Faith Defined Homeland of the Faithful 1/7 & 1/8 #9-10
Continuing to walk through Jack Abeelen's series on Faith:
Faith Defined #7
Abraham #2
1/3/2009
Hebrews 11:8-12
Philip--was told to go to the desert, away from the revival. Philip was in touch with God's Spirit and Philip was in touch with God's voice. When all reason would have said no, Philip said yes.
God didn't come to Philip and say "Hey, I've got a great idea..."God didn't round out the vision and provide the details and reasons for Philip regarding the eunuch and that all of Ethiopia would hear. That would have been easier.
If I could just have the whole story the details the reasons and because that's what we wait on, and we lack faith, and we miss out on what God would like to do because we don't understand everything.
Abraham type of believer who has some trouble, but he heads for life and God will bless him. And though he doesn't know how it will turn out, one thing is clear, if God calls, you have to follow. Faith obeys.
v 9 "dwelt in a land of promise as if he lived in a foreign country." Dwelt in tents. Faith waits.
When we get to the place where God has called us, faith waits, sojourns...
When Abraham got to the land of promise, lots of people living in his land. He persevered and patiently waited on God's will. He never gained the land in his lifetime. Neither would Isaac, neither would Jacob; three generations came and went, but they still had not realized the promises of God.
The only land Abraham ever owned was a cave near Hebron, Ephron, a Hitte was willing to sell him a burial plot so that as the generations went on, they had a place to be buried in the land.
True faith not only goes and follows,
true faith keeps an eye to eternity,
true faith is an end in itself.
I want to do what God said and go where He said to go.
Abraham's reward came when we went, and he walked, and he believed. He was willing to live in it and believe in God. He didn't receive the promise. His belief in the promises to come caused him to act accordingly and to that action God ascribed pleasing faith.
So if Abraham had more faith, he could have had the land sooner? Baloney. God would give him the land in His time. By faith he dwelt in the land but he dwelt there as if it was someone else's country. He didn't get to move into the house.
You wait and the order never comes. He lived in a tent with future heirs who also didn't inherit. Abraham's life consisted in wandering in the Promised Land but he was out of step with it, there was dissonance. And one day God would bless it, and it would then become that home, away from home. But for now, he lived in a land where he was different and didn't fit in. He couldn't settle in. The religion of the land was different than his--they worshiped all kinds of gods. He worshiped one.
But he would act accordingly. His morality was governed by the God that he knew. The world view was filthy, as it's always been. He finds this similar to the current Church living in the world. Our situation is similar. For now, we are just to be a witness to it and not to take on the morality of it and not to have the same goals and ambitions. We're here--waiting by faith.
We're not anti-cultural, but we're counter-cultural. There should be with us this feeling of camping. There is a pervasive kind of "in-between-ness" we're kind of stuck in the middle, passing through and much of God's promises to in regard to ruler-ship and reign and victory are future. You are not likely to change the culture, you may touch the people, but
The world is going to get worse, no promise to the Church says we're going to make it better, we're going to slow down the rotting as salt, that's it.
The hardest times for us are the "in between" times. Between when you have taken a step of faith and God hasn't done his part. You know He will, but right now you are waiting.
Dating ex., "in between" wait with faith, wait with joy.
the living and dying with every circumstance
Abraham takes initial step of faith and then has to sit and wait for the fulfillment of God's promise. And he has a great case. If you are going to act in God and trust God, then you are going to have to follow Him and trust Him for the consequences.
Faith pleases God when it waits...before the realization arrives.
Abraham would wait 25 years for a son and a lifetime for a land he never owned. Only camped in it while others lived in it. He felt like he was the foreigner, yet he was home. He trusted God and lived like it, and he taught his kids and they lived like it and this pleased God. It may just not be in your time frame.
We only know He is coming, and we're told to live accordingly. He remembers 25 years ago thinking God was coming soon. God may come the day after you die. What difference would it make? Your going to have to live believing He's on His way because He is on His way. It's an assurance we can live with.
William Carey spent 35 years in India. He felt his ministry was unfruitful, but he went where God told him to go and did what God told him to do. James writes, compares to farming, be patient brother in the coming of the Lord. You be patient. Make your heart established for the coming of the Lord is at hand. Don't grow weary in well-doing. Faith sticks with the program.
