Abraham, God's Friend

 

[1]

James 2:23 Good News Translation

²³ And the scripture came true that said, “Abraham believed God, and because of his faith God accepted him as righteous.” And so Abraham was called God's friend.

 

The faith chapter of Hebrews devotes 13 verses to Abraham, far more than to any other person of faith.

We are encouraged to increase our faith by reading the Word of God. And that is indeed a great source of faith. Romans 10:17 KJV states, “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” The same verse in the Good News Translation indicates that faith comes through hearing: “So then, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message comes through preaching Christ.” We are urged to read Scripture and thereby increase our faith. In this day of audio books, we can listen to God’s word while driving down the street or highway. So even listening while driving can become a faith building event.

Now think back to the times of Abraham. The Bible doesn’t tell us whether Abraham could read or write. That really doesn’t matter because there was no Bible to read. None! So how did Abraham build his faith?

“Hey, God spoke to Abraham all the time,” you might reply. God did indeed speak to Abraham in person, in dreams, and in visions. Read Gensis again; it was only about 5 or 6 times that Scripture records God speaking to Abraham. That’s something like once about every 20 years or so! That would hardly be frequently enough for me to build my faith.

Furthermore, Abraham came out of an idolatrous culture in Chaldea. Where did Abraham get his religious training to worship the one true God. There is evidence that the worship of Yahweh always had followers in the Near East. These included the wise men who came to Bethlehem to celebrate the birth of Christ some 2,000 years later.

Studying the genealogy lists in Genesis gives me a hint. Noah’s son Shem was born 100 years before the flood and survived the flood by about 500 years. He lived with righteous Noah for at least 100 years, and he outlived Abraham after the flood. Maybe, just maybe, Abraham encountered Shem and spent some time with him when he was young. Shem may have instilled the faith in God that gave Abraham the direction he needed to serve God.

Lord, thank You for making a friend out of Abraham who has passed the friendship down to us, some 4,000 years later. Please keep encouraging us in our faith, that we too may be known as friends of God.

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[1] ConformingToJesus.com

Hold Out to the End

 

[1]

Matthew 24:12-13 Good News Translation

¹² Such will be the spread of evil that many people's love will grow cold. ¹³ But whoever holds out to the end will be saved.

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While a student at Andrews University, I discovered the joys of being in an academic environment. Many of the students had interests in all kinds of things; curiosity was popular and encouraged. I had discovered the fulfilment that came from picking up languages. In high school I learned Afrikaans and could speak it fluently. Then as a sophomore in college, I found myself at Seminar Marienhöhe sweating to learn German. By the end of the semester, I was speaking it fairly easily. At the end of that semester, my brother Elwood and I were shipping out to the States through Rotterdam in the Netherlands. From a Bbile Society booth, I picked up the gospel of Mark in Dutch. Totally unaware of the pitfalls of language, I spent several weeks reading the gospel and, using my Afrikaans to understand the meanings of the words, wrote up a grammar for Dutch and felt pretty good about knowing the language. When I got to Holland, I quickly discovered that I had done well and understood all that was being spoken. However, it took a couple days to pin down the fact that the Dutch I had taught myself so diligently was very old fashioned. It was like King James English—understandable, but totally outdated. The gospel I had used was probably the Statenvertaling of the Bible and was published in 1637! However, by the end of four days, I was getting around very well in modern Dutch.

At Andrews the Greek scholar, Leona Running, announced that she would be teaching New Testament Greek on Friday evenings in the Seminary Chapel. As a kid I had spent a lot of time delving into various historical fonts and knew the Greek alphabet very well. So, I showed up to the Seminary Chapel and got myself a seat near the front. The chapel filled up so there was standing room only as Dr. Running began her first lecture. She had me enthralled. I observed, in total surprise, that over the next ten weeks there were significantly fewer attendees at each meeting. For the last few meetings there were only about four of us attending. Prof. Running was not surprised.

