Summer Days

So, I watched this anime movie yesterday called 'Summer Wars' and was totally blown away, not only because it was an awesome movie (which it is), but also because in it is a partial look at what my dream for a 24/7 church looks like. "What is a 24/7 church?" you say, well I'm glad you asked!! *Cheeky grin* It was a bit of an idea that evolved between me and my closest friends based on Acts 2:42-47:

"And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved."

Seriously, how beautiful is that? When I read that I asked, "Why don't we do church that way?" Why indeed, why indeed.. So me and my friends have a vision of a church that actually lives together, much like you see in this movie. Well in this movie it's not a church, but a big family over several generations in the same house, but add God to the picture and BAM! The dirt is gone.

So have a watch of it if you have time, see if this movie inspires you to live that same way with fellow believers.

GOD BLESS YOU ALL!!

Here's the link:

http://www.vidxden.com/v16qu76og9uc/Summer_Wars.mp4.html

John Piper on God's Sovereignty

So I think this is pretty cool, give it a watch guys, you won't regret it!

Genesis 18

THEOPHANIES!! THEOPHANIES!! Yes, that's right folks, it is time for Genesis 18! One of the most beautiful and most instructive of the theophanies! (Btw, a theophany is a visible manifestation of God) But whoa... we're getting ahead of ourselves a bit, we need a little context first!

As we know, Moses is writing this to the Israelites, like how he wrote the rest of the Pentateuch during the time his people were wandering the desert, searching for the promised land after he set them free from Egypt. His message to them in this chapter would have been to keep faith in the promise, like Abraham and Sarah did, even when they thought it was impossible.

So where are we? Oh yeah, the covenant. So the covenant is introduced to Abram in 12:1-3, actually made in 15:18-21, was just reaffirmed in 17:1-21, and will later be renewed with Isaac in 26:2-5. So why did God reaffirm this covenant to Abram (who was changed to Abraham)? Because it is most likely that Abram was thinking that Ishmael, who came from Hagar, was who the promise would come through, but God was like "dude, no." Abram laughed, God shut him down, circumcision was born, and here we are in chapter 18 :)

" And the LORD appeared to him by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat at the door of his tent in the heat of the day. He lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, three men were standing in front of him. When he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them and bowed himself to the earth and said, “O Lord, if I have found favor in your sight, do not pass by your servant. Let a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree, while I bring a morsel of bread, that you may refresh yourselves, and after that you may pass on—since you have come to your servant.” So they said, “Do as you have said.” And Abraham went quickly into the tent to Sarah and said, “Quick! Three seahs of fine flour! Knead it, and make cakes.” And Abraham ran to the herd and took a calf, tender and good, and gave it to a young man, who prepared it quickly. Then he took curds and milk and the calf that he had prepared, and set it before them. And he stood by them under the tree while they ate.
They said to him, “Where is Sarah your wife?” And he said, “She is in the tent.” The LORD said, “I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife shall have a son.” And Sarah was listening at the tent door behind him. Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in years. The way of women had ceased to be with Sarah. So Sarah laughed to herself, saying, “After I am worn out, and my lord is old, shall I have pleasure?” The LORD said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Shall I indeed bear a child, now that I am old?’ Is anything too hard for the LORD? At the appointed time I will return to you, about this time next year, and Sarah shall have a son.” But Sarah denied it, saying, “I did not laugh,” for she was afraid. He said, “No, but you did laugh.”
Then the men set out from there, and they looked down toward Sodom. And Abraham went with them to set them on their way. The LORD said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do, seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him? For I have chosen him, that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing righteousness and justice, so that the LORD may bring to Abraham what he has promised him.” Then the LORD said, “Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great and their sin is very grave, I will go down to see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry that has come to me. And if not, I will know.”
So the men turned from there and went toward Sodom, but Abraham still stood before the LORD. Then Abraham drew near and said, “Will you indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked? Suppose there are fifty righteous within the city. Will you then sweep away the place and not spare it for the fifty righteous who are in it? Far be it from you to do such a thing, to put the righteous to death with the wicked, so that the righteous fare as the wicked! Far be that from you! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?” And the LORD said, “If I find at Sodom fifty righteous in the city, I will spare the whole place for their sake.”
Abraham answered and said, “Behold, I have undertaken to speak to the Lord, I who am but dust and ashes. Suppose five of the fifty righteous are lacking. Will you destroy the whole city for lack of five?” And he said, “I will not destroy it if I find forty-five there.” Again he spoke to him and said, “Suppose forty are found there.” He answered, “For the sake of forty I will not do it.” Then he said, “Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak. Suppose thirty are found there.” He answered, “I will not do it, if I find thirty there.” He said, “Behold, I have undertaken to speak to the Lord. Suppose twenty are found there.” He answered, “For the sake of twenty I will not destroy it.” Then he said, “Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak again but this once. Suppose ten are found there.” He answered, “For the sake of ten I will not destroy it.” And the LORD went his way, when he had finished speaking to Abraham, and Abraham returned to his place." Genesis 18:1-33

We see in Gen 18 that God came down and appeared before Abraham (Theophany), and the main thing I want to focus on here is Abraham's typical response of the gracious host who is in complete service to his guests, according to the Near Eastern customs of hospitality. God appeared in the "heat of the day", which was the appropriate time for people who were passing by, and Abraham ran... I just imagine this old wog who is trying to get you you stay for a bit and trying to stuff food down your throat (I love you Nonna)... he ran to greet them, got down on his face and flippin begged to serve them!

