San Diego First United Methodist Church’s Daily Devotion for Monday, 4 November 2014 – Sunday, 16 November 2014 - Sermon theme: Crossroads Celebration - Heritage: Called to a New Future by Craig Brown Text to Read: Genesis 12:1-5
Scriptures:
Text to Read: Genesis 12:1-5
Text to read: Genesis 12: Abram and Sarai
1 God told Abram: “Leave your country, your family, and your father’s home for a land that I will show you.
2-3 I’ll make you a great nation
and bless you.
I’ll make you famous;
you’ll be a blessing.
I’ll bless those who bless you;
those who curse you I’ll curse.
All the families of the Earth
will be blessed through you.”
4-6 So Abram left just as God said, and Lot left with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran. Abram took his wife Sarai and his nephew Lot with him, along with all the possessions and people they had gotten in Haran, and set out for the land of Canaan and arrived safe and sound.
Abram passed through the country as far as Shechem and the Oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites occupied the land.
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John Wesley’s Notes-Commentary:
Text to read:Genesis 12:1-5
Verse 1
[1] Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee:
We have here the call by which Abram was removed out of the land of his nativity into the land of promise, which was designed both to try his faith and obedience, and also to set him apart for God. The circumstances of this call we may be somewhat helped to the knowledge of, from Stephen's speech, Acts 7:2, where we are told, 1. That the God of glory appeared to him to give him this call, appeared in such displays of his glory as left Abram no room to doubt. God spake to him after in divers manners: but this first time, when the correspondence was to be settled, he appeared to him as the God of glory, and spake to him. 2. That this call was given him in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Charran, and in obedience to this call, he came out of the land of the Chaldeans, and dwelt in Charran or Haran about five years, and from thence, when his father was dead, by a fresh command, he removed him into the land of Canaan. Some think Haran was in Chaldea, and so was still a part of Abram's country; or he having staid there five years, began to call it his country, and to take root there, till God let him know this was not the place he was intended for.
Get thee out of thy country — Now, (1.) By this precept he was tried whether he loved God better than he loved his native soil, and dearest friends, and whether he could willingly leave all to go along with God. His country was become idolatrous, his kindred and his father's house were a constant temptation to him, and he could not continue with them without danger of being infected by them; therefore get thee out, (Heb.) vade tibi, get thee gone with all speed, escape for thy life, look not behind thee. (2.) By this precept he was tried whether he could trust God farther than he saw him, for he must leave his own country to go to a land that God would shew him; he doth not say, 'tis a land that I will give thee nor doth he tell him what land it was, or what kind of land; but he must follow God with an implicit faith, and take God's word for it in the general, though he had no particular securities given him, that he should be no loser by leaving his country to follow God.
Verse 2
[2] And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:
Here is added an encouraging promise, nay a complication of promises, 1.
I will make of thee a great nation — When God took him from his own people, he promised to make him the head of another people. This promise was. 1. A great relief to Abram's burden, for he had now no child. 2. A great trial to Abram's faith, for his wife had been long barren, so that if he believe, it must be against hope, and his faith must build purely upon that power which can out of stones raise up children unto Abraham. 2.
I will bless thee — Either particularly with the blessing of fruitfulness, as he had blessed Adam and Noah; or in general, I will bless thee with all manner of blessings, both of the upper and nether springs: leave thy father's house, and I will give thee a father's blessing, better than that of thy progenitors. 3.
I will make thy name great — By deserting his country he lost his name there: care not for that, (saith God) but trust me, and I will make thee a greater name than ever thou couldst have had there. 4.
Thou shalt be a blessing — That is, thy life shall be a blessing to the places where thou shalt sojourn. 5.
I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee — This made it a kind of league offensive and defensive between God and Abram. Abram heartily espoused God's cause, and here God promiseth to interest himself in his. 6.
In thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed — This was the promise that crowned all the rest, for it points at the Messiah, in whom all the promises are yea and amen.
Verse 4
[4] So Abram departed, as the LORD had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran.
So Abram departed — He was not disobedient to the heavenly vision. His obedience was speedy and without delay, submissive and without dispute.
Verse 5
[5] And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls that they had gotten in Haran; and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan; and into the land of Canaan they came.
