I love history – I love reading history books; so Day 5 is a good section to read for me this morning, although again I had difficulty to pronounce the names of kings! It has kings, battles, promises, betrayal, intrigue, rescue and victory! How exciting!

“Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you.” — this verse reminded me of the time my family left South Korea in 25 years ago. My parents were not following God, but we did leave our country, our people, and our families to come to Canada. For those of you who have relocated to Canada from another region, I am sure you can share the feeling of uncertainty, fear and concerns, along with a sense of adventure. I recall that I was too stupid to be scared, but I was just excited to get onto a big plane and get to an unknown world that I could explore… As a new Christian, I feel the same sense of “too stupid to be scared, but just excited” to be with God. How do you feel?

God promised to Abram twice in today’s reading – Gen 12:6-7 and Gen. 13:14-17. I find it interesting that the first promise was made to Abram after he followed God’s command of leaving his country, family and go to the land God would show. But, the second promise was made to him after he made such wrong decisions in Egypt AND after his nephew Lot left him. So even if we make a wrong decision, but repent and follows God, we are to receive his promise once again. How assuring and how gracious of God!

After rescue Lot, Abram refused to take anything for himself, but he gave a tenth of everything to the High Priest. This seems to be the first mention of the tithe in the Bible (please correct me if I am wrong here). As the new year rolls out this week, have you done your tithe for this week? If you have done, have you done more than what you did last year? Or, have you made your own decision as to when, where, what and how to give to God?

I am a bit early in sending out the reminder email this morning, but please feel free to send me your thoughts at any time during the day and I will send out a supplementary email tonight as the day comes to an end.

Once again, thanks for reading my rambling here, but please feel free to delete, if you wish.