The story of Genesis 24 on Abraham making his senior servant in his household to swear that he would not get a wife for his son from the daughters of the Canaanites among whom he was living but go to his home country and his own relatives to get a wife for his son Isaac is not only impressive but has a long lasting lesson for us to learn. The fact that our most renowned patriarch from the Old Testament, Abraham, who was much loved by the Lord our God Yahweh, has made this determination and decision, surely has something for us to learn today. Abraham was very old at that time and the Lord has blessed him in every way, v 1. So the question is why did Abraham insist on his senior servant to not get a wife from the land he was living at that time which is the Canaanites but go to his own country and his own relatives to get away for his son Isaac? This is a very significant point.

We need to understand that to have your children marry someone of the same faith is of paramount importance. What Abraham did was exactly that. He didn’t want his son to marry a Canaanite woman at that time who do not worship the Lord our God Yahweh. Even though Abraham was living in that land he was not going to allow his son to be corrupt and morally spiritually above all by marrying a woman of another faith. He insisted that his son shall get a wife from his home country and not only that , but also his relatives. And as it turned out God opened the door in the most miraculous way when his servant went to his home country and guess what? The first woman he met by the well was Rebecca, the very daughter of Abrahams brother. She is a very beautiful woman apparently. Rebecca was all set to marry Isaac almost on a divine matchmaking. You know this is a huge lesson for us.

First of all in our modern society even among the Christian faith families, Christian parents struggled to even tell their children to marry someone of the same faith in Christ let alone trying to arrange or to introduce woman or men to their children. So what has changed so drastically? The reality is that in today’s society we have gone so individualistic, and the post modernism in our modernity now exalts individual right, individual desire whatever makes ‘you’ you is the way to go. There is a huge loss of the sense of community communal respect etcetera. Father used to be able to decide to reject or receive marriage proposal from a man to his daughter in the old days. Modernity regards that as totally old fashion and not acceptable in the name of freedom and liberty of individual. There is there’s definitely a lot of ground to that and I agree. The worst thing like we have seen in movies and read books etcetera that parents have arranged marriage of a guy to their daughter, a guy who has hardly any compatibility to their daughter, the only reason being the guy’s rich. So this has to change and I agreed and we have changed.

However the change has gone too far to the sense of eroding any paternal right and respect in the family. Parents almost have no say or input. This is such a vast change to modernities liking that the biblical narrative has been all pushed aside and jettisoned. The day must come when this good biblical cultural aspect of it to be restored so that we can have a decent conversation and planning and honor respect with parents. Of course that’s granted parents are walking with the Lord and not some non-believers themselves.

You can also see how much the Lord blessed Abraham. Because Abraham was a walking with the Lord and he was called by the Lord too to be the father of a huge nation coming out of it and the whole world would be blessed through Abraham’s offspring, Jesus Christ himself. Because of that whatever Abraham does he was basically very prosperous and successful. And when he got very old his son Isaac was of marriageable age in a foreign country where none of the women believed in the Lord Yahweh, it was a very difficult situation. It’s been like in modern days there are more women in the local church than men. Oftentimes you’ll find believing women in the church not able to find a compatible man who may be interested in her because the pool is so little. By this I would say that by the actions that Abraham to look for eligible woman from another country for his son, I would argue that it is totally correct and legitimate and right for all Christians single women to look for potential husband from another church if needed. It’s not the church that matters what really matters is if the man or woman is in Christ Jesus. That’s what matters, that’s what counts. We need to move into a Christian community where there can be intermarriage between churches so as to honor the name of our Lord. We are not here to honor the name of our church, but the name of the Lord is to be exalted Amen!

The success God gave to Abraham is astounding. When the servant went to Abraham’s home country he met Rebecca drawing water by the well with other ladies. The servant prayer “ Oh Lord may that be the first woman that I asked for water that she would offer me water and also to feed my camels be the woman that you have call to be my masters sons wife”. And guess what? This is exactly what happened he saw Rebecca with a group of ladies and he approached her and said “can I have some water?” to which Rebecca answered sure “I’ll give you water.” Not only that she offered to water feed his camels too. By then the servant was watching very closely this Rebecca whether she is the one God has called and prepared for his master’s son. Immediately the servant really recognized that this is it and he bowed down to give thanks to the Lord for answering Abraham’s prayers and when the camels had finished drinking the men took out a gold nose ring and two bracelets were intense shackles for Rebecca. And he asked Rebecca please tell me is there room in your father’s house for spend the night? She answered him I’m the daughter of Bethuel the son of Milcah bore to Nahor. And she said “ We have plenty of straw and fodder as well as room for you to spend the night.” Then the man bowed down and worshipped the Lord, and praised that the “ God of his master Abraham has not abandoned his kindness and faithfulness to his master. As for me the Lord has led me on the journey to the House of my master’s relatives”. And then the rest of the story is Rebecca agree to leave her parents’ house and go with the man to meet with her future husband.

The conclusion is Isaac came from Lehigh Roy where he was living. He went out to the field one evening to meditate and as he looked up, he saw camels approaching. Rebecca also looked up and saw Isaac. She got down from a camel and asked the servant who is this man in the field coming to meet us? “Here’s my master” the servant answered.  So she took her veil and covered herself. Then the servant told Isaac all he had done. I said brought her into the tent of his mother Sarah and he married Rebecca so she became his wife and he loved her and Isaac was comforted after his mother’s death. Just like that they are married.

