Genesis 24:2-3 “Abraham said to his servant, the oldest of his household, who had charge of all that he owned, " Please place your hand under my thigh, ³ and I will make you swear by the LORD, the God of heaven and the God of earth, that you shall not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I live,”

Serving God requires not only a few choices, but also a demanding, rigorous application of God’s will to one’s life. To do this we must study and learn from the scriptures. Abraham however did not have the scriptures. All he could do was that which he knew of God’s desires from walking with God over the many years of his life. Abraham had begun this journey following God as a young man heeding the call of some deity, which he later learned was Jehovah. He had learned to trust God with everything, to obey God, and to know that God is perfect. Over the many years of his life, Abraham had communed with God, and now he was old with few years before him before he joined the wife whom he had just buried.

Abraham decided to do something radical. He had seen his first son Ishmael marry an Egyptian. He had seen people who walked with God turn away due to their spouse, and so Abraham decided to find his special son - his gift son – Isaac a wife from his own family structure rather than the unrighteous Canaanites around them.

To do this however, he called his oldest servant, the one whom had been with Abraham longer than all the others and who knew Abraham the best. Even though this was the servant who prior to Ishmael and Isaac’s birth had stood to inherit Abraham’s fortunes (Gen 15:2), Abraham trusted Eliezer with everything. This man was sworn to go look for Isaac’s wife among Abraham’s relatives, and yet also sworn not to take Isaac with him.

Abraham’s reason to not let Isaac go is summed up in God’s promise to give the land of Canaan to Abraham’s descendants. Abraham thus wanted Isaac to think of this land as home. If Isaac went with the servant there was a possibility that Isaac would not return and raise a family back in the land of Ur. Abraham, even though he had walked with God for many years was still trying to achieve God’s promise. If Isaac had gone back to Ur, we know that God would have brought him back to the land of promise somehow. There is still this desire in Abraham to try and help God’s promise along. A lack of trust maybe? Perhaps Abraham did not even realize this was a lack of faith.

Abraham wanted to have someone for his son who would be a help-mate, someone who would not lead Isaac astray. Abraham walked with God his entire life and so fully enmeshed his desire for Isaac’s welfare with God’s. This was a man of faith, and yet he still tried to maintain some control. There was still a lack of trust that God could return Isaac to the promised land if Isaac left.

Charles Spurgeon speaks of an evening when he was riding home after a heavy day's work. He felt weary and depressed, when as suddenly as a lightning flash came this verse, "My grace is sufficient for thee." He said, "I should think it is, Lord," and he burst out laughing. It seemed to make unbelief so absurd.

"It was as if some little fish, being very thirsty, was troubled about drinking the river dry, and the river says, 'Drink away, little fish, my stream is sufficient for thee.'

"Or, it seemed like a little mouse in the granaries of Egypt after seven years of plenty fearing it might die of famine, and Joseph might say, 'Cheer up, little mouse, my granaries are sufficient for thee.'

"Again, I imagined a man away up on yonder mountain saying to himself, 'I fear I shall exhaust all the oxygen in the atmosphere.'But the earth might say, 'Breathe away, oh man, and fill thy lungs ever; my atmosphere is sufficient for thee.'"

Do we not trust God with everything down to providing the right air that we need to breathe?

No matter how well or how long we have known God, we are still able to not fully trust God. We are human and are bound to fail.

It is only through the grace of God we can still survive. In what areas of our lives is faith lacking? Can we even recognise our own lack of faith?

God’s grace is sufficient for us. For all our needs even despite our lack of faith.

Genesis 22:2 “He said, "Take now your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you."

One of the bible stories that every child knows from Sunday school is about Abraham sacrificing Isaac, his promised son. We hear the story and we think about it as God’s blessing, as God’s provision. When have we thought about Abraham? What did he go through that day? What was it that God asked of Abraham?

God called Abraham to give up that gift which God had promised Decades earlier, and then again a year prior. This is God asking Abraham to give up what Abraham had spent his entire married life looking forward to. God called Abraham to give up that which was most precious and dear to Abraham. God tested Abraham’s faith in God. Would God again provide a child, would Isaac be saved would Isaac die? What would happen?

God wanted Abraham to offer up as a sacrifice the most precious and most dearly held object/person in Abraham’s life, and God asks us to do the same. God calls us to offer up as a sacrifice that which we hold precious or dear. We too must do the same. God asks us if we trust Him.

Why does God want us to offer that which we hold most precious? Maybe it is because we might be making an idol of it? Could that be it? We are taking what is near and dear to our heart and placing it on a pedestal that comes close to rivalling God, even though we may not mean it to or think we are turning it into an idol. Maybe it is merely because God desires to test us and our faith? C. H. Spurgeon once said, "God is satisfied with Himself, and sufficient to His own happiness. Therefore, surely, there is enough in Him to fill the creature. That which fills an ocean will fill a bucket; that which will fill a gallon will fill a pint; those revenues which will defray an emperor's expenses are enough for a beggar or poor man." Do we have the faith to accept these gifts?. Maybe we are asked to sacrifice our near and dear object because God knows that this thing we hold dear is bad or wrong for us. God’s alter is a purifying fire. God's purifying fire is a gift as well to us and Paul said of God's gifts and blessings, "My God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus" (Phi_4:19)? God sees fit to bestow these gifts on us, yet He also tests us with these gifts. We are smelted in the furnace to cleanse us of our impurities. Thus God tests us to and works us to remove our faults, to make us closer to Him. We sacrifice our precious items to Gain something extra, something better, something more resembling God’s holiness.

