Examples of Our Father's Grace (Sodom, woman, scriptures, sin)

[Heavenese]

Hey everyone!


I had a neat idea today that would be a great inspiration for us all. I'm going to take some time to go through the lives of the partriarchs, highlighting all the times our Father gave them His grace and love. I'll start with Abraham.


When we first hear about Abraham, his name was first Abram, which means "high father". Now Abram and his wife, who was then named Sarai (meaning "My princess), couldn't have children. So having a name like Abram was kind of ironic, and for Abram, it must have been embarrassing and perhaps even shameful. (I don't know a whole lot about ancient middle eastern cultures, but from what I can tell, having children was a big deal. Especially for the woman) God comes along and tells Abram to leave his kinfolk, and that He would make Abram a great nation. In this promise we can see God is going to give Abram children. Awesome. Abram believes God, and follows the command to leave his family and set out for the land God promises him.


Except hold the phone, did Abram really follow God's command fully? Well, let's read Abram's response to God's call in Genesis ch. 12 and verse 4......

So Abram went forth as the Lord had spoken to him; and Lot went with him. Now Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.

Right there! Not two seconds after God told Abram to leave his country, family, and father, he takes his nephew (his family) with him. That action should have voided the promise God made to Abram, because He made it specifically clear to Abram that he leaves his family behind. Yet what does God do? God blesses Abram abundantly, as though he followed the command to the letter. Even Lot was blessed abundantly, and he wasn't supposed to be there. Later on as we know, a dispute between Lot's men and Abram's men broke out, and in the end there was enough land for both groups to go there own way. Again later on, Lot and his family are taken captive, and Abram rushes in to save him. God could have said, "This wouldn't have happened if you left your family behind like I told you, so I will not help you out in this endeavor to save your nephew Abram". Nope, God still blessed Abram, even though the mess was the result of Abram's disobedience. Abram and his men beat the pants off of their enemies, and saved Lot along with his family and belongings.


Lastly, Lot decided to move his family into Sodom. Sodom's sins became so grave, that just like with Noah's generation, God had no choice but to judge their sin right there. Abram, now Abraham (for those who lauged at Abram for his name seeing he had no children, imagine their shock of him now being called Abraham meaning "father of nations" Of course through Jesus, we are a child of Abraham, who is the father of the faith. Like Abraham, we are a peculiar people to the world), seeing his nephew being in the crossfire, begins to plead once more for the sake of his nephew. This is now the third time Abraham's mistake of bringing along Lot, has been something of a pain in the butt.


A lot of times we mess up as well. We as Christians have a desire to follow all that God desires of us. The problem comes along when we try to do it in the strength of our old nature. Like George Lopez would say on his show "I got this"! Firstly God never tells us to do something that our old nature can handle. That was how the Law worked, and if it were successful, Jesus would have never had to do what He did. No, God has given us strength in Jesus, to live like Jesus. We rely on that strength, to live the new life. Secondly however, if we do mess up, just like with Abraham, God still picks us up and gives us His grace. As the Scriptures say, where sin increases, grace superabounds. We also need to know that it's always the goodness of God that leads to repentance. (And repentance means changing the mind) So, God could have told Abraham, "Listen, I know you are worried about Lot, but that can't be helped at this point". Nope, once again God gives Abraham grace, and as a result He gives Lot grace as well. God spares Lot, and doesn't even start the destruction of the city until Lot and his family are out of the city. In fact, there was enough grace there to save anyone who believed Lot when he told the city it was going to be destroyed by God.


Three times God blessed Abraham, inspite of Abraham disobeying God's original command. Even Lot, the one who wasn't supposed to be there, ended up extremely blessed on account of Abraham. I'll leave Abraham's story right there. There is still much to tell concerning him, and later on I will do others.

[ipaper]

amen to that very well done.

[Torpedos]

There is not one that was not a screw up. All of them fell and had to get spiritually smacked around by grace. ( except Jesus).
Although i was thinking, Did Jesus get spanked by Joseph. I think he did. Imaging knowing you spanked the creator when he was out if line as a kid. That would be some real cool points

[Heavenese]

So to continue, God promised Abram descendants, that He would make a great nation from him. In the process, God changed Abram's name to Abraham, meaning "Father of nations". In the Hebrew you can see that God added the "He" into Abram's name. Making it Abra"ham". God's name is Yahweh, which when you break it down into the hebrew lettering is pronounce as "Yod" "He" "Vav" "He". God took from Himself, He took the "He" from His name, and added it onto Abraham. By the way, when you say "He", the sound resembles someone exhaling a deep breath of air. Essentially, God breathe life into Abraham when He changed his name. He exhaled His grace. God did the same for Sarai, in changing her name to Sarah.


Of course yall know the story after that. They received a child by the Lord, and named him Isaac. There's a lot we can learn from Abraham's story. Its important to note that anything Abraham did or accomplished, was all because of God's favor. That last bit about Abraham being able to follow God's command in sacrificing Isaac, his willingness to do it came about through what God had done for Him. Abraham knew God cared for him, and that was why he stated that Isaac would come back down the mountain with him. If God could give life to his and Sarah's body in their old age to conceive a child, He could certainly resurrect Isaac if he was sacrificed. Of course, God stop him, because it was only a test, and Abraham's trust in God was confirmed.


Again, we can learn a lot from Abraham. We may mess up, but remember how many times Abraham messed up. Even in all that stuff, Abraham was still considered righteous. Abraham lied, disobeyed God's order to leave his family behind by taking Lot with him, and even laughed at God. Yet, he was still called a friend of God, and inherited God's promise. Why? It's all because of God's love for him, not the other way around. When Abraham believed God, trusted His ability to deliver and keep His word, God accounted that onto him as righteousness. That trust, lead to obedience, even willing to give back what God gave him in Isaac. (So that let's you know by the way it was a test. How could God's promise to Abraham in making a great nation from him be accomplished if Isaac was dead? So even if Isaac was sacrificed, which human sacrifice wasn't a strange thing among other cultures back in the day, he would have been raised from the dead to fulfill the promise) If we love God, it's simply because He first loved us.