Jan 8 Gen. 20-21 Fear Causes Abraham to Sin

Abraham, a great man of faith, feared King Abimelech, so Abraham had Sarah lie/withhold the truth about their marriage. Had God not intervened, the results would have been disastrous. Fear (not trusting in God's promises) led to Abraham's weakness - his default sin - deception. We all have our weaknesses - our default sins. Abraham will pass on his deceptive ways to his children and grand children - stay tuned - a family weakness.

So what is each of our default sins that emanates out of our weaknesses  We all have them. Remember, all sin is really a distrust of God and His ways as being best for us.

Note that the Bible never paints people - even those of great faith - as sinless perfection. Jesus is the only ultimate model for us.

As a personal sidelight for me is the dispute over water - a very precious commodity in the Mideast and all over the world. Many of the struggles in the Mideast over boundaries and land has got to do with water rights - though hardly ever talked about in news reports. In a previous career, I was in the water treatment industry and delivered a keynote address at a water conference approximately 15 years ago about the coming worldwide shortage of clean drinking water and sewage. Its here!!!!

Jan 7 Lot and the Allure of Evil

Lot had chosen the lush valley of the Jordan to graze his flocks. Next we find him living in Sodom and no flocks are mentioned. He apparently becomes an elder of this wicked city because he was perched at the gates. He is willing to give his virgin daughters to the men of the city. Then, he gets so drunk that he doesn't know that he is having sex with his daughters. It is amazing how messed up he got over time, yet God still spared him.

We need to be careful who we hang around with. When we are surrounded by wickedness with no godly fellowship, evil starts to look like the new normal. WEEKLY Sunday Service has got to be the absolute minimum, but being in a small group and having Christian friends that we routinely interact with are better. But let's not go all the way to the other side and live in a Christian bubble - we need to win others to Christ - to do so, we must interact with outsiders - and change them!

Jan 6 God Isn't Tied to Our Schedule

Part of the fruit of the Spirit is patience. If Abraham and Sarah had it, Hagar, Ishmael, and the whole Arab-Israeli conflict may have been avoided. Sarah and Abraham thought God needed help making good on His promise to give them a son. This was a classic case of not letting God be God.

We can learn much from this episode - God doesn't always work on our time schedule. We need to trust that God's schedule is the right one - even when it doesn't seem like it to us. Many times, when we outrun Him, we actually create new problems for ourselves. Wait on God - He is God.

Jan 5 Abram and His Attitude Toward Money and Stuff

Obviously, the most important theme of the Abraham narratives is his faith in the one, true, and living God. It is interesting to see how this faith in God plays out in his attitudes toward money and stuff.

God promises to bless Abram. Abram gives Lot the choice of the best land - and of course worldly Lot chooses the best for himself. Abram honors Lot's choice, presumably trusting God to bless him, even on the less lush land. Then, Abram risks his life to save Lot and desires none of the spoils of his win for himself. He wants God to bless Him. He even gives 10% of everything to King/Priest Melchizedek (a type of Christ being a combo king/priest and his name meaning King of Righteousness). He is King of Salem (which means Peace, so he is King of Peace).

Having faith in God means more than trusting Him for heaven after death. We need to trust Him in this life, too. One of the many ways to trust Him is for His provision. Giving of our very 1st 10% of our earnings (gross) is a great example of trust.

Jan 4 Continual Pursuit to Elevate Man and Diminish God

The Tower of Babel is an interesting narrative (I don't use the word story because people begin to think fictional account). Man always tries to elevate his status and push God out of the picture. This began with Adam and Eve wanting to know good and evil themselves instead of depending on God to tell them. Nothing has really changed. God says to wait until marriage for sex, but we all think we have a better way - how is it working out for us? I need to accept God as the higher authority in my life and to follow his direction - to lift Him up - and for me to decrease.

Even the Righteous are Less Than Perfect

January 3 Scripture describes over and over again what happens when godly people get unequally yoked with ungodly people - the ungodly win over the godly. I wish I could get young people and all unmarried people to heed the Bible's warnings in this area. I deal with far too many people who grieve over their decision to ignore Scripture's clear warnings. The lure of "beautiful" people!

Also, the Bible shows people as they are - even righteous Noah got drunk and had some sort of sexual sin. The Bible shows all families to be less than perfect. In this, God shows His grace and mercy - and man's need for a Savior.

The Two Lines - Godly and Ungodly

Jan 2 After the murder of Abel, two lines of generations are shown - the godly line of Seth and the ungodly line of Cain.