General Principles, History of Faith

God changing His mind: Abraham

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Off the top of my head I can think of 4 times in the bible that God is depicted as changing his mind:

  1. Genesis 18 in response to Abraham’s prayers
  2. Exodus 32 in response to Moses’ prayer
  3. Isaiah 38 in response to Hezekiah’s prayer
  4. Acts 27 in response to Paul’s prayer.

There are probably others which an AI search would extract but I haven’t gone down that road.

Someone in the local church we are members of here in Spain quite rightly pointed out that God, knowing the end from the beginning, couldn’t possibly change His mind. But as I have explained in another post there are three ways of looking at anything, all of which are true.

The main point I want to bring out about these incidents is the relationship purpose behind these apparent changes of mind of the almighty, all-knowing God.

By His nature God is always more interested in relationship with us than in being right about anything. He has nothing to prove in regard to being right. He is far more interested in what we are going through in our hearts as we relate to Him.

Abraham’s prayer for Lot.

When God told Abraham that he was going down to Sodom and Gomorrah, Abraham presumed that God was going to destroy the city.

16 Then the men rose from there and looked toward Sodom, and Abraham went with them to send them on the way. 17 And the Lord said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am doing, 18 since Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him? 19 For I have known him, in order that he may command his children and his household after him, that they keep the way of the Lord, to do righteousness and justice, that the Lord may bring to Abraham what He has spoken to him.” 20 And the Lord said, “Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grave, 21 I will go down now and see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry against it that has come to Me; and if not, I will know.”

22 Then the men turned away from there and went toward Sodom, but Abraham still stood before the Lord. 23 And Abraham came near and said, “Would You also destroy the righteous with the wicked? 24 Suppose there were fifty righteous within the city; would You also destroy the place and not spare it for the fifty righteous that were in it? 25 Far be it from You to do such a thing as this, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous should be as the wicked; far be it from You! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?”

26 So the Lord said, “If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will spare all the place for their sakes.”

27 Then Abraham answered and said, “Indeed now, I who am but dust and ashes have taken it upon myself to speak to the Lord: 28 Suppose there were five less than the fifty righteous; would You destroy all of the city for lack of five?”

So He said, “If I find there forty-five, I will not destroy it.”

29 And he spoke to Him yet again and said, “Suppose there should be forty found there?”

So He said, “I will not do it for the sake of forty.”

30 Then he said, “Let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak: Suppose thirty should be found there?”

So He said, “I will not do it if I find thirty there.”

31 And he said, “Indeed now, I have taken it upon myself to speak to the Lord: Suppose twenty should be found there?”

So He said, “I will not destroy it for the sake of twenty.”

32 Then he said, “Let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak but once more: Suppose ten should be found there?”

And He said, “I will not destroy it for the sake of ten.” 33 So the Lord went His way as soon as He had finished speaking with Abraham; and Abraham returned to his place.

(Genesis 18:16-33).

God acts as if he is compromising during Abraham’s transactions with Him (Genesis 18: 24-32). This is surprising enough. But there are other aspects of His behaviour that are just as confusing. As far as the timeline is concerned, God explicitly says he is going down to find out if what He has heard is true about Sodom and Gomorrah (v. 20-21). We all know that God is outside time so none of this makes sense from that point of view. Why go down to Sodom to find out something He already knew? One answer is in His desire to open up more about Himself to Abraham and ultimately, actually, to us. Another answer is that he wants to increase Abraham’s faith – and ours.

God is often depicted in Scripture as acting in a human way. This found its ultimate fulfilment in Jesus Christ – the Word became flesh (John 1:14). Loving us, he reaches out in ways we understand, so we can know Him better.

Abraham’s nephew Lot was in the city. God knew that and had made plans to save him (see Genesis 19). But Abraham doesn’t know this.

Abraham therefore pleads with God to save Lot. He pleads in a way that reflects his relationship with God at the time which was somewhat transactional, a bit distant and not completely straightforward.

We don’t know what God would have said if Abraham simply came out and asked for Lot, his wife and his daughters to be saved. It might have saved a lot of dialogue and heartbreak for Abraham if he had.

God saves Lot and his family but destroys the cities including Sodom. All Abraham sees is the smoke rising (see Genesis19:28) and presumes God hasn’t heard his real prayer. He gets discouraged, flees to the south and allows his wife Sarah to get into a compromising position with the king of the area (see chapter 20). Discouragement had brought him right back to an old sin (see Genesis 12:10-20).

It would seem Abraham at that time didn’t learn all the lessons God wanted him to learn about God’s faithfulness, foresight and love for those whom Abraham loved. Sometimes we analyse a situation one way and He seems to be doing things in a way we wouldn’t want. We have an opportunity to believe better of God at times like those.

