God, the Almighty

Now when Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him,

“I am God Almighty; Walk before Me, and be blameless. “I will establish My covenant between Me and you, and I will multiply you exceedingly.” Abram fell on his face, and God talked with him, saying, “As for Me, behold, My covenant is with you, and you will be the father of a multitude of nations. “No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations.

Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed, and said in his heart, “Will a child be born to a man one hundred years old? And will Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?”    - Genesis 17 -

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God, Jehovah, describes Himself as אֵ֣ל שַׁדַּ֔י (El Shaddai), "God, The Mighty One". And after His promise...Abraham laughed.

Keil-Delitzsch tell us this new name for God describes Jehovah, the Covenant God, as possessing the power to realize His promises even when the order of nature presented no prospect of their fulfillment and the powers of nature were insufficient to secure it.

Think about this. Against all odds, we have a God who is mighty to provide for all our needs. We can look at our world today and wonder if anything can correct the inexorable spin toward destruction. Politics, economy, environment...all seem to be on a death spiral. Yet...we know from scripture...God is a Covenant God. He will provide.

This passage...the Abrahamic Covenant...occurs 13 years after God first promised Abraham would be the father of many nations. When the promise was first offered, we are told "Abram believed God and it was credited unto him as righteousness". Nothing else was required of Abram. Thirteen years later God says "Walk before Me, and be blameless". What is the difference? Well, in the first instance God made a promise. In this instance God intended to fulfill the promise of land through Isaac. The first requires faith...the second requires action.

When Scripture says "believe in the Lord, Jesus Christ, and you will be saved" (Acts 16) nothing is required of us except faith. The promise is unconditional...just as it was with Abram. When God determines to change the course of our temporal lives...as He did with Abraham...He says "walk with me". And, as Amos, chapter 3 says, "Do two men walk together unless they have are in agreement?".

If we want God to heal our homes...and our country...He expects us to "walk with Him". We must live in agreement with Him. When we do this, God will prove himself to be אֵ֣ל שַׁדַּ֔י (El Shaddai),

Live boldly out there today...

A cause for rejoicing

"I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you. However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” 
Luke 10:19, 20
                          
So many of us focus on the things we "do" as Christians. We preach, and people are constantly convicted. We pray and people are healed. We share our faith and people are saved. 

It's really miraculous...

But, that's not the big deal. The greatest of all miracles is that God has rescued us through his son and we have eternal life. As a consequence, our lives ought to take on an aura of humble gratitude. 

Live boldly out there today...

Sarah Hale...brought us Thanksgiving Day

Sarah Beull unrolled her brother's gift to her. Horatio had given her a homemade diploma. "Mistress of Arts, Summa Cum Laude, Horatio Gates Beull College," it read.

Probably Sarah laughed. All through Horatio's years at Dartmouth College, he had brought home his Latin, Mathematics and philosophy books and shared everything he learned with Sarah, who was doing all she could to gain an education, despite the restrictions that kept her from attending college. She was such a devoted scholar that Horatio felt she, too, should be honored. 

Born on this day, October 24, 1788, in Newport, New Hampshire, Sarah overcame the disadvantage of discrimination against women to become an internationally respected author, editor and promoter of good causes. She married.

Almost every American child is familiar with one bit of Sarah's work. She wrote the kindergarten song, "Mary Had a Little Lamb."

Sarah was just thirty-five when her lawyer husband, David Hale, died of pneumonia. She had four children under seven years of age and a fifth on the way. How was she to support herself? David's colleagues equipped her with what she needed to engage in a sewing business. They also paid for the publication of a book of her poems. The poems sold well enough that Sarah was able to leave off her sewing long enough to write a novel. 

Northwood dealt with the issue of slavery and was set against a backdrop of the increasing tension between the northern and southern states. It sold well and established Sarah's name. Her book is considered the first important American novel by a woman. No doubt it helped blaze the trail for Harriet Beecher Stowe's even more famous novel, Uncle Tom's Cabin.

Sarah was offered an editor's job in Boston. It meant she had to leave her children with other family members, but she accepted the offer. To the end of her life, she would edit women's magazines, including Godey's Lady's Book. She broke new ground by featuring the work of American authors, especially women, rather than European authors. In her magazines, Sarah argued strongly that a woman's proper sphere was in the home; however, she championed women's colleges and urged that women be given the chance to teach in them. She supported Elizabeth Blackwell's determination to become a physician and argued that single women should be allowed to become missionaries. Sarah did her part for missions, too, serving as an officer in the Women's Union Missionary Society and the Ladies' Medical Missionary Society of Philadelphia.

But Sarah's greatest achievement was to make Thanksgiving a holiday in the United States. She used her popular magazines as a forum to advocate this national day of gratitude to God. Sarah worked tirelessly towards this goal for over fifteen years before Lincoln issued his Thanksgiving Proclamation in August, 1863. Not a bad track record for a girl educated at home, largely by her own efforts.

She retired when she was ninety, writing "I must bid farewell to my countrywomen, with the hope that this work of half a century may be blessed to the furtherance of their happiness and usefulness in their Divinely-appointed sphere."

- from Christianity.com