Ron Bailey

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Abraham, My Friend_01
      Abraham, My Friend The Making of a Praying Man Preface: Every story has a purpose and my re-telling of this story has its purpose revealed in our sub-title. Abraham's life is rich in illustration of the purposes of God and the daily incidents of a pilgrim but our ultimate goal will be to identify elements in the life of Abraham which made poss ...read

Abraham, My Friend_02
      Abraham, My Friend The Making of a Praying Man Chapter One: Beginnings In the beginning God... Every Christian biography should begin with the words 'In the beginning God..' Our Bible begins with these words and, on reflection, it could begin with no others. How else would anything ‘begin'? The gospel according to John mirrors Genesis and exp ...read

Abraham, My Friend_03
      Abraham, My Friend The Making of a Praying Man Chapter One: Beginnings Known unto God In British War Cemeteries throughout the world you often come across the words ‘Known unto God' engraved on tombstones. It signifies that the person whose remains lie in this spot cannot be identified. At one and the same time, it is a bleak comment on t ...read

Abraham, My Friend_04
      Abraham, My Friend The Making of a Praying Man Chapter One: Beginnings When he was called The story of the steps of the faith of our father Abraham is not only to be found in the book of Genesis. Again and again the scriptures return to this man, often adding unique information to the original story. So the story continually builds of the ...read

Abraham, My Friend_05
      Abraham, My Friend The Making of a Praying Man Chapter One: Beginnings Looking forward to The City A journey of a thousand miles, say the Chinese, begins with the first step. The beginning of any venture is vital; if there are mistakes in the foundation it will be very costly to rectify. This is especially true of spiritual buildings and ...read

Abraham, My Friend_06
      Abraham, My Friend The Making of a Praying Man Chapter One: Beginnings Thy prayer was heard The story of Abraham's family begins with a little list of sons and daughters which comes to an abrupt stop; but Sarai was barren she had no child. Perhaps it's something to do with the wonder of the inspired scripture but as I read the words, 40 c ...read

Abraham, My Friend_07
      Abraham, My Friend The Making of a Praying Man Chapter Two: The Blessing back on the flight path It is time now to examine the Blessing. Thus far we have identified Abraham as an ordinary man who became an extraordinary man. He was born into no special family and had no special advantages but he is a man with an amazing destiny. My purpos ...read

Abraham, My Friend_08
      Abraham, My Friend The Making of a Praying Man Chapter Two: The Blessing Be thou a blessing. It is wonderful to consider the way in which God, who measures the cosmos with a single span, is able and willing to focus on a single individual. I sometimes think of it as one of those ‘zooming in' sequences we see in films and adverts. This is ...read

Abraham, My Friend_09
      Abraham, My Friend The Making of a Praying Man Chapter Two: The Blessing To serve and to guard Let's continue a little on the theme of God's promise of blessing for and through Abraham. We use it so often don't we? The word ‘bless'? As a testimony; 'The Lord blessed the meeting', 'I was really blessed'. Or an exclamation of gratitude; 'B ...read

Abraham, My Friend_10
      Abraham, My Friend The Making of a Praying Man Chapter Two: The Blessing This is the way you shall bless An excursis is an academic expression. It means a digression in the narrative; a detour. Most preachers use detours in the course of their preaching. Some exceptional preachers can actually start with a detour. Let's start with a detour. ...read

Abraham, My Friend_11
      Abraham, My Friend The Making of a Praying Man Chapter Two: The Blessing Face to face I'm still thinking about The Blessing. I have been trying to define blessing by subtraction. In other words, what is the essence of blessing? This is how I have been thinking. I am blessed, what would I need to lose before I could no longer say I am blesse ...read

Abraham, My Friend_12
      Abraham, My Friend The Making of a Praying Man Chapter Three: Entering the land Shechem Time to move on, I think. It is one thing to come out, but quite another to enter in. Later in Israel's history there was a whole generation that came out, but never entered in. God's intention is always to bring us in, and He only brings us out because ...read

Abraham, My Friend_13
      Abraham, My Friend The Making of a Praying Man Chapter Three: Entering the land Passing through, going on still... Abraham is on the move. And Abram passed through the land unto the place of Sichem. [Gen 12:6] he removed from thence unto a mountain on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent. [Gen 12:8] And Abram journeyed, going on still tow ...read

Abraham, My Friend_14
      Abraham, My Friend The Making of a Praying Man Chapter Three: Entering the land Calling upon the Name So Abraham, ever moving on, pitches his tent in between Bethel and Ai and builds an altar to Jehovah, and called upon the name of Jehovah. [Genesis 12:8] Let's not try to fit this into an evangelical scenario but simply read what we find. W ...read

Abraham, My Friend_15
      Abraham, My Friend The Making of a Praying Man Chapter Three: Entering the land Still calling... Let's linger a while on this theme of calling on the name of the Lord. Do you call on the name of the Lord? Notice, I didn't ask ‘did you' but ‘do you'. We'll take a look at this as the ongoing process rather than an initial crisis. Perhaps a word ...read

Abraham, My Friend_16
      Abraham, My Friend, Chapter 4: Down into Egypt Famine in the land. 'And there was a famine in the land.' [Gen 12:10] Its one thing to progress when everything is going well, but what happens when the trials come? And come they will. Often they come in unexpected ways. Consider Abraham; his pilgrimage has brought him hundreds of miles. From U ...read

Abraham, My Friend_17
      Abraham, My Friend, Chapter 4: Down into Egypt What is this that thou hast done? Beware the temptation to take a quick , reasonable, sojourn in Egypt until the difficult times pass. 'Trust in the LORD with all thine heart, and lean not to thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct thy paths.' [Prov 3:5,6] Th ...read

Abraham, My Friend_18
      Abraham, My Friend The Making of a Praying Man Chapter Three: Down into Egypt Second best? We have tracked his disastrous descent into Egypt, now let's track his restoration. He went up out of Egypt into the Negeb. And Abraham was very rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold. Or as the Hebrew idiom has it, 'very heavy' in cattle, in silver, ...read

Abraham, My Friend_19
      Abraham, My Friend The Making of a Praying Man Chapter Three: Down into Egypt When Lot left, Jehovah said... I hope we are not going too slowly for you. It has taken us 3 months to cover 2 chapters, however, I see this is assisting our goal rather than hindering it. One of the greatest dangers of the age in which we live is its ‘instant new ...read