There is no record in the Scripture that Abraham ever met up with Lot again. It is possible that he brought this discouragement with him into all the subsequent chapters of his life, or, more likely, he got over it and learnt from it. Certainly his faith was tested further later and he never waivered in those tests. He became a man of faith celebrated as such in the New Testament – Romans 4 and Hebrews 11: 8-19.

I believe the lesson to be learnt from this is to get closer to God. God knows your real prayer. Let Him hear it directly from you. Don’t beat around the bush with God.

You, the reader, could argue that this is not a great example of God seeming to change his mind. So we will look at a better example next time with Moses.

General Principles

The Universality of God’s Justice in Romans 2

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The terms Jews and Gentiles can seem a bit archaic in our times. However, there are principles related to how we think about our religion and ethnicity – whatever they might be – that Paul brings out when he uses these terms.

In Romans 2 Paul talks about those who point the finger at others and asks them to have a good look at their own actions and hearts before they do so.

Many Jews in Paul’s time thought they had the very embodiment of knowledge and truth in the law that defined their religion (Romans 2:20). Many Christians today also think the same about their religion. Paul doesn’t say they were wrong about that and I also believe that most of the Pentecostal evangelic and charismatic expressions of the Christian faith today are also correct at least in the essentials. Not that my opinion on that subject matters. It is God who judges.

But to discuss about who is right is not my purpose in this blog nor was it Paul’s purpose in Romans 2. His aim is to point out that we need to be consistent with our beliefs, walk the talk, otherwise we are no better that someone without any faith.

In fact he points out that someone who does the right thing but doesn’t share in your religion will judge you who have all the forms, knowledge of the law and ceremonies but don’t practice what they believe (Romans 2:25-27). As James says, “Faith without works is dead” (see James 2:14-26). Paul says everyone will be judged according to their works (Romans 2:6) and the Scripture overall is quite consistent on this point.

Of course, salvation by works is not what we are talking about here. Salvation by faith will be dealt with extensively in the rest of Paul’s letter to the Romans.

A consolation that I receive from Romans 2 is that God will not be unjust towards those who don’t share our beliefs or have never heard about Christ. If anyone lives a life of love and proves the universality of the knowledge of what is right by what is written on their hearts (Romans 2:15) they won’t lose their reward.

We shall see…

Creation, General Principles

No Excuse

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Sometimes I could wish that the Truth was more accommodating and less matter of fact.

In Romans 1:18-20 Paul declares that God is angry because people are suppressing the truth. The truth they are suppressing is the knowledge of God and they suppress that in two ways:

  1. Internally, if people are just honest with themselves they know that God has witnessed within them that He is (cf. John 1:9). Children know this, adults by and large have had that innocent knowledge knocked out of them, sometimes at quite an early age.
  2. Creation clearly shows a creator. Even agnostics admit this. I particularly like Mary Oliver’s take on it:

“Why do people keep asking to see

God’s identity papers

when the darkness opening into morning

is more than enough?

Certainly any god might turn away in disgust.

Think of Sheba approaching

the kingdom of Solomon.

Do you think she had to ask,

“Is this the place?”

(“I Wake Close to Morning” from Devotions: the Selected poems of Mary Oliver).

We have had many opportunities to see the darkness opening into morning and, indeed, it is more than enough.

Only God can create videos on this scale.

You can take your pick from the manifold fecundity of God’s creative imagination: plants, animals, stars to microscopic creatures not to mention the wonders contained within our own dust destined bodies. So much knowledge is now available to us and yet it remains true that man continues to suppress the obvious.

Later on it says (vv. 21-23) that we become futile in our reasoning as a result of this deliberate truth suppression. That’s not to say that the reasoning is incorrect – if there is no creator God there is indeed nothing but futility all around. But that leads to despair – existentialist angst as the humanists say – or a darkening of the heart as Paul describes it.

Professing to become wise they became fools.

I didn’t say that. Paul wrote it a long time ago.

But there is hope. God can open people’s eyes and help them to understand, and so bring them from this place of hopelessness into a place where there is hope.

After all, His anger has now been taken out on His Son.

Prophetic?

Dream

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On Thursday night/ Friday morning 27th February 2026, a day before Israel and the US began a war on Iran, I had a dream, whether from the Lord or not, God knows. In the dream I saw a transparent wall rising out of the desert filled with a sandstorm and fire. It reached from the earth to heaven. On the far side of it was great peace.

I understood the thickness of the wall to be an indication of duration. It wasn’t very thick but not exactly thin either.

