Abraham

Abraham, Hero of the faith, How God chooses and crafts his people

2023-01-20 by bible805

In Genesis, with the life of Abraham, we have a big shift, where God moves from working with all of humanity to a focus on ONE man, who will become the founder of the Jewish nation. Ultimately three major religions in our world today claim him as their founder: the Jewish, Christian, and Muslim religions. As such, he is held in great veneration by all and in Christianity referred to as one of the first “heroes of the faith.”

And though we do want to honor him, we also need to clarify that description of him and here is why—In reality, there is only ONE true hero of the faith throughout the Bible

And it isn’t any human.

The only true hero of the faith in the Bible is our Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

It is so important that we understand this so that our admiration and praise is in the right place—directed to our God and not inappropriately to any human.

How this worked out in Abraham’s life and its application to us is what our lesson today is about.

Below is a copy of the notes, questions, and a map of the key locations in Abraham’s life plus links to the podcast, video, and audiogram, the text and sound only goof for viewing on your phone:

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A Bible class member wondered why is the story of Abraham, a man who traded his wife for wealth and protection considered a great man in the Bible?—here’s the answer

2023-01-20 by bible805

Abraham sending Hagar away — Abraham was far from perfect in his relationships with the women in his life, especially when seen from contemporary eyes. But reading how God called, saved, and used him can give each of us with our many faults, hope.

Before I share these lessons with you online I teach them to an adult Bible class at my church. Some of the class members are relatively new to following Jesus and have never read through the Bible before. I encourage questions as I teach, and we have discussion following the presentation. I’ve found their questions and comments absolutely invaluable as they help me see things in a new light.

For those of us who have read the Bible many times and with the rose-colored glasses of church interpretations, we can forget how shocking some of the behavior is of the so-called “heroes of the faith.”

I had already planned on discussing this prior to her comments, but I wanted to emphasize in sharing the lesson with all of you that the key teaching I pray people get out of this lesson is that there are NO human heroes in the Bible.

There is only ONE true hero of the faith, and that isn’t a human. The true hero of our faith is our Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

In this lesson (Lesson #3 in Through the Bible) I use the life of Abraham to illustrate the balance of grace on God’s part in that we did not earn or deserve anything that calls us into the faith and yet our responsibility to take action based on that grace.

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Two New Podcasts and Videos—How do you become someone God approves of? How do God’s Sovereignty and Human Free Will Interact?

2022-01-24 by bible805

Lesson #1

As we continue our study of Genesis, the lesson, podcast and video, Abraham Founding Father & Hero of the Faith and how we can be like him, will teach you what it was in his life that made him pleasing to God and how we can follow his example.

This lesson also has a background discussion of Ur of the Chaldees, the civilization Abraham left when he was called to the Promised Land. On the video you can see a series of pictures of the archeological site, artifacts from the city, as well as the story of its discovery. It’s a fascinating one, not only because it gives us solid evidence of the authenticity of this early Biblical character but shows us realistically what he left behind.

Contrary to what I assumed in the past, (and maybe many of you did also) Abraham did not simply leave one pastoral community and move to another pastoral community. The picture in my mind was of a Biblical character like we see in Sunday School lessons moving from one tent in the wilderness to another.

The reality could not have been further from the truth! [Read more…]

Abraham Founding Father & Hero of the Faith and how we can be like him

2022-01-21 by bible805

What makes someone great in God’s eyes?

We’re starting into the part of the Old Testament where we talk about
“heroes of the faith.” What does that mean and does an ordinary person have any chance of pleasing God in that way?

Those are the questions we’ll answer in today’s lesson.

Plus the video has some FASCINATING material on the archeological discoveries in Ur, Abraham’s home country.

Below are the podcast, video, and notes.

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From a person to a people– Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph AND is God or are people in charge of history?

2019-02-10 by Yvon Prehn

How did the Jewish people become a nation?

Did Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph have any say in being the founding fathers or were they predestined to do all they did?

And what about us? What is God in control of and what are we responsible for?

Today we are going to answer these questions and more in our Podcast.

As we look at the lives of these founders of our faith, we can see God faithful to fulfill his plan and promises even though the people given the task to carry it out sometimes strayed from doing the right thing. Though we admire what they did, God is the hero of the story and our stories because He is the one who is faithful and who will carry us through the storms of life.

In addition to the overall themes above, this podcast has some extra material on the history of Midian, Edom, and why the Beatitudes are written in the way they are. If that didn’t make lots of sense–listen to the podcast and learn some fascinating facts we sometimes miss in Old Testament stories.

Click on the following link to download my messy, but hopefully helpful, notes that go with the podcast: NOTES People to a nation, is God or are people in control of history