Rich Mullins: Eleven years later

(Yeah, another "as heard on KLOVE" post...)

This morning I was listening to John and Sherry of KLOVE, and John said that today is the 11th year since Rich Mullins was killed in a car accident.

It made me stop and think, because 12 years ago, when God called me back to Him, one of the songs He used was Rich Mullins' "Sometimes by Step," which is a beautiful, simple song of faith and joy and discipleship. I remember listening to it all those many years ago, and this one verse caught my attention:

Sometimes I think of Abraham
How one star he saw had been lit for me
He was a stranger in this land
And I am that, no less than he
And on this road to righteousness
Sometimes the climb can be so steep
I may falter in my steps
But never beyond Your reach

This is a reference to Genesis 15, verses 1-6:

After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision, saying, “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward.”

But Abram said, “Lord GOD, what will You give me, seeing I go childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” Then Abram said, “Look, You have given me no offspring; indeed one born in my house is my heir!”

And behold, the word of the LORD came to him, saying, “This one shall not be your heir, but one who will come from your own body shall be your heir.”

Then He brought him outside and said, “Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them.” And He said to him, “So shall your descendants be.”

And he believed in the LORD, and He accounted it to him for righteousness.

One of those stars that Abraham gazed upon was lit for ME!

"But wait, Kat," you say, "you're not Jewish!"

No, genetically and culturally, I'm not Jewish - but I have been grafted in to God's family. Because God has blessed me with a saving faith in His Son, I am now a member of His covenant family. Look here, at Paul's letter to the Romans, Chapter 4:

Does this blessedness then come upon the circumcised only, or upon the uncircumcised also? For we say that faith was accounted to Abraham for righteousness. How then was it accounted? While he was circumcised, or uncircumcised? Not while circumcised, but while uncircumcised. And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while still uncircumcised, that he might be the father of all those who believe, though they are uncircumcised, that righteousness might be imputed to them also, and the father of circumcision to those who not only are of the circumcision, but who also walk in the steps of the faith which our father Abraham had while still uncircumcised.[...]

Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him, but also for us. It shall be imputed to us who believe in Him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised because of our justification. [emphasis mine]

Look also in Paul's letter to the Galatians:

For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise. [emph. mine again]

Because I have Abraham's faith, God regards me as Abraham's spiritual descendant - and thus, I am one of the stars Abraham saw on that bright, clear night and a child of that great promise God made to Abraham.

Because God has chosen me, because He - for some unfathomable reason - has set His love upon me, He now holds me in the palm of His hand. I am never beyond His reach of grace and mercy, and He lives within me, walks beside me, and leads me through each moment of every day of my life.

I may falter, I may stumble, I may stray - but the hand of my Father is always upon me, guiding me back to Him.

My grateful response can only be to quote another passage from Romans:

Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!

      “For who has known the mind of the LORD?
      Or who has become His counselor?”
      “Or who has first given to Him
      And it shall be repaid to him?”

For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen.

Comments

[James Atticus Bowden]

1.

Christians are adopted children into the covenant relationships God established in the OT with Abraham and through Jesus, His only begotten son, wholly God-in-man.

Every word of the OT was written for Christian believers as well as Jews.

Glad you came home to the Lord.

I listen to Mullins music often -moved by it.