The Things You Learn at the Dollar Store

After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, "Abraham!" And he said, "Here am I." He said, "Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you."    ---Genesis 22:1-2

This story always astounded me.

My paraphrase (seriously, go back and read it in the Bible).

God: “Abraham, you are going to have a son.”

Abraham: “No way.”

God: “Yes, you are.”

<the son is born>

Abraham: “Woo-hoo!”

God: “Now go kill him.”

I beg your pardon…?

Yeah, I mentioned this story in the blog “I like the way you think, Abe.” but I was recently shown a little more insight into this passage.

My son Cade just lost his first tooth. He planned on springing a trap to catch the Tooth Fairy and “throw her in the bathtub”. Don’t ask, I don’t know.

Well, she took the tooth and left him 4 quarters and a note expressing her dismay at his nefarious plot. Too bad he’s a sound sleeper. She was in and out without him waking. Amazingly, since she is a 215 pound dude. (We bear a resemblance.)

Those quarters were burning a hole in his pocket, along with the other change he had. He was
longing for a trip to the Dollar Store, a place that makes Cade feel like Donald Trump. He can
walk in there and just buy anything!

While we were in there, I asked him, “Cade, would you buy something for Daddy?” He thought for a second…

“Sure! I’ll buy you something! What do you want?”

I replied, “I really don’t want anything, I just wanted to know that you were willing to do it.”

Then it hit me. Right there by the terrible coloring books and the horrible greeting cards. Abraham. God tested him.

But God knew what was already in Abe‘s heart, right?

Yeah, maybe that test was so Abraham would learn what was in Abe‘s heart, too. 

p.s. - Getting someone a card from the Dollar Store is one step away from telling them that they are dead to you.

An Evening of Prayer, Take 2!

OK, the last attempt at a night of congregational prayer was not what we were hoping for. We had planned to have an outdoor prayer meeting and met with storms that would make Noah nervous.

But here’s the good news: we will be inside this time around. Covenant Community Church has been very gracious to us, and is allowing us to use their building for the prayer meeting! 5157 Wexford Run Road, Wexford, is the address, just on the other side of 79 from Marshall Middle School.

As we have already seen from God’s Word in Habakkuk, the Lord keeps a different schedule than us. His plans are sometimes different and always better than ours. And the greatest blessing He gives us through it all is prayer. We have the invitation to go before the God of the universe and converse with Him! What an awesome privilege. And you will never enjoy the experience of the goodness of God without prayer.

Need more incentive? Probably not, but I am going to share with you some reasons for prayer I recently read in an article in Israel My Glory:

1. It demonstrates our relationship with God.
2. God calls us to it! (1 Thessalonians 5:17)
3. It demonstrates our dependence on God. (Psalm 121:1-3)
4. It is a way we serve God. (Luke 2:37)
5. It strengthens our faith. (Ephesians 3:20)
6. It is worth doing! (James 5:16)
7. God always answers. (1 John 5:14-15)

In the comments section below, you can offer more reasons! 

See you Friday at 7PM!

p.s. - prayerlessness is carelessness

I Like the Way You Think, Abe

Many people have denied any form of spirituality because “it isn’t logical”. To believe in a “higher power”, creation, supernatural activity, life after death…it just defies human logic.

I will agree. Faith has its own logic. And this logic isn’t founded on human sensibility or worldly reasoning. Faith logic is the Holy Spirit empowered reasoning that is based on the character of God and the reliability of His Word.

By God’s grace, He is teaching me how to think faith logically. The poster boy for this is Abraham:

Hebrews 11:17-19 - By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, of whom it was said, "Through Isaac shall your offspring be named." He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back.

Follow the faith logic here.

God: “Abraham, I am going to fulfill all of my promises to you, and the world, through your son Isaac.”

Abraham: “God is going to fulfill all of His promises to me, and the world, through my son Isaac.”

God: “Now: sacrifice your son to me. Kill him.”

>Pause< Let’s apply some logic.

Worldly logic would say:

-”God lied to me the first time. He never intended to fulfill anything through Isaac. God did not keep His word.”

-”I must have misheard God. Instead of ‘I will fulfill my promises through Isaac’, maybe He said ‘I waffle my prom, ices through eye sick.’ I don‘t even know what that means, my hearing must be going bad, but He surely didn‘t say anything about my son Isaac before if He is telling me to kill him now. My bad.”

-”Maybe he doesn’t want me to literally sacrifice Isaac. Maybe he just wants me to think nice sincere sacrificial thoughts about him. Yeah, it‘s just a metaphorical poetic non-literal hyperbolic, uhm, thing.”

Worldly logic. All wrong.

Faith logic would say:

-”God says He will fulfill His promises through Isaac. God says kill Isaac. How does that makes sense? Oh, I see. God must be able to raise the dead. That’s the only way this makes sense.”

That’s faith logic. If God said it, He’s going to make it happen in a way that only He can. I am going to move forward trusting God to be faithful. Because He is. Always.

God doesn’t need to you to try to figure Him out. He calls you to trust Him. Let’s get in God’s Word and start thinking like Abraham. Faith logic.

p.s. - Needs to go waffle his prom now.

Looking for a Few Shameless People...

Which of you who has a friend will go to him at midnight and say to him, 'Friend, lend me three loaves, for a friend of mine has arrived on a journey, and I have nothing to set before him'; and he will answer from within, 'Do not bother me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed. I cannot get up and give you anything'? I tell you, though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his impudence he will rise and give him whatever he needs. Luke 11:5-8

I have met a lot of Christians. A. Lot. All over the world. And do you know what is true for 99.7% of all of the ones I have met? A struggle with personal prayer life.

Why is that? I think people sort of adopt this “God is going to do what God is going to do” mentality. Don’t get your hopes up, let’s just keep our prayers in the safe zone: God bless grandma, help me to have a good day. Amen.

I love the above story from Jesus, because it totally destroys our lame prayer mindset. It’s actually a humorous story. A guy shows up at his neighbor’s house, in the middle of the night (keep in mind that midnight in the first century meant nothing was happening except sleep). And what’s the big emergency…? He wanted a snack for his buddy. Three biscuits to munch on is hardly an emergency, hardly worth bothering your neighbor over. If you wake me up asking for a snack, you better run, because I am going to throw it at your head.

But this guy helps his friend out. Why? Because he is a great chum? No, it is because of the asker’s impudence. That’s another word for shamelessness. Uninhibited.

“I don’t care what time it is, I don’t care that you are sleeping, I don’t care that this can wait, I don’t care that it’s not even for me but actually for a guy you don’t even know, I don’t care that your kids are asleep - we need a snack. Come on, help us out. We need it. Please! If you can do it now, that would be helpful. Or we can give you a couple seconds to get it if you…”

“ALL RIGHT! Here’s your stupid bread! Beat it!”

The parable isn’t about the woken up guy, the parable is about the asker. More specifically, the parable is about the shamelessness of the way the guy brought his request.

The point is shocking: Be just as shameless when you bring your requests to God. Jesus goes on to say why: God. Will. Answer. (Grab your Bible and read verses 9-10 - I dare you!)

We are praying as a church Friday night (the 10th). Details are on the home page under “Events”. Join us.

And bring your impudence, oh shameless ones. God told us to! We are going to take his invitation to come boldly.

p.s. - Canned prayers not allowed, especially that “Now I lay me down to sleep…” prayer.