Christian Message Boards: The Calling of Abraham

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Posted by David (Member # 1) on :

The Calling of Abraham

Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out . . . Genesis 12:1

“. . . and he went out, not knowing whither he went.” This is true of a fool or of a faithful soul. One of the hardest lessons to learn is the one brought out by Abraham’s obedience to the call of God. He went “out” of all his own ways of looking at things and became a fool in the eyes of the world. In the beginning faith is always uncertain, because every broad view is at first an uncertain view of particulars. We hear the call of God while we listen to a sermon, or during a time of prayer, and we say—“Yes, I will give myself to God unreservedly.” Then something happens in our immediate circumstances which does not seem to fit into the vision we have had, and the danger is that we compromise and say we must have been mistaken in the vision. We have to stand true to the fact of God’s call and smilingly wash our hands of the consequences. We have nothing to do with the afterwards of obedience. It is easy to want to be always on the mount, but when we come down to the devil-possessed valley we get annoyed or exhausted, we cannot go on with God there. We have perfect faith in God as long as He keeps us on the mount, but not the slightest atom of faith when He takes us into the valley. We have to be careful that the things which are really impertinent actualities do not find us either ignoring them or abandoning our faith in God. We have to go through the trial of our faith in these particulars, because it is the trial of our faith that makes us wealthy towards God.

“And from thy kindred . . .” Personal acquaintance with God shows itself in separation, symbolised by Abraham’s physical separation from his country and his kindred. Nowadays it means much more a moral separation from the way those nearest and dearest to us think and look at things, if, that is, they have not a personal relationship with God. Jesus emphasised this (see Luke 14:26). Arguers against obeying the call of God will arise in the shape of country and kindred, and if you listen to them you will soon dull your ears to God’s call and become the dullest, most commonplace Christian imaginable, because you have no courage in your faith; you have seen and heard, but have not gone on. If you accept sympathy from those who have not heard the call of God, it will so blunt your own sense of His call that you become useless to Him. Every saint must stand out absolutely alone. Beware lest the sympathy of others competes with God for the throne of your life. Don’t look for a comrade other than God when God speaks to you; through you will come His purpose.

Chambers, Oswald, Not Knowing Whither, (United Kingdom: Marshall Morgan & Scott) c1934.

From The Complete Works of Oswald Chambers

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Main point to me: We were created for His purpose, not He for ours. We have one purpose in this life and that is to bring glory to God, if we are not doing so we have no purpose.

David

Posted by TEXASGRANDMA (Member # 847) on :

David,
very good! It is so easy to become self absorbed.
After all, we live in our bodies. We are the ones that feel the hunger, the tiredness of our bodies.
It is so easy to become all about "me". If we are not careful even our faith can become about me. Instead of our question being: "What does God want to do through me today?" it can become: "What can God do for me, today?" I think our generation faces more tempations today in this area in the past. In the past we did not have preachers on TV talking about how living for God will give you all the desires of your heart and books talking about how rich you can get living for Jesus. Our focus can indeed become self only.
Thanks for reminding us that we need to be about Jesus and not about us.
Happy Easter.
betty

Posted by Eden (Member # 5728) on :

Hi, David. Regarding the call of Abram, and “how by faith Abram and Sarai departed, not knowing where they were going”, as compared to new Christians who accepted Christ in church through a sermon that stirred their hearts, there IS a big difference between those two kinds of "answering the call of God" because the LORD Himself appeared to Abram:

Genesis 12
1 Now the LORD had said to Abram, Get out of your country, and away from your kinfolk, and from your father's house, to a land that I will show you.

And once Abram and Sarai were in the land of Canaan at Shechem, the LORD APPEARED to Abram:

Genesis 12:7
And the LORD appeared to Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there builded he an altar unto the LORD, who appeared unto him.

Naturally, such an actual appearance of the LORD must have been SO POWERFUL for Abram to see that it was fairly easy for Abram to answer THAT call.

By comparison, a new Christian does become genuinely saved through a stirring sermon in church, there is a considerable difference between what ABRAM saw to stir his faith into action compared to what the new Christians experienced in church by way of a sermon.

Both instances are of course God speaking to us humans, but there is a difference in VOLUME and INTENSITY of what Abram got to see versus what a new Christian sees in a sermon.

With love,
Eden

Posted by IAAFOTL (Member # 6414) on :

Amen, that is a good and thought provoking message, thanks for sharing it!