May 4, 2011 … Trials’ Lesson: Faith

Passage of the Day: Hebrews 11: 17 – 19 … 17 By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had received the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, 18 even though God had said to him, "It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned." [see Gen. 21: 12] 19 Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead, and figuratively speaking, he did receive Isaac back from death.

My Journal for Today: My devotional time from this passage, and from what was written by John MacArthur in Strength for Today for this date, is most convicting. Today we see that God reckoned Abraham’s faith as real because of what would transpire as accounted in Genesis 22, where we read the chronicle of Abraham’s trial with his only son, Isaac, being the sacrificial “lamb.”

This story, of course, is used in God’s word to show how God uses the trials of life to “test” our beliefs and our lives, as He did with Abraham … to see if our faith, like his, would be genuine. And the question I find myself asking (myself) is this: “If I were put to a radical test – as was Abraham – would I be willing to give my all for my God?” Ultimately, that is what God demands of my heart and my life … for me to be willing to turn the dearest part of me over to Him.

Certainly that’s why Abraham is referred to in the New Testament as the “father of the faithful.” [see Rom 4: 11 – 12 and Gal. 3: 6 – 7] and why, as a believer, I’m considered a son of Abraham. … Well, I’d like to think that I could pass such an extreme test of my faith. And I think again of Cassie Bernall and how her faith in Christ was tested with a gun to her head at Columbine High School that fateful day. Cassie died by saying, “Yes” when she was asked if she was a Christian. Could I be so faithful? Would I be that faithful, as was Abraham, if I was asked to give up my wife or one of our daughters or any of our grand daughters? Would I have the faith that has no hesitation, knowing that my God is faithful no matter what the circumstances? I would hope that I would.

Most certainly I know that my faith grows in my God the more deeply I know Him. Abraham KNEW God so well that he just KNEW that God would fulfill His promise in their Covenant. He KNEW that God could raise Isaac or in some way fulfill all the promises He (God) had made concerning Isaac. So there was no hesitation on Abraham’s part when God tested Abraham in the way He did. I would hope/pray, in dire circumstances, that I would have the faith of Abraham or a Cassie Bernall.

And I think all who read this should be taking stock of your faith to see where you might stand should we be tested in the future. … I pray we stand with God and His promises.

My Prayer Today: Lord, ALL that I have is Yours. Amen

2010 – July 28 – The Ins and Outs of Faith

Study from God’s Word… Jeremiah, Chapters 7 – 9 … Passage for Reflection: Jeremiah 9: 25 – 26 … NIV 25 "The days are coming," declares the LORD, "when I will punish all who are circumcised only in the flesh - 26 Egypt, Judah, Edom, Ammon, Moab and all who live in the desert in distant places. For all these nations are really uncircumcised, and even the whole house of Israel is uncircumcised in heart."

My Journal for Today: Interesting, … almost fun, … that my devotional Pastor, Dr. Smith, begin his study today, from Jeremiah 9 by making reference to belly buttons, noting that there are “innies” and “outies,” which, of course, are created by how the umbilical cord is separated from the body at birth. But we know that it makes no difference in life whether we have an “innie” or an “outie,” does it?

But in the times of Jeremiah, and for all of ancient Israel/Judah, there was a physical mark which meant almost everything to the male Jew; and that, of course, was circumcision. For any Jewish man to be “Jewish,” he had to have had the foreskin of his maleness removed. It was to be the physical mark of The Old Covenant. Now, in the New Covenant times in which we live, we have the sign of Baptism to indicate our outward declaration of being sealed by Christ in His New Covenant where a true believer is sealed for eternity inwardly as well as outwardly. To be baptized as a repentant and born-again believer is the outward sign of the inward newness of God’s Spirit sealing our soul for an eternity with Christ. To be baptized outwardly, with no real repentance, is to become a very wet, but unredeemed, sinner.

So, today as in the days of Jeremiah, one could be circumcised outwardly and even physically but not have a “circumcision of the heart.” There were many in the house of Israel in those days who had the outward mark of their declared faith but they did not carry it inwardly in the heart. Today we have many who outwardly call themselves “christian,” yet inwardly they do not possess the real faith in Jesus that will one day, in glory, allow Jesus to declare, “Well done, my faithful servant.”

Oh how I pray that any who read this have both an “innie” and an “outie” faith, being able to declare their allegiance to Christ but living out that faith by the way their lives worship their Lord. When we, as Christians, were baptized, did it really signify the reality of a “circumcision of the heart?” I will pray today that it did.

My Prayer for Today: Lord, You know that my heart is outwardly – and INWARDLY – given over to You. I pray it be so for any who read this. Amen