Carry On the Mission

Genesis 12:4-5a

So Abram went, as the LORD had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Harran. He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated and the people they had acquired in Harran, and they set out…

Abram (later re-named Abraham as part of the covenant language) steps into the beginnings of this covenant relationship with God by taking Him at His word and beginning a journey God describes to him. With family in tow, he starts off to an unknown destination.

In Genesis 17, when Abram gets a new name, God adds the sign of circumcision to the covenant for generations to come. That sign remained a key element of life with God – until Jesus instituted a new covenant with a new sign.

The Apostle Paul (a circumcised Jew himself) informed the Jewish and Gentile Christians of his day that the old covenant’s sign of circumcision had been superseded by the new covenant’s sign of baptism. Paul even called baptism the circumcision done by Christ (see Colossians 2:11-12).

Colossians 2:11-12

11 In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not performed by human hands. Your whole self ruled by the flesh was put off when you were circumcised by Christ, 12 having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through your faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.

Baptism

For anyone who has been baptized in Christ and who is being taught to obey all that Jesus commanded, you are now called to carry on Jesus’ mission to make disciples of others. This is also known in the bible as “fishing for men” or “saving what was lost” (Matthew. 28:19, 4:19, Luke 19:10, 15:1-32).

It was part of the plan from the beginning, that as God’s workmanship in Jesus (Ephesians 2:10), we would share the good news of Jesus wherever we go in life. You are encouraged to acknowledge this covenant today:

Having been baptized in Christ and being taught to obey all that
Jesus commanded, I too am called to carry on Jesus’ mission to
make disciples of others. This was God’s plan from the beginning,
that as God’s workmanship in Jesus, I would share the good
news of Jesus wherever I go in life.
I believe that I am one of those disciples.

Prayer

Father God, as I think about Abram’s willingness to step into a covenant journey with You, I want to share that kind of readiness to go to unknown places with You – even if it is just around the corner. I embrace that I am Your workmanship in Jesus. Help me carry out Your plan in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Micro-Meditation Scripture

Psalm 23:2

2 He makes me to lie down in green pastures: he leads me beside the still waters.

Micro-Meditation
Teaching or Command of God

Isaiah 55:1

Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost.