Worship for Today

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him in Genesis 17:7-8,

“I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you. The whole land of Canaan, where you are now an alien, I will give as an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you; and I will be their God.”

As the Lord inaugurates the covenant of circumcision with Abraham, he makes this promise to him: the whole land of Canaan will be given Abraham by God as an everlasting possession. It wasn’t until some 450 years later that Abraham’s offspring took possession of the land.

My first impulse in reading this is to recognize the eventual culmination of things in the Mideast. But something more important for each one of us comes to mind. Jesus Christ has promised us an eternity with him in Paradise. We read in Hebrews 11:8-16, “By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God… All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own… they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.”

Just as Abraham’s offspring inherited the land after his death, so we too have an inheritance waiting for us following our lives here. Definitely something to get excited about!!

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share your theme of worship with us from your Bible reading today. We’d love to hear from you!

Trevor V. Fisk

(314) 814-8486

trevorf@gracehill.org

 

 

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Worship for Today: God circumcises our hearts!

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him in Genesis 17:9-10,

“Then God said to Abraham, ‘As for you, you must keep my covenant, you and your descendants after you for the generations to come. This is my covenant with you and your descendants after you, the covenant you are to keep: Every male among you shall be circumcised.”

The covenant people of God must be circumcised. The Lord goes on to say, “My covenant in your flesh is to be an everlasting covenant.” Why would the Lord require this? Paul explains to us in Romans 2:28-29a, “A man is not a Jew if he is only one outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical. No, a man is a Jew if he is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code.” From this we learn that circumcision foretold an inward change in the hearts of God’s covenant people that would take place one day. The removal of the flesh speaks to the change the Holy Spirit brings within us as we embrace Jesus Christ in faith. The domination of the sinful nature, or flesh as Paul puts it, is removed from our lives as the Holy Spirit comes to dwell within us.

In Romans 8:12-14 we read, “Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation—but it is not to the sinful nature [the flesh], to live according to it. For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.” The Lord spoke through the prophet Jeremiah, “This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time," declares the Lord. ‘I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.” Jeremiah 31:33. As Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!”

Why does God do this? Because he is one way and we are another. What God is like we call “holy”. Through his gospel the Lord finds us another way - enslaved to sin and he wants us to become like him when we become his children. As Peter puts it, “But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: ‘Be holy, because I am holy.”

What a wonderful God we have who has circumcised our hearts by the Holy Spirit!!

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share your theme of worship with us from your Bible reading today. We’d love to hear from you!

Trevor V. Fisk

(314) 814-8486

trevorf@gracehill.org

 

 

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This electronic transmission and any documents accompanying this electronic transmission contain confidential information belonging to the sender. This information may contain confidential health information that is legally privileged. The information is intended only for the use of the individual or entity named above. The authorized recipient of this transmission is prohibited from disclosing this information to any other party unless required to do so by law or regulation and is required to delete or destroy the information after its stated need has been fulfilled. If you are not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any disclosure, copying, distribution or takinf of any action in reliance on or regarding the contents of this electronicallytransmitted information is strictly prohibited. If you have received this E-mail in error please notify the sender and delete this message immediately

Worship for Today: God's ways and his timing is perfect!

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him in Genesis 16:1-2,

“Now Sarai, Abram's wife, had borne him no children. But she had an Egyptian maidservant named Hagar; so she said to Abram, ‘The Lord has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my maidservant; perhaps I can build a family through her.’ Abram agreed to what Sarai said.”

Abram and Sarai were growing old. The Lord promised Abram offspring, more than the stars in the heavens. And yet they were growing old and Sarai was suffering the humiliation (in that culture) of not bearing any child. How could Abram say that the Lord was blessing him when no child was born to them? So they resort to the custom of the day in that culture in having Sarai’s maidservant step in to bear a child for Abram.

God’s promises are always certain but often his timing is not our timing. Abram and Sarai chose to pursue God’s promise by using Hagar. But God’s promise will be fulfilled in Sarai bearing a son for Abram. Abram will be about a hundred years old before Isaac is born to them. The difference it makes when we wait for God’s promise as opposed to rushing ahead on our own can be stark. When God fulfilled his promise to Abram the result was a people through whom God would speak to the world and though whom Jesus Christ entered the human race and gave his life that we might live. When Abram and Sarai attempted to fulfill God’s promise their way, in their time, it resulted in Ishmael whom the Arabs look to as their progenitor. The fallout from their effort is still with us as we look at the problems in the Mideast of our day.