Ideally, true faith would be dead to doubt dumb to discouragement and blind to impossibility because God said so. He's so big he doesn't explain it to me. But it was the trusting of God and the waiting that brought the blessing. Then he taught his son the value of faithful camping, and his son didn't get caught up in the world either. God sees Abraham as a "happy camper."
He waited for a city whose foundations, whose builder and maker is God....Faith has the final world.
Faith has an eternal outlook.
Jesus to the Pharisees: "Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day and he saw it."
It is concentrating on the things around us that kills us. So many needs, you can spend your life attending to them. Or you can be like Abraham and look up. Paul in Colossians: Set your mind on things above. The secret of Abraham's life was where his gaze was fixed. He had an eternal outlook.
Sarah--herself also, received strength...she judged Him faithful who had promised. Therefore from one man who is --"she judged him faithful who had promised" faith shares its optimism. It never sees the promises of God impossible.
Faith is not blind, it goes into it wide open, considers things in light of knowing God. It's not ignorant of the facts, it just considers them in light of God.
Sara 's conviction over weighed, out trumped her understanding of earthly things. Her faith was defined as trusting Him.
Faith is not blind. It lays the facts in front of a God who can rearrange them if He so chooses.
************************************
(2) Faith. This imperfection is seen in the apostle’s prayer for an increase of faith (Luk_17:5); in Christ’s upbraidings (Mat 6:30; Mat 8:26); in Paul’s congratulations and prayer for the Thessalonians (1Th 1:2; 1Th 3:10; 2Th_1:3); in the expressions “rich in faith,” “abound in faith,” “measure of faith.” Deceive not yourselves, then, that if you have faith you need no more. J Donne, BI
Faith is communicable, it can be passed along to your kids.
************************************
Continuing to walk through Jack Abeelen's series on Faith:
Faith Defined #7
Abraham #2
1/3/2009
Hebrews 11:8-12
Philip--was told to go to the desert, away from the revival. Philip was in touch with God's Spirit and Philip was in touch with God's voice. When all reason would have said no, Philip said yes.
God didn't come to Philip and say "Hey, I've got a great idea..."God didn't round out the vision and provide the details and reasons for Philip regarding the eunuch and that all of Ethiopia would hear. That would have been easier.
If I could just have the whole story the details the reasons and because that's what we wait on, and we lack faith, and we miss out on what God would like to do because we don't understand everything.
Abraham type of believer who has some trouble, but he heads for life and God will bless him. And though he doesn't know how it will turn out, one thing is clear, if God calls, you have to follow. Faith obeys.
v 9 "dwelt in a land of promise as if he lived in a foreign country." Dwelt in tents. Faith waits.
When we get to the place where God has called us, faith waits, sojourns...
When Abraham got to the land of promise, lots of people living in his land. He persevered and patiently waited on God's will. He never gained the land in his lifetime. Neither would Isaac, neither would Jacob; three generations came and went, but they still had not realized the promises of God.
The only land Abraham ever owned was a cave near Hebron, Ephron, a Hitte was willing to sell him a burial plot so that as the generations went on, they had a place to be buried in the land.
True faith not only goes and follows,
true faith keeps an eye to eternity,
true faith is an end in itself.
I want to do what God said and go where He said to go.
Abraham's reward came when we went, and he walked, and he believed. He was willing to live in it and believe in God. He didn't receive the promise. His belief in the promises to come caused him to act accordingly and to that action God ascribed pleasing faith.
So if Abraham had more faith, he could have had the land sooner? Baloney. God would give him the land in His time. By faith he dwelt in the land but he dwelt there as if it was someone else's country. He didn't get to move into the house.
You wait and the order never comes. He lived in a tent with future heirs who also didn't inherit. Abraham's life consisted in wandering in the Promised Land but he was out of step with it, there was dissonance. And one day God would bless it, and it would then become that home, away from home. But for now, he lived in a land where he was different and didn't fit in. He couldn't settle in. The religion of the land was different than his--they worshiped all kinds of gods. He worshiped one.
But he would act accordingly. His morality was governed by the God that he knew. The world view was filthy, as it's always been. He finds this similar to the current Church living in the world. Our situation is similar. For now, we are just to be a witness to it and not to take on the morality of it and not to have the same goals and ambitions. We're here--waiting by faith.
