{"id":563,"date":"2014-08-14T19:34:08","date_gmt":"2014-08-15T00:34:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cfcmankato.org\/?p=563"},"modified":"2018-12-29T11:19:20","modified_gmt":"2018-12-29T17:19:20","slug":"family-on-a-mission-by-tim-west","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cfcmankato.org\/minnesota\/2014\/08\/family-on-a-mission-by-tim-west\/","title":{"rendered":"Family on a Mission by Tim West"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Man<\/a>I don\u2019t know if you\u2019re like me, but I often associate particular sections of scripture with the memories and events that were surrounding my life when those scriptures first came alive. Seventeen summers ago I went with my oldest son, Philip, on my first short-term mission trip to the Caribbean islands of Trinidad and Tobago. In addition to the construction, evangelism and mercy ministry we were doing for those two weeks, our team had a nightly time set aside for worship, testimonies and some teaching. One of those evenings our team leader had us all look up and think about Genesis 12:1-3. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Now\u00a0the LORD said\u00a0to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.\u00a02\u00a0And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.\u00a03\u00a0I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and\u00a0in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”<\/span><\/p>\n

\"GrandkidsAs you probably know, Abram, through a covenant with God, became Abraham and was
\nthe patriarch of the children of Israel. He is also known as an awesome \u201cman of faith\u201d listed in Hebrews 11.Through the study of these verses I gained some insights I think are worth sharing!<\/span><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s start with \u201cblessing\u201d. Now, God did in fact want to bless Abram! And He did! But, it was for the purpose of blessing others. The blessing received was for passing along \u201cso that\u2026\u2026in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed\u201d. Why is this an important truth? Because we tend to think in terms of always wanting a blessing, but not always wanting to share the blessing! We tend to think of ourselves as \u201cin need\u201d, that we are containers absorbing the blessing but rarely as conduits or pipes carrying or releasing that same blessing of God\u2019s power and presence and resources of heaven to a needy world.<\/span><\/p>\n

God\u2019s desire to make Abraham\u2019s descendants into a great nation and bless them was to demonstrate to the rest of the world how wonderful it would be to live in a relationship with the all-sufficient living God. Other nations would then see God’s power and design and choose to also follow Him.\u00a0<\/span>A theme throughout scripture is God\u2019s desire for a family. It starts in Genesis and goes clear through Revelation (Rev.10:9). That\u2019s what missions is. God\u2019s desire to enlarge the family.<\/span><\/p>\n

Another insight has to do with a phrase I like, that for me simplifies verse 1. When Abraham obeyed God he was \u201cGoing not knowing\u201d He was leaving his family and everything familiar. Going, not knowing when he left his home, where God would take him. He had to fully trust God! Most of us have a hard time going or doing anything unfamiliar without figuring out all the possible outcomes. God\u2019s call for us is to partner with Him in this process of family enlargement. It\u2019s called being on mission!
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\"WalkingI like the phrase \u201cGoing not knowing\u201d because it speaks of his obedience in following God. Since that night I\u2019ve kind of \u201cowned\u201d
\nthese verses. What I mean by that is, the Holy Spirit came and brought an understanding so that I\u2019m better able to navigate life\u2019s circumstances from God\u2019s perspective. This teaching was an encouragement to me, so I have tried to share it with others over the years. We are His family on a mission!<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I don\u2019t know if you\u2019re like me, but I often associate particular sections of scripture with the memories and events that were surrounding my life when those scriptures first came alive. Seventeen summers ago I went with my oldest son, Philip, on my first short-term mission trip to the Caribbean islands of Trinidad and Tobago. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":568,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,1],"tags":[33,90,93,89,53,91,92],"class_list":["post-563","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-news","tag-church-family","tag-church-mission","tag-family-mission","tag-family-on-a-mission","tag-missionary-work","tag-missions","tag-missions-work"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfcmankato.org\/minnesota\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfcmankato.org\/minnesota\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfcmankato.org\/minnesota\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfcmankato.org\/minnesota\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfcmankato.org\/minnesota\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=563"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/cfcmankato.org\/minnesota\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":578,"href":"https:\/\/cfcmankato.org\/minnesota\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563\/revisions\/578"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfcmankato.org\/minnesota\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/568"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfcmankato.org\/minnesota\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfcmankato.org\/minnesota\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfcmankato.org\/minnesota\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}