“Abraham went out not knowing where he was going. He did that in obedience to God. That’s faith.” (Taking liberties with Hebrews 11:8)

Here’s what happened.

The little family had moved to that community so the husband could serve on staff of a church, leading their high school and college ministry. The young wife established her counseling ministry in that town and it was doing very well.  The youth were responding to his leadership, and lives were being changed. Their numbers were up, the best in quite a few years.

Suddenly, one night the leadership abruptly informed the husband that “we made a mistake in bringing you here. You’re a great guy, really godly and sincere and all that, but you are not a good fit for our church.”

Pardon me while I deal with my anger.

All this means–I’m as serious as it’s possible to be–when they say ‘you’re not a good fit for our church’ is someone in a power position doesn’t like you. Period.

It always means that.

God help His church.

The next day the pastor confirmed that, yes, as unfortunate as it seems, you are being terminated. Effectively immediately.

The couple took it like champions.

They have been respectful to the church leadership and compassionate to their friends, in particular the young people who were being ministered to and now cannot understand the leaders of their church doing such truly stupid things.

So, the little family is making plans to move “back home,” to be near their families.

In a message to friends, the wife asked a favor.  “Don’t tell our older son that we’re moving.  He doesn’t know yet.  He has so many friends and would be devastated to know he might never see them again.”

She said, “We’re telling him we’re going on a Great Adventure With Jesus. And he’s excited about that.”

Friends and supporters are giving them a send-off at a nearby church in a few days.

I’ve never met them.  We’ve “chatted” on Facebook a few times and I have prayed for them.  I’ve told them that if their move takes them anywhere near this part of the world, I’ll buy lunch or pay for overnight in a hotel.

You do not have to meet some people to recognize they are pure gold.  Their behavior in such a setback tells you everything you need to know.

God is taking the names of church leaders who deal so casually with the lives of people in His flock and those He calls as shepherds.  But that’s a subject for another time.

A great adventure for Jesus.

That’s what the faith-life is all about.

We have told here recently of a young man who is uprooting his New Orleans family to relocate to another state where he has been called to revitalize an older, dying congregation.  He is both “excited and scared.”

I assured him that’s normal.  Living by faith is always that.

Going on great adventures with Jesus means a lot of things, including….

1) Saying goodbye to people we love and leaving behind places and things that have become precious, in response to the Lord’s call.

2) Saying yes to whatever God has in store, usually without a clue what that actually involves.

3) Taking great risks. This could fail big-time.  If it couldn’t, if no risk were involved, it would not be of faith.

This does not mean the Lord made a mistake in sending the young couple to that church. Nor did they fail. Someone else screwed this up big time, but that’s the risk we take.

In the long run, God prevails.

People keep saying that “wives crave security,” but the ministry wives I know gave that need up to Jesus long ago. They find all the security they will ever need in Him.

4) “Adventure” is the very definition of the life of a disciple of Jesus.  “The just shall live by faith,” Scripture says in Habakkuk 2:4,  Romans 1:17, and Galatians 3:11.

When, as a child, you stepped into the aisle at church and knelt at the altar or prayed by your bed at night, giving your heart to Jesus Christ, you took your first baby  steps on that great adventure with Jesus.

Not “for” Jesus, mind you.  “With Him.”

Our Savior sends no one anywhere without the promise that “I will be with you.”  That does not guarantee a painfree journey or shield us from difficulties, but it does assure us that He is watching, ever on the job, never distracted, and forever using all that happens for His purposes.

5) He knows what He is doing, and we do not.

Walking by faith means we go into a future without knowing what He is planning. If you cannot handle that, you’ll not leave home. Anyone who requires a detailed flight plan before taking off will not be making this trip.

We trust Him or we are left behind. “We walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7).

6) It all comes down to a matter of trust.

We each decide whether the Lord can be entrusted with our lives. We recall the Apostle Paul saying, “I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that He is able to keep what I have entrusted to Him until that day” (2 Timothy 1:12).

That’s faith, and “Without faith, it is impossible to please God” (Hebrews 11:6).

Family members told Baker James Cauthen, the handsome and dynamic 30-year-old pastor of a growing church in Fort Worth, “You are what? Resigning to go as missionaries where? To China? Have you lost your mind? You just received a Ph.D. from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, you are being acclaimed as a great preacher with an incredible future, and you throw it all away to disappear inside China? What are you thinking?”

“He who loses His life for My sake shall find it” (Matthew 10:39).

The year was 1939. Baker and Eloise Cauthen uprooted their family and moved to China, just before the world was plunged into the Second War.  Then, exactly 15 years later, Southern Baptists plucked this young missionary from the ranks of the Lord’s servants and installed him as the executive director of their entire world-wide missionary enterprise. For the next quarter-century, Dr. Cauthen was point-man for what God did throughout the world with His people called Southern Baptists.  (It was my honor to serve as a trustee of the Foreign Mission Board in his final years.)

Incidentally, although the Cauthens are in Heaven now, their adventure with Jesus continues, both there and here on earth.  As Revelation 14:13 promises “their works do follow them,” thousands appointed as missionaries during the Cauthen years invested their lives in ministering across the world. They in turn are leaving behind Kingdom ministries that will bear fruit into eternity.

“Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains by itself alone. But if it dies, it bears much fruit” (John 12:24).

7) Cowards miss out on this great adventure.

In the Old West, there was a saying that only the strong made it across the plains, because “cowards never started out and the weak died along the way.”

Cowards: those afraid to run a risk and unwilling to take a chance.

The sad thing is they run a far greater risk by not trusting themselves to the Man of Galilee.

In the final chapters of Revelation, one insight about the hell-bound I find staggering.  “But for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers….their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death” (Revelation 21:8).

The cowards lead the way.

Toward the end of the great faith chapter, Hebrews 11, we find this summary of God’s adventuresome people of all ages: “…by faith (they) conquered kingdoms, performed acts of righteousness, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, from weakness were made strong, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight…. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were tempted, they were put to death with the sword…. Men of whom the world was not worthy.” (Hebrews 11:33ff.)