Abraham and Sarah: A Journey of Faith, Fear, and Unbelief

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Abram Lies, Fearing for His Life

Abram was 75, and Sarai was 65, when he journeyed to Canaan, the land God said would belong to his offspring. They weren’t long in Canaan when a severe famine caused them to head for Egypt. Abram thought he would be safe and well-treated if he introduced Sarai as his sister instead of his wife, and she agreed with the ruse. It was a partial truth, as Sarai was his half-sister, but it was also deceptive. When Pharaoh’s officials saw how beautiful she was, they praised her to Pharaoh, who took her into his palace to make her his wife. Pharaoh lavished Abram with gifts because of Sarai.

Abram was close to losing what God had promised, not realizing how essential Sarai was to see it fulfilled. Abram failed Sarai by allowing another man to claim her, but God stepped in, becoming her champion. He brought diseases to Pharaoh and his household for her sake. When Pharaoh realized the truth, he kicked Abram out, along with his wife and everything he had. God saved her from a future in Egypt because she had a share in the promise.

Sarai’s Foolish Plan

Even though God intervened on her behalf, Sarai didn’t understand how she was integral to the promise. Knowing she was getting on in years, Sarai thought she could help Abram see the promise fulfilled by offering her Egyptian slave to bear his child. It was a bad idea, as the woman and her son brought years of trouble into their home.

When Ishmael was 13, God confirmed His promise to Abram and made a covenant with him, including changing Abram and Sarai’s names. Abraham was 99 years old, and Sarah was 89. It seemed even more unlikely that Sarah would ever give her husband a son from her womb. But a little later, God and two angels appeared, letting them know that Sarah would indeed give birth to a son the following year.

Abraham Repeats His Folly

Despite the renewed promises from God, Abraham repeated his folly when he again introduced Sarah as his sister. Once more, this half truth put Sarah’s future and their promise of offspring at stake when King Abimelek sent for her. God, however, appeared to the king in a dream with a dire warning before anything happened. Abimelek, innocent of all wrongdoing, heeded God and sent Sarah back with gifts.

Soon after, Sarah became pregnant and gave Abraham a son in their old age at the time God and the two angels had said. The promise God made to them was fulfilled despite the unnecessary troubles they brought upon themselves through fear and unbelief. She named him Isaac, because he brought laughter to her heart, and she knew anyone who heard the story would laugh too.

Tina Morley

Bible references: Genesis 12; 13:14–17; 15; 16; 17; 18:1–15; 20; 21:1–6

Happy People, Happy World: Experiencing Heaven on Earth

New Book Release

We’re thrilled to announce the publication of Tina’s latest book, Happy People, Happy World. The book aims to cultivate well-balanced creative-thinking individuals rooted in God’s word and led by His Spirit.

Available in eBook and Paperback

Kingdom Living

The more we allow the kingdom of God inside us, the more it can flow through us to bless others. And everything we do should be motivated by love. That is how we will experience heaven on earth.

Book Excerpt

CHAPTER ONE:
DREAMING WITH JESUS

“Let your Kingdom come.
Let your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Matt. 6:10).

Children often have big dreams and are usually quick to say what they want to be when they grow up. Sometimes they outgrow those dreams, maybe thinking them silly. But not all dreams are silly, even if they seem out of reach.

Do you have a childhood dream that you still want to see fulfilled? Since I was a kid, I can remember wanting to sing my heart out in a musical movie. I also wanted to go into missions. These are two very different dreams, but it’s not impossible to do both because God enjoys mixing unrelated things. He’s a creative God and can’t be put in a box. That doesn’t mean that everything we set our hearts on will come to pass. It just means that in God’s kingdom, there are endless possibilities. If we dream with Jesus, nothing is too hard for Him.

. . .

What is the Lord’s dream for His people? Jesus said it was to see God’s kingdom come on earth (Matt. 6:10).

. . .

While Jesus was walking this earth, He was fulfilling His purpose. He proclaimed good news and set people free from sickness and sin. Jesus was living out His dream of seeing God’s kingdom come. He invites us to do the same by making His dream ours.

. . .

What else can we learn from the Bible about Jesus’ dream? In the book of John, Jesus says He has given us His glory, the manifestation of His love, and we can experience true unity with His glory working in us. Moreover, He wants this to be seen by others (John 17:22‑23). With His love and Spirit filling us, we become His representatives. Our acts of service are motivated by His love. We become His hands, feet, and mouthpiece as His Spirit leads us. Jesus’ dream is realized when God’s love is made evident to the world, bringing many more into His family.

Purchase Book

You can purchase Happy People, Happy World through various outlets via Books2Read.

Rob and Tina Morley

Are You Living in the Kingdom of God?

Picture by Dez Pain, RGBStock

The Promised Kingdom of God Came With Jesus

⁴⁴“In the time of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure forever” (See Daniel 2:1-45).

¹⁵“‘The time has come,’ he said. ‘The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!’” (Mark 1:15).

²⁹“And I confer on you a kingdom, just as my Father conferred one on me, ³⁰so that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom and sit on thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel” (Luke 22:29-30).

