Five Days With Father Abraham - Day one continued

This is day one of my Five Days With Father Abraham. It is the day called, 'Accepting God's blessing on my life and being a blessing to others.'


I'm glad I chose to start on a Saturday because everything felt like a blessing today. My good health, the fact that I actually exercised instead of thinking about it, and the fact that I'm at last beginning to enjoy a healthy diet because the sugar cravings have gone away for a while.
The second part - being a blessing to someone else - was difficult! It was Saturday, I saw lots of people and didn't meet anyone. I failed one opportunity: as I entered a store I heard the woman behind me talking into her cell phone. This is what I heard, "Yes, I'm just going to buy a little microwave right now, do you by any chance have a big garage?" I guessed that she had lost the place where she used to live and was needing to store her furniture." Then I went on with my shopping. If I had stopped, if I had spoken to her could I have helped? I imagine not, but isn't that just a failure of faith and doesn't it show how I couldn't give up my comfort to ask. But I have succeeded at something else - to be truthful not today but in preparation for today. I have helped supply a tent in a shopping cart that will be lent to a homeless person sleeping on the street. I feel so good about this. Lanaire gave me the details at the 'Send Out Cards' seminar and when I looked it up on the web I was delighted. www.EveryoneDeservesARoof.com is as exciting as www.Kiva.com When I got back to my computer I sent a copy of a really delightful book 'Beach Money' to someone and imagined it changing their life.
Mmm a rather tepid start:, all money no personal involvement, and most disappointing, no interfaith involvement.
I need community if I am to commit myself to repeating these five days. I need people: who will join in this experiment, make suggestions and share their own life with Father Abraham. Send me a comment.

Five Days With Father Abraham -

Five Days with Father Abraham - Day One

O.K. So I want to live like Abraham. Only I'd prefer a home-mobile to a tent.
Five things that Abraham did that shaped his life and I can do to.
The wonder of these things is that I do not have to be young, rich or clever to do them, but a by-product of doing them is that my inner (spiritual) self becomes young, rich and wise.

I Commit myself to:

1. Accepting God's blessing on me and becoming a blessing to others
2. Praying prayers of intercession for the undeserving
3. To build an alter wherever I go
4. Becoming what God wants me to be. How ever unbelievable it may seem.
5. To pass the faith on to succeeding generations.

I commit myself to concentrate on a different one of these five actions every day for five days.
If God guides me I committ to calling Muslims, Jews and Christians to come together on the things we can agree on and love and live in peace.

Jesus; the way out of death and the way into the good life.

I tell you the truth, said Jesus, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.

Resurrection happens to the dead and happens to everyone. Eternal life happens now and happens to those who believe that Jesus is the Son of God. It is right, says Jesus, to honor the Son just as we honor the Father, whoever does not honor him does not honor the Father.

To some people, said Jesus, praise from people is more important than praise from God. That way of thinking is a barrier to the good life. A self-erected barrier. It is composed of bricks named, What will they think? Will I look foolish? Will it put me in difficult situations? How about dismantling that self-erected barrier? It can be done instantly by realising that the Father praises, approves, honors and supports the person who believes in Jesus. To believe in Jesus is to be united with the Father. Reflect for a moment on the situation of being united with and supported by God and then contrast that to the situation of continually trying to get the praise of people.

Whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life. Don't be afraid to believe, but be very afraid to remain alive without possessing eternal life.

(Gospel of John chapter 5 verse 19-45)

There will be enough when we learn to trust and obey

“Pour out” said Jesus to the waiters at the banquet. Take some of that water you have just put into jugs, take it to the head waiter and pour it into his wine cup. There was little hesitation on the part of the waiters, they were there to serve tables and the only thing left to serve was water, the wine was all used up. You know the rest of the story, when the head waiter drank from his cup he drank wine. Better tasting wine than that he had been drinking before.

Don’t let the scale of the miracle divert you from the lesson. John, who recorded this event for us, calls it a ‘sign’ Sign is not just another word for miracle it is a word for an example of what Jesus was talking about. Although I have no trouble accepting this account just as it is, I know a lot of good people who loose the benefit of the story because they can’t believe it. Never let that stop you; to unite with God requires that a person believe in Jesus, that’s all. If you want to think of the story as an allegory you can do that, the important thing is that right now, today, you focus on these words “Pour out.” Because we have entered an era of scarcity. Mary said to Jesus, “They have no wine.” Today we would say to him, “They have no home, they have no job.”

Based on the story, we are to take whatever we have, no matter how weak it seems and distribute it liberally. This is the culture of the Kingdom of Heaven to which all who believe in God through Christ belong. The writer specifically tells us that there were six containers each holding twenty or thirty gallons, between 120 to 150 gallons. It’s laughable really, how much wine did they need? But this is part of the example, God gives abundantly. We call it the good news of abundance. God has chosen to give abundantly but he tells us to pour out the abundance.

Of course there’s an escape route; we God-respecting people can avoid being generous in our support of others by spiritualizing the story. If we say that the story only refers to the gift of spiritual life which God gives: then we don’t need to do anything but instruct other people to trust in God. That way we can hoard our energy and save ourselves from doing kindnesses. Or we can imitate Jesus and go about doing good, trusting God to take care of the results.

So let’s be liberal even though we feel our gifts are weak compared to the need. Let’s pour courageously. Think back on your own lives, did acts of kindness ever change your day? Did that changed day help to shape your life? God gives to the deserving and the undeserving, to those who help themselves and those who can’t help themselves. We, as citizens of his culture are called to do likewise. God gives and also forgives, what a lot of courage it takes to do for others what God has done for us