We're not anti-cultural, but we're counter-cultural. There should be with us this feeling of camping. There is a pervasive kind of "in-between-ness" we're kind of stuck in the middle, passing through and much of God's promises to in regard to ruler-ship and reign and victory are future. You are not likely to change the culture, you may touch the people, but
The world is going to get worse, no promise to the Church says we're going to make it better, we're going to slow down the rotting as salt, that's it.
The hardest times for us are the "in between" times. Between when you have taken a step of faith and God hasn't done his part. You know He will, but right now you are waiting.
Dating ex., "in between" wait with faith, wait with joy.
the living and dying with every circumstance
Abraham takes initial step of faith and then has to sit and wait for the fulfillment of God's promise. And he has a great case. If you are going to act in God and trust God, then you are going to have to follow Him and trust Him for the consequences.
Faith pleases God when it waits...before the realization arrives.
Abraham would wait 25 years for a son and a lifetime for a land he never owned. Only camped in it while others lived in it. He felt like he was the foreigner, yet he was home. He trusted God and lived like it, and he taught his kids and they lived like it and this pleased God. It may just not be in your time frame.
We only know He is coming, and we're told to live accordingly. He remembers 25 years ago thinking God was coming soon. God may come the day after you die. What difference would it make? Your going to have to live believing He's on His way because He is on His way. It's an assurance we can live with.
William Carey spent 35 years in India. He felt his ministry was unfruitful, but he went where God told him to go and did what God told him to do. James writes, compares to farming, be patient brother in the coming of the Lord. You be patient. Make your heart established for the coming of the Lord is at hand. Don't grow weary in well-doing. Faith sticks with the program.
Ideally, true faith would be dead to doubt dumb to discouragement and blind to impossibility because God said so. He's so big he doesn't explain it to me. But it was the trusting of God and the waiting that brought the blessing. Then he taught his son the value of faithful camping, and his son didn't get caught up in the world either. God sees Abraham as a "happy camper."
He waited for a city whose foundations, whose builder and maker is God....Faith has the final world.
Faith has an eternal outlook.
Jesus to the Pharisees: "Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day and he saw it."
It is concentrating on the things around us that kills us. So many needs, you can spend your life attending to them. Or you can be like Abraham and look up. Paul in Colossians: Set your mind on things above. The secret of Abraham's life was where his gaze was fixed. He had an eternal outlook.
Sarah--herself also, received strength...she judged Him faithful who had promised. Therefore from one man who is --"she judged him faithful who had promised" faith shares its optimism. It never sees the promises of God impossible.
Faith is not blind, it goes into it wide open, considers things in light of knowing God. It's not ignorant of the facts, it just considers them in light of God.
Sara 's conviction over weighed, out trumped her understanding of earthly things. Her faith was defined as trusting Him.
Faith is not blind. It lays the facts in front of a God who can rearrange them if He so chooses.
************************************
(2) Faith. This imperfection is seen in the apostle’s prayer for an increase of faith (Luk_17:5); in Christ’s upbraidings (Mat 6:30; Mat 8:26); in Paul’s congratulations and prayer for the Thessalonians (1Th 1:2; 1Th 3:10; 2Th_1:3); in the expressions “rich in faith,” “abound in faith,” “measure of faith.” Deceive not yourselves, then, that if you have faith you need no more. J Donne, BI
Faith is communicable, it can be passed along to your kids.
*******************************
Abraham was filled with doubt, with weakness, and he isn't much different than us. God doesn't play favorites.
Abraham's solution to the famine was to go to Egypt, lie about his wife. Abraham fell on his face and laughed too when told he would have a son. He had to live a long time to get there, but he made it. He made it.
In reality our faith should be the weakest the day we get saved.
We all let go...faithful in the morning, but in the evening....I don't know.
I wonder how much of God's best we miss because we don't stick around.
Dale Carnegie...so many people stop three feet short. How long should you hold on? Until you die or until you prove God a liar.
Daniel 10...you've been praying....no explanation....
Abraham embraced what God said. Faith pleases the Lord but it doesn't necessarily have things in hand yet, it lives in trust.
Confess...speak forth...they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. They walked around confessing.
*****************************************
Hebrews 11:20-22 The Legacy of Faith
Church in Rome, before 70AD, hadn't seen any return, benefit from knowing God.
