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.

Trusting

Last week I confessed how much I hate waiting. Waiting in a line for anything is the worst idea ever invented by man, however waiting on the Lord is the best idea that anyone can choose to make. Making a conscious, determined choice to wait on God is the key to success. After their victory at Jericho, the Israelites begin to trust in and rely upon their own self-sufficiency. God warns us that pride comes before the fall so, as the Israelites began to believe in their own strength; the walls of God’s protection begin to come tumbling down around them. They fail to consult with God for His guidance and blunder foolishly ahead, attacking the village of Ai.

There’s something to be said of a man who can take a step back, take a deep, long breath and let a volatile situation cool down. Waiting on the Lord is the main ingredient in any good work the Lord is preparing in our lives. Many great men and women of God only succeed when they paused, stepped out of the way and let God guide them through to victory. The old saying “Where God guides He provides” is so truthful that whoever is led by the Holy Spirit will never fail. One of my favorite verses that remind me to wait and trust in God is found in Proverbs 3:5, 6 “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not on your own understanding but in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your path straight.”

Another  phrase “To obey is better than sacrifice” was spoken by God in the Old Testament reminding God’s people that  if they were only obedient then they wouldn’t have to offer up endless sacrifices. These six words strung together remind us to reflect and center ourselves once again aligning our will with God’s. Many a sacrifice, many a consequence could have been avoided if we only would have stopped and waited on the Lord and sought Him for direction. I remember a line from a 1980’s TV drama called “Berretta” where the detective use to always say to the convicted criminal as he was being led away to jail “Don’t do the crime if you can’t do the time”.

Immediately after the successful sacking of the walled city of Jericho, Joshua now turns to the small village of Ai. The village is located at the top of a mountain about 1000 meters in elevation change from their current position in the desert valley below. Joshua sends in men to spy on the village and they return overconfident, insisting that Joshua only send out a small contingent consisting of 3000 armed Israelites. As the troops near the top of the mountain, they quickly retreat back down to the bottom. Taking a comparative look at the text in Joshua 7:5, it says, “The hearts of the people melted”. Here God is describing how the Israelites felt as they are fleeing for their lives but, what’s interesting is that this same phrase was used by Rahab to describe how the residence of Palestine felt as the Israelites were poised to cross over the Jordan River.

So what caused such a dramatic turn of events? God had instructed Joshua not to take any of the accursed things ^”And you, by all means abstain from the accursed things, lest you become accursed when you take of the accursed things, and make the camp of Israel a curse, and trouble it. But all the silver and gold, and vessels of bronze and iron, are consecrated to the Lord; they shall come into the treasury of the Lord." Joshua 6:18-19. Achan, one of the Israelite soldiers, had secretly taken some of the silver and gold from Jericho and hid the loot under his tent. This blatant act of disobedience by one man brought a curse upon the entire army and contributed to their defeat.  Joshua had failed to consult with the Lord for direction and foolishly took the advice of his spies.   

Learning to wait on God does not come without some pain, but from Joshua’s defeat at Ai, we can learn a valuable lesson, to wait upon the Lord before engaging the enemy. “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power. Put on the whole armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes; For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” After all, in the end, the battle belongs to the Lord!

Waiting

I hate waiting. Whether I’m sitting at a traffic light, in a doctor’s office or waiting for a pot of water to boil I don’t like the grass growing under my feet. I’ve heard other people say that patience is a virtue but for me I want to squeeze 70 minutes out of an hour.  The truth is, I do tend to get ahead of God’s leading from time to time and God has to reel me back in. Why, I remember a time back in the 1990’s when I put on a small outreach to raise funds for a local missionary named Bob Daniels. Bob would collect funds, food and clothing then fly them down to an orphanage nestled deep in the Nicaraguan jungle.

When I met Bob for the first time, I was immediately taken by his bravado and swagger. The way he put his total trust in the Lord was infectious. So, in my zeal to help him, I organized the “Music Mission Outreach” and began to mobilize the troops. The process was hard, filled with obstacles and roadblocks.

 There use to be a small coffee shop called “Poets”, where Bob and I met for coffee and fellowship. The owner, after hearing about our plan, offered his store to host the event. Dawn and Neil Richardson, from the Willows Baptist Church, offered to print up flyers and take pictures. Soon others were getting involved by making crafts to sell, squeezing lemons for lemonade and even local Christian artists were offering to play for the crowd. A high school theater troupe worked on some skits to perform for the crowd. Bob Taylor donated some T shirts and a local sign company donated some really nice banners for the event.

In the book of Matthew 25:31-46 the prophecy depicts the story of Jesus coming back to judge the world. He begins to separate the non-believers from the believers; the sheep and the goats and in the process the righteous ask Him “When did we clothe You? When did we feed You? and when did we come to visit You? To which Jesus says to them “Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these brethren, you did it to Me.”

So in my zeal to help Him, I failed to ask from the very beginning if this was something that God wanted me to do or was I doing it for my own reward? There is another verse in the book of Isaiah 40:31 that states “But those who wait on the Lord Shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings as eagles, They shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint”. As the event ended and we drove home to count the money the answer came loud and clear. The total amount collected that day was exactly $ 647.37. But I had expected there to be much more!

So why didn’t the Lord open up the floodgates of heaven and pour out blessings on us? I mean, after all, it was to help out helpless orphans and that was definitely in God’s will? The event got people involved and sent relief to children who really needed it. But why was there so little money in the offering? The bottom line, after all the money was counted and the dust had settled, was that I failed to wait upon the Lord. As I reflected back on the busy weeks of preparation that led to the outreach, I heard a still, quiet voice say “Dean, I don’t need your money”.

Ok, so now it’s time to total up all the expenses that went out. As I input the last figure into the calculator, I was stunned to read $ 647.36 on the calculator’s display screen.  Several feelings and questions rushed through my mind all at the same time. “If I reimburse myself then we didn’t raise a single nickel for the kids in Nicaragua. How could God allow this to happen and not bless our efforts? 

Years later as I look back on this event, it’s easy to see what God was doing. First, I did not wait on the Lord as the verse from Isaiah states. In my zeal to serve the Lord I had used all my own resources, connections and favors to bring this event to fruition. The voice I heard as I had counted the last coins was clear “I don’t need your money, I want your life” So now I had a choice to make, would I recoup my expenses and send nothing down to the orphans or chalk up a loss and send it all with Bob? Well, you will have to wait until next week to find out the answer.