Hebrews 11 D
Hebrews
{11:17} By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac
and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son
{11:18} Of whom it was said, That in Isaac shall thy seed be called
By faith- Abraham was tried and by faith he came through the trying.
Tried to the uttermost.
We can't fathom that sort of faith because when we face little trials we're ready
to stop and say, 'Hold on! No way! God wouldn't ask this of me! It's too hard,
it's too much!' We've formed a picture of God as being beyond trying us because
we've come to a point in society where we've blamed a lot of the past on parents
that were too hard, on a society that was too exacting and stifling. We're
past all that now. We have freedom to act any way we please and as long as we
don't hurt anyone (where any can find out) then hey it's all good, right?
WRONG!
Our entire society has gone from being one of overt respect to one another to overt
disrespect and we call it progress. When a parent can't even punish their child
without fear of being hauled away as a child abuser, is it no wonder when God tries
us that we fail miserably time and again? No parent and especially not a heavenly
parent would put us through tests and trials, no way. A loving parent wouldn't do
that, they just wouldn't. They'd nurture us and walk us through things step by
step holding our hands along the way, picking us up and brushing the dirt off our
bottoms as we walk along.
Our very idea of a loving God goes against a God that would ask any father to
sacrifice his only son, a son of promise, a son long waited for, a son that was to
be the fulfilment of a covenant. No God would do that, no loving God, therefore the
God of the Bible is not loving and contradicts all that is said of Him being love.
Hogwash! Yes, I said hogwash and I meant it. God is love and all He's done has been
done out of love it would be impossible for it to be any other way. It's our own
notion of what love is that has altered. We think it unloving to have our faith
tried. Unloving to be put to the test. Unloving because God forbid that we should
have to be put through any hardship. But God doesn't forbid. God tells us we'll be
tried and tested. Jesus tells us that in this world we will have heartache and
pain.
A very loving God, in fact a God that is pure love tested Abraham's faith and
Abraham didn't waver. Abraham didn't try to talk God out of the test. Abrahman
didn't shake his head and say no way, you're not the God I want to follow if you
ask such things of me. Abraham didn't tell God it was too hard, too much, that
he couldn't do it and hey God, you understand don't you... don't you?
We want to keep hold of our own lack of faith to stand up to anything that
might be too hard and just cling to a false conception that God understands, that
He knows.
Yes, He does understand and He does know. But what He knows is that we lack the
faith necessary to get through our own personal trials. We shun Him and say that
He understands and therefore He'll excuse us this time and just overlook our
lack of faith. The devil loves our misconceptions. He loves when we fall short and
then blame God, and deceive ourselves into believing that God undrestands and
will overlook our failings.
As long as we're not asked anything equivlent to what God asked of Abraham we'll
be okay, right?
Wrong.
Each day we're put to the test in many ways and it's not because God wants to trip
us up and kick us out and away from Him. Our faith needs to grow, our faith needs
to increase. We need to have the faith of Abraham in our lives to strengthen us
because without faith it is impossible to please God. Without faith it's impossible
to believe that He exists and will reward us. Without faith we have no grasp of
Christ's righteousness. Without faith there is no hope and what our lives are today
is what they'll always be, a mere time period between birth and death, with nothing
more.
Without faith we are blinded to the love of God. Without faith we can't believe that
God, our loving Heavenly Father sent His only Son to earth to live among us, as one of
us and to die for all of us. Without faith we can't believe in salvation.
Faith.
Let's stop making excuses for ourselves. Let's throw ourselves at the foot of the
cross and cling to Jesus begging Him to forgive us our lack of faith, to help our
lack of faith. Let us realize that our faith will be tested out of love and though
what seems like an impossible test now will only prove to be to our benefit later.
We need to trust in God with all our heart.
May the Grace and Mercy of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ be with us now and
forever. May our faith be tested and tried and be found true through the strength
and mercy of our Lord Jesus. We are weak...He is strong and we must cling to Him.
In His most holy and wonderful, all merciful name.
Amen.
2/9/10
Heb 10:23 Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;)
Heb 10:24 And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works
Who have you provoked today?
We tend to think of provoking as a bad thing, just look at the dictionary definition.
provoke (pre-vok´) verb, transitive
provoked, provoking, provokes
1. To incite to anger or resentment.
2. To stir to action or feeling.
3. To give rise to; evoke: provoke laughter.
4. To bring about deliberately; induce: provoke a fight.
The first meaning given is 'to incite anger or resentment'. However let's look at the subsequent meanings. 'To stir to action or feeling', that's not so bad, right? Neither is this meaning, 'to give rise to, evoke: provoke laughter.' Then again this one isn't so inspiriing in a positive way, 'to bring about deliberately; induce: provoke a fight.' When the Bible tells us this- 'provoke unto love and to good works' this is a very good thing. How are we to help each other? Provoking each other to love and good works is an amazing thing. Inciting good, stirring up good works, giving rise to love, deliberately inducing love and good works these are amazing thing and how many of us do this? How many of us provoke another person to love and good works? It's easy to provoke mischief. A simple cross word from us can incite dissent and bad feelings, can a simple loving word do the opposite? Do loving words come easy to us or do criticizing words slip more readily from our tongues? Provoking unto love and to good works. What would happen if we determined to provoke someone to love and good works today, tomorrow, everyday we live? It's a thought isn't it? The next time a cross word spills from our lips let's instantly remember this verse and see if we can't provoke love before we provoke anything else.
By the grace and mercy of our Lord and Savior we can learn to provoke to love and good works. May the love of God fill us fully, may the forgiveness of Jesus wash over us all creating clean hearts within us. May the righteousness of Christ fill our hearts, our minds, all of us so that we may be His fully and that His will may be done within us now and always.
Amen.