Running After Papa – Page 12 – Discipline. Faith. Obedience. Endurance.

The Tent and The Altar

In Genesis 12-13, Abram sets out after he gets a his call from the Lord and God meets with him personally to assure him of his calling. How cool is that? After that meeting, Abram builds an altar to the Lord (v7) to remember this place and this time he spent in the very presence of God where he heard Him so clearly.

Then Abram goes to Egypt and deceives Pharoah about who Sarai is. We all know the story. One of the commentaries I read made an interesting point about this:

What a shame that believing Abraham should be rebuked by an unbelieving king. Until he knew the truth about Sarah, Pharaoh “bestowed favors” upon Abraham, but once God stepped in and exposed the lie, Pharaoh had to ask them to leave. What a poor testimony the Christian is when he or she mingles with the world and compromises. Someone has said, “Faith is living without scheming.” Abraham and all his descendants have needed to learn that lesson! Lot lived with the world and lost his testimony (19:12–14); and Peter sat by the enemy fire and denied his Lord.

Wiersbe, W. W. (1993). Wiersbe’s expository outlines on the Old Testament (Ge 12:1). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.

Then after that debacle, Abram goes back to the place where he built the first altar. (Gen 13:1-4)

1 Then Abram went up from Egypt, he and his wife and all that he had, and Lot with him, to the South. 2 Abram was very rich in livestock, in silver, and in gold. 3 And he went on his journey from the South as far as Bethel, to the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Ai, 4 to the place of the altar which he had made there at first. And there Abram called on the name of the Lord.

I totally relate to this. When I went on my Quest, almost 3 years ago now, I heard God speak over me things I will never forget. I met with him for 5 days on a ranch in Hunt, Texas. So often how I long to go back to Hunt! I know many men who desire to be there – on that ranch – or to the place of their Quest where – perhaps for the first time – they really met face to face with God. Man, I long to be there… in His presence… in that place. That’s one of the reasons I love to serve on as many Quests as I can. From that same commentary:

Abraham could not have confessed his sin and remained in Egypt! No, he had to get back to the place of the tent and the altar, back to the place where he could call upon the Lord and receive blessing. This is a good principle for Christians to follow: go nowhere in this world where you must leave your testimony behind. Any place where we cannot build the altar and pitch the tent is out of bounds.

Great thought to live by… “Any place we cannot build the altar and pitch the tent is out of bounds.” In his commentary, Wiersby describes the tent as the pilgrim, the person who trusts God a day at a time and is always ready to move. He describes the altar as the worshiper who brings a sacrifice and offers it to God.

Restated, “…any place we cannot worship and offer God our sacrifice and be ready to move in complete trust of Him is no place for the Christ follower.”

Building and pitching and …

Running After Papa…

The Tent and The Altar

Gen 12-13

So Abram sets out after his call and God meets with him personally to assure him of his calling. How cool is that? After that meeting, Abram builds an altar to the Lord. (v7)

Then Abram goes to Egypt and deceives Pharoah about who Sarai is. We all know the story. One of the commentaries I read made an interesting point about this:

What a shame that believing Abraham should be rebuked by an unbelieving king. Until he knew the truth about Sarah, Pharaoh “bestowed favors” upon Abraham, but once God stepped in and exposed the lie, Pharaoh had to ask them to leave. What a poor testimony the Christian is when he or she mingles with the world and compromises. Someone has said, “Faith is living without scheming.” Abraham and all his descendants have needed to learn that lesson! Lot lived with the world and lost his testimony (19:12–14); and Peter sat by the enemy fire and denied his Lord.

Wiersbe, W. W. (1993). Wiersbe’s expository outlines on the Old Testament (Ge 12:1). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.

Then after that debacle, Abram goes back to the place where he built the first altar. (Gen 13:1-4)

1 Then Abram went up from Egypt, he and his wife and all that he had, and Lot with him, to the South. 2 Abram was very rich in livestock, in silver, and in gold. 3 And he went on his journey from the South as far as Bethel, to the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Ai, 4 to the place of the altar which he had made there at first. And there Abram called on the name of the Lord.

