Living for the Lord

 Genesis 22:2

God said, "Now take your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah.  Offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains there, the one to which I direct you."

When is the last time you were asked to make a hard choice for God?  How did you do?

Abraham had waited most of his life to have a son with his wife Sara, and then God told him to sacrifice his one and only son.  Abraham had a hard choice to make.

In the rest of chapter 22 we are told that Abraham made the right choice.  He valued God's commands above the life of his own son.  Abraham truly placed God above everything else.  He was so committed that he was in the process of slaying Isaac when God stopped him.  Isaac was tied up on the altar and Abraham had his knife raised to kill Isaac when the Angel of the Lord (Jesus) stopped him.  Abraham was all in.

Abraham displayed his faith by living the command that Jesus would later give in Luke 14:26-27:

"If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.  Whoever does not carry his own cross and follow me cannot be my disciple."  Jesus is using hyperbole to drive home the point that He is to be the most important thing in our lives.

We will never be tested like Abraham where God asks us to sacrifice our own child, but we are asked to sacrifice for God.  Maybe that means that our kids can't be in every sports league.  That certainly means that there are times when our children need to told, "NO."  No human being, or anything else,  is to be our center of the universe.  That spot belongs to our God, and to him alone.

God bless.

Jason Fredrick

Hagar: Caught in the Middle

 Genesis 16:7-10

The angel of the LORD found Hagar near a spring in the desert; it was the spring that is beside the road to Shur.  And he said, "Hagar, servant of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?"

"I'm running away from my mistress Sarai," she answered.

Then the angel of the LORD told her, "Go back to your mistress and submit to her."  The angel added, "I will so increase your descendants that they will be too numerous to count."

Hagar was the Egyptian servant of Sarai, Abram's wife.  Sarai didn't trust God's promise to give her and Abram a child of their own so she convinced Abram to sleep with her servant, Hagar.  As you can imagine, this led to problems.

When Hagar became pregnant she began to despise Sarai.  When Sarai complained to Abram, he told her, "Your servant is in your hands.  Do with her whatever you think best."

What Sarai thought best was to begin to abuse and mistreat Hagar.  That is why the angel of the LORD found her in the desert in the passage above.

The angel is perfectly aware of everything that Hagar has been through, but look at what he tells her: "Go back to your mistress and submit to her."  This could not have been easy for Hagar to hear, or do; but she did exactly what the angel told her to do.  She returned to Sarai.  

Maybe on her journey back, she reflected on her part in creating the problem.  Genesis 16:4 tells us that once Hagar knew she was pregnant, she began to despise Sarai.  Maybe she not-so-subtly reminded Sarai regularly that she had conceived with her husband.  We don't know exactly what form her disrespect took, but we do know that it was happening.  

When the angel told her to return to her mistress and submit to her authority, he wasn't telling Hagar to go back and endure her abuse.  He was telling her to go back and serve Sarai in humility and respect.  He was teaching Hagar to submit to the authority that God had placed over her in her life.

Paul says it this way:  

Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything; and do it, not only when their eye is on you and to win their favor, but with sincerity of heart and reverence for the Lord.  Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men...-Colossians 3:22-23

It wasn't fair to Hagar that she was used in this way, but God didn't allow her to disrespect the authority in her life just because she had been treated unfairly.  As I stated earlier, Hagar's attitude and actions didn't help anything.  It was only after she began to despise Sarai that Sarai began to mistreat her.  Hagar played a part in her problems.

The same is true for each of us.  We have contributed to most of the problems and challenges we are faced with in our lives.  Like Hagar and Sarai, I would bet that most of your problems are the symptom of a relationship problem.  Where are you not submitting to the authority in your life?  

How's your relationship with your boss?

...with your spouse?

...with your government leaders?

Maybe you have been caught in the middle of somebody else's agenda like Hagar, but that doesn't give you an excuse to disrespect those who have been placed in authority over you in your life (see Paul's quote from Colossians 3 above).  This is your opportunity to show God's love through your attitude in this situation.  God expects us to glorify him by submitting to the earthly authorities he has placed in our lives.  Thankfully, Jesus did it perfectly to pay for all of the times that we don't.

God bless.

Jason Fredrick