Thursday, August 30, 2012

Genesis 18, Nehemiah 7, Matthew and Acts 17

A couple interesting things pop out of these texts...

Does Abraham have a better plan than God with regard to Sodom? It seems that God acquiesce to Abraham's merciful wishes - what does this mean - does God change His mind? I believe that God is simply treating Abraham with mercy. Abraham does not yet understand that there is hope for the righteous after death. God understands that if Sodom is leveled...the righteous will experience perfected life after death...Abraham cannot grasp this concept. So God offers to spare the city if there are even 10 righteous people inside because of his love for Abraham, not because Abraham saw something that God overlooked.

I love the story of Paul in the Areopagus!!! He is relentless in his declaration of God's truth. Whether it is in Jewish synagogues or pagan gatherings...Paul fearlessly proclaims the truth of God. This is a great model for all Christ-followers to emulate...a great challenge for me...where is my Areopagus? This story is so fitting because it is directly applicable to every era of human history. These pagan men and women were caught up in idolatry and desperately seeking fulfillment through false gods. Paul steps into their lives...meets them where they are...uses their language...and shows them that what they have always been seeking in the one and only God that he follows. Nothing about this truth has changed, and there are countless people around us who need to hear about this reality...they need to be met where they are and hear the Gospel presented in their own "language" (meaning - not in Christianese).

4 comments:

Big B said...

Hey Brando, figured I’d give my two cents and add some life here :)

In Nehemiah 7, although I am not sure why or how all these people were put into exile, I am astounded by the numbers that were brought out of captivity. This is encouraging because even today, though there is a different meaning of being exiled, there are still so many people suffering with captivity. Whether it is captivity as the prodigal son, captivity from addiction or actual captivity in foreign countries the point is that God brought and will continue to bring thousands of people out of their captivity. No one is forgotten.

Paul's story throughout Acts 17 is pretty crazy awesome. I think the biggest thing that stuck with me was literally every time Paul or Silas spoke the Word of God some sort of trouble ALWAYS followed. This just shows that when we share the Word today everything is not going to be hugs and kisses but rather pretty tough in the response of the people we are sharing God's word.

Unknown said...

It is awesome and sometimes disappointing when you find someone in the Bible who does something you could see yourself doing. Unfortunately for me, I identified with Sarah from Genesis 18. First, she scoffs at the notion that she could have a child in her old age. I can see myself being skeptical about such a miracle. Our society constantly bombards us with the need for scientific evidence and proof. Well, sometimes we don't have proof, we just have faith. That is something I remind myself often. Just have faith in God and his miracles. Second, she lies in the face of critique. It is really no fun to be wrong about things, and it can be easy to lie to avoid the appearance of being wrong. I deal with this during sortie debriefs all the time. Just suck it up, admit you were wrong and learn from your mistakes. Those are steps toward maturity and will allow you to truly learn from your experiences.

Brand al Thor said...

Both of my Air Force buddies responding to the same post - cool! Matt, Brian is a cadet out in Colorado Springs. Brian, Matt went to Air Force and is a fighter pilot now. I really appreciate ya'lls incite and personal applications with these texts - thanks!

Brand al Thor said...

I mean "inisght." LOLZ