Pilgrimage

Psalm 84 is soooooo good. You might know it from the worship song "Better is One Day in your Courts" or whatever the title actually is. The heart of it all that strikes me today is in verse 5, where it says "Blessed are those whose strength is in you, who have set their hearts on pilgrimage."

There were several stirring preachers at the Urbana conference a couple New Years Eves ago. One stuck with me, Brenda Salter-McNeil, who said "be careful where you settle, because where you settle is where you die." She was talking about Abraham's dad. Now, anybody who has had a little Bible teaching can rattle off that Abraham is the dad of Issac who is the dad of Jacob, the 3 guys we call the patriarchs. The family who God used to invade the world with His love. We all got that one down, yadda yadda.

Now, the big Quiz question: Who was Abraham's dad?

If you said Terah, give your self a thousand Bible bonus points. Great jorb. Here's the summation of Terah's life that is basically all we know, from Genesis 11:31-- "Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, the wife of his son Abram, and together they set out from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to Canaan. But when they came to Haran, they settled there. Terah lived 205 years, and he died in Haran." Where you settle is where you die. He set out for Canaan. But he got to Haran and said, "meh, good enough for now." Made himself comfortable. Chilled.

I guess from this God could probably see that this dude didn't have the fortitude to be the father of many nations, didn't have the faith to receive and walk in what God was doing. Not like he was a bad guy, I mean he obviously did something right in raising Abraham.

So back to the Psalms verse. "Blessed are those whose strength is in you, who have set their hearts on pilgrimage." Set their hearts. That's the opposite of settling, setting your heart on pilgrimage. Committing to the journey. And it's obvious from the rest of this psalm what the destinatin of the journey is--the very DWELLING PLACE of the LORD OF HEAVEN. You will not reach it while you live. But you can seek it and search for it and bring it here. But you can't settle. What does it take to be a holy pilgrim for God? To be an Abraham and not a Terah?

just
**keep
***going
**and
****keep
*****going
*****and
********don't
*************settle
******************for
***************************anything
*****************************************other
*******************************************than
********************************************************HIM


Lord, that is my prayer. That myself and those around me may set ourselves on pilgrimage for your very Dwelling Place, that we will not stop striving til we look you full in the face and bow before your gaze and kiss your feet and worship in exaltation of Your Name and bask in Your glory. Instill it in us, God. We don't want to settle. We want YOU.