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The Lord had said to Abram, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you.  “I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.  I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”   Genesis 12:1-3

i love how the bible has suddenly – or just introduces us to people in the middle of their stories.  we dont know anything really about abram before this.  all of a sudden we meet a man called by God to do something dramatic, to move himself and his family to a strange far away land that God has promised to him and a promise of blessing.

i love the I WILLS in the bible: I WILL show you.  I WILL make your name great.  I WILL bless you.  these are God’s promises.  I WILL DO THIS.

because God can never lie and because He is the promise keeper we can be assured and confident that God will act in accordance with what He says.  even if we don’t know how or cant see how it will work out, we can be assured and confident that HE does.  His I WILLS are secure and trustworthy.  and you can live your life on them. 

what a huge move – to shift your family and household to another land.  in those days there were no moving companies.  supermarkets on the way.  GPS.  air-conditioned cars.  you went with your belongings, that what you and a camel could carry, and you walked to the new location and you found food on the way.  you went out into the dust and the heat and the rain and the wind and the whatever.  you slept in the dark in tents.  you every day got up and walked and rode, battling the natural elements.  a real exercise of faith!  

i wonder if people, neighbours, friends, workmates, family tried to dissuade abram from his course of action?  i wonder if people asked him, “did God really say?” i wonder what faith obstacles abram had to cross?

The story of the man who came to be known as Abraham leaving behind the security of everything he knew, to follow a calling… is a powerful lesson in trust.

He was going… but not knowing. In other words there was a major element of potential uncertainty here.

Abraham thought he had heard a voice saying this way… but he never quite got given all the details. Seems a big move, right… up stakes, grab the family and head out?

A faith move… does that sound quaint and old fashioned, a touch naïve? Well, not too different to the journeys of faith we take… every day of our lives.

Rob Harley

what would our response to such a call be?

So Abram left, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Haran.He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated and the people they had acquired in Haran, and they set out for the land of Canaan, and they arrived there.  Abram travelled through the land as far as the site of the great tree of Moreh at Shechem. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. The Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built an altar there to the Lord, who had appeared to him.  Genesis 12:4-7

when Abram arrived at the land, God spoke again and said “this is the land.”

the first thing abram does is build an altar.  he builds a place of worship.  he establishes priority.

the first thing of his that is built in this promised land is an altar of worship and consecration.

i love this.  it resonates in my heart.

let my first priority be worship and honour to God.

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