Getting to Know You.

Supper was without a doubt interesting as James brought a good ol
fashioned Poulet BBQ already seasoned and cooked.
We just had to warm it up
and make a few boiled potatoes and carrots to go with a nice Chardonnay.

It was nice to have someone to chat with on the cabin veranda.

So do you have any brothers and sisters? he inquired.

Yes. I have a brother in Calgary. He's a High School Science Teacher
and I have a Sister in some kind of Law Clerk business.
I'm the black sheep that ran away from it all.
My Dad runs a Sporting Goods Store and he seems to like it.
Mom helps him.
 You?

My brother is a vet and my parents run a small ranch.
They love horses and do the Equestrian horse show thing.
We have some nice Hanoverian jumpers and we breed and sell horses too.
They also keep a few cows. 


Seems almost a shame when they kill so many horses just for being wild.
That's where I got Beau.

Oh ya?

Ya. He ran free in the wild and one day we just made friends but he is his own man.
Quirky. This is how we got into summer entertainment.
He would never listen and do his own thing so I used it for us to make a few bucks.
The people love coming to see him and he got some what spoiled by all the attention.

Do you know what breed he is?

No, I don't. Probably a Heinz 57 .

He's got a nice Arabian face though. 

He stands 6.1  hands so he's not Arabian.
His back is not long so he's not a carriage horse and his hooves are
not very wide.. more for prairie running
and .....he has the temperament of a Mustang.
Likes to smile a lot.
But there is no horse I would trust more than my Beau.
He's got my heart, hook, line and sinker.

So I can't compete there . James joked.

No Siree Bob.No one stands even close to my Beau.
I teased.
The Chardonnay went down smooth as satin.
and it felt good just to sit there.I had to stop a yawn
creeping up on me.My eyes began to close.

I guess I better make up a bed for you before I get too sloshed.
Where did you sleep last time you were here?

Oh, I used the couch and Luke used the spare bedroom.

Ok so you can sleep there then.
I better turn in  since I have an early rise tomorrow.

I got out some warm blankets and gave them to him.

Just in case.

Al right. You don't mind if I sit a bit?

No, go ahead.

You know, you are the easiest person to get along with.

Am I?  You haven't seen me when I'm cross yet. I laughed.

No... I don't think you can ever get cross. 
You just don't suit it.
I mean, I could be a serial killer and here you are, as nice as could be.

I think you are used to people being cross with you.
Besides, you don't know if I am a serial killer either.

I guess I'm not around too many people either. I am just like you.
I like to keep to myself and do my own thing.
So if anyone is cross with me, I don't know anything about it.

So, you are not a serial killer, right?

If I told ya, I'd have to kill ya. He joked.

Okee Dokey then. I won't tell you either.
G'night.

Good Night Eleanor.

Well this ended on a good note I thought.
I made sure to lock my door.

Before falling asleep I heard the door knob turn,
then a chuckle as he walked away.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I woke up early dawn just in time for a happy James walking in with
4 sparkling bass hanging from a wire.

Woah! What have you been doing all night?
 Fishing?

Aren't they great? Perfect breakfast. he exclaimed.
I came to try to wake you but seems you were deep asleep.
 I found your Bible here and it was either  reading that or go fishing
so I went fishing.
 Is this how you pass your time at night?

 I like to read up and sorta make sense of things. Like for example,
if most religions date  back to Abraham, then this is where we have to go
to find the discrepancies.

For instance the Jews and Christians follow Abraham through his wife Sarah and son Isaac.
The Muslims follow Abraham through a slave woman Haggar, who had  an older son, Ishmael, from Abraham.
Sarah sent Haggar and Ishmael away saying they will not get her son Isaacs' inheritance.
 Ishmael made fun of her little son.

Haggar had to walk in the desert searching for water and she is the one who the Muslims commemorate in their pilgrimages to Mecca,  along with Ishmael, creating the possible source of the Lord's prophecy 
“He will be a wild donkey of a man; his hand will be against everyone and everyone's hand against him, and he will live in hostility toward all his brothers” (Gen. 16:12).) 

Ishmael did grow to be strong, wild and free and because of what happened tp him, didn't get along with anyone, even his own kin. He  fought every one and it is unfortunately through him, that Muhammad  founded the Islamic religion, construed to be  pagan.
Muhammad made Jesus equal to him as a prophet, instead of agreeing Jesus was the son of God.
Muhammad thought himself to be greater than Jesus and created more rivalry and division between people, instead of the unity and love Jesus tried to teach.

