COMMITMENT UNDER TRIAL
3 episodes<h1><strong>Introduction</strong></h1> Commitment. What is it? What does it look like? Why is it hard to come by in our world today? Many a friendship is gasping for air. Lack of commitment is the culprit. The same could be said of families and churches. Nations aren’t spared either. The growing discontent of the electorate towards the political establishment zeroes down to the issue of commitment. The political class failed to fulfill the promises they made to the electorate during campaigns. This results in the citizens feeling shortchanged by their leaders. Whenever you turn people have commitment issues. The lover crying over her beloved who failed to commit. She finds it difficult to heal from the heartbreak. There is the church member feeling disconnected from the faith community. The congregation never showed up in his hour of need. When he needed them most. These examples show one side of the commitment coin. On the flip side, many human interactions flourish thanks to commitment. The family members can’t wait for the dinner table, get-togethers, and family outings. For these offer them moments to connect and build each other. Yes, the congregant who can’t wait for the church fellowships. Precious moments those ones! Yeah, the friend who looks forward with expectation to the next hiking and friendship event. And oh, the pain he feels when his beloved is sick! How he longs for the day to end that he gets from work to encourage and spend time with her! <h2><strong>The Patriarch Abraham</strong></h2> As postmodernism grapples with commitment and trust is there a source that offers reliable direction on the issue? Such that the struggling human relations be bettered? And the flourishing ones get another boost? Books abound on the subject. Respected thought leaders including philosophers, psychologists, sociologists, and religionists have weighed in. All these give conflicting perspectives on the issue, leaving us humans at crossroads. We are left questioning who to believe. Amidst all the confusion an ancient book stands. Having the answers to the commitment problem that plagues the 21<sup>st</sup> Century mind. The Bible. Its pages reveal a rich ore of profound wisdom. And practical solutions clothed in simplicity and clarity. The lives of Bible characters show us what it takes to commit and what to do when commitment is under trial. In the series <em>Commitment Under Trial, </em>we will endeavor to unpack what we can learn from Abraham and other Bible Characters regarding commitment. For we are admonished by Paul of Tarsus thus:- <em>Now these things happened them for ensamples: and <strong>they are written for our admonition</strong>, upon whom the ends of the world are come. {<strong>1 Corinthians 10:11, KJV</strong>}</em> <em>For whatsoever things were written aforetime <strong>were written for our learning, </strong>that we through patience and comfort of scriptures might have hope. {<strong>Romans 15:4</strong>} </em> We will walk with the father of faith, Abraham, and glean commitment lessons. We will get lessons on practical Christianity from the way he interacted with his neighbors. As we witness him lie about his relation to Sarah and tiring to wait for the promised son we shall learn how God can perfect us. Our weaknesses in character notwithstanding. For His strength is made perfect in our weaknesses (<strong>2 Corinthians 12:9</strong>). <h2><strong>Broad Strokes</strong></h2> We will reflect on various themes which relate to the overarching theme of commitment. How making good choices is tied with commitment will become manifest from the separation between Abraham and Lot. And how the latter’s choice to pitch his tent towards Sodom cost him an awful lot. Abraham’s choice to go and rescue Lot during the battle of four kings against five will show us what Christian Brotherhood looks like. Lessons on waiting and the aftermath of being impatient will come to the fore when we consider the story of Ishmael’s birth. But the story won’t stop there. We will discover how God is desirous to elevate us to holiness. Him replacing our filthy rags with His garments of grace. This is in the story of God renewing the covenant after Abraham distrusted the promise of Isaac and begetting Ishmael. In the conversation the patriarch holds with God in <strong>Genesis</strong> <strong>18:23-33, </strong>pending the destruction of Sodom, the spirit of interceding for others will be our contemplation. How interacting with sin dims our spiritual vision will be the reflection of what it took the angels to take Lot out of Sodom. His wife, daughters, and sons-in-law perishing in Sodom will teach us the danger of ignoring the warning. Mount Moriah will teach us what commitment has undergone the fires of trial births. Here we will see through a miniature representation of what it took God to give His begotten son Jesus Christ. The innocent dying for the guilty. Lastly, we will end the series when Abraham passes the button to Isaac. This is in <strong>Genesis 24 </strong>which records the marriage of Isaac and Rebecca. <h2><strong>Aim</strong></h2> What will be the aim of the series? To what end will we spend moments reflecting on Patriarch Abraham? That panel discussions and accompanying articles be spent? It is our hope that the series will grow our faith in God and His Word. That the Ancient Book be not a dead letter to us. But that its contents be Wonderful Words of Life. Dear reader and viewer we hope that the series will achieve what a Bible Commentator underscored regarding Bible characters. She opined: - <em>The records of sacred history are written, <strong>not merely that we may read and wonder, </strong>but that <strong>the same faith which wrought in God’s servants of old may work in us. </strong>In no less marked manner will the Lord work now, whenever there are hearts of faith to be channels of His power. </em> <em>~</em>Ellen Gould White, <em>Prophets and Kings p. 175</em>