General Principles

Everything looked after

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My wife and I have a testimony about God’s goodness to us that we want to share with you. It involves all three persons of the trinity:

  1. The Father who has providentially supplied all our bodily needs and comforts.
  2. The Son who indwells His body, the Church, and comforts, encourages and strengthens us through friends and loving relationships.
  3. The Spirit who is a deposit in our hearts of things to come (Ephesians 1:14) and enables us to see the Kingdom of God (John 3:3).

The Father

First of all, the fact that we are born into a Western society with all its material advantages is something that we are thankful for. We had no choice about where we were born or what parents we had, or our gender or physical attributes. All these things come from a Father who has thought of us and ordained our days before any one of our days happened (Psalm 139). Such knowledge is too great for us.

There are so many factors about our lives that we have no say in. We can’t do much, if anything, about the peace we have in the countries we have lived in for years. Most of the economic aspects of our lives are also beyond our control.

We say that our Dad has done well and thank Him for our lines have fallen to us in pleasant places (Psalm 16:6).

The Son

No man is an island as the poet John Dunne said. We need other humans to survive. The commandment Jesus gave to us that we should love one another (John 13:34, 15:12, 17) is not a burdensome command that must be obeyed but a loving instruction from God the Son who knows our lives depend on social interaction.

Our souls crave friendship and companionship and we have personally found that need most deeply met in the body of Christ. God’s Spirit inhabits His Church leading to common understandings among its members of the meaning of true love and service.

We can both look back over 45+ years of friends of God and ourselves being there for us when we needed them and when we just wanted to spend time with them. There have been some let downs along the way, as there are for anyone in this world, but the exceptions should really only reinforce the general rule that members of the church of Christ are those through whom we can have wonderful, real, human interactions in this world. And those interactions include in our case, thankfully, our marriage and relationships with our children. We are most blessed. Not everyone is so blessed.

The Spirit

If the Father looks after our bodily needs and the Son our needs for brothers and sisters then the Spirit ministers to the more hidden needs of the heart. The Spirit tells us in our hearts that we are children of God (Romans 8:15, 1 John 3:1, 2). He puts hope in our hearts of heaven (Eph. 1:14). He comforts us in all our different troubles (2 Cor. 1:3-7) and helps us to pray when we don’t know what to pray (Romans 8:26-27).

Because of the Holy Spirit we can worship God acceptably in Spirit and truth (John 4:23, 24).

We have experienced all the above and continue to do so. These experiences are backed up by Scripture.

We hope you don’t despise this little testimony of ours. We are just one couple’s example of how knowing God and Jesus Christ has affected us but our testimony is precious and meaningful to us.

There is even more that could be said about the goodness of God in our lives.

General Principles

Ministerial Qualifications

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This is taken from a blog I wrote back in 2012.

Of all the English translations I have read I have yet to come across one which brings out the distinctions in the Greek words for love in John 21:15-17. Knowing the differences significantly adds to the understanding of Jesus’ reinstatement of Peter and the qualifications for being a minister in God’s church.  Only the amplified version really brings it out but you can lose the significance in all the words.  Here is my version:

15 When they had eaten, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you agape Me more than these?” He said to Him, “Yes, Lord, You know that I phileo You.” He said to him, “Feed My lambs.”

16 Again He said to him the second time, “Simon, son of John, do you agape Me?” He said to Him, “Yes, Lord, You know that I phileo You.” He said to him, “Shepherd My sheep.”

17 He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you phileo Me?” Peter was grieved that He should ask him the third time, “Do you phileo Me?” And he said to Him, “Lord, You know everything; You know that I phileo You!” Jesus said to him, “Feed My sheep.”

Agape means love like Jesus’ love when He died for us on the Cross.  A supernatural love that comes straight from the Father.  Peter knew he didn’t love Jesus like that – not after his three denials on the night Jesus needed him most.  He wasn’t going to make the same mistake he had made before the crucifixion (John 13:37).

But he also knew that he had phileo –  a brotherly affection and natural love for Jesus.  So he had responded honestly.  He didn’t mind Jesus questioning his agape love but he was upset when he questioned even his phileo love.  He would have been devastated to discover that he didn’t even have that!

But actually Jesus was out to encourage him.  For each time He questioned Peter and each time Peter answered honestly and without pretense Jesus found in him someone He could trust.  Someone who could feed the young and tend to the needs of and even feed the more mature.

Jesus encouragement to Peter is even clearer when you realise that he is addressing him by his original name, Simon, and reminding him of his father according to the flesh, John. It was Simon, son of John, who denied Jesus three times and Simon, son of John, with an admission of only human affection for Jesus, who Jesus said three times was qualified to feed and tend His lambs and sheep.

