Going Back To The Beginning
Abram returned to the place where his tent had been at the beginning, and to the second alter that he had built. Genesis 13. 3 & 4
How about you, dear friend, do you ever want to return to a place in your past? Could you if you tried? Some people do; they come home after a career of traveling and excitement, carrying their past successes with them and retire in the same town where they grew up.
Abram returned to the place where he had been at the beginning. Beginning of what? Beginning of living with God in the land of promise. Native of Ur, resident of Haran he was, but Canaan was his home now. He had been forced to leave when famine struck, and, years later, he returns to the place where his tent was at the beginning and to the second altar he had built. There is no mention of Abram building altars in Egypt, or on his way through the Sinai peninsula, not even in the Negev. Of course the record can not state every detail of his life, so why then does the record mention this particular altar?
Abram always believed God, and he believed confidently, but does even a confident faith have times of fervent excitement and times of patient waiting? The journey to Egypt, the plot that failed in Egypt and the long journey back with his many possessions, had they been years when there was more patient confidence than joyful exhilaration? Now he is back to the place where he started from, back to where he was when the land was green, his wife trusted him, and the silent voice of God was louder than every other sound.
Is there a time in your faith journey when you heard the silent voice speak loud, when the preached voice spoke truth that cut through the sinews of your being and your soul sprang to life in the truth, when your response was fervent as well as faithful? Was there a time when you thrilled. like the strings of a plucked violin, with expectation, because you knew that God would be faithful to you, bless you and make you a blessing? Those times were a beginning for you, and you can return to them.
Not the place where it happened, not the person who preached when your soul leapt to life, but to the truths themselves. You can return. Places change, worship styles and pastors change, we can not find what used to be in what is now. But the truths themselves are still there and they will again illuminate you; liberate you and develop the spiritual person that you are. Sometimes it takes a journey to get back to the beginning. It is most likely that we shall have to make the journey alone, and even arrive alone; our churches are busy reaching a lost generation. But there is a way. You may find it through prayer and reflection, or in reading scripture and writing what it said to you, probably through the prayer books of the church and the faith confessions of past believers. Somewhere you will find again the foundations of the faith; the witnesses to God’s mercy will speak to you. You will find authenticity and be back where you were before too many duties and too great an effort dulled your faith and lulled your hopes.
How about you, dear friend, do you ever want to return to a place in your past? Could you if you tried? Some people do; they come home after a career of traveling and excitement, carrying their past successes with them and retire in the same town where they grew up.
Abram returned to the place where he had been at the beginning. Beginning of what? Beginning of living with God in the land of promise. Native of Ur, resident of Haran he was, but Canaan was his home now. He had been forced to leave when famine struck, and, years later, he returns to the place where his tent was at the beginning and to the second altar he had built. There is no mention of Abram building altars in Egypt, or on his way through the Sinai peninsula, not even in the Negev. Of course the record can not state every detail of his life, so why then does the record mention this particular altar?
Abram always believed God, and he believed confidently, but does even a confident faith have times of fervent excitement and times of patient waiting? The journey to Egypt, the plot that failed in Egypt and the long journey back with his many possessions, had they been years when there was more patient confidence than joyful exhilaration? Now he is back to the place where he started from, back to where he was when the land was green, his wife trusted him, and the silent voice of God was louder than every other sound.
Is there a time in your faith journey when you heard the silent voice speak loud, when the preached voice spoke truth that cut through the sinews of your being and your soul sprang to life in the truth, when your response was fervent as well as faithful? Was there a time when you thrilled. like the strings of a plucked violin, with expectation, because you knew that God would be faithful to you, bless you and make you a blessing? Those times were a beginning for you, and you can return to them.
Not the place where it happened, not the person who preached when your soul leapt to life, but to the truths themselves. You can return. Places change, worship styles and pastors change, we can not find what used to be in what is now. But the truths themselves are still there and they will again illuminate you; liberate you and develop the spiritual person that you are. Sometimes it takes a journey to get back to the beginning. It is most likely that we shall have to make the journey alone, and even arrive alone; our churches are busy reaching a lost generation. But there is a way. You may find it through prayer and reflection, or in reading scripture and writing what it said to you, probably through the prayer books of the church and the faith confessions of past believers. Somewhere you will find again the foundations of the faith; the witnesses to God’s mercy will speak to you. You will find authenticity and be back where you were before too many duties and too great an effort dulled your faith and lulled your hopes.
Labels: Abraham
posted by Jessie Coates at 10:53 PM
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