The Blessings of Abraham

                                                                                                                   

Aloha Dearest Family,

                When studying how God takes care of us and blesses us today, it is vital that we first look at how God blessed Abraham. We will start our study in Genesis chapter 17.

                “And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the LORD appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect.” 

It is important for us to recognize how God refers to Himself in this verse; Almighty God (El Shaddai). God uses many terms for Himself in scripture that are not just haphazard in their usage but are meant to teach us about His nature. In Genesis 1, he refers to Himself by the Hebrew word Elohim- the creator. In Genesis 2 He refers to Himself as Johovah-showing Himself in relationship to what He has created. But in Genesis 17 He uses a new term, El Shaddai. Why is this important? As we keep reading we will find some of the attributes of God as El Shaddai- God Almighty.

                

                      “And I (El Shaddai) will make my covenant between me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly.” (verse 2) 

25 years earlier God had promised Abram that he would have a son. Here in verse 1 God is reiterating this promise to him. In fact God says that He will multiply Abram’s seed exceedingly. We must realize that at this time in Abraham’s life, Sarah his wife, was barren. She is unable to have children. So in order to get Abram’s vision up to where it needed to be, God changed His name from Abram (father of height) to Abraham (father of multitudes).

                

                 “And I will make thee exceeding fruitful, and I will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee. And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee.” (Verses 6 and 7) 

God tells him that He will make him exceedingly fruitful and will make nations of him. Furthermore God would establish this covenant to Abraham’s seed after him, even though physically it was impossible for Abraham and Sarah to produce children. This was the promise that God (El Shaddai) made with Abraham. And because Abraham believed this promise, Abraham and Sarah begat Isaac. Remember that God can always bring the impossible to pass.

               

               In chapter 28 God restates the promise to Isaac that he made to his father Abraham.

                “And God Almighty bless thee, and make thee fruitful, and multiply thee, that thou may be a multitude of people; And give thee the blessing of Abraham, to thee, and to thy seed with thee; that thou may inherit the land wherein thou art a stranger, which God gave unto Abraham”. (Genesis 28: 3 and 4) 

Again God refers to Himself as El Shaddai, God Almighty. He promised Isaac what He had promised to Abraham his father; that He would make him fruitful and multiply his seed and God would make him a great nation. As we read the record we will find that this is exactly what God did.

                To Isaac’s son Jacob, God says, “Thy name is Jacob: thy name shall not be called any more Jacob, but Israel shall be thy name: and he called his name Israel. And God said unto him, I am God Almighty: be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall be of thee, and kings shall come out of thy loins;”  (Genesis 35:10 and 11) 

Again we see that God Almighty (El Shaddai) is still intent on blessing the descendants of Abraham. God also promises Jacob that He will make him a great nation. God was true to His Word because out of Jacob came kings such as David, Solomon, Hezekiah and the king of all kings - Jesus Christ. 

                When we study the term God Almighty (El Shaddai), we see that it refers to the God who promises bountifulness, fruitfulness, blessing and support. And one who will defend His people and provide them with endless supply. And this is how God blessed the descendants of Abraham throughout their generations. This is the true meaning of why God refers to Himself as El Shaddai. 

Now you may ask, “Why is this important to me to know today”? Remember that God promised Abraham that he would bless his children after him. Let us now go to Galatians.

“Understand, then, that those who have faith are children of Abraham.” (Galatians 3:7) 

According to the scripture, there are two ways of becoming children and the off spring of Abraham. Either by bloodline or by faith.  Very few of us can say that they are children of Abraham by bloodline, but ALL of us have believed on Jesus Christ and therefore are the children of Abraham by our faith.

“There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.” (Galatians 3:28 and 29) 

We belong to Christ so that makes us Abraham’s seed and partakers of God’s promise to Abraham. All of the promises God made to Abraham regarding His promise to greatly bless his descendants now falls on us. Because we are Abraham’s seed God has promised to make us fruitful, bountiful and supplying us with every good thing.

“And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:19) This promise is available to us because we are the seed of Abraham. And God is not slack concerning His promises.

Since we believed on Jesus Christ, we are a blessed people. We not only are blessed with every physical blessing available through Abraham, but we now are blessed with every spiritual blessing through Christ as well.

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.” (Ephesians 1:3)

We as believers should never ever feel down-hearted, depressed or abandoned. Every blessing that was available to give, God (El Shaddai) gave to us, His children. We lack nothing in this life. Let us live every day basking in this eternal reality.

                                            Love always, Ray

Absent from the Body

                                                                                                                              

“..absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.” (II Corinthians 5:6b)

For many years, this section of scripture has been used to say that when we die, we go right to heaven to be with the Lord. But as we have learned, we can’t just take a scripture out of the Bible and not consider it’s context. This is not being a good student of the Bible. If this scripture agreed with what God had already revealed to us about life and death, then we could take this scripture at face value. But this scripture, taken by itself, contradicts other scriptures on this topic, and therefore must be examined more carefully to discover its true meaning.


To grasp what this verse is referring to, we must go back to II Corinthians 4:14 to pick up the context.

14 “Knowing that He which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus, and shall present us with you.” Paul is speaking of the time when Jesus Christ will return for his church. Just as God raised Jesus from the dead, He will also raise up US also. When? At Christ’s return.

16 For which cause we faint not (we are not discouraged); but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.                                                                                                         

Our physical bodies tend to grow old and feeble the longer we live, nevertheless, our inward man (the Christ in you) is renewed daily. It is renewed daily when we realize that one day Christ will return for us.

17 For our light (weight of) affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;                                                                                                                
Here we have a comparison. The first part of the verse should read “our light weight of affliction” and is compared to our “eternal weight of glory”. If we had a balance scale, and we placed on each side these weights, our “weight of glory” would far out-weigh the other. Whatever afflictions or tribulations we may face in this life, our future reality of the joy we will experience cannot even compare. Like Romans 8:18 informs us, “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.”

18 While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal (temporary); but the things which are not seen are eternal.
We are all encouraged to look at (envision) the things that are not seen yet (what God has in store for us when Christ returns), instead of considering what we are going through in life, for it is just temporary.

                 Verse 5:1 starts a new chapter but does not start a new thought. This verse and the verses that come after, should actually be part of the preceding verses. (Remember, that chapter divisions were added by man. Even though they are helpful at times, they are not Godly inspired).          

                1 For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle (tent) were dissolved (or taken down), we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

The Apostle Paul now starts to make a comparison between our earthly tabernacle or tent and our eternal bodies that we will receive at the return of Christ. Our earthly bodies are considered to be just a tent that is not a permanent structure but mobile and is easily taken down. In contrast we have in the future a permanent building of God. This represents our future incorruptible body that we will all one day receive.

                2 For in this (this earthly body) we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven: 3 If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked (unclothed).
The ones who will be found unclothed are the ones who do not have eternal life and the promise of new spiritual bodies. These are the unsaved. When these people die, they will remain dead.

4 For we that are in this tabernacle (this present physical body) do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life.
We would groan and be burdened if we did not have the promise of a future life with the savior. But we do and we know that one day our “mortality shall be swallowed up of (eternal) life”.

5 Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit.
The reason we can be sure that we will have this eternal future is that God has given us His spirit. The spirit is our guarantee that we will one day live with Christ in a future paradise with new spiritual bodies.  

6 Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord:
As we have already seen, this verse does not refer to being with Christ immediately after death, but upon Christ’s return.

7 (For we walk by faith, not by sight:) 8 We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord (one day). 9 Wherefore we labor, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him.
                Whether we are present with the Lord (at his return) or absent (in this present physical body) we may be accepted of him. And we are.