Some teachers would say that Pentecost (Acts 2: 1-4) added the agape to the phileo that Peter had.  And perhaps it did.  But for me I think I know what answer I would give to Jesus if I was asked the same questions, Pentecost or no Pentecost.

Only He knows really how qualified I am, or anyone is, to spiritually feed and tend His lambs or sheep.  But the qualifications are definitely not academic ones.  You don’t have to learn the Greek to love His people enough to feed them.

General Principles

There I will meet with you

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42 “These burnt offerings are to be made each day from generation to generation. Offer them in the Lord’s presence at the Tabernacle entrance; there I will meet with you and speak with you.

Exodus 29:42 NLT

Now there is one sacrifice we can remember daily – the Sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross – and there He – Resurrected – will meet with us.

The elements of this meeting with Jesus – the Sacrificed Lamb – are described in types and shadows in Exodus 29:37-41:

37 Purify the altar, and consecrate it every day for seven days. After that, the altar will be absolutely holy, and whatever touches it will become holy.

38 “These are the sacrifices you are to offer regularly on the altar. Each day, offer two lambs that are a year old, 39 one in the morning and the other in the evening. 40 With one of them, offer two quarts of choice flour mixed with one quart of pure oil of pressed olives; also, offer one quart of wine[e] as a liquid offering. 41 Offer the other lamb in the evening, along with the same offerings of flour and wine as in the morning. It will be a pleasing aroma, a special gift presented to the Lord.

The altar – the Cross – is absolutely holy, everyone who it touches (in the Spirit) is spoilt for anything else. The Lamb is first and last, morning and evening. Come to him with your crushed, anointed words of sincerity and truth and enjoy the wine of His pleasure in you. You are a pleasing aroma, a special gift presented to the Lord.

His delight is in you. There, at the Cross, He will meet with you. There is nothing better.

General Principles

Deliverance

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David, the anointed king of Israel, is on the run from another anointed king of Israel, Saul. Saul is jealous of him and trying to kill him. David, on the other hand, doesn’t want to lay a hand on Saul – the Lord’s anointed.

Volumes have been written on that relationship but I just want to look at one incident in this post:

10 That day David fled from Saul and went to Achish king of Gath. 11 But the servants of Achish said to him, “Isn’t this David, the king of the land? Isn’t he the one they sing about in their dances:

“‘Saul has slain his thousands,
    and David his tens of thousands’?”

12 David took these words to heart and was very much afraid of Achish king of Gath. 13 So he pretended to be insane in their presence; and while he was in their hands he acted like a madman, making marks on the doors of the gate and letting saliva run down his beard.

14 Achish said to his servants, “Look at the man! He is insane! Why bring him to me? 15 Am I so short of madmen that you have to bring this fellow here to carry on like this in front of me? Must this man come into my house?”

1 Samuel 21:10-15.

I have read that passage many times and often wondered how David got away with it. Pretending to be a madman would only likely increase the chances of him being killed. What was he thinking when he went to Gath (near the present day Gaza strip), that no one would recognise him? He slaughtered thousands of them. Surely, he should have been killed?

Apparently David thought so too. In Psalm 34 he sums up his delight and thankfulness to God for delivering him from Achish (also known as Abimelek):

Psalm 34

Of David. When he pretended to be insane before Abimelek, who drove him away, and he left.

1 I will extol the Lord at all times;
    his praise will always be on my lips.
2 I will glory in the Lord;
    let the afflicted hear and rejoice.
3 Glorify the Lord with me;
    let us exalt his name together.

4 I sought the Lord, and he answered me;
    he delivered me from all my fears.
5 Those who look to him are radiant;
    their faces are never covered with shame.
6 This poor man called, and the Lord heard him;
    he saved him out of all his troubles.
7 The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him,
    and he delivers them.

8 Taste and see that the Lord is good;
    blessed is the one who takes refuge in him.
9 Fear the Lord, you his holy people,
    for those who fear him lack nothing.
10 The lions may grow weak and hungry,
    but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing.
11 Come, my children, listen to me;
    I will teach you the fear of the Lord.
12 Whoever of you loves life
    and desires to see many good days,
13 keep your tongue from evil
    and your lips from telling lies.
14 Turn from evil and do good;
    seek peace and pursue it.

15 The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous,
    and his ears are attentive to their cry;
16 but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil,
    to blot out their name from the earth.

17 The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears them;
    he delivers them from all their troubles.
18 The Lord is close to the brokenhearted
    and saves those who are crushed in spirit.

