And the answer is...

Don't over think it... (mom) :) It's simple, or at least it seemed to me to be that way from what I remember from the story of Abraham. OBEDIENCE! But what motivates this obedience? Why was it that Abraham was so committed to this YHWH character that had him uproot his family and move to the boondocks?

For one: Love. Look at what YHWH promises Abe. Land, Nation, and Blessing on the entire world thru ol' Abe. God shows all this grace, blessing, and favor to Abe, and he understands that the least he can do is obey when he is asked to do something. Don't believe me... go back and ready thru Genesis again and look at some of the crazy things that Abe was asked to do.

For two: Fear. YHWH can and should very well strike fear into the heart of anyone who truly understands (as much as is humanly possible) who it is they are dealing with. Abe had that figured out too. Don't think so? Go read Genesis again my friend.

It really should be what motivates us all. Think about it. When we sin, its because either we've forgotten what Christ did for us on the cross and all that He gave for us... OR ...We have forgotten all that Christ suffered on the cross as He became the object of God's hate of sin.

I know there is a ton more here that i could dig into, but maybe I'll just get you started instead.

-Grace-

Back by Popular Demand!

Ok, so maybe not, but at least I will satisfy the 2 of you that have inquired about my lack of posting.

I don't really have a lot on my mind at this point, but I thought I would share a question with you that I had my Sunday School class ponder this past week. We have been working our way through Romans. ( I know! I think its cool too!) We were finishing up chapter 4 and discussing the whole deal of justification by faith.

For the sake of time I am going to have to leave a lot of the background work and reading to you, but anyway we boiled the discussion down to one main issue. What saves people? The answer is easy, right? Altogether now... FAITH! YAY!! So thats it... man that was easy... but then you start to think about the whole issue that is raised in Chapter 4. If I am justified (made positional perfect/righteous before God) then why the heck would I worry about doing what is right all the time. (Because if we are all honest, most of the time doing the right thing is usually the harder of the 2 options we are pondering at that particular time.)

So the question then becomes: "If I am justified by Faith, then what is my motivation for doing what is pleasing to God?"

So what's your answer? Leave it in the comments, BUT you can only answer the question from Romans 4. Let's see what ya got!