Lion of Grace

It's interesting to me that here is Rebekah again putting a bug in Isaac's ear. She has already discussed with Jacob about leaving and she wants him to be married with descendants, but she also knows he shouldn't marry foreign wives. She already suggested to Jacob himself in 27:43 that he go to her brother Laban and plays on that with Isaac too, saying she'll just die if Jacob marries a foreign girl! Interestingly enough, Isaac then suggests the same plan to Jacob to go to Laban as Rebekah suggested by herself to Jacob also! Isaac then, gives the blessing as he goes out. I think by this time, Isaac knows the true blessing and inheritance is for Jacob, so he gives the "covenant" blessing, the same given to Abraham for many descendants,the promised land and blessings of being the father to many nations.

Do we get a point for each flaw? I think I have had and fight, to overcome traits from all of them at different times! Rebekah and taking things into my own hands because I doubted God was REALLY doing what He promised. Jacob because I have gone along with what was good for "me" and without integrity. I didn't stand up for what was right. Isaac because I'm gullible sometimes and then Esau because I have not appreciated all God has given me. But....thanks be to our Lord Jesus Christ there is hope for us all and I pray for an ever changing heart so I can love Him more and more and reflect His character in my life! I have yet to attain the goal....but I'm running!

When children sense that one is loved more than the other, jealousy will always spring up. In my home as a child, some of my brothers and sisters (7 in all) were considered very smart and even tested for genius IQ's! I was the first "normal" child and was really often refered to as the stupid one. The black sheep. In reality I was not, but came to live that out as I was emotionally beaten into believing it! I really didn't think there was any hope for me and I was some kind of mistake! I carried it all my life (with disasterous results) until some years ago when I was saved and was nurtured, loved and accepted by God, who assured me I was who He created me to be and was fearfully and wonderfully made. I came to be content in that! I let go of anger and jealousy and status quo and became much stronger in not believing what everyone else says! When I had my own three children, I desired to help them discover who God had created them to be and though similar in ways, each has their own area they stand out in. I love each the same but nurture in different ways. I found when jealousy springs up over one getting more attention than the other in any particular thing, that open communication helps the most. I remind the one who feels slighted for the moment of the special care he/she received in the past week also and ask them to have compassion for the one who has a greater need for that moment. That seems to bring things in perspective for them. All in all though, each child needs to know and be reminded that who they are and are created to be is OK. Especially the ones who may have gifts or personalities that society does not see as most noteworthy....but God will use in very special ways if they are nurtured to be content in who they are and to serve God all their lives being who He made them to be. Great or small or both....all in one lifetime! Now I have a grandaughter who is giving all kinds of clues in what she is interested in and what her gentle personality shows she will be. I love watching her unfold her beauty as God reveals His masterpiece in her! It's so wonderful to nurture her too!

Isaac couldn't reverse the blessing because for the Jewish people the blessing for inheritance was like a proclamation of a law. It was irreversable. Isaac may not have known, but Esau sold his birthright. God knew. He knew he would before it happened! He knew his plan would be completed through Jacob. That doesn't excuse the deceit in it though by Rebekah and Jacob. They both payed for the consequences of their sin also. Jacob was hated by his brother. Rebekah was separated from her son. She really lost both of her sons for a time. Isaac's role in this was to give the blessing according to God's will. He was the vessel used by God for His purposes. God's role is to do the deciding. I still see this today. God sending someone to do his will and others deciding that someone else should have been sent! But....God is faithful and powerful enough to overcome all opposition and he's always done things in ways we can't understand for the moment, but if we wait and trust we will see His good and perfect will in it. Our part is to be the vessel He can work HIS will through!

There really isn't any excuse for Rebekah when she took God's word to her and Jacob, because she inevitably took the matter into her own hands instead of waiting for and trusting God in matters to complete the promise. She also influenced her son to be deceitful and compromised his character by the bad example of her own. When God promised her or instructed her in this matter, she could have trusted Him in it. Even if it seems as though it's the last hour (Or even seeming to be beyond that....as shown through Christ and His death and rising again) God is faithful and has all the means and power to make anything happen if He so wills it. She should have waited. Jacob bears just as much responsibility in it also. For the same reasons....and....he had every choice to not enter into the deceit. He only needed to say what was right and refuse to be drawn in. I know God would have rewarded his obedience to do right.

