Life Lessons with Dr. Steve Schell

Sometimes it takes a crisis to bring us back to forgotten promises. Somewhere in the past we may have made sincere promises to God, but changing circumstances and passing years have caused us to all but forget we ever made them. In fact, so much may have changed that we may have lost hope that it would still be possible for us to keep those promises. But in today's study of the life of Jacob we le...

Some of us find it very easy to relate to Jacob. He was a man with obvious weaknesses of character, yet, he clearly loved the Lord. Even after some dramatic encounters with God, we find him falling back under pressure to old, ungodly habits. But Jacob gives us hope because, in spite of his failures, God didn't give up on him. He promised to transform him into a new man (Ge 32:28) and then kept wor...

Of all the strange events in Jacob's life, this is by far the strangest. Left alone on the far bank of the Jabbok River, he ended up wrestling with a stranger in the dark of the night. During the course of the fight, Jacob began to realize he was grappling with no ordinary man. Though painfully injured, he refused to release his hold on the man until he "blessed" him. The request for a blessing in...

Though Jacob had enough faith to receive God's blessing, he was still very immature in his understanding of God. On his journey north to Haran, he fell asleep with a rock under his head. In a vision he saw the spiritual realities now surrounding him. God had prepared a pathway, allowing angels to constantly attend to him. And, he saw the pre-incarnate Jesus Christ watching over him and heard Him m...

In this passage, we're going to see Abraham bless his son, warn him against sin and then send him on into the calling of his life. In essence, we're looking at what Jacob received from his father Isaac. For those who have not been blessed in such a way, you can still receive your blessing as a Christian. It is your birthright, and you need it! To receive a free copy of Dr. Steve Schell's newest bo...

Moses has chosen to describe in vivid detail a very strange event that took place in Isaac's family. With the brilliance of a great storyteller he takes us through a day in which people used lies and deception to steal a spiritual blessing, and the amazing result was that they succeeded! This raises several questions: First, why did Moses take so much care to tell us this story? And the answer mus...

This passage is about two hungry men. One is returning to camp after an unsuccessful hunting trip. He is physically starving and feeling faint. The other has been waiting in camp cooking dinner. He is spiritually hungry, yearning for the birthright and blessing that would naturally go to his brother. The attitudes of these two men challenge us to examine our own attitude toward God. Are we like Es...

Both these verses refer to children whom Abraham fathered, but his relationship to the two groups was very different. Verse six refers to the "sons of his concubine." These were six sons whom Abraham conceived in his old age with a woman named Keturah. When they reached a certain age he gave them enough to live on and sent them away. It appears he was their biological father, but invested little a...

It would be hard to imagine an offense more painful than that which Ishmael experienced at the age of 16. Suddenly, without warning, he was awakened early in the morning by his father, walked a distance outside of camp and abandoned to the wilderness with only a goatskin of water. One day he was the firstborn son of a tribal chief and, the next, he was the disinherited and penniless child of a sin...

It's often quite easy to recognize God's will for other people and there are also certain areas of our own lives where we have no trouble making good decisions. But nothing is more difficult than trying to determine God's leading in matters where we have strong personal interest in the outcome. This is the area of decision-making where we all struggle and may have a long history of making bad choi...

Abraham and Sarah came to the end of their lives without seeing the fulfillment of every promise God had made to them. He had promised to them and their descendants the land of their "sojournings," but when Sarah died Abraham had to buy a cave so he would have a place to bury her body. Many of us grow bitter at God if all our prayers aren't answered, let alone going a lifetime without seeing a pro...

This chapter is a remarkable prophetic passage declaring the gospel . It is also an example of God testing His followers. First we will look at the gospel Abraham proclaims through his actions. Then we will discuss Abraham being tested. And we'll talk about God testing our hearts too because He tests our hearts just like He tested Abraham.  To receive a free copy of Dr. Steve Schell's newest book...