By faith Isaac, blessed Jacob and Esau...
By faith Jacob, when dying...
By faith Joseph...
This faith occurred near the time of their death. God choose these things specifically that we might get the bigger picture. Each had to be content with what God said and pass along His will to their successors.
Genesis 25 Isaac
Abraham & Sarah waited for 25 years until had promised son. 100 had him, 125 took him the mountain to sacrifice
Isaac--son of expectation, laughter, in many ways a great disappointment. He never fully became the man of God his parents hoped. Only 2 chapters to Isaac, 12 chapters to the other three. Kind of a ho-hum guy.
40 years old when got married, next 20 years prayed with wife for child, 60 when had twins. Two nations in your womb. Romans 9 sovereignty of God, God chose before they were ever born that Jacob would rule over Esau. The Lord made his will known to the parents before they were ever born.
over time parental preferences became very clear--Esau, hunt, made good stew...Jacob, fair kind of delicate kind of kid, not an athlete, favorite of mom. Dad liked Esau because he could make good ribs...Isaac not a very deep man. Everyone was made aware of the reversal of order God intended.
Rebecca was willing to help God out when it looked like Esau would get the blessing. Land went to first but also Lordship of family, and spiritual blessings because you were in the line of God's work. To the physical man it would be the money, property, etc. To a spiritual man it would be the spiritual blessing.
Rebecca was going to take care of business. God doesn't work through deceit. God doesn't need our help. Whenever sin is involved, God is not.
First time was tricked into blessing
Second time does the blessing intentionally. He surrenders to God's will. Resigned to God's will.
*****************************
By Faith Moses--Part I
1/14-1/15
Jack Abeelen, Growing Thru Grace
Hebrews 11:23-26
Introduction and background to the faith of Moses
hidden three months by his parents.
Considering the faith of Moses' parents. Abraham is "called out" from his family's pagan faith. In contrast, Moses begins with parents who trust God in the worst conditions.
grew to 2 million in Egypt, even though Egypt didn't think much of agricultural people. When Moses was born they were there for 250 years. In 80, they would be leaving with Moses.
They notice Moses is "beautiful, proper, chosen....well pleasing" It's one who God has his hand upon.
Moses goes on the back side of the desert and "undoes" what he learned in the first 40 years. He witnesses an injustice and tries to fix it on his own by killing. The spiritual cannot be carried out in the flesh. Peter tried it. But in light of all we see, Moses took a stand. God identified the motivation behind the actions as faith. imperfect faith.
***
By Faith Moses--Part II
1/15
Most of life is determined by the decisions you make, not what was given to you.
*******************
Faith over fear
Moses was willing to serve God at 40, but he was able at 80.
Moses saw God, physically.
Faith is not faith when you do the ridiculous, Faith is faith when it is attached to God and his word.
You don't find faith in a majority vote, you find it on your knees.
If God has called you, no amount of stubbornness will work. If God has called you....
What has God called you to do ?
Nehemiah--
If I keep my eyes on Him, I can rest in the work he has given me.
It is fear that says God cannot work unless I worry. Should I not care? Yes, just let God work it out. Without Him, we can do nothing.
Faith begins when the control of things is out of my hands and into His.
***********
Contagious Faith 1/18 Part 1
Hebrews 11:29
Faith can rub off.
Doubt and unbelief are also contagious.
It can be a great detriment if the people are not seeking God together.
Contagious Faith 1/19 Part 2
******************
Is Faith Really Foolish?
Part I
1/21
God as its object. His word as its assurance.
***************
By Faith Rahab
Hebrews account is faithful actions of unfaithful people
Rahab--gentile prostitute, heard of God from 2nd and 3rd hand channels.
True faith honors the Lord even in the most unlikely of lives--no matter how you have fallen, He is able to pick you up.
**************
Hebrews 12:32-34, Judges 6
6 men of faith
Gideon, Barack, Sampson,
Gideon
sin-drome 7x's
Midionites came against them
***********************
Divest Oneself---set aside, lay aside every weight
every weight that hinders your running, not all weight is sin. Without the need to be run, it may be fine. HInder our spiritual being
sin--hampering, besetting, personal sin, between you and God--anger, selfishness, fear,
Every person has their own course set out by God. The glory is to finish the individual race put before us.
