'The God of Abraham, Isaac,and Jacob'

The writer to the Hebrews says that in the past, God chose to reveal Himself in many and various ways, and that in these latter days, He has chosen to ‘speak’ to us through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, the ‘great I am.’

The author knows Hebrew history and that God first revealed His Name to Moses through the burning bush that was not consumed, in the backside of the desert at Mt. Sinai. It was there God chose to reveal his name (character) to Moses as I AM THAT I AM, (I am, always have been, and always will be what I am) and ‘The God of our Fathers’, or more specifically, ‘the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.’

In Exodus 3:14, we see the ‘law of first mention’ at work, as God revealed Himself to Moses as the ‘Eternal One,’ who is self-existent – He has always been, and always will be. He relies upon and needs no one else for His existence. He is the ‘first cause’ of all that exists.

God chooses to name Himself after three great patriarchs to show how he can take and use those who are in a relationship of ‘covenant kindness’ with Him. He chooses to use Abraham, the son of an idolater and idol worshiping family, so that we may see God is ‘the Originator.’ He chose to reveal Himself through Isaac through the latter’s ability to ‘receive’ all that he had as if it came from the hand of God; he chose Jacob as an illustration that we do not need to ‘struggle’ or ‘wrestle’ with God. The only striving we need to do as believers under the ‘kindness covenant,’ is to ‘enter into His Sabbath rest,’ since Christ has ‘performed the work’ of Salvation on the Cross of Calvary. Jesus said it was the Father’s good pleasure to ‘give us the Kingdom.’ Even though the Scripture also says the Kingdom is ‘taken by force’ and that violent men seek to take it by violence, it is Christ who has won the battle – through the violence of the Cross -- to give us the Kingdom as children of the King,  as a gift.

We see through the ‘God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,’ that it was always the Father’s intention to ‘give us an inheritance’ which is stored up in Heaven for those who believe. God is always the initiator and always makes the first move toward Man. By choosing Abraham, we see that not only did God start the process of entering into a covenant with Man, but that he completes everything He sets out to do – ‘I will perform it’. In Isaac, we see a man who learned over time to receive all that God had for him – especially an inheritance (which is a picture of what we followers of Christ have [viz. Paul, ‘the Inheritance of the Saints’]) through the Blood of the Cross – as a Son of the King. In Jacob, we see a man who learned that he didn’t need to wrestle with the Angel of the Lord in order to get a blessing – the Inheritance – but came to realize that the blessing came through brokenness – in his case a dislocated hip. However, in the process God gave him a new name, Israel, which foreshadowed the nation through whom all the peoples of the Earth would be blessed. This ties in with the promise of God to his grandfather, Abraham, that he would be ‘the father many nations,’ through his Seed (note singular) pointing to the Promised One – the Messiah, the Saviour of the world through whom all blessings come, in this world and the next.

We also see through one Old Testament story and one New Testament story that Mephibosheth and the Prodigal Son were ‘recipients of grace’. The Prodigal already had an inheritance waiting for him and, after frittering away his share of the fortune, realized that the inheritance was always waiting for him at the home of his father. When he came to his senses and returned home to his Father, he realized that the inheritance was not through works, but by grace. Mephibosheth, on the other hand, was an unexpected recipient of the grace of God through the ‘covenant of kindness’ shown to him by King David. He was a nobody, but God, through David, made him somebody in the King’s palace.

We also see in the New Testament how Nicodemus learned the inheritance was through the New Birth, and that this is spiritual and supernatural in basis and operation, and not by effort or of natural means. “With God, ALL things are possible!”

Paul takes up the thought that God will complete all that He has started in Phil.1:6. He also remonstrates with the Galatians about expecting to receive the gift through human effort. “What then, do you expect that what you began in the Spirit you can accomplish in the Flesh? You did not so learn Christ!!”

In conclusion, we see that God takes ordinary men and reveals Himself as the self-existent, unchanging, Eternal One, teaching us that His ‘covenant of kindness’ is not obtained by works of the flesh, but by grace through the Spirit.

By way of application, we need to see ourselves as God sees us, that He has adopted us into His family, that we are heirs, and co-heirs with Christ – and that everything that is His is also ours, that he has created good works from before the foundation of the world for us to walk in, and that He has already said to us ‘Well done, good and faithful servant.’ All this is ‘obtained by grace through faith’, and is not of our own doing lest any man should boast.

Peace Making as a Way of Life

In the introduction to ‘The Peace Making Pastor’ by Alfred Poirier (Baker Books, 2006), the author states that to be a pastor is to be a peacemaker (p.13).

Poirier says that too often pastors view peacemaking as only a tool of ministry, rather than a habit of being. “Instead of being ministers or reconciliation (2 Cor.5:19-20), we confine peacemaking to special crisis situations within the church.”

Poirier actually goes further than to say that just pastors are peacemakers or in the ‘ministry of reconciliation.’

Poirier says: “Since God reconciled all things in heaven and on earth to himself through the death of his Son on the cross (Col.1:19-20), then we who are children of God are redeemed to be reconcilers.”

