“I swear by myself, declares the LORD, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, ¹⁷ I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies,¹⁸ and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me.”  Genesis 22:16-18

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I remember hearing a preacher once say we had no idea why God chose Israel. He just did. But I think this Scripture shows us exactly why Israel was chosen.

Abraham’s faith had been tested. Did he really believe in God and fear Him for nothing? The test — give up your most priceless possession. He had to give up his long, awaited son, a miracle child that was the fulfillment of God’s promise to him.

Abraham obeys, we are told, believing that God would be able to raise Isaac from the dead in order to fulfill His promise to give him multitudes of descendants (Heb. 11:19).

Abraham proved his faith by obeying God’s command. And because he obeyed, he received the amazing promise that everyone in the whole world would be blessed. And from Abraham we received the nation of Israel and out of Israel we received Jesus, who made a way for us Gentiles to be grafted into Israel.

Let me restate this one point: Abraham obeyed, proving his faith, and the world was blessed.

Just how important is obedience? When we don’t obey we are proving our lack of faith. And if we are saved by faith, lack of faith is a serious thing.

If we believed the Scriptures, then we would obey them, right? Can I say I believe a verse like this:

“Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him.”  (John 14:21)

…but then justify sin in my life by saying, God loves me no matter what?

Our lack of obedience proves our lack of faith. God’s not fooled by your words. Prove your faith by your actions, by your obedience.

And what if we did? What if we walked in obedience, just like Abraham? Could it be the world would be blessed? Is it not true that through us Christ can come into the world and bless the nations?

All because of Abraham’s faith, proven by his obedience, the world was blessed. What’s the world missing out on when you fail to obey God’s commands?

Although our family has officially quit Christmas this year and skipped the tree and presents and hoopla, it doesn’t mean that there isn’t something I really want for Christmas.

What I want more than anything at the moment is like-minded fellowship. I’m always asking the Lord to make our family a church and gather to us other believers.

I don’t want a building. I don’t want a pastor. I don’t want weekly services. I want to be the Body of Christ with other believers. I want to be the right knee to someone else’s elbow. Like the apostles, I want to have one mind with other believers. I want to be part of a church that looks, acts, speaks and feels like the early church in Acts.

I know the real deal will bring persecution, but I want to be the kind of church that pleases God and not one that He wants to spew out.

The Lord promises there will be a day when His people are gathered and He himself will be their shepherd. I can’t wait until there is truly, One Body.

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Ezekiel 34

¹¹ ” ‘For this is what the Sovereign LORD says: I myself will search for my sheep and look after them. ¹² As a shepherd looks after his scattered flock when he is with them, so will I look after my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places where they were scattered on a day of clouds and darkness. ¹³ I will bring them out from the nations and gather them from the countries, and I will bring them into their own land. I will pasture them on the mountains of Israel, in the ravines and in all the settlements in the land. ¹⁴ I will tend them in a good pasture, and the mountain heights of Israel will be their grazing land. There they will lie down in good grazing land, and there they will feed in a rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. ¹⁵ I myself will tend my sheep and have them lie down, declares the Sovereign LORD. ¹⁶ I will search for the lost and bring back the strays. I will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak, but the sleek and the strong I will destroy. I will shepherd the flock with justice.

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Click here to read all of Ezekiel 34.

Jesus tells us to store up our treasures in heaven, that if we store up on earth, what we gather could be destroyed or stolen. Many advocate stocking up in preparation for the times to come. I think you should only do that if you are sure you are directed to by the Lord. Otherwise, we have only the biblical mandate to store our treasures in heaven instead of on earth.

Many quote the Joseph story as teaching us to store up. But that isn’t a command to us, it’s a story showing us that we can trust God is already ahead preparing for us.  “But God sent me ahead of you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance.” (Genesis 45:7) It’s a story of God providing for his remnant.

I’m not against having basic supplies on hand. If there is a natural disaster, power outages, quarantines, etc., it will be a blessing to you and to those you share it with. If you do stock up, you have a biblical command to share it with others. And what worries me is that when word gets out that you have food and others are desperate, what will they do to get at your food?

We can instead rely on the Lord to provide for us. We have a few requirements: seek Him and His righteousness, give, ask.

How do we store treasures in heaven? Give to the poor. Give to needy Christians. We are told especially to give to those in need in the Body of Christ. If you need help finding truly needy Christians, try Heaven’s Family which helps needy Christians, mostly in the third world. They give 100% of your money to the project you choose. Give to orphans, widows, persecuted Christians…

Store up those treasures and from your treasury you will be provided when you need it.

You’ll see on the list of pages to the right I added a letter from Corrie Ten Boom about the Tribulation, the false pre-trib rapture and the strength we can receive from God to face tribulation and martyrdom by knowing Him and His word.  A wonderful, encouraging read from someone who has experienced tribulation and overcame.

I’ve written some things about the coming seven-year tribulation and wanted a place to share them.  There are five parts that will be five different pages.  You can click on each page to read.

Part 1 — The Rapture

Part 2 — The Tribulation

Part 3 — Now What

Part 4 — Saved

Part 5 — The Anti…

We’ll see what becomes of this blog…I’m not sure at the moment, but I’ll get started putting up those pages.