Legacy

I always wanted to have a grandpa with a long white beard. It wasn’t necessary for him to look exactly like one of the seven dwarves but an older man with a slightly graying beard would do. As we grow older, many people develop a burning desire to leave some sort of legacy behind. As we get closer to the grave some people need to find that perfect plaque, object or program to leave behind as a reminder of what they have accomplished in their life. The patriarchs passed on land, prophets passed on their mantles and kings passed on their right to the throne.

 Just prior to my own mother’s passing, she developed a burning desire to leave us with an old fashioned wooden school desk. It was the kind made completely out of oak, had a hole for an ink well and was identical to the one she had used as a little girl growing up in La Mesa. I remember how my father had to run around visiting antique shop after antique shop until, one day, he discovered a desk that matched her description. For some unknown reason my mother wanted us to have this desk to remember her by, so the cash was laid down and the trophy brought home. Today however, the desk stands motionless, upstairs in the loft; it is never used, covered with magazines, books and a layer of dust. When I do see the desk, it does not automatically remind me of my mother.

In chapter 23 of Joshua, we find the elderly leader preparing to pass on into the eternal Promised Land. But before he dies, he encourages the Israelites to always keep God first in their lives. Joshua instructs them to stay close to God and not turn away to the right or the left. He reminds them to love God with all their hearts, minds and strength. If they would keep God first in their lives by loving and adoring Him then things would go well for them. God had proved Himself to be faithful and to deliver on all of His promises; to go before them conquering all nations and all who would dare stand in their way. In the book of Joshua we read “One man of you shall chase a thousand, for the Lord your God is He who fights for you, as He promised you. Therefore take careful heed to yourselves, that you love the Lord your God.” Joshua 23:10-11.

It’s my belief that later on in their history the shepherd-king David took this thought to heart and was the embodiment as he stood up to and decapitated the giant Goliath. David’s strength was in his love for God. He believed that his victories were from the Lord God almighty.  

Realizing your depravity, your lost state and your need for God’s forgiveness is paramount to beginning a loving relationship with Him. Learning to love God because of His kindness is what drives us to our knees in repentance. We will never be able to serve God until we learn to worship and love Him. Acts of service, on their own merit, never bring us closer to God.  It’s only when acts of service are driven by our love and admiration of Him that seeds of service can sprout, grow multiplying God’s kingdom a hundred fold.

We are by nature “children of wrath” and have nothing to offer a righteous, sinless God. It was God, who while we were still in this lost state of degeneration, offered us a way to approach Him. Jesus Christ the Messiah prophesied in the Old Testament became our debt-payment and our covering. Our Emmanuel, God with us, Jesus, chose to be born into His own creation, chose to become sin for us as he took upon the sins of a lost world. He became the Lamb of the sacrifice whose blood is the most powerful thing in this universe. God, because He is rich in mercy and love, planned a road, a way and a ladder to heaven for all who would choose to believe in faith. Paul, in his letter to the church in Ephesus, said it this way “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.” Ephesians 2:8-9.

The death of Jesus was not a tragic end but a new beginning, a victorious story of how the King of kings rose from the grave, conquering death, promising to return for all those who love Him. And while God did not leave behind an old wooden school desk for us to remember Him by; He did leave behind an old rugged cross, a cup of wine and broken loaf of bread.