Thank you young life for coming and sharing your ministry with us today, we look forward to working with you in the future.
Teenagers! What is going on with you guys! I hope you are getting ready for our Suncoast Youth Ninja Warrior Competition Tomorrow Night at 7:00pm. Get here early if you want a seat!! :) Ok, we will find a seat for everyone!!
A Few Thoughts From Yesterday:
Amanda: I am so glad that you doing these devotions with us now! GREAT JOB! How much will I have to pay you to get you to come on a Wednesday night? If you need a ride then just call me at the church! I will pick you up in a heart beat! (941)625-8550 or call my cell: (941)258-0719
Rachel: You are so funny! You said: I dont have much to say and then went on to write a book... :) I love it!!
Mallory: Thanks for always being faithful on this! C-Ya Wednesday!
Jessica M: I am glad that you love my quote "You cannot sin and win" I must admit though, I did not make it :(
Kacey: I am so glad that the devotions helped you yesterday! That is why we do these! I miss seeing you in church on Sundays!!!!!!
Amy: My mom used to tell me the same thing all the time!! I too was scared to death!!! :)
Genesus 26
1 There was a famine in the land, besides the first famine that was in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went to Abimelech king of the Philistines, in Gerar.
2 Then the LORD appeared to him and said: “Do not go down to Egypt; live in the land of which I shall tell you.
3 Dwell in this land, and I will be with you and bless you; for to you and your descendants I give all these lands, and I will perform the oath which I swore to Abraham your father.
4 And I will make your descendants multiply as the stars of heaven; I will give to your descendants all these lands; and in your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed;
5 because Abraham obeyed My voice and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws.”
6 So Isaac dwelt in Gerar.
7 And the men of the place asked about his wife. And he said, “She is my sister”; for he was afraid to say, “She is my wife,” because he thought, “lest the men of the place kill me for Rebekah, because she is beautiful to behold.”
8 Now it came to pass, when he had been there a long time, that Abimelech king of the Philistines looked through a window, and saw, and there was Isaac, showing endearment to Rebekah his wife.
9 Then Abimelech called Isaac and said, “Quite obviously she is your wife; so how could you say, ‘She is my sister’?” Isaac said to him, “Because I said, ‘Lest I die on account of her.’”
10 And Abimelech said, “What is this you have done to us? One of the people might soon have lain with your wife, and you would have brought guilt on us.”
11 So Abimelech charged all his people, saying, “He who touches this man or his wife shall surely be put to death.”
12 Then Isaac sowed in that land, and reaped in the same year a hundredfold; and the LORD blessed him.
13 The man began to prosper, and continued prospering until he became very prosperous;
14 for he had possessions of flocks and possessions of herds and a great number of servants. So the Philistines envied him.
15 Now the Philistines had stopped up all the wells which his father’s servants had dug in the days of Abraham his father, and they had filled them with earth.
16 And Abimelech said to Isaac, “Go away from us, for you are much mightier than we.”
17 Then Isaac departed from there and pitched his tent in the Valley of Gerar, and dwelt there.
18 And Isaac dug again the wells of water which they had dug in the days of Abraham his father, for the Philistines had stopped them up after the death of Abraham. He called them by the names which his father had called them.
19 Also Isaac’s servants dug in the valley, and found a well of running water there.
20 But the herdsmen of Gerar quarreled with Isaac’s herdsmen, saying, “The water is ours.” So he called the name of the well Esek, because they quarreled with him.
21 Then they dug another well, and they quarreled over that one also. So he called its name Sitnah.
22 And he moved from there and dug another well, and they did not quarrel over it. So he called its name Rehoboth, because he said, “For now the LORD has made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land.”
23 Then he went up from there to Beersheba.
24 And the LORD appeared to him the same night and said, “I am the God of your father Abraham; do not fear, for I am with you. I will bless you and multiply your descendants for My servant Abraham’s sake.”
25 So he built an altar there and called on the name of the LORD, and he pitched his tent there; and there Isaac’s servants dug a well.
26 Then Abimelech came to him from Gerar with Ahuzzath, one of his friends, and Phichol the commander of his army.
27 And Isaac said to them, “Why have you come to me, since you hate me and have sent me away from you?”
28 But they said, “We have certainly seen that the LORD is with you. So we said, ‘Let there now be an oath between us, between you and us; and let us make a covenant with you,
29 that you will do us no harm, since we have not touched you, and since we have done nothing to you but good and have sent you away in peace. You are now the blessed of the LORD.’”
30 So he made them a feast, and they ate and drank.
31 Then they arose early in the morning and swore an oath with one another; and Isaac sent them away, and they departed from him in peace.