Poirier develops this theme in Chapter 5, ‘Peacemaking in the Family of God,’ specifically on p.92, under the heading ‘Theology of Sonship.’ Here he says that Jesus’ connection between “peacemakers” and being called “sons of God” is not an arbitrary one. “Peacemaking is the defining characteristic of sonship. And of all Christian virtues and actions, peacemaking reflects most the meaning of being a son or daughter of God.”

This is my favorite chapter in the book because here the author lays out the biblical basis and foundation for our role as 24/7/365 Christians to be peacemakers and reconcilers in a broken and hurting world.

Poirier goes on to say that if this claim is true (that Scripture proclaims and endorses this view of us as believers), “we must not relegate our individual identity as sons and daughters and our corporate identity as family to a minor place in our theology, as if our sonship were one image among many that Scripture uses to describe God’s relationship with the church.”

Poirier states three reasons why this ‘sonship reconciliation theology’ is true.

First, he says that the significance of sonship is proved by its dominant presence in several key ‘programmatic’ passages of Scripture (Rom.8:15-32; Gal.3:15-4:7; Eph.1:3-6; Heb.2:1-18;12:1-14;1 John 3:1-3). [By programmatic he means those texts that give the sweep and order of God’s redemptive purposes].

Second, Poirier says sonship is the distinctive mark of the new covenant. He says that in Galatians 3:26-4:7, Paul likens the radical shift in the status of God’s people in redemptive history to the transition from being slaves to being sons.

The third line of evidence showing the significance of sonship in God’s redemptive purposes is that sonship is a key characteristic of our sanctification, most overtly seen in Hebrews 12.

Poirier says (p.95) that to be “Like father, like son,” is not only a common proverb, but is inherently biblical in nature. “In Scripture, sonship is about likeness.”

Elsewhere in Scripture, Paul says that we are ‘heirs and joint heirs (co-heirs) with Christ’ and that one day we shall be like Him. But there is a very real sense in that we are called to be like Him NOW. Jesus said ‘the Kingdom is within you, and NOW is’ – the Kingdom of God has come near, is with us, and within us NOW by the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit.

Therefore, if we are heirs, and joint heirs with Christ NOW, we are to be like Him NOW, and to exercise the role of peacemakers and reconcilers NOW.

From reading Poirier, I conclude that not only pastors, but all Bible-believing Christians, are to be “reconciling peacemakers,” as Paul says, “as if God were making His appeal to you though us.”

This being the case, I believe it is incumbent upon us as Christ followers, in the words of Paul, to “as much as it is within your power, live at peace with all men,” and “to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”

For me, this means to live a Spirit-filled, Spirit-directed life, seeking to bring the message of ‘the peace with God’ and ‘the peace of God’ to all men, everywhere.

Money In The Bank

I have been thinking about being an ‘Empty Nester.’

It is a transition time in young adulthood for our grown children, and for us as Middle Agers. It is a time of change, a time of adjustment in practical as well as emotional ways.

Not all change is easy. As well as the practical changes involved in moving our grown children out of the house, there are also changes in expectations.

Will our oldest still keep in touch, even if by occasional text message or e-mail? Will she drop by when she’s in the area? Will she even think about us, as we are still thinking about her and wondering how she is managing this new phase of life? Will she share with us what is going on in her life? Or will she want to put emotional as well as physical distance between us?

I think of the fun times we have shared as she has grown up. The funny situations we shared, the inside jokes that only our family knows about, the common things that made us laugh together and brought some kind of cohesion in a world that seems to be constantly fracturing itself.

I wonder about the unintended wounds I left her with that we didn’t have time to talk about, the unresolved ‘issues’ between us. Will she find a mentor to help her achieve her goals? Someone to take her under their wings to help her discover and develop just where she is at in her stage of life, where she is going, and how she will get there?

All these are natural things for a parent to think about. They come from a Fatherly heart that still, even now after upsets and disagreements, cares for her well-being and safety.

Can I relax and let God continue to work in her life without my hovering over her? Can I allow her the freedom to choose her own beliefs, even if in some ways they are different from mine? Can I go to sleep at the end of the day wondering if that 1992 Buick will stall on her on a dark road late at night? Am I willing to let her make her own way and learn from her mistakes?

I feel like what I imagine the Prodigal Father in Luke 15 might have been like with his son. He had to let him go; it was time. He had two sons: I have two daughters. We are the same except that our youngest daughter is in University, and comes home on holidays and some weekends.

What did it feel like for him to let his son go? Unlike the Prodigal Father, I didn’t have any inheritance money to give my daughter to set herself up in a new life. I wish I had. But the fact I didn’t means that I cannot control her with finances. I cannot withdraw my monetary support, because there wasn’t any to begin with. Maybe that’s a Blessing in disguise. She should know, though, that she still has my emotional and prayerful support.

My oldest  daughter has a job, and a place to live. Maybe that is all that is needed here. Except that I wonder about her relationship with her Heavenly Father.