I totally relate to this. How many men have longed to go back to Hunt, or to the place of their Quest where – perhaps for the first time – they really met face to face with God? Man, I long to be there… in His presence… in that place. That’s one of the reasons I love to serve on Quests. From that same commentary:

Abraham could not have confessed his sin and remained in Egypt! No, he had to get back to the place of the tent and the altar, back to the place where he could call upon the Lord and receive blessing. This is a good principle for Christians to follow: go nowhere in this world where you must leave your testimony behind. Any place where we cannot build the altar and pitch the tent is out of bounds.

Restated, “…any place we cannot worship and offer God our sacrifice and be ready to move in complete trust of Him is no place for the Christ follower.”

Building and pitching…

Abram's Call

Gen 12

Now the Lord had said to Abram:

“Get out of your country,

From your family

And from your father’s house,

To a land that I will show you.

The New King James Version. 1982 (Ge 12:1). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

God calls Abram away from all that is familiar…. his family, his father’s house, his geographical surroundings and the normalcy of his traditions and his land. EVERYTHING he grew up knowing, counting on, understanding, relying on… God called him away from it.

Why? Could God have blessed Abram and made him a great nation where he was physically located? Of course. Its apparent that Abram was quite successful in this place. He was also on some sort of terms with God – he could hear Him. I know people who claim to be Christians all their lives that strive to hear God and question if they ever do or ever did. So clearly, the spiritual environment Abram was in wasn’t all bad.

So why? Why did God call Abram out from everything he knew, everyone he knew and loved and who loved him?

There are likely several reasons that could be articulated, but for me the one that is most applicable to me today is that God wanted to get Abram to a place of utter and complete dependence upon God and God alone. In places were there would be difficulties, it would be too easy to run back to what is “known” and “comfortable”… God called Abram into a place where the blessing would benefit not only his family for generations, but the entire world for all eternity.

God’s cool like that. I can look back over my life and see times where I had no where to go but to my knees. Those are the character defining events of my life.

Enoch's Obituary

Genesis 5 is the genealogy of Adam. The first interesting thing to me is that Cain and Abel are not listed, even though they were the first born. I guess it’s because Abel was murdered and Cain ran off, even though he had sons and daughters. So Adam’s lineage begins with Seth. The pattern of the next 20 or so verses is the same.

“FATHER” lived “X” years and begot “SON”. After “SON”, “FATHER” lived “Y” years and had sons and daughters. So all the days of “FATHER” were “X+Y” and he died.

Adam begot Seth. (v3-5)
Seth begot Enosh. (v6-8)
Enosh begot Cainan. (v9-11)
Cainan begot Mahalalel. (v12-14)
Mahalalel begot Jared. (v15-17)
Jared begot Encoh. (v18-20)

Then something changes. Enoch’s “obituary” reads different.

Genesis 5:21-24 (NKJV)
21 Enoch lived sixty-five years, and begot Methuselah. 22 After he begot Methuselah, Enoch walked with God three hundred years, and had sons and daughters. 23 So all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty-five years. 24 And Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him.

987 Years after God created Adam, he took Enoch and Enoch did not die, because Enoch walked with God and pleased him.

Hebrews 11:5 speaks of Enoch:
5 By faith Enoch was taken away so that he did not see death, “and was not found, because God had taken him”; for before he was taken he had this testimony, that he pleased God.

He took him well short of his natural life span for those days. Adam lived 930 years; Seth lived 815 years; Enosh lived 905 years; Cainan lived 910 years; Mahalalel lived 895 years; Jared lived 962 years; Jared was taken at 365 years.

I bring it up because Enoch’s son, Methuselah, was old enough to see his ancestors living to be very old men and to see his dad taken by God – because he walked with God – and yet Methuselah’s life reads exactly the same as his anscestors. He begat Lamech, had sons and daugthers and died after 969 years.

How quickly a generation forgets the godliness and impact of the preceding ones. This is all the Scripture records about Methuselah.

Or maybe, how lasting an impact the previous generations have on our children, thus the more we have give our children to Him and parent them as He leads us. I don’t know.

For me, today, I want to be more like Enoch. I want my impact to go beyond the next generation of my children, but to impact my children’s children’s children for the Lord, and not away from Him.

What does it look like to “walk with God” like Enoch did? What was the result of those men in the Scriptures who did? This would be an interesting word study.

