Surrender
Abraham. His story occupies a relatively small part of the Bible, yet is one of the great pillars of faith in the Christian religion, as well as the religions of Islam and Judaism. A very interesting man who I have been desiring to learn about a lot in the past week or so. I feel God has some great things to show me through his story and will share later what I've thought about so far. In the mean time, if you have any cool / interesting thoughts on Abraham, feel free to share. I actually ask that you do. I enjoy hearing what other people think on specific topics I am checking out. Anyway, just wanted to post this for now. Have a great day. :)ps.... I just started this book so I can't recommend it, but so far, it has been enlightening. And the old man sitting next to me at the book store was impressed that I was reading it for leisure and not school. BJ- 2 Everyone else - 0
posted by BJ at 8:00 AM
9 Comments:
I really enjoy hearing thoughts on Abraham...one of the most important things I've learned is God's covenant and intent to Abraham in the beginning of our christian story. God told Abraham he would make him a blessing in order that he would bless others. We don't seem to have that attitude anymore - it's good to know that was God's intent for blessing us and making us his then as it is now
Hey beej, you should play the game on my site.... :-D
right arm, left arm...father abraham had many sons... yes, i'm so excited to hang out with you and other really cool chicks! i'll have to tell you about my vineyard 101 times.
did you look at my comic that tyler helped me post?
Did this really happen?
yeah! Um, I think it's like a post from 3 or 4 days ago... tyler helped me over the weekend. It's so funny go read it!
okay, i just went and looked at it. it's on friday's post.
Wait, never mind. I just realized that I already sent you that comic strip last week. dangit.
We talked about Abraham in our small group this week. We were talking about the fact that Abraham was the beginning of an wholly new culture of people. That's awesome to me. To think that God essentially told him, "Live this way.", and Abraham did, and then millions (or billions?) followed in the cultural mores he initiated.
In our conversation, we were discussing whether there was a Jewish "race", or whether it was simply a cultural distinction. Mark Kamil had some interesting insights here, as he was raised reformed Jewish and was saved about six or seven years ago. We were talking about the fact that the only physical (and therefore racial) distinction that existed (i.e., circumcision) was unseen superficially, and therefore there was really only a cultural distinction, not a racial one.
This discussion led us ultimately to an appreciation of what God did through Abraham, and continued to do throughout history, even into more modern times. He kept his end of the bargain. God freely wiped out entire civilizations that threatened the well-being of his chosen ones. That's incredible, and perhaps a little tough to swallow: essentially commiting divine genocide for the sake of His people.
Can you imagine what Abraham must have felt? I can simply imagine his inner monologue... "Man, I really hope I don't screw this up." And even more so, how much must he have kicked himself for doubting God's promise of his fathering a child with Sara(i/h), and having Ishmael outside of God's plan? "Geez, I'm an idiot, idiot, IDIOT!"
I think I'm officially rambling. Time for bed.
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