–Matthew 12:35(NKJV)
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               “This ain’t the same old range,
               Everything seems to change.”
                         –Bob Nolan

I had several thoughts stringing through my mind this morning.  Perhaps I should I wrote the Eddy Arnold song, “Did it rain, did it rain, at your house last night?”….  My mercy, we have had the rain.  Someone said we’ve had sixteen inches since Sunday.  Glad we’re on high ground, but we did spend several hours without electricity.  Thought I was going to have to get out the cookstove.  That is another topic–we are very dependent upon electricity.  Everything in our home is electric and when the phone goes dead…  Well, you see what I mean?
     Sure is a lot of nonsense going on at some of the universities.  The right to protest, hmmm, I don’t read that in the Constitution.  I do see the right of a peaceful assembly, and of freedom of speech.  These things are good to an extent, but as we saw a few years back, it does not give the right to harm others or their property.  It is does not give a person the right to break the law.  
     Then there is the issue of the forgiveness of student debts.  Why?  And I’ll say it again, why?  A debt is a debt and it should be repaid.  Who is going to pay for this debt?  Ha, you and I, the good old American taxpayer.  Jesus speaks in Luke 14 regarding “counting the cost.”  He uses it for building and war, but it can be taken to all areas of life.  Count the cost for any endeavor.  Far too many people live in a world of fantasy and illusion.  A college degree doesn’t prove you can do the job.  That comes from character and reneging on a loan/debt is bad character.  We see in Romans that we are to pay what we owe.  To paraphrase, taxes to whom taxes are due, loans to whom loans are due.  (13:7)  To continue on in verse 8, “Owe no one anything except to love one another…”.
     Now, how does one go about paying off a debt?  Work!  We live in a “give me” society.  A woke culture that thinks everything is owed to them.  Reparations for things that happened over a century ago.  Murmuring over life, and the lack of work skills.  I like what Mike Rowe said, “We’re churning out a generation of poorly educated people with no skill, no ambition, no guidance, and no realistic expectations of what it means to go to work.”  Those students protesting against Israel don’t have a clue.  In fact, they are more mindful of the “rebel rousers” that the socialists used to send into the workforce.  Paid to infiltrate then stir up problems.
     We are living in times that some may see as similar to those in the past, but in reality they are more sinister.  They are not just chipping away at the moral fabric of our nation, they are wanting to take a jack hammer to it.  Listen, you’d better heed the words that Paul wrote to Titus, [Be a] “lover of what is good, sober-minded, just, holy, self-controlled, holding fast the faithful word as he has been taught, that he may be able, but sound doctrine, both to exhort and convict those who contradict.  For there are many insubordinate, both idle talkers and deceivers…”. (Titus 1:8-10, NKJV)
     I want also to mention one more thing regarding Isaac.  He is mentioned in the 11th chapter of Hebrews.  “By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come.” (11:20, NKJV).  Isaac was the child of promise.  We know he was a godly man, but as with most of us, he had faults.  God seeks a man who is steady, reliable, and persevering.  Not everyone is called to be an “Abraham” or “Moses.”  Some simply could not handle the job.  God knows, and calls those who will accept the calling.  Each of us has a place in the kingdom of God and we are to fulfill that duty and obligation.  But we must also do it in the light of God’s Word.  Abraham built altars and therefore built a relationship with God.  Isaac, as far as we know he was not an “altar-builder.”  Both Esau and Jacob were blessed by Isaac, and both went away from the will of God.  Esau compromised by marrying foreign wives, Jacob was a conniver, a trickster, and he paid the price.  He suffered, in fact was crippled for life, until he finally surrendered to the will of God.
     For sure this ain’t the same old range, but we are to hold to the ancient paths.  We are to stand upon the Word of God.  Culture may change around us but the Word of the Lord is forever–amen!

                    –Emerson Hough  (54-40 or Fight)

       “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.”

