Genesis 21-25

More drama today. Today's big drama was of course Abraham about to kill and burn his son for God.

I have a couple of things to say about this. First of all, I am really really beginning to feel sorry for poor Abraham. I mean, can't the guy get a break! God has him moving here, moving there, casting out his son, sleeping with maids, and now he's about to kill the one son he favors. Is it all worth it? It feels a little like the Lord is messing with him, like "How far can I push Abe today, I wonder if he'd kill his own SON?!" I feel like maybe Abraham is going to crack at any minute...

Second thing is something I've often wondered. Ok, so all of these people are doing all of these crazy things like the events mentioned above, because the Lord tells them to do them..right?

.....and we discussed earlier how God doesn't seem to "talk" to people the way he used to, right?

well how can we be so sure of that. For instance, the woman in Texas who drowned all of her kids in the tub because God told her to. What if he did? How can we be so sure?

What if as a man you said to your wife "Honey, God spoke to me today and he told me I need to sleep with our young french maid" I bet that would go over smashingly.

If ole' Abe were around today he would be sitting in a padded room somewhere making tiny model houses out of matchsticks.

And what about Waco? We just assume he was a nutter, not the Messiah right? Will we know for sure? If the answer to that is "of course" then I ask "How can you be so sure" I imagine all of the people that burned with him, WERE sure.

So what does all of this mean? Have we become so jaded that when we do hear God speak we write if off?

Do we only listen to the good things he has to say? Or more to the point, do we only believe the good things? People always say that it's easier to believe the bad things people say about you than it is to believe the good. Is that opposite of God? Could these events be a test of our faith? and if so have we failed miserably in locking these people up, calling them names, watching them burn........