Yes, I think Rebekah was a spiritual woman as she did seek God, so she must have had some belief going on. She gave in a lot to her own will in her own ways....but she believed God was there. Isaac was spiritual and of the two the most spiritual I think. He prayed to God because he knew God could help Rebekah and he did have the upbringing with belief in the one true God, while his wife had not. He seems passive, but not without integrity and love for others. Esau was called (and remembered) as Godless and though that grieves me, I can't say he seemed to have anything spiritual about him. Jacob, although cunning and deceitful and willing to go along with deceit had some spirituality to him. At this point though, it seems he's living for himself, but he did at least have an understanding of the importance of the birthright. For the Jews, that had spiritual meaning as well as for earthly inheritance, so I do think he reflected on some of that. We of course have the rest of the story, so we know he develops more spiritual qualities and does ask for spiritual blessings. His life story though shows us how GOD'S plan and purposes are brought forth....even in very imperfect people!

The New Testament reading condemns Esau as "Godless" when he sold his birthright for a bowl of food. The birthright represented a gift and priveledge for blessings and inheritance by his birthright. Esau literally scorned his election and sold out for something so much less to gratify himself for the moment. He despised his birthright. His character reflected instant gratification of self and no respect or gratitude towards what was given to him and he even thought so little of it, he barely gave thought to selling it and for such a price! Jacob's character is also being revealed as cunning and without integrity at this point, because when his brother asked for food, he didn't just gladly share with him, he asked for a great price. The birthright. He took advantage of his brother's weakness for his pwn gain.

Diotrephes had character traits of being prideful, self centered, controlling, manipulative and slanderous. Can strong leadership have these traits? Absolutely! And....are probably more tempted to subcome to these temptations, because so many people look up to them and they can lose sight of it's not them, but God that is leading. I'm always so grateful for a servant leader, who readily admits to being human and who won't pretend to know everything! One who walks with God daily and is teachable themselves. I love leadership that esteems others over themselves and seeks for the good of others. That takes out a lot of the self importance that seeps into leadership sometimes. And that self important attitude keeps others out that God sends in! God intends for us to see and help others who many people naturally don't see and recognize in their worth. Not just the worth of the leadership they come to! How do we overcome this in ourselves? Remembering what Jesus taught and remaining humble in knowing who we are and how much we have been saved from. To remember if we don't serve out of a true love in our hearts, we are only performing duties that lead to self importance. Love always puts others first and self last and waits for reward from God not man. So it doesn't matter about "position" or "being in charge of" anything. It's about raising others up and watching them grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ.

We should be supporting fellow Christian workers in their ministries because we in turn, become co-workers with them in their work. We may become co-workers in receiving them or offering a place to stay. We may be co-workers in prayer or in financial giving. Whatever we have to give, we should give freely to those who we are sure are walking in Christ for His Kingdom purposes. We also know, that as we do these things, we are doing them for Christ Himself as we have been taught that as we do it for the least of these, we did it for Him. There is always more effectiveness when others are supportive. More needs are met through the gifting of many and to use those gifts for God's kingdom are in obedience to His Word also. And....I'm a firm believer that we not only support those in larger and more recognized missions work, but there are all kinds of servants in smaller missions who need our support, prayers and time as encouragement. These are most often overlooked and are in great need of our help and support.

I think John is talking specifically about false teachers. Not to be confused with reaching out for the lost and having them in your home. Because Jesus DID teach that! The false teachers were actively trying to get others to believe a way other than what Christ taught. As believers in Christ....who would tolerate that? Why would we want to invite in and give ground to anyone who taught other than what we have come to know as truth in Christ Jesus? I could perhaps tolerate a false teacher in the hopes to lead them to truth, but it would be stupidity to allow a platform for stubborn, openly false teaching in my home once I see the false teacher is not in Christ. I think most churches are united as the body of Christ in believing in Christ and that is a foundation, but really, I think most of the divisions in churches and doctrines have come out of the so called "revealing of deeper truths" and have caused a falling away to the true teachings of Christ and how people treat each other as well as disunity among different denominations. WE are the church....in Him.

