Msg #1439 Developing Intimate Friends

What The Bible Says

Good Samaritan's Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice 

Intimate friendship only happens when two come to know and to trust each other. The more one knows and trusts, the more intimate the bond. Everyone needs them but you can count your intimate friends on one hand. Relationships mature and improve as this truth is learned and leaned on. Consciousness helps. If what you know about God comes from the theologians who wrote the Westminster Confession, you don't know squat. In God's revelation of himself to man, he comes to know, and then to trust a man named Abram. When God is cramped into a Calvinist's little box, he already knows everything, and many Bible verses must be trashed. “For the ways of man are before the eyes of the LORD, and he pondereth all his goings” (Prov 5:21). In Hebrew, “ponder” means ponder. In the Bible God comes to know a person and eventually comes to trust some of them. When they reciprocate, there is an intimate bond of friendship. All this takes trials. Spending more time with a Bible, and less with the theologian, helps one see the splendor of this reality. In Genesis 17, God gingerly takes a step of trust in Abram. It is awesome to watch the development of God's friendship with Abram. God reveals to Abram that he is El-Shaddai, the nourisher and sustenance of life itself. Understand that friendship takes a development form both sides, and here, “God talked with (Abram) saying, As for me, behold, my covenant is with thee” (vr. 4) When God was ready he gave Abram a new name. He made his covenant clear, then gave Sarai, Abraham's wife a new name. Trust and Obey, pass a couple tests, and become a friend of God. He is a friend that sticks closer than a brother.

An Essay for week #39 09/28/2014

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