As I read of the account I am struck with the thought that when we wait for God to fulfill his promises it results in that which reflects God himself, when we attempt to fulfill those promises on our own it reflects something else.

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share your theme of worship with us from your Bible reading today. We’d love to hear from you!

Trevor V. Fisk

(314) 814-8486

trevorf@gracehill.org

 

 

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This electronic transmission and any documents accompanying this electronic transmission contain confidential information belonging to the sender. This information may contain confidential health information that is legally privileged. The information is intended only for the use of the individual or entity named above. The authorized recipient of this transmission is prohibited from disclosing this information to any other party unless required to do so by law or regulation and is required to delete or destroy the information after its stated need has been fulfilled. If you are not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any disclosure, copying, distribution or takinf of any action in reliance on or regarding the contents of this electronicallytransmitted information is strictly prohibited. If you have received this E-mail in error please notify the sender and delete this message immediately

Worship for Today: Our blessings come from God Our Provider!

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him in Genesis 13:8-9,

“So Abram said to Lot, ‘Let's not have any quarreling between you and me, or between your herdsmen and mine, for we are brothers. Is not the whole land before you? Let's part company. If you go to the left, I'll go to the right; if you go to the right, I'll go to the left.”

Here is Abram’s response to quarreling that took place between his herdsmen and those of his nephew, Lot. As is often noted, Lot looks to the prospect of what the land might provide for him. He chose the plain of Jordan as it was well watered “like the garden of God” and settled near Sodom. Abram had no such concern. Rather than look to what the land might provide him he looked to what the Lord provided him. At the beginning of the chapter we read, “Abram had become very wealthy in livestock and in silver and gold.”

Abram became rich because the Lord promised to bless him. We read of the sevenfold promise the Lord gave Abram in 12:2-3. The blessing of the Lord on Abram was such that he didn’t care if he was left with productive or not so productive land in his resolution with Lot. As a man of faith Abram knew the Lord would continue to bless him.

As the story unfolds we find Lot getting into trouble and being taken captive by the combined armies of four kings in chapter 14. We read of Abram rescuing Lot and recovering all the people and booty of Lot and the vanquished kings of the area. When one of those kings wanted to leave his goods with Abram as a reward for rescuing him and his people Abram refused. He didn’t want an opportunity for people to think that anyone other than the Lord had made him rich. In Genesis 14:22-23 we read, “But Abram said to the king of Sodom, ‘I have raised my hand to the Lord, God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth, and have taken an oath that I will accept nothing belonging to you, not even a thread or the thong of a sandal, so that you will never be able to say, “I made Abram rich.”

As people of faith today our blessings in life do not come from what this or that might provide us. It is the Lord Our Provider who blesses us. We may not be blessed in a way Abram was and you may be blessed in a way I am not but it is from the Lord himself our blessings come! As Paul says in his doxology in the beginning of Ephesians, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ”

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share your theme of worship with us from your Bible reading today. We’d love to hear from you!

Trevor V. Fisk

(314) 814-8486

trevorf@gracehill.org

 

 

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This electronic transmission and any documents accompanying this electronic transmission contain confidential information belonging to the sender. This information may contain confidential health information that is legally privileged. The information is intended only for the use of the individual or entity named above. The authorized recipient of this transmission is prohibited from disclosing this information to any other party unless required to do so by law or regulation and is required to delete or destroy the information after its stated need has been fulfilled. If you are not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any disclosure, copying, distribution or takinf of any action in reliance on or regarding the contents of this electronicallytransmitted information is strictly prohibited. If you have received this E-mail in error please notify the sender and delete this message immediately

Worship for Today: The Lord's promises are certain and exciting!

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him in Genesis 15:12-16,

“As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and a thick and dreadful darkness came over him. Then the Lord said to him, ‘Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years. But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions. You, however, will go to your fathers in peace and be buried at a good old age. In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.”

This was the Lord’s response to Abram when Abram questioned the Lord as to how he could know the Lord was going to give him the land the Lord had promised and brought him to. The Lord’s response is that Abram’s descendants would be in a country not their own for 400 years and even be mistreated in it. The Lord tells Abram that after he has passed away his descendants will come out of that country, Egypt, and take possession of the land of Canaan. It wouldn’t be his land in his lifetime here – yet the Lord says he will give it to him.