Neither the Jews nor the Christians would follow his preaching so he tried to kill the Jesus message making Christians second class citizens, dispossessing the Jews, sanctifying fighting , vengeance and promoting a Holy War.

The Jews , Christians and Muslims will never unite because of Jesus, who Muhammad denies
as a deity . The incarnation, atonement, the crucifixion and the question of God as a triad, Father, Son and Spirit, will never be accepted by Islam even though they proclaim to be attached to Abraham.

And so we have the story  today with so much killing through out the Middle East and Africa.
This probably is why people there are not allowed to use his name or talk about him because they fear the truth coming out. Anyway , any one can become a prophet if he has enough people to believe in him but it does not mean he speaks for God.
God is one and will always represent love and loving someone, means not to cause pain and suffering but to work united for the better good.
Most of the world tries to do good. We send missionaries to Africa to teach the kids so they can grow and make a better country for themselves and then these guys come in and kill every one.

 http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/112053/jewish/Hagar.htm

Isn't that interesting. I never knew that....About Abraham that is.

The fish were sizzling on the frying pan. 

 I don't read the Bible much.
Don't go to church either but sitting out in the wild
I know that there is something ..... a lot more than we know or give credit
to. 
It can't all be just that simple as Darwin and evolution.

 We call God a creator and what is evolution anyway if not a creation?
We play with words, talking about the same things.

Look at what science is trying to do today with cloning for example
and when they try to create better plant specimens and animals to grow
with more or less meat and fat.
They create and new things evolve out of what they do. 
Without creation, there can't be evolution.

You make some good points. 
For sure evolution is some kind of creation.
It's a change. That's for sure.
It's not a total new beginning.

Anyway. People today don't care but they should.
I don't think we are alone out here. 
I don't think we are ready to play God yet either.
So many things that we do working in the dark, might
have dire end results.
Going beyond perfection...where does it end up?

James looked at me and our eyes met . 
It was like looking into the deep black chasms of our souls,
where all is hidden.
xoxoxoxoxox

