7 January 2011

 

Fear not, Abram! I am your shield – Extracted from Genesis 15:1-6; 21:1-3

 

The word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision, saying:
"Fear not, Abram!"
I am your shield;
I will make your reward very great."
But Abram said,
"O Lord GOD, what good will your gifts be,
if I keep on being childless
and have as my heir the steward of my house, Eliezer?"
Abram continued,
"See, you have given me no offspring,
and so one of my servants will be my heir."

Then the word of the LORD came to him:
"No, that one shall not be your heir;
your own issue shall be your heir."
The Lord took Abram outside and said,
"Look up at the sky and count the stars, if you can.
Just so," he added, "shall your descendants be."
Abram put his faith in the LORD,
who credited it to him as an act of righteousness.

The LORD took note of Sarah and had said he would;
he did for her as he had promised.
Sarah became pregnant and bore Abraham a son in his old age,
at the set time that God had stated.
Abraham gave the name Isaac to his son of his
whom Sarah bore him.

 

Our Reflections: Abraham was 100 years old and Sarah 90 years old when Isaac was born. God who is faithful will always keep His promise to us, even it may appear to be “absurd”… For with God, all things are possible.         8-)

 

 

For Abraham believed that God’s promise was trustworthy, he who was as good as dead, later became the father of many nations.

- Extracted from the Sermon- the Hebrews 11:8,  11-12, 17-19

 

Brothers and sisters:
By faithful Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place
that he was to receive as an inheritance;
he went out, not knowing where he was to go.
By faith he received power to generate,
even though he was past the normal age
and Sarah herself was sterile
for he thought that the one who had made the promise was trustworthy.
So it was that there came forth from one man,
himself as good as dead,
descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky
as countless as the sands on the seashore.

By faith Abraham, when put to the test, offered up Isaac,
and he who had received the promises was ready to offer
his only son,
of whom it was said,
"Through Isaac descendants shall bear your name."
He reasoned that God was able to raise even from the dead,
and received Isaac back as a symbol.

 

Our Reflections: Our God is faithful and yet He is also a God of the “Impossible”.    8-)   

 

Back to Encouragements-80

Whoever keeps His word, the love of God is truly perfected in him-

Extracted from 1 John 2:3-11

 

Beloved:
The way we may be sure that we know Jesus
is to keep his commandments.
Whoever says, "I know him," but does not keep his commandments
is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
But whoever keeps his word,
the love of God is truly perfected in him.
This is the way we may know that we are in union with him:
whoever claims to abide in him ought to walk just as he walked.

Beloved, I am writing no new commandment to you
but an old commandment that you had from the beginning.
The old commandment is the word that you have heard.
And yet I do write a new commandment to you,
which holds true in him and among you,
for the darkness is passing away,
and the true light is already shining.
Whoever says he is in the light,
yet hates his brother, is still in the darkness.
Whoever loves his brother remains in the light,
and there is nothing in him to cause a fall.
Whoever hates his brother is in darkness;
he walks in darkness
and does not know where he is going
because the darkness has blinded his eyes.

 

 

We are children of God and also heirs of God’s Kingdom -Galatians 4:4-7

 

Brothers and sisters:
When the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son,
born of a woman, born under the law,
to ransom those under the law,
so that we might receive adoption as sons.

As proof that you are sons,
God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts,
crying out, "Abba, Father!"
So you are no longer a slave but a son,
and if a son then also an heir, through God.

Everyone who acts in righteousness is begotten by God– Extracted from 1 John 2:29-3:6

 

If you consider that God is righteous,

you also know that everyone who acts in righteousness

is begotten by him.

 

See what love the Father has bestowed on us

that we may be called the children of God.

Yet so we are.

The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.

Beloved, we are God's children now;

what we shall be has not yet been revealed.

We do know that when it is revealed we shall be like him,

for we shall see him as he is.

Everyone who has this hope based on him makes himself pure,

as he is pure.

 

Everyone who commits sin commits lawlessness,

for sin is lawlessness.

You know that He was revealed to take away sins,

and in him there is no sin.

No one who remains in Him sins;

no one who sins has seen him or known him.

 

 

 

7 January 2012

 

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