¹⁰“… ‘Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Messiah. For the accuser of our brothers and sisters, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down’” (Rev. 12:10).

¹⁵“… ‘The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Messiah, and he will reign for ever and ever’” (Rev. 11:15).

Experiencing the Kingdom of God

⁹“This, then, is how you should pray:
‘Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
¹⁰your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven’” (Matt. 6:9-10).

²⁰“… The coming of the kingdom of God is not something that can be observed, ²¹nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is in your midst” (Luke 17:20-21).

¹⁰“If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water … ¹⁴whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life”

²³“… a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. ²⁴God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth” (See John 4:1-26).

¹⁵“If you love me, keep my commands. ¹⁶And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever—¹⁷the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. ¹⁸I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. ¹⁹Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. ²⁰On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. ²¹Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them” (John 14:15-21).

³⁷“On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, ^‘Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. ³⁸Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.’ ³⁹By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified” (John 7:37‑39).

¹⁷“For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Rom. 14:17).

The Fullness of the Kingdom Will Come

⁵⁰I declare to you, brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. ⁵¹Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed—⁵²in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. ⁵³For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. ⁵⁴When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: ‘Death has been swallowed up in victory.’
^55‘Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting?’” (1 Cor. 15:50-55).

²⁰“… our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, ²¹who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body” (Php. 3:20-21).

Rob Morley

How Do We Know WWJD?

What Would Jesus Do?

What would Jesus do in any given situation is meant by the popular abbreviation, WWJD. That said, I’m not sure many people know what Jesus would do except assume the most loving thing they can imagine, or try and discover what the Bible says on the matter. However, I will show those approaches won’t always work and that Jesus does something foolproof that we should emulate. Let’s consider what the Bible says Jesus would do.

What Jesus Did

1) Jesus only did what He saw His Father doing. He said, “[T]he Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.” (John 5:19 NIV). How do we do that?

2) God’s word teaches us that Jesus was “full of the Holy Spirit” and “led by the Spirit” (Luke 4:1). Can we do that?

3) Yes, for we too are “led by the Spirit” (Rom. 8:14) and are instructed to be “filled with the Spirit” (Eph. 5:18) and to “walk in the Spirit” (Gal. 5:25).

4) Going to God’s word apart from the above is not enough. For which of these must I do in a situation – “Do not answer a fool according to his folly, or you yourself will be just like him” or “Answer a fool according to his folly, or he will be wise in his own eyes” (Prov. 26:4-5)?

5) Jesus said, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” (Matt. 22:37), and Proverbs teaches that we should “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight” (Prov. 3:5-6).

6) This, along with prayer, is how you can do what Jesus would do, being led by the Spirit and a part of what the Father is doing “on earth as it is in heaven” (Matt. 6:10).

Rob Morley

Changing the Heart of a Nation

The Bible Doctor

The Church is the light of the world, but without truth, they become the blind leading the blind, floundering and leading others to do the same. In this way, American evangelicals, who have had a huge influence on their country’s political landscape, have done just that. The following books offer remedies for three areas where many have lost biblical focus and led people astray:

Dismantling Dispensationalism

Available in Paperback, eBook, or as posts at Real Church Life

Remedies:

• Remove the false end-time teachings associated with the Apocalypse.
• Restore the day-to-day benefit of the book of Revelation to believers.
• Better understand eschatology.
• Remedy international relations.

The Bride and The Beast

Available in Paperback, eBook, or dedicated Website

Remedies:

• Restore the requirement for good character in public officials.
• Restore credibility with the unsaved.
• Restore Christian influence as the means to long-term societal change rather than resorting to using…

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The Christian and God’s Moral Law

photo by Alex Bruda

Under the Law

In the Bible, ‘the law’ often refers to the covenant that God made with Israel, which Christians know as the Old Covenant. It required of them, amongst other things, to keep God’s moral law. It is especially in this regard that Paul called it a ministry of condemnation (see Gal. 3:10). For, though it was good, in that it highlighted God’s perfect moral law (see Rom. 7:12), it pointed out the error of those who were ‘under’ it, thereby condemning them.

The law was unable to save those who were ‘under’ it from the penalty of their past, present and future sins. Nor could it save them from their sinful nature or enable them to keep its requirements (see Rom. 8:3). It essentially pointed out human sin and sinfulness, and to their desperate need for another way. The Bible puts it like this: ‘Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith’ (Gal. 3:24).

The same principle is also true for those not ‘under the law’ (i.e. those not part of the Old Covenant). This is because, ‘They show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts sometimes accusing them and at other times even defending them’ (Rom. 2:15 NIV).

In Christ

In contrast, Christians (Jews and Gentiles who believe in Christ) are in a new covenant with God. And, though we also seek to fulfil God’s moral law (see 1 John 5:3), we don’t do this by being ‘under the law’ (i.e. under the Old Covenant), but by being in Christ. We no longer try in our own strength to satisfy the law’s requirements in order to please God or avoid His punishment. Instead, the good news is that Jesus’ substitutionary sacrifice satisfies all that the moral law of God requires of us, justifying us (see 2 Cor. 5:21). Furthermore, His life in us enables us to keep His commandments (see Php. 2:13 & Rom. 6:4). This is especially true when we as a matter of lifestyle ask God to empower us by His Spirit and when we walk in step with His Spirit (see Eph. 5:18 & Gal. 5:25).

