Genesis 17

In this passage God makes a covenant with Abram. He changes his and sarai's name to Abraham and Sarah. He gives them a new identity with this covenant. The covenant consists of God being his and his generations God, that he'd have the land. The sign of the covenant is circumcision. I suppose if i were one of Abrahams servants i'd think he was crazy if he wanted to do that to me. But i suppose I'd also know that he had some special relationship with God. God makes a very strong promise with Abraham here. Even ishmael is blessed. What is commanded of Abraham is to walk faithfully with God and blameless. This is similar to our calling with God. Just to be faithful and blameless. Even so I always seem to get myself in a mess. This whole world is full of sin. faithfulness and blamelessness aren't as easy as I wish they were. Maybe those monks who live in the middle of nowhere have something going for them. It's a crazy world so I guess we just do our best and keep learning to do better. That's all we can do.