Trees of Abraham
"I wrote this book while living in a seventh story apartment in Khan Younis, the main city of the southern Gaza Strip. I originally moved here in 2003, a time when foreigners were regularly being kidnapped. I, myself, had been threatened and even shot at. For me, this seventh story apartment became a hiding place. It was also here that some of my dreams of long ago came true.
Shortly after my salvation in 1978, I started studying the life of Abraham. It was a major turning point in my life to understand and appreciate the life of our great forefather. As I’m sure many believers do, I felt a strong connection to Abraham on many levels. For one, and most importantly, he is the father of faith. All who come to Jesus are reaping benefits of the covenant God made with Abraham to bless all the families of the earth through him.
I also related to Abraham as an Arab and thereby a descendant of his natural son Ishmael. People may dispute whether today’s Arabs are actually descendants of Ishmael and there may be no way to really prove it. Since the Apostle Paul warns against obsessions with endless genealogies, I don’t think it really matters. But there is so much in the story of Ishmael that answered so many questions and healed so many hurts in my life. I understood Ishmael’s jealousy of Isaac. I felt so deeply the sense of rejection he must have known as well as the sense of helplessness to ever overcome it.
As a young believer, I noticed that there were several “trees” that Abraham came to in his lifetime. I started studying those trees when I was 17 years old but stopped when I was 18 years old.
It wasn’t until I was in my 7th story apartment in Khan Younis, some 25 years later that I completed this study. I learned something that maybe I should share: when you get an idea to do something for God, just do it! If you don’t it just stays inside of you waiting to get out.
“The Trees of Abraham,” was inside of me for a long time. “The Trees of Abraham” is about the spiritual journey that we embark on when we come to know Christ as our Savior. We can never go back to those early days of our faith, that’s true. But there are aspects of those early days that can be retrieved as Jesus commanded the church of Ephesus to “remember from where you have fallen to repent and do the first works.”
Like many American evangelical believers of my generation, I was saved in the lagging days of the Jesus People movement. I soared to the heavens in my spirit when I was born again. I had great expectations for myself and those around me but I was soon confronted with the reality of our weaknesses and failures.
Knowing our weaknesses and failures doesn’t mean we have to continue failing, but I did. In Khan Younis, I also realized how “American,” I am. We Americans are a very rich, self-sufficient and creative people. But we are also very lonely. We walk on unstable ground that threatens, at any moment, to collapse beneath our feet and plunge us into darkness. We are so intelligent and guarded. We are also wounded by the incessant demands our commercial culture lays upon us. We’re never good enough. If we are, then good enough is not good enough. We’re never natural enough. We’re never beautiful enough. We’re never rich enough or strong enough. We’re always striving for something else and never satisfied.
It’s amazing to me that so few believers, including myself, continue to grow in the Lord. Where did we go wrong? What mistakes did we make that would stop the flow of the Spirit in our lives?
As an old song by Terry Talbot said, “Your living river died in dryness when the Spirit was quenched and grieved.”
I think a part of my recovery is to go back and finish some of the things that God had me start in those early days. Each time I finish one of those projects, I feel like I did something that I needed to do, maybe long ago. Can we go back and make things right or are we doomed to endless backsliding? The life of Abraham and the trees he encountered along his journey, give us hope and maybe a sense of direction. The life of the prophet probes grace, election, salvation, redemption and judgment. It teaches us that there is a higher plan that we are part of though our part in it, we don’t fully understand.
Ours is to yield. His is to lead. His yoke is easy and His burden is light." Steve Mashni
Truth and Love in Religions
This book is intended to be used as a textbook in a classroom setting. However, it may also be used by individuals to compare Christianity with other major religions.