Circumcision

Existed elsewhere in the ancient Near East but here it achieved a new meaning.

Genesis 17

By this symbol God impressed them with the impurity of nature and with dependence on God for the production of all life.

They would recognize and remember:

• that native impurity must be laid aside, especially in marriage
• that human nature is unable to generate the promised seed

They must be loyal to the family. Any Israelite who refused to be cut physically in this way would be cut off (separated) from his people because of his disobedience to God's command.

Elsewhere Scripture refers to circumcision as a symbol of separation, purity, and loyalty to the covenant. Moses said that God would circumcise the hearts of His people so that they might be devoted to Him.

Deut. 30:6

The Lord your God will circumcise your hearts means that God will graciously grant the nation a new will to obey Him in place of their former spiritual insensitivity and stubbornness. With their new "heart" they will remain committed and experience abundant blessing.

-O God, give me a new will to obey You! Tie my heart to you like a fetter that I may not wonder! Strip me of my insensitivity towards You and what You love/hate. Take away my stubbornness that I may follow You in a committed relationship and experience fellowship with You as Your face shines my direction.

Paul wrote that "circumcision of the heart" (i.e. being inwardly set apart "by the Spirit") evidences salvation and fellowship with God.

Romans 2:28-29

Circumcision of the heart fulfills "the spirit" of God's law. A circumcised heart is one that is separated from the world and dedicated to God. Receiving praise not from men, but from God who sees our inward natures (Matt 6: 4; 6) and discerns our hearts (Heb 4:12).

- Search me, O God and know my heart! Test me and know my anxious thoughts! See if there is any offensive way in me and lead me to the way everlasting! Separate me from this world. And may You be pleased by what You see in me. O God give me the motivation that's required for me to be right with You. I don't have it on my own. I can't find it or make it up. I need You more than I'll ever know.

One must turn in confidence to God and His promises, laying aside natural strength.

-gag! I so suck at this! I trust so much in MY ability, intellect, and know-how. My grades. :( Also Nathan and even our finances. Grant that I may confidently look to You alone and trust whole-heartedly in Your promises because You are faithful and because I have nothing to offer. The things I trust in could be gone tomorrow, but You will remain. Strong, steady, true, and loving me all the while.

Unbelief is described as having an uncircumcised heart.

- If I don't "trust and obey" (unbelief) I have an uncircumcised heart. I need You every hour. Stay Thou near by. Temptations loose their power when Thou art neigh!

Jer. 9:26

If personal achievement or ability would not place God (v. 23), neither would outward conformity to the religious rituals. God would punish those circumcised only in the flesh because they were really uncircumcised in heart.

-God we've been talking about this one. Please keep me from going through the motions of doing what I understand as "right" out of fear of punishment or messing up my future/wanting to be the good girl. Give me a deep reverence for You. May the fragrance of my life be pleasing to You because it pours out of a heart that fears You because it knows and loves You.

O that I might have an circumcised heart. Cut the flesh of me and others who call on Your Name. Give us circumcised hearts for Your sake. For our sake.

A Chain of Communication

Where do I even begin??!

As I wrote in the last "Heavenly Conversations" blog I feel like God is talking to me! It's so craZy but as I seek Him out more, and seek out His will with Nathan for us and myself, I feel He's answering!!

Last night in prayer meeting, we read 1 Peter 1:13-2:2. Here's how things stuck out to me:

15: Just as He who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do;

• Jesus wants me to be holy in all I do - the way I keep the house, the way I eat, how I act/speak at school or wherever.
• I've been reading about the Proverbs 31 woman and praying that more of her qualities will be attributed to me.