I keep wondering if I failed her in presenting her with a less than perfect earthly illustration of  what the Heavenly Father is like.

It’s natural and desirable for our young adult children to ‘go their own way.’ After all, we don’t want them to stay at home and not venture out to discover who they are in God without our desire to control them, if only for the sake of their moral, intellectual, spiritual and physical protection.

When all is said and done, my wife and I did the best we could with what we had. We entrusted her to God on the day of her baby dedication. We realized that she was only ‘on loan’ to us for a Time and several Seasons.

The Prodigal Father in Luke’s Gospel watched for his son every day, wondering if this would be the day he would return to ‘mend the fences,’ to restore the relationship, to enjoy being rightly related.

Even though my daughter cannot live with us again because of the rules involved with our rented apartment, she is always welcome to stop by, watch TV with us, enjoy a meal together, and share a laugh or two about the absurdity of the world we live in and how we make our way in it.

So, even as I ponder these things, I have entrusted my daughter into the care of our Heavenly Father and I know, that I know, that I know, that even though she might not be thinking about Him and His will for her life, He will never leave nor forsake her. 

That’s like money in the bank.

It's what we say in the United Kingdom --if your money is in The Bank of England it is 'safe as houses' .

PRAYER: Thank you, Heavenly Father, that You number the hairs on our head, You know about the number of our days before there were any of them, You watch over us, and You know about every sparrow that falls to the ground. You are Omnipresent, Omniscient, Omnipotent. May these thoughts comfort us when we realize that we are not in control, You are! Help me to let go of my tendency to worry about my grown children and to let them be who they are in Your Tender Care. Thank you for Your Goodness and Greatness toward us. Amen

You Raise Me Up

It’s sort of funny in a strange kind of way that when you repent of your sin(s) it’s like being ‘Born Again’ again.

Having recently been through an intense personal struggle – and it doesn’t really matter over what in particular, the principle remains the same,  -- it seems to me that my ‘spiritual vision’ (what Paul calls the ‘eyes of our heart,’) is much clearer now than, say, a week ago.

I do think that I’m now actually being renewed in my mind -- Romans 12:2

“Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will,” and 2 Corinthians 4:16: “Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.”

It’s a little like King David after his affair with Bathsheba. He says in Psalm 32:

“Blessed is the one
    whose transgressions are forgiven,
    whose sins are covered.
² Blessed is the one
    whose sin the Lord does not count against them
    and in whose spirit is no deceit.

³ When I kept silent,
    my bones wasted away
    through my groaning all day long.
⁴ For day and night
    your hand was heavy on me;
my strength was sapped
    as in the heat of summer.

⁵ Then I acknowledged my sin to you
    and did not cover up my iniquity.
I said, “I will confess
    my transgressions to the Lord.”
And you forgave
    the guilt of my sin.”

You will notice in verse three that there was a physical aspect to results of the sin with Bathsheba.

Another Bible version uses the phrase which says that David’s bones “waxed dry within me.”

I know what that’s like, and so do you.

Your bones feel dry, brittle, as if they would break at the slightest hint of more pressure than you are currently under.

In verse 4, David also felt the strong hand of God the Father’s discipline upon him:

“For day and night
    your hand was heavy on me;
my strength was sapped
    as in the heat of summer.”

And we all know that such discipline is not pleasant as in Deuteronomy 8:5

“Know then in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so the LORD your God disciplines you.”

And Job 5:17
“Blessed is the one whom God corrects; so do not despise the discipline of the Almighty.”

See also Job 36:10
“He openeth also their ear to discipline, and commandeth that they return from iniquity.”

It’s a far cry from Psalm one, verse three in which the faithful is like a tree flourishing by the water’s edge:

“That person is like a tree planted by streams of water,
    which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither—
    whatever they do prospers.”

It’s also like the picture of what I will call the ‘The Soaring Christian’ in

Psalm 103:5 where God “^5 (who) satisfies your desires with good things
    so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.”

And Isaiah 40:31: “But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.”

I am so glad that I have a Heavenly Father who loves me like a son and corrects me when I stray.

Do you have a relationship like that with God the Father?

Prayer: Dear God, my Heavenly father, forgive me for my sin, which has been removed at the cost of the precious blood of your Son, Jesus Christ, on Calvary’s Tree. I acknowledge that I have sinned against You, and You only. Please cleanse me and renew a right spirit within me; remove the heart of stone, and replace it with a heart of flesh, so that I may know You, the Only True God. Thank you for loving me enough to send your Son to die for me. Thank you that you hear the cry of a penitent sinner. Help me to go forward and to sin no more. Thank you that if and when I sin again, I have an Advocate who will plead my cause before You. Amen.”

'You raise me up, so I can stand on mountains;

You raise me up, to walk on stormy seas;

I am strong, when I am on your shoulders;

You raise me up: To more than I can be.'

(From “You Raise Me Up” -- Music by Secret Garden's Rolf Løvland and the lyrics by Brendan Graham).