James tells us that Abram was called God’s friend, James 2:23. Yet the promise of the land the Lord had made to Abram was not something Abram would enjoy in his lifetime here. As we learn throughout the pages of Scripture the Lord will often promise what will not be enjoyed in this life but later. I am reminded that many of the promises made to us through Abraham will not be ours until the resurrection. There are many folks who get confused about when the Lord fulfills certain promises. But whether they are fulfilled in my lifetime today or in the future following my death, they are nonetheless just as certain and just as worthy of all the excitement they should bring to me today!

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share your theme of worship with us from your Bible reading today. We’d love to hear from you!

Trevor V. Fisk

(314) 814-8486

trevorf@gracehill.org

 

 

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This electronic transmission and any documents accompanying this electronic transmission contain confidential information belonging to the sender. This information may contain confidential health information that is legally privileged. The information is intended only for the use of the individual or entity named above. The authorized recipient of this transmission is prohibited from disclosing this information to any other party unless required to do so by law or regulation and is required to delete or destroy the information after its stated need has been fulfilled. If you are not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any disclosure, copying, distribution or takinf of any action in reliance on or regarding the contents of this electronicallytransmitted information is strictly prohibited. If you have received this E-mail in error please notify the sender and delete this message immediately

Worship for Today: Our all-knowing and soveriegn God!

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him in Genesis 15:13-16,

“Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years. But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions. You, however, will go to your fathers in peace and be buried at a good old age. In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.”

I see some interesting things of the Lord here. The Lord tells Abram what is going to take place in the future. Israel’s servitude in Egypt will last 400 years. They will be freed by the Lord and will be delivered out of Egypt with “great possessions.” Our God knows all things, even things of the future as he lives beyond the dimensions of time and space. At times he reveals future events to certain ones.

We also read that the return of Abram’s descendants will be timed relative to the level of wickedness of the Amorites. The Lord will use Israel to judge the Amorites at the appropriate time. Here I see the Lord working in the arena of manipulating nations for his purposes. Our God is sovereign! He has his own agenda, his own purposes on the international stage of not just current events but also future events. I suspect I would be quite surprised to know just how active God is in the events of the world today.

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share your theme of worship with us from your Bible reading today. We’d love to hear from you!

Trevor V. Fisk

(314) 814-8486

trevorf@gracehill.org

 

 

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This electronic transmission and any documents accompanying this electronic transmission contain confidential information belonging to the sender. This information may contain confidential health information that is legally privileged. The information is intended only for the use of the individual or entity named above. The authorized recipient of this transmission is prohibited from disclosing this information to any other party unless required to do so by law or regulation and is required to delete or destroy the information after its stated need has been fulfilled. If you are not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any disclosure, copying, distribution or takinf of any action in reliance on or regarding the contents of this electronicallytransmitted information is strictly prohibited. If you have received this E-mail in error please notify the sender and delete this message immediately

Worship for Today: Our God of encouragement!

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him in Genesis 15:14-16,

“I am the Lord, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to take possession of it.” But Abram said, “O Sovereign Lord, how can I know that I will gain possession of it?” So the Lord said to him, “Bring me a heifer, a goat and a ram, each three years old, along with a dove and a young pigeon.”

Here is an astonishing thing! The Lord just told Abram that he would have a son and his descendants would be as numerous as the stars. Then Moses tells us Abram believed the Lord and he credited to him as righteousness. Next the Lord tells Abram he is going to give him the land of Canaan. Abram responds to the Lord by questioning how he could know for sure he was going to get it! Where’s the faith?

What follows astonishes me. Rather than castigating Abram for his lack of faith he enters into a covenant with Abram to assure him! What do I learn from this? About this event, we read in Hebrews 6:17-18, “Because God wanted to make the unchanging nature of his purpose very clear to the heirs of what was promised, he confirmed it with an oath. God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope offered to us may be greatly encouraged.”

Even Abram, God’s man of faith, struggled with his faith at times – just like us. And what is the Lord’s response? To encourage us! He knows we are weak, he knows we struggle; he knows we are going to disappoint him. His response to his children in the midst of struggles is to reach out to them with encouragement. In this instance, in addition to his promise, he makes an oath, a covenant. Such is our God towards us! Why should God feel he needs to confirm his promises? I suspect it is due to our God who has compassion toward us that I can scarcely comprehend!

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share your theme of worship with us from your Bible reading today. We’d love to hear from you!