A happily married woman with two children lost both of them to the same illness. God had called them home. They were both buried in the same grave. This young woman went into a deep emotional collapse. For several years she was as weak and helpless as one of the many little children that ran around her neighborhood. She had to be fed by the other members of her family who too this time to ministered to her. One day her aunt, a joyful Christian, took her turn at feeding her, and this young woman who was unusually downhearted on that morning cried, "Oh, Auntie, you say that God loves us. You say it and you keep saying it over and over. I used to think that way, too, but if He loves us, why did He make me as I am?" The aunt, after kissing her gently, said with the wisdom of years, "He hasn't made you yet, child. He's making you now!"

Through this sacrifice that God asks of us, He furthers His glory and purifies us at the same time.

When through fiery trials thy pathway shall lie

My grace, all-sufficient, shall be thy supply;

The flame shall not hurt thee; I only design

Thy dross to consume and thy gold to refine.

Genesis 18:27 “And Abraham replied, "Now behold, I have ventured to speak to the Lord, although I am but dust and ashes.”

God was going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah for they were evil. They were the most decadent cities and God was going to destroy them. God first stopped by Abram’s - excuse me, Abraham’s house to tell him that in one year he would have a son. Then in verses 17 and 18, The LORD said, "Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do, since Abraham will surely become a great and mighty nation, and in him all the nations of the earth will be blessed?” God decided to tell Abraham about the destruction of Sodom. Now, Abraham knew God. Abraham walked with God. Abraham had spoken with God earlier and knew God’s love of humanity, and now here God is going to destroy cities of people! Not only is God going to destroy just two evil cities, but one of those was the city in which Abraham’s own nephew, Lot, resided in! Abraham was in a quandary. Abraham did not know what to do? This loving, kind, awesome, all-powerful God was going to destroy hundreds of people! Abraham must have mustered his courage and decided to talk to God. “Will you indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked?” Abraham bartered with God, but not for himself or his own desires, but rather for these people whom God was going to destroy.

Abraham abased and humbled himself before his creator for others, and he managed to convince God to spare the cities if there were even 10 God-fearing people in Sodom.

There was Lot, his wife, his two daughters and their engaged “sons-in law”, his sons, and their friends. Well, Lot, his wife, the two daughters and future husbands all equal six people. The bible does not mention the number of sons that Lot had, but for the sake of argument the minimum number of sons that Lot could have and still use the plural designation is two. That makes eight people. What about all the people that Lot could have witnessed to? What about the friends and neighbours? What about the son’s (possible) wives?

If Lot had done his job of witnessing to people, if lot had lived as Abraham lived and walked with God, there would have been enough people to meet the minimum requirements to spare the city.

Yet God is awesome. What was the purpose of destroying Sodom and Gomorrah? Was it to provide an object lesson to the other cities near by? Was it to provide a chance for an object lesson? Was it because these cities did not tithe or worship Him? We know the cities around that area worshiped God because of the priest-king Melchizedek’s role as a High Priest of God.

I have this sneaking inkling that God told Abraham about the planned destruction to test Abraham. Would Abraham say “as you wish, for you are God Almighty and have ownership of all your creation” or would Abraham strive to protect his fellow men from God’s wrath? Abraham chose the second option. Abraham walked with God and knew God’s heart and so he did what he could to save the people who had yet to acknowledge God from death. It took courage, it took guts, it took a knowledge of God. One thing that really amazes me in this story is that God listened to Abraham. God really did not want to destroy the city either. God was going to let Abraham set the price on the cities’ lives. Abraham set the price, and Lot gave the answer.

What is God letting us do in our lives for him? Do we like lot have the opportunity to save people and yet not? Do we try and walk with God and intercede for our fellow men like Abraham?

Lord, let me be an instrument of your will, let me have the courage to stand up to others who are in blatant disregard of you. Allow me the privilege of preparing their lives for you. Lord please do not end their time on earth before they have a chance to know you. Amen.

Genesis 12:2 “And I will make you a great nation, And I will bless you, And make your name great; And so you shall be a blessing;”

Over this past week, there has seemed to be a theme of “blessing” that keeps popping up for me. One night, one of my co-workers brought up this idea of God’s blessings on us. Various other events as well such as class devos, even my Bible readings!

I remember one time when my father and grandfather went on a short-term missions trip to Brazil. They returned and when my dad got home, he called us kids together. Now please forgive if I do not remember everything clearly, but I will do my best to make a coherent story of this. My dad calls us children together, and then he pulls out some gifts from his bag and started to hand them to us. I do not remember which one of us 3 (at the time) asked him this, but one of us asked what occasion the gifts were for. My dad then replied something to this effect: “Do I need to have an occasion to give gifts to my children?”

Reading through scripture, God is the same way! He wants to give us blessings! There is no wonder at why we would call Him “Our father who is in Heaven.” Not only does He correct our misbehaviour. Not only does God discipline us, not only does He give us rules to live in this world of His, He also loves to bless us. He wants to dote on us! He does not have to. He does not need to, but He does anyway! That is amazing. Could God have used Abram the same way if He did NOT bless him with cattle and belongings? Of course! Could God have created a nation out of Abram without telling him? Of course! Yet God told Abram and God blessed Abram.

How is God blessing us? Do we need His blessings? Not really, but He does anyway. He blesses us daily! Last night, He blessed me with a view of the moon. Sounds simple yes? Yet I was blessed. There was a perfect circle of clouds around the moon, and then coming out from the clouds outside the ring was a twisting spiral of more clouds, somewhat hurricane-ish, much as if I was standing at the eye of a storm, and was looking directly up into the peaceful heavens!

How is God Blessing you? If God wants to bless us can we prevent Him from it? Can we deny God’s Blessing? Can we misunderstand God’s Blessing? Can we be blessed and think it a curse?

Think on these over this next week as I will pray daily for you. Pray as well for me to accept God’s desire for my life.