32 It came to pass the same day that Isaac’s servants came and told him about the well which they had dug, and said to him, “We have found water.”
33 So he called it Shebah. Therefore the name of the city is Beersheba to this day.
34 When Esau was forty years old, he took as wives Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Basemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite.
35 And they were a grief of mind to Isaac and Rebekah.
Wow! This is such a great passage! Issac makes some mistakes and has some great successes. Lets start at the top and walk through the story. First we see Isaac make the same HORRIBLE MISTAKE that his father made. We are influenced by our authority, that is why we MUST allow the authority of God to guide us. Isaac made the same crazy mistake that his father made... He told the people of the city that Rebekkah was his SISTER?!?! Well, when the king saw Abraham making out with "his sister" He realized there was something going on. Either Issac had lied to him just like Abraham did, or there was some disgusting sibling relationships going on. Well, we all know what happened... Issac lied.
The king forgave Isaac and protected him and his family, but Isaac sure did look rediculous for his unwise decision. Say it with me: Sin makes you STUPID!
Well, praise the Lord the chapter does not end there, By the time this chapter is over we see that Isaac has made several wise choices. As we get toward the end of the chapter we see that God begins blessing Isaac for his wise decisions... ... I love how Isaac shows us how to handle conflice in verse 19 - 22. His men dig a well, and some random people walk up ans say THAT IS OUR WELL!!!!!!!! And Isaac just says, "O Well!!! :)" You can have it, I will dig a new one.... so that is what He does... his men go and dig a new well, and what happens?!? THE SAME THING!!! Does Isaac lay down the smack?? No, He simply moves on. Wow! That is a great example of how Christ tells us to turn the other cheek... Even when the situation may be unfar we should not flip out and go to war, but turn the other cheek and allow our RESPONSE to be a SHINING TESTIMONY FOR CHRIST!!! (just like Isaac was)
...
Well, the King sent Isaac away, and then realized it probably is not a good idea to make enemies with this man that is so close to God, so the king goes back to Isaac to make a "peace treaty" with Isaac. Issac had such a great testimony that people knew that God was on his side, and Isaac was able to use that to tell people about His God...
Do people know that You are close to God by the way that you live? By the way that you respond in a difficult situation?? Even Isaac made some mistakes, so dont worry if you are not there yet... STRIVE TO LIVE LIKE CHRIST!! Be faithful and God will reward you and others will see it and believe in YOUR GOD!!!
11 comments:
Sweet First!!
Pastor Lee I had the most Greatest thing happen last night i got to witness to someone!!! I was so nervous at first but then I prayed for the right words to say!! I was soo excited afterwards!!!
This passage is cool because the people hated Isaac and didnt want anything to do with him and then they noticed that he had Jesus with him and then they wanted to get a covenant with Isaac! Thats so cool how that works...
Pastor Lee just keep praying for me and the kid i witnessed to (his name is robert) thanks see ya on Wednesday...!
Before I even read Pastor Lee's comments about the sister thing, I had realized that Issac had made the same mistake as Abraham did. I had a feeling it was just an influence from his father.
Pastor Lee, I may have two friends coming to church tomorrow that just got saved from me witnessing to them. Acually, I'm not sure BOTH of them accepted Christ, but they are coming... most likely. This witnessing stuff is starting to become a habit for me.
wow congrats you guys, on the witnessing!
I find the passage interesting, because it just shows you back in the day how much jesus's presence had an influence on people, I wish people would have an influence on people just by mentioning they believe in Jesus, that would be amazing. Unfortunatly people give Christians a bad wrap, and we have to standfast, even with people suppressing our beliefs, and telling us we are wrong, by living how we believe.
On a second note, I don't know if anyone knows anything about it, but it's a huge deal, This Large Hadron Collider,
If anyone hasn't heard anything about it, it's basicly 9.000+ scientists, trying to prove physics, they want to learn about 'black matter' and higgs mechanism, and boson, it's all theory, but it's dangerous. They are trying to 'recreate' what they believe existed after the big bang, which we know isn't exactly what happened when the universe was created...
But more importantly they are trying to create vaccums, and high energy, gravity frields, pretty much black holes, they say it's harmless, but I wonder.
Anytime humanity has mocked God, nothing good has came of it, so I was just letting everyone know so we can pray that either what they are trying to do doesn't work, or doesn't do anything bad...
I'm not too worried, but I am sceptical that they would spend the 7 billion dollars on this thing, that is so big it takes up some of two countries on their borders.
And France is involed :P
That's never a good sign.
anyways, I just wanted to keep you guys up to date on that, they are doing a dry run tomorrow and a real run on Oct 21 2008.
