Lies about Sarah (again)

Genesis 20

We learned in the previous passage that Abraham had repeated his earlier behavior of calling Sarah his sister. This time resulting in Abimelech, king of Gerar, taking her in anticipation of marriage. However, we also learned of God's intercession and "warning" (although it was much more grave than a simple warning) to Abimelech.
The result is that Abimelech has only one option for survival; return Sarah and get Abraham to pray for him.

In this passage we see how Abimelech handles this warning and the way in which he confronts Abraham in light of God's intercession. With that, lets dive in and start looking at the text. Because of the length of this passage I will not be posting it unabridged, but will post the verses as we move through the passage, as needed.

In my opinion (take it or leave it) is that God put Abimelech in this situation not because he is a bad guy or because God is just unfair; rather, I think that God is working through Abimelech, who of all the biblical characters we have seen thus far, is probably the only one who could have put it to Abraham in this way and working with God, brought Abraham to a point of repentance. We will see that after this encounter, Abraham becomes increasingly faithful and able to act in the right way without falling back into old, unrighteous habits. If ever there was true human character shown in scripture, it is this; Abraham not only blames it on his own fear and judgment of people he doesn't know, but blames it on his wife and perhaps even blaming it on God by saying that He "caused me to wander". We can see in the moment that Abraham is not sorry for what he has done. Moreover, Abraham's excuse isn't defensible in anyway. He is standing in front of a man who obviously has fear of God saying that people in this country had no fear of God. He is saying that Sarah is his half sister which completely misses the point, she is his wife, that is the important part. As any parent will tell you (mine most certainly will) a half lie is a whole lie, telling 90% of the truth is not telling the truth and lying by omission is still lying. We can learn from Abraham in this situation, as well as Abimelech, that truth sometimes hurts and that lying only makes more problems.

Genesis 19

The story here tells about the Lord's visit to Lot's place in Sodom. Once again, Sodom is a place where people are very evil and sinful. Basta, grabe jud ang mga tao dadto (haha. murag naka adto?)

Then there were this 2 angels who told Lot to leave the place because God will destroy it.. God even told Lot to tell his family and relatives to leave the place because of what God just said. But even his family members don't believe in him, they thought he was just joking so they laughed at him when he said it..
Since God is a loving God, He saved Lot, his wife and his two daughters by the time God destroyed the evil city... And they went to a town called Zoar.

Just a thought, what if during the night before the flashflood of Typhoon Sendong, what if SOMEONE warned us that God will destroy "BALULANG",, hahaha.. seriously, I might even laugh.. I might think that that SOMEONE is crazy.. but, it's just a thought anyway.

So, it has been a while that Lot along with his family lived away from a place where there are people they stayed at a cave. Then Lot's two daughters were getting old and wanted to bear a child. So, what they did they let their father get drunk and slept with him. (peru wa sila nag dungan ha?). my gesh.. grabe , and yeah, there lived MOAB AND AMMON.. hmmm.. my gesh.. Special children tingale to sila noh? haha joke.. peru, my gesh. grabe gyuuud..

Sarah - God must be joking right??

Genesis 17

Sarah laughed to herself when she heard God's plans for her. See, GOd made a promise to Abraham and Sarah that they would have a child in their old age. And get this - the child would make Sarah the birthmother of an entire nation. God's promise to Abraham and Sarah sounded more like a Jerry Springer show: Senior Citizens in local nursing home give birth to a miracle baby!

Yet the bible suggests that Sarah ended up believing God. In fact, she's the first woman listed among the faithful in Hebrews 11. After she got over her fit of laughter, she evidently took God at his word, and he came through for her. Old Sarah became a mother to Isaac- and part of Jesus' family tree. THe world can make us feel like God's call on our life could interest talk show producers. God's promises are something we could laugh off - except that they're true. They're solid. We can count on each and every one of them. Sarah evidently turned her doubts into faith. And look what happened. Do you belive God is able to come through for you? tell him right now you believe his promises and see what will happen..

Dear God, I know just how Sarah felt -torn between doubt and faith. It's scary. But today I am going to take you at your word and act in faith. Show me your promises are true. Amen

Genesis 16

Sarai, Abram's wife, cannot bear a child.. So what she did, she told Abram to go sleep with her maidservant and perhaps build a family through her..

and my gesh.. SAKIT KAYO NA NOH!??!?! huhuhu.. Peru, yeah.. Abram did what Sarai told him, and had a son named ISHMAEL... that's it, the maidservant named Hagar was terrified for she felt like she cheated on her mistress, but an Angel of God told her that she must be brave and something like that..

