Two visits to the docs and two to go.  I am still alive.

Some new medications, dropping others and lowering other dosages will hopefully resolve some of my issues.

Overcast and foggy, today, with a kiss of snow on the hills around us – what we can see of them anyway.

Good day for inside work.

1 Corinthians 11:1 Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ.

This is a verse that always strikes me in my heart.

Can I say to someone, follow me even as I also am of Christ and lead them to salvation – or do my missteps and misdeeds cause them to falter and fail?

I know that I have hurt my testimony several times in the course of these past 50+ years.  I know that I have failed God and that if I was the only Christian these people knew – or if my failing caused them to lose faith in God I have a burden to bear.

I am not perfect; everyone that knows me will say that, my children can point to many deficiencies in my life where I have let God and them down.

Fortunately, most people are forgiving and despite my many blunders still accept me – but I know that others who had only passing glimpses of those failed relationships may have been discouraged and/or angered and turned further away from God due to my actions; or those that have known me for a long time and are not as forgiving.

I have a difficult time saying to anyone, follow me and how I live and you will also draw closer to God.

As Christians, we are well aware of how imperfect a person is and we are even more aware of our own imperfections – and it often interferes with our confidence in witnessing to others.

We hesitate, or we downplay or not speak up at all for fear that our life is so imperfect that we cannot be effective servants for God.

But, we are not alone in our failures.  We are not an abomination, we are human and God understands that; while we may have stood in someone’s way and caused them to stumble, He has others that He will send their way to reaffirm our message, if not our actions. 

AND, more importantly, He will forgive and still use us in His service. 

One of the things I appreciate about the Word of God is that He didn’t hold the leaders up to be perfect – He shows how they, too, were human and failed Him at times.

Abraham is THE father of the Jews.  He is held up as the kind of man all Jews should become.  His dedication to God was unparalleled and we should immolate him.

Yet, Abraham was not perfect; he allowed Abimelech to take Sarah into his household knowing that his intentions were not just to use her as a servant.

Geneses 20:2-5 And Abraham said of Sarah his wife, She is my sister: and Abimelech king of Gerar sent, and took Sarah.

God intervened.

³ But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night, and said to him, Behold, thou art but a dead man, for the woman which thou hast taken; for she is a man's wife.

⁴ But Abimelech had not come near her: and he said, Lord, wilt thou slay also a righteous nation?

⁵ Said he not unto me, She is my sister? and she, even she herself said, He is my brother: in the integrity of my heart and innocency of my hands have I done this.

When Abimelech was told in a dream that he was about to commit a grave sin, unto death, he pled his case with God. 

God understood and told him to return Sarah to Abraham.

Vs 9-13 Then Abimelech called Abraham, and said unto him, What hast thou done unto us? and what have I offended thee, that thou hast brought on me and on my kingdom a great sin? thou hast done deeds unto me that ought not to be done.

¹⁰ And Abimelech said unto Abraham, What sawest thou, that thou hast done this thing?

¹¹ And Abraham said, Because I thought, Surely the fear of God is not in this place; and they will slay me for my wife's sake.

¹² And yet indeed she is my sister; she is the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother; and she became my wife.

¹³ And it came to pass, when God caused me to wander from my father's house, that I said unto her, This is thy kindness which thou shalt shew unto me; at every place whither we shall come, say of me, He is my brother.

Abraham didn’t tell the whole truth, Sarah was his sister, but in failing to also say she was his wife, he almost caused the downfall of an innocent man.

And not only did Abraham lie, he told Sarah to lie making her a co-conspirator and because she WAS his wife who must obey her husband, he caused her to bring God’s wrath against Abimelech.

Abraham was afraid of being killed so the leaders, whoever they might be, could take Sarah as their own. 

EVEN though he was entering these lands as instructed by God he lacked faith that God could protect him.

But we know this was not the end of the story.  Abraham lied, he caused another to lie which could have resulted in the death of innocent parties and he was afraid to trust God, he lacked faith.

God not only forgave Abraham of his sins (and this is just one example) but He set Him up as an example; a man to follow.

Romans 4:16-17 Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all,

¹⁷ (As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,) before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were.

We aren’t Abraham.  But to someone we have the same role to play, to live our life as holy and righteous as possible so that others won’t be led astray. 

AND if we make mistakes, own them, ask forgiveness and continue following God so others have an example to follow.

We are going to fall; we are going to falter; we are going to fail, but we cannot allow that to keep us from our service to God.

Later, Art :-)