THEN 17, Father:

• First of all, I LOVE LOVE referring to God as Abba. We used to have a pretty touch and go relationship: I focused on Jesus and touched base with God when I felt guilty about giving Jesus too much attention. I felt like God was there, but we operated on a reward/punishment basis, with Jesus acting as my buffer and translator. True, Jesus is the reason I can communicate with God, but now I see God as my Father. Loving, caring, comforting, protecting, providing. It's hard to put all this into words but I'm falling so in love with Him. I'm seeing Him so differently. He's not up there with a wheel of "fortune" that He spins each day to decide what's going to befall me that day. He's intricately working in my life to make me more like His Son and giving good gifts to His children.

-Also, reverent fear:

• In my book (some night last week) the last point I read about was how yes the P 31 woman was amazing, but her motivation for her lifestyle was that she feared the LORD.
• I think I've lived a lot of my life being the "good girl" because I fear getting in trouble, and I also like knowing that I'm doing the "right" thing in the "right" way. So this called me out: "Am I really living this way because I have a reverent fear for God or because I have a fear of punishment/the future." It's a powerful question because "There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear" (1 John 4:18). O God give me a reverent fear for You!
• At church on (SUNDAY) we started the story of Joseph in Genesis. One of the things that stuck out to me was that Israel (Jacob, in Gen 37:11) just like Mary (Luke 2:19&51) were mindful of the fact their little families were a part of God's big plan. That it's not just about their lives, but God's divine purpose and mission that they're a apart of. - This is significant for me because I am SO wrapped up in my family. I LOVE being with Nathan and turn down many events if I know he can't be with me - I'd rather be with him! And I spend a lot of time reading, praying, and learning about how to be a good wife and mother. I have this idea in my head of my cute little christian family but what a Sin it would be for me to "go by God's playbook" for families but never enlist them for the real action! By this I mean, It's our job to raise our kids in the way God would have us do it, but they are HIS. Nate's His too. I have to be willing to allow God to use us and them in whatever way He sees best. Playing by the rules is great, but if you haven't scored any points by the end of the game, you didn't "earn any interest" (Matthew 25:14-30).

18: the empty way of life:

• This one's kind of personal, but lately I've been thinking about how my rebellion (Thanks to a different book "Your Whole Life"s devotions for this week! How cool!) robs me of the life God wants me to have. And how following His ways in how I should dress, eat, clean, spend my time are LIFE GIVING. His way of doing things keeps me from having an empty life - an empty life full of death and self. I don't want to loose sight of this because discipline is HARD! But I'm trusting that it's worth it.

22: by obeying the truth:

My book also talked about it all comes down to "trust and obey." By doing so I can "Purify myself" and that will lead to a sincere, DEEP love for my brothers (relates to Phil 1:9-11 from last time!)

19-21: Jesus.

I'm not doing this on my own. Yes my FATHER calls me to live a HOLY life out of a REVERENT FEAR for Him so that I can turn away from an EMPTY WAY OF LIFE and OBEY and trust Him but He has not left me on my own to do it:

• Through a chosen decision before anything existed, the pure and precious, blood of my Savior, Brother, and Best Friend, shed for my sake has made me believe in God and has put my faith and hope in Him.
• By His blood I am saved from my life of darkness away from my Father and given a robe and a crown; invited into their house, seated at their table and waited on by the Savior of the World. O God I can't even breathe just thinking about it! O Jesus continue to live Your Life in me! Rid me of myself, absolutely everything that isn't pleasing to You; that isn't the Morgan You dreamed of: a Morgan filled with Jesus.

So basically, I've been seeing God's heart in everything lately. I feel that I have asked for Him and He is showing up. I have requested: "Show me! Show me the way You want me to live. Make Your ways and will clear to me. Guide me in them and keep me from evil, from myself" and HE'S SHOWING ME! It reminds me of what pastor Kitchen said "set loose the bloodhounds of your heart in search of God."

And as God has promised: "You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart" (Jer. 29:13).

O Lord, keep me chasing after You. Draw me close to You. Arrest my will to Yours. Steal my heart. Compel me towards Your desires. May they be mine as well.

May it be so,

Morgan, a slave in the process of piercing her ear.