Now, did Abraham know that he was talking to God? There is evidence for either answer, and the reason why it is important to know is because of a different question; did he run to greet, get down on his face and beg to serve every traveler that appeared? I mean, am I really supposed to run to the butchers and get the finest cuts for a BBQ, just because Jo Blow came round? Do I really wash his feet, prepare a meal I wouldn't prepare for myself, and stand aside waiting for him to finish? Flippin heck, Abe was an old man, he would have had every reason to not go out of his way like that, he could have sat back because he was weak, or gotten one of his many servants to do it, or even demand respect because they were on his property and he was well respected because of how old he was! This guy is the housewife of the century!!

Yes, I do believe that he knew it was God, as the Hebrew word for 'O Lord' in verse 3 is 'Adonay', which is distinct for God in the OT, rather than the term for respect 'My Lord', which is 'adoni'. However, even though I think He knew it was God, or at least divine, there is still a lot that can be taken from these scriptures. We must ask ourselves, would we really do all this if we thought God or an angel came to us? Would we recognize our low position, even though we have a high position in society? And furthermore, Hebrews 13:2 is important for context on this issue, for even though it may not be referring to Abraham or Lot directly, it still links the idea that we should treat strangers like we would treat angels. Hospitality and generosity are important values for a Christian to have, and I would say not just when a stranger comes to his home, but whenever he meets a stranger in his everyday life.

Verse 9-15 is the main reason for the visit, which is a follow on from the covenant being reaffirmed in chapter 17. In chapter 17 we saw that God let Abraham know that Ishmael was never going to be who the promise would come through, but Isaac, his son with Sarah. Now we see that this promise is about to come true, the impossible is about to happen, and Sarah laughs, just as Abraham did in chapter 17. Seriously, who would have the nerve to laugh at something God said? That was how impossible this seemed for them, to Abraham and Sarah, the promise was already fulfilled in Ishmael, they didn't think that God could make Sarah give birth, but even with everything that they thought was impossible, they remained respectful and obedient. In chapter 17, when Abraham laughs, we see he stills listens to God and circumcises all in his household. Now, in chapter 18, when Sarah laughs, we see she still refers to Abraham as "my Lord", showing her faithfulness and respect to him and God, even though she thought what had been said to be impossible.

Verses 16-21 show God deciding to let Abraham know his plans for the destruction of Sodom because of Abraham's unique role in regards to his own decedents and (v. 18) all the nations of the world. God wished to teach Abraham the way of the Lord in regards to (v. 19) righteousness and justice, and also Abraham's intercession for the Gentile cities of Sodom and Gomorrah is parallel with his calling to be the vehicle of blessing to the whole world.

Verses 22-33 show Abraham interceding for Sodom and Gomorrah, maybe because of Lot, although this is not specified. We see the principle here that God will not destroy the righteous along with the wicked. The hypothetical number that Abraham puts forth to God reduces from 50 to 10, with the principal established that if there were 10 righteous people in Sodom and Gomorrah, God would not destroy it. But alas, not even ten were found, only three; Lot and his two daughters. So God shows His righteous judgement by (SPOILER) saving the righteous and destroying the wicked.

:)

Black Hole Destroying a Star

Is this not something to be inspired at? Not something to awe at? I look at this, and I imagine how small our earth is next to what is happening in this video, let alone how small I am. This video is a beautiful sight of destruction and God's power, and I pray that all who watch this will stop and think about how low, and even disgusting they are, and how big, powerful and benevolent our Father in heaven is.

Genesis 17

In this week’s bible chapter we’re going to be introduced to a practice that has haunted men for centuries. You can read the summary of last week’s chapter here and you can read Genesis 17 itself here.

Now the practice I just mentioned is indeed circumcision and in this weeks reading we find God commanding Abraham to take on this task. For the sake of context I’ll summarise where were coming from.

Moses, the author of Genesis, is chilling in the desert with the Israelites, fresh out of Egypt and he’s basically providing them with a history of their nation, while dropping some seriously theological themes. Therefore, we can see how Genesis 17 and its explanation of the origin of circumcision in Israel would have been important for the average Israelite to know. No doubt, the men in Israel had some serious questions about why they had a tradition involving the most vulnerable part of the male body. But that’s not all this chapter explains. Let’s walk through it together.

We start off with God appearing before Abraham. Now as far as we know, God hasn’t shown up for around 15 years. In fact Abraham hasn’t seen God since before the awkward turtle situation with Hagar, which resulted with little Ishmael. So apart from the problems that ensued when Abraham heeded ill advice of his wife (Genesis 16:2), Abraham probably had no reason to think that Ishmael was not the promised son. God had never said that his promised son would come from Sarah, so his child with Hagar probably seemed like a legit part of the covenant made in Genesis 15. Anyway, we’ll touch on this more later.

