The Dailies

North Tyne Sunrise

Photo from Flickr:http://flickr.com/photos/24421206@N07/3242481758/in/photostream/


Hello again,
Sorry I know that there have been a couple days in between this "daily" and the last one, but well I wasn't able to do any ahead of time :) so here is today's daily
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Starting with the bible verse:

Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him,
“Abraham!”
“Here I am,” he replied.
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.”
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.
On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place
in the distance. 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.”
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, 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?”
Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb
for the burnt offering, my son.” And the two of them went
on together.
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. Then he reached out his hand and took
the knife to slay his son. But the *angel
of the LORD called out to him from
heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!”
“Here I am,” he replied.
“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.”
Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram
caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and
sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. 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.”
The angel of the LORD called to Abraham from heaven
a second time and said, “I swear by myself, declares the
LORD, that because you have done this and have not
withheld your son, your only son, 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, and
through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed,
because you have obeyed me.” Genesis 22:1–18 NIV
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What I find interesting out of the many things, that you could see in this passage is the name Moriah. It sounds a little bit like Mordor or one of those names from the LOTR series by J.R.R. Tolkien. I don't know why, but I noticed that right off, kind of funny actually. Another thing that is repeated and so of course must be important, because with God any time that something is repeated numerous times it has to have some meaning. Doesn't it? For this passage that one thing would be the "Your son, your only son." it repeated what? 3 times. So I guess not that many times, but honestly do you think that Abraham needed any reminder that this was his only son? Probably not. Yet again these verses are one that I read in my Bible class, but here I would like to draw attention to the book that I am reading along/with/for Bible it is called "The Stranger on the Road to Emmaus" by: John R. Cross. From the website .
Here is a quote from the text of the book, that you can read online:

Your Only Son
The setting is simple. God asked Abraham to take his son and
sacrifice him on an altar—to put him to death. This is no idle
request. The Lord reminded Abraham that this was his only
son. His memory hardly needed the assistance. For years he
had waited for this child, and Isaac was the very son that God
had promised would be the father of countless descendants.
The Lord had been very specific about that and it was obvious
that a dead son could have no offspring!
God’s request must have bewildered Abraham. In all
probability he had witnessed the human sacrifices practiced
by other nations of his day and knew it was a common form
of appeasing their gods. Yet God’s command to sacrifice Isaac
went against everything Abraham knew about the Creator.

God, in his love, had promised Isaac as a descendant that would
bear many children. There was no earthly way to harmonize
God’s previous promise with His present command. How
could God be so inconsistent? And yet Abraham had learned
that the Lord was utterly trustworthy, so he did just as God
requested. Calling his son, he saddled the family donkey and,
taking the trappings for sacrifice-making, he set off to do the
Lord’s bidding. His heart must have been torn with anguish!
Being obedient was an immense step for Abraham, but that
step showed his absolute faith in God’s goodness.
The Bible does not leave us guessing Abraham’s thoughts. It tells
us that Abraham clung to God’s promise, convinced that even
if he sacrificed Isaac, the Lord would raise him from the dead.
By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a
sacrifice …

Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead,
and … receive Isaac back from death. Hebrews 11:17,19 NIV

The Bible says that God was testing Abraham’s faith. We’ll
understand the reason why in a few more pages. This ultimate
test of offering his own son revealed to Abraham, and to us,
his genuine confidence in the Lord.
Abraham and Isaac, along with two other young men, headed off
to the mountains of Moriah. When they got nearer, Abraham and
Isaac went on alone with Isaac carrying the wood. Somewhere
along the way Isaac queried his father. No doubt, Isaac had
witnessed many sacrifices and it didn’t take a college degree
for him to realize that one of the essentials was missing—the
sacrifice itself. Where was the lamb?

“Here is the fire and the wood,” Isaac said, “but where is
the lamb for the burnt offering?” Genesis 22:7 NET

One can’t help but wonder if Isaac was thinking about the
prevalence of child sacrifice in neighboring religions. He, too,
was trusting in the Lord and in no small way! When his father
replied that God Himself would provide the lamb, Isaac went
on willingly. It says they went together.
God showed them the exact place to erect the altar on one of
the mountains of Moriah. Many years later, the Jewish temple
would be built on Mount Moriah, perhaps on the same site
Isaac was offered.

That particular quoted section was from Chapter 6 of "The Stranger on the Road to Emmaus" Section 3-Isaac; pages 107-108.
Take a step back and just think...
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Now for the poem:

"I'm Nobody-Who are you?"
by: Emily Dickinson

I'm Nobody! Who are you?
Are you-Nobody-too?
Then there's a pair of us!
Don't tell! they'll banish us-you know!

How dreary-to be-Somebody!
How public-like a Frog-
To tell your name-the livelong June-
To an admiring Bog!
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What do you think of that poem?-
What do you think it means?-
Is it a poem of sadness?-
Or just one of mock delight?
Does it mean-
You do not belong?
Or is it truly public-
like a Frog-?

that poem was found in the book: "Classic Poetry: An Illustrated Collection"
Selected by: Michael Rosen Pictures By: Paul Howard on Pg.80 (the one by Emily of course, not the other one, teeheehee)
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And now for a Quote in ending:
This is from a speech by Ronald Reagan: "Evil Empire" Speech by Ronald Reagan (March 8, 1983)
""And finally, the shrewdest of all observers of American democracy, Alexis de Tocqueville, put it eloquently after he had gone in search for the secret of America's greatness and genius-and he said,"Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits aflame with righteousness did I understand the greatness and the genius of America. America is great because America is good.And if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.""
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Have a great week,
Imagination
p.s. hopefully there will be another post like this tomorrow :)