No one can underestimate the importance of Abraham to the three great monotheistic faiths of the world, but unlike Jews and Christians, Muslims claim their identity with Abraham through Hagar and Ishmael rather than through Sarah and Isaac. Muhammad sought to give legitimacy to Islam by identifying with Abraham and his other son, Ishmael. And this is the root of the alienation that exists between Christians and Muslims, both of whom claim to be the heirs of Abraham. (Hagar is not mentioned by name in the Quran. But the Hadith, that is, the Traditions, correctly name her as the mother of Ishmael. In the pilgrim rites at Mecca, all Muslims re-enact Hagar's desperate search for water as they run between the hills of Safa and Marwa. The search is climaxed as they reach the well of Zamzam where they drink in memory of God's mercy to Hagar.)  Ishmael is mentioned several times in the Quran and is powerfully memorialized in the rites connected with the annual pilgrimage to Mecca. Taking a few steps back into the Bible and the story of Abraham, Isaac, Sara and Ishmael we know that Ishmael was the first-born.  Its too long a story to go into, but the crux of the story was when Sara got pregnant Ishmael made fun of his little half-brother. That was too much for Sarah. She made an irrevocable decision: ". . . Get rid of that slave woman and her son, for that slave woman's son will never share in the inheritance with my son Isaac"  Hagar and Ishmael were provisioned and dismissed from service. Who can gage the depth of bitterness and resentment that must have filled the hearts of Hagar and Ishmael?  The source of the Lord's prophetic utterance (“He will be a wild donkey of a man; his hand will be against everyone and everyone's hand against him, and he will live in hostility toward all his brothers” (Gen. 16:12).) concerning the behavior of Ishmael is rooted in these events. Is there any linkage between the characteristics of Ishmael and that of Islam, which has embraced him as one of their patriarchs? As strange as it may seem, there may be. History seems to bear this out.  Hostility can either focus either inwardly, causing psychosomatically induced illnesses or suicidal tendencies, or it will project itself outward on some designated hate object. It can be triggered to commit acts of violence, either against a person (homicide) or against a people (genocide or war). Ishmael's hostility and propensity to violence were rooted in the sin of his own scoffing and jealous attitude towards his brother Isaac. Muslims today are those in whom this vicious cycle has not been broken. They have voluntarily chosen to identify with Ishmael and have, consciously or unconsciously, embraced the spirit of that ancient and bitter rivalry. The present-day animosity of Islam towards Jews and Christians, in this author's opinion, can be traced to the Islamic embrace of the spirit of Ishmael.  Ishmael was to be strong, wild and free; and we might add, he also would be difficult, holding his brothers in contempt, despising town life, loving his freedom to the point of not being able to get along with his own kin or anyone else. As one commentary puts it: "The Ishmaelites live in an incessant state of feud . . . with one another or with their neighbours.   Unfortunately, from Ishmael's line sprung a man, Muhammad (570-632), who initially founded Islam as a religion for the Arab people. Later he tried to universalize it and impose it on all mankind. In Islam, Jesus is reduced to a mere prophet; and by making himself equal to Jesus and ultimately superior to Him, Muhammad perpetuated the spirit of rivalry, not reconciliation. The roots of this present-day alienation go back to the tragedy of events that led to the breakup of Abraham's family. Islam became the venue for the aggrieved and alienated members of this family to redress the shame of that early expulsion from the tents of Abraham. Even more than that, Islam is committed to the attempt to dominate the world.    Muhammad was a true descendant of Ishmael. While trying desperately to tie into the genealogical tree of Biblical prophets, he fiercely maintained his independence as an "Arab prophet" with an "Arabic Qu’ran. He stoutly maintained that he was neither of the Jews nor the Christians but of the "Religion of Abraham". In taking this position, Muhammad, attempting to establish his own identity as a legitimate prophet, borrowed from the traditions of each, as well as separated himself from both. The final voice of God to the human race. At first, Muhammad attempted to woo both Jews and Christians. When he was unsuccessful, as neither would subscribe to the idea of a pagan God, he not only turned away from them, but in the case of the Jews, after dispossessing two of the tribes, he banished them, and massacred all the men of a third tribe and made slaves of the women and children. In the case of the Christians, he also reduced them to second-class citizens (Dhimmis) and attempted to destroy the very heart of the Christian message. Having made himself odious to both Jews and Christians, Muhammad then took the step of enshrining violence forever among his followers by sanctifying vengeance (Q. 42:39) and fighting (Q. 2:216; 4:74; 9:5; 61:4). (There are more than fifty separate references in the Quran on the duties and conditions of Holy War). In some mysterious way, it appears that the characteristics of Ishmael, as described in Genesis 16:12, have survived to this day in the lives of those who have so closely identified with him through the life of Muhammad and his teachings in the religion of Islam. As much as we would like to see Judaism, Christianity and Islam as branches of one big happy "family of Abraham," it cannot be. The stumbling block is Jesus Christ, the "seed of Abraham." The issue between Islam and Christianity has to do with the way Muslims have departed from the Scriptures and denigrated Christ. In fact, they have gone far beyond doctrinal differences; they have set up a rival religion that seeks to supplant Christianity.  Islam has taken an adamant stance against the very heart of the Gospel message, including denial of the deity of Christ, incarnation, atonement, the crucifixion and the question of God as Father, Son and Spirit.
