Tag: bsfgroups

BSF Genesis: Week 12, Day 5

Today’s Scriptures

Questions:

11.
a.
Look, (listen), Go, Walk through the length and breadth of the land

b.
give you every place where you set your foot. I will be with you. Be strong and courageous

12.

  • We give an account of ourselves on judgment day
  • appear before the judgment seat of Christ and receive what is due us
  • So that we may be confident and unashamed before him at his coming

 

My Daily Journal:

God was training Abram.  Training requires movement.

My daughter is learning to drive.  But it is impossible to learn to drive sitting in the garage.  God wants to steer us in the right direction.  God wants to lead us on the path, the straight highway that leads to him.  But, like a rider on a bicycle, it is far easier to steer when there is movement.

How do we move as Christians?  By being missional.  By teaching and disciplining others.  By preaching the truth of the gospel and proclaiming the love of Christ for the world. By serving.

BSF Genesis: Week 12, Day 4

Today’s Scriptures

Questions:

8.
a.
Good pasture land, peace from fighting with Abram’s men, a place to pitch tents

b.
He moved away, to Hebron near the trees

c.
Don’t place worldly (temporary) amenities over heavenly (eternal) ones. Everything of earth will go away including life, wealth, home and family

9.
He gave up a valley. His descendents were given everything he could see and he would have descendents life the dust of the earth

10.
a.
Gal 3:9: Blessed along with Abraham, Jeremiah 29:11: God has planned good for us and not disaster, gift of future and hope, Matt: 11:28-29: Rest – come to me all who are weary…, Isaiah 40:29-31: Power to the weak, strength to powerless, soar on eagles wings, Phil 4:19: All needs from His glorious riches, Rom 8:37-39: Victory and love: nothing can ever separate us from God’s love, not death, life, angels, demons.., Prov 1:33: peace, untroubled by fear of harm, 2 Cor 4:18: Troubles will pass, John 14:27: peace of mind and heart, John 7:37-39: Living water, the Spirit, John 14:26: The Holy Spirit, Rom 3:23: Forgiveness, Rom 10:9: Salvation, Rom 6:23: Eternal Life

b.
We give up sin, guilt, fear, troubles, worry, murder, adultery, wickedness, lustfulness, greed, gluttony, unrighteous anger, self-pride, laziness, coveting and death. We get peace, love, protection, strength, power, victory, the Holy Spirit, the Word of God, a mission from God and to be brothers with Christ for all eternity.

 

My Daily Journal:

Decorating a hotel room.  I can’t find the reference, but I remembered this analogy while thinking about all of the promises vs. costs involved in living the life of a brother to Christ.  Our time here on earth is like living in a hotel room.  It isn’t home.  Home for believers is in heaven, for all eternity.

But how much time, effort, money and fight do we put into furnishing and decorating our hotel room.  Instead of using our resources for value that matters to God for all eternity, we invest in making our hotel room more comfortable.  We buy bigger houses and decorations, we focus on better curtains for the hotel room.

It isn’t that God doesn’t want us to have wealth or comfort – clearly Abram and Lot had been blessed with more than the land could even support.  But where is our focus?  Is it on our eternal home or our temporary dwelling.  Maybe that is part of the reminder in the fact that Abram was called to live in tents.

BSF Genesis: Week 12, Day 3

Today’s Scriptures

Questions

5.
a.
Abram told him to choose.  He chose based on a farming focus: Good land, good water, like the gard, like the land of Egypt, vs 10

b.
Where job is, where land or good housing is available, the quality of the schools

c.
12. he pitched his tents near Sodom, 13. Now the people of Sodom were wicked and sinning gratly against the Lord

d.
Horrific. Lost his wife, his children’s morals twisted to breaking, his own judgment was dispicable (offering daughter)

6.

  • we have troubled hearts and fear because we receive a false peace
  • darkened in understanding, separated from the life of God, ignorant
  • adulterous, friendship w/world=enmity against God. Choose: friend of world=enemy of God
  • do not love the world, lust of flesh, eyes, pride does not come from God. They will pass

7.
As a whole, no. In moments of time, yes.

My Daily Journal:

Every decision matters.  Throughout Genesis the language of walking daily with God comes up over and over again.  It reminds us that, in a walk, every step matters, no step is more or less important than the one before or the next.  In Abram’s life we are reminder that the same fact applies to decisions we make.  Through any trial, whether one of fear of famine, fear of being killed by a pharoah or one of having so much wealth and flocks that the land can’t support all of our possessions, we are given the opportunity to make decisions.  These are every day decisions because trials exist for us every single day.  But each decision, like each step, matters.