Run with endurance. Life is not a sprint. Greek word for run is agony.
Look to Jesus. Look away from all else, focus on one image.
Faith Defined #7
Abraham #2
1/3/2009
Hebrews 11:8-12
Philip--was told to go to the desert, away from the revival. Philip was in touch with God's Spirit and Philip was in touch with God's voice. When all reason would have said no, Philip said yes.
God didn't come to Philip and say "Hey, I've got a great idea..."God didn't round out the vision and provide the details and reasons for Philip regarding the eunuch and that all of Ethiopia would hear. That would have been easier.
If I could just have the whole story the details the reasons and because that's what we wait on, and we lack faith, and we miss out on what God would like to do because we don't understand everything.
Abraham type of believer who has some trouble, but he heads for life and God will bless him. And though he doesn't know how it will turn out, one thing is clear, if God calls, you have to follow. Faith obeys.
v 9 "dwelt in a land of promise as if he lived in a foreign country." Dwelt in tents. Faith waits.
When we get to the place where God has called us, faith waits, sojourns...
When Abraham got to the land of promise, lots of people living in his land. He persevered and patiently waited on God's will. He never gained the land in his lifetime. Neither would Isaac, neither would Jacob; three generations came and went, but they still had not realized the promises of God.
The only land Abraham ever owned was a cave near Hebron, Ephron, a Hitte was willing to sell him a burial plot so that as the generations went on, they had a place to be buried in the land.
True faith not only goes and follows,
true faith keeps an eye to eternity,
true faith is an end in itself.
I want to do what God said and go where He said to go.
Abraham's reward came when we went, and he walked, and he believed. He was willing to live in it and believe in God. He didn't receive the promise. His belief in the promises to come caused him to act accordingly and to that action God ascribed pleasing faith.
So if Abraham had more faith, he could have had the land sooner? Baloney. God would give him the land in His time. By faith he dwelt in the land but he dwelt there as if it was someone else's country. He didn't get to move into the house.
You wait and the order never comes. He lived in a tent with future heirs who also didn't inherit. Abraham's life consisted in wandering in the Promised Land but he was out of step with it, there was dissonance. And one day God would bless it, and it would then become that home, away from home. But for now, he lived in a land where he was different and didn't fit in. He couldn't settle in. The religion of the land was different than his--they worshiped all kinds of gods. He worshiped one.
But he would act accordingly. His morality was governed by the God that he knew. The world view was filthy, as it's always been. He finds this similar to the current Church living in the world. Our situation is similar. For now, we are just to be a witness to it and not to take on the morality of it and not to have the same goals and ambitions. We're here--waiting by faith.
We're not anti-cultural, but we're counter-cultural. There should be with us this feeling of camping. There is a pervasive kind of "in-between-ness" we're kind of stuck in the middle, passing through and much of God's promises to in regard to ruler-ship and reign and victory are future. You are not likely to change the culture, you may touch the people, but
The world is going to get worse, no promise to the Church says we're going to make it better, we're going to slow down the rotting as salt, that's it.
The hardest times for us are the "in between" times. Between when you have taken a step of faith and God hasn't done his part. You know He will, but right now you are waiting.
Dating ex., "in between" wait with faith, wait with joy.
the living and dying with every circumstance
Abraham takes initial step of faith and then has to sit and wait for the fulfillment of God's promise. And he has a great case. If you are going to act in God and trust God, then you are going to have to follow Him and trust Him for the consequences.
Faith pleases God when it waits...before the realization arrives.
Abraham would wait 25 years for a son and a lifetime for a land he never owned. Only camped in it while others lived in it. He felt like he was the foreigner, yet he was home. He trusted God and lived like it, and he taught his kids and they lived like it and this pleased God. It may just not be in your time frame.
We only know He is coming, and we're told to live accordingly. He remembers 25 years ago thinking God was coming soon. God may come the day after you die. What difference would it make? Your going to have to live believing He's on His way because He is on His way. It's an assurance we can live with.
William Carey spent 35 years in India. He felt his ministry was unfruitful, but he went where God told him to go and did what God told him to do. James writes, compares to farming, be patient brother in the coming of the Lord. You be patient. Make your heart established for the coming of the Lord is at hand. Don't grow weary in well-doing. Faith sticks with the program.
