Morning Musings

Lot Rescued…

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Genesis Fourteen….. Verses 1-16….

   We have just seen how Lot separated from Abram and chose the easy land of the plains, BUT there were dangers there, the wicked cities of Sodom and Gomorrah……

   This reminds us that the easy ways of life are not always the best ways. It is easy to sleep in, in the mornings rather than to get up and spend time in God’s Word; it is easy to work church life around what we want to do rather than make church central and work other things around it!

   Lot thought he could handle the temptations of these places, but we see him getting closer to Sodom all the time ….it was more convenient, and easier to conduct his business to be there, so he told himself. Then he met and married the girl who became his wife, and he raised his family with Sodom’s values. No wonder the Scriptures teach us to not be unequally yoked with unbelievers! In this chapter , we see him living right IN Sodom. If we aren’t constantly on our guard, this is what can happen to us…we can be sucked in by the world until we find ourselves right in its midst, looking and sounding just like everyone else! We can be totally captivated and captured by the evil one, just as Lot was taken captive by the pagan kings.

It took righteous Abram with his trained servants to rescue him and bring him back, restoring his goods to him.     Notice that Abram was on the alert, with his servants trained and ready to fight. This is how we should be as believers (2 Timothy 2:3-6). We should be on the alert to not get tangled up in the world’s pleasures, but to strive to please our Master at all times. We are told in Ephesians  6:10-18 how to be armed and ready for this fight, and this doesn’t happen by just drifting along!

Lot’s way was easy on the plain, But soon he moved in ways so vain, All his goods were taken away, But Abram got them back one day.

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Morning Musings

Abram Returns….

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Genesis Thirteen….(v.1-18)    

   Abram now retraced his steps and went back to the place where he had last built an altar. So we too, when we backslide, must return to the Lord and to a place of worship….

   But Abram still had a hanger-on that was not of God’s choosing….his nephew Lot. Abram had been told to leave his family behind, but he took Lot with him. Now the time had come when Lot was forced to leave him. Sometimes we hang onto things that are harmless in themselves, but we know they are not of the Lord for us.

    Sometimes they are removed forcibly from us, but how much better to give them up voluntarily for God! It might be an ear-ring for a man, or some bad habit not becoming to a believer (smoking, the odd drink or bad language). These things which are OK for the world, will always hold back a believer from growing in the Lord.

    When Abram was back at the altar, then Lot left him and God once more gave Abram the great promise he had started off with and expanded it even further. We cannot grow in the Lord until we leave these things behind us.

Abram now retraced his way, Looking to God for ev’ry day, Back to the altar he’d  had at Bethel, Where God was able His promise to tell.

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Random Devotional Thoughts

Abram in Trouble!

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Genesis 12: Verses 10-26….

   Things had gone smoothly for Abram’s convoy as they moved south, and he had seen God’s hand on his trip and given Him thanks. But now trouble arose, and so it often is with us as we travel life’s road……

   We will have a period of time when everything is going well and we feel that God has blessed us, and then we will run into one of the storms of life. For Abram, it was a famine….what to do? He didn’t ask the Lord about it, but just did what seemed sensible at the time….he carried on into Egypt (which is a picture of the world) and we don’t read that he  made an altar there.

   If we leave off reading the Word when we hit trouble, it won’t be long before we slip back into the world’s ways and we leave off going to church, don’t pray and soon people won’t know we are any different to them.

   Abram was not only in Egypt, but he told Sarai to tell lies about who she was (his wife)….Abram was trusting in his own wisdom rather than in God. But Pharaoh found him out and sent him off….what a disgrace when the world rebukes a Christian for their manner of life!

Abram’s trip went smooth and good, He made an altar as he should, But then one day when trouble came, He left God’s land much to his shame.

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Random Devotional Thoughts

Abraham’s Obedience…..

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Genesis Twelve….Verses 1-8….

   The Scripture clearly says that Terah took Abram (and the others) with him from Ur to Haran. Then we read that God spoke to Abram and told him to leave his father and carry on to another land that God would take him to….  

   There is no suggestion that Abram dithered around….verse 4 says that Abram did as God told him and left his father at Haran (where he eventually died). It is not said of Abram that he was a just or perfect man as it says of Noah, but it IS said that he was a man of faith and action (verse 4; Hebrews 11:8-9).

   James refers to him as “the Friend of God” (James 2:23). Abram took Lot and Sarai his wife, plus his servants, goods and animals, and set off travelling south for six hundred miles. The land there was inhabited by the descendants of Ham. The first place he stopped at, he built an altar to the Lord, and God appeared to him, giving him for the second time, the promise of this land for his descendants. He then carried on to Bethel where he built his second altar to the Lord.

Abram obeyed all of God’s Word, He did all that he had heard; Taking Lot and Sarai, off he went, To do as he was plainly meant. We should like Abram, God obey, And follow Him from day to day.                              ***   ***   ***

Morning Musings

Enter Abraham….

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Genesis Eleven….                         Verses 10-26….

   Verse ten is interesting…it states that Shem was 100 years old at the end of the flood and that two years later his first child was born This would have given him time to get established with gardens (food) and somewhere to live. We then see the direct line from Shem  to Abraham that was ten generations…. So we can see from this that Shem outlived all of these patriarchs except for his great-grandson Eber who died in the 531st year after the flood…..he even outlived Abraham! Man’s life span was getting gradually less until David could write that a person could only expect to live seventy years or maybe eighty with great difficulty (Psalm 90:10)

All these who lived so long ago, Shem lived enough to see them grow, From Babel’s time when scattered all, Till Abram went where God did call.