Incredible Integrity

The trials of Job are all neatly wrapped up into the first two chapters of the book. In chapter one the picture of a man of enormous wealth and impeccable integrity (He was blameless—a man of complete integrity. He feared God and stayed away from evil. Job 1:1 ) who was also a very compassionate and loving father who was attentive to the health of his children. (He would get up early in the morning and offer a burnt offering for each of them. For Job said to himself, “Perhaps my children have sinned and have cursed God in their hearts.” This was Job’s regular practice. Job 1:5 ) It is not unreasonable to assume that a man of this kind of integrity and compassion, would have good relationships and care deeply for those others in his charge, those servants who worked his fields and tended to his livestock. In this single chapter his fortunes, his servants, and his children are taken from him. Yet, his integrity stayed intact.

Chapter two opens with Job’s second calamity, his health. What the scriptures do not tell us is how much time has elapsed in between his first calamity and the second calamity – the loss of his own health (One day the members of the heavenly court came again to present themselves before the Lord… Job 2:1). In the midst of the grieving process, most people have the opportunity to entertain thoughts and rationalizations that could easily lead them to blame and become angry at God. Given that Job’s second calamity may not have happened the “next day”, it is understood that Job’s integrity still remained intact at the time his health was attacked. Almost immediately upon his plague, his wife emotionally crashed. His wife said to him, “Are you still trying to maintain your integrity? Curse God and die.” (Job 2:9) Yet in the midst of his grieving, the pain of the plague upon him, and his wife’s emotional crumble, Job 2:10 tells us that “So in all this, Job said nothing wrong.”

How does one get to this kind of peace and integrity? What is it like to be totally OK with WHATEVER God says, does, or allows in my life, so long as it brings Him glory?

I have to say… I, for one, am not there but there is something very appealing about being there…

Burdened…

Last night I toured the Mormon Temple Square in Salt Lake City. It was an amazing place. I walked away burdened, not only for the salvation of my Mormon friends, but for the state of which the Big-C church, particularly in America, is.

Why isn’t Christ making a difference in people’s lives in the nonMormon church? Why is the divorce rate just as high in the church as it is among the unchurched? Why isn’t the Church as a whole full of the same devotion and fervor as the Mormon church? Why doesn’t the American church-goer really try to live the commandments of Christ? Jesus himself commanded twice “Go and sin no more.” (John 5:14, 8:11) He wouldn’t give a command that wasn’t “keepable”. So why do we keep on intentionally sinning? Because we either do not know God, or we do not fear God.

I can’t help but play Matt 7:21-23 over and over in my head. (By the way relek95, I thought you were going to do the 10 scariest passages in the Bible… to my count, this was the first and only one you did… I’m looking forward to the other nine…)

21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. 22 Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ 23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’

So who are those that know Him? That word “know” is an expression of intimacy. 27 My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. 28 And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. (Jn 10:27-28).

I am burdened that the American church-goer abuses the grace and mercy of our Father because we – as the American church – have no idea how much our sin hurts Him and how it is so disgusting and offensive to Him. I wonder how many people in the American church really “fear’ Him, I mean, really, really, fear him. We’ve so preached the goodness, mercy and grace of Father, that it’s almost like we’ve stripped Him of the awe-factor and honor and respect and fear that He is due.

I, for one, am choosing to live Christ’s commands, but not out of a “settling the scoresheet”, or “I owe Him so much”, or “I’m working for a higher position in eternity” mentality, but out of the knowledge that I cannot ever repay Him for the Grace and Mercy He’s shown me. I am incapable of any works worthy. “My righteousness is as a filthy rag” (Is. 64:6). I choose to live his commands because I love him and intimately know him and hear His voice. I do it out of relationship, not out of religion. I do it out of gratefulness, not out of paying my debt, because He paid my debt for me. (Jn 3:16)

Filters

Today the Lord took me to Psalm 73.

73 A psalm of Asaph.

¹ Truly God is good to Israel,

to those whose hearts are pure.

² But as for me, I almost lost my footing.

My feet were slipping, and I was almost gone.

³ For I envied the proud

when I saw them prosper despite their wickedness.

⁴ They seem to live such painless lives;

their bodies are so healthy and strong.

⁵ They don’t have troubles like other people;

they’re not plagued with problems like everyone else.

²¹ Then I realized that my heart was bitter,

and I was all torn up inside.

²² I was so foolish and ignorant—

I must have seemed like a senseless animal to you.

²³ Yet I still belong to you;

you hold my right hand.

