Good to Great in God's Eyes by Chip Ingram

Author:Chip Ingram
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: REL070000;REL012000
ISBN: 9781493406951
Publisher: Baker Publishing Group
Published: 2017-02-22T00:00:00+00:00

Old Testament Risk-Takers

When God selected a people through whom to bless the nations with salvation, he began with a man named Abram. Abram was faced with a choice between the status quo and a risky adventure, and he chose to follow God’s voice. And God didn’t start him out slowly, either. His first instruction to Abram was to leave his home, his land, and his extended family and go wherever this invisible God led. Where? God wouldn’t say. Not yet. Abram had to leave first, then his destination would be shown later.

That’s a huge step of faith. Abram was probably secure in the status quo. Then, all of a sudden, a God who couldn’t be seen spoke an open-ended command, and Abram and his wife packed up all their possessions and set off toward Canaan (Gen. 12:1–5). He believed the intangible promises of God were more real than the visible reality he lived in, and he acted on what he didn’t yet see. That’s faith, and with Abram—his name changed to Abraham after he believed—it was radical.

Moses was another man called by God to take a risk. His step of faith involved returning to a country he’d been exiled from, walking into a hostile Pharaoh’s courts, and demanding the release of a million or so slaves (Exod. 3:1–10). Moses wasn’t exactly fearless; he argued with God, trying to convince him to send someone else. He knew that he was wanted in Egypt dead or alive. He didn’t want to go back. But God insisted, Moses obeyed, and even though it looked like a suicide mission at first, God honored his promise and Moses’s radical step of faith.

David was young and idealistic, but so were hundreds of the soldiers in Israel’s army. Many of them probably knew how to use a slingshot as well as David did. Every member of the army, however, looked at Goliath, heard his taunts against God and his people, and only wished they could do something about it. No one stepped up to the plate—except David. David was so offended by the giant who slandered Israel’s God that he was willing to risk his life (1 Sam. 17:20–37). God was pleased with that risk of faith, and the rest is history.

Esther confronted evil at high levels of authority. We read her story—how this Jewish girl became the queen of Persia and God used her to save the Jews from extermination (Esther 5–7)—and we perhaps don’t realize the risk she took. But her life was genuinely on the line. It was easy for the king to get a new wife from his vast harem if the current one did something to offend him. That’s what happened to his previous wife; she had a bad day and was gone. So when Esther broke protocol and went into the king’s court to tell him about the plot to kill the Jews, she could have been put to death at the king’s whim. Was she afraid? Of course—anyone would have been.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.