Trevor V. Fisk

(314) 814-8486

trevorf@gracehill.org

 

 

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This electronic transmission and any documents accompanying this electronic transmission contain confidential information belonging to the sender. This information may contain confidential health information that is legally privileged. The information is intended only for the use of the individual or entity named above. The authorized recipient of this transmission is prohibited from disclosing this information to any other party unless required to do so by law or regulation and is required to delete or destroy the information after its stated need has been fulfilled. If you are not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any disclosure, copying, distribution or takinf of any action in reliance on or regarding the contents of this electronicallytransmitted information is strictly prohibited. If you have received this E-mail in error please notify the sender and delete this message immediately

Worship for Today: God's sovereign will always prevails!

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him in Genesis 12:17,

“But the Lord inflicted serious diseases on Pharaoh and his household because of Abram's wife Sarai.”

Due to Abram’s deception in presenting Sarai as his sister, not his wife, Pharaoh took Sarai into his palace to be his wife because she was a beautiful woman. But the Lord had already told Abram that all peoples on earth would be blessed through him. Although the particulars may not have been known to Abram, God had determined that his Son would enter into the human race through the offspring of Abram and Sarai.

This would not take place if Sarai ended up as Pharaoh’s wife. But here we see God intervening into a mess that Abram has created. To insure his purposes are not thwarted but accomplished, God inflicts “serious diseases” on Pharaoh and his household. Our God is like that. What he says he will do he will bring about. The sovereign will of God always prevails!

I am reminded of Isaiah 55:10-11, “As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.”

All of the promises of God, all of the warnings of God, all the prophecies made by God, all the judgments of God will take place just as he says they will.

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share your theme of worship with us from your Bible reading today. We’d love to hear from you!

Trevor V. Fisk

(314) 814-8486

trevorf@gracehill.org

 

 

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This electronic transmission and any documents accompanying this electronic transmission contain confidential information belonging to the sender. This information may contain confidential health information that is legally privileged. The information is intended only for the use of the individual or entity named above. The authorized recipient of this transmission is prohibited from disclosing this information to any other party unless required to do so by law or regulation and is required to delete or destroy the information after its stated need has been fulfilled. If you are not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any disclosure, copying, distribution or takinf of any action in reliance on or regarding the contents of this electronicallytransmitted information is strictly prohibited. If you have received this E-mail in error please notify the sender and delete this message immediately

Worship for Today: God's promises are certain!

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him in Genesis 13:1-2,

“So Abram went up from Egypt to the Negev, with his wife and everything he had, and Lot went with him. Abram had become very wealthy in livestock and in silver and gold.”

Moses tells us in a passing comment that Abram had become very wealthy. True to his promises, the Lord blesses Abram. As we will read in further narratives of Genesis the “blessing” becomes a very important aspect of some of the accounts.

Paul observes Abram’s confidence he had in the Lord’s promises made to him. In particular to the promise to make Abram into a large nation Paul says, “Yet he [Abraham] did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised.” Romans 4:20-21. Abraham was “fully persuaded” in the promises of God and as we read the accounts the fulfillment of those promises was certain.

Paul goes on to tell us it was Abraham’s confidence in the promises of the Lord, his power to fulfill those promises that Abraham was credited righteousness. Paul tells us we are credited with the same righteousness when we are persuaded in the promises of God, that is, in faith. He says, “The words ‘it was credited to him’ were written not for him alone, but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness—for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead.” Romans 4:23-24.

The Lord made a “promise” to Adam, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.” Adam acted in a way that demonstrated his doubt in the Lord. But now we have an account of a man, Abraham, who is fully persuaded in the Lord and as such credited righteousness. This righteousness will be purchased by Jesus Christ later on the cross, but Abraham accessed it by faith.

And so it is for all of us. God has provided his certain promise of eternal life. A life of blessing in the resurrection is ours if we embrace that promise of God as Abram did so many years ago.

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share your theme of worship with us from your Bible reading today. We’d love to hear from you!

Trevor V. Fisk

(314) 814-8486

trevorf@gracehill.org

 

 

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This electronic transmission and any documents accompanying this electronic transmission contain confidential information belonging to the sender. This information may contain confidential health information that is legally privileged. The information is intended only for the use of the individual or entity named above. The authorized recipient of this transmission is prohibited from disclosing this information to any other party unless required to do so by law or regulation and is required to delete or destroy the information after its stated need has been fulfilled. If you are not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any disclosure, copying, distribution or takinf of any action in reliance on or regarding the contents of this electronicallytransmitted information is strictly prohibited. If you have received this E-mail in error please notify the sender and delete this message immediately