Friday(5.6), Further Thought
 Read Ellen G. White, “Abraham in Canaan,” pp. 134-136, in Patriarchs and Prophets.


 “Christ´s church is to be a blessing, and its members are to be blessed as they bless others. The object of God in choosing a people before all the world was not only that He might adopt them as His sons and daughters, but that through them He might confer on the world the benefits of divine illumination. When the Lord chose Abraham it was not simply to be the special friend of God, but to be a medium of the precious and peculiar privileges the Lord desired to bestow upon the nations. He was to be a light amid the moral darkness of his surroundings.


 Whenever God blesses His children with light and truth, it is not only that they may have the gift of eternal life, but that those around them may also be spiritually enlightened ... ‘Ye are the salt of the earth.’ And when God makes His children salt, it is not only for their own preservation, but that they may be agents in preserving others ...


 Do you shine as living stones in God´s building? ... We have not the genuine religion, unless it exerts a controlling influence upon us in every business transaction. We should have practical godliness to weave into our lifework. We should have the transforming grace of Christ upon our hearts. We need a great deal less of self, and more of Jesus.”
— Ellen G. White, Reflecting Christ, p. 205.

Discussion Questions
 1. In the light of the blessing of Abraham, “I will bless you ... and you shall be a blessing” (Gen. 12:2, NKJV), what does it mean to be blessed? How can we, as people who serve the same God as did Abram, be a blessing to others?

 2. What was wrong in Abraham’s half lie regarding his sister-wife? What is worse, lying or saying some truth while still, at the same time, technically lying?

 3. Read again Genesis 14:21-23, Abram’s response to the offer of the king of Sodom. Why did he respond as he did, and what important lesson can we take from this story? Would not Abram have been justified had he decided to take what the king had offered him?