Ideally, true faith would be dead to doubt dumb to discouragement and blind to impossibility because God said so. He's so big he doesn't explain it to me. But it was the trusting of God and the waiting that brought the blessing. Then he taught his son the value of faithful camping, and his son didn't get caught up in the world either. God sees Abraham as a "happy camper."
He waited for a city whose foundations, whose builder and maker is God....Faith has the final world.
Faith has an eternal outlook.
Jesus to the Pharisees: "Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day and he saw it."
It is concentrating on the things around us that kills us. So many needs, you can spend your life attending to them. Or you can be like Abraham and look up. Paul in Colossians: Set your mind on things above. The secret of Abraham's life was where his gaze was fixed. He had an eternal outlook.
Sarah--herself also, received strength...she judged Him faithful who had promised. Therefore from one man who is --"she judged him faithful who had promised" faith shares its optimism. It never sees the promises of God impossible.
Faith is not blind, it goes into it wide open, considers things in light of knowing God. It's not ignorant of the facts, it just considers them in light of God.
Sara 's conviction over weighed, out trumped her understanding of earthly things. Her faith was defined as trusting Him.
Faith is not blind. It lays the facts in front of a God who can rearrange them if He so chooses.
************************************
(2) Faith. This imperfection is seen in the apostle’s prayer for an increase of faith (Luk_17:5); in Christ’s upbraidings (Mat 6:30; Mat 8:26); in Paul’s congratulations and prayer for the Thessalonians (1Th 1:2; 1Th 3:10; 2Th_1:3); in the expressions “rich in faith,” “abound in faith,” “measure of faith.” Deceive not yourselves, then, that if you have faith you need no more. J Donne, BI
Faith is communicable, it can be passed along to your kids.
************************************
Continuing to walk through Jack Abeelen's series on Faith:
Faith Defined #7
Abraham #2
1/3/2009
Hebrews 11:8-12
Philip--was told to go to the desert, away from the revival. Philip was in touch with God's Spirit and Philip was in touch with God's voice. When all reason would have said no, Philip said yes.
God didn't come to Philip and say "Hey, I've got a great idea..."God didn't round out the vision and provide the details and reasons for Philip regarding the eunuch and that all of Ethiopia would hear. That would have been easier.
If I could just have the whole story the details the reasons and because that's what we wait on, and we lack faith, and we miss out on what God would like to do because we don't understand everything.
Abraham type of believer who has some trouble, but he heads for life and God will bless him. And though he doesn't know how it will turn out, one thing is clear, if God calls, you have to follow. Faith obeys.
v 9 "dwelt in a land of promise as if he lived in a foreign country." Dwelt in tents. Faith waits.
When we get to the place where God has called us, faith waits, sojourns...
When Abraham got to the land of promise, lots of people living in his land. He persevered and patiently waited on God's will. He never gained the land in his lifetime. Neither would Isaac, neither would Jacob; three generations came and went, but they still had not realized the promises of God.
The only land Abraham ever owned was a cave near Hebron, Ephron, a Hitte was willing to sell him a burial plot so that as the generations went on, they had a place to be buried in the land.
True faith not only goes and follows,
true faith keeps an eye to eternity,
true faith is an end in itself.
I want to do what God said and go where He said to go.
Abraham's reward came when we went, and he walked, and he believed. He was willing to live in it and believe in God. He didn't receive the promise. His belief in the promises to come caused him to act accordingly and to that action God ascribed pleasing faith.
So if Abraham had more faith, he could have had the land sooner? Baloney. God would give him the land in His time. By faith he dwelt in the land but he dwelt there as if it was someone else's country. He didn't get to move into the house.
You wait and the order never comes. He lived in a tent with future heirs who also didn't inherit. Abraham's life consisted in wandering in the Promised Land but he was out of step with it, there was dissonance. And one day God would bless it, and it would then become that home, away from home. But for now, he lived in a land where he was different and didn't fit in. He couldn't settle in. The religion of the land was different than his--they worshiped all kinds of gods. He worshiped one.
But he would act accordingly. His morality was governed by the God that he knew. The world view was filthy, as it's always been. He finds this similar to the current Church living in the world. Our situation is similar. For now, we are just to be a witness to it and not to take on the morality of it and not to have the same goals and ambitions. We're here--waiting by faith.
