Following Faith - Step 3 (The Embrace)

"These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them" - Hebrews 11:13

To embrace is to hold on and not let go.

It was what the Syrophenician woman in the Bible¹ did when she kept pressing Jesus for her daughter's deliverance in spite of insults. It was what blind Bartimaeus² did when he kept crying out to Jesus in spite of everyone telling he to pipe down.

There is an IF to receiving from God,

"for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not." - Galatians 6:9b

When you see what you want and you become convinced you can have it, embrace it and don't take "No!" for an answer.

- fritz

^{1 - Mark 7:28
2 - Mark 10:46}

Why believe in Adam and Eve

"For look, the wicked bend their bows; they set their arrows against the strings to shoot from the shadows at the upright in heart.

When the foundations are being destroyed, what can the righteous do?" - Psalm 11:2-3

The accuracy of the Bible, especially the Old Testament, is important in ways not immediately apparent.

Many churches, especially main line denominations, allow "scholars" to teach the Old Testament, especially Genesis through Deuteronomy, are a compilation of oral tradition and that the Biblical accounts of creation, the flood, and other recorded events are actually embellishments of some kernel of truth - not factual.

What difference could that belief make? A lot!

If the biblical account(s) of creation was (were) embellishments to and from a non-scientific world view then there is no foundation to understand the need for Christ's death on the cross. If there was no real first man, Adam, and first woman, Eve, then Paul is wrong when he writes in the Bible that Christ's death counteracts the sin which came into the world through the first man, Adam¹. Only crazy people kill themselves for love when there is no actual need.

If Genesis through Deuteronomy are actually a combination of various oral traditions sewn together by an unknown person then when Jesus told his followers, "Moses said, Honour thy father and thy mother" ² he was either wrong or, for some reason, deceptive. Neither view forms a foundation of faith. If he was not trustworthy then, how can he be trustworthy now?

Sometimes the best way to bring down a building is not to attack the building but to destroy its foundation.

- fritz


^{1 - Romans 5
2 - Mark 7:10}

Prayer, sometimes a wrestling match

Bible stories seldom explain themselves¹; Jacob's all night wrestling match is one of those where we are left to our own conclusions.

So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak... he touched the socket of Jacob's hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man...Jacob replied, "I will not let you go unless you bless me...the man said, "Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome." - Genesis 32:22, 23b, 26, 28 (NIV)

A similar exchange occurs between Jesus and a Greek. Our loving Jesus said seemingly unkind things.

The woman ... begged Jesus to drive the demon out of her daughter...he told her, "for it is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to their dogs." "Yes, Lord," she replied, "but even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs." Then he told her, "For such a reply, you may go; the demon has left your daughter. - Mark 7:26a, 27b-29 (NIV)

Sometimes, I don't know why², we go to God and it turns into a wrestling match - God doesn't cooperate, things don't change, and the heavens seem like brass.

Saying God (and Jesus) doesn't care then quitting is the easy out, and He'll let us take it, or we can be like Jacob and the Greek woman - not take "No" for an answer.

Tenacity is a character quality God, apparently, likes in his children (I like it in mine - successful living requires it!). We may get banged up in process like Jacob or endure insults like the Greek woman, but we will be glad we endured when we get what we wanted.

"Hope deferred maketh the heart sick: but when the desire cometh, it is a tree of life." - Proverbs 13:12

- fritz
¹ Related Post: God Needs No Explanation
² Related Post: Loving God Like He Is