Tag: obedience
Cover to Cover Reading: Numbers 7:1-10:10 Focus: Numbers 9:15-23 In the army, soldiers submit to the authority of the commanding officer. When the commander makes the decision to move out, everyone moves out; when he makes the decision to camp, everyone sets up camp. There is little room to question the decisions of the commander. Whether the camp stays for a day, a week, a month is entirely up to the commander free to move his officers with a simple command.
Cover to Cover Reading: Genesis 9:18-13:18 Focus: Genesis 12:10-20 Abraham, father of the Promise, man above men, good ol’ father Abraham… When we think of Abraham, we think of a man who left his family heritage, followed God’s call and lived a life of obedience. -cough- Quite the contrary, Abraham isn’t as great as we make him out to be. God had called Abram (before named Abraham later), “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you.” Such obedience is unquestionable, Abram obeyed the call of God and set out.
James 1:25 For most people, the two words ‘freedom’ and ‘obedience’ simply are not compatible. To be ‘free’ is to be unbound by submission to another authority, to be ‘obedient’ is to relinquish one’s freedom and submit to authority. Logically, they are incompatible ideals but James, and throughout the Bible, brings these two, seemingly opposite, ideas together as a part of the Christian life. Where most of us would immediately associate faith with obedience, James brings into the picture ‘freedom’ found what some might consider a rigid framework. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives…
