Worship involves ATTITUDE, which is awe, reverence, respect.
Worship involves ACTION, which is bowing, praising, serving.
Worship is always voluntarily offered to Him as he has offered Himself to us. TRUE WORSHIP IS NOT CHEAP ENTERTAINEMENT; it’s a costly experience. Worship God in Spirit and Truth, and you will be personally enriched and equipped with spiritual strength that helps you carry the burdens and fight the battles of life. If we know the truth but merely go through the outward motions of worship, our worship will be hypocritical and empty. Objective truth never changes, but our understanding of it deepens and our experience of it should become more and more meaningful.
Jewell, Iowa
COMMITTED to train men and women
to have minds for the Lord Jesus,
hearts for the truth, and
hands that are skilled to the task.
to have minds for the Lord Jesus,
hearts for the truth, and
hands that are skilled to the task.
Sermons by Pastor Ernest Amstalden (Page 46)
For Abraham to loose his wife was a very painful experience. Abraham was a man of faith and certainly his tears did not indicate any unbelief.
Abraham knew that Sarah was now in the Lord’s care. He had to say goodbye, but he did not loose Sarah.
“When you know where something is, you haven’t lost it.”
Too many people when they reach old age cannot experience what Abraham did. They live without faith and eventually cannot die IN FAITH.
“When they look back, it is with regret; When they look ahead, it is with fear; When they look around, it is with complaint!”
For us who trusted Christ, old age should be a time of rich experience in the Lord and a wonderful opportunity to share Jesus with the next generation.
The story about Abraham’s servant going to look for a bride for Isaac, Abraham’s only son, is not just history, IT IS THEOLOGY. The PERFECT WILL of the Heavenly Father. Abraham was 140 years old and would live another 35 years after this. He knew the perfect will of the heavenly Father. The covenant promises to bless Abraham with many descendants. To give his descendants the land of Canaan as an eternal possession.
Genuine Faith also results in genuine obedience to God’s Word. God’s Word must give us the direction, because God’s word is the revealed perfect will of the Father for His children. It was God who brought Rebekah to the well at the right time. It was God who directed Abraham’s servant to that same well. But it was Abraham’s servant who had the right attitude towards the God of Abraham. The entire story makes it clear that God had chosen Rebekah for Isaac, for His providential leading is seen each step of the way. Yet, Rebekah had to make her choice of Isaac.
Faith provided by God does not demand explanations; instead, faith provided by God rests on God’s promises. When we do ask God for explanations, we reveal that we really don’t know ourselves as good as we should, and we certainly do not know God as well as we should. Like Abraham, we have to learn to live by promises, not by explanations. Abraham did not know HOW God would do it, or WHY God would do what He did, or WHEN God would do it, BUT HE BELIEVED GOD that whatever needed to be done, GOD WOULD PROVIDE. There are lessons to be learned, and one of them is that WHEN GOD WANTS TO PROVIDE OUR NEEDS, many times we must face the test alone. IT IS ONLY THEN THAT WE CAN SEE WHAT OUR HEAVENLY FATHER REALLY CAN DO FOR US.
Sarah’s faith was not placed in the promise, but in THE ONE WHO IS FAITHFUL; GOD HIMSELF. Abraham and Sarah made some mistakes, they had some occasional failures in trusting God all the way. However, both of them endured to the end BECAUSE THE BELIEVED GOD. When Isaac finally arrived as promised, ABRAHAM AND SARAH SAW GOD’S POWER AT WORK. Ishmael was an obedient son, UNTIL ISAAC entered the family. It was then when the “flesh” began to oppose “the Spirit”. God gave them the fleshly blessings, the black oil which lubricates the world’s economy.
Isaac, however, received the spiritual blessing, the Holy Spirit, which is symbolized in the Bible with OIL. According to Galatians 4:21-31 Sarah represents grace, (the heavenly Jerusalem) and Hagar represents Law (the earthly Jerusalem under bondage). In other words, law and grace cannot live peacefully together. God’s children, born of the Spirit are to live under the blessings of grace and not the bondage of the law. Hagar gave birth to a slave. Ishmael was a slave. If you decide to live under the law, then you become a child of Hagar, a slave; for the law produces bondage and not freedom.
“..that the Christ might finally settle down and feel completely at home in your hearts through your faith”. (Kenneth Wuest)
Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring forth. (Proverb 27:1)
Revelation always brings responsibility. What does it mean to walk blameless before the Lord? It is a call for integrity. Abram is to walk before God and to live in the knowledge that the eyes of God are always upon Him. The word translated blameless simply means to be
“single-hearted, sincere, fully devoted to the Lord.”
This is the secret of blameless walk before God: WORSHIP GOD LIKE ABRAM DID. FALL ON YOUR FACE BEFORE HIM AND YIELD TO HIM IN EVERYTHING. Circumcision was not an option, it was an OBLIGATION. Circumcision is the sign, the mark of a person’s relationship to God. Ishmael represents the fleshly things we do for God and it pains us to give up our cherished dreams. Our responsibility is to give up our Ishmael. Ishmael did not get a new name, because he represents the flesh, and the flesh cannot be changed.
People think that Genesis is simply an ancient history book. Living by God’s promises means living by faith in the one who made the promises and believing the promises He made to us. From God’s viewpoint, this trial was a character forming event. When circumstances are negative, we are more concerned about the promises of God than the GLORY OF GOD. Abram and Sarah did not break any laws, but they did deviate from God’s Word and through it were unable to have peace and joy in their family. Our God is never caught by surprise when we forsake the Main Road. He is eventually showing up to bring us back where we belong, unto the Main Road.
Genesis 15:1-21 1. Faith does not ELIMINATE FEELINGS Genesis 15:1 Psalm 46:10 2. Darkness does not ELIMINATE LIGHT Genesis 15:2-6 1 Peter 5:7 Romans 8:14-17 Isaiah 53:12 2 Corinthians 5:21 3. Lack of Possession does not ELIMINATE OWNERSHIP Genesis 15:7-21 Hebrews 5:9 Hebrews 9:12-15 1 Peter 5:10
There can be no growth without challenge, and there can be no challenge without change. That’s the way God designed our ‘SCHOOL OF FAITH CURRICULUM’. If nothing ever changes, you don’t need to learn to LIVE BY GOD’S PROMISES. If life is predictable, there are no challenges to overcome. And if there are no challenges to overcome, you will not be able to LIVE BY FAITH. Abram lived by Faith in the promises of God and through such actions Abram glorified God. Lot became a friend of the world, and Lot conformed to the world. • God was about to discipline Lot by making him a prisoner of war. God loved Lot, but he did not like what Lot was doing. So, like a loving and caring Father, God had to bring correction into Lot’s life. “Abram lived by the blessing of the Lord, not the bribery of the world. “