They took with them the souls that they had gotten — That is, the proselytes they had made, and persuaded to worship the true God, and to go with them to Canaan; the souls which (as one of the Rabbins expresseth it) they had gathered under the wings of the divine Majesty.
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Daily Devotions:
Monday, November 10, 2014
Sermon theme: Crossroads Celebration - Heritage: Called to a New Future
What about Abram's new future is exciting?
What about it is worrisome?
Tuesday, November 11, 2014
Sermon theme: Crossroads Celebration - Heritage: Called to a New Future
Does God call capable people?
What quality is God looking for in leaders?
Wednesday, November 12, 2014
Sermon theme: Crossroads Celebration - Heritage: Called to a New Future
Do you have an Abram story?
How has God called you?
Thursday, November 13, 2014
Sermon theme: Crossroads Celebration - Heritage: Called to a New Future
Do you naturally seek new opportunities?
Why or why not?
Friday, November 14, 2014
Sermon theme: Crossroads Celebration - Heritage: Called to a New Future
What new opportunities are there for our church in San Diego?
How can we do something?
Saturday, November 15, 2014
Sermon theme: Crossroads Celebration - Heritage: Called to a New Future
What new opportunity might be awaiting you?
How do you feel about it?
Sunday, November 16, 2014
Sermon theme: Crossroads Celebration - Heritage: Called to a New Future
Pray for those beginning new jobs, relationships or housing.
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First United Methodist Church
2111 Camino del Rio South
San Diego, CA 92108
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Sermon Story "Calling to a New Future" by Gary Lee Parker for Sunday, 16 November 2014
Text to read: Genesis 12: Abram and Sarai
1 God told Abram: “Leave your country, your family, and your father’s home for a land that I will show you.
2-3 I’ll make you a great nation
and bless you.
I’ll make you famous;
you’ll be a blessing.
I’ll bless those who bless you;
those who curse you I’ll curse.
All the families of the Earth
will be blessed through you.”
4-6 So Abram left just as God said, and Lot left with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran. Abram took his wife Sarai and his nephew Lot with him, along with all the possessions and people they had gotten in Haran, and set out for the land of Canaan and arrived safe and sound.
Abram passed through the country as far as Shechem and the Oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites occupied the land.
Here we have God speaking to Abram after five years in this land that his own father stopped at when God called his father to move to Canaan. We do not know why Abram's father stopped in Haran instead of continuing on into Canaan where God asked him to move himself and his family. Maybe it could have been Haran is the place where Job's father died or Abram and Sarai had not had any children, but now Abram's father was dead and God spoke to Abram to move to Canaan. Abram might have remembered the story his father told him how God spoke to him and he did not want to die as his father did in Haran, so he packed and moved his family and all his possessions including the people and possessions he acquired in Haran even though he and his wife were still childless. What character or characters do you relate to or not relate to? How would you have responded to God invitation to move as Abram did? How do you relate this story to your own life? There was a young man who was struggling with whether or not to go back to college or find employment that he had been unsucccessful to find. This young man decided to hitch hike across country to stay with friends or relativeson the way west. He ended up in Phoenix and found a job as a landscaper, but after talking with his uncle decided to move on west to Pasadena where a Nazarene college was. He moved and stayed with a friend's friend in the dorm working at jobs the students could not take because of their classes. Well, after awhile he headed back east and found employment forgetting that he applied for financial aid for the college in Pasadena until that job with Sperry Rail did not work out. He went home and received a telephone call that he had financial aid for the coming school year, but no application on file. He expedited the application and headed west. He spent one year at Pasadena when the school moved to San Diego. He moved with them and studied for two years struggling with school while working more than forty hours a week on campus. All this moves led to a passion and a call to prepare for ministry. After some 35 years, this man who endured marriage, divorce, becoming a physical and legal custodial of his son with special education needs, an earned Bachelor of Science, an earned Master of Science in Education, and an earned Master of Divinity. Struggling to find a pastoral ministry position and even being accepted into the elder ordained track, he head back west with his adult son with no prospect of a job but with a government housing voucher. He has lived in three places while settling back in San Diego with his son and still hearing God's call and vision for local churches to fully include people who are differently abled and their families active in the churches. He has not given up, but took his early retirement status for social security to continue to be with his son and let God lead in His way for ministry.
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