²⁴ You guide me with your counsel,

leading me to a glorious destiny.

²⁵ Whom have I in heaven but you?

I desire you more than anything on earth.

²⁶ My health may fail, and my spirit may grow weak,

but God remains the strength of my heart;

he is mine forever.

²⁷ Those who desert him will perish,

for you destroy those who abandon you.

²⁸ But as for me, how good it is to be near God!

I have made the Sovereign Lord my shelter,

and I will tell everyone about the wonderful things you do.

Again, it’s not about me. Dwelling on – envying – the success and apparant ease of life of the wicked and rich is making it about me and what I don’t have. It’s all about Him. It’s all about eternity.

My mind tries to define eternity as the time I have on this earth, because it seems like it will be SO long, but I have no context in which to understand the concept of eternity. I hear it’s a really, really, long time!

Father, remove these filters of humanity through which I filter everything around me. Open my eyes and my mind to see the eternal, the eternity in every man and woman. Through these stupid filters, everything relates to or revolves around me. When seeing with your eyes, it’s all about you. In Jesus name, I pray. Amen.

Be Like Christ

Matt 20:28 “The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve”

Luke 22:27 “I am among you as one who serves”

Jesus spent his entire three and a half years with the apostles trying to teach them to “Follow me.” That didn’t just mean to go where he went, but to go HOW He went there – in complete submission to the Father, in complete humility.

Phil 2:1-8 (NIV)
1 If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, 2 then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. 3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. 4 Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.
5 Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:
6 Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, 7 but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death— even death on a cross!

From the book Humility, by Andrew Murray:
“Humility is a virtue that only comes in power when the fullnesof the Spirit makes us partakers of the indwelling Christ and He lives within us.”

Only by emptying ourselves completely – a.k.a. dying to our “self” (Gal 2:20) – can we be filled completely with His Spirit which gives us the virtue of Christ’s humility.

Stop Praying?

Psalm 27:4 (NIV)
One thing I ask of the Lord, this is what I seek:
that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life,
to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple.

Francis Chan wrote in his book “Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God” the following:

What if I said, “Stop praying”? What if I told you to stop talking at God for a while, but instead to take a long, hard look at Him before you speak another word? Solomon warned us not to rush into God’s presence with words. That’s what fools do. And often, that’s what we do.

We are a culture that relies on technology over community, a society in which spoken and written words are cheap, easy to come by, and excessive. Our culture says anything goes; fear of God is almost unheard of. We are slow to listen, quick to speak, and quick to become angry.

I am arrested at this thought tonight. I am guilty of this very thing… just running right into his presence and throwing up my prayers and running out, like a 3 year old comes in and makes his bold announcement to his parents in the midst of their dinner party and then makes his exit just as promptly.

I just need to spend some time gazing on His beauty.

The unseen

I Cor 9:24-27 [Amplified]
24 Do you not know that in a race all the runners compete, but [only] one receives the prize? So run [your race] that you may lay hold [of the prize] and make it yours.
25 Now every athlete who goes into training conducts himself temperately and restricts himself in all things. They do it to win a wreath that will soon wither, but we [do it to receive a crown of eternal blessedness] that cannot wither.
26 Therefore I do not run uncertainly (without definite aim). I do not box like one beating the air and striking without an adversary.
27 But [like a boxer] I buffet my body [handle it roughly, discipline it by hardships] and subdue it, for fear that after proclaiming to others the Gospel and things pertaining to it, I myself should become unfit [not stand the test, be unapproved and rejected as a counterfeit].

I know this is a very familiar verse to most of us, but reading it in the amplified shed some new light, particularly a phrase in verse 25 “…and restricts himself in all things.”

All things? What does that really look like? There are, of course, the obvious things like (from an athletic training perspective) foods, drinks, wine, etc. But what about the not so obvious things? What about the obscure things? What about the unseen things? Such as one’s thought life… Am I restricting myself in my negative talk? Am I restricting myself in judgment of others? Am I restricting myself in condemnation – self or otherwise? What about doubt? What about the opposite; am I psyching myself up too much?

Am I more focused on me and my abilities or shortcomings than I am on Him and His sufficiency?

Keep me in check today Lord. I submit the unseen to your discipline. I submit the seen to your discipline. Help me to always be ready to run whatever race you place before me.