Abraham

Abraham was a man of faith. He had faith in God when he left his home land not knowing where he was headed; he had faith in God when God told him to kill his beloved son, time and time again we see in the Bible that Abraham is a man of faith. (Hebrews 11:8) By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went. Even though Abraham was a great man of God he wasnt perfect. You see, Abraham had faith when he left his home but somewhere along the way he doubted God. All the way from Ur of the Chaladees you see Abraham constantly stopping to build an altar and pray to God and seek his guidance. But when famine strikes Canaan Abraham completely leaves God out of the equation and flees. No prayer, no guidance, no altar. So Abraham and his wife are leaving Canaan and heading towards Egypt when another problem arises. Abraham has a beautiful wife, so beautiful that Abraham thought he was in danger because of it! So Abraham makes another decision without prayer, he makes a decision to lie. He tells his wife that if anybody asks she is his sister. Now this wasnt a whole lie, she was his half-sister, but she was also his wife. Now did Abraham really lie? His wife was technically his sister. Websters dictionary defines a lie as a false statement made with deliberate intent to deceive; an intentional untruth; a falsehood, or to create a false or misleading impression. Therefore, according to Websters dictionary Abraham told a lie. Pastor Michael Jones said One sin will always lead to another; it started with a lack of faith which lead to a lie. Abraham didnt plan to lie but when he left God out of his decision he wasnt walking in the spirit, and when you arent walking in the spirit you make it easy to sin. Genesis 12:14-15, 17

(KJV). And it came to pass, that, when Abram was come into Egypt, the Egyptians beheld the woman that she was very fair. The princes also of Pharaoh saw her, and commended her before Pharaoh: and the woman was taken into Pharaoh's house. And the Lord plagued Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai Abram's wife. Now Abrahams sin caused God to plague Pharaoh and basically caused one big mess! Another of Michael Jones quotes states, When we try to deal with our problems in our own understanding we create more problems. Abraham tried to do this in his own will so he ended up sinning in a lot of ways. Genesis 13:3,4 And he went on his journeys from the south even to Bethel, unto the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Hai; Unto the place of the altar, which he had make there at the first: and there Abram called on the name of the Lord. See Abraham realized that without God he couldnt prevail so he went back to where he left God and Called upon Him. When we as Christians leave God we wont succeed we will fail and fail and dig a deeper hole for ourselves until we realize that without God we can do nothing. Whenever we stop relying on Gods strength and start relying on our own strength things will start to go downhill! Whenever we leave God we need to do as Abraham did and go back to where we left God. We also need to know that even though we fail God can still use us as great mean and women for His glory. Abraham isnt just known for his mistakes; in fact, if you asked most people today, they would probably say something about his faith when God asked him to sacrifice Isaac, (Hebrews 11:17) By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son. In conclusion, yes Abraham wasnt perfect but he is now known as a friend of God, as a man of great faith. So live like Abraham did. Live a life of faith! Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase. - Martin Luther King, Jr.