The danger of running ahead of Christs teachings to "deeper" truths, is that we are no longer following what Christ taught! We are no longer following at all! What did Christ teach? Salvation through believing in Him and the Father who sent Him, and to love God above everything else and to love each other. When we get into all the other "stuff" that others want to add to that, we can lose sight of the truth and even become in danger of becoming a part of living out the truth. We "abide" by staying connected every day in prayer and relationship with Jesus and being reminded of what Jesus taught. He said HE was the way and truth and life. We remember it, trust the Holy Spirit to remind in it, and then we live it the best we can. To be followers of the way, we must follow Christ and what He taught! The only "deeper" thing we should have, is a deeper relationship with Him and not allow the other stuff to interfere with that.

John exhorts to keep away from idols because idols shift our focus from God to other areas. Some idols are wordly material things that "fill us up" as opposed to God being our source of contentment. Other idols can be more on an emotional level. I have the tendancy to want people to fill me up. I have issues of neglect and abandonment, so it can become easy for me to turn to people for love and solutions to problems. That's OK in balanced relationships, God gave us to each other for love and support, but I sometimes slip into forgetting to go to God first for the fill up and guidance. And THEN enjoying the people in my life together in Christ. Thank God I have friends who understand this, who stick by me, yet encourage me in wholesome relationships and I have a very good God who reminds me He's first and brings me to places I can be gently led to acknowledge that. He is faithful to remind me, knowing my circumstances, correcting me and restoring me to Himself.

Two conditions for answered prayers are: Our obedience God's will How do we determine God's will? We learn through experiences with Him and we learn from His Word what His will is. Then we can pray boldly because we know we are asking for something in His will and He will be in agreement and answer our prayers. Even if I'm not sure what is in His will, (like a physical healing for a person etc.)I ask God to heal them, yet pray that I'm submitted to what He has planned for that person. And if a prayer is long term and seemingly not answered, I ask Him to help me be patient as He answers in His own timing and His own way. (That may look different than how I thought He would answer.) If the motive is to attain our own will, I may not get an answer to the prayer, but I do receive grace in my prayer and the conviction of understanding why. I also receive help to learn of a better way to pray for the circumstance and grow in my trust in Him as He shows me a better way to pray or to live.

The difference in "This life is in the Christian church" and "This life is in the Son", is based on the aspect of a personal relationship with Jesus. So many churches are secularly run like businesses. They read/teach the Bible, but out of context to promote control and legalism. It may be more of a place to meet as society, calling it "fellowship" but is lacking in really knowing Jesus and the grace by which we are saved. That makes a huge difference in how one sees everything and how one treats everyone. We need to teach faith "relationship" over "religion" because our desire should be to grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus, not just doctrine. He is alive and with us through The Holy Spirit and He wants us to know Him and come to see who He is in His goodness and grace. In Him we live and have our being. Religion is cold and lifeless and shallow. Christ is vibrant, alive and warm! We as the REAL Church, are a living organism built together in Him! Not a building or denomination!

Thank God for this study! The very thing I'm struggling with right now! I was falling into the defeatist attitude in something in my life. I wanted to withdraw from everything, yet I felt God saying to rest in Him awhile and He would help me. I flew to be under the shadow of His wing. As I waited for Him to help me, I pondered on my faith in Him. Had He not always been faithful? Did I not have an enemy prowling around me waiting to devour me? Did I not have power to overcome the enemy? I read some devotionals and one was on having a vision of opening a door and declaring to the enemy He had no right to be there standing in my way as I desired to move forward. I did. Then I was to pray for a clearing of the air around me, overcoming the negative that the enemy surrounded me with. I did that too! Then I felt to seek Him in any way I could with all my heart. I turned to this study first, and there it all was! Clarity and clearing and a renewed purpose in Christ! Come to me all you who are weary and heavy ladened and I will give you rest. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me! That may answer this question in a different way.....but I just lived it!

The statement "God is love" is important because they describe the very essence of who He is. It says about His nature, that everything else is second to that. That the deepest understanding we can have of Him is that He is love. This affects us, because this is our hope. As we walk our journey in life and all that entails, the foundation of God being love, is what carries us through. When we fall, He is love and picks us up. When we hurt, He is love and comforts us, when we can't go on, He is love and supports us to see us through. He is love in everything. When we doubt, He is love and shows truth. When we even hate ourselves, He is love no matter what we face. His love heals and sustains. Love demands a willingness to forgive because we ourselves are the receivers of such great love and forgiveness and we are to demonstate that to others. In fact, God in us, demonstrates that through us, as we know His love!

