January 23, 2014 Genesis 10-12, Being the Blessing in Our Community, Jeremiah 29, When Everything Changes

Pretty chilly in my neck of the woods this morning. On mornings like this, it is easy to curl up under the covers and hide. While you’re hiding, hide in Him, and while you’re at it, hide some other folks with you.

PRAYER

Thursday morning and we are hiding our communities with us in Him.

Father God,

This morning I am lifting up my community to you. I know several of them but certainly not all. Of the ones I know, a few truly follow you. A few attend church, and some know you exist but nothing else. I am asking you to bless my community through me. Show me how to strengthen friendships and love them like you do. Show me how to be a support to them. Give me the right words, not my words because they come from my small human knowledge, but your words because they come from your knowing all. Help me to love them like you do. Even when I don’t agree with their choices or lifestyles, strengthen me not to judge but to love, and, Lord, work in me to be an example of a Christ-lover and Jesus-Liver so they see you and know the power you have in a life.

Holy Spirit, be at work in my community to prepare hearts to receive Jesus as Lord and Savior. I know there will opposition in the spiritual realm to the advancement of your kingdom, and I am asking you to fight on behalf of these people. I am asking you to protect my family as we seek these hearts for you. Give me courage and strength to never back down from the right thing, to never stop loving, and when someone slaps me on the cheek, because we both know it’ll come, give me peace to love them anyway.

And, Lord, forgive me if I grumble because it seems too hard. Thank you that some folks I’ve known fought for me and my soul and didn’t find it too hard. I pray I would have the same tenacity as they had. Thank you for loving every single soul in my community. Thank you for the chance to love them and serve them. To you always be the glory. Amen

BIBLE READING

Genesis 10—About the second or third time I read this through, I decided to do a family tree to see where all these people went because I knew they were important. I knew they were not just random names but had impact on the future generations. I couldn’t make it big enough. However, I am still fascinated, and every once in a while, the idea crosses my mind again.

Genesis 11--⁶ The Lord said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them.” I want to keep this thought in front of me. I’ll talk about why in a minute.

Genesis 12—

The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.

² I will make you into a great nation,
    and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
    and you will be a blessing.
³ I will bless those who bless you,
    and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
    will be blessed through you.”

⁴ So Abram went, as the Lord had told him…

I really need to add this to my memorization list. This is so rich in promise and challenge.  For me, this is very personal right now. As some of you know, a little over 3 ½ years ago, our life changed radically. At one point, I told someone, “I still live in the same house. I still have my kids. Everything else has changed.” It was true. Now, we have moved and are not even in that area. It seemed like God was just destroying everything we knew and cared about, but that is not God’s nature. God is not a thief. God is a giver. He started the world with giving. He gave the perfect environment. He gave an amazing garden. When mankind blew it, He gave them covering, and eventually, He gave them a road back in through Christ. God is a giver. It is the essence of who He is. What looks like God taking Abram out of all he knew is really God giving him a new place to flourish. He’s giving him a new way and place to be blessed. He’s giving him a great name, a great life, and a great promise.

In our lives, God did the same thing. Yes, a lot was taken away, but we’ve been given a new life here, a place to bless people, new relationships that bless us. He has given us promises for this place that are just as real and certain as the promises He gave Abram.

I’m telling you this because 1) I have had a few mentally challenging days, and I need to hear this. I need this in MY journal in capital letters, and believe me, it is, but 2) I think there are some out there who are watching life changes in radical ways, ways you would have never chosen. I understand. I wouldn’t have chosen ours either, but I want to encourage you that change and having what has always been taken away isn’t always punishment for something you’ve done, and it certainly isn’t because God is just cruel and likes to see if He can wreak havoc in your life. If He is taking you out of something or away from something, it’s because He is taking you TO something, and His intentions for you are always good. His heart for you is good.

It may not look like it is good or His plans are good, and I’ll tell you one woman at a previous church said that to me at the wrong time, and my response was raw and ugly. Right now, you may have a raw and ugly response, too. That’s okay. I’ll take it. I’m not asking you to love this or the process you are in at this very moment. Sometimes those moments are hard and excruciating. All I’m asking is for you to ask Him to show you something good about where you are and where you are going and keep looking for the answer. It may not come in a second, but if you keep looking, you’ll find it. If you seek Him, you will find Him because right now, at this very second, He is seeking you because He wants to be found.

In Abram’s case, he was offered the easy choice move. Some of us don’t get it easy, and we don’t get a choice. The floor is totally jerked out from under us, but the promise is the same for both: I will turn this into a good thing. I will bless you. I will make you a blessing.

This is where we do have a choice. We can trust Him, follow Him, and let Him bless us and make us into a blessing, or we can hold onto the hurt and anger and close our hearts to Him. This is where the temptation to do it our way likes to take a foothold because if that is the best He can do, we can do without Him. Trust me on this. You will never see the best of anything from a place of anger or rage. You will only see the best of Him when you follow Him and trust Him and let Him give you the good things. This is the place where our faith is tested. Abram believed Him and look at the results. A nation was created…a Savior was born.

The question then becomes: do I trust Him to bless me like that even when all I see is what it looks like I’m leaving or losing? Do you?

 

MEMORIZATION

Why do we memorize? Because God is one big picture, not a 10,000 little pieces. The verse I’ve been working on this week is the same thing God could have told Abram back in Genesis.

“Abram, I know you are leaving everything you know. I know this looks crazy. I know you always assumed your future was here, but trust me. I know the plans I have for you, Abram. I plan to prosper you and not do you harm. I plan to give you hope and a future.”

 Who knows? Maybe if Abram had really understood that middle part about not doing harm, he wouldn’t have asked his wife to life to save his bum. Why memorize? Because when the hard things come that knock us to our foundation, our foundation had better be Him.

 This is what the Lord says,

“When seventy years are completed for Babylon,
I will come back to you and fulfill my good promise
Bring you back to this place.
For I know the plans I have for you,”
Declares the Lord,
“plans to prosper you and not to harm you,
Plans to give you hope and a future.
Then you will call to me and come and pray to me
And I will listen to you.
You will seek me, and you will find me when you seek me with all your heart.”
 

BIBLE STUDY/JOURNAL

I think it is safe to say, I covered this part already. And so you know, the above is being posted without edit. I don’t edit when I journal, and I am not editing here. This is not about my being a perfect writer or getting bogged down in words or delivery. It’s about being real, and sometimes, it’s about being really raw. I know I said I wanted to get back to the verse about their being one and nothing being too hard. I will see about writing about that on Undaunted Reality later today or maybe I’ll write it up and post it here. I do want to get it written because it is powerful, and it is a concept our world doesn’t comprehend. Marriages, families, and the body of Christ in general are coming apart because we don’t understand the importance or power of oneness. Stop! I’ll end up writing another page for you to read. Don’t worry. This is too important not to discuss, but I don’t want it competing with the power of the promise of blessing we just discussed with Abram. So for now, thanks for hanging out with me while I spent time hanging out with Him. Hope you take Him right into your day with you.

Blessings,

Jerri