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The Lord hath need… We are meditating on Abraham’s meeting with Melchizedek and have tried to identify some key elements of this encounter. We have seen authentic ‘communion’ with God, a genuine priest’s power to bless in the name of

Abraham, my Friend 27

Particular responsibility and a look at the accounts This week’s devotional is a little more ‘technical’ and a little longer. We are going to see how Paul expounds Abraham’s experience. Please don’t be discouraged by that; these are vital truths

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Wait I say on the Lord Our previous devotional found Abraham ‘waiting upon’ his visitors. His waiting upon God was not ‘in order that’… There was no secret ambition in his service; it was simply the instinct of his life.

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Beware the Midianites In our last devotional, we began to explore some of the implications of the ritual of circumcision and the continuing truths that are implied in the typology. Let’s recap briefly. Circumcision is a picture of ‘no confidence

“It’s a beautiful thing, the destruction of words” George Orwell.

1984 In George Orwell’s devastating critique of totalitarianism, “1984”, one of the party workers has been given the job of culling the dictionary. The strategy is to make ‘thoughtcrime’ impossible by the removal of words that describe things forbidden by

Abraham, my Friend 21

Melchizedek; time to sit and eat In our previous devotional we gave an overview of Abraham’s encounter with kings, confederates and a priest. We can take time now to think a little more about his remarkable meeting with that priest,

is there a place for the sparrow?

It is a very obscure verse and seldom preached on but it gives a unique insight into the gracious care of the creator. How lovely are your dwellings, Jehovah of Hosts! My soul longs, and even faints for the courts

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Righteous Abimelech? The Bible tells a highly selective story And there are also many other things that Jesus did, which if they were written one by one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that

Abraham, my Friend 11

Abraham, my Friend 11

The essence of the blessing 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

Abraham, my Friend 12

Abraham, my Friend 12

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