" Greater is He that is in us, than he that is in the world!" The Holy Spirit lives within us and is greater than anything satan can level against us! Even if we are fooled for a time, the Holy Spirit is faithful to rescue us and to remind us and get us on the lighted path again! Nothing will snatch us from our Father's hands! We are engaved there!

Believing that Jesus is God in the flesh is important because the Word says so! God, Emmanuel means God with us. Jesus came as one of us, to fulfill both justice and mercy. He had to pay for our sin and though He did not sin, sin was placed upon Him. He has empathy for everything we go through in this life as He experienced life on earth Himself. In the end, I believe, as He cried out "My God, my God, Why have You forsaken me?" that Jesus experienced the pain of all sin and the excrutiating desperate darkness of being separated from God. Therefore, He can be our great High Priest, interceding for us with understanding because He experienced and shared in with us, all we experience. He had to become man to do that and yet is God too as the only incarnate son of God. Satan doesn't want us to believe this, because He wants us to think there is a separation between us and God and that God is removed from us, not understanding our pain and afflictions and is trying to make us give up hope in our trials and sin. But in our Christian walk, we as believers, know that Satan is a liar and that through Jesus, our sins have been overcome and through each struggle or backsliding, our hope is in Him, who died for us and is constantly pleading His blood for us!

We never "earn" anything from God and He never "owes" us anything. It is by faith we are saved and in seeking Him and His righteousness that everything is added to us. The key is relationship and faith. We can't do "works" to earn God's favor and we can't be legally perfect in our own striving, but we can love God more than anything else and seek Him daily on His will in our lives and find favor as we step out in that. But even then, sometimes what we "think" will be favor is not met as we would "see" it, because God is infinite and we are finite and we can't grasp all He's doing.....but we can trust Him in it always seeking again for HIS will. God has answered my prayers when I haven't been living a life pleasing to Him. But my prayer was in His will, because I cried out for wisdom and understanding and help to know His will better. I had the realization (again!)this week how merciful God is. I thought of every minute in our country that horrendous sin is committed through murder, hatred, deceit, greed etc. and how God has still extended mercy to us. That is infinite patience! Give thanks to the Lord for He is good, His mercy endures forever! Once, long ago, God saw all He had made and knew that His creation had chosen to live in rebellion. All Heaven watched a just God as they wondered how He would continue to be truth in who He is, as He could not be other than just. But our God, who could have destroyed all that was unjust was love. So He chose to send a message and He chose to send love in the form of His Son (and Himself!)and He chose that His Son would pay the price so all would be just. The message "Peace on Earth, good will towards men" are profound words. His Son, accomplished the fullfillment of the law and of love in that He died for us so we may have eternal life and relationship with Himself, so God remained just, yet was love. And all who believe are made righteous in His eyes. This is our faith and our gift to receive from our loving God. Now we love Him, because He first loved us. That's love! God is love.

To lay down our lives down for anyone else, means sacrificial giving. It's giving beyond what we think we are able to do, trusting God to supply us with what we need to meet the other person's need. Sometimes this is a means of dying to ourselves, because we have to confront our own selfishness in areas we struggle in. We come to rely more on the Holy Spirit to lead and guide also and to live in us and through us for others. Ever walked away from a situation and you just KNEW you could never have acted as you did or served in such a way in and of yourself? More of God, less of ourselves creates the ability to give in a way that we can lay down our lives sacrificially. How is that demonstrated? The question was on Christian community and I'm not sure what the whole meaning is on that. I do believe larger churches do need small groups to grow more intimate relationships and through love for one another, serve each other and meet needs. But, I think there is a danger of growing too inclusive in that also. There is so much need outside the church among the lost. I believe that laying one's life down is needed in those areas. There are people who have no hope in this world, that need Jesus. There are the destitute and those in slavery to sin who cry for freedom and yet have no idea where the freedom will come from. There are poor and downtrodden and those crying for just a small piece of love and they won't come to our churches, either because of shame or hurt or darkness. I believe we are to go out and lay our lives down for these. A man may lay down his life for a good man, but who will lay down his life for the lost? That's what Jesus did for us. Small groups are wonderful and I love my brothers and sisters in mine and hope to meet their needs in any way I can, but as a group we can go out also and meet even a greater need for someone who has no one. Thanks Lionbait for the song! I received that same one from another source just this month and it reminded me (again) of how much He loves us and how much we have to pour out to others!

