An Always Faithful God...

Tonight, my brother led the youth group again as he will be doing until he must go back to Master's College to finish his biblical studies. The lesson was mainly centered around the story of Abram and Lot as he was taken captive and robbed of his possessions. If you are not completely familiar with the story, the long and short of it is this....Abram and Lot, over some time, accumulate too much stuff and do not have a sufficient amount of space to support both families and their cattle. So Abram gives Lot the option to either take the land to the right or the land to the left...Lot, of course, takes the land that is more luscious and green while Abram is left with the "leftovers." God honors this step of faith to Abram by blessing him with abundant descendants that will be prosperous, at least eventually. The way that God decided to show this act of blessing was to have Abram do a customary "sacrifice", if you will, in which he would cut a ram, goat, and cow in half (and killing a dove and a pigeon). This customary sacrifice which was practiced in those days, was an act which solidified a promise between two people. The symbolic part of this procession was for the 2 people -making the promise- to walk between the severed animals. Now, you ask...what's the point of cutting perfectly good animals in half? Well, that was to show that if one of the persons in the binding promise broke that promise, they were now subject to being cut in half as well.

Now, after Abram did what God asked him to do. "A smoking firepot with a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces (Genesis 15:17)." This was the symbolic display which God showed to Abram to remind Him that He would keep his promise. And because God cannot be killed, He is telling Abram that He will ALWAYS keep His promises. The crazy part is that it was only God Himself walking between the severed animals, not God and Abram. This is revealing God's true love for us because we, as humans, cannot always keep our promises to God...but God ALWAYS remains faithful. This is just crazy and awesome to think about, in my last post I said that we are encouraged to never say never, all, or anything of absolute certainty by the world of "logic." From what I have seen and experienced in this world (albeit not that much considering I'm under 20), God is the only one you can AWLAYS count on...your friends, yeah they can be awesome buds but they are not physically always able to be right there with you. Your parents, they are there with you a lot of the time, but not always. You yourself aren't even always completely there for yourself.

But God, He is always faithful, even when we fail and falter...He is there. When we spit in His face and tell Him He can't control us, He still loves us. Even though we, at one point, were enemies of God because of sin nature...HE DIED FOR US! If that ain't love then I don't know what love is. He wiped our slate clean so that we could start a new life in Him.

Romans 5:9-11-"⁹Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him! ¹⁰For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! ¹¹Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation."

We were once alienated from God, but through His Son...we have a way to get to God and have a personal friendship. His Son died for you and me, all we have to do is believe and accept Him as our Savior and we will be saved, truly awesome. We were once enemies of God but we have been reconciled and bought with a bloody price. He loved us so much to do this, is it too much for us to just suck it up and serve Him? But, there are some Christians or nonbelievers who don't want to go to church because of two-faced Christians and thus, don't want anything to do with church or be around "church" people.

If you are a Christian out there or simply an onlooker...if you are tired of seeing "fake" or hypocritical Christians and want to leave your church simply for that reason, take a minute and think. Wherever you go in life, whether that be a "Christian" church, a Catholic church, Methodist, or Lutheran, the military, your workplace, your home life....anywhere you go, you will find "fake" or hypocritical people. If you are tired of seeing fake people or being around them...then BE REAL, step up and live what is right...be the one to practice what you preach, it's easier said than done, but the rewards for being the "sore thumb" will be far more than worth it. The most rewarding, inner satisfaction that you can receive in this life is between yourself and God. I guarantee it. The straight A's you get only satisfy for so long, helping the old lady across the street only satisfy for so long,unless, these deeds are done with God in your heart and your motives purely for God alone. Then and only then, will you truly feel happy and more importantly, joyful.

Ephesians 6:6-8-"⁶Obey them not only to win their favor when their eye is on you, but like slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart. ⁷Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not men, ⁸because you know that the Lord will reward everyone for whatever good he does, whether he is slave or free."

God is always faithful to us even when we aren't to Him. He gave His life for us, let us make Him proud.