{"id":15802,"date":"2021-05-16T22:00:04","date_gmt":"2021-05-17T05:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/genesis_17_1-14-copy\/"},"modified":"2021-05-16T17:28:23","modified_gmt":"2021-05-17T00:28:23","slug":"genesis_17_15-27","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/genesis_17_15-27\/","title":{"rendered":"Laugh for the Right Reasons"},"content":{"rendered":"

Genesis 17:15-27\u00a0\u00a0Click here for Bible Verses<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is Genesis 17:15-27.\u00a0 Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

Genesis 17:15-16 (NIV)<\/em><\/strong>
\n15\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0God also said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you are no longer to call her Sarai; her name will be Sarah.
\n16\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0I will bless her and will surely give you a son by her. I will bless her so that she will be the mother of nations; kings of peoples will come from her.”<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 15-16:\u00a0\u00a0Here God expressly states that Sarai will give birth to a son and will become the mother of nations.\u00a0\u00a0God changes Sarai\u2019s name to Sarah, which means \u201cprincess\u201d, which is appropriate given that kings would come from her (v16).<\/p>\n

This reminds me that when you place your trust in Jesus, you become part of God\u2019s royal family.\u00a0\u00a0As God\u2019s children, you\u2019re not nothing; you are royalty.<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0(Just for fun, if you want a more royal sounding name, take the name of the street you live on and add a royal sounding title to it, like \u201cPrince Willingdon\u201d, \u201cLady Katsura\u201d, \u201cKing Edward\u201d, or \u201cThe Dutchess of Dunbar\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0This usually works for streets in Greater Vancouver, unless you live on No. 2 Road.)<\/p>\n

Genesis 17:17 (NIV)<\/em><\/strong>
\n17\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Abraham fell facedown; he laughed and said to himself, “Will a son be born to a man a hundred years old? Will Sarah bear a child at the age of ninety?”<\/em><\/p>\n

On verse 17:\u00a0\u00a0When Abraham hears what God is saying to him, Abraham falls facedown in worship and laughs.\u00a0\u00a0He laughs not because he does not believe, but because he believes and is in awe of the news he has received.\u00a0\u00a0Laughter can be rooted in belief or disbelief.\u00a0\u00a0Laughter fueled by faith is full of joy.\u00a0\u00a0Laughter fueled by unbelief leads to sarcasm, hopelessness and depression.<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0May you laugh for joy because of faith in God\u2019s promises.<\/p>\n

Genesis 17:18-22 (NIV)<\/em><\/strong>
\n18\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0And Abraham said to God, “If only Ishmael might live under your blessing!”
\n19\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Then God said, “Yes, but your wife Sarah will bear you a son, and you will call him Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him.
\n20\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0And as for Ishmael, I have heard you: I will surely bless him; I will make him fruitful and will greatly increase his numbers. He will be the father of twelve rulers, and I will make him into a great nation.
\n21\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0But my covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you by this time next year.”
\n22\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0When he had finished speaking with Abraham, God went up from him.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 18-22:\u00a0\u00a0After God tells Abraham that Sarah will bear a son, that they are to name that son Isaac (v19) and that from this son would come kings (v16), Abraham prays and asks that his other son Ishmael also live under God\u2019s blessing (v18).\u00a0\u00a0God confirms that He has heard Abraham\u2019s prayer and will surely bless Ishmael (v20) and make him into a great nation, but that God\u2019s covenant would be with Isaac who would arrive around this time the following year (v21).<\/p>\n

What can we learn from this?\u00a0\u00a0Just as God heard the prayer of Abraham for his son Ishmael,\u00a0God hears the prayer of parents for their children.\u00a0\u00a0Parents, one of the most important things you can do is to pray for your children.\u00a0\u00a0Pray for them every day<\/strong>, that they would live under God\u2019s blessing and be fruitful.<\/p>\n

Genesis 17:23-27 (NIV)<\/em><\/strong>
\n23\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0On that very day Abraham took his son Ishmael and all those born in his household or bought with his money, every male in his household, and circumcised them, as God told him.
\n24\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Abraham was ninety-nine years old when he was circumcised,
\n25\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0and his son Ishmael was thirteen;
\n26\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Abraham and his son Ishmael were both circumcised on that same day.
\n27\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0And every male in Abraham’s household, including those born in his household or bought from a foreigner, was circumcised with him.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 23-27:\u00a0\u00a0Abraham obeys God\u2019s command to circumcise every male in his household.\u00a0\u00a0Especially back then, circumcision was a painful and inconvenient procedure, but Abraham does it anyway and gets his family to do it, all in obedience to God\u2019s command and with faith in God\u2019s promises.\u00a0\u00a0Likewise,\u00a0even when it is inconvenient and even painful to do, may we go out of our way to obey God and to do what He says because we trust Him and believe in His promises<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Heavenly Father, thank You that because of Jesus Christ I belong to Your family and I am royalty.\u00a0\u00a0Thank You that Your promises can make me laugh for joy.\u00a0\u00a0Thank You that You hear the prayer of parents.\u00a0\u00a0Please help me to obey You even when it is inconvenient to do so.\u00a0\u00a0In Jesus\u2019 name, AMEN!<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is Genesis 17:15-27.\u00a0 Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

Genesis 17:15-16 (NIV)
\n15\u00a0\u00a0God also said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you are no longer to call her Sarai; her name will be Sarah.
\n16\u00a0\u00a0I will bless her and will surely give you a son by her. I will bless her so that she will be the mother of nations; kings of peoples will come from her.”<\/p>\n

On verses 15-16:\u00a0\u00a0Here God expressly states that Sarai will give birth to a son and will become the mother of nations.\u00a0\u00a0God changes Sarai\u2019s name to Sarah, which means \u201cprincess\u201d, which is appropriate given that kings would come from her (v16).<\/p>\n

This reminds me that when you place your trust in Jesus, you become part of God\u2019s royal family.\u00a0\u00a0As God\u2019s children, you\u2019re not nothing; you are royalty.\u00a0\u00a0(Just for fun, if you want a more royal sounding name, take the name of the street you live on and add a royal sounding title to it, like \u201cPrince Willingdon\u201d, \u201cLady Katsura\u201d, \u201cKing Edward\u201d, or \u201cThe Dutchess of Dunbar\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0This usually works for streets in Greater Vancouver, unless you live on No. 2 Road.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15810,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15802","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gametime-sharing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15802","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15802"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15802\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15803,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15802\/revisions\/15803"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15810"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}