Anger can turn into bitterness and harden our hearts, so that we loose our tenderness and we become calloused in our hearts and in our minds. Anger and hatred relate to murder, because we no longer have love in our hearts towards those who have hurt us. We think of justice and vengeance and even though we may not physically murder, we murder in other ways. Gossiping or slandering or undermining a person and ruining their reputations. We end up hating them. We can get rid of stored up anger by taking it to God. I know when I confess my feelings of anger, I lay them at the feet of Jesus and ask Him to deal with the person and to help me have the fruit of the Spirit towards them. I also have had the experience of God showing me my own shortcomings in what I'm angry at another about. When I see that in myself and know the forgiveness I've been given, I'm more ready to forgive another with gratitude to God.

Cain resented Able because the sacrifice he offered to God was not accepted as Able's had been. Cain killed Able because of jealousy and hatred. Why does the world hate us? They see in us a relationship with God that can not be overcome. We are rooted and grounded in love and we know God is on our side. Though we may suffer for awhile in many things, God always wins and the world (as much as it doesn't want to see) recognizes it because the world will constantly move against us and God's work in us. Eventually though, every battle is won and the world has to admit defeat. That being repeated over time, does foster jealousy and hatred, even murder, but can also cause eyes to see and hearts to cry out and say " Who is your God? I want Him!"

The presence of God's seed is by His Holy Spirit who lives in us. He directs and guides us as we abide in Him, so that though we may be tempted to sin, helps us to recognize sin and avoid sin. If we go our own way, He is there to convict us and through repentance, receive us back, forgiven through Jesus, and encouraged to go on. We are sanctified through this very process. Once we acknowledge our sin, we are freed from those sins and eventually have victory over them. This can be a hard won battle, but the battle belongs to Him who is in us and he wins every time! Even in habitual, long standing addictive sins! So take heart, have faith and turn to the one who loves you and died for you to cleanse every sin! Nothing is impossible for God!

Lawlessness to me, deals with the commands Jesus gave. Love God above all things and love your neighbor as yourself. If you do these things, you will be in the will of God. Without loving God above all things, a person will go his/her own way, ignoring what they have learned of God and if we don't love others as ourselves, we are not living out the love of God we ourselves have received. The "attitudes" we get out of lawlessness is that we can operate outside of the will of God and that we can "talk" about religion, but we don't have to live it. We will, as Christians, be known for our love and not just with our "friends" but with some of those (like me!) that Jesus sought out to help and with that passion for seeing others come to Jesus who is their Savior and source of hope! So many times, the church has become so "cleaned up" we forget what it's all about.

I think Christ"s second coming motivates us to purify ourselves from sin, because we never know when He's coming! I often think during the day, "If God came right now, would I be ashamed, or would He be pleased at what He saw." Sometimes, I knew I could be doing better and other times I'm content. I desire to be doing good when He comes, because I love Him and desire to please Him. This makes me more aware of what Jesus taught us to do and how to live, so I want to be doing those things when He comes! Purifying ourselves from sin, relates to grace in astounding ways! I remember when I first realized all those "laws" were there to show me what was sin, because at the time, I had really lost all sense of right and wrong. My life was consummed with guilt when I first believed....but I had much to be guilty about! It was God's grace though, that first taught me to fear and then grace relieved those fears and guilt! Is that a song? : ) As I grew in the love and knowledge of Jesus, I experienced very deeply Who Jesus is and what He had done for a wretch like me. I lived that song!!! When one, who has been forgiven by grace the most horrendously lived life of sin, and experiences the love of God who says " Come as you are." and means it.....well, that only turns you to love Him more and as you begin to learn what He desires for you in living.....then you desire that also. I know for myself, when I become aware of areas of sin in my life, I am broken. I am so deeply sorry to hurt one who has been so good to me. In any way we sin, against ourselves or others, we sin against Him who has been nothing short of gracious love and acceptance and we should think of that often.