Category Archives: religious

Genesis 16:7-13 the El Roi

Posted on by
3

Seeing.

How many people do you let see the real you – the “you” that is haggard with heartbreak, that is broken from bullying, from abuse, from being unwanted, or told you’re not good enough? The “you” with shattered dreams, failures, or feelings of inadequacy?

Hiding.

When we are at our most vulnerable, we both figuratively and literally hide – we hide the pain that cuts so deeply, we hide ourselves so that no one sees. We cover the pain with a smile and bury it so deep that no one finds it.

Invisible.

Maybe… you want to be seen… but no one is looking.

There is a God who SEES.

Go read Genesis 16. Hagar is Sarah’s servant who is forced to lay with Abraham to conceive an heir. She conceives, but Sarah is so jealous that she deals harshly with her and Hagar flees.

In Gen 16:7, it says that “the angel of the LORD found her (Hagar) by a spring of water in the wilderness, the spring on the way to Shur.” There is speculation that this “angel of the LORD” is actually a theophany – a preincarnation of Jesus Christ – because of her words in 16:13b. I don’t know if it is or not, but I LOVE the idea of it. Did you notice the word in bold? The angel found Hagar. Know this, God knew without a doubt exactly where Hagar was, but He intentionally sought her out. He went to find her; to meet her in her fear and abuse from Sarah. Hagar had no choice but to lay with Abraham, had no choice upon her pregnancy, of her mistress’ plan; but when she becomes pregnant, she is dealt with so harshly that she fears for her life enough to flee her masters. I can only imagine the kind of fear that an unmarried, pregnant, runaway servant girl would have to run from her master’s household and brave the desert alone. But there is a God who saw her in her fear, in her heartbreak, in her emotional and physical anguish and sought her out.

This in itself is so beautiful to my heart, and I hope, to yours. We serve a God that seeks us out in our times of need. He knows all our steps in life, but when we need Him, He seeks to draw near. O Beloved, hear this today. When you are at your most vulnerable, your most needy, know that He has sought you out; simply listen for His whisper, feel His presence, and allow His incredible peace and love wash over you.

The angel asks Hagar where she came from and where she is going and Hagar tells her story to him (v8)

Love, when you are hurting so deeply with no one to turn to – cry out your sorrows on the One who seeks you out. Tell Him all your hurts, cry upon His shoulder; you will find no better listener or comforter than the El Roi.

The angel then tells Hagar to return and submit to Sarah and that her offspring will be multiplied so that they cannot be numbered (16:10), and then prophesied over the life of her son (vv11-12). Hagar responds with the words of our hearts:

“so she called the name of the LORD who spoke to her, ‘You are a God of seeing,’ for she said, ‘Truly here I have seen him who looks after me (v13).'”

Hagar is the only person in the Old Testament to give God a name; a lowly Egyptian servant girl is the only one to give God a name – and such a beautiful one it is: the El Roi: the God of Seeing. God is the one and only who truly sees us; He sees us for who we are – our joys, our hopes, our dreams, our loves, our passions, our failures, our shame, our guilt, our heartbreak, our betrayals, our abuse.

He Sees.

In the direct Hebrew translation, she asks, “Have I really seen the back of Him who sees me?” Can’t you hear the incredulous wonder in her voice? Hear the wonder that God of the universe, of all creation, would see her plight, seek her out, and bless her with peace and prophecy of her offspring. Her words indicate that she has seen the back of God himself (evidence of a possible theophany), and he is the one who looks after her.

We serve a God who sees when no one else cares to look; one who seeks us out when we are hurting or troubled; one who blesses us through our heartbreak. Like Hagar, sometimes we turn inward and run to hide our pain from the world, but we cannot hide it from the One who loves us most. Not only does He see it, but He draws near to comfort and replace the pain with peace and joy. Turn to Him, spill your sorrows on His shoulder and hear His whisper of comfort.He is the perfect healer and He sees you.

