Go to the land I will show you ...

February 17
Genesis 12:1-5

If someone came up to you and said, “leave everything you know, everyone you know, everything familiar and comfortable and come with me.” What would you say? What if this someone said, I will not tell you exactly where we are going? But I will go with you. What would you say? Would you go?
That was God’s word to Abram. “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.” Abram knew what he was losing, it was concrete, real. All Abram knew about where he was going came from a promise.
I will make you into a great nation.
I will bless you.
I will make your name great
And you will be a blessing
I will bless those who bless you
Whoever curses you I will cures.
All peoples on earth will be blessed through you.

Abram was a Pilgrim. A Pilgrim is a foreigner, a traveler from another country, often traveling to a sacred site as a religious act of devotion. Devout Muslims make a pilgrimage once in a lifetime to Mecca. In Israel, the religiously faithful would make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem.
As Christians, Jesus Christ calls us to be pilgrims, to leave our homes, our families, our father’s land and go to the land he will show us.

In John Bunyan’s book “Pilgrim’s Progress”, we meet a man named Christian. This man started reading a book and became very upset for it foretold destruction on the city he was living in. This man was frightened because he knew that when his city was destroyed, he would sink down to everlasting punishment because of the burden of sin on his back. A man called “Evangelist” found him wandering in the field upset and told him to go to the small wicket gate. Christian started out, but his family and friends called for him to come back, some mocked him, some pleaded, until he put his fingers in his ears and ran towards the gate shouting “Life, life! Eternal life!”

This is true for us as well. We have the same choice to make. All you see is going to burn. Everlasting torment will be for all whose sins are not cleansed by the blood of Jesus’ sacrifice. Our mainline churches tend to preach morality and good deeds, but being a follower of Jesus Christ is so much more. It is turning from the ways of death, to the ways of life, it is rejecting this world and its pleasures, its goals, its distractions, and heading towards the celestial city where the angels of God, cherubim, seraphim, dwell, where the elders praise God around his throne, where ever tear is wiped away, a restored paradise—a new heaven and a new earth, a garden for us to live in, with restored bodies, resurrection bodies, that will never hurt, or break down, or get sick. Meaningful work, deep friendships, knowing God and being known by him.
So, if someone came up to you and asked you to leave everything you know and go on a pilgrimage to the land he will show you, what would you say?

Listen to Evangelist, forsake this world, leave the city of destruction. Ask for forgiveness of your sins and dedicate your steps to a lifelong pilgrimage to the celestial city. Life! Life! Everlasting Life, awaits you.
Grace and peace,
James