Past and Future

In studying the life of Abraham this morning, God showed me something. Initially when God called Abram, He called him "out of" something. He called him to leave behind all that he knew; all that he was comfortable with. You could say that He called him to a "new life." That is exactly what God does when He calls us in salvation. He calls us out of an old life that might be comfortable and familiar, but it is broken and in pieces. He calls us out with a promise for the future that He will work in and through us. This is what it means to be born again with a new life. We leave the old behind through repentance of sin and trust in God...and it is good!

There is a stage two in our development with the Lord. You see God doesn't call us out to leave us on our own. Not only does He save us, but He also wants to form the character of Christ within us. It is part of His ultimate plan to re-establish His kingdom here on earth...to bring His blessings into our lives. It is a process of maturing in our faith. You see God gave Abraham another command later on. Abram, whose name was now Abraham, had seen the fulfillment of God's promises in his son Isaac...or so he thought. You see God had much bigger plans in mind. It was through Abraham's lineage that the Savior was going to come to restore all things. But this second command was for Abraham to sacrifice, to give up, that fulfilled promise by sacrificing Isaac on an altar. What would we have said? "But God you're supposed to be different than this?" "But God you gave him to me, he's mine!" Don't we often hang onto what God has given as if they were ours and not God's?

But here's the difference...the first command was for Abraham to surrender his broken past and came with a promise. This time the command came and Abraham had to trust God with his future without any new assurances. Have you been there yet Christian? It's easy in many ways for us to surrender our broken messed up lives to the Lord. It's easy to receive forgiveness and a new start. But have you made it to maturity point yet, where God asks something of you that makes no sense and you just need to obey and trust that God really is in control of your life? Where you cut the net away and truly take the leap of faith.

By way of testimony, God led me down that path and may do so again at some point. When my family and I left my position of youth pastor in Indiana years ago, we had such high hopes of what was coming. We were sure of the Lord's direction and confident in what we would see. What we found was me having to lay down everything on the altar, and God's silence. For two years we had to trust that God's promises were still at work in our lives. We had to trust while looking foolish to many people. Because of that faithfulness, towards the end of that time we received renewed promises from the Lord which we have not seen fully fulfilled...but my wife and I have such a deeper, more rich kind of faith than we've every had. Laying his son, his dream, down on that altar; raising the knife to strike in obedience...it must have been agonizing and profoundly transformational.

Churches are filled with "Stage One" Christians. Many leave when the "Stage Two" command is given and abort their destiny. Will you embrace it?