Today's reading was really confusing for me. I kept pausing and going back to remeber was happened. But I just want to read the Bible, not study it (as it says in the list of suggestions), for now. Like I was confused on Sodom and Gomorrah. Was it one city or two. Some passages seemed to say one, while some said two. Now that I've finally read that story for myself, I know that they weren't destroyed because of homosexuality. More like rape! I also noticed that in all those long lists of genealogies, only the males are listed. Weren't females not important back then? I also noticed that God mostly talked to people through angels.

Reading thestories f Abrahama and His walk with God made me realise that to grow in my wlk wih God, I MUST obey immediately and cease to first try to understand, b'se God keeps His word,and wen He finds an obedient person, He trust them with evrythin!

Leaving the familiar under God's leading instantly throngs us into abundance and true success..all comes back to beig obedient and trusting God beyond anything that He has my best purpose in His leading though it may take a while. Abraham was a friend of God!

This made me desire to walk closer with God in obedience and faith b'se if Abraham could have such a dep relationship before salvation,it must be awesome and simpler now!

These first two days of reading made more appreciative of God's covenants--in the garden after Adam's and Eve's sin, to Noah and his family saved from a world that had become terribly wicked, and to Abram, the childless old man whose faith and covenant with God would make him Abraham, the father of descendants too numerous to count--and God's control of circumstances...with mercy and the promise of redempton, with a plan for our lives more wonderful than we could ever imagine.

• What must it be like to have God eating at your table?
• God is both infinitely patient and infinitely demanding of His people
• Did the Jordan river continue to flow south all the way to the sea before God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah? Were these cities in the valley that is now the Dead or Salt Sea?
• I must consider my children to be God's to do with as He wishes
• It is a wonderful thing when God picks your spouse. But God must continue to rule in to home if there is to be peace and harmony

While reading about Noah and Abraham I was almost overwhelmed. I've read these passages countless times in the past, but I had never thought about this before.

The Old Testament heroes we read about had faith that was so strong. Noah built an ark in a time when it had never rained. Abraham had been childless for so long, yet he was willing to sacrifice Isaac. And they didn't have an advantage Christians have today. The Holy Spirit was not living within them. The Comforter was not sent until Jesus returned to the right hand of His Father.

We all fall short in our walk. But, I find it difficult to justify now.

gensis 17- covenant man to God circumsision Abraham and sarah, isaacc and ishmael

lord is fed, sodom and gomorrah spared because of abrahma, god was gonna hide what he would do to s&d

I was just curious to know if the same Abimelech that Issac tricked was the same Abimelech that Abraham tricked. Poor guy fell for the same line twice!
I also thoght it was intresting that Abraham sent his other sons east. Again away from God.

Our whole family has taken the challenge, my son 10 years old, my daughter 13 years old. In the middle of reading today my son blurted out "what in the world!" He was suprised and disgusted with the sin in Sodom. I pray that I will not loose that type of reaction when faced with sin, partcularly my own sin. I pray that God will continue to press upon me to live a holy and righteous lifestyle.

Travis

*Gen. 19:4 - "Before they had gone to bed, ALL the men from every part of the city of Soddom - both young and old - surrounded the house." - Even married men?

*Gen. 19:19 - "...But I can't flee to the mountains; this disaster will overtake me, and I'll die." - Interesting to note how he had JUST been saved from a city marked for destruction, yet, he still didn't think that he would be safe in the mountains. Did he have so little faith in God, that he would think that God would let him jump from the frying pan into the fire, so to speak?

*Gen. 20:17-18 - "Then Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abielech, his wife and his slave girls so that they could have children again, for the LORD had closed up every womb in Abimelech's household because of Abraham's wife Sarah." I find it odd that the "victim" of the scam is the one paying the consequences. Seems that since Abraham told Sarah to lie, that he would be the one to deal with the consequences.

I think today, I want to think about one particular passage in Day 2's reading. I look at chapter 16 and understand Sarai's frustration about not having any children. But, I also question her devotion to God. She wanted a child so bad that she let her husband lie with Hagar.

God does not answer our prayers in our way. He answers them in His. I think this is a perfect example of how if we try to handle things on our own, we will destroy what God has "ideally" planned for us and our lives.

Now, Issac's inheritance to some extent would have to be "broken" or "shared" with Ishmael. This is not what God had originally intended, but it was what He handled because Sarai could not wait for God's perfect timing in her life.