                    –Psalm 46:1 (NKJV)
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               “God!  God!  God!  Best defined when undefined; a Fire that may not be touched; a Life too great for shape of image; a Love for which there is no equal name.  Who is He?  God!  What is He?  God!  Of whom begotten?  God!  He is at once the question and the answer, the self-balance, the All.”
                              –Joseph Parker

I have through the years heard and read accounts of disaster and turmoil and loss and in the aftermath of those people have asked, “Where was God when I needed Him?”  Let me answer that simply–He was there.  Perhaps that is too simple an answer for it is a profound, incomprehensible statement regarding God.  He was there, He is there, He will be there for He is omnipresent.  Francis Schaeffer referred to Him as the “God who is there.”
       Nonbelievers either do not want to believe that or refuse to accept it.  Sure, and why not, for they do not have the knowledge of God, the understanding of His words when He said, “I will certainly be with you.” (Exodus 3:12).  However, it is one of those things I do not quite understand when believers act and question God.  When the storms come, those personal battles that rage within and around, they ask where is God?  He is there.  Seek Him.  See, one of the great problems with humanity is that we rely far too often upon our feelings.  We think we have to “feel” God.  Pause for a moment–what does that mean, “feel God”?  We live in a feel-good society, but often God is the most active when we don’t “feel” Him.  God is Spirit, and therefore, “God is present in all places; we should not think of Him, however, as filling spaces, for He has no physical dimensions.  It is as pure spirit that He pervades all things”. (J.I. Packer)
       Why do believers refuse to accept His presence?  After all, are we not His temple?  Does not the Holy Spirit reside in us?  Oh that we could even partially grasp the words of David when he wrote, “Where can I go from Your Spirit?  Or where can I flee from Your presence?  If I ascend into heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there.  If I take the wings of the morning, And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, Even there Your hand shall lead me, And Your right hand shall behold me.”  (Psalm 139:7-10, NKJV).  
       Since He is the God who is there it should calm our fears about tomorrow.  There should be no worries for He is there already.  It should calm our worries about decisions for God He already sees the results of your decisions.  He is here, now, this moment; yet He is also already in tomorrow.  We cannot comprehend that concept with our feeble minds, but know that God is not bound by time–He created time.  And that is a question I’ll just throw out here, but is a subject for another time–What is time to God?
       Take heart, my friends, God is in the universe, everywhere present, at the same time.  Job states, “Is not God in the height of heaven?” (22:12) and Isaiah proclaims the words of God, “For thus says the High and Lofty One Who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy:  ‘I dwell in the high and holy place…'”. (57:15, NKJV)  God is not limited by time or by space!  God asked Job some questions, “Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundations?  Tell me, if you understand who marked off its dimensions?  Surely you know!  Who stretched a measuring line across it?  On what were its footings set, or who laid its cornerstone?” (38:4-6, NIV)  Take heart then, if God is the high and lofty One, and if He is everywhere at once, knowing the beginning from the end why are we afraid?  Why do we fret about tomorrow?  He is the strength of our lives. (Psalm 27:1)
       Where was/is God?  Where was He when a family member was at death’s doorstep.  He was there either to comfort or to welcome His child home.  Where was He when a life was taken so suddenly?  He was there watching, knowing that it was this person’s time to come before their Creator.  There are three things to remember:  1) God cannot lie.  That is not consistent with His character and He will always do what is consistent with His nature, character, and purpose.  2)  God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He tempt anyone else to do evil.  James writes, “Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am tempted by God’; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone.'” (1:13, NKJV)  3)  God cannot deny Himself.  He is always faithful to His Word.  He is always faithful to His children.  Paul tells us in 2 Timothy 2:13, “If we are faithless, He remains faithful; He cannot deny Himself.” (NKJV)
       So where is God?  Do you feel Him?  Do you see Him?  Do you smell Him?  He is far removed from our natural senses.  Yet, He is and always will be there.  He is not in time for He is above time.  He is at the beginning of creation and He is already at the White Throne.  He is everywhere and everywhere at once.  My mercy!  Don’t that make you want just either jump up and shout or bow low in adoration.  He is–the God who is there!  Think of that!  Because He is omnipresent means that He is able to give His entire attention to millions of individuals at the same time (Packer).  “And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.” (Hebrews 4:13, NKJV)

