Read Genesis 12:1-3
In Israel, the Dead Sea stagnates 1,300 feet below sea level. Fresh water flows into it from the beautiful Lake Gennesaret, a.k.a. the Sea of Galilee. The Jordan River feeds both bodies of water, but one difference results in one teeming with life and the other remaining dead and barren. Whereas the Jordan River carries fresh water into and out of Lake Gennesaret, it dead‐ends in the Dead Sea. Every day the effects of evaporation leave all the mineral deposits gathered there to make it ten‐times saltier than the world’s other oceans. Nothing can live in those caustic waters. The spiritual lessons have been quoted for centuries: input without output equals stagnation. We don’t want to receive God’s blessings and not share them.
Contrary to the crass ‘health‐and‐wealth’ preachers on the airwaves, God promised to bless Abraham, not because of what Abraham did, but so that Abraham could do something. God’s blessings are not an end, but a means. God said He would bless Abraham “so that he could be a blessing to all nations”. God’s motive for choosing Abraham (and through him, the people of Israel) from among all the peoples of the world wasn’t favoritism, but mission. In other words, God chose some to reach everyone else. God blessed Abraham so that he would pay it forward.
Likewise, Jesus chose you and appointed you so that you could be fruitful and multiply (John 15:16). God blesses you so that you can be a blessing “to all the nations”. God saves you so that you can bring salvation to others. God forgives you so that you can forgive. God provides you with the Means of Grace (cf. Day 20). Why? As Eugene Bunkowski has said, "God uses us as His means for getting the Means of Grace to the lost. Therefore, we are the means of the Means of Grace." Like Abraham, we are each blessed to be a blessing.
In Israel, the Dead Sea stagnates 1,300 feet below sea level. Fresh water flows into it from the beautiful Lake Gennesaret, a.k.a. the Sea of Galilee. The Jordan River feeds both bodies of water, but one difference results in one teeming with life and the other remaining dead and barren. Whereas the Jordan River carries fresh water into and out of Lake Gennesaret, it dead‐ends in the Dead Sea. Every day the effects of evaporation leave all the mineral deposits gathered there to make it ten‐times saltier than the world’s other oceans. Nothing can live in those caustic waters. The spiritual lessons have been quoted for centuries: input without output equals stagnation. We don’t want to receive God’s blessings and not share them.
Contrary to the crass ‘health‐and‐wealth’ preachers on the airwaves, God promised to bless Abraham, not because of what Abraham did, but so that Abraham could do something. God’s blessings are not an end, but a means. God said He would bless Abraham “so that he could be a blessing to all nations”. God’s motive for choosing Abraham (and through him, the people of Israel) from among all the peoples of the world wasn’t favoritism, but mission. In other words, God chose some to reach everyone else. God blessed Abraham so that he would pay it forward.
Likewise, Jesus chose you and appointed you so that you could be fruitful and multiply (John 15:16). God blesses you so that you can be a blessing “to all the nations”. God saves you so that you can bring salvation to others. God forgives you so that you can forgive. God provides you with the Means of Grace (cf. Day 20). Why? As Eugene Bunkowski has said, "God uses us as His means for getting the Means of Grace to the lost. Therefore, we are the means of the Means of Grace." Like Abraham, we are each blessed to be a blessing.