Episode 1214
When God Keeps Moving: What Abraham's Journey Teaches Us About Trusting the Unknown (Acts 7:1-16)
In today’s episode of Daily Bible Refresh, Dr. Brad Miller reads from Acts 7:1–16 and invites us into a progressive Christian reflection on faith, uncertainty, and family brokenness. Through Stephen’s retelling of Abraham’s call to an unknown land and Joseph’s journey from slavery to leadership in Egypt, Dr. Brad highlights that faith is less about having all the answers and more about taking the next courageous step when the map is unclear. He reminds listeners that God’s presence remains steady in seasons of chaos, suffering, and confusion, and that God often works through deeply imperfect, messy family systems. Drawing on his experience with cancer-impacted individuals, he offers a simple but challenging action step: move forward in one area of your life before you have certainty, trusting that the same God who was with Abraham and Joseph is with you today.
Key Takeaways
- Faith is movement, not certainty
- Progressive Christian faith is framed as taking the next step rather than requiring full clarity or guaranteed outcomes.
- God’s presence in chaotic journeys
- Abraham’s unknown destination, Joseph’s slavery and imprisonment, and the family’s refugee status all show that God remains present even when life feels disordered and frightening.
- God works through broken families
- The stories of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph reveal jealousy, betrayal, and dysfunction, yet God still works through these messy family systems to bring about good.
- Grace over “having it all together”
- A progressive reading challenges the idea that God only blesses the righteous or the put-together, emphasizing instead God’s stubborn presence in pain and imperfection.
- Action step: move before the map is clear
- Listeners are asked to identify one area where they’re waiting for certainty and then take one small step—a conversation, a phone call, saying yes to something new—before knowing how it all turns out.
Links referenced in this episode:
The "Daily Bible Refresh" is presented each day by Rev. Dr. Brad Miller who has a goal of speaking a bit of the bible into two million ears (one million people) in three years (2025-2028).
He is the author of "The A, B, C-1,2,3 Bible Study Guide" Free to you by clicking HERE.
Brad served as a local church pastor for forty years and has a background in radio and podcasting. Moreover, he is a life-long student of The Bible.
He believes in the words of Jesus that “scripture is fulfilled in your hearing” (Luke 4:21)
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Transcript
Hello my friend Dr. Brad Miller here with the Daily Bible Refresh.
Speaker A:This is your daily reading of the Bible from a progressive point of view.
Speaker A:In a bit I will read the New Testament lessons selected from the Revised Common Lectionary for this very day.
Speaker A:The reading is understandable.
Speaker A:I use the message version relatable.
Speaker A:Please listen to the points to ponder and applicable with action steps you can take.
Speaker A:We pray and are done in less than 10 minutes.
Speaker A:It's all brought to you by voiceofgoddaily.com which is the home of your free personal Bible study guide, the ABC123 Bible Study Method.
Speaker A: lionaires a million people by: Speaker A:You can help by saving and subscribing to the podcast and tagging your friends.
Speaker A:Here's today's reading reading today from Acts.
Speaker B:7:1 16 From the Message Stephen, Fellow of the Holy Spirit Then the chief priest said, what do you have to say for yourself?
Speaker B:Stephen replied, friends, fathers, brothers, the God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was still in Mesopotamia before the move to Haran and told him, leave your country and family and go to the land.
Speaker B:I'll show you.
Speaker B:So he left the country of the Chaldees and moved to Haran.
Speaker B:After the death of his father, he immigrated to this country where you now live.
Speaker B:But God gave him nothing, not so much as a foothold.
Speaker B:He did promise to give the country to him and his son later on, even though Abraham had no son at the time, God let him know that his offspring would move to an alien country where they would be enslaved and brutalized for 400 years.
Speaker B:But God said, I will step in and take care of those slaveholders and bring my people out so they can worship me in this place.
Speaker B:Then he made a covenant with him and signed it in Abraham's flesh by circumcision.
Speaker B:When Abraham had his son Isaac within eight days, he reproduced the sign of of circumcision in him.
Speaker B:Isaac became father of Jacob and Jacob father of 12 fathers, each faithfully passing on the covenant sign.
Speaker B:But then those fathers, burning up with jealousy, sent Joseph off to Egypt as a slave.
Speaker B:God was right there with him, though.
Speaker B:He not only rescued him from all his troubles, but brought him to the attention of Pharaoh, king of Egypt.
Speaker B:He was so impressed with Joseph that he put him in charge of the whole country, including his own personal affairs.
Speaker B:Later, a famine descended on that entire region, stretching from Egypt to Canaan and bringing terrific hardship.
Speaker B:Our hungry fathers looked high and low for food, but the cupboard was bare.
Speaker B:Jacob heard there was food in Egypt and sent our fathers to scout it out.
Speaker B:Having confirmed the report, they went back to Egypt a second time to get food.