I just want to say in conclusion that how much God will answer our prayers if we want to walk to honor his name especially with regards to our children to marry someone of the same faith in Christ Jesus. The way the expediency and the speed in which God confirmed and opened the door and the way for Isaacs and to marry Rebecca is truly heavenly divine matchmaker job. We must continue to pray for our children to marry someone who loves the Lord and not to marry someone from the non-believers faith in Christ Jesus.

The Lord our God will provide. Amen.

今晚在寒冷的天氣裡，我們在 1 月份的 Costco 步行去我們的車。 天又黑又冷，我可以看到從好市多出來的購物者都試圖回到車裡，帶著所有的購物回家。 在這寒冷的天氣裡，沒有比回家更溫暖舒適的了。

然後我想到了永恆之家。 我們人類真的渴望回到一個溫暖的家，為我們準備好休息、放鬆、聽音樂和吃晚飯等嗎？你看到我們注定要回到的永恆家園了嗎？ 是永恆的； 不是那種我們真的把所有積蓄都投入的房子，我們每個月的積蓄都用於房屋抵押貸款，特別是在紐約市這樣的地方。 生活中完全具有諷刺意味的是，我們將所有積蓄都投入到一個非常臨時的家中，而我們幾乎沒有將任何東西投入到我們永恆的家中。 如果你知道有一種叫做永恆家園的東西，這個問題會讓我或任何人感到困惑。 走過這寒冷的夜晚，走到Costco停放的車前，讓我想，有多少人嚮往、渴望、希望能到達那個溫暖舒適、永遠永恆的家？

如果我們不去想永恆的家園，我們將是世界上最可悲的人。 所以問題是，我們要怎麼做呢？ 認為事情太多是理所當然的。 目光短淺，我的意思是完全短視，將是未來人生中最遺憾的事情。 如果您從耶穌所說的關於與燃燒的硫磺一起被扔進火湖的故事中閱讀聖經。 這可不是鬧著玩的。 就像在啟示錄 21 中一樣。耶穌在許多地方也談到了地獄。 現實是人們不想談論地獄。 並且不想去想。 這是一件非常可怕的事情。 而人們寧願認為這只是模糊的人類想像。 很多人也質疑為什麼一個充滿愛、憐憫和仁慈的上帝會把人送到永恆燃燒的火中？ 對此，答案是為什麼慈愛、關懷的上帝會派他的兒子耶穌基督公開地死在十字架上？ 被羅馬人羞辱。 和猶太法利賽人。 為什麼？ 答案是：

上帝的公義和公義要求如此。 人類所有的罪惡都要被償還。 否則所有人都將面臨永恆地獄之火的前景。 如果有人開始質疑上帝將任何人送入地獄之火，永遠被焚燒的智慧和正當性，他需要看看十字架。 為什麼？ 上帝榮耀的兒子會被公開折磨嗎？ 2000年前死在十字架上。 原因是。 為了拯救世界，他必須為世界的罪孽付出代價。

所以這是一個非常簡短的解釋。 而這些地獄火的正當性？ 來自聖經。 問題是，人們相信嗎？ 人們願意認真對待它嗎？ 問題是，人們忽略了它。 人們會忽略它。 埋葬地獄火的概念。 人們認為。 不去想它，它就會消失。 但事實並非如此。 任何有理智的人，我們都同意這一點，只是因為你不想去想它，地獄之火不會消失。

現在如果是這樣的話，這不應該成為每個電視和新聞媒體上最大的新聞嗎？ 今天？ 當然應該！ 所以對於那些相信這一點的人來說，當我們對永恆的前景、天堂的幸福和地獄之火的永恆譴責感到緊張時，保持沉默是生命中最艱難的事情。

首先，如果你與人們分享這個天堂和地獄，他們會把你拒之門外。 有趣的是，這個世界的王子的力量如何強大地控制了這個千年的哲學宣傳和人類思想。 任何人質疑或談論永恆都將被視為落伍甚至站在歷史的錯誤一邊。 這必須要處理。 嚴重地。 然而，如果你不與任何人分享，這個問題將在你的靈魂中燃燒，因為看到你的朋友和親人在地獄中永遠燃燒的前景，不是一個月，也不是。 兩年。 不是 50 年，而是永恆是可怕和令人生畏的。

我們正處於社會的這個關頭，任何關於永恆、長期的想法都被認為是過時的，因為我們應該有科學的頭腦。 事實上，有科學頭腦的人其實對永恆沒有任何答案； 為了這個世界上生命的創造和開始。 我們要開始承認缺點了！ 這個世界上傑出的科學頭腦是軟弱的，對此根本沒有任何答案。 說死去的人最終會變成肥料是完全愚蠢的想法，在最高級別上是最不人道的。

擁有耶穌基督永生信息的基督徒：我們必須屈膝。 定期向豐收之主大聲疾呼。 差派收割莊稼的工人收割莊稼，正如耶穌所說。 今天。 我們確實站在精神救贖的最前沿，站在這個世界從未見過的永恆規模的最前沿。 我們必須迅速採取行動。 並充滿激情地行動。