From the heart of the
pastor:
“By faith
Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to
a place which he was to receive for an inheritance;
and he went out, not knowing where he was going” (Heb.
11:8).
Have you known (by
faith) the Lord’s call upon your life and yet
refused (or hesitated) to respond? One day Jesus
told a man to follow Him, but the man responded
saying, “Permit me first to go and bury my father” (Lk.
9:59). Has Jesus called you and yet you answer Him
with an excuse rather than answering with faithful
obedience?
Selective obedience is
merely a disguised mutinous rebellion and insures
against further communion with God and revelation
from God. God says of Noah, “Noah was a righteous
man, blameless in his time; Noah walked with God.
Thus Noah did; according to all that God had
commanded him” (Gen. 6:9, 22). God says of Caleb,
“My servant Caleb, because he has had a different
spirit, and has followed me fully, I will
bring into the land which he entered, and his
descendants shall take possession of it” (Nu.
14:24).
Faith journeys upon the
stallion of complete obedience. Fully following God
thunders against a laissez faire free-falling
enlightened society.
Abraham had to leave
where he was in order to exercise complete obedient
faith. He had to absent himself from his family,
associates, nation, habits, environs, comforts and
gods. He did not know how long he would be gone (he
never returned) or where he would go, nonetheless he
went. Lengthy geographical and functional distance
from your ordinary life allows the strengthening of
your faith by abusing your addiction to your
customs. Distance affords God the occasions to
reveal Himself to you and to reveal the true you to
you.
God calls you from where
you are to enrich and refine your inheritance.
Nevertheless, your final inheritance shall be
affected by your participation in the call God
places upon your life. The only definition Abraham
had concerning his final destination was God’s
mysterious direction that he was to go “to the land
that I will show you” (Gen. 12:1). God’s will for
you is always more precious than anything He calls
you to leave behind.
Lot trusted the passing
beauty of Sodom; whereas, Abraham moved to the less
attractive Canaan. Jesus entered Jerusalem on a
donkey; whereas, the people were expecting a gallant
Messiah commandingly entering the city with a mighty
entourage in tow. Satan entered Eve’s life cloaked
in apparent beauty and wisdom; whereas, God appeared
to her a miser.
Abraham did not have the
magi’s star of Bethlehem, but he did have God’s
word. All you have is God’s call upon your heart.
Is His call upon your life enough or are you
continuing to ask for more?
Peter said, “Lord, to
whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life” (Jn.
6:68).
