ABRAHAMıS FAITH About the Christians new relationship To Know: ³One who had escaped came and reported this to Abram the Hebrew.² (Gen. 14:13) This is the only time Abram, whose name will be changed to Abraham, is called the Hebrew. It is not a national name since as yet there was not yet a nation. It is a nickname. Puritan was a nickname for those who planted America in an effort to be instruments in the hand of God to purify England. They came here to be a new England. It was not unlike the designation ³aboriginal² for native Australians. Abram was a foreigner in Canaan. He was a man ³from the other side.² He was known as the man who had come, ²across the water.² Perhaps it came from his crossing the Jordan or even more likely crossing the great river Euphrates. This reality of being a foreigner will be true of all Abramıs spiritual descendants until the end of time. Christians know they have crossed over into an invisible land they never knew before. Jimmy sought me out on Christmas day to tell me that at Thanksgiving time something profound happened to him. His entire upbringing at home, his teaching in the Sunday School and my preaching from the pulpit became real to him. The Bible began to speak to him personally. Paul described Jimmyıs experience when he wrote to the Colossians. ³For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.² (1:13) The Christian life is a crossing over in the deepest regions of the person we call our self. Scripture says we are a ³new creation.² (2 Cor. 5:17) Those, to whom Christ gives faith in his name, discover new tastes, new motives, new desires, new loves, new insights and new delights occupy their lives. Christians are Hebrews in the sense that Abram was when he lived as a stranger in the land to which God led him. The Christian life is a new relationship to God and his will. The author of Hebrews described the Christian life thus, ³They admitted that they were aliens and strangers on the earth.² (11:13) Christians, however, are no longer strangers to heaven. 011410$-011410 <{{{{{{>< Other posts:
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