Abraham son of Terah and Isaac son of Abraham

            I have undergone a lot of recent experiences which have kind of pointed me to the story of Abraham and Isaac. The story has been brought up a few times in recent conversations I’ve had with people and I have also been reminded of the biblical tale through the scripture passages that I’ve been reading.  In this entry, I will deal with the notions of trust and faith found in the story of Abraham and Isaac.

Last summer I enrolled in an existentialism class. During the course, we studied a theistic philosopher by the name of Soren Kierkegaard.  Kierkegaard was a Christian who utilized the Abraham and Isaac episode to help explain his concept of faith. 

            Before defining what faith is, it is helpful to understand Kierkegaard’s notion of the tragic hero.  The tragic hero is one who sacrifices or gives up their current ethical duty in order to express a higher ethical/universal duty (for the nation or community etc.). He uses the example of Agamemnon and the Trojan War: the deity demands to receive a young girl as a sacrifice in order for the army of Greece to be able to sail to Troy.  In order to appease the deity, Agamemnon sacrifices his daughter to the goddess for the sake of the nation.  In this case, Agamemnon is a tragic hero because he is gives up his ethical duty (to love and protect his daughter) in exchange for performing higher moral action within the ethical (to love and protect his nation).  His actions are understandable and can even be considered admirable.

            Here’s the gist of Abraham’s story:   God promises that he will establish his covenant through Isaac (Gen 17:19). God asks Abraham to sacrifice Isaac (Gen 22:2).

According to society, Abraham’s highest expression of the ethical is to love Isaac.  Abraham’s actions differ from the Agamemnon’s case because his actions cannot be understood nor can his actions be considered admirable by the public eye: he is giving up his ethical duty in order to do something that has no benefit to others or his son.  

God asks for Isaac as an offering to test Abraham’s faith. Abraham carries out his actions, “for God’s sake and for his own sake. He does it for God’s sake because God demands this proof of his faith; he does it for his own sake so that he can prove it” (Fear and Trembling).  Kierkegaard defines faith as “precisely the paradox that the single individual as the single individual is higher than the universal (ethical), is justified before it, not as inferior to it but as superior” (Fear and Trembling).  The individual (Abraham) is made higher than the universal (as he enters into a relationship with God) and cannot be understood by anyone within the universal.  Those within the universal are given the choices to either deem Abraham as a man of faith or a madman.  To be able to display his faith, Abraham is required to take action; he must sacrifice Isaac to confirm his faith through obedience to God. 

In the same way, faith requires an action from the believer in order to display one’s faith and to prove their trust in God.  During the time of Joshua, God promised to give the people of Israel a land for themselves.  It was only when the people followed God’s instructions to take possession of the land that they were able to obtain it.  Initially the land was occupied by many peoples but the Lord gave these cities and nations into the hands of the Israelites: “Thus the Lord gave to Israel all the land that he swore to give to their fathers. And they took possession of it, and they settled there. And the Lord gave them rest on every side just as he had sworn to their gathers. Not one of all their enemies had withstood them, for the Lord had given all their enemies into their hands. Not one word of all the good promises that the Lord had made to the house of Israel had failed; all came to pass.”

Lately I really feel that God’s been requesting me to place my Isaac on the altar.  I have no idea whether Isaac will be returned to me at sometime in the future but, for the time being, I will offer him up to the Lord because he belongs to him.  Like Abraham, my choice to give over Isaac has not been understood by the people who have heard my story because it does not bring any benefits to me or the universal.  I feel that this is the right thing to do because it seems that God is asking for a proof of my faith; he is asking me to choose for him over the universal and myself.  

And PTL! I just found out that my broganoff got accepted into MSU!

Good night! 

Hey Reader!