It is only by walking with God every day, by spending time in His word, by talking with Him daily and by keeping our eyes on Him that we have the insight to make the right decisions to life’s daily trials.

BSF Genesis: Week 12, Day 2

Today’s Scriptures

Questions:

3.

  • He let Lot choose his land
  • Better to be wronged and cheated than file lawsuits against believers in secular courts
  • be patient, make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit, bond of peace
  • Be kind and compassionate, forgiving, walk in the way of love

4.
a.
Age and covenant from God. God promised the land to Abram’s descendents, not to his cousin
b.
It is very difficult, especially since it affects not only self but also family. It is easier with relatives, but then even it is hard. It is against our greedy nature to purposefully allow others to pick the best of the bunch and take what is left.

My Daily Journal:

What if Abram and Lot weren’t supposed to part company?  I think most would agree that they faced a time of trial.  We read the story and see Abram as the gracious older uncle who gives up his right and allows Lot to choose the better land.  It is not that I don’t believe this to be true and I don’t mean to disparage Abram, but what if they weren’t supposed to part in the first place.  Lot was Abram’s ward, his pupil per se.  It states in the verses that the land could not support both of their flocks and they shared the land with the Canaanites and Perizzites.  Abram made the decision to part.  But should he have elected to reduce their flocks?  Could they have blessed their neighbors, would that have opened a new door?

I know this is a hypothetical rabbit hole, but it served as an interesting point to me and a good reminder that the true lesson isn’t that things turned out OK for Abram, but that ever so slowly Abram was learning not only to trust God but to trust Him first.  I am slowly learning this same lesson.  I trust God, but too often I make a decision based on my own viewpoint first.  This does not prevent God from acting and even blessing me, but it also doesn’t mean that I, necessarily, made the right decision.  Pray first, act second.

BSF Genesis: Week 11, Day 3

Today’s Scripture

Questions:

5.
a.
Make you into a great nation, bless you, make your name great, you will be a blessing, bless those who bless you, curse those who curse you, all people on earth will be bless through you.

b.
1. Nation of Israel, 2. Given a son in his old age, 3. Credited with righteousness (Rom 4), 4. Abraham saves Lot from capture 5. Joseph saved Egypt from drought, 6. Egypt’s losses through the plagues in Exodus, 7. Romans 9 – Promise through Jesus to all who are children of the promise through faith in God

6.

  • blessed in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ
  • the hope to which he has called you, riches of his glorious inheritance, holy people
  • raised up with Christ, seated in the heavenly realms in Christ, riches of grace, kindness
  • Invisible things God prepared revealed to us by his Spirit
  • Portion and cup, security, pleasant boundaries, delightful inheritance

My Daily Journal:

Who have I blessed?

God’s promise to bless those who we bless comes up not only here for Abraham and his descendants, but also in the beatitudes that Christ preached.  I pray for others.  I teach others, particularly children.  I strive to live a life that reflects Christ’s love.  But I don’t spend much time thinking about how I can bless others.

I think it may be because, in comparison to the power and wisdom that I know God has, my words and actions seem so insignificant.  I end up standing back and, in prayer, try to direct God to all the places I think he should lead and go and pour out His power.  But that isn’t what this says, is it.  In these promises, God calls on us to put ourselves into the game.  Does that mean I am any bigger or God is any smaller, of course not.  But it means I’m engaged in the blessing.   And when I engage, God magnifies.

So, who can I bless?  Who can I send a card of encouragement to?  Who can I buy a meal or cup of coffee for?  Who can I call?  Who can I smile at?  Who can I share a word about the joy of the Lord with?  I’m looking forward to see what God does.

BSF Genesis: Week 11, Day 2

Today’s Scriptures

Questions:

3.
His country, his people, his father’s household – His way of life.

4.

  • Called Apostles to leave fishing, follow him, become fishers of men, immed left boat, home
  • Follow me and let dead bury their own
  • Deny yourself, take up cross and follow-save live=lose it, lose for Him & gospel = save it
  • Love Jesus above all others (mom, dad, wife, kids) cost of discipleship is total sacrifice of self
  • Called out of darkness and anything of this world

My Daily Journal:

Do you have to leave home to become a fully devoted follower of Christ?

For most of us, the first response to that question is, “of course not.”  But, let’s look at all of those verses again.  Let’s look at the call to the apostles.  Let’s even look at Jesus’ life.