We're not anti-cultural, but we're counter-cultural. There should be with us this feeling of camping. There is a pervasive kind of "in-between-ness" we're kind of stuck in the middle, passing through and much of God's promises to in regard to ruler-ship and reign and victory are future. You are not likely to change the culture, you may touch the people, but
The world is going to get worse, no promise to the Church says we're going to make it better, we're going to slow down the rotting as salt, that's it.
The hardest times for us are the "in between" times. Between when you have taken a step of faith and God hasn't done his part. You know He will, but right now you are waiting.
Dating ex., "in between" wait with faith, wait with joy.
the living and dying with every circumstance
Abraham takes initial step of faith and then has to sit and wait for the fulfillment of God's promise. And he has a great case. If you are going to act in God and trust God, then you are going to have to follow Him and trust Him for the consequences.
Faith pleases God when it waits...before the realization arrives.
Abraham would wait 25 years for a son and a lifetime for a land he never owned. Only camped in it while others lived in it. He felt like he was the foreigner, yet he was home. He trusted God and lived like it, and he taught his kids and they lived like it and this pleased God. It may just not be in your time frame.
We only know He is coming, and we're told to live accordingly. He remembers 25 years ago thinking God was coming soon. God may come the day after you die. What difference would it make? Your going to have to live believing He's on His way because He is on His way. It's an assurance we can live with.
William Carey spent 35 years in India. He felt his ministry was unfruitful, but he went where God told him to go and did what God told him to do. James writes, compares to farming, be patient brother in the coming of the Lord. You be patient. Make your heart established for the coming of the Lord is at hand. Don't grow weary in well-doing. Faith sticks with the program.
Ideally, true faith would be dead to doubt dumb to discouragement and blind to impossibility because God said so. He's so big he doesn't explain it to me. But it was the trusting of God and the waiting that brought the blessing. Then he taught his son the value of faithful camping, and his son didn't get caught up in the world either. God sees Abraham as a "happy camper."
He waited for a city whose foundations, whose builder and maker is God....Faith has the final world.
Faith has an eternal outlook.
Jesus to the Pharisees: "Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day and he saw it."
It is concentrating on the things around us that kills us. So many needs, you can spend your life attending to them. Or you can be like Abraham and look up. Paul in Colossians: Set your mind on things above. The secret of Abraham's life was where his gaze was fixed. He had an eternal outlook.
Sarah--herself also, received strength...she judged Him faithful who had promised. Therefore from one man who is --"she judged him faithful who had promised" faith shares its optimism. It never sees the promises of God impossible.
Faith is not blind, it goes into it wide open, considers things in light of knowing God. It's not ignorant of the facts, it just considers them in light of God.
Sara 's conviction over weighed, out trumped her understanding of earthly things. Her faith was defined as trusting Him.
Faith is not blind. It lays the facts in front of a God who can rearrange them if He so chooses.
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(2) Faith. This imperfection is seen in the apostle’s prayer for an increase of faith (Luk_17:5); in Christ’s upbraidings (Mat 6:30; Mat 8:26); in Paul’s congratulations and prayer for the Thessalonians (1Th 1:2; 1Th 3:10; 2Th_1:3); in the expressions “rich in faith,” “abound in faith,” “measure of faith.” Deceive not yourselves, then, that if you have faith you need no more. J Donne, BI
Faith is communicable, it can be passed along to your kids.
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Abraham was filled with doubt, with weakness, and he isn't much different than us. God doesn't play favorites.
Abraham's solution to the famine was to go to Egypt, lie about his wife. Abraham fell on his face and laughed too when told he would have a son. He had to live a long time to get there, but he made it. He made it.
In reality our faith should be the weakest the day we get saved.
We all let go...faithful in the morning, but in the evening....I don't know.
I wonder how much of God's best we miss because we don't stick around.
Dale Carnegie...so many people stop three feet short. How long should you hold on? Until you die or until you prove God a liar.
Daniel 10...you've been praying....no explanation....
Abraham embraced what God said. Faith pleases the Lord but it doesn't necessarily have things in hand yet, it lives in trust.
Confess...speak forth...they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. They walked around confessing.
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Hebrews 11:20-22 The Legacy of Faith
Church in Rome, before 70AD, hadn't seen any return, benefit from knowing God.
By faith Isaac, blessed Jacob and Esau...
