Hello, my name is Abraham, God told me to cut you!

Sunset over the St. Johns. Proj365:2, originally uploaded by Thomas Lester.

Can you imagine that? You are hanging out in your tent, minding your own business when the person you know as "Abram" comes crashing in with a sharp knife, "Good afternoon. God gave me a new name. I am now Abraham and God told me to cut your penis." How do you reconcile that? I'd have been like, "back the truck up... God told you to do what???". That was God's deal with Abraham. God's end of the deal was to give Abraham the land and Abraham's descendants will rule the land. Abraham's part of the deal was to circumcise his boy children and the men of the nation as a symbol of the covenant. Ouch!

God can do ANYTHING and He can follow through with His plans for you even when you screw them up. Sarai, Abram's Wife, couldn't have kids. God revealed to Abram that he WOULD give him a son and that he'd have a nation of descendants. Sarai got impatient and offered up her hand maiden for Abram to sleep with and get pregnant.

Now... first of all, every man out there should understand that this is a ridiculous idea. As much as we all would be tempted by a hot young assistant and no matter how much the wife say she's cool with it, SHE's NOT. This is true of today as it was true in ancient times. As soon as Hagar (Sarai's servant) got pregnant, which was the plan, Sarai began to hate her. Sarai got mad at Abram and blamed him for the situation (duh... who couldn't see that coming) .

Here's the point... line up with God's plan for your life and you will have less headaches. Try to execute God's plan on your own power in your own timing and life will be rough. However, God is gracious enough to follow through on his plan for your life even when you blow it. Abram and Sarai blew it. The rushed God's plan and didn't trust him. They though, because of their earthly circumstances, God couldn't get them pregnant naturally. However, God proved to them he could do anything and is not bound by their early situation. God also proved, that even when they screwed up, he still followed through on His promise. That's pretty cool!

Do you dig today's picture? I took that yesterday evening on the way to band practice. That's the sunset as seen from the Julington Creek bridge. That is the picture I picked for my day 2 of my 365 project.

I have a question/rant I wanted to talk about, but this post is getting kind of long. I'll save it for later.

Today's quiet time reading here.