Hebrews 11:8 - "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."
Camp is a lot like life. It's important to know where you're going. And when you're serving at a Special Needs Camp, it's also important to know where others are going, especially if you're sure you're being helpful by telling them they're going the wrong way. (Did you follow that?)
Let's try it this way. If you're going to give directions to anyone, yourself included, you'd best know the destination!
Yesterday, all eighteen of us (counselors and campers in Group 5) were headed to the dining hall for lunch. I'm usually the sheep dog in the rear, not the shepherd in the front, but this time I was in front. I turned around to see a group of three guys going the wrong way and then a group of four women doing the same. I repeatedly told them they were taking a very, unnecessarily long route to the dining hall and they needed to change course. (After all, Special Campers don't have special reserves of energy to spare!) Of course, when the guys told me they were going for their meds from the nurse and the girls told me they were going to the ladies room, I was embarrassed, and apologized to them that their route made perfect sense.
It all comes down to this: the one giving directions better know the destination.
And that's the thing in today's Bible verse from Hebrews 11:8, namely, God alone is the best one to be giving directions to all of us who want our present and final destination to be the Lord and the abundant Life that He alone has to dish out, now and forever. That's why Abraham, (who by the way was an extremely wise, wealthy, business-smart, family man), "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."
Did you get that? Abraham was more than capable of having strong family ties and running a business and getting rich, but all those personal and material treasures meant nothing to him without the only ultimate and final destination that every soul longs for, namely, fellowship now and forever with the one and only living God, who has shown us his face in and indwells us through Jesus Christ by his Holy Spirit.
Abraham could've given himself direction and been his own lord, but he knew that "Destination God" requires God's direction and Lordship. Abraham wanted a Spirit-filled and Spirit-led life, not an Abraham-filled and Abraham-led life, which, by the way, God's word describes as empty (not filled) and leading only in one direction (and I'm here to tell ya, it ain't life!!!)
So, where are you going, not just today, but in life, and not just in life (little "l"), but in Life (big "L")? And who's giving you direction?
Like me with a bunch of Special Campers, let's be careful about presuming to know more than we do.
God alone can lead us where we need and, actually in our heart of hearts, want to go!
Have you surrendered your life to the Spirit-filled and Spirit-led direction of God's Word in Jesus? Today's the day to think about it. Ask God in prayer, then listen for him!!! And God will give you today, like Abraham in olden days, the direction that leads to Life!!!
Praise God!!!
Pastor Chris
"The gospel is the story of Jesus [what God's only Son has done for us that we can't do for ourselves], spoken as a promise." - Robert Jenson
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