Advent - The Sacrifice

Imagine waiting and waiting and waiting to receive your gift in the mail.  You've been checking the status daily waiting for the elusive "your purchase has shipped message" so you can get a tracking number.  Then you start tracking the package as it moves from facility to facility getting closer and closer.  Finally!  It arrives!  And then you dad tells you that you can open it and play with it once, but then he is going to take it back.  What a rip!!!  How can he be so cruel!!!!!
God had promised Abraham a son and told him that a great nation would come through this son.  After so many years, Isaac is finally born and it seems like the promise is coming true.
Then ...
God tells Abraham, "sacrifice your son to me".  Wow.  At the end of the story, God provides a sacrifice in place of Isaac, but Abraham followed through, trusting in God.

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.”

How are you at following even when it doesn't make sense?  That's a tough one.  But, God is faithful.  Do you trust him?

Today's Advent reading: Gen 22:1-14

Advent - God in Tough Places - the "F" word

It's not fair!  Those words are absolutely forbidden in our house.  In fact, we refer to "fair" as "the f_ word."  Ever notice how when we say something is unfair, we are rarely talking about someone else's loss or disadvantage?  Usually what we mean by "it's not fair" is that we didn't get our way or someone else got something we perceive to be better than what we got. 
There is so much that seems to be unfair.  Where is God when things get tough?  So many things are at work in the background, that we often can't see the forest for the trees.  Sometimes we can look back on an event with the perspective of time and find some meaning or purpose in it.  Sometimes it remains a mystery - forever.
No matter the circumstance, you can always be sure that it's not fair.  God always loves you no matter what you do or don't do - no matter how unlovable you are.  That's not fair, but I sure do like it!

Today's Advent reading: Gen 37:1-36, Gen 50:15-21

Advent - Timing Is Everythng

God promissed Abram that he would be the father of a great nation, that his descendants would be numbered as the stars.  But Abraham and Sarah had grown old waiting for God to fulfill his promise.

"You promised!"  All my children went through this phase.  Closely associated with it is "You said ..."  And sometimes they were right.  I have over-promised and under-delivered from time to time.  God, however, never fails, but we often misunderstand his timimg.

Kinda like Gandalf's quote as he arrives at Bilbo's birthday party:

A wizard is never late, nor is he early, he arrives precisely when he means to.

Peter says it this way:

The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. 2Pet 3:9

Today's Advent reading: Gen 21:1-7

Advent - Abram's Faith

Then he believed in the LORD; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness.

Gen 15:6

Abram believed.  Yep, that was it.  He believed.

But ...

Not it the sense of, "I believe that the sun is 93 million miles from the earth," or "I believe I'll have some of that there pistachio icecream," or, even, "I believe that God could if He wanted too."  It was a belief that compelled Abram to fully rely on Him.  Our belief resembles the classic, "I believe you can push me across the tightrope over Niagara Falls in a wheelbarrow, but I'm not getting in it!"

What does your belief compel you to do?  Get in the wheelbarrow!

Today's Advent reading: Gen 15:1-6