WEDNESDAY 4TH MARCH 2020 MORNING
Genesis 22:1-14 New International Version (NIV)
1 Sometime later God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!”
“Here I am,” he replied.
2 Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac—and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you.”
3 Early the next morning Abraham got up and loaded his donkey. He took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac. When he had cut enough wood for the burnt offering, he set out for the place God had told him about. 4 On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. 5 He said to his servants, “Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you.”
6 Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them went on together, 7 Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, “Father?”
“Yes, my son?” Abraham replied.
“The fire and wood are here,” Isaac said, “but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?”
8 Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” And the two of them went on together.
9 When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. 10 Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. 11 But the angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!”
“Here I am,” he replied.
12 “Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. “Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.”
13 Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram[a] caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. 14 So Abraham called that place The Lord Will Provide. And to this day it is said, “On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided.”
God often allows us to go through trials knowingly in order to test or refine the faith we have in Him. Faith is having confidence in that God is always good, righteous, fair, just and loving.
Faith must make us willing to surrender all, and to abandon all that we have, to God. It acknowledges that our lives and all that we have are not our own anymore, but God's, to shape and to use in any way He wants to.
UMATANO TAREHE 4 FEBRUARI 2020 ASUBUHI
MWANZO 22:1-14
1Ikawa baada ya mambo hayo Mungu alimjaribu Ibrahimu, akamwambia, Ee Ibrahimu! Naye akasema, Mimi hapa.
2 Akasema, Umchukue mwanao, mwana wako wa pekee, umpendaye, Isaka, ukaende zako mpaka nchi ya Moria, ukamtoe sadaka ya kuteketezwa huko juu ya mlima mmojawapo nitakaokuambia.
3 Ibrahimu akaondoka alfajiri, akatandika punda wake, akachukua vijana wawili pamoja naye, na Isaka mwanawe, akachanja kuni kwa ajili ya hiyo sadaka ya kuteketezwa, akaondoka, akaenda mpaka mahali alipoambiwa na Mungu.
4 Siku ya tatu Ibrahimu akainua macho yake, akapaona mahali pakali mbali.
5 Ibrahimu akawaambia vijana wake, Kaeni ninyi hapa pamoja na punda, na mimi na kijana tutakwenda kule, tukaabudu, na kuwarudia tena.
6 Basi Ibrahimu akazitwaa kuni za hiyo sadaka, akamtwika Isaka mwanawe; akatwaa moto na kisu mkononi mwake, wakaenda wote wawili pamoja.
7 Isaka akasema na Ibrahimu baba yake, akinena, Babangu! Naye akasema, Mimi hapa, mwanangu. Akasema, Tazama! Moto upo, na kuni zipo, lakini yuko wapi mwana-kondoo kwa sadaka ya kuteketezwa?
8 Ibrahimu akasema, Mungu atajipatia mwana-kondoo kwa hiyo sadaka, mwanangu. Basi wakaendelea wote wawili pamoja.
9 Wakafika mahali pale alipoambiwa na Mungu, Ibrahimu akajenga madhabahu huko, akaziweka tayari kuni, kisha akamfunga Isaka mwanawe, akamweka juu ya madhabahu, juu ya zile kuni.
10 Ibrahimu akanyosha mkono wake, akakitwaa kisu ili amchinje mwanawe.
11 Ndipo malaika wa Bwana akamwita kutoka mbinguni, akasema, Ibrahimu! Ibrahimu! Naye akasema, Mimi hapa.
12 Akasema, Usimnyoshee kijana mkono wako, wala usimtendee neno; kwa maana sasa ninajua ya kuwa unamcha Mungu, iwapo hukunizuilia mwanao, mwanao wa pekee.
13 Ibrahimu akainua macho yake, akaangalia, na tazama, kondoo mume yuko nyuma yake, amenaswa pembe zake katika kichaka. Basi Ibrahimu akaenda akamtwaa huyo kondoo, akamtoa awe sadaka ya kuteketezwa badala ya mwanawe.
14 Ibrahimu akapaita mahali hapo Yehova-yire,kama watu wasemavyo hata leo,Katika mlima wa BWANA itapatikana.
Mara nyingi Mungu anaruhusu tupitie majaribu kwa lengo la kupima na kuimarisha imani tuliyo nayo kwake. Imani ni kuwa na ujasiri kuwa Mungu daima ni mwema, mtakatifu, mwenye haki na upendo.
Ni lazima imani ituwezeshe kutoa na kumwachia Mungu kila tulicho nacho. Ni kutambua kuwa maisha yetu na vyote tulivyo navyo siyo mali yetu tena, bali ni mali ya Mungu, aviweke na kuvitumia jinsi apendavyo.
