Many of our memories center around  “adventures”  that our family has been on, when we stepped out of our normal routine, and often out of our “comfort zone,” and ventured into the unknown to do something we had never done or went places we had never gone. We made numerous camping treks into our nearby Cabinet Mountain Wilderness to explore and spend time at mountain lakes.  On one occasion we hiked up over the top of the Cabinets from our home on the East side, to the road on the West side leading to the church where I pastored. It took us 12 hours. On another occasion our family took a three-day, twenty-five-mile loop hike in the Cabinets.  We also used some settlement money from a car accident to take our family (plus Kathy’s sister) to camp in Europe for six weeks, visiting 13 countries as well as a couple missionary families along the way. 

     When we travel by car, Kathy normally drives (because she gets motion sickness very easily as a passenger), so we always have a book with us which I read out loud as we travel.  Currently we are reading “Undaunted Courage” (by Stephen Ambrose), an adventure story presenting the account of one of the most momentous journeys in American history as Ambrose follows the Lewis and Clark Expedition to find a waterway to the Pacific Ocean per the request and aspirations of President Thomas Jefferson. Talk about venturing into the unknown!  But they did so with much excitement and anticipation, though they often faced very challenging, life-threatening situations. 

     Most of us find it exciting to go where we’ve never gone before. Well, in Genesis 12, God told Abram: “Go forth from your  country, and from your relatives and from your father’s house to the land which I will show you; and I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing…And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. And Abram went forth as the Lord had spoken to him” (vv. 1-4).  In this account we read how God began a new relationship with humanity. God had flooded the earth and, because of the wickedness of mankind, had destroyed all humanity except Noah and his family and now set in motion His plan of redemption for all mankind through the nation He would establish through Abram, for through his descendants would come the nation of Israel, the Holy Scriptures and the Messiah, the promised “seed of the woman” (Gen. 3:15).  God chose Abram and took him on an unexpected, and very adventurous journey that would demonstrate to the world that He is God and loves us and “desires all men to be saved” (I Tim. 2:4). 

     God commanded Abram to leave his home and his family and friends. Leaving the known and entering the unknown must have been terrifying. Keep in mind, Abram had no “smartphone” or GPS to help him navigate. He couldn’t Google the best travel route to stay out of danger on the trip. All he had (and all he needed!) was a promise from the Lord God Almighty.  Abram was not venturing into the unknown to fulfill his craving to explore. Instead he was obeying what the Lord commanded him to do. And, God promised that not only would Abram and his family be blessed, but the entire world would be blessed through him–through his obedience. The promise God made to Abram was not just to him and his family, but to everyone, including you and me. 

    Obeying God’s directives in Scripture, such as going into all the world to preach the gospel (which includes your neighbor next door or the people you work with), or forgiving others as Christ has forgiven us, may involve venturing into new territory, but we can be assured that we will be blessed for it and so will the people around us.  What “adventure” might God be calling you to take where you can trust God to provide everything you need to accomplish it? When you obey, you won’t be the only one blessed. Your obedience may affect many others.

     I think of the ultimate example. God the Son left His Father and His heavenly home and glory and took on “the form of a bond-servant and was made in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance of a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Phil. 2:7,8).  Jesus Christ, the Creator of all things (Jn. 1:1-3; Col. 1:16,17), took on a human body so He could fulfill the eternal plan to redeem mankind through His suffering and death, and because of His complete obedience, salvation was made available to all and eternal life to all who would, by faith, respond and trust in His death and resurrection to pay for their sin (Tit. 2:11; Jn. 3:16).  Because of His obedience multitudes have been, are being, and will be blessed.  Because of Adam’s disobedience, each of us was born a sinner, separated from fellowship with God, but because of Christ’s obedience we can be restored to fellowship when we accept His work on our behalf. “For as through the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous” (Ro. 5:19). 

     So, have you been blessed by the obedience of God the Son?  If you have received Him, you have been “blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ” (Eph.. 1:3).  By our natural birth we are “dead in trespasses and sins…but God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places, in Christ Jesus, in order that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:1, 4-7). 

     During this Christmas season, we become involved in gift-giving and receiving because “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life” (Jn. 3:16).  Have you received God’s gift to you–Jesus Christ?  He is the “gift that keeps on giving.” You will be so blessed because He was “obedient unto death, even death on a cross.”   And, oh by the way, you will be entering an exciting adventure beyond your greatest imaginations for “He is able to do exceeding abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us” (Eph. 3:20). 

Forever His,

Pastor Dave