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Genesis Eleven….          Where Lot Fitted In.

Verses 27-32….

   We see that Terah had three sons (verse 26) Abram, Nahor and Haran, and they lived in the city of Ur which was on the river Euphrates near its mouth into the Persian Gulf. These three sons married….

   Haran had  at least three children (Lot, Milcah and Ischar, verse 29) and then died comparatively young. Nahor took his niece Milcah as his wife and Abram married his half sister Sarai who was a beautiful girl. Terah and some of his family left the city of Ur and travelled for 600 miles up the river Euphrates to the city of Haran. We aren’t sure whether Terah left in response to God’s first message to Abram, or whether that message came to Abram for the first time in Haran. But Terah felt he had gone far enough, and he settled there until he died in the year 427 after the flood. In the year 367 after the flood, God spoke to Abram again (Abram was 75 at this time, chapter 12:4) about leaving his relatives and Abram moved on, taking his wife and nephew Lot with him. We can see from chapter 12:5 that they all must have been in Haran a few years as it tells us that Abram had got together a team of servants and animals and took them with him. Maybe he thought Lot could be a help to him on the journey to where God was directing him. It seems that Lot was still unmarried at this time, as there is no mention of a wife in this account. Many people say that Abram stayed in Haran until his father died, but that is not correct when the times and dates given here are checked out.

Abram obeyed what God had said, Leaving home, by God was led, Travelled far to the Promised Land, Trusting God’s protecting hand.

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Morning Musings

Man Proposes

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Genesis 11:verses 1-9….

   The people, all closely related, were staying around the area where the ark had touched down. But as they started to move around, they came to this plain where they settled. Then they had a great idea…..

   “Let’s  build a tower that will reach to heaven and make a great name for ourselves”, they said, and then set to work. It wasn’t that they were merely building a tower that God did not like, it was their attitude of pride towards God…they were exhibiting the same attitude of pride that Satan showed when he said to himself, “I will be like God, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High” (Isaiah 14:13-14)

    The people all had a common purpose, a common ambition, and a common language, and so they began. But God stepped in and gave the people all different languages. We can imagine the next part of the story…..the foreman went  out to to give his orders to the people, but then they looked at him in amazement….they did not understand a single word that he was saying! God had stepped in and confounded their language, their plans and their project….it all came to a sudden halt.

   Each family drifted away from the others who now seemed like foreigners, and they moved off to settle in other parts. It was all part of God’s plan to scatter the people and populate the rest of the world.

   Japheth’s family went north and westward; Ham’s went towards the south while some of Shem’s stayed where they while others drifted off to the east. So the different nationalities of the world evolved according to God’s plan.

Man had planned and then proposed, But God took note and then disposed, We should take care, and let Him guide, So we in Him can each abide.

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Wait, and Still Wait….

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Genesis Eight…                       

Verses 1-22….

   Noah and all the life with him were in the ark for just over twelve months (verse 14). For just over five months the waters kept rising, then the rain stopped and the tide started to drop. Seven months after Noah went into it, he felt the ark bump into something hard and it stuck fast.

   Noah kept looking out and three months later he could see the tops of the mountains again. What a day that would have been! But it was not God’s time to leave the ark yet. Noah had learned through the years to WAIT until God told him to move.    But that didn’t stop him testing what was going on and he sent a raven out which didn’t come back. So he sent a dove and it returned, and a week later he sent it out again. This time it came back with a green leaf in its beak. But it still wasn’t God’s time….the plants and grass had to grow again to give the animals enough food to survive.

    At last the day came…..what a day of rejoicing that was! Noah was full of thankfulness and praise to God as he took some of the “clean” animals and birds to make a sacrifice to Him (verses 20-21a) which God accepted. This gave God much pleasure and He put the rainbow in the sky as a sign that He would never again destroy the earth in such a way.

Noah learned as he walked life’s way, To obey his God from day to day, We too must wait, for God WILL lead, As we look to Him and His Word read.

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Morning Musings

Noah’s Obedience Rewarded.

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   Noah had prepared the ark and provisioned it with enough food for every creature on board just as God had told him to. What a sight it must have been to see all the animals loaded on board!

   Seven pairs of clean (eatable) animals, and all birds, with one pair of all other animals and all the creepy crawlies too! Finally Noah and his family (eight people) went in and God shut the door of the ark. There wouldn’t have been any handle on the outside. Then it began to rain….imagine the panic of the people on the outside as they saw the waters begin to rise. They would remember then all the times that Noah had warned them this would happen! The tide too kept on rising and people could now see that Noah’s prediction was right after all, but it was too late! It was no use banging on the door to be let in….God had shut it and there was no outside handle.

   The water kept rising until the highest mountain was covered by fifteen cubits (seven metres ). All moving life died and the earth was cleansed of all the filth and evil that man had brought on it. The water covered the earth for just over five months before it began to recede.

This is a real lesson to us as we read this account….God’s invitation has an end. Just as the people in Noah’s time found that they couldn’t go into the ark when they wanted to, so people today will find that if they put off accepting God’s invitation to come NOW, the time may come when they won’t be able to come. Just like the man who kept putting off the chance he had to turn to Jesus, but kept resisting it. One day he dreamed that he could see God in heaven, and a big blind came down between them blotting out the sight. He said that he knew then that he wouldn’t be able to come even if he wanted to….it was too late! We must make sure that we don’t pass this point of no return!

Man’s sin brought judgment on the earth, Such as never  seen since its birth,

The earth was cleansed all through and through, So then it could start fresh and new.

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See what God has to say to YOU.