	No one can underestimate the importance of Abraham to the three great monotheistic faiths of the world, but unlike Jews and Christians, Muslims claim their identity with Abraham through Hagar and Ishmael rather than through Sarah and Isaac. Muhammad sought to give legitimacy to Islam by identifying with Abraham and his other son, Ishmael. And this is the root of the alienation that exists between Christians and Muslims, both of whom claim to be the heirs of Abraham. (Hagar is not mentioned by name in the Quran. But the Hadith, that is, the Traditions, correctly name her as the mother of Ishmael. In the pilgrim rites at Mecca, all Muslims re-enact Hagar's desperate search for water as they run between the hills of Safa and Marwa. The search is climaxed as they reach the well of Zamzam where they drink in memory of God's mercy to Hagar.)  Ishmael is mentioned several times in the Quran and is powerfully memorialized in the rites connected with the annual pilgrimage to Mecca. Taking a few steps back into the Bible and the story of Abraham, Isaac, Sara and Ishmael we know that Ishmael was the first-born.  Its too long a story to go into, but the crux of the story was when Sara got pregnant Ishmael made fun of his little half-brother. That was too much for Sarah. She made an irrevocable decision: ". . . Get rid of that slave woman and her son, for that slave woman's son will never share in the inheritance with my son Isaac"  Hagar and Ishmael were provisioned and dismissed from service. Who can gage the depth of bitterness and resentment that must have filled the hearts of Hagar and Ishmael?  The source of the Lord's prophetic utterance (“He will be a wild donkey of a man; his hand will be against everyone and everyone's hand against him, and he will live in hostility toward all his brothers” (Gen. 16:12).) concerning the behavior of Ishmael is rooted in these events. Is there any linkage between the characteristics of Ishmael and that of Islam, which has embraced him as one of their patriarchs? As strange as it may seem, there may be. History seems to bear this out.  Hostility can either focus either inwardly, causing psychosomatically induced illnesses or suicidal tendencies, or it will project itself outward on some designated hate object. It can be triggered to commit acts of violence, either against a person (homicide) or against a people (genocide or war). Ishmael's hostility and propensity to violence were rooted in the sin of his own scoffing and jealous attitude towards his brother Isaac. Muslims today are those in whom this vicious cycle has not been broken. They have voluntarily chosen to identify with Ishmael and have, consciously or unconsciously, embraced the spirit of that ancient and bitter rivalry. The present-day animosity of Islam towards Jews and Christians, in this author's opinion, can be traced to the Islamic embrace of the spirit of Ishmael.  Ishmael was to be strong, wild and free; and we might add, he also would be difficult, holding his brothers in contempt, despising town life, loving his freedom to the point of not being able to get along with his own kin or anyone else. As one commentary puts it: "The Ishmaelites live in an incessant state of feud . . . with one another or with their neighbours.   Unfortunately, from Ishmael's line sprung a man, Muhammad (570-632), who initially founded Islam as a religion for the Arab people. Later he tried to universalize it and impose it on all mankind. In Islam, Jesus is reduced to a mere prophet; and by making himself equal to Jesus and ultimately superior to Him, Muhammad perpetuated the spirit of rivalry, not reconciliation. The roots of this present-day alienation go back to the tragedy of events that led to the breakup of Abraham's family. Islam became the venue for the aggrieved and alienated members of this family to redress the shame of that early expulsion from the tents of Abraham. Even more than that, Islam is committed to the attempt to dominate the world.    Muhammad was a true descendant of Ishmael. While trying desperately to tie into the genealogical tree of Biblical prophets, he fiercely maintained his independence as an "Arab prophet" with an "Arabic Qu’ran. He stoutly maintained that he was neither of the Jews nor the Christians but of the "Religion of Abraham". In taking this position, Muhammad, attempting to establish his own identity as a legitimate prophet, borrowed from the traditions of each, as well as separated himself from both. The final voice of God to the human race. At first, Muhammad attempted to woo both Jews and Christians. When he was unsuccessful, as neither would subscribe to the idea of a pagan God, he not only turned away from them, but in the case of the Jews, after dispossessing two of the tribes, he banished them, and massacred all the men of a third tribe and made slaves of the women and children. In the case of the Christians, he also reduced them to second-class citizens (Dhimmis) and attempted to destroy the very heart of the Christian message. Having made himself odious to both Jews and Christians, Muhammad then took the step of enshrining violence forever among his followers by sanctifying vengeance (Q. 42:39) and fighting (Q. 2:216; 4:74; 9:5; 61:4). (There are more than fifty separate references in the Quran on the duties and conditions of Holy War). In some mysterious way, it appears that the characteristics of Ishmael, as described in Genesis 16:12, have survived to this day in the lives of those who have so closely identified with him through the life of Muhammad and his teachings in the religion of Islam. As much as we would like to see Judaism, Christianity and Islam as branches of one big happy "family of Abraham," it cannot be. The stumbling block is Jesus Christ, the "seed of Abraham." The issue between Islam and Christianity has to do with the way Muslims have departed from the Scriptures and denigrated Christ. In fact, they have gone far beyond doctrinal differences; they have set up a rival religion that seeks to supplant Christianity.  Islam has taken an adamant stance against the very heart of the Gospel message, including denial of the deity of Christ, incarnation, atonement, the crucifixion and the question of God as Father, Son and Spirit.