Part 1 - Genesis 18:1-15 - The Power Of One Small Step Series

Part 1 - Genesis 18:1-15 - THE POWER OF ONE SMALL STEP

As a boy he was active in the Boy Scouts, and had earned the rank of Eagle Scout. He was only the second person in his family to attend college. In 1950, a week after his 20th birthday, he became a Naval Aviator and then later an ASTRONAUT.

Watching television as the dramatic pictures were broadcast to the world, I was aware that something momentous had happened and I have never forgotten the images of that man. I was 14 years old.

NEIL ARMSTRONG and his crew touched down at 20:17:39 UTC on July 20, 1969. When the events were finally shown on Television of that day my family and I saw Armstrong walk down the ladder and STEP OUT onto the surface of the moon. We all remembered those famous words, "THAT’S ONE SMALL STEP FOR (A) MAN, ONE GIANT LEAP FOR MANKIND."

That Christmas I had taken a momentous step myself as I gave my life to Christ. It was not a lunar landing, and it only seemed like ONE SMALL STEP, but it CHANGED MY LIFE from that moment on.

It is just like God to do this. He knows I am only able to receive His plan for my life in "ONE-SMALL-STEP-FOR-A-MAN" pieces. One small step in the direction He says to go is lifechanging.

Genesis 18:1 (NLT) says, "The Lord appeared again to Abraham ...Abraham was sitting at the entrance to his tent during the hottest part of the day."

Was Abraham praying as he sat at the entrance to his tent that day? It doesn’t say but I’d like to think that he was. Wouldn’t you be praying if you were 100 years old and Sarah, your wife, is 90 and God had given you AN IMPOSSIBLE PLAN?

In Genesis 12 God gives Him the BIG PICTURE PLAN and points him to the stars. He was to STEP OUT IN FAITH, he was blessed to be a blessing. Later in Genesis 15:4 the Lord gets very specific. The impossibility of what God said that day was MINDBLOWING enough for Abraham to believe. Now the Lord appears to him again and confirms this plan with Sarah, who will also need to be an active participant and CO-PILOT in all this.

It’s not all that unusual that an old man would sit at the entrance to his home, but the point is that it is often in THE STILL MOMENTS that I am more aware that God is there to speak to me about my hopes and dreams. He wants me to serve Him and develop my relationship with Him and there will be times when He will accomplish in my life what I consider to be IMPOSSIBLE.

How did God appear to Abraham? What strikes me is that He didn’t appear a BLAZE OF HIS GLORY that knocked Abraham to the ground, like He did with Paul? (Acts 9:3-5). God can turn up in your life in so many different ways -, A BURNING BUSH to Moses (Exodus 3:2), a PILLAR OF CLOUD by day and PILLAR OF FIRE by night to the Israelites (Exodus 13:21), A GENTLE WHISPER like He did with Elijah (1 Kings 19:11-13). In whatever way He chooses to appear, the most gracious of all seems to be when He turns up as A HUMAN BEING, walking in the garden like He did with Adam (Genesis 3:8) and as a baby in Bethlehem as He did with Joseph and Mary (Matthew 1:21, Galatians 4:4). What I love about God is that HE TURNS UP in ways that will have a profound impact upon my life and yet it is so personal. Abraham had already been CHANGED FOREVER from the moment God spoke with him and he took ONE SMALL STEP for a man, but ONE GIANT LEAP for mankind.

God bless you Church as the Lord continues to make Himself known to you in ways that profoundly change your life, as He points you to the stars and invites you to take one small step.

Pastor Ross