Hagar and Ishmael (Gen 16).

Chapter 16

Lack of faith led to the birth of Ishmael.

-God was developing and testing Abram's faith during the waiting.

-Human efforts to asist in divine purposes often complicate the matter.

1-6. Legal custom for a barren woman to give her maid to her husband and if a child was born, they could take him/her as their own. :( So Sarai's suggestion was unobjectionable according to they customs of that time. But God often repudiates social customs. Mistreated; same word used in Ex. 1:11-12 to describe Egypt's oppression of Israel.

-Abram, like Adam, followed the wrong advice from his wife.

Morgan: "reading about how Abram(Gen 16), like Adam(Gen 3), followed the wrong advice from his wife in the situation with Hagar. Makes me think about what an influential position we're in. . . Too impatient to wait for God's work to unfold we push our hubby's in the direction we want things to go and then, when it all blows up in our faces, we yell at them! Haha O man, what a messed up picture ;D"

7-16. I'm wondering why the angel of the Lord asked her questions. Maybe he did know, but it's also cool to think that angels obey God without knowing too ; )

God, saw Hagar, and she knew it. However, she was still to submit to an unfair/harsh treatment. It just makes me think about how many people think God's all about them being happy. Not that He's against our happiness, but that's not what it's ALL about. Sometimes He wills us to be in yucky places.

"How Abram must have been rebuked when she came back and told God said to name him 'Ishmael', 'God hears'."

Chapter 17

4-5. What was it like for Abram to tell ppl to start calling him Abraham (father of a multidue). That had to suck. I wonder if people laughed in his face. But every time he was called by that name it would be a reminder of God's promise.

9-14. See blog post on Circumcision.

15-18

Eternal (journal)

NAVE'S TOPICAL BIBLE: For the greatest benefit from the following Scriptures, read the text, not passively but instead consciously and actively "interrogating" the text (interrogate with the 5W'S & H), making a list in your life journal of what the Spirit of Christ (Ro 8:9-note) teaches you (1Jn 2:27, Jn 14:26, 16:13) about God and about man. Obey any instructions or commands you encounter, as you allow the Holy Spirit to renew your mind and to "cultivate faithfulness" (NAS, Ps 37:3-see note). Then offer prayers and praise to your Father for graciously teaching you these profitable, eternal truths (cp 2Ti 3:16, 17-notes).

Genesis 21:33;-

Exodus 3:15; 15:18; Deuteronomy 32:40; 33:27; 1Chronicles 16:36; 29:10; Nehemiah 9:5; Job 36:26;

Psalms 9:7; 33:11; 41:13; 55:19; 68:33; 90:1,2,4; 92:8; 93:2;102:12,24, 25, 26, 27; 104:31; 111:3; 135:13; 145:13; 146:10; Proverbs 8:23, 24, 25;

Isaiah 26:4; 40:28; 41:4; 43:13; 44:6; 46:4; 48:12; 57:15; 63:16;

Jeremiah 10:10; 17:12; Lamentations 5:19; Daniel 4:3,34; Micah 5:2; Habakkuk 1:12; 3:6;

Romans 1:20; 16:26; Ephesians 3:21; 1Timothy 1:17; 6:15,16;

Hebrews 1:8; 9:14; 2Peter 3:8; 1John 2:13;

