A Sunday Post for the Shepherds -- Blessing

I'm preaching through Genesis on Sunday mornings. We're in chapter 12 - God's call of Abram. God promises him His blessing so that he will become a blessing to the nations. The Hebrew word translated blessing is sometimes translated kneel. To bless then has the connotation of the blesser kneeling, stooping down, to be near and with the one blessed. It it the promise of help for mission. God's promise to Abram in Ge 12 is not unlike Jesus' promise to the church in Mt 28 where He gives the Great Commission and then says I am with you always, even to the end of the age.

Christ's word to His church, Go, make disciples, for I am with you always, is the promise of God to Abram thousands of years earlier, Leave, go to a land I will show you, I have stooped down to be with you. My brothers, today, may we proclaim this Lord who is with us to help us and our people with our particular roles within His mission on the stage of church history. His promise is His presence. We get God! Good Father, make us faithful. Amen.

The LORD is with me like a dread champion - Jeremiah the Prophet (20:11).