You Want Me To Do What?
Good Morning Friends,
Today we once again turn to the lectionary for contemplation and in the offerings from Genesis and Kings and Galatians we find the stories of decisions and promises…the truth of faith and a way of worship. Today, in them, we consider the Lord who provides and the test of what we believe. It prompts us to think in a new way. Today we learn about trust, in what may seem to be illogical demands, even as we ask: You Want Me To Do What?
Message: Then after fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus along with me. I went up in response to a revelation. Then I laid before them (though only in a private meeting with the acknowledged leaders) the gospel that I proclaim among the Gentiles, in order to make sure that I was not running, or had not run, in vain. But even Titus, who was with me, was not compelled to be circumcised, though he was a Greek. But because of false believers secretly brought in, who slipped in to spy on the freedom we have in Christ Jesus, so that they might enslave us— we did not submit to them even for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might always remain with you. And from those who were supposed to be acknowledged leaders (what they actually were makes no difference to me; God shows no partiality) —those leaders contributed nothing to me. On the contrary, when they saw that I had been entrusted with the gospel for the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been entrusted with the gospel for the circumcised (for he who worked through Peter making him an apostle to the circumcised also worked through me in sending me to the Gentiles), and when James and Cephas and John, who were acknowledged pillars, recognized the grace that had been given to me, they gave to Barnabas and me the right hand of fellowship, agreeing that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised. They asked only one thing, that we remember the poor, which was actually what I was eager to do.
Galatians 2:1-10 (NRSV)
After these things God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” He said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains that I shall show you.” So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac; he cut the wood for the burnt offering, and set out and went to the place in the distance that God had shown him. On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place far away. Then Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey; the boy and I will go over there; we will worship, and then we will come back to you.” Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. So the two of them walked on together. Isaac said to his father Abraham, “Father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” He said, “The fire and the wood are here, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” Abraham said, “God himself will provide the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” So the two of them walked on together. When they came to the place that God had shown him, Abraham built an altar there and laid the wood in order. He bound his son Isaac, and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to kill his son. But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven, and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” He said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.” And Abraham looked up and saw a ram, caught in a thicket by its horns. Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called that place “The Lord will provide”; as it is said to this day, “On the mount of the Lord it shall be provided.”
Genesis 22:1-14 (NRSV)
Then the word of the Lord came to him, saying, “Go now to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and live there; for I have commanded a widow there to feed you.” So he set out and went to Zarephath. When he came to the gate of the town, a widow was there gathering sticks; he called to her and said, “Bring me a little water in a vessel, so that I may drink.” As she was going to bring it, he called to her and said, “Bring me a morsel of bread in your hand.” But she said, “As the Lord your God lives, I have nothing baked, only a handful of meal in a jar, and a little oil in a jug; I am now gathering a couple of sticks, so that I may go home and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it, and die.” Elijah said to her, “Do not be afraid; go and do as you have said; but first make me a little cake of it and bring it to me, and afterwards make something for yourself and your son. For thus says the Lord the God of Israel: The jar of meal will not be emptied and the jug of oil will not fail until the day that the Lord sends rain on the earth.” She went and did as Elijah said, so that she as well as he and her household ate for many days. The jar of meal was not emptied, neither did the jug of oil fail, according to the word of the Lord that he spoke by Elijah. After this the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, became ill; his illness was so severe that there was no breath left in him. She then said to Elijah, “What have you against me, O man of God? You have come to me to bring my sin to remembrance, and to cause the death of my son!” But he said to her, “Give me your son.” He took him from her bosom, carried him up into the upper chamber where he was lodging, and laid him on his own bed. He cried out to the Lord, “O Lord my God, have you brought calamity even upon the widow with whom I am staying, by killing her son?” Then he stretched himself upon the child three times, and cried out to the Lord, “O Lord my God, let this child’s life come into him again.” The Lord listened to the voice of Elijah; the life of the child came into him again, and he revived. Elijah took the child, brought him down from the upper chamber into the house, and gave him to his mother; then Elijah said, “See, your son is alive.” So the woman said to Elijah, “Now I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is truth.”
1 Kings 17:8-24 (NRSV)
Message: Ever had God ask you to do something that just didn’t make sense? Today we consider about how to find courage and trust when things are difficult to swallow and to discern what is really happening. When we look at the stories in the Bible there are a lot of the requests made by God that are just unreasonable. Consider God asking Noah to build an Ark. Consider being an adult and being asked to be circumcised. Consider Elijah being provided for by a widow in a foreign country, asking her for water and bread when there was none… Read the story in 1 Kings and think about what is being ask of the woman. Then realize that doing the impossible is how we build our faith. Still more often than not we balk at that thought. Look at Elijah and the story in today’s scripture and marvel at all that God provides in advance. Friends, the choices and challenges we face are not much different. We need to be pliable in the hands of God and know that God uses people who pass the test of faith. When God wants to test someone, His methods don’t always make sense to us. This test came very suddenly and unexpectedly in Abraham’s life. And what God is asking Abraham to do is to kill his son and to throw away everything Abraham had lived for, for the previous thirty-five or forty years of his life. It looks like it is weighting down but it is really strengthening the bridge of faith to a better future. So learn to trust God’s purposes without knowing why. Learn to trust God’s provision, that He will make a way, without knowing how. Learn to trust God’s timing, without knowing when.
Pray we trust God’s purposes. Pray we are delivered from wicked and unreasonable people but still find the faith to trust God to do what seems impossible. Pray we realize that God is always one step ahead of us. Pray we hear and obey. Pray we find comfort in surprising ways when what seem unreasonable. Pray we allow God to shape us when we are faced with difficulties. Pray we communicate with compassion the choices to be made. Pray we realize that our faith will be tested. Pray we commit our future and fate to God. Pray we be used by God to help if only a little part of a large part of God’s plan as it unfolds. Pray we are obedient. Pray we give our body as a living sacrifice to the Lord. Pray we learn to proceed in faith. Pray we realize how unreasonable it was for God to send His Son to save us.
Blessings,
Daily Devotionals 