I'm now back in Vancouver due to an unexpected turn of events. My Lansing GAP year internship was cut short because of my hospitalization in January and some complications with my insurance coverage (I shall explain that tale in some upcoming post).  Now I've been continuing my GAP year in Vancouver and working for both UCO Vancouver and UCO Burnaby and some jobs here and there for Families for Christ Community.
A couple of weeks ago, Vancouver's mission leader asked me to organize a men's event (which was executed tonight) so I planned to put to use some of my cooking experience gained back in Lansing.  This evening, I had the men over at my house for dinner and a discussion.  It was such a great time for me to re-connect with the brothers back home and to hear how the Lord was working in each of their lives. Our discussion topic for the evening was: "How have I experienced the Lord's love recently?"
Here's a summary of my sharing: I shared about experiencing the love of the Lord through brothers and sisters who visited me in the hospital during my time at Sparrow.  I was hospitalized right before the Kairos Winter Conference (a huge conference held in Columbus Ohio for all the UCOs and SPOs of North America) where I was expecting to serve.  Missing out on that conference also meant being unable to see my friends from Vancouver, other chapters and being unable to lead a small group and serve on the music team.  I was  frustrated when I was stripped of all these opportunities and was told that I would have to stay in the hospital for a week.  Flipping through the channels at the hospital, I came across this documentary on the devil which included a section on the story of Job.  I really felt as though the Lord was talking to me through the story of Job's life.  Mr. Job was a righteous man who feared and followed the Lord despite all the trials he experienced. God allowed Mr. Job to be stripped of everything: his children and all his possessions. God even allowed the devil to cover Job in sores yet Job did not curse the Lord.  This story placed a calling on my heart to remain faithful to the Lord through both the good times and bad. During my time in the hospital, the Lord changed my first day of frustration into a period of resting in the him and i felt as though I was given a protected time to spend with him. Throughout this whole incident, the Lord really gave me a lot of grace to be at peace. The doctors told me that my condition was really serious and that it could have actually taken my life if it was any worse. Through the Lord's protection, I didn't worry at all knowing that he was with me and taking care of me. I really experienced God's love through all the friends and community members who came to visit me and prayed over me.  I really felt accepted as part of the community there and could say the I genuinely experienced Christ's love through the quality time that these people spent with me. I want to thank all those who came to see me and keep me company. You're the best!  Praise God for also blessing me with the opportunity to see my father.  My dad was able to take some time off work to be with me in the hospital.  I was really touched by the effort he made to comfort me and support me through the trial.  It was awesome to have him visit for the week to meet my friends, the community, and experience living with the Servants at Weber.
Now that I'm here in Vancouver, the Lord's given me a few signs to confirm to me that I'm meant to be back here. Once again, this story shall be saved for a future post.

Good Night! Dream Big!
-Mamonluk

Return of the King

Dear Gentle Reader,

It’s been a long while since my last entry. The reason for my lack of postage is because the GAP year has been so busy that any free time is usually allocated to sleeping or skyping family.  I just wanted to quickly share about this week and how God has really worked with me.  During this GAP year, I have found it really difficult to hear from the Lord in a personal way and just have not felt his presence much (even though this GAP year and my house life is catered to give me more opportunities to pray and study scripture).  My struggle with my relationship with the Lord has changed through an alteration in perspective.  The start of this change occurred during last Saturday’s (a little over a week ago), ABLD at Chelsea.  ABLD stands for All Brothers’ Lord’s Day.  Brothers from the Servants of the Word (and their guests) gather together from different parts of Michigan to participate in a Lord’s Day celebration. 

For those who don’t know, the Lord’s Day Celebration is a ceremony that occurs Saturday evening that is a way prepare us for Sunday a holy day for Christians.  The Lord’s Day or LD includes elements of prayer, worship, a shared meal and fellowship. 

After the worship, I heard a talk given by Brother(a).  He spoke on attending to the foundations.  By attending to the foundations, it would make it easier to secure victory in the struggles and conflicts that we face in life.  Initially, I had a pretty hard time relating to this talk.  It didn’t really stick in my head or hold much weight on my heart. 

A couple of days later, Brother(b) told me that during the next Lord’s day, we would all spend some time discussing what we learning during last week’s talk.  I began to somewhat panic and worry because I really didn’t have anything to say.  I started to think about it a bit and couldn’t stop thinking about a talk that I received a while back about staying connected to the Lord – John 15, “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.”  This talk spoke about being connected to the Lord in prayer and scripture.  These two things were the fundamental elements necessary for staying connected to the Lord.  I began to think to myself, ‘this has been a season in my life where I have spent the most time with the Lord in scripture and prayer yet I haven’t been able to hear him clearly and I haven’t really felt his guidance in my life.  The solution to this problem was finally given to me last Friday during the PPPM – Pan Peninsular Pray Meeting.  UCO chapters from all over Michigan gathered together to worship and hear a talk.  Friday’s talk was given by Brother (c) he spoke on changing our perspective of God as an idea to God as a person.  This sermon really cut to my heart and I really felt that the Lord was telling me to change the approach to our relationship.  So often, I tired to analyze God as this distant God with several of his traditional attributes; omnipotence, omniscience, immortality, infinitude, etc.  I guess that’s what philosophy has done to me in a way.  It has made me try to understand him as an idea or concept that I can explain to people.  The talk was a wake up call for one of the reasons why Jesus came an died for us; he died that we may have relationship with God.  He is a person yet I was not relating to him as a person.  I had been relating to him as a distant God only really present in my life during times of worship or service.  He is a person who is always with me but he was a person who was made present only during the times that I wanted to have him there.  He was never acknowledged during my normal activities of life and I in a way lost my personal relationship with him. 

Praise him for working himself back into my life.  Praise him for sending Brothers (a), (b), ^ (c)!   Nehemiah 8, the Joy of the Lord is my strength.  Thank you for restoring that joy! Praise Him (hand motion)!

Mamonluk