19 The righteous person may have many troubles,
    but the Lord delivers him from them all;
20 he protects all his bones,
    not one of them will be broken.

21 Evil will slay the wicked;
    the foes of the righteous will be condemned.
22 The Lord will rescue his servants;
    no one who takes refuge in him will be condemned.

Family, General Principles

Jesus and His Dad

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Everyone has a father even if not everyone has known who that was or even if they were not always there for them.

My observation is that absent or dysfunctional fathers are the root cause of a lot of people’s issues with authority, other men and God.

For those who had a reasonably good, or at least present, father in their early years you probably remember a time when you idolised him. You would have compared him with others and boasted about his various attributes, how important his job was or how good he was at various things, like kicking a ball into the sky or jumping a gate. You might have been about 5 or 6.

There is a sense in which Jesus seems to have never lost that sense of awe about his dad. I guess, in one way, that is not surprising considering Who we are talking about:

“My father who has given them to me is greater than all and no one is able to snatch anyone out of the hand of the father. ” (John 10: 29)

The relationship between Jesus and his father was intense to say the least:

“Truly, truly I say to you that the son is able to do nothing from himself unless it is something he sees the father doing. For whatever he does the son also does in the same way.” (John 5:19)

“I am not able to do anything from myself. As I hear I judge and my judgement is righteous because I do not seek my own will but the will of the one who sent me.” (John 5:30)

“I and the father are one.” (John 10:30)

“I have come from the father and have come into the world. Now I leave the world and go to the father.” (John 16:28).

Most of the time we don’t hear the father’s side of the ongoing conversation between the father and son but there are a couple of examples which show just how much the father also loved the son:

And lo, a voice came from Heaven, saying, “This Is My Beloved Son, In Whom I Am Well Pleased.” (Matthew 3:17)

(Jesus said) Father, glorify your name. Then there came a voice from heaven saying: “I have both glorified it and will glorify it again.” (John 12:28).

From the above quotations and many others it is clear that Jesus depended heavily on the father for everything. We see this again coming up to the day of his crucifixion:

“Behold, an hour is coming and has come when each one of you will be scattered and I will be left alone. But I am not alone because the father is with me.” (John 17:32)

But then, when he needed him most, the father abandons him.

Did Jesus see this coming?

About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”). (Matthew 27:46)

If your dad left your mother unexpectedly when you were young and or vulnerable it may have been the most, or one of the most, difficult days of your life.

Jesus knows what that was like. (Hebrews 4:15)

General Principles

Letter to a Prisoner

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Remember the prisoners…. Hebrews 13:3

He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” 6 So we may boldly say:

“The Lord is my helper;
I will not fear.
What can man do to me?”

Hebrews 13:5-6

Dear T….,

I was glad to hear that D… & E… were in such regular contact with you. I know they have been helping you in your new situation. I trust that you have also been aware of the Holy Spirit’s tangible help during the times when no one else can be there for you.

I was sorry to hear about your father’s passing also. The Bible says that God is the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles (2 Corinthians 1:3-4). I know that you know God. The Spirit of His Son dwells in you and you can cry out “Abba, Father” to Him and He will hear and answer you. In all your troubles He has and will comfort you.

In this letter I want to remind you of the things you already know so that you can remember how much Jesus has loved you and how He has shown that love towards you and will show it to you again. He has given you the Holy Spirit in your heart as a kind of down payment on the future he has planned for you with Him in heaven (Ephesians 1:14).

Jesus has gone to prepare a place for you among the many magnificent dwelling places that His Father has created for us in heaven (John 14:2-3). When you feel God’s presence with you in your prison cell that is a kind of foretaste of the future you will share with Him and the rest of us who are in His body. Feeling His presence is a great joy and privilege. However, even when we don’t feel the warmth and comfort of the Holy Spirit in us and around us, we can still remain confident that He has not left us. Once we become a son through His grace and because of Calvary, we never stop being a son. Once you were a slave to sin but then God met you and you became a son of God through the action of the Holy Spirit in your heart. A slave does not remain in a house forever but a son does (John 8:34-36).

These things that I have written to you are not my own words but those that God has inspired through the Bible. Now that you have a lot of time on your hands you should bury yourself in God’s word and meditate, think deeply, about these things (Colossians. 3:16). As you do this things will work out and you will begin to see the hand of God in all that is happening to you (Psalm 1, Joshua 1:8).

I hope to write again as God leads. D… and E… keep us up to date with your progress and news. I expect you will have heard by now about the good news concerning B…. Our God is very merciful and gracious.

May the Lord bless you and keep you and make His face to continually shine upon you.

Your brother in Christ

Brendan.

A Christian in a relationship