This Week we were Genesis 15 looking at when God re-established his covenant with Abram.
What I love about this passage is that in the very first verse God tells Abram that God is his shield. What a beautiful picture! And what is even more awesome is that we as spiritual descendants of Abram have Jesus Christ as our shield.
So we spent the first part of the night talking about different ways that Jesus is our shield. I explained to the students that we need to understand that Satan and demonic opposition is a very real thing and should sober us up about our walk with Christ and we need to understand that we may face very real opposition when we commit to follow Jesus.
However we need to believe and embrace the fact that in regards to demonic opposition, or sin, or death that Jesus is our "Christus Victor" meaning that Jesus has already won the victory over these things and in Christ we share in that victory. While we need to be sober to satanic opposition we should not get consumed or overwhelmed by it because it is giving Satan may more respect than he is due. The battle is won! We have victory is Christ and he is our shield and protecter! I love that verse...So cool!!
We also see in Genesis 15 that Abram questions God about what is going on. Abram is really old, has no kids, is still an alien in a foreign land and says to God "how are your promises going to come true, I don't understand." In studying this passage we learned that it is ok to have questions and not understand what the Lord is doing as long as we continue to trust in Him and His Word. We also learned that when we have doubts to go to the Lord and talk to him rather than keep them inside because when we do it turns into bitterness and unbelief.
We finished the night looking at Genesis 15:11 where Abram sets up the covenant like God commands him and then immediately he has to fend off birds of prey that seek to eat the animals on the altar.
What we learned from that picture is that as soon as we commit to following the Lord and doing what he commands us we need to expect to face opposition. This happens because our sin and Satan would want to discourage us and have us fall flat on our face. This opposition is a test of our faith and we need to equip ourselves through God's Word, prayer, and accountability to deal with this opposition!
We finished the night in small groups looking at specific ways we can follow the Lord better and deal with opposition when it comes.
I love the students and really am beginning to feel God stirring in their hearts, its a cool and encouraging thing to see!
Cal
No comments:
Post a Comment