The Freedom of Obedience | Week 4

Genesis 17:1-7, 10-11; Romans 4:7-13, 16-17

Why do I do what I do? What is my relationship with the law? To a slave, freedom always means the end of whatever is holding him back, whether it is bad (like the prodigal) or good (like the elder brother). But children obey the promise, not the law. They obey because of what they are (sons or daughters who share the Father’s image) and because of what they’re becoming. Their freedom consists in moving within a set of disciplines that they have assigned to them selves that multiply their options and stretch their horizons.
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A Promise Kept | Week 7

Toward the end of life we wrestle with our horizons, with our limitations, and we are tempted to become cynical or even to despair. It feels as though we “did not receive what was promised; we only saw it and welcomed it from a distance,” (Heb. 11:13). Our hope is in knowing that we have always been only a part of a story that is much larger than us. Here we must act intentionally to empower the next generation to continue the same story. For them, as for us, the story is larger than a single generation and the point is never the player but the promise.

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A Talk Between Friends | Week 6

Our image of God is most evident when we pray. What do we sound like? Who do we think is on the other end? Somewhere along the way, we go from “Our Father” to “Dear Lord.” We go from saying what is on our hearts, to saying what we think he wants to hear. What if praying could be simpler, more natural and engaging? But how? In his conversations with God, Abraham modeled a kind of prayer that was unusual in his day, and in ours, and without trying he shows us another way of talking to another kind of God.

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A Continual Feast | Week 5

What is my disposition? What is the condition of my heart? “All the days of the oppressed are heavy,” says Proverbs, “but the cheerful heart has a continual feast,” (15:15). The heart of a slave can be timid or pessimistic because she worries that God and the world are laughing at her (Gen. 18:12-15). But a child of promise believes that God and the world are laughing with her (Gen. 21:6) and so she is free from the fear of failure and lives with a disposition of joy, wonder and confidence.

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