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Ron Bailey ( - )
Read freely text sermons and articles by the speaker Ron Bailey in text and pdf format. Ron Bailey is the full-time curator of Bible Base. The first Christians were people who loved and respected the Jewish scriptures as their highest legacy, but were later willing to add a further 27 books to that legacy. We usually call the older scriptures ‘the Old Testament’ while we call this 27 book addition to the Jewish scriptures ‘the New Testament’. It is not the most accurate description but it shows how early Christians saw the contrast between the ‘Old’ and the ‘New’.
It has been my main life-work to read, and study and think about these ancient writings, and then to attempt to share my discoveries with others. I am never more content than when I have a quiet moment and an open Bible on my lap. For much of my life too I have been engaged in preaching and teaching the living truths of this book. This has given me a wide circle of friends in the UK and throughout the world. This website is really dedicated to them. They have encouraged and challenged and sometimes disagreed but I delight in this fellowship of Christ-honouring Bible lovers.
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showing from 1 to 50 of 66 articles
Abraham, My Friend_01
Abraham, My Friend
The Making of a Praying Man
Preface:
Every story has a purpose and my re-telling of this story has its purpose revealed in our sub-title. Abrahams life is rich in illustration of the purposes of God and the daily incidents of a pi ... read more
Abraham, My Friend_02
Abraham, My Friend
The Making of a Praying Man
Chapter One: Beginnings
In the beginning God
Every Christian biography should begin with the words In the beginning God.. Our Bible begins with these words and, on reflection, it could begin with n ... read more
Abraham, My Friend_03
Abraham, My Friend
The Making of a Praying Man
Chapter One: Beginnings
Known unto God
In British War Cemeteries throughout the world you often come across the words Known unto God engraved on tombstones. It signifies that the person whose rema ... read more
Abraham, My Friend_04
Abraham, My Friend
The Making of a Praying Man
Chapter One: Beginnings
When he was called
The story of the steps of the faith of our father Abraham is not only to be found in the book of Genesis. Again and again the scriptures return to this man ... read more
Abraham, My Friend_05
Abraham, My Friend
The Making of a Praying Man
Chapter One: Beginnings
Looking forward to The City
A journey of a thousand miles, say the Chinese, begins with the first step. The beginning of any venture is vital; if there are mistakes in the fo ... read more
Abraham, My Friend_06
Abraham, My Friend
The Making of a Praying Man
Chapter One: Beginnings
Thy prayer was heard
The story of Abrahams family begins with a little list of sons and daughters which comes to an abrupt stop; but Sarai was barren she had no child. Perha ... read more
Abraham, My Friend_07
Abraham, My Friend
The Making of a Praying Man
Chapter Two: The Blessing
back on the flight path
It is time now to examine the Blessing. Thus far we have identified Abraham as an ordinary man who became an extraordinary man. He was born into no ... read more
Abraham, My Friend_08
Abraham, My Friend
The Making of a Praying Man
Chapter Two: The Blessing
Be thou a blessing.
It is wonderful to consider the way in which God, who measures the cosmos with a single span, is able and willing to focus on a single individual. I som ... read more
Abraham, My Friend_09
Abraham, My Friend
The Making of a Praying Man
Chapter Two: The Blessing
To serve and to guard
Lets continue a little on the theme of Gods promise of blessing for and through Abraham.
We use it so often dont we? The word bless? As a testim ... read more
Abraham, My Friend_10
Abraham, My Friend
The Making of a Praying Man
Chapter Two: The Blessing
This is the way you shall bless
An excursis is an academic expression. It means a digression in the narrative; a detour. Most preachers use detours in the course of their pre ... read more
Abraham, My Friend_11
Abraham, My Friend
The Making of a Praying Man
Chapter Two: The Blessing
Face to face
Im still thinking about The Blessing. I have been trying to define blessing by subtraction. In other words, what is the essence of blessing? This is how I have ... read more
Abraham, My Friend_12
Abraham, My Friend
The Making of a Praying Man
Chapter Three: Entering the land
Shechem
Time to move on, I think. It is one thing to come out, but quite another to enter in. Later in Israels history there was a whole generation that came out, but ... read more
Abraham, My Friend_13
Abraham, My Friend
The Making of a Praying Man
Chapter Three: Entering the land
Passing through, going on still
Abraham is on the move. And Abram passed through the land unto the place of Sichem. [Gen 12:6] he removed from thence unto a mountain ... read more
Abraham, My Friend_14
Abraham, My Friend
The Making of a Praying Man
Chapter Three: Entering the land
Calling upon the Name
So Abraham, ever moving on, pitches his tent in between Bethel and Ai and builds an altar to Jehovah, and called upon the name of Jehovah. [Genes ... read more
Abraham, My Friend_15
Abraham, My Friend
The Making of a Praying Man
Chapter Three: Entering the land
Still calling
Lets linger a while on this theme of calling on the name of the Lord. Do you call on the name of the Lord? Notice, I didnt ask did you but do you. ... read more
Abraham, My Friend_16
Abraham, My Friend,
Chapter 4: Down into Egypt
Famine in the land.
