Weekend Words

 From A Year's Journey with God...

Journey into the Unknown

"By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going." - Hebrews 11:8

When I set out on a journey I like to have every detail organised, so I feel sorry for Abraham.  There he was, living in a luxurious house in a beautiful city, with a loving wife and successful business.  At seventy-five he was looking forward to a peaceful old age when God told him to sell up and set off on a journey - but neglected to give him a destination!  If he had been like me he would have said, "I'm not leaving here until you tell me where you want me to go and what you want me to do."  The Bible does not tell us if Abraham argued, only that he obeyed, but it does make it clear that he found the next twenty years very difficult until God made His plans a little more clear.

Sometimes our faith journey takes us along a smooth, level path; we are jogging along happily when suddenly a wide chasm opens up right in front of us.  God seems to be expecting us to take a 'leap of faith' even though we can't see the path continuing on the far side of the terrifying gap.  God presented Abraham with this 'faith leap' because faith is God's priority for us all (Hebrews 11:6).  God knows that it grows best when we have to launch ourselves off into the unknown without having a clue where we are going to land!

Lord, you are propelling me out of my safe routines, familiar structures and safe networks, and all I know for sure is that you are there to catch me if I fall. (Deuteronomy 33:27)

From Beside the Still Waters...

Horizons - Read: Job 23

"For I am the Lord, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed." - Malachi 3:6

Years ago some other boys and I were outdoors playing when we found a barrel with both ends cut out.  I curled up inside and my friends rolled me down the hill.  I got out and lay on the solid ground, but everything tilted and turned.  The horizon seemed very unstable.

Later in Sunday school, the teacher held up a device and said it was an artificial horizon.  He said that instrument-rated pilots are taught to always go by what the instruments show.  Sometimes their feelings tell them a certain direction is down, but if the artificial horizon does not agree, they must go by the instrument.  Otherwise they may go into a "graveyard spiral."  The teacher said faith is like that; sometimes our feelings tell us one thing and the Bible says something else.  Then we must go by what God says, or we may suffer a spiritual "graveyard spiral."  I never forgot that lesson.

Through the years, I have been glad for God's stable spiritual horizons.  God has clearly promised that He will never leave us.  But difficult times come even to Christians.  I remember a time when I felt like Job, who said in today's Bible reading, "Behold, I go forward, but he is not there; and backward, but I cannot perceive him."  That's a bad feeling.  At such a time we need to go by God's instruments.  Then we can say as Job did, "But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold."  It is amazing that Job spoke those words of confidence immediately after his words of perplexity.

Today God's horizons are fixed, whether they seem to swirl or stand still, because God does not change.  His truth endures forever.

Kelvin Mast - Pedernales, Mexico

On Christ the solid rock I stand; all other ground is sinking sand. - Edward Mote