Our Story

The Strength for the Week for 1/28/2012:

Our Story

          The Bible is full of fantastic stories.  There have been millions of novels written, and not one of them can come close to the amazing adventures, the love stories, the heroics, or the drama that are contained in the pages of our Holy Scriptures.  Even Cervantes’ quirky little adventurer in Don Quixote told one of his companions that their adventures could not compare to the adventures recorded in the Bible.  How true.

          Just as an author writing a novel has an ending in mind as they unfold their story, so has God from the dawn of time.  But unlike a novel, which is full of imaginary characters, the Bible is full of stories about real people.  We meet our ancestors both physically and spiritually on the Bible, and we see their victories, their defeats, their righteous deeds, and their sin.  And we see how their decisions changed history time and again.

          In reading the story of the Exodus, we see God lead His people out of Egypt and lead them wandering through the desert for forty years.  But why did they wander for so long?  Why did the story take that turn?

          Let’s pick up our story a little over a year since the Passover.  The commandments have been given at Sinai.  The tabernacle has been built.  The Levitical law has been given.  And now, the Israelites are approaching the Promised Land.  God chooses 12 men to spy out the land to figure out the best strategy for taking it.  The men come back carrying a single cluster of grapes that was so large that two men had to carry it on a pole between them.  This was indeed a magnificent land, as God promised.

          But here is where the story takes one of those history-changing turns.  Instead of entering the Promised Land after just about a year of travelling, the Israelites were about to wander the desert for 40 more years.  Because instead of coming back and seeing that God’s promise is true, they come back doubting.  You see, they saw giants in the land, and were afraid to fight them.  God tells them that He will bring them victory, but they are too afraid.  All Israel can think about are the giants, and their own fear; they don’t listen to God.  You see, their fear of the giants was greater than their faith.  So God says, basically: “Fine.  Then I will have you wander the desert until you all die.  I will use the next generation to do my will.”  After some time, the Israelites decided they wanted to roam the desert and die even less than they wanted to die fighting giants.  But it was too late.  God was not going to relent of their punishment.  Their disbelief was going to be an example, and has been for the last few thousand years.

          How different history might have been if they were faithful and believing!  How much wasted time could have been avoided if their faith was stronger than their fear!  How many lives could have been saved if their eyes were on God and His will, and not their own well-being! 

          Brothers and sisters, I believe we are at such a history-changing crossroads right now.  You see, God has promised us that there will be opposition to us if we do His will.  We will have giants to face, but God promises victory.  We will get into His Promised Land and be with Him.  All we have to do is His will and go where and when He says to.

          So what do we do?  I feel that by and large, the church has chosen to wander around aimlessly and let the giants be.  Are we faithless?  Are we afraid?  Is our own well-being more important to us that what God says?  I fear that a time is coming that God will just say: “Fine.  Wander aimlessly until you die.  I will use the next generation to do my will.” 

          No, my friends: this is our story.  There are giants out there: secularism, atheism, political correctness, pluralism, a world that believes intolerance means you disagree with them, a world that believes you are a hater if you disagree with them, a world that still hates Jesus Christ like it did when He walked the earth!  Let’s stop wandering aimlessly, because God has promised us victory if we do His will.  We need to be the generation that stands up to the giants and takes what God says is ours.  We need to be the generation that says “enough is enough” and speaks out for Christ’s sake, no matter what it means for us. 

We need to face our giants, and make this story one of a faithful, believing generation.  One of a generation that wasted no more time, because their faith is stronger than their fear.   One of a generation that saved countless lives because their eyes are on God and His will, and not their own well-being. 

We need to make this our story before it is too late…

John 17:6-18  "I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you. For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.

“We were made to be courageous, We were made to lead the way
We could be the generation, That finally breaks the chains

We were warriors on the front lines, Standing, unafraid
But now we're watchers on the sidelines, While our families slip away

Where are you, men of courage?  You were made for so much more
Let the pounding of our hearts cry “we will serve the Lord”

We were made to be courageous, And we're taking back the fight
We were made to be courageous, And it starts with us tonight

We will reignite the passion, That we buried deep inside
May the watchers become warriors, Let the men of God arise

In the war of the mind, I will make my stand
In the battle of the heart, And the battle of the hand

We were made to be courageous
Lord, make us courageous”

-         Courageous, Casting Crowns