Though Abraham was unaware of it, God had been using him to witness to the Philistines. Even though they didn't worship Abraham's God, it became obvious over time that his God was powerful and blessed him abundantly (v 22), so much so that the Philistine king became frightened and came to Abraham begging him to make a covenant of friendship with him. The sad element in this story is that Abraham h...

When Abraham disinherited Ishmael and abandoned him in the wilderness, he instantly turned Hagar into a single mom. Being the single mother of a teenage boy is quite a challenge, but Hagar took steps to see that her son would successfully grow into manhood. Many women and men who face the prospect of raising their children alone, without the support of a spouse, may find themselves wondering if th...

The cities of Sodom and Gomorrah became infamous examples of what happens when people let their sexual appetites run wild. Throughout human history their names have been associated with cultures which defied God's moral standards. One of the sins practiced in these cities was homosexuality, and today in America this subject has become very controversial, both in our society at large as well as in...

God was working with Abraham's heart and teaching his mind so that he would have a faith that could be passed on from generation to generation. Here the Lord uses the judgment of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to teach some foundational spiritual truths. These are truths that God knew he must understand, and they are truths that we also must understand if we are going to live lives that are not...

As humans we have a tendency to be passive and self-centered. We stand back and wait for life to come to us and we choose things on the basis of how much pleasure or benefit we get out of them. Both of these are poor attitudes in any situation, but when it comes to our relationship with God they are exactly the opposite of what we should do. In this chapter of Genesis Abraham models qualities whic...

Everyone of us is getting older a day at a time, and there is no stopping the process. People do what they can to preserve their youthfulness, but the passing years still sweep us along until one day it occurs to us we're getting old. How we handle this revelation is one of the most important keys to productivity and happiness in life. Many people don't like to talk about getting older because It...

If you were to put into a simple statement God's goal for Abraham it would be this: God made Abraham into a great father. Even his name reveals God's plan: Abram means "great-father" and "Abraham" means "father of many." When we read the story of his life we are reading about one of the major events in God's plan to offer eternal life to humans. Through Abraham and Sarah a family was begun which p...

If you were to put into a simple statement God's goal for Abraham, it would be this: God made Abraham into a great father. Even his name reveals God's plan: Abram means "great-father" and "Abraham" means "father of many." When we read the story of his life, we are reading about one of the major events in God's plan to offer eternal life to humans. Through Abraham and Sarah a family was begun which...

There are many people who would like to walk with God but are convinced that their weaknesses, fears and foolish mistakes make it impossible. They might say something like this: "I know God is powerful, but it isn't God I'm worried about; it's me. I don't seem to have what it takes to live a victorious life. I'm afraid I have already or will in the future mess up His plans for me. I make bad choic...

Hagar was only an Egyptian slave who had been given as a maid-in-waiting to Sarai by the Pharaoh of Egypt. She was part of the dowry he paid to Abram for Sarai's hand in marriage (Ge 12:15,16), so whatever Hagar knew about the true God she had learned from this Hebrew couple she served. Sadly, she was drawn into the middle of their marriage as a solution to their painful barrenness. Trouble quickl...

Just as a natural parent conceives life and nurtures a growing child, it is possible to be a spiritual parent who reproduces spiritual life in another and nurtures a growing believer. As we are go through the life of Abraham and Sarah, we see that the main thing God is doing is preparing this couple to not only be physical parents of one son but spiritual parents of many people. Like them, we are...

When we try to motivate people to do something, we can either use a carrot or a stick. In other words, we can motivate a person with a bribe or by frightening them. Some people think using fear or bribery motivates people to tithe, but God does not raise us to tithe with these techniques. God motivates His people entirely differently. He places His Holy Spirit inside us, and He changes our desires...

We are going to see in this account, and in the account of Chapter 14, that Abraham is free from the love of money. We see it when he refuses the treasure of the Mesopotamian kings; we see it when he lets Lot choose which way he would go. Abraham takes some remarkable steps in generosity. Many of us feel we have to fight for what is ours or else we will be run over. And in the world, that's the wa...