| Author | Message | ||
| Lindylou Registered user Username: Lindylou Post Number: 120 Registered: 1-2005  |
My dear friend, "Dd" just shared a Bible study with me and this quote caught my attention: "God called Abraham out of his present country only because He wanted to bring Abraham into a new land, a new way of life, a new inheritance toward which He now commanded him to move. Abraham did not fully understand where his final destination would be nor realize all the joy and riches that God would increasingly give him. He just knew the direction for the next step. He realized that he must burn his bridges behind him, for there must be no going back. ....... To Abraham's family, it must have seemed the height of foolishness to uproot yourself from a comfortable place and to set out on a journey without fully knowing your goal. What fanaticism! What a mad adventure!" I have a feeling that that there are several on this forum that can relate to this statement at this time in their life. So I share it to give you courage. This reflection ends like this: "Only those who have received for themselves the vision of God in Christ know how wise, how joyous, how beneficial it is to obey God's call, to live loose to God's directions in utter confidence that you will always prove that God's will is good, delightful and perfect." So if you are facing a difficult decision, or have people doubting your sanity because you feel God's calling in your life, take courage!  | ||
| Colleentinker Registered user Username: Colleentinker Post Number: 3308 Registered: 12-2003  |
What a wonderful quote, Linda! Thank you! Colleen | ||
| Dd Registered user Username: Dd Post Number: 629 Registered: 7-2004 |
Thanks for sharing the quote above, Lindylou. It is from the Genesis study that I am in through BSF. It has been such a wonderful and relevant study for me this year. The story of Abraham is fabulous. His life is an example of trusting totally in God and also stepping out on your own and making a big mess of things. I just have to share what we studied this week in Chapters 20 and 21...it is so incredible. It is all about the New Covenant of Jesus Christ! I continue to be blown away by the consistency of God's Word. The New Covenant is really not "New". Genesis 21:9-21 is the story of the conflict between Ismael and Isaac. In Galatians 4:22-31; 5:16-17, Paul refers to Abraham's two sons to explain allegorically the choice the Galatians faced. Abraham had two sons born by two wives in two different manners that represented two different covenants between God and men. Ishmael, the son of Hagar, was born without any special intervention of God. He was born of mere human effort (he represents a type of people who think they can serve God in their own way, by only their own effort). Thinking themselves good enough, they despise the way of faith, the miraculous and God's Word. Instead they go about to "establish their own righteousness". They say, "I try to obey the Ten Commandments"' "I try to obey the law of public opinion"; "I try to follow the law of my own conscience" (Romans 10:3,4; Galatians 4:21). By contrast, Issac, the son of Sarah, was born as a result of divine initiative and divine intervention through a divine promise. He represents the person who recognizes that by himself, in his fallen human nature alone, he can do no good thing (Romans 7:18). Without God's promise, Abraham's body was as if it were dead, unable to produce life. This allegory applies to two ways of life for the Christian. One way of life is to live "under the law" - that is, trying to please God by outward forms and ceremonies only and self-effort, not from the heart. This always leads to failure. The other way of life is to live "by faith in Christ." Realizing that of my own self I can do nothing. I, in faith, deliberately choose to live after the Holy Spirit. This is a life of trusting the Word of God and OBEYING the Holy Spirit to enable me to live a life well-pleasing to God. I just LOVE how God's Word is the same today as it was in Abraham's day. Nothing has changed. Nothing is "new". He is UNCHANGEABLE. Praise Him that He does change me! Secure in His unchanging love, Denise I must give credit for some of my post to BSF notes, Lesson 18, Series I. Lessons, orginally written by A. Wetherell Johnson, have been revised by BSF International. | ||
| Colleentinker Registered user Username: Colleentinker Post Number: 3318 Registered: 12-2003 |
Denise, thank you. I agree with your assessment of the astonishing consistency of God and of Scripture. These amazing eternal connections were lost on me for so long. The Bible is, indeed, a living book! Colleen |
