Abraham @ MindSay 
lincoln
I said good-bye on the phone to April on Sunday morning. It wasn’t all sad—she said she’ll be returning in a couple of months. She mentioned that she might even be able to fly up and visit us then.
We had a good, long talk, and in the conversation, I told her briefly what I was going to share at our little meeting that morning. It was about the first covenant that God made with Abraham and its relationship to what Jesus did at the Last Supper.
It’s a bit of a weird story there in Genesis 15. But it helps to know that the Lord used a formula for covenants that was in practice at that time, in that culture, when He made His promise to Abraham. The Lord had told Abraham that he would possess the land in which he was standing. When he asked, “How am I to know that I’ll possess it?” the Lord had an interesting answer, as He so often does.
Actually, He didn’t answer, really, at all—at least it wasn’t an reply in any conventional sense. Instead of a direct answer, He told Abraham to set out a sacrifice. Cut some animals in pieces and make two rows. This is what men did in that time to make a covenant with each other. They would then walk between the pieces, as if to say, “This is serious. May this happen to me if I don’t keep my end of this covenant.”
What kind of answer was this? We’ll find out in a minute.
Abraham did what God told him to do. However, as we read how the covenant was enacted, we discover a very significant fact: only God walked between the pieces of the sacrifice—Abraham was simply an observer. By walking through the sacrifice alone, the Lord was telling Abraham, “You and your offspring will not be able to keep your side of this agreement—only I am able.”
God’s answer to Abraham’s question, “How am I to know that I’ll possess this land?” was, “I will keep My promise.” That was Abraham’s answer. Abraham wouldn’t be able to keep his side of the covenant and neither were his offspring—except one, centuries later: Jesus.
What lesson did we take from this on Sunday morning? Well, since this was our time to celebrate communion, we learned that the same truth still holds. We are not—will never be—able to keep our side of this new covenant that God has made with us. We will fail. But God will not fail. He has kept His promise to Abraham for millennia and will keep His promises to us. Because we are broken, we find that we are unable to keep our end of this covenant relationship—only He can. And that is how we, who are unholy, are made holy and righteous—through Jesus’ wonderful sacrifice and promise to always forgive us and never let us go.
I was a good Sunday.
So, in case you didn't know, our trip took us first to the UP of Michigan. I had never been there before - and it didn't dissapoint. We stopped at a place called Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, it runs along a stretch of Lake Superior, where dunes meet sheer rock cliffs, and natural arches carved by the pounding of an inland sea. 
Go a few hundred yards inshore, you can find lush forest streams with beautiful waterfalls, still slightly obscured by the fog rolling in from Superior
By the way, it is extremely cold there in early June - the water does not warm up much, and the early summer fog stays with you throughout the day. You can camp right near the lake, or move down shore to camp around a bunch of inland glacial ponds. Au Sable light is also there, a graveyard to many 19th century ships that to this day still litter the lakeshore, testimony to a more dangerous time.
It was here we took our first 10+ mile hike, and we were so unprepared I thought I was going to die of starvation. Little did I know that by the end of the trip, 10-14 miles a day would become the norm. There is a beautiful loop trail by Au Sable that follows the lakeshore - highly recommended for anyone who makes a visit up there.
I'm writing about Michigan because I don't think many people are aware how beautiful the UP is. Driving away from the lake, you are free of Interstates and strip malls and you run through some of the most beautiful land I've ever seen in the populous east. Straight, flat roads that lead through deciduous forests and marsh, as you barrel off towards Wisconsin and the Boundary Waters of northern Minnesota.
The trip began on the Interstate system because we had no other way to quickly leave New York and get through Canada to Michigan. But once we left that first stretch - we hardly returned. I would estimate 80% of our entire journey of 20,000 plus miles was spent on state and county road. As I have traveled across the country twice before soley on the Interstates, I can testify to what a difference it makes when you leave the 4 lane paved nightmares that have homogenized the country into a giant strip mall. Rural America, replete with locally owned stores and shops is still alive in the places the Interstate system has failed to touch.
We met a nice couple that had traveled to Alaska before, and had offered to take us Walleye fishing that night. Unfortunately, we were leaving for the warmer climates of Minnesota (yes, Minnesota was warmer by far) that night. As we talked to them, they told us about Alaska - places to stop - as well as filling our heads with fears about Grizzly bears (which, by the way, turned out to be no problem at all, even though they were everywhere. One only has to be mindful and careful about how you act in bear country and you should have no trouble at all).
After we left, we went to Voyageurs National Park, which is a unique water-based park straddling the Minnesota/Canada border - a place still full of wolves, bears, and beautifully lacking of people...
At the end of an essay by David Parsons he poses a question: "How then can anyone still say that we all (Jews, Christians and Mohammedans) worship the same God?" The point of Parsons’ essay is to point out that the discovery of the Judaic and Christian God is based on peaceful inner choice. The Mohammedan discovery of God (the Mohammedan “Allah”) is violent and an external struggle to force acceptance by unbelievers. Not only that but to end the life of a Mohammedan that forsakes his faith.
Parsons is probably a bit to "politically correct" to say so, but the Quran is a book written way-way after the Old Testament. The Old Testament is accepted by both Christians and Jews (though the interpretive traditions are different). Mohammed's Quran twists and contradicts the Old Testament.
The question should also be: Is the Mohammedan "Abraham" the same as the Jewish and Christian "Abraham?"
Answer: NO!
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