31

Jump Start # 2401

Posted on July 31, 2019 by Jump Starts Daily in Jump Starts Daily | Tagged | Leave a comment

Jump Start # 2401

Revelation 2:5 “Remember therefore from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first; for else I am coming to you; and will remove your lampstand out of its place—unless you repent.”

 

The words of our passage today are sober, stern and serious. Change your ways, or else. And, the “or else” part isn’t good. God never makes idle threats. He never counts to three and then counts again. The words of our verse were sent to the church at Ephesus. They no longer were deeply in love with the Lord. They stood for truth, but something was missing in their hearts. And, when God is moved out of first place, we tend to go through the motions, and we tend to do things just because we have to.

 

If they didn’t change, their lampstand was going to be removed. The lampstand carries back to the Jewish worship in the O.T. It stood for God’s light, truth and fellowship. To have the lamp removed, is similar to turning off the lights. We turn off the lights, shut the door, and go home. But in this case, even though they might continue to meet as a church, what they were doing was no longer being recognized by God. He was finished with them if they continued on that course.

 

Ephesus got that way because the members got that way. There is always a connection between the way the members are and the way the church is. You cannot have a warm, loving church, when the members are cold and indifferent. You cannot have a strong church, when the members are weak. What the members are, the church becomes. For Ephesus, it was losing their first love. It happened to the members and then t happened to the church.

 

Now, Ephesus didn’t start this way. Back in Acts, when Paul first preached, good things happened. They received an inspired letter from God, we call it Ephesians. They had elders. But still, they lost their focus, and then they lost their love.

 

And, all of this reminds us that congregations can change through the years. Just recently I heard of three congregations that decided to close their doors for the last time. They had dwindled down so small that it wasn’t practical to continue to meet. Sometimes the area has a lot to do with that, especially in rural communities. Fewer are farming these days. The young move away and never come back. And, once thriving congregations, now have fewer faces. Every funeral within the congregation makes folks wonder just how long they can hang on. In other places, a lack of strong leadership hurt. Problems after problems plague the congregation and there never seemed to be any resolution. Rather than marching onward, the church seemed to drift. There never seemed to be any sense of direction, leadership or goals. Family after family left. Some, to find a congregation that had more kids. Some, to find a congregation that seemed to be on the ball. And, some congregations, have fought themselves to death. Trouble after trouble, and those that remained became weary of fussing, fighting, gossip and turmoil. So, the time came to close the doors.

 

But when a church stops, it doesn’t really impact the kingdom. God’s church is made up of the saved. We may assemble in this place and then that place, and none of that really changes God’s kingdom. This is a thought that we lose sometimes. We become wedded to a specific congregation and a specific place. Sometimes our forefathers actually started the congregation or helped build the church building. To close the doors, seems to fail and it seems we are letting our ancestors down. And, that sad truth can be seen in areas where there may be two or three congregations that are not very large. They all have their own church building which must be heated in the winter and cooled in the summer. They all have a preacher that must be supported. Yet, if those two or three congregations merged, they would have a larger pool of teachers, children, and even men to serve as leaders. But some would never dream of that. In their minds, to leave that place would be like leaving the Lord. So, they hang on, while the ship sinks. Discouraged. Slowly dying. They hang on, until death or poor health makes it necessary for them to finally close the doors.

 

Our commitment is to the Lord. We need to serve the Lord wherever we can. The life of a congregation can be up and down. Some soar and others sink. Some do well and some don’t do so well. The congregation is where we worship, connect with other saints, pool our energy and resources, love, work and fellowship. However, our time with a congregation and the life of a congregation often changes. Some move in and then move out. Young people go off to college, get jobs and some never come back. Our faith is tied directly to the Lord. A congregation helps us. And we need to be a part of a congregation, but the congregation does not determine our faith nor define our walk. Here’s what I mean. Things can be a bit touchy in the congregation. Tension and hurt feelings may be taking place. These things may be on my mind a lot. Many prayers may be going upward. But my faith does not have to suffer because my faith is in the Lord and not the wellbeing of a congregation. I own my faith. I determine whether or not I will be strong or not. The church can help, but my faith is independent of the church. If this wasn’t true, then we are putting our hope and future not in the hands of the Lord, but in the hands of those who lead the congregation. If they are corrupt, discouraging, indifferent, dead, then that will be my faith. I cannot have others determine what my faith will be. So, in places like Sardis, where the Lord called them dead, there were a few who were doing right. How could they? How could they do right in an atmosphere of death? The church did not define nor determine their faith.

 

We need to understand this and get this. Too many live their faith based upon what is happening down at the church building. So, if things are positive, optimistic and hopeful, you’ll find some whose faith follows that. However, if things are discouraging and dying, you’ll find some whose faith is that way. The members determine the atmosphere of the church. The church shouldn’t determine the atmosphere of our faith.