2 Cor 12:9-11 Words of My Heart

Posted on by
2

This semester is finally over. I have learned so much, but I am so ready to be finished! As my brain leaves the classes of Spring semester, I look forward to summer and the Bible study awaiting me. I am taking a practicum over the summer and God inspired me to use the practicum to teach my first Bible study. I have such a passion for them and have facilitated multiple studies, but never taught one myself. When this idea first popped into my head, I was excited beyond belief. I started making notes, designing the study, making outlines, writing down themes, etc… Now, however, as the study looms ever closer, the excitement is still there but the fear is beginning to set in. Thoughts of “what was I thinking?!,” “what can I teach somebody?!,” and “who am I to speak about God’s Word and His being?” are running through my head with ever-increasing panic. I keep thinking how audacious this is and that I have no right, I am not equipped, I am not worthy such an undertaking. If I let myself, I will go into a true panic over this study and fear will take such a hold on me. Have you ever been there? When the idea of something is so excited that the implications don’t hit you until later, and then you panic? That’s where I am. I am overwhelmed by feelings of inadequacy.

Even through my fears and hints of outright panic, I hear God whispering. There is always a way out – out of sin, out of fear, out of panic, out of anxiety – and that way out is listening to the truth of God’s Word. His whispers to me sound a whole lot like 2 Cor 12:9-10:

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Oh, how these words speak to my heart this morning. ❤ I can just hear Him saying, “Oh my Love, MY GRACE is sufficient, and MY POWER is made perfect in your weakness.” See, what He is reminding me even as I write this, is that I AM inadequate – I do not have anything worthwhile to teach or convey to anyone. BUT. He who lives within me does. It is because of my inadequacies that His power, His Word, His Grace will shine and will speak; in my weakness I allow Him to take over, I allow Him to speak through my mouth, to write through my fingers on the keyboard, to convey messages that are not mine. Therefore, I am BOASTING about my weakness and will be content in my inadequacy, knowing that when I am at my weakest, He makes me far stronger than I could ever be on my own.

If God has called you to something that scares the ever-living life out of you, get on your knees and pray. See your weakness, feel the inadequacy, and praise God that through you He is going to do something HUGE. God does not call us to the safety of our comfort zone; if we are not scared of goal He has set before us, then we need to dream a bit bigger. If God has called you to something specific, He will not fail you in your need; He will baptize you in HIS power and make you stronger than you ever thought you could be.

Dearest LORD,

My Covenant God, my YHWH, the God who never fails His promises, I bless your great and Holy Name. I praise you for your vision, for the goals you set before us; goals we could never attain on our own. I praise you for your unfailing love and faithfulness. I praise you that you use the weak – that it is when we are the most inadequate, you use us for your Unspeakable Glory. I pray that you would give us visions of futures that scare us to our bones, and faith to know that you will meet us there and will empower us through your Holy Spirit into victory. I am so humbled, I am so awestruck of you, Most Holy LORD, I am so full of joy at the opportunity to be used to the glory of Your Kingdom. I bless your Name, O LORD, I praise you, Most High God. In your Precious and Holy Name, Amen.

Acts 10:15 “What God has made clean, do not call common.”

Posted on by
5

So I’ve been absent the last few days or so because it’s finals crunch and I have some big papers to write before Friday. However, I was writing one of my papers due last week on Peter’s speech in Acts 10, when this one word grabbed me. I have tried to wait to write this post until after final’s are over (because truly I should be writing my 5000 word paper… but I’m not :-P) but this word is just on repeat in my brain. This beautiful word from Acts 10:15 and its implications have had me praising God day and night for his incredible glory. Go read Acts 10. All of it. I know, it’s a lot, but Oh, what an incredible story!!!!!! This chapter is so full of supernatural intervention that it boggles my mind; it shows how important God thought this message way to the early church. Go read it!!

