September 4, 2026

GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY:

“When his son Isaac was eight days old, Abraham circumcised him, as God commanded. Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him. And Sarah said, ‘God has brought me laughter, and everyone who hears about this will laugh with me. Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.’” (Genesis 21.4-7)

REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD:

What would the world be like if we actually followed God’s plan, design, word and will? Would it mean there would be no problems, disasters, tragedies, conflicts or temptations? Would it be as the Glorified Resurrected Lord Jesus described His Heaven (and our eternal heavenly home) as a place where there is “no sorrowing, sighing, crying and dying”? Suffice it to say that the Heaven we are being prepared for will not be like the Heaven of old. What do I mean by that? In the “first” heaven, there was the opportunity for choice. The choice was simple: Whom shall I serve? God or self? It is hard to understand how Lucifer and one-third of the angels decided to serve themselves before God. Hear that decision they made in terms of “before.” They chose to serve themselves before, meaning “in front of,” God. Right there in the wonder of Heaven with the ability to touch the entire universe from where they stood. It wasn’t forbidden to any of them. They themselves were a part of the glory and wonder of Heaven and all of God’s being stretched out before them. They drew their life from Him without asking. He offered His all without question. For us on this side of Heaven (trying to imagine streets of gold, gateways of precious jewels and whatever else we have considered to be the pinnacle of that wonderful place of eternal living) it would seem ludicrous to surrender all that. Yet, on this side of Heaven, we surrender the Kingdom of God on earth rather easily at times. We have heard and experienced it in the life of Abram to Abraham. On that side of Heaven, the opportunity to choose allowed those who desired themselves to be separated from God, so they thought. Even in judgment and Hell, they will never be separated from God. He is everywhere and Sovereign. The death of Jesus on the Cross and His surrender of life and spirit was the evidence that there would be no place where God was not. Paul wrote to the Christian community of faith in Ephesus, “Now this, ‘He ascended’—what does it mean but that He also first descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is also the One who ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things.” (Ephesians 4.9-10) Even that thought might escape our reasoning. How could Jesus be totally dead without the Spirit of God and ascend out of Hell? Mighty ones of God, is it not because when Jesus declared on the cross “It is finished and it is done,” that He released His hold on His life and gave it to God. It was God who then fully and truly directed His steps even in the journey to Hell where Jesus would preach the gospel and give a final opportunity for all those before His ministry on earth to choose. Yes, like Joshua before the nation of Israel as they entered the Promised Land declared “Choose this day whom you will serve. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” Those in Hell, in that place of shadows and doubts, were able to choose to walk through the Valley of the Shadow of Death and fear no evil. They could choose in that moment to live with God in Heaven forever and there would be nothing that death and sin and Satan could do about it. Having completed His Father’s perfect will to redeem those who desire redeeming, God lifted Jesus from the Pit of Hell and Death. He rolled away the stone and filled the tomb with His Holy Spirit and restored His Son into the fullness of life on earth as it was, is and will forever be in Heaven.

I share all of that to follow up on yesterday’s “makes all things new” as it pertained to Sarah physically, mentally, emotionally, psychologically and spiritual in bringing forth the fruit of Abraham’s seed…and to suckle him at her breast as a new and vital mother. It also made all things new for Abraham because Isaac was the blessing of “two becoming as one” with God the always needed and necessary condition of receiving and sharing the fullness of the blessing. Even in their older age and mature years, they must have been like young newlyweds as new-to-be parents. However, there is far more to “all things made new” than the physical reality of childbirth. It comes in the recognition offered at the start of verse .4 “When his son Isaac was eight days old, Abraham circumcised him, as God commanded.” And while it was a literal command to be followed (as Abraham did when Ishmael was thirteen the year before along with all the males associated with Abraham’s clan), it served also as a reminder of the figurative “eighth day” in the creation story. After the Lord commanded Adam and Eve to observe the Sabbath day which He had made for their welfare to be focused on the Lord God as their provider and sustainer, the temptation by the Serpent makes its appearance on the parenthetical “eighth day.” This is when the blood sacrifice was made by God on behalf of Adam and Eve as His offering of grace, mercy and forgiveness. Circumcision becomes that act of restoration and reconciliation where the original covenant is made new. (Note: for Christ followers, Jesus is the only blood sacrifice but our baptism by immersion is the act and sign of our restoration, reconciliation and renewal.) This was no “laughing” matter as Abraham practiced circumcision on Isaac as he did with Ishmael. The difference, of course, was with Isaac it was a restoration and renewal of the covenant. With Ishmael, it was with a new covenant which God made as a special dispensation to Abraham who petitioned God to honor and restore what Abraham messed up.

Mighty ones of God, again, this is no trivial pursuit as we claim our covenant life with God through Jesus Christ. It is no laughing matter that we remember the sacrifice of life, death and resurrection to fulfill God’s desire to save His people from hell and eternal torment.

TODAY’S PRAYER OF THANKSGIVING:

Father, in these days we are finding the need to believe even more than ever before. We all have known trouble, some in greater ways than others, but You are offering us the assurance that we will not be consumed by it forever. Regardless of the “time” we are in and the “time” we have been given, we ask for Your Holy Spirit which Jesus asked You to share with us, to lead and guide and direct us in the paths we should go. Teach us what we still need to learn. Empower us to put that learning into action. Bless our actions not as a works righteousness endeavor, but as righteous works of faith, hope and love in Jesus’ name. AMEN.