Tuesday, Jun 09, 2009

6-9 Blessing and Cursing

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Bob came to know the Lord years ago at Pine Grove. I hadn’t seen him in a while. He runs a wholesale nursery. He and his brother… both who love the Lord helped me load up $50 worth of plants. “Are you keeping track of how much we are loading up?” “Yes,” said Bob as he kept piling on the plants! How about a few more of these? And a few more of these? We talked about the Lord and how Jesus makes it possible for us to survive and live the full life in spite of this world. We talked about Bob’s son Pat… who, unknown to us, at that moment was meeting Susan at a rental. Isn’t life interesting! Susan and I gave each other a look of surprise when we swapped stories. No coincidences… just God’s hand.

Today's Scripture reading is 2 Samuel 6; Obadiah 1; Mark 14:1-31 To Listen to Today’s Reading http://timewithgod.podbean.com - Archives can be found at http://timewithgod.mypodcast.com

Today’s thought comes from Genesis 12:1-3 Now the LORD had said to Abram: "Get out of your country, From your family And from your father’s house, To a land that I will show you. 2 I will make you a great nation; I will bless you And make your name great; And you shall be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you; And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed."

Blessing and cursing. I’m pretty sure that most of us would like to be blessed, and few of us really want to be cursed! If there is a way to get the blessing, I’m all for it. And there is! The central core of the Abrahamic Covenant is that God was going to make Abraham into a great nation, and that for the rest of the nations and peoples, the way they treat that nation would result in either blessing or cursing. We know, historically, that from Abraham’s descendents came the fledgling nation of Israel. Why did God choose Israel? Not because they were the brightest or the best… but because God has chosen to demonstrate His love and his faithfulness to a lost world through His choice of the nation of Israel (Deuteronomy 7:6-10). Now I know that if you bring up the nation Israel in conversation around the table of a local restaurant, many of your buddies will have some pretty passionate feelings about the Palestinians and the Israelis. I have seen people flash from 0 to anger in under .0465 seconds! What brings out the passion in people over this issue? Everyone has a right to their own opinion, and some people have some strong political opinions! You may have heard it all! “The Palestinian people are oppressed…” “The Israelis are our best friend in the Middle East…” and on and on into an ever widening black hole of political discussions we go! I don’t know how you resolve the Middle East crisis, but I can tell you one simple fact: God said that He would bless those who bless His earthly chosen people, Israel, and he would curse those who curse them. And that brings up a sticky ethical question; “so we should bless them even when they are in the wrong?” That’s food for thought. If you figure it out, let me know. I can only tell you this. In the Old Testament, the nations that God used to punish Israel, when they were way out in left field and deserving of punishment, were in turn punished for punishing Israel! Just check out the list! Babylon, destroyed, Assyria, relegated to a second rate nation, Egypt, crippled… and there were many more! I think it might be safer to err on the side of blessing! Pray for the peace of Jerusalem and bless God’s earthly chosen people… and then hold them accountable to live up to that blessing! With blessing comes responsibility. When you bless, you will be blessed! Count me in!

Dear Lord. I pray for the peace of Jerusalem. I pray for the nations of the Middle East that they would seek justice and live in peace with one another. I will bless your chosen people for from them the Messiah, Jesus came! Thank you for your Son Jesus!

Above all things put on love and let the peace of God rule in your hearts and be thankful.

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