Revelation 1:4,6; 4:8, 9, 10;5:14; 10:6; 11:17; 15:7; 16:5

Foreknowledge

FOREKNOWS FOREKNOWLEDGE

Foreknowledge describes God’s knowledge of future events, including future free human choices. In His omniscience God knows what the future holds both for individuals and for nations. He knows and sees everything in advance and His will is carried out in accord with His plans and purposes. Foreknowledge does not just describe the truth that God knew something would happen before it happened (although it is true that He did) but that He also gave prior consent to the happening. A common misconception is to conclude that God knew beforehand who would believe on His Son and then predestined those individuals for salvation. Thomas Constable commenting on God's foreknowledge in 1Peter 1:2 (see notes) writes that God’s foreknowledge has an element of determinism in it because whatever really happens that God knows beforehand exists or takes place because of His sovereign will. Therefore when Peter wrote that God chose according to His foreknowledge he did not mean that God chose the elect because He knew beforehand they would believe the gospel (the Arminian position). God chose them because He determined beforehand that they would believe the gospel (the Calvinist position; cf Ro 8:29, 30-see notes Ro 8:29; 30; Ep 1:3,4, 5, 6 -notes Ep 1:3; 1:4; 1:5; 1:6; 1Th 1:4-note; 1Pe 5:13-note). Warren Wiersbe says that Foreknowledge does not suggest that God merely knew ahead of time that we would believe, and therefore He chose us. This would raise the question, “Who or what made us decide for Christ?” and would take our salvation completely out of God’s hands. In the Bible, to foreknow means “to set one’s love on a person or persons in a personal way.” Commenting on Judas' betrayal of our Lord, Wiersbe writes that "before He chose His 12 Apostles, Jesus spent a whole night in prayer (Luke 6:12, 13, 14, 15, 16), so we must believe that it was the Father’s will that Judas be among them (John 8:29). But the selection of Judas did not seal his fate; rather, it gave him opportunity to watch the Lord Jesus closely, believe, and be saved. God in His sovereignty had determined that His Son would be betrayed by a friend, but divine foreknowledge does not destroy human responsibility or accountability. Judas made each decision freely and would be judged accordingly, even though he still fulfilled the decree of God (Acts 2:23)." (Wiersbe, W: Bible Exposition Commentary. 1989. Victor or Logos comments on Luke 22:14) Paul writes about foreknowledge in Romans 8:29 For (anytime you see "for" ask what it's there for? Here Paul is explaining how it is that God can work all things out for good for those who love Him) whom He foreknew (proginoskofrom pro = before + ginosko = know = to know about something before it happens, cf related Greek word prognosis - word study), He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the first-born among many brethren". (See Commentary) The truth is that the salvation of every believer is known and determined in the mind of God before its realization in time. This is "heavy" theology and I believe cannot be fully comprehended by finite men. Instead of complaining that God is not fair (as some who think too much on this attribute do) we should bow to the incredible truth that in eternity past, before Adam and Eve even sinned, God planned the redemption of undeserving sinners through Jesus Christ. Stated another way, the Fall of Man in the Garden of Eden did not take God by surprise. He knew it would happen and He also knew and had planed what He would do in view of it and that His only Son would carry out His plan. The ultimate cause of Jesus’ death was God’s plan and foreknowledge. 1Peter 1:20 (see notes) teaches that Christ, the Lamb, was was foreknown before (proginosko) the foundation of the world, but has appeared in these last times for the sake of you" Christ was foreknown because God had planned and determined in His eternal counsel to provide His Son as a sacrifice for His people. The point is God's foreknowledge means more than that God knew ahead of time that Christ would come and die. God’s foreknowledge is the cause for His Son’s sacrifice–because He planned and decreed it. In other words... In His omniscience God knows what the future holds both for individuals and for nations. He knows and sees everything in advance and his will is carried out in accord with his plans and purposes...Foreknowledge is closely connected to election and predestination and to God's Sovereign rule of His universe. (Foreknowledge in Baker's Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology. See also Elect, Election; God; Predestination)

John Piper warns of... An increasingly popular movement afoot today is called "open theism," which denies that God has exhaustive, definite foreknowledge of the. entire future. (Desiring God) (See Piper's online book Beyond the Bounds - in which he confronts the unsound doctrine of Open Theism) This modern school of so-called "scholars" ("open theists") believe among other things that God’s foreknowledge is limited, because of the limitations He has placed upon Himself in giving man free will. How incredible that finite men would dare describe any limitation to the infinite, omniscient, sovereign God. This website takes the conservative, classic approach as summed up nicely by Easton's dictionary which says that foreknowledge is one of those high attributes essentially appertaining to Him the full import of which we cannot comprehend. In the most absolute sense his knowledge is infinite.