By faith Jacob, when dying...
By faith Joseph...
This faith occurred near the time of their death. God choose these things specifically that we might get the bigger picture. Each had to be content with what God said and pass along His will to their successors.
Genesis 25 Isaac
Abraham & Sarah waited for 25 years until had promised son. 100 had him, 125 took him the mountain to sacrifice
Isaac--son of expectation, laughter, in many ways a great disappointment. He never fully became the man of God his parents hoped. Only 2 chapters to Isaac, 12 chapters to the other three. Kind of a ho-hum guy.
40 years old when got married, next 20 years prayed with wife for child, 60 when had twins. Two nations in your womb. Romans 9 sovereignty of God, God chose before they were ever born that Jacob would rule over Esau. The Lord made his will known to the parents before they were ever born.
over time parental preferences became very clear--Esau, hunt, made good stew...Jacob, fair kind of delicate kind of kid, not an athlete, favorite of mom. Dad liked Esau because he could make good ribs...Isaac not a very deep man. Everyone was made aware of the reversal of order God intended.
Rebecca was willing to help God out when it looked like Esau would get the blessing. Land went to first but also Lordship of family, and spiritual blessings because you were in the line of God's work. To the physical man it would be the money, property, etc. To a spiritual man it would be the spiritual blessing.
Rebecca was going to take care of business. God doesn't work through deceit. God doesn't need our help. Whenever sin is involved, God is not.
First time was tricked into blessing
Second time does the blessing intentionally. He surrenders to God's will. Resigned to God's will.
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By Faith Moses--Part I
1/14-1/15
Jack Abeelen, Growing Thru Grace
Hebrews 11:23-26
Introduction and background to the faith of Moses
hidden three months by his parents.
Considering the faith of Moses' parents. Abraham is "called out" from his family's pagan faith. In contrast, Moses begins with parents who trust God in the worst conditions.
grew to 2 million in Egypt, even though Egypt didn't think much of agricultural people. When Moses was born they were there for 250 years. In 80, they would be leaving with Moses.
They notice Moses is "beautiful, proper, chosen....well pleasing" It's one who God has his hand upon.
Moses goes on the back side of the desert and "undoes" what he learned in the first 40 years. He witnesses an injustice and tries to fix it on his own by killing. The spiritual cannot be carried out in the flesh. Peter tried it. But in light of all we see, Moses took a stand. God identified the motivation behind the actions as faith. imperfect faith.
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By Faith Moses--Part II
1/15
Most of life is determined by the decisions you make, not what was given to you.
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Faith over fear
Moses was willing to serve God at 40, but he was able at 80.
Moses saw God, physically.
Faith is not faith when you do the ridiculous, Faith is faith when it is attached to God and his word.
You don't find faith in a majority vote, you find it on your knees.
If God has called you, no amount of stubbornness will work. If God has called you....
What has God called you to do ?
Nehemiah--
If I keep my eyes on Him, I can rest in the work he has given me.
It is fear that says God cannot work unless I worry. Should I not care? Yes, just let God work it out. Without Him, we can do nothing.
Faith begins when the control of things is out of my hands and into His.
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Contagious Faith 1/18 Part 1
Hebrews 11:29
Faith can rub off.
Doubt and unbelief are also contagious.
It can be a great detriment if the people are not seeking God together.
Contagious Faith 1/19 Part 2
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Is Faith Really Foolish?
Part I
1/21
God as its object. His word as its assurance.
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By Faith Rahab
Hebrews account is faithful actions of unfaithful people
Rahab--gentile prostitute, heard of God from 2nd and 3rd hand channels.
True faith honors the Lord even in the most unlikely of lives--no matter how you have fallen, He is able to pick you up.
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Hebrews 12:32-34, Judges 6
6 men of faith
Gideon, Barack, Sampson,
Gideon
sin-drome 7x's
Midionites came against them
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Divest Oneself---set aside, lay aside every weight
every weight that hinders your running, not all weight is sin. Without the need to be run, it may be fine. HInder our spiritual being
sin--hampering, besetting, personal sin, between you and God--anger, selfishness, fear,
Every person has their own course set out by God. The glory is to finish the individual race put before us.
Run with endurance. Life is not a sprint. Greek word for run is agony.
Look to Jesus. Look away from all else, focus on one image.
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