The process is designed to run two protons at 99.9% of light speed at each other, colliding, causing alls orts of theories that they aren't sure on, but it has to do with Lead, Ions, Protons, and 96 tons of frozen Hellium.
I've researched on it some, but not too much, just enough to know what they are doing is very dangerious.
I'll pray for the people you witnessed to.
oh so it looks like were starting with Isaac and it so seems that he is somewhat like his daddy because he makes alot of the same mistakes he does. Personaly issues! On the other hand Isaac was a man of God and that is by far the best thing anyone could have! Its cool the people noticed that he trusted and followed God.
SIN MAKES YOU STUPID!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I cant believe he is making the same STUPID decision his father made ibut then he gets caught that really is bad for him and that shows me that we really shouldnt lie and i know that i hear that all the time and i really never think about it but it really causes a big camotion and look at Issac he could have been killed for that and even lieing about the tiniest thing can turn in to something bad.You know what elese it makes you look dumb and why would you want to do that to yourself i mean most of you look dumb in what you do anyways jk ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.
Ok there building a well some people walk up and say thats our well and what i would have done is i would have probably said well im here now so get lost Scott and what did Isacc do he went and moved WOW did you know just the little Christ like things you do can make people want to hang out with you more WOW what a concept I think we should strive to be more like that.
Wow I can actually believe that Isaac did this but it just goes to show that SIN MAKES YOU STUPIDO!!! Why would you do the same mistake your dad makes after Abraham learned his lesson! Idk but we need to follow Gods way for our life and not our own! Trust Him to get you through hard times and obey what he tells you to do!!! But we cant just say this is all because there is more that happens! Its cool to read that the people could tell he had the Lord with him! The question for us is are our friends and the people we see able to tell if we are christians and living for God??? We need to be careful with what we say and do and make sure that its what God wants us to be doing! It was mature for Isaac to not fight over the well and just move on to another. We need to act like that when it comes to little situations that can become big with one SIN! I will see yall 2moro night! bye for now!
At first I think that we all are like 'What in the world Isaac, didn't you learn from your fathers mistake?!', but I'm sure we have all done the same thing. We see the mistakes other people make and the consequences yet we still do them! If we see someone make a mistake we should try our hardest not to do the same thing. And that goes for our own mistakes too.
Another thing that’s really cool is how Isaac responds in tough situations. His servants must have spent hours and hours digging a well. They must have been all hot and sweaty. Then they get all done and they are so happy, and then some people come up and say that it is their well. I would have flipped out and told those people not so nice things, but Isaac just picked his things up and left. Wow, that is cool! And then the same thing happens to them. I would have been like ’This is it! It’s our well, go dig your own!’. But that would be my flesh speaking. Isaac obeyed God and didn’t react like that. Just as Isaac did, we can do the same. God can help us stay calm and He can tell us how He wants us to react.
So, the highlight of this passage for me is how Isaac reacts in a Godly way to a pretty annoying situation.
Just today i demonstrated an AWFUL way to handle my frustration and started yelling...
at a printer...?
yeah...pretty much.
(although it doesnt justify it, just so you dont think im, like, nuts; i was trying to do a supersized load of homework on very very little sleep)
Obviously i looked pretty retarded and my mom came in to see what was going on, and i was fighting with a printer.
Today was certainly one of those days where id have just like dto sleep alll day, and i often get short tempered or cranky when its one of those days.
I bet im not the only one.
I know my mom is the QUEEN of that attitude.
But here, we see Isaac faced with the same problems ( much worse than a printer) consecutively and each time, he handles it with Godly grace.
Each opportunity to get angry and for someone to see it is an opportunity to show people a Christ-like attitude, or a sinful natured attitude, and the better we represent Christ, the better people can understand Him.
Indeed I was thinking there oh hey look Isaac learned from his father. He was showing cowardice but he is redeemed. Courage to stand up for other people stand for yourself and most importantly stand for God is hard to have sometimes. Hmm the thing i get most out of this is just that. If you stand for God He'll bless you like Isaac he respected what God said and he then has a peace agreement with Abimelech.
YES YOUNGLIFE!!!! I LOVE THEM!
soooo no one like Issac. That's sad! But Issac was a man of God so no problem there! Let's try t be more Christ like! That is what it all comes down to!
This was prob the lamest one I have ever written! I mean typed! lol
cya
wow i cant believe that Isaac could have made the same mistake has his father. so this is the 3rd time that his family members said there wives were there sisters. anyways it is great how kind and giving Isaac is. when he made both of the wells he gave them to the people. they claimed they were theres and he didnt argue.
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