                    –1 Corinthians 2:2 (NKJV)
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     Was Isaac purposely blind to the lifestyle that Esau was pursuing, or was he in the thinking of some many today, that ignorance is bliss?   When Esau married daughters of the Hittites we see that “they were a grief of mind to Isaac and Rebekah” (Genesis 26:35, NKJV) but nothing was done or said (at least as far as we can tell).  Of course, Esau was forty years old, and it’s hard to correct someone of that age, however, Isaac should have said something.  They were grieved over the choices and actions of Esau, but nothing else.  Esau was allowed to bring home the Hittite women as his wives.  Here we see the favorite son of Isaac breaking the sanctity of the family code.
     It seems that there was little direction from Isaac.  He doted on Esau, and perhaps, as many parents do, made an altar of “I love Esau.”  Often parents in thinking that they are doing what they think is best for their children are actually trying to live their lives through them.  The children become the all important item, not God and how He would have them reared.  Isaac was very casual in the way that he directed Esau and allowed him to determine his own direction.  
     We come now to the old age of Isaac and the deception devised by Rebekah and Jacob.  Isaac is waiting to die and it seems that he has given up guiding and instructing his family.  He is hungry and requests that Esau hunt and prepare some game for him.  Rebekah hears and begins to plot.  The first part of Genesis 27 shows how she and Jacob went about their plan.  Then Jacob comes before Isaac masquerading as Esau.  Isaac is old and blind, the time of his death is near.  Today he would have been diagnosed with dementia, but in reality it was deception that was his problem.  Not believing in the truth led him to a “mistake.”  
     Isaac should have listened to his gut feeling.  “The voice is Jacob’s voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau…so he blessed him.” (Genesis 27:22,23)  He then pronounces the blessing of the first-born upon Jacob, the one who “purchased” the birthright for a bowl of pea soup.  It seems that Jacob is not really concerned, and I wondered if he had a smirk when Isaac prophesied over him.  Isaac was deceived, or there is that deception again, for he would never have blessed Jacob–he loved Esau.  
     It was a short time later that Esau came to Isaac.  The Bible states that, “Isaac trembled exceedingly” when he realized what he had done (27:33).  He does give Esau a second-hand blessing, but we see that because Isaac was deceived and gave Esau’s blessing to Jacob, that Esau hated his brother.  He blamed Jacob and Isaac for the deception and Rebekah feared for Jacob’s life.  If only…words that we all have spoken or at least thought.  If only, there was no deception.  Jacob was to be the one who would carry the chosen seed, if only…but it wasn’t to be.  Rebekah goes to Isaac with a half-truth, more deception because of her fear and Esau’s anger.  Because Esau had taken Hittite wives, Rebekah used that as an excuse to send Jacob away.  For once, Isaac takes control, he charged Jacob, “You shall not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan.” (28:1).  Esau heard the blessing and the charge.  In mockery and defiance, after Jacob left, he went to Ishmael and took his daughter for a wife.  Instead of repentance and remorse, he continued in his rebellion.  In reality, Esau was striking at God.  Don’t you wonder if Ishmael gloated thinking that his offspring would be the ones to inherit since Esau was the first-born?
     We see a terrible death-bed experience for Isaac.  He was deceived.  He gave the blessing to the wrong child.  In all of this we do not see him instructing his children on the value and purpose of building an altar.  We see that his love of Esau blinded him to the fact of his spiritual nature; a blindness extending to Jacob as well.  Isaac lived to be one hundred and eighty years old.  He was buried by his two sons, for they had made amends.   God had spoken to Isaac, made promises to him, and surely Isaac remembered that day when he was to be the sacrifice.  
     Isaac the well-digger, the one who was determined to find water.  Isaac, the one who didn’t want troubles with others found it within his own family.  Perhaps he was so concerned with others that he paid little attention to those who mattered most.  Isaac had passed through his life and carried out his duties, but he had done nothing notable.  But then, isn’t that the way of most of us?  We read of the great deeds of Abraham, and we know of the life of Jacob and the beginning of the tribes of Israel, but what is there from the life of Isaac?  We do not see the relationship with God that Abraham had in Isaac’s life, yet God came to Isaac and spoke with him.  Did he not nurture that relationship?  It seems that he went along his way, serving God, but not deeply.  Serving him without becoming as he father did, a friend of God.  Yet, despite all, he was the child of promise.  Don’t forget that, each of us, as believers, are children of God.  We have a tremendous inheritance!  It is up to us to not be deceived, to use that inheritance wisely and to grasp hold of it.  It is up to us to pass it on to our children, to warn them, to guide and advise them.  We are to take a stand when needed, we are not to compromise or become complacent in our lives.  Take hold of that precious characteristic we do see of Isaac and be determined to “dig the wells.”  The wells that bring forth the refreshing of the Holy Spirit.