As I sit down to write the holiday season is well and truly in full swing. I’ve recently returned from holiday, with the family, to a beautiful villa in the Algarve near to the Portuguese/Spanish border. We had a wonderful time and it was more than we had hoped for.
Many of you, like me, will have already been away, hopefully with fond memories whilst for others preparing to go, the excitement and anticipation is building but whenever people take holidays, planning is essential.
About four thousand years ago someone else was planning for a journey; it wasn’t a holiday this time but moving home. The problem was that Abram, the man moving home, didn’t have a clue where he was going and I wonder what plans he made.
If you read through the early part of Genesis 12 you can see that, because of the numbers of people and livestock and possessions, it would be no mean feat to move. Added to that Abram had no sat nav, no brochure, no ‘Rough Guide To…’, no internet or Google maps to call upon, all he had to go on was a promise; a promise from God, ‘If you trust me I’ll bless you’.
This is what God said to Abram,
"Leave your country,
your people and your father's household
and go to the land I will show you.
"I will make you into a great nation
and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
and you will be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you,
and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
will be blessed through you."
We don’t get to know Abram’s plans, all we know is that he was obedient to God and went on the journey.
I often wonder what was going through his mind as he made the decision to go; what was he feeling? A little scared no doubt, apprehensive maybe, surely a little excited; we don’t get to know, all we know is that Abram was obedient and God was faithful.
God had chosen a people through Abram, later to be renamed Abraham, ‘Father of nations’, as if to emphasise the point.
God had provided a promised land; a land that would be transformed and blessed through Abraham and his descendants. It was to be the responsibility of Abraham and his offspring to transform the land with the message that all nations could have a relationship with the true and living God.
And God’s blessing to Abraham was a family surpassing the stars in the sky and the grains of sand on the sea shore, and God’s blessing to the nations was that all nations, all peoples could be included as God’s chosen people if they too would follow Abraham’s lead and trust and follow Him.
‘Well’, you might say, ‘what’s that got to do with us here in Wallasey’? That’s a good question and here’s a good answer; if not already obvious.
God has chosen a people and a land and is ready to lavish his blessing.
You are God’s chosen people, this fellowship; chosen to be obedient to him, to follow him and deliver his message.
The land is here, the area around Wallasey Village URC; that land on which our houses rest and our streets are built; the land where people shop and go to work and to school; the land on which people play and find their rest; the land we see everyday when we open our front doors.
And the blessing; the blessing that God is ready and waiting to lavish upon people is this, that they can have a relationship with the true and living God. Not just a relationship for now but for all eternity.
‘No small task’, I hear you saying, and that’s true but when we put our trust and faith in God the impossible happens. There is a wonderful verse in scripture, one I hold very dear and one I’ll use over and over again, it’s Jeremiah 29:11. In it God says to you and to me and Wallasey Village URC ‘I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future’
When we were on holiday in Portugal there would be times when the sun was just too hot and a swim was called for. So, I would stand on the edge of the pool plucking up the courage to dive in knowing the shock I would experience when I hit the water. When I did eventually dive there was a moment between leaving the side of the pool and just before hitting the water when I thought ‘I don’t want to do this’. By then of course, it was too late and the shock of the cold water would hit me and take my breath away, but almost immediately, the shock of plunging into the water was replaced by an overwhelming feeling of refreshment which would seep through my whole body.
That’s what it’s like when we dive into God. God is ready to excite us, to un-nerve us, to shock us and to refresh us but even more ready to fulfil his promises through us when we offer ourselves up to him.
I’m looking forward to diving in with you all; to start the journey with you and see where God leads us.

God bless (and don’t forget your towel.)

Jeff