I think the challenge is that our neighborhoods shape us into their likeness more than we would like to believe.  We feel the pressure to spend our time picking up leaves when neighbors on both sides have leaf free lawns.  We get drawn into conversations about neighbors, teachers, who bought what, who is doing what, too much gossip.  We suffer from the “keeping up with the jones’ syndrom.”  All, whether we like it or intend to or not.

Do we have to leave our homes behind?  Not necessarily in a physical sense, if we are willing to do it in a spiritual and relationship sense.  As Christians our primary neighbor is Jesus.  Not only is He our neighbor but He is our Lord, the one we serve.  Our “norms” should be set by His commands for our life.  Our language should reflect the joy in our hearts for Him.  Our passion for others should always be an outpouring of the love He has for all of His creation.

What do you know about the 8 neighbors around you (the ones whose homes encircle yours)?  What do they know and see about your walk with God?  How do they see you spending your time, talents and money?  How much of your life do they see conforming to the neighborhood vs. living differently and transforming into holiness?

Maybe moving would be easier.

BSF Genesis: Week 10, Day 5

Today’s Scriptures

Questions:

9.
The promise to Abraham did not come as a reward for Abram’s works, but from the righteousness of God poured out to him by his faith (trust and obedience). It is by grace and it is guaranteed and we fall under the covenant God made to Abraham.

10.
Promise came to all nations. If you belong to Christ you are Abraham’s seed and heirs to the promise.  Mathew 1 -Jesus came from the linage of Abraham

11.
a.
Obedience and faith. That he, in faith, looked to something far ahead, something he didn’t even know or understand, but something that he trusted in God

b.
An everlasting covenant, to be your God and the God of your descendants (to never be abandoned or alone)

c.
Land, to be their God, they must keep his covenant – That the promise in 17:3 is bigger – that Abraham will be the father of many nations, not just one.

My Daily Journal:

I was recently reading a John Ortberg book titled Everybody’s Normal Till You Get To Know Them.  In it he talks about the creation story and, as we reviewed our Genesis study this week it came to my mind.

Ortberg points out that as God creates each part of His creation He says, “It was good.”  That is, until we come to Genesis 2:18 where He says, “It is not good for the man to be alone.”

From the very beginning we were designed for companionship and community all in harmony with God.  Lamech sought companionship without God and developed a spirit of vengeance and retribution.  The people of Babel sought community without God and had their language confused and themselves scattered.

But God’s promise, God’s covenant to Abram, tells him that neither he nor his descendents will ever be alone.  God will always be their God.  They will be a family, a nation, joined together.  The word church didn’t yet exist, but, in essence, through this family of Abram’s that is what God is creating.

We are part of that.  Through our faith in Jesus, we have become members of that family as much as we are brothers and sisters to Christ and God is our heavenly father.  We were not designed to be alone and through the church and through brothers and sisters in Christ and through the nations of believers and through the communion of saints and the indwelling of the holy spirit we will never be alone.  God promised that to Abram.

BSF Genesis: Week 10, Day 3

Today’s Scriptures

Questions:

6.
a.
That the faith of one man was enough to save mankind and all animals from destruction

b.
I think we do – the wicked are any who do not accept Christ as their savior. Some of these are my friends, co-workers and family and I do worry for them. Not that God is unfair, but that they are unwise.

c.
Yes. I have accepted the gift of salvation through Jesus and have become a transformed man, not within sin or wrong, but with a desire and longing to serve Him better and be a better example through it.

 

My Daily Journal:

How long did God wait for there to be a Noah?  Normally, when I think of the story I picture God one day looking around and realizing His whole creation had turned over to corruption and turned away from him.  He looks around and, lo and behold, there is Noah, one righteous man.

But what if it was the other way?  What if God waited patiently for there to be a Noah?  How long and how much sin did God tolerate?  How much pain did he feel over how many generations?

It made me stop and think about God timing.  When I say I’m waiting patiently on God’s direction, I normally think days, maybe a week or two.  How many hundreds of years did God wait?  What is he waiting on, today?

BSF Genesis: Week 10, Day 2

Today’s Scripture

Questions:

3.
a.
All of man’s needs, wants and desires were provided by God, focused on community – Not good to for man to be alone so God created companionship and community

b.
God’s first words following the fall of man was a promise of the coming of Christ to defeat Satan
4.
Faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. The ancients were commended for it. Faith in the person of Jesus is the equal to faith and trust in God’s love for His creation from His word for all time

5
a.
Gave first and best. Gave sacrificially. Lord looked on Abel and his offering with favor. Revealed a trust and love of God

b.
Heb 11:5 – By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death

c.
Walk with God daily. Trust in him. Have faith. Give sacrificially (not holding back). Open your heart for God to see (He knows what is in it anyway)

My Daily Journal:

At first I was trying to figure out where BSF was going with the lesson this week.  But I think the overarching point that is being looked at is the character of these great men of the bible that we have studied so far.  Abel and Enoch.  And, most importantly within it, that their character was built squarely on faith.