‘Therefore, my brothers, you also died to the Law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit to God’ (Rom. 7:4).

Rob Morley

If you Dare to Love, you Might have to Speak

Though not about him, this movie reflects the heart of Israel Folau, a professional rugby player who lost his contract with Australian Rugby for daring to warn the homosexuals that God so dearly loves.

https://lnkd.in/g_JdQW8

 

Excellent Outline of Covenant Theology

Here is an excellent outline on Covenant Theology by Ligon Duncan, which he gives in a podcast interview done through The Gospel Coalition: Ligon Duncan – Covenant Theology

 

Posts on Dismantling Dispensationalism

A Message from the Other Side

A New Day Has Already Begun. Photo by Tina Morley

My Assurance

In my previous post, Do you know where you are going to?, I said that the tickets for our afterlife trip have been purchased and all we have to do is accept them as a gift.

The assurance that I have a journey to make at the end of this life is that having accepted the gift, my spirit is already experiencing the destination. Part of me is writing from the other side. I am there in spirit, with the promise that my mind and my body will be sent later and in perfect condition.

Do you have your paid for ticket to an assured destination?
The True Way To Eternal Life

Jesus said, ‘“I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me”’ (John 14:6).

Jesus also said, ‘“Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them”’ (John 14:23).

And, the Bible, my travel guide, says, ‘God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus’ (Eph 2:6).

So, Christ has been my transport and God my destination, but I have also been their destination.

Finally, unlike the casualties of war flown back in a casket, at the end of this age, I will receive a new and glorious body. This one that is shackled by weakness and sickness in a fallen world will be transformed into a new and glorious one. And, my mind will then be further blown away when it better sees the destination that my spirit already knows…God!

Extracts from the Travel Guide

Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ … will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him (Heb 9:27-28).

Listen, I tell you a mystery…we will all be changed– in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed (1 Cor 15:51-52).

For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever (1 Thess 4:16-17).

For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known (1 Cor 13:12).

What About You?

We are all on stand-by, never knowing when we will be going, but needing to be ready. Nevertheless, despite the uncertainty of when we will travel, we can have a say in where we will be going.

Have you met Jesus? Are you in Christ? Is God with you where you are and are you with Him where He is?

Do you know where you are going to? Will you get what you are hoping for?

You can!

I know, because I already am.

Rob Morley

Do you know where you are going to?

Where are you going to? Photo by Tina Morley

Preparing for Life’s Final Journey

My uncle gets to travel overseas on vacation quite frequently. To avoid disappointment, he first does extensive research and then books everything beforehand, leaving nothing to chance. Smart thinking!

I wonder how many of us are as thorough in preparing for life’s final journey, especially seeing that it could begin tomorrow, or even tonight. And, despite the uncertainty of its timing, how many know that they can have a say in their destination?

I’m sure that most of us have wondered if such a journey exists and, if it does, where it may lead. Some may even have a final destination that they hope to see. But, how many do research, leaving nothing to chance? And, do people know that some guides are scams?

Knowing that time will most certainly tell, surely people wouldn’t want to leave the potential of such an event to chance by finding comfort in figments of their imagination, versions of religion, hearsay, others’ research or even their own. Or, do they?

Travel Guide or Wing It?

Perhaps some have researched various travel guides only to find conflicting information leaving them perplexed. Maybe this has left them doubting all the guides or, on the other hand, believing them all to have some help for their trip. Possibly some have excluded the likelihood that any one guide is altogether right. Perhaps some don’t want one in particular to be right because of what they know is in it.

Some have wondered whether our existence means nothing more than this life, with no future, no rewards, and no repercussions…no whatever, settling for us being nothing more than highly evolved and beautifully interactive organisms with a limited life-span. But, given the unavoidability of death and the uncertainty of its timing, it wouldn’t be smart to leave the possibility of a definite trip with a certain destination to chance.

With what is at stake, surely anyone would reconsider even a guide that they have learned to care little for. Whatever your thoughts, will you leave it to chance or will you research the possibilities?

Travel Plans

What if you find a travel guide that you know you can trust and that tells of a destination on offer that you like? Will you find out what you must do to ensure that you get there?

What if, in reading it, you discover that you are currently booked on a mandatory trip to a destination you would rather not go on? Can you quickly make changes to your travel plans before it is too late?

And, just as travelling abroad requires the appropriate travel documents, do you know the requirements for entering where you hope to go?

Also, what about getting there? Just as we can be knowledgeable about various airlines and their destinations, do you know who will take you to the destination that you hope to see?

What if you discover a travel guide where the author has kindly included a purchased ticket for each of its readers? But, what if you have unresolved issues with that author?

What if the author is more than willing to discuss, give understanding and forgive all the issues that stand between the two of you so that you can go? Will you take the ticket that he paid for to the assured destination?

The Afterlife

Do you know where you are going to?

I do! And, in my next post, A Message from the Other Side, I will explain how I know with such assurance.

Rob Morley