Speaker B:On that visit, Joseph revealed his true identity to his brothers and introduced the Jacob family to Pharaoh.
Speaker B:Then Joseph sent for his father Jacob and everyone else in the family.
Speaker B:75 In all, that's how the Jacob family got to Egypt.
Speaker B:Jacob died and our fathers after him, and they were taken to Shechem and buried in the tomb for which Abraham paid a good price to the sons of Hamar.
Speaker B:That ends the scripture reading for today.
Speaker B:Let's get into a couple of points to ponder about this.
Speaker B:The first one is this.
Speaker B:Go to the land.
Speaker B:I'll show you.
Speaker B:That's the first thing I want you to sit with today.
Speaker B:Faith in the progressive Christian tradition is not about certainty.
Speaker B:It's about movement.
Speaker B:Stephen isn't telling the story to prove that everything worked out perfectly.
Speaker B:He's telling it to show that God's presence was consistent even when the path was chaotic.
Speaker B:Abraham didn't know the destination.
Speaker B:Joseph ended up in prison before he ended up in the palace.
Speaker B:The whole family ended up as refugees in a foreign land.
Speaker B:And I think this is profoundly relatable, especially for those of us walking through a hard season in life.
Speaker B:Many of you know that I do a weekly podcast for cancer impacted people.
Speaker B:And I'll tell you, one of the most common things I hear is I don't know where this road is going to lead me.
Speaker B:I don't know what's next.
Speaker B:And what this text tells us is you don't have to know where you're going, but you do have to take the next step.
Speaker B:So progressive faith isn't about having God all figured out.
Speaker B:It's about trusting that the God who showed up for Abraham, for Joseph, for the refugee families, that same presence shows up for you in the middle of your uncertainty, too.
Speaker B:Second point to ponder.
Speaker B:God works through broken family systems.
Speaker B:Wow.
Speaker B:An important point.
Speaker B:Here's this second thing, and this one gets me every time.
Speaker B:God doesn't wait for us to have it all together, including in our families, before showing up.
Speaker B:Look at the family tree Stephen is describing.
Speaker B:Abraham had no child and Isaac and Jacob had family drama.
Speaker B:Joseph's brothers sold him into slavery.
Speaker B:I mean, that's bad.
Speaker A:That is bad.
Speaker B:Oh, man.
Speaker B:But here's the thing.
Speaker B:God didn't say, I'll work through this family once they get their act together.
Speaker B:God worked through a messy family.
Speaker B:Maybe you've got a messy family.
Speaker B:God can still work through that.
Speaker B:Through jealousy, through famine, God worked through it through betrayal.
Speaker B:And a progressive reading of this text pushes back on the idea that God only blesses the righteous, those who seemingly have their act together, the ones who have it all figured out.
Speaker B:Instead, what we see is a God who persistently, stubbornly is present in the middle of dysfunction and pain and somehow, someway, weaving something redemptive through it all.
Speaker B:So I would just say this.
Speaker B:If you're a family, life is complicated and whose isn't?
Speaker B:This text is for you.
Speaker B:So here's your action step.
Speaker B:Simple, but it's not easy.
Speaker B:Write down one area of your life where you're waiting for certainty before you move forward, and one place where you've been saying I'll trust God when I know how this turns out.
Speaker B:And then just take one small step before you have the answer.
Speaker B:Doesn't have to be big, just take a step.
Speaker B:Abraham's first step was just to was to leave his home and go to a new place.
Speaker B:Maybe yours is a conversation, maybe it's a phone call or reaching out to someone, or signing up for some event or some function that maybe you wouldn't have thought about otherwise.
Speaker B:So saying yes to something you might normally have not have thought of or said no to.
Speaker B:One step before the map is clear.
Speaker B:Because faith friend moves before the map.
Speaker B:We're going to have a closing prayer here in just a second.
Speaker B:But Ed, once you know we've got a helpful tool for you to use.
Speaker B:It's called the ABC 1, 2, 3 Bible Study Method.
Speaker B:You head over to our website voiceofgoddaily.com that's where you can find it.
Speaker B:Here's our prayer.
Speaker B:God, when the road is unclear and we want certainty before we move on, give us the courage to trust your presence more than we fear the unknown.
Speaker B:Amen.
Speaker A:My friend, I am delighted you chose to join me for today's reading.
Speaker A:The Daily Bible Refresh is completely listener supported.
Speaker A: on years, a million people by: Speaker A:I would be so grateful if you would go to voiceofgodddaily.com and share your gift of any amount.
Speaker A:Thanks much.
Speaker A:My name is Dr. Brad Miller and I'll be right here tomorrow with your Daily Bible Refresh.
Speaker A:Please subscribe and tag your friends until tomorrow.
Speaker A:Remember, God's loyal love doesn't run out.
Speaker A:His merciful love hasn't dried up, it's created new every morning.