And there was a famine in the land. [Gen 12:10] Its one thing to progress when everything is going well, but what happens when the trials come? And come they will. Often they come ... read more
Abraham, My Friend_17
Abraham, My Friend,
Chapter 4: Down into Egypt
What is this that thou hast done?
Beware the temptation to take a quick , reasonable, sojourn in Egypt until the difficult times pass. Trust in the LORD with all thine heart, and lean not to thine own ... read more
Abraham, My Friend_18
Abraham, My Friend
The Making of a Praying Man
Chapter Three: Down into Egypt
Second best?
We have tracked his disastrous descent into Egypt, now lets track his restoration. He went up out of Egypt into the Negeb. And Abraham was very rich in cat ... read more
Abraham, My Friend_19
Abraham, My Friend
The Making of a Praying Man
Chapter Three: Down into Egypt
When Lot left, Jehovah said...
I hope we are not going too slowly for you. It has taken us 3 months to cover 2 chapters, however, I see this is assisting our goal rather ... read more
Abraham, My Friend_20
Abraham, My Friend
The Making of a Praying Man
Chapter Four: New Beginnings
Kings, Confederates and a Priest
I would like to ask you to read this instalment twice. Genesis 14 is packed with action and relevance. It gives a vivid background to the ... read more
Abraham, My Friend_21
Abraham, My Friend
The Making of a Praying Man
Chapter Four: New Beginnings
Melchizedek; time to sit and eat
In our previous devotional we gave an overview of Abrahams encounter with kings, confederates and a priest. We can take time now to think ... read more
Abraham, My Friend_22
Abraham, My Friend
The Making of a Praying Man
Chapter Four: New Beginnings
Melchizedek; revealer of God
Last week we began to think about Abrahams encounter with the priest Melchizedek and we began to ask our questions. Who was this man and why ... read more
Abraham, My Friend_23
Abraham, My Friend
The Making of a Praying Man
Chapter Four: New Beginnings
The Lord hath need
We are meditating on Abraham's meeting with Melchizedek and have tried to identify some key elements of this encounter. We have seen authentic "commu ... read more
Abraham, My Friend_24
Abraham, My Friend
The Making of a Praying Man
Chapter Four: New Beginnings
and he believed in Jehovah
Genesis 15 contains one of the most important verses in the Bible. The verse becomes the basis for a major New Testament doctrine; justificatio ... read more
Abraham, My Friend_25
Abraham, My Friend
The Making of a Praying Man
Chapter Four: New Beginnings
the people of the God of Abraham
Sometimes a light surprises the Christian while he sings; wrote William Cowper, It is the Lord, Who rises with healing in His wings: ... read more
Abraham, My Friend_26
Abraham, My Friend
The Making of a Praying Man
Chapter Four: New Beginnings
person-to-person
Lets gather up some fragments that remain from this account of Abrahams faith. (New Readers to this column should be warned that the fragments which re ... read more
Abraham, My Friend_27
Chapter Four: New Beginnings
particular responsibility and a look at the accounts
This weeks devotional is a little more technical. We are going to see how Paul expounds Abrahams experience. Please dont be put off by that; these are vital truths ... read more
Abraham, My Friend_28
Abraham, My Friend
The Making of a Praying Man
Justice divine is satisfied
How can God, at one and the same time, be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus? (Rom 3:26 KJV) That was the question we left hanging in the air in the pre ... read more
Abraham, My Friend_29
Abraham, My Friend
The Making of a Praying Man
Oh the blessednesses
Perhaps you think we are a little pre-occupied with this simple phrase; For what saith the scripture? And Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned unto him for righteousness. (Ro ... read more
Abraham, My Friend_30
Abraham, My Friend
The Making of a Praying Man
from grace to grace
Just a final catch-up as regards Abraham and justification by faith and then we will move on to later steps in his pilgrimage.