Isn’t it beautiful? This is the “Gentile Pentecost.” This is not necessarily the first Gentile conversion (see Acts 8), but it is definitely the first time that Peter understands God’s will for Christianity and that it be opened to the rest of the world. God tried to do this in chapter 8, but the apostles were resistant to the idea that even the Gentiles should be welcome into the family of Christ; so He sent angels, visions, and words from the Spirit to make sure that they got the message this time.

In 10:9 Peter goes up to the rooftop to pray but then he gets hungry. While he is sitting there hungry, waiting for his food, God sends him this vision of all sorts of animals, birds, and reptiles and tells him to pick some and eat. But Peter, like the good Law-abiding Jew that he was, is shocked and tells God “NO!” I can just hear the shock and offense in his voice. Like, “God! What?! I’m not eating that! It’s dirty!!” (It kind of sounds like my children when I cook something they find abhorrent :-P) But God tells him – “What God has made clean, do not call common.”

Eventually Peter understands that this vision isn’t just about food – the first and most important meaning is symbolic. It’s about mankind. The Jewish people believed that the Gentiles, or the non-Jewish people, were unclean because of the food they ate and the gods they worshiped. God was telling Peter that He shows no partiality among mankind; God loves all people of every nation, every tongue, every background. He shows no preference, no partiality, but loves all equally and desires an intimate relationship with all.

As incredible as that is all by itself, that is not my message today. I want to talk about God’s message to Peter: What God has made clean, do not call common.

These words in Greek are so heavy! The Jews believed the Gentiles were “common.” This word is κοινόϛ (koinos) and means common in a sense that it is set apart from the consecrated or holy; in secular Greek it referred to something that had little value. God had told the Jews that they were set apart for Him, so they believed that the Gentiles were common. As for the Greeks, they associated “common” with “having little value.” Don’t we do the same? We look at ourselves or others and judge. We judge ourselves for our past and see ourselves as having little value; of not being worthy to be in the presence of the Holy One. We judge others and think, “they couldn’t possibly be Christian.” But. God says, What God has made clean, do not call common.

See, this word, this beautiful word, “clean,” in Greek is καθαριζω (katharizo). The definition for this word is, “a physical, religious, and moral cleanness or purity in such senses as clean, free from stains or shame, and free from adulteration (TDNT, 381).” What God has made clean, do not call common. God has cleansed us; He has cleansed us from all amorality, all shame, all adulteration. He has cleansed us from all our bad choices, all our impure thoughts, all our judgments. I keep seeing a vision of myself in front of a mirror, standing there cloaked in mud – it is dripping from my clothes, my hair, my dirty face; this is me before God. After I made Him the Lord over my life, there is a completely different me standing in front of that mirror. Now I see myself in pure white, glowing with radiance that only the indwelling of the Spirit can give. Each of us that follow Christ have the same reflection; we are each clothed in pure white, having been bathed with the blood of Christ, glowing with God’s radiance.

I took so long to see that God is bigger than all my past sins (and my present and future ones too). In my head, I believed, but in my heart I could not understand. My sins seemed so big, so ugly, so deep that I could not grasp that God was bigger. But Praise Him, He is! And He is far bigger than your sin, too. He has made you katharizo, so that you have been physically, religiously, morally cleansed so that you are now consecrated, pure, and holy in the eyes of your Savior, your Creator.

Have faith, Beloved, God shows no partiality, but lavishes us in His love. He has already cleansed us so that we can be with Him; He loves YOU so incredibly much that He wants to be in your presence day and night, through the good and the bad. He made you holy so that you could live with Him for eternity. Has there ever been or ever will be a love like His? Run to Him today, for He has set you apart and made you clean. ❤

Lord God, you see. You know our fears, our feelings of inadequacy and you understand our hearts. I pray that you give each of us eyes to see ourselves as you see us; radiant in purity, beautiful in holiness. Pour your love into our hearts, so that we feel the depth of love you have for us and wrap us in your peace and joy today. Give us eyes to see others as you see them and love them as you do. Thank you for your grace and mercy, Lord. You astound us. You bewilder us. Thank you. In your Precious and Holy Name, Amen.