Now God basically starts with one of His spiels, restating much of what He’s said before. However, this time He changes Abram’s name to Abraham, which is great because up until now I’ve been crazy confused about which name to use in our weekly bible summaries. Now the meaning of his name has gone from “exalted father” to “father of many nations”. Now let’s stop and think about this. Abraham in the past would have introduced himself as “exalted father”. People would have heard this and asked how many children he had exactly. This was a question that could only be answered by an awkward silence on Abraham's part.

But NOW God amps it up a bit. Now Abraham is a father of NATIONS. How embarrassing would that be? I get the feeling the dialogue would go something like this.

Stranger: Hi, what’s your name?

Abraham: The God I serve has changed my name to “father of many nations”.

Stranger: Oh cool, how many kids you got?

Abraham: One.

Stranger:…right

But that’s just how God works. God writes the future. We can’t even see it. So when it appears like we’ve been promised something impossible (like, I don’t know, a guy on a horse with a sword coming out of his mouth and with eyes like blazing fire, cracking the sky open to come save us from this earth) we need childlike faith to trust that God can and will do what He says. And God has never broken a promise.

Okay, so in verses 9-14 we see the act of circumcision come in. The New Testament (Col. 2:11-14) sheds light on the meaning behind circumcision. The cutting off of the foreskin basically represents the believer in Christ, putting off the flesh and its ways. The fact that the flesh being physically removed is on the male genitalia possibly indicates that God is sanctifying for Himself a line of descendants or a nation from one man, through whom he will accomplish his work of redemption and the ultimate “putting off of the flesh” at the great consummation at the end of the age. Another interesting point is that these circumcised men were to be sexually pure (since they were God’s people) and thus the incision of the foreskin marked them off as different to the other nations. Ironically if they were to fall into sexual promiscuity and have relations with women or even prostitutes from other nations, the women would see that the men were different and possibly even question why, which would have been a convicting question for the men about to engage in what they knew to be an immoral act.

Now one of the ways that circumcision is relevant to us today is found in verse 7. God states that this covenant will be an everlasting covenant. Now since the New Testament states clearly that we no longer need to be circumcised, some view water baptism as the symbol of the new covenant, replacing circumcision. They bring Colossians 2:11-14 into the discussion to show that therefore in the same way all the newborn males were circumcised, now all newborn children must be baptized. In other words they believe in infant baptism. Others believe that a profession of faith is necessary in order for one to be baptized and infants clearly cannot profess faith in Christ, therefore it makes no sense for us to baptize our children.

Now I think it would be highly ignorant for me to say that infant baptism is an unimportant issue. Some people hold to the view that the essentials of salvation are the only things in the bible worth arguing over. Last time I checked ALL scripture was God-breathed (2 Timothy 3:16) and therefore it’s ALL important. Therefore, I have no problem with people who get dogmatic over this issue and try to take God’s word seriously. Personally, I’ve listened to arguments for and against baptizing children and while I do lean towards infant baptism, I know way too little to be dogmatic about the issue myself. Google it and come to your own conclusion :)

Onto the second half of the chapter! God notices that Sarai probably feels left out of the whole “getting a new name thing” so he changes her name to Sarah, which basically means the same thing. If anything, her name has changed from “my princess” to just “princess”, perhaps indicating that the scope of her princess-like position as the mother of many nations is greater than the average woman. She is not just MY (Abraham’s?) princess but also the princess over many nations.

Now when God finally says indicates that Sarah herself would give birth to his promised son, he reacts on a less than faithful manner. He basically laughs in God’s face. Now, granted he and Sarah were quite old and it literally would have taken a miracle for them to give birth to a child so it's no wonder he laughed in disbelief. But still. Never laugh at God. When I was reading this verse I was surprised that the next verse didn’t say “and God struck him down and went looking for a new patriarch”.

Anyway, after picking himself up off the floor from his laughing fit, Abraham proceeds to ask God to choose Ishmael as the promised son. No doubt Abraham loved the boy, being his first child and thus would have wanted the blessings of the covenant to be enjoyed by his firstborn. And yet God rejects Ishmael. Why? Let’s go to the New Testament for some clarification.

Galatians 4:22-23
“For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave woman and one by a free woman. But the son of the slave was born according to the flesh, while the son of the free woman was born through promise.”

Ishmael represents human effort. When Abraham and Sarah lacked faith in God’s promise, they decided to help Him along and thus Ishmael was born. But God doesn’t work according to human standards. He does the impossible. Thus Abraham’s promised child was to be called Isaac, since God’s promises are so outlandish that they cause us to laugh with disbelief, but at the same time God himself is so faithful to His word that when He brings His promises to pass, He causes us to laugh for joy (Genesis 21:6).

Be encouraged. God has promised Christians the greatest gift He could offer; namely Himself. And while life’s struggles seek to sway us and cause us to fear, may we persevere in faith in God’s promises since He is faithful regardless of life’s trials or even our faithlessness (Romans 3:3) and no matter how unbelievable his promises may seem, our God can do the impossible (Luke 1:37).

Peace