Jan 7 - Abraham slices up some foreskin....OUCH!

OK well this is interesting. So Sarai, Abrams wife, is so distraught that she can't bear children that she gives her husband, Abram, her Egyptian servant Hagar to do the naughty and she becomes pregnant for her. Sarai gets mad because Hagar treats her with contempt when she finds out she is pregnant. Hagar is met with an angel of the Lord and told she will give birth to a son name him Ishmael (which means 'God hears') now go back to your mistress and submit to her authority and I will give you more descendants than you can count. God makes a covenant with Abram that he will be the father of a multitude of nations. God changes his name from Abram to Abraham "for you will be the father of many nations." Sarai will now be named Sarah and will give birth to a son for you. You will name him Isaac and I will confirm my covenant with him and his dscendans as an everlasting covenant.

Sounds good until God gets to how Abraham must show a sign as the covenant. "Each male among you must be circumcised. You must cut off the flesh of your foreskin as a sign of the covenant between me and you. From generation to generation, every male child must be circumcised on the eighth day after his birth." On that very day Abraham took his son, Ishmael, and every male in his household, including those born there and those he had bought. Then he circumcised them, cutting off their foreskins, just as God had told him. Now right when we're born, sure but when I'm 15, 20, 50, even 90 years old! I'm thinking Abraham left that tent with a black eye! It would take a lot of convincing for a guy to tell me that God wants me to give your penis a haircut. Now a days it's common place to have it done as an infant but is it done for cleanliness or is it still the covenant? I never knew why it was done but either way I'm glad the barber visited me as an infant.

In the new testament Jesus talks about praying in a specific way. I actually knew this prayer before I even knew Jesus. My grandmother a devout Catholic taught me the Our Father prayer in Matthew 6:9-13. Praying is such a private personal thing for me. Boo and I pray together everynight and we learned from Bernie to also pray every night over our children. It's such a powerful connection with God and it's not meant to be as a showboat look at me I'm a good man praying to the Lord. In Matthew 6:5-8 "When you pray, don't be like the hypocrites who love to pray publicly on street corners and in the synagogues where everyone can see them. I tell you the truth, that is all the reward they will ever get. But when you pray, go away by yourself, shut the door behind you, and pray to your Father in private. Then your Father, who sees everything, will reward you. When you pray, don't babble on and on as people of other religions do. They think their prayers are answered merely by repeating their words again and again. Don't be like them, for your Father knows exactly what you need even before you ask him!" In the end, for me, it's all about the heart. When I first became a Christian I was showing up to church as one person and trying to keep this false front while I went out and partied like an animal on weekends, tithing when I felt like it and my bible was out in front at church but stashed away at the house. "Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be." Where were my treasures in my partying friendships, clutching onto my money? Now that the front has become the reality I've never been happier nor live a more abundant life from the inside out not from the materialistic outside in. I still struggle with serving money somewhat now and again, always trying to make more to support my family not necessarily looking for Gods wisdom in business situations. We tithe 10% off the top without question and do a few other things that remind me that God is there why keep sweating the $$$$. What a powerful symbol $$$$$ just don't let it be the one you serve and not God.