes open in wonder trying to understand where you are but then you start to see vague and unfamiliar shapes in the darkness and you start to cry. Your first thought is something like, “Did I hurt myself?”


And that’s what the first days of sobriety can be like too. After a week or so of not poisoning your body, your mind starts to clear and a sort of dream-like haze lifts.


Then you start seeing glimpses of what your true reality is and you realize, “This is not the place I thought I was.”


You’re a lot older now. You look awful. Your life is full with debt, shame, and dead-ends. Then you get to check your body for scars.


It’s too much for some people. I’ve watched friends waking up from their old life become so overwhelmed that their first sober act is to try to kill themselves. And honestly, what’d you expect?


This reality is heartless. It’s a world so fueled by self-preservation that everyone has already moved a lifetime ahead of you. So now you don’t just feel like your starting over; you feel like you’re starting from years behind.


And that’s why I say, don’t expect me to slap on a suit and a smile. I’m not ready to seize life as though the last 20 years of self-mutilation never happened.


No, addiction recovery isn’t that feel good fairytale with a plot that turns on a kiss as trumpets sound and everyone cheers. This is a lot more like waking a sleepwalker who then buries their face in their hands and sobs.


So if you’re an addict or know an addict or for whatever reason are feeling the same way, don’t be so anxious to jump into the normal life of those you see on the sidewalk with you. Yeah, their lives do look better than yours. Frankly, yours looks like a train wreck and that’s ok.


Just focus on getting to a safe place. Somewhere quiet and somewhat calm where you can slowly get used to being awake.


Blessings…

Gen 11, Tower of Babel

The Tower of Babel was most likely a type of
Ziggurat (click on the word ziggurat).

And it isn't that God was worried that the people would

actually accomplish a tower that reached to heaven.

(I was always confused by that)

It's that they were disobediently building a one-world city

after God had commanded them to "Fill the Earth" -Gen 9:1

The Origin of Races in a fast 3 minutes

oh. and if the video confuses you then let me help make it clear-
Adam and Eve weren't White.