“that you will do us no harm, just as we did not molest you but always treated you well and sent you away in peace. And now you are blessed by the LORD.”’
~ Genesis 26:29
Hi James and Ellen,
Your grandpaa just finished reading a book that is titled ‘Finishing Strong’. What does it mean to you to finish strong? Ask your dad what he thinks it means to finish strong. The book talked about different guys in the Bible who finished strong. The book also talked about some guys in the Bible who did not finish strong. What do you think causes guys to not finish strong? Do you think that every guy has the potential to finish strong? Per the writer of the book which your grandpaa just finished reading, finishing strong is not something that every guy will end up doing. The word finish in the book that your grandpaa just read refers to how life will come to end for a guy. If the life of a guy ends with the guy feeling miserable and not doing anything, the guy is not finishing his life strong. If the life of a guy ends with the guy looking ahead to the next day and he is still accomplishing things, the guy is finishing his life strong. What do you think would make a guy not finish his life strong? Sin can. Do you think that sin can totally stop a guy from finishing his life strong? Sin cannot. All guys sin. All guys make sinful choices. Every guy named in the Bible – except for Jesus, made at least one sinful choice at one time or another. Some of these guys let their sinful choices change their lives to where they did not finish their lives strong. There were other guys who realized that they had made a sinful choice, had asked God to forgive them and had continued on to live their lives to please God. Because the book which your grandpaa just read only talked about guys, your grandpaa is talking only about guys today. Every gal who has ever lived has made sinful choices at one time in their lives. What do you think is the answer for making right choices? The answer for making right choices is to let God make the choices for you.
Isaac made right and sinful choices. Isaac’s dad made right and sinful choices. Do you remember who Isaac’s dad was? Isaac’s dad was Abraham. Do you know the sinful choices that Abraham made? Abraham told lies. Isaac made a sinful choice that is recorded in Genesis 26. Isaac told a lie. You sin when you tell a lie. When you tell a lie, you are not trusting God to help you in a difficult situation. Do you know where Isaac lived when he was your age? Isaac lived in a land area called Canaan. Canaan was the land area that God would give to His specially chosen guys, gals and kids – the Israelite people group, to always to have to live in as their very own land. Abraham – Isaac’s dad, was the first guy who God promised that the Canaan land area would always be his and his extended family’s land. God then made Isaac this same promise. The Canaan land area that God had promised Abraham and Isaac that they and their extended families would always have to live in as their very own land still had enemies of God living in the land. While Isaac was alive, God brought about to take place a devastating famine in the land area that He had promised Isaac that . . . that had Isaac leaving the Canaan land area with his wife Rebecca for another land area called Gerar. The Philistines lived in the Gerar land area. The Philistines were enemies of God. Because Isaac thought that he might be killed by a Philistine in order to marry Rebecca if it was found out that Rebecca was his wife and because Rebecca was very beautiful, Isaac told the Philistine leader – Abimelech, that Rebecca was his sis. Isaac made a sinful choice. Isaac lied. What do you think happened to Isaac when Abimelech – the Philistine leader, found out that Rebecca really was Isaac’s wife? Even though Abimelech was really mad at Isaac, Abimelech did not do anything to Isaac. Abimelech did not worship the same God Who Isaac worshipped. Abimelech had his own gods that he worshipped. Yet it seems that Abimelech knew Isaac’s God better than Isaac knew his God.
Different things that happen in life can make a guy make the kind of sinful choice that Isaac made. What do you do when a stress hits you? A stress can cause you to make a sinful choice. A stress can also affect your body. Your grandmaa and grandpaa have enjoyed the responsibility of administrating the summer team activities when summer teams where in Bolivia and now in Guatemala. Your grandmaa and grandpaa will spend almost all of their time with the guys and gals who are accepted to be participants on the summer teams that went to Bolivia and now to Guatemala for almost eight weeks. One year right before a summer team was to arrive in Bolivia, your grandpaa got a wood splinter under the thumbnail of one thumb and a small piece of rock under the thumbnail of his other thumb. Your grandpaa’s thumbs became infected. Your grandpaa’s thumbs swelled up, had puss oozing out of them and became really sore. Your grandpaa had to go to a doctor right before the summer team arrived. The doctor using a needle put shots of Novocain in both of your grandpaa’s thumbs. In order to drain the infection which was in your grandfather’s thumbs, the doctor had to cut off about half of the fingernail of one thumb and about a third of the fingernail of the other thumb. Your grandpaa’s thumbs probably became badly infected because your grandpaa had become stressed about the summer team’s arrival. Your grandpaa being stressed made his body weak which then allowed the infections to happen. Sin does the same thing. To be healed from the infections that your grandpaa had in his thumbs, your grandpaa had to be hurt more first – by having his thumbnails cut off some. To be healed from sin, you have to hurt first by feeling awful for making the sinful choice that you made. What will happen when you are healed from making a sinful choice? Verse 29 tells you “that you will do us no harm, just as we did not molest you but always treated you well and sent you away in peace. And now you are blessed by the LORD.”’ You will finish strong if you always bring God in to help you make your life choices. Finishing strong is a blessing from God.
Genesis 26 (105)