The Lord told Abraham to get out of his country, away from his family and from his father’s house, and go to a land that God would show him. Abraham was 75 years old when this happened and it must have been really hard and difficult for him to leave the land he had been attached to whilst living there until then. It is not easy for anyone to leave their homeland that they have been living in for a long time. Especially in the old days, people did not leave their homeland unless some kind of calamity like war took place. A homeland is not only a place one is born and raised in, but is also a place like a mother’s bosom that one’s heart rests upon. Thus, humans and even wild animals yearn to return back to their homeland when they are near death, and people even bury their dead with their heads facing towards their homeland when they are unable to return to their homeland.

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The Old Testament progresses from the period of Adam, to the period of Noah, to the period of Shem, and the period of Abraham comes after the period of Shem. Chapter twelve of the Book of Genesis describes the period of Abraham. God had thus appointed the leaders for His people and showed His will through its leaders. And when a leader was about to die, God appointed another leader for them and led them by faith as his predecessor had done.

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Abraham took all his family including his nephew Lot, and all his possessions to the land of Canaan. But there were already other tribes living in this land, and these inhabitants were the descendants of Ham. Nonetheless, when Abraham reached Canaan, God appeared before him and said to him that He would give this land to him and all his descendants. Whenever Abraham arrived at a strange place, the first thing he did was to build an altar and offer up a sacrifice to God. He always offered up a sacrifice of faith first.

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People often think that the fathers of faith such as Abraham and Moses in the Old Testament, and the Apostles of Jesus in the New Testament were completely upright without any blemish. They think that these men of faith were very special people, very different from ordinary people, and therefore it was naturally not easy for them to walk in the same way of such a faith throughout their lives. When we read a biography of someone famous, it’s often filled with nothing but praise, saying that this person had no human shortcomings, made a lot of contributions, and was an extraordinary person. For instance, there is a biography of Admiral Yi Sunshin, who through his patriotic activities rescued Korea from the Japanese invasion of 1592. So his biographer wrote, “From his early childhood, Admiral Yi showed promise that he was going to be a great figure. He was skilled at sword fighting, a filial son to his parents, and loyal to his country. So later on when he became a great admiral, he delivered Korea from the hands of the Japanese invaders. He had all the hallmarks of a great man from his early childhood.” The point is that Admiral Yi was distinguished from ordinary people from his early childhood as a nearly perfect man. The same is true for other biographies.

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In today’s Scripture passage we read how God speaks about the genuine faith over God’s Church. Abraham obeyed the Word of God and left his country with his wife and nephew Lot, away from his family and his father’s house. But while they were dwelling in the land of Canaan, they experienced a great famine in that land. So he came to a situation where he had no other alternative but to take his family and all his possessions and go down to the land of Egypt.

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When Abraham and his nephew Lot eventually came out of Egypt and went down to the South, they took many possessions with them. However, these two men had clearly different points of view on the world. Lot, Abraham’s nephew had his eyes set on the current glories of wealth which could be seen with the naked eye. For this very reason, when he quarreled with his uncle and subsequently left for a different land, he chose the land of Sodom which appeared to him to be fertile and abundant.

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I know that all the Words written in the Bible is what God speaks to you and me today, and I believe it as such.
In today’s Scripture reading we read, “Then Abram went up from Egypt, he and his wife and all that he had, and Lot with him, to the South. Abram was very rich in livestock, in silver, and in gold” (Genesis 13:1-2). After Abraham had left his homeland with his nephew Lot, he gained much wealth thanks to his wife Sarah. But because of this great wealth, a problem arose between him and his nephew. At this time these two men were stock breeders, and with the growth of the herd, the land on which to feed and breed cattle became scarce. Lot thinking that Abraham his uncle was taking up too much land said he will leave him. Then what did Abraham our father of faith say to Lot? He said, “Please separate from me. If you take the left, then I will go to the right; or, if you go to the right, then I will go to the left” (Genesis 13:9). Looking at what is written here, we can easily see what Abraham’s faith was like and what Lot’s faith was like. These two men’s faith differed from one another and as a result they could not dwell on the same land together. Their fate was such that they had no other choice but to go their separate ways.

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The story how he came to have this great wealth goes like this: When the Egyptian king wanted to take Sarah as his wife because of her beauty, Abraham began fearing for his very life and said, “She is not my wife, but my sister. You can take her.” So Abraham sold his wife to the Egyptian king. At Abraham’s approval the king took her to his palace with the intention to marry her, but God intervened becoming enraged and sent a plague onto Pharaoh and his house. God had probably brought onto Pharaoh tremendously great plagues. This puzzled Pharaoh then ran back to Abraham and said, “Why did you deceive me? Hurry up and take back your wife. We were really that close to being utterly destroyed through this situation.” And he let Abraham’s wife go. So Pharaoh gave Abraham many possessions all to appease God. In such a perilous situation like this, God kept Sarah safe and brought her back to Abraham. Eventually Abraham got his wife back untouched, and on top of all that he received many possessions along with his wife, thanks to the grace of God.

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As we read today’s Scripture passage let us think about what genuine faith is all about. Each one of us will also make a pledge to plant God’s Church in Busan. You may put your monetary offer on the pledge card, but you need not write your name. You should promise to do this before God. I believe some of you have never made such a pledge since you received the remission of your sins. Some of you may not realize that today is the day we have set aside to do this. Others may feel confused about whether or not we should do this. So it does not matter if you think you should participate in this at a later date. Our Church is nevertheless making this pledge for the first time this year. The two-year lease for this church building has been recently renewed. But today we will make this pledge for planting a Church in Busan.

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A Korean holiday is around the corner. On this holiday, our ministers and workers also plan to get together at Inje Discipleship Training Center for a much needed break. We have always been busy serving the Lord, and so we should take advantage of these holidays to get some needed rest. On these occasions when families get together to worship their ancestors and foster family ties, traditional holidays in Korea are celebrated by pagans, but for the born-again Christians, these holidays mean no more than a few days of rest. Spiritually speaking, they are not to be celebrated. These pagan holidays are for worldly people to celebrate; but for the righteous they hold no significance at all other than as days of rest.

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