The best exposition of the verse And he believed in ... read more
Abraham, My Friend_31
Abraham, My Friend
The Making of a Praying Man_31
The Seed - Part 1
As I promised we will now return to the narrative of Genesis 15. There is so much material in this chapter that it is easy to forget that the incidents that it records all took pla ... read more
Abraham, My Friend_32
Abraham, My Friend
The Making of a Praying Man_32
The Seed Part 2
For me Bible study often begins with an idea, or hunch, or revelation. (Choose whichever you think most appropriate.) I then destruction test the idea by thinking through paralle ... read more
Abraham, My Friend_33
Abraham, My Friend
The Making of a Praying Man_33
ready, steady, wait
It is amazing to see how often exhilarating mountain top experiences are followed by the testings in the valley. Paradise and Adams receiving of his wife is followed by his test ... read more
Abraham, My Friend_34
Abraham, My Friend
The Making of a Praying Man_34
Abrahamic Perfection
I want to say more about Genesis 16 but I think it will make more sense if we revisit later rather than try to look too far ahead. In essence, Ishmael was fathered by uncircu ... read more
Abraham, My Friend_35
A Covenant with Abraham
I have opted for the title above very consciously. We often speak of the Abrahamic Covenant but this covenant was very narrow in its inception. Jehovah appeared to Abram, and said unto him
I will make my covenant between me and ... read more
Abraham, My Friend_36
Why circumcision?
I promised I would return to the account of the birth of Ishmael but I have been somewhat reluctant to start on this devotional, simply because of the propriety of the topic. In many ways the Bible is a very primitive book and issues ... read more
Abraham, My Friend_37
Beware the Midianites
In our last devotional we began to explore some of the implications of the ritual of circumcision and the continuing truths that are implied in the typology. Lets recap briefly. Circumcision is a picture of no confidence in the ... read more
Abraham, My Friend_38
a long history of a moment
(with apologies to Stephen Hawking)
Lets begin by reminding ourselves of the place that this personal covenant between God and Abraham has in the overall revelation of Gods purposes. This is something we need to do often w ... read more
Abraham, My Friend_39
the sitting, running, lying, standing man
Some 38 devotionals ago, Greg asked me begin a serious of devotionals with the brief of covering some foundation issues. As the website has prayer as a main focus I decided that I could combine both by a medi ... read more
Abraham, My Friend_40
they that wait upon the Lord
And then after the sitting, running, lying, and working comes the standing; And he took butter, and milk, and the calf which he had dressed, and set it before them; and he stood by them under the tree, and they did eat. (Ge ... read more
Abraham, My Friend_41
wait I say on the Lord
Our previous devotional found Abraham waiting upon his visitors. His waiting upon God was not in order that
There was no secret ambition in his service; it was simply the instinct of his life. He was not trying to gain Gods ... read more
Abraham, My Friend_42
by faith Sarah
Our devotionals have been focussed on Abraham, but perhaps just for a moment we can consider Sarah. Abraham is waiting on his guests and as he waits confirmation comes. I say confirmation, rather than revelation as only details of this ... read more
Abraham, My Friend_43
Shall I hide from Abraham
We come now to the passage which was in my mind when we first began this journey, almost a year ago.
It seems that the primary purpose of the visit to Abrahams tent was Sarahs annunciation; the specific promise and date ... read more
Abraham, My Friend_44
God loved Sodom
We know this passage so well, perhaps too well. It is an amazing record of Abrahams relationship with the God who referred to him as Abraham, My Friend. I want to challenge some assumptions about these verses. There are some who see th ... read more
Abraham, My Friend_45
Beware the Bildads
Im going give a little time to meditation on this issue of Gods Justice.
For generations atheists have said it is not possible for God to be all loving, all knowing and all powerful at the same time. Two out of three they say a ... read more
Abraham, My Friend_46
Righteous Lot?
Today we will meditate on the walk of Abraham by contrasting him with his nephew. In writing the above title I was reminded of the story of a funeral. The deceased was a notorious character but the eulogies were flowing tributes to the s ... read more
Abraham, My Friend_47
Abraham, My Friend
The Making of a Praying Man_47
Righteous Abimelech?
The Bible tells a highly selective story. And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world its ... read more
Abraham, My Friend_48
Abraham, My Friend
The Making of a Praying Man_48
a prophet?
Abraham says God is a prophet. At this point there is no explanation of the title or role. It was obviously something which Abimelech would have understood, a familiar term in his day ... read more
Abraham, My Friend_49
Abraham, My Friend
The Making of a Praying Man_49
So Abraham prayed
and God healed
It is all so wonderfully matter-of-fact. Abraham prayed and God healed. In his dream to Abimelech God had spoken of Abraham in similar matter-of-fact words. He is ... read more
Abraham, My Friend_50
Abraham, My Friend
The Making of a Praying Man_50
I will
and Sarah shall
At this point in our meditations on the life of Abraham, the Friend of God, we come to a new aspect of Abrahams life. We saw his first steps of faith and he turned his back ... read more
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