05
Settler or Pioneer?
Jon Burgess1TheLord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you..."6Abram traveled through the land as far as the site of the great tree of Moreh at Shechem. At that time the Canaanites were in the land.7TheLord appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspringI will give this land.” So he built an altar there to theLord, who had appeared to him. Genesis 12:1,6
In the previous chapter we had read these words of Abrams father Terah: "One day Terah took his son Abram... and moved away from Ur of the Chaldeans. He was headed for the land of Canaan, but they stopped at Haran and settled there. Terah lived for 205 years and died while still in Haran." (Genesis 11:31-32) Abram saw what his father never did. Where his father settled Abram pioneered. God called Abram to set out on a faith adventure without giving him any details on where they were headed. God specifically called him out from his "father's household" to a new land. Could it be that God is calling this generation to set out rather than to settle down? What was good enough for our father's generation isn't God's enough for this one! We have a choice. Stay with the familiar, the comfortable, the well defined and carefully patterned... or head out in the pioneering spirit that got our fathers this far in the first place. Will we receive that which our fathers never did see?
When Jesus tells the parable of the old and new wineskins He is throwing down the same challenge to his generation as God was to Abram- Will you settle for the old or pioneer the new? 36He told them this parable:“No one tears a piece out of a new garment to patch an old one. Otherwise, they will have torn the new garment, and the patch from the new will not match the old.37And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the new wine will burst the skins; the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined.38No, new wine must be poured into new wineskins.39And no one after drinking old wine wants the new, for they say, ‘The old is better.’ (Luke 5:36-38) Don't we say the same thing? "The old is better". When it comes to wine it's true. When it comes to faith it's not. A new faith for a new generation means God is calling us to new things that we have not seen before. It doesn't invalidate the old. God wasn't condemning Terah for settling in Haran he was simply telling Abram it was time to move on. Jesus wasn't condemning the old covenant He was simply bringing a new one! To pioneera new faith venture doesn't mean tearing down the old but it does mean stepping outside our comfort zones. Nothing new ever happens inside a comfort zone. In fact, if I'm doing my job, I'm going to be pushing the next generation to strike out and apprehend that which I have not yet seen. It's Pastor Wayne Cordeiro who is always telling me to continue to pioneer and not settle for the way things are! I love that about him and I want to do the same!
It's a new year and it's time to try some new things. Not for the sake of newness, but for the sake of obedience to Your voice. Like Abram, You have not given me all the details, but I know my next step is tostep outside my comfort zone and follow You into the land You have given me. As I seek Your face I pray that You would reveal Your will for me. You have called out of mirroring and into pioneering.
