Good Morning!
When you get lost while driving, do you stop to ask for directions? Imagine being on the plains of New Mexico. It's flat and dry with sand dunes all around you. Today it is called the Llana Estacada, which means Staked Plains. While there I was told that years ago people would wander in this region trying to find water. They would travel for days looking for water. But, there is no water on this plateau. They would place a stake in places they were traveling and later find the same stake realizing they were going in circles. Many people died of thirst during their search for water. I have been on that plateau. In fact, my family and I led two evangelistic meetings at the First Baptist Church of Lovington, New Mexico which sits on the Llana Estacada. With nothing but sand and tumbleweed blowing it is easy to see why the early settlers got lost. Later they would find that a few feet below the surface lies the largest water reserve in the country.
I have been to Israel several times. I love landing at the airport in Tel Aviv and renting a car to have the freedom to go wherever I desire. Most of the land south of Tel Aviv is barren. It is a hot plain with rock and sand covering the landscape all the way to the southern border and the Red Sea. It was in this part of Israel where Abraham received the call by God to go where God led him. In many ways, it looks like the Llana Estacada. You could easily get lost. It was the place that God told Abraham that He would lead him and he had no reason to be concerned. Just go. Follow God. So, he followed God's leadership which took him out of Israel for hundreds of miles to a new land. God led him to a specific place and a specific family. Abraham had no idea where he was going, but, he trusted God totally. As a result of Abraham's Faith in God, he didn't need to ask for directions from anyone along the way. He was not lost. He was in great hands following God's leadership.
In the New Testament, the Faith of Abraham is mentioned multiple times. Read what Galatians says in 3:6-9:
"Just as Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him for righteousness,
so understand that those who have Faith are Abraham's sons.
Now the Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by Faith
and foretold the good news to Abraham, saying,
'All the nations will be blessed in you.'
So those who have Faith are blessed with Abraham, who had Faith."
We are Gentiles. We are blessed to have access to be a part of God's family because we exhibit the same Faith of Abraham for our salvation. We trust God. We have Faith that God will lead us to go where He desires us to go. The good news for us...Gentiles...coming to Jesus by Faith was foretold by God thousands of years ago. We are a part of God's great plan. It is by our Faith that God has "justified" us. In other words, God makes us clean from our sin "just as if we had never sinned at all!!!" Isn't that Great?
God told Abraham that "He will bless all nations" in him. You know the story. The nations who bless Abraham's seed...Israel...will be blessed by God. It has always been a concern for me to see America as a nation that blesses Israel. For some reason, I believe that America is that great eagle in Revelation 12 that assists Israel to safety when Messiah destroys the combined nations who become enemies to Israel and come against them in the final battle. I absolutely do not see any other nation being a friend to the seed of Abraham. Every neighbor surrounding them desires for them to be destroyed. But...not our nation. And, not the children of God. Not the Gentiles who have become a part of Abraham.
I thank God for the Faith of Abraham. I thank Him for allowing me...a Gentile...to be grafted into His family. I thank God for leading Abraham through the sand and rock and hot weather of the Middle East to a place where Abraham would begin his journey of a family that was chosen by God. I thank God that Abraham trusted God for his journey without asking anyone he met along the way for directions. God was in control then and He is in control today.
Your choice should be like Abraham's choice. HAVE FAITH IN GOD!
May God Bless You!
Don Betts
DBEA/campus320
DBEAWINNING.COM
TO GOD BE ALL GLORY!