Tag Archives: Ishmael

From Here to the Far Side of Crazy Big

Time is both fact and dilemma. It frustrates, disappoints, rewards and thwarts. It blinds us (can’t see the future); lures us (maybe today will be better); haunts us (“memories, like the corners of my mind…”); and intoxicates (I never want this moment to end!). It is perhaps the most inescapable mystery of human existence.

The Greek poet Aeschylus captured the most direct utility of Time, noting that “Time brings all things to pass.” No duh, right? Yet the observation remains useful, if only because 2500 years later, C.S. Lewis said pretty much the same thing: “The future is something which everyone reaches at the rate of 60 minutes an hour, whatever he does, whoever he is.” In other words, you can’t escape it, you can only go through it if you wish to discover what lies on the other side. Whether we are talking about the next hour, day or decade, tomorrow is the unfulfilled mission of your life. Which brings us back to a wandering Semite named Abram, for whom God has big, big plans. Outrageous, hard-to-fathom big.

“And (God) took him outside and said, ‘Now look toward the heavens, and count the stars, if you are able to count them.’ And He said to him, ‘So shall your descendants be.’ Then he believed in the LORD; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness.” (Gen. 15:5-6)

The fact is, if we truly knew what God had in store for us—if all at once, our entire future could be compressed into present revelation—our brains would melt. So Time is a form of mercy, a steady-dripping IV, dosing your destiny so that READ MORE >>>


You Can’t Do it Alone, Man

“Then the word of the Lord came to Abram, saying, ‘This man will not be your heir; but one who shall come forth from your own body, he shall be your heir.’ ” (Gen 15:4)

Let us now pause and give thanks for Woman. Abram will have an heir. He’s going to be a son, not a slave. God makes this clear: “My promise will only be fulfilled from one who truly comes from you, Abram.” Since God intends to extend Abram’s genetics into the earth, Eliezer doesn’t fit the bill. But the promise is about more than just Abram the man. Remember, God is seeding the planet with a new and different kind of kingdom, from whom the one, true King will one day come. With Isaac, the genetic transfer becomes quite literal. To this day, the Jewish nation takes great pride in their physical ancestry. But physical genetics isn’t all God intended. As previously noted in Gen. 18:19, the spiritual and emotional genetics which Abram would pass to his heirs was most important of all. Who in their right mind thinks this could ever happen with man alone? God’s promise not only liberates faith in Abram, it also defines the application of that faith.

So…while God-sized dreams are obviously important (we’ll look at them in more detail in my next blog), I’m more concerned at the moment with how God brings these dreams to pass. We all have dreams. Some of us chase them, but who catches them? More grandly stated, how can an entire nation catch a dream? READ MORE >>>


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