{"id":4079,"date":"2022-07-04T06:20:48","date_gmt":"2022-07-04T11:20:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nazareneblogs.org\/pastorscott\/?p=4079"},"modified":"2022-07-04T06:20:48","modified_gmt":"2022-07-04T11:20:48","slug":"devotional-on-genesis-20","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/devotional-on-genesis-20\/","title":{"rendered":"Devotional on Genesis"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure style=\"width: 1600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/-lNdHzqNspqw\/XMOtVLuFkeI\/AAAAAAAA65s\/_aXbY6wFqdYxVj0KlCbdan1TUUHUm95LQCKgBGAs\/s1600\/P8208996.JPG\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1000\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">2013 &#8211; Shenandoah National Park, VA &#8211; Skyline Drive<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Shocking intercession<br \/>\nGenesis 18: Abraham stood in God\u2019s path, blocking the way.<br \/>\nI can\u2019t imagine a more shocking description of how Abraham begins his intercession for the wicked cities of Sodom and Gomorrah than this statement. I\u2019ve read this passage countless times and never realized what it meant for Abraham to, in the language of the NIV, \u201cStand before the Lord.\u201d The Almighty has graced Abraham with a unique visitation. The Lord has made a wonderful promise to him. Now, he\u2019s honored him by giving him advance knowledge of what he\u2019s about to do. As the Lord prepares to depart on this mission, Abraham stands before him, ready to plead for mercy in one of the best known prayers of intercession in the Bible. It\u2019s pretty clear that the Lord welcomes Abraham\u2019s involvement in this. For one thing, had the Lord not told Abraham what&#8217;s about to happen, he would have found out about it after the fact like everyone else. For another, when Abraham stands in God\u2019s path it\u2019s akin to my going out to the interstate and \u201cstanding in the path\u201d of a Mac truck. The only way Abraham survives this shocking event is that the Lord allows it. As I look for an application to my life from this passage I don\u2019t want to go overboard here. I need to remember that Abraham&#8217;s pleading a case and not insisting that things go his way. Still, it\u2019s enlightening for me to realize that the Lord sometimes welcomes me into the conversation about what he\u2019s doing in the world. It seems to me that this is the key is the Lord\u2019s informing Abraham of his intention. In that, I get the feeling that Abraham&#8217;s being given permission to respond from his own perspective. When the Lord gives me a burden, or even a unique insight into something, I can take that as being granted permission to respond in prayer from my own perspective and maybe to even \u201cstand in God\u2019s path\u201d in a reverent and respectful way as Abraham did.<br \/>\nTake away: As amazing as it is, sometimes God welcomes me into a conversation concerning his intentions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Shocking intercession Genesis 18: Abraham stood in God\u2019s path, blocking the way. I can\u2019t imagine a more shocking description of how Abraham begins his intercession for the wicked cities of Sodom and Gomorrah than this statement. I\u2019ve read this passage countless times and never realized what it meant for Abraham to, in the language of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1497,7],"tags":[127,599,804,845],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4079"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4079"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4079\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13715,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4079\/revisions\/13715"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}