Job alludes to God's foreknowledge declaring Since his days are determined, the number of his months is with Thee, and his limits Thou hast set so that he cannot pass." (Job 14:5, cf Ps. 139:16 - Spurgeon's commentary) God’s foreknowledge is much more than foresight. God does not know future events and human actions because He foresees them but He knows them because He wills them to happen. As Job states, not only is our life short but even our days and months are determined by God, with time limits beyond which no one can go. God knows and has determined the life span of every person every born! The fact that God knows and controls (sovereignty) our life span should not lead to despair but to the contrary should lead to assurance and hope, that our times are in His hands (Eccl 3:1, 2, 11a). Nelson's New Illustrated Bible Dictionary explains that God’s foreknowledge is much more than foresight. God does not know future events and human actions because He foresees them; He knows them because He wills them to happen. Thus God’s foreknowledge is an act of His will. (Youngblood, R. F., Bruce, F. F., Harrison, R. K., & Thomas Nelson Publishers. Nelson's New Illustrated Bible Dictionary) John Macarthur comments on foreknowledge that A common explanation of election is that the elect are chosen because God knew beforehand what they would do. That defines foreknowledge as foresight. I've heard it explained that God looked down through the eons of history, saw by virtue of His omniscience what you and I would do, and then chose or didn't choose us based on whether we did or didn't believe. That at first sounds like a good explanation--but it's not the truth. There are several reasons for wanting to believe that God's foreknowledge means foresight. Our fallen nature desperately want some responsibility for our salvation. Likewise our fallen perspective makes God's sovereign choice appear unfair. But because our minds are polluted by sin, we are in no position to exalt our pride and call ourselves virtuous, or pull down the justice of God and call Him unfair." (Read Dr Macarthur's interesting explanation of why many men want to believe that foreknowledge is simply foresight. Scroll down to the section entitled "Man's Decline") (Bolding added)

NAVE'S TOPIC: For the greatest benefit from the following Scriptures, read the text, not passively but instead consciously and actively "interrogating" the text (interrogate with the 5W'S & H), making a list in your life journal of what the Spirit of Christ (Ro 8:9-note) teaches you (1Jn 2:27, Jn 14:26, 16:13) about God and about man. Obey any instructions or commands you encounter, as you allow the Holy Spirit to renew your mind and to "cultivate faithfulness" (NAS, Ps 37:3-see note). Then offer prayers and praise to your Father for graciously teaching you these profitable, eternal truths (cp 2Ti 3:16, 17-notes). 1Sa 23:10, 12; Isa 42:9; 44:7; 45:11; 46:9,10; 48:3,5,6; Jer 1:5; Da 2:28,29; Mt 6:8; 24:36; Acts 15:18; Ro 8:29; 11:2; 1Pe 1:2

RELATED RESOURCES FOREKNOWLEDGE OF GOD The Foreknowledge of God by A. W. Pink Resources on The Foreknowledge of God - John Piper) Foreknowledge - International Standard Bible Encyclopedia Foreknowledge - Holman Bible Dictionary Foreknowledge - Baker's Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology The Rejection of the Classical Doctrine of God And What It Says About the State of the Evangelical Movement by David Wells Jonathan Edwards on Foreknowledge Pt 1 ; Pt 2 by Sam Storms The Foreknowledge of God by Bob DeWaay God's Foreknowledge by Loraine Boettner Romans 8:29 Sermons/Notes Word Study on proginosko - foreknown Word Study on prognosis- foreknowledge Romans 8:29 Notes Romans 8:29-30: The Ultimate Security of Our Salvation Romans 8:28-30 Foreknown, Predestined, Conformed to Christ