Archive - January, 2009
it’s one of those days
a spring cleaning type of day. a walk around the block. a clean up of old posts. a revamping day. a rearranging of furniture day. a reading, and rethinking day. a new day.
reminds me of how good it is to be alive. of how good it is to be able to take that next breath. i think we forget, how great it is to live and breathe and walk, and make friendships, to be able to read and think and enjoy the taste of caramel, milk, espresso, over ice.
so often i only find the things to complain about, things i wish were different and i don’t really look on my life with contentment.
this. reminds me. of myoneword, which has not yet debuted publicly, but has come up in several conversations with friends. my one word this time around is “fresh.” why? well, so often life to me appears stale, it’s the monotony, the same thing repeated, the non-excitement, the lack of new, on any level. and so, i’ve committed to view things anew, from a fresh point of view. i want to come at my daily, my job, my life, my friendships, my family, the way i worship, with a freshness, that can only be supplied from the Creator – who made all things new.
i’m excited to enter into 2009 through the lense of freshness. it seems appropriate and life-giving.
i’m off now, for a walk around the block, to breathe in the air, to experience life away from the computer.
all is not lost…
so it seems that i’ve lost a portion of my blog. i still have the files to fully recapture all of my lost posts, and this may take a while to implement, so for now, it looks like i haven’t blogged in a full year, and we all know that’s not true.
this was all in an attempt to do a clean wordpress install, now that i’ve done that, i’m realizing to get my old files where they need to go, it will make the install less clean. so, i need and am looking for a wordpress expert out there to help.
so, i’m redownloading plug-ins and trying to get reconfigured over here. in the meantime, i’ll continue to update things afresh.
technology is great, unless you navigate it wrong – and i think i did.
caught in the thicket
I just read, and re-read Genesis 22:1-19 – for context, nech sa paci (here you go), don’t skip over reading this, it’s only 18 verses, not a novel:
1 Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!”
“Here I am,” he replied.2 Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about.”
3 Early the next morning Abraham got up and saddled his donkey. He took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac. When he had cut enough wood for the burnt offering, he set out for the place God had told him about. 4 On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. 5 He said to his servants, “Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you.”
6 Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them went on together, 7 Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, “Father?”
“Yes, my son?” Abraham replied.
“The fire and wood are here,” Isaac said, “but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?”8 Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” And the two of them went on together.
9 When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. 10 Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. 11 But the angel of the LORD called out to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!”
“Here I am,” he replied.12 “Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. “Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.”
13 Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram [a] caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. 14 So Abraham called that place The LORD Will Provide. And to this day it is said, “On the mountain of the LORD it will be provided.”
15 The angel of the LORD called to Abraham from heaven a second time 16 and said, “I swear by myself, declares the LORD, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, 17 I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, 18 and through your offspring [b] all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me.”
19 Then Abraham returned to his servants, and they set off together for Beersheba. And Abraham stayed in Beersheba.
Followed by a series of questions. Which were:
1. Why was Abraham going to offer up his son?
2. In what land would he make the sacrifice?
3. Where in that land would the sacrifice be made?
4. Why Did Abraham name that place “The Lord Will Provide” (Jehovah-jireh)
5. Record any new insights you have on the words love, obeyed, and worship.
If you’re like me you have a strong dislike for Bible studies that are too straight forward, meaning, whom did God send? why did He send him? why does it matter? -type questions. But these questions, although simple, brought something new to my attention. For me, it was number four, Why did Abraham name that place “The Lord Will Provide” (Jehovah-jireh)? It’s obvious right? He named the place that because the Lord provided…a ram…in the thicket…in place of his Son. Talk about foreshadowing. Talk about God preparing the way. I think God knows we won’t get it unless he uses very blatant symbolism.
I look at my life, how God is my Jehovah-jireh, how He, provided His Son, so that I may have life to the full. I see how in the daily, small things, God provides, how He blesses me, how He loves me. Don’t ignore the ram caught in the thicket. Don’t ignore what God is providing for you. Then remember it, name that place: “The Lord Will Provide” don’t worry about being a cheesy Christian, it’s not about you anyway, it’s about honoring God.
How often do we think God’s provision is something we did for ourselves? There are about eleven different rabbit trails that I could choose to follow from here, but I won’t, I can’t, because that takes attention away from the truth. The truth that Mt. Moriah, the same place where Abraham was going to sacrifice Isaac, was the place where Solomon later built the temple, and where temple sacrifices were made to the Lord, in echo of Abraham’s act of obedience, love, and worship, in preparation for the Mt. of Calvary. Completely humbling. Completely neccessary.