For me the image that stuck with me came in the last answer.  I’ve prayed many times for an open heart to receive God’s word.  I’ve prayed it for myself, for my kids and family, for my church, for the children in Sunday school and BSF.  And, every time I’ve prayed it I had the image of an open vessel, something to catch what God wanted to pour out on me or them.

That is not a bad image, but I saw a different one today.  Today I thought about the fact that the scriptures say God looked at Abel and his offering.  It isn’t that God just looked at the offering, but first and foremost, he looked at Abel and what the offering was saying about him.  The visual idea that came to me was the image of pulling out my wallet and opening it up wide, allowing whoever is with me to take whatever they choose.  From a monetary standpoint it is saying, here is everything that I have, no secrets, no hidden pockets, full disclosure, you see everything as much or little as there is and I am offering it to you to take freely, please.  When I read that about Abel, that is the image I saw of him with his heart to God.

That’s what Abel and Enoch did.  They opened their hearts to God like that open wallet.  This is all that I have, not bragging, not shame, just full open disclosure in complete trust, eyes closed, no caveats, just trust.

But here is the interesting thing.  God already knows what is in our heart (and wallet for that matter).  So the act of opening it up is for us, not for God.

So why hide it?  Well, shame, lack of trust, wrongful pride, holding back — you name the sin condition.  And how does that work out?  Well Cain held back, that didn’t go so well, and if that isn’t clear enough there is the story about Ananias and Sapphira.

That’s convicting enough for me.  When I now think of opening my heart – I’m planning to open it wide.

BSF Genesis: Week 9, Day 4

Today’s Scriptures

Questions:

7.
a.
Confused their language and scattered them

b.
Continuously. God’s hand is in all things. He does not prevent man from sinning, but He limits it now as always. He does it by allowing the repercussions of sin to play out (greed, lust, hiding, cheating) By our actions we make our towers fall

8.
God is love. It is only through communion with God that we gain insight into communion with others. Without God, we find the primary focus of our love to be self-love which leads to greed, self-serving, objectification of people, etc…

9.
a.
There are about 6800 spoken languages in the world today. But God has the power to touch the lips and ears of all people so they can hear His truth being spoken clearly

b.
Speak the truth in my language to all who I come in contact. Speak the truth in my actions to all who I come in contact. Speak the truth to myself about God. Speak the truth to God about himself, me and all those who I come in contact. Daily walk with God.

My Daily Journal:

I’ve struggled with the main message of this week, but today’s lesson helped it become clear.

The key phrase that I picked up on that was repeated 3 times is “come, let us”.

The people of this land and this time were trying to form a community without God.  They wanted to make their own kingdom inside God’s kingdom but without God in it.  It centers around them and what they want and how great they are, not God.

God longs for community with His creation.  That is why we were created.  That is what God is.  The Trinity is a divine community and God welcomes us in to it, he seeks us out and saves us so we can join.  Christ’s mission was to bring mankind back into the unity of the original creation before sin.  When ever 2 or more are gathered in His name, He is present.  God loves community, friendships, marriage, relationships, all with Him.

But we don’t include God in all of our communities, do we?  We compartmentalize Him.  God is great for our church community, but don’t talk about Him at work or school.  This is a sports team, not a Sunday school class.  My neighbors don’t go to church or believe but they are fun to hang around with.  If I want to be in the “in group” at school/work, then I need to tone down my chistian-speak.

We also hear it in the works that we do in “the community.”  We are welcoming to churches and church groups, but don’t push religion while you are doing the work, don’t proselytize.  Just be quiet and do the work, feed the people, build the homes, help the sick, but don’t bring God into it and you are welcome.

I particularly see it at this time of year because so many “community organizations” are collecting things for “the holidays.”  You know, the one day holiday where people get together and exchange gifts.  Don’t say the word – we don’t want any of that church stuff in our community, we just want the holy days, uh, holidays for our community without God.

In my opinion, it wasn’t the tower that pained God.  It was that they were using His word to form communities without Him.  They were using his word to confuse people into joining communities that excluded him.

So what does He do?  They wish to be confused and spread confusion, let them be confused – they aren’t using God’s Word to do it though.  They want to bond together without God, scatter them.

Want to feel less scattered and confused?  Bring God back into all your communities.  Commune with others and God.