Genesis 15

Abram rescues Lot

Genesis 14

I have read another version of the Bible while reading this chapter, and WOW!! Grabe ka nice, because it has reflections on each chapter.. I badly want that Bible ya know?? but it's at ate Chang's house. hahaha.. like wow!! at the first place palang, i want a Bible like that para masabtan jd bitaw. heheh peru anyway, i also feel blessed having MANDY and YOBI. hehe

During this Chapter its about Lot having trouble because diba at the first place when Lot and Abram were seperating, Lot chose the land which was richer and which had people sinning.. so, yeah. there were this men attacking Lot and his land, and Abram was there to rescue. hahaha.. LOL (grabe ka summarized ang show)

Genesis 13

Abram, Sarai and Lot went up from Egypt to Negev with everything they had.. But Abram and Lot had to separate ways, because as stated in Gen13:6 "but the land could not support them while they stayed together, for their possessi0ns were so great that they were not able to stay together"

Lot chose to live near Sodom while Abram lived in the land of Canaan. Well, the men in Sodom were wicked and were sinning greatly against the Lord. Anyway, Abraw f0llowed what God commanded, he built an altar to the Lord when he m0ved f0rward.. (Lol. Can't find the right term)
That's all. I'm sleepy.

God's call to Abram

Beginning in Genesis 12 God called one man, Abram, and gave him a
covenant promise. And Abram believed God and obeyed his word.  God
promised to make him a source of blessing for all people. God's best
blessing is salvation from sin and his kingdom.

By the way, Abram and Abraham is the same person. hehe
Anyways, the story here is that Abram went to Canaan with his wife Sarai and nephew, Lot.. Because God commanded him so, and there he owned everything ..
He went south, somewhere Egypt.. and since Sarai was a beautiful woman that Abram thought he'd be killed by the Egyptians for having such a beautiful wife, He lied to the Pharoah that Sarai was his sister in order to save his life.. Oh well, upto such time that the Pharoah got sick along with the people in the palace and he knew the truth, He told Abram together with his wife to leave the place. and that's it.. They left with their wealth..

The Tower of Babel

I've heard this story before..

Up until this point in the Bible, the whole world had one language - one common speech for all people. The people of the earth became skilled in construction and decided to build a city with a tower that would reach to heaven. By building the tower they wanted to make a name for themselves and also prevent their city from being scattered.

God came to see their city and the tower they were building. He perceived their intentions, and in His infinite wisdom, He knew this "stairway to heaven" would only lead the people away from God. He noted the powerful force within their unity of purpose. As a result, God confused their language, causing them to speak different languages so they would not understand each other. By doing this, God thwarted their plans. He also scattered the people of the city all over the face of the earth.

God says in Genesis 11:6, "If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them."  God realizes that when people are unified in purpose they can accomplish impossible feats, both noble and ignoble. This is why unity in the body of Christ is so important.

The Table of Nations

kkkk, so agian. There were so many names mentioned here. haha.. my geshh..
Those who were mentioned were scattered all over the world by that time with different languages.. :)
In summary, Noah and His sons did what the Lord commanded; TO SPREAD AND MULTIPLY! hehe.

bored. (haha) sorry Lord...

God's covenant to Noah

"I establish my covenant with you: Never again will all life be cut off by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth." Genesis 9:11

yeah right? HAHA. joke.. seriously, God promised this.. so, yeah! hehe
I just realized that it was NOAH (and those who were with him) whom God said to go out and multiply. (NOW I KNOW)..

Noah had 3 sons Japheth, Shem and Ham.. It's really weird because Noah got angry to Ham, the father of Canaan, when he woke up from his drunkeness... And like, i'm really curious why he was angry for such small reason. haha (lol.. i dunno.).. well yeah,, that's it. Sorry napud Lord. hahaha.. I'm just curious that's all.

The Flood

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!
New Year na New Year the Chapters which i'm about to summarize reminds me of one of my most unforgettable experience last year, an experience of survival because of this FLASH FLOOD! urgh.. But I believe God has something much better for me and everyone..

Anyway, Genesis 6-8 is the story of "NOAH'S ARK".. This is one of the most famous stories in the Bible, it's about Noah making an Ark because God said there will be a flood. Noah that time was 600 years old and inside the ark were animals (male and female of every living), Noah's wife, Noah's sons and wives of his sons.

The reason why God overflooded the earth is because He was very sorry that He made people on earth  whose thoughts and plans were evil like everyone was so cruel and violent. But ofcourse, naa man jui buotan diba? hehe.. He chose Noah because Noah  is the only one who pleases the Lord, and yeahhh.. That's it, Noah  did everything the Lord told Him.. Although it was not mentioned how many days Noah created and finished the boat, but it was mentioned that there were 40 days and 40 nights that they were inside the boat because of the flood.. And yeah,, when the water receded, basta Noah sent a Raven(dove) outside the window for 3 times, the first time was that the Raven went back(it means that there were still water everywhere), 2nd time (7days later) was that the Raven went back in the evening with a green leaf from an olive tree and the 3rd time (after 7days again) the Raven didn't come back.. At that time, Noah knew that it was already safe to get out from the boat and OH! I forgot, the boat landed in Mount Ararat. Hehe...

"The smell of the burning offering pleased God, and He said: Never again will I punish the earth for the sinful things its people do. All of them have evil thoughts from the time they are young, but I will never destroy everything that breathes, as I did this time." -Genesis 8:21 

So, WOW! How great and amazing is our Lord is right?? He can do anything He wants and He is the most powerful of all!!