About ten years later, I was a graduate student at the University of Iowa working on my PhD in mathematics. I was toying with going to teach math at Middle East College in Beirut, Lebanon. Two Egyptian students at the university announced a “class” in Egyptian Arabic. I signed up and made excellent progress in Arabic. Again, I noticed the same phenomenon as in the Greek class. The first meeting or two we had a huge class, but towards the end there were only a handful of people who were still coming. I did not go to Lebanon; instead, I went to Helderberg College in South Africa. However, I’ve often wondered how I would have done with Egyptian Arabic in Lebanon. As it is, I never used the Arabic and so have forgotten it, except for some cognates of Swahili words I had learned during five years teaching math and learning Swahili in Tanzania.

In Biblical stories, remember Noah’s Ark? I have a feeling that when Noah started building it, he had a large number of helpers. However, as more than a century went by, many helpers’ love or enthusiasm grew cold, and they deserted him. Eventually only three of his sons, and he probably had many, entered the ark with their wives and were saved. Most of the antediluvial patriarchs started their families during their first or second centuries, whereas Noah’s sons Shem, Ham, and Japheth were all born around the beginning of his seventh century. Very likely he had other children during his younger years, but they never went into the ark to be saved. That must have been tragic for Noah and his wife.

Christ was aware of our human nature to start things but then give up along the way. Hence His encouragement in our text.

Continue to remind me, Lord, that I must hang in there with You, or all of our cooperation of effort will be in vain.

 

[1] https://blissfulroad.com/the-importance-of-persistence-in-achieving-your-goals/

Crooked and Perverted Generation

[i]

Philippians 2:14-16

Christian Standard Bible

¹⁴ Do everything without grumbling and arguing, ¹⁵ so that you may be blameless and pure, children of God who are faultless in a crooked and perverted generation, among whom you shine like stars in the world, ¹⁶ by holding firm to the word of life. Then I can boast in the day of Christ that I didn’t run or labor for nothing.

 

Over the last few months, we have endured politicians who blatantly, boldly, unblushingly, and unabashedly lied to us about almost everything. This is in a country that has become great by valuing honesty and concern for all its citizens.

After listening to a president, who lost the latest election by some seven million votes, maintain in almost every communication to the nation that his presidency was stolen from him, I despaired. Two days earlier, I had read his twitter calling for a massive protest in Washington when the legislature of the country would confirm the report of the Electoral College on their count of the country’s votes. I groaned when I read it. But I little realized how violent this attempted coup would become in an attempt to destroy Congress.

On January 6, Sylvia and I drove 4 hours to visit some of her cousins. We all wore masks and refrained from the usual familial embraces and attempted to maintain social distance—just in case you wish to grumble and argue that we were foolishly exposing ourselves to Covid-19. On the way there, Sylvia read to me some inspiring accounts of the way God is taking a hand in the task of giving every person on earth a copy of the scriptures in her own heart language. Coming home that night, we also drove four hours, this time in the dark, so she couldn’t read to me. I tuned in to the local news station. We listened absolutely stunned by the mayhem these domestic terrorists—who branded themselves as protestors—were wreaking on the Capitol. They were also intent on reaching Vice-President, Mike Pence, and Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, whom they wished to kill. The President was hidden away in the White House watching the destruction on TV. As president, he was head of the executive branch of the government, and it is his duty to step in and stop the violence. Instead, he did nothing. Nothing!

Indeed, you and I live in a “crooked and perverted generation.” May we live in such a manner that we “shine like stars in the world.” How will the world view our shining like stars? As Christ told it, “If they persecute Me, they will persecute you, too.”[ii]

Take heart, however! Christ encouraged us when he prophesied: “But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.”[iii] How was it in the days of Noah? “God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”[iv]  Sounds close to what we see and hear today.

Lord, we take heart, even as we see corruption and violence flourish, knowing that You are coming again!

  

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[i] https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/how-was-a-violent-mob-able-to-breach-the-u-s-capitol-activists-see-double-standard-in-police-response

[ii] John 15:20 (KJV)

[iii] Matthew 24:37 (KJV)

[iv] Genesis 6:5 (KJV)