Blessed to Bless- Pondering Genesis 12

Genesis12 2 nAnd I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 oI will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and pin you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

Luke 6:38 give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put linto your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.” 

John 4:13“Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 but kwhoever drinks of the water that I will give him lwill never be thirsty again.2 The water that I will give him will becomemin him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” 

Has God blessed you? If salvation were the only thing He had ever given you, you would still have reason to praise Him forever! But He doesn't stop there....I have life and breath, a brain... stop and look at the engineering of your hand! The ocean breeze. Music.

Does someone love you? Have you ever shed a tear of joy? Has someone ever hugged you face to face when you were weeping in sorrow?

Blessings......

It is so interesting that the blessings have a string attached. Not as a payment to the Creator- but a weightiness to share the blessing. But it is a two way channel of healing and blessing.

And to turn your back on the giver? I still grieve over the sad ending to Christopher Hitchens. Not only did he refuse to acknowledge the Giver of good gifts, he likely shut the hearts of many followers in the process. He was a beautiful man with amazing talent...but it was never a channel of ultimate blessing.

Douglas Wilson tried. In a debate, Wilson pleaded .....

A favorite quip of those who promote atheism is to say, "God has not given me enough evidence".In a debate with Christopher Hitchens, Douglas Wilson addressed this excuse:"Actually, I believe I can present evidence for what I know. But evidence comes to us like food, and that is why we say grace over it. And we are supposed to eat it, not push it around on the plate—and if we don't give thanks, it never tastes right. But here is some evidence for you, in no particular order. The engineering that went into ankles. The taste of beer. That Jesus rose from the dead on the third day, just like he said. A woman's neck. Bees fooling around in the flower bed. The ability of acorns to manufacture enormous oaks out of stuff they find in the air and dirt. Forgiveness of sin. Storms out of the North, the kind with lightning. Joyous laughter (diaphragm spasms to the atheistic materialist). The ocean at night with a full moon. Delta blues. The peacock that lives in my yard. Sunrise, in color. Baptizing babies. The pleasure of sneezing. Eye contact. Having your feet removed from the miry clay, and established forever on the rock. You may say none of this tastes right to you. But suppose you were to bow your head and say grace over all of it. Try it that way.You say that you cannot believe that Christ's death on the Cross was salvation for the world because the idea is absurd. I have shown in various ways that absurdity has not been a disqualifier for any number of your current beliefs. You praise reason to the heights, yet will not give reasons for your strident and inflexible moral judgments, or why you have arbitrarily dubbed certain chemical processes "rational argument." That's absurd right now, and yet there you are, holding it. So for you to refuse to accept Christ because it is absurd is like a man at one end of the pool refusing to move to the other end because he might get wet. Given your premises, you will have to come up with a different reason for rejecting Christ as you do.But for you to make this move would reveal the two fundamental tenets of true atheism.One: You say There is no God. Two: You hate Him.

The covenant promise to Abraham stands firm today...God blesses those who bless and curses those who curse.

But if you have been blessed...it is so you can bless others!

How can we do that?

One is to be cognizant of people around us- be willing to step in when you notice. Be active in conversations and get involved.

Secondly, be an encourager in the ways and words of God. I can't tell you how much it makes my day when someone says I encouraged them. It may just be a smile or a touch.

Third- put feet to your prayers. Initiate help and get r done. My mom used to take groceries to a family in need. Our Sunday School sent a servant of God to Hawaii with his wife to see their son who was on leave from the middle east. Give..give...give- it is the greatest joybuilder in the world. Are you down or depressed...find someone and pray for them, serve them and give- the depression will vanish.

Finally, shine the light of the gospel. The gospel of salvation through Christ is the greatest power in the universe. It has the power to set the captive free. Think of all the people in the world oppressed by religions that require duty or ritual to please an absentee God with a big billy club. The good news is on a victory lap around the globe- you have received it freely- give it away.....what a privilege!

Our next topic will be 'The Myth of a Painless Struggle'