 

So, a congregation closes it’s doors. Historically, it’s sad. But nothing really changes. Those believers will move on to another place nearby and continue to worship and work in the kingdom. A church stops meeting, doesn’t mean we quit. For a number of reasons, it may be just time to get with another group and work with them. Our faith needs to be strong, no matter what.

 

We define our faith through Christ, not the church.

 

Roger

 

30

Jump Start # 2400

Posted on July 30, 2019 by Jump Starts Daily in Jump Starts Daily | Tagged | Leave a comment

Jump Start # 2400

Acts 18:25 “This man had been instructed in the way of the Lord; and being fervent in spirit, he was speaking and teaching accurately the things concerning Jesus, being acquainted only with the baptism of John.”

With this Jump Start we reach yet another milestone, number 2400. We began this journey nearly a decade ago. Our readership is at an all time high. There are now 25 Jump Start books that have come from this work. I expect I have written over two million words. All of this is unbelievable to me. I am thankful to God who has given me the talent and opened doors for this to happen. I am thankful to a wonderful church that believes in all of this and paves the way for this to come about. And, now, onward we go!

Accuracy—that’s important. It’s important in so many areas of life. Close just isn’t close enough. Missing a three inch putt is just as important as nailing a three hundred yard drive. Accountants are paid to get the numbers right. Close isn’t good enough. At election time, every vote counts. Inbounds and out of bounds, fair ball and foul ball—all a matter of accuracy. Games have been won and lost because a matter of accuracy. Replays now allow officials to change what they said and get things accurate.

Our verse today is about Apollos. I wish I could have heard him preach. He was powerful and passionate. Those components are necessary for a public speaker. Someone may know the information, but if he can’t present it and can’t persuade people, nothing much will happen. Great in the mind must translate to great in speech. But here is the twist. Many are great in speech, but they are not great in mind. Many can sell snow to an Eskimo, but they miss the quality of being accurate. Apollos was teaching accurately, except for the topic of baptism. He nearly got a 100% on his paper. He was accurate except in one area. That one area mattered. Baptism is important. Jesus commissioned the apostles to go into all the world and preach and baptize. Baptism is part of the salvation plan. Close, here, matters. There are many who love the Lord. They got that right. They believe in Jesus. They want to worship God. They are thankful, thoughtful and compassionate. But they miss it on the baptism subject. Does that matter?

Sure it does. We must be accurate. Paul told Timothy to handle accurately the word of God. That meant to cut straight. We don’t want a crooked board. We want an architect who can draw straight lines. One test for sobriety is whether a person can walk a straight line. The guy who staggers and stumbles and walks crooked is likely intoxicated. Cut straight—some have the eye to do that. Most of us don’t. We must use a ruler, draw a line first, and follow that pattern.

And when you follow a pattern, whether it’s putting together something for the little ones, building a house, cooking according to a recipe, or, painting a wall, it will turn out just as it was supposed to. And, the reason is, you followed a pattern. All around us are examples of patterns. And when one sticks to the pattern, accurately, each item will look the same. We want that when it comes to the doors on our cars. We want that when it comes to the windows in a room. We want that when it comes to our shirt sleeves. Uniform. Accurate. Looking the same. According to the pattern.

Now, put this together with the Bible. If we all followed the Bible accurately and viewed the Bible as God’s divine pattern, we would all look and practice the same. Some don’t like that. They want more individual expression. Some want the Scriptures to be more fluid and free flowing. They don’t want a stiff pattern. They don’t want to look like everyone else. There is a way to do that. It is accomplished when one is not accurate with the Scriptures. Following from a distance, not careful with contexts, reading into Scriptures things that are not there, allowing culture to color how you see God’s word, will open the doors for multiple interpretations, ideas and patterns. Individuality will allow each person to worship God as they feel. Some may plant a flower garden for God. Someone else may write a poem for God. A group of fat guys may spray paint, “G-O-D” on their bellies and stand up and cheer for God. And in the context of individuality, who is to say one is better than the other. In this spirit a person can believe that God is a man, God is a woman, God is a man that became a woman, or God is a tree. And, this is exactly where we are in the climate of religion today. Nothing is wrong and everything is right. And, very few are accurate with the Scriptures.

Apollos was accurate except on baptism. That’s ok, most would say. But not back then. Not according to our Bibles. Priscilla and Aquila heard him. They heard that he was close but not accurate on baptism. They didn’t give him a pass. They didn’t think that it will be ok. The next verse tells us that they took Apollos aside and explained to him “the way of God more accurately.” There’s that word, accurate again. They taught Apollos. They got him “straight” on baptism. He was now cutting according to the pattern. He was preaching it right down the line. He was accurate.

All of this tells us the value of cutting straight where God has drawn the line. Don’t be coloring outside the lines. Someone comes along in the academic circles. He knows the languages. He writes scholarly material. Many start buying into his ideas and theories. Yet, this man doesn’t cut straight when it comes to marriage. He doesn’t cut straight when it comes to worship. He doesn’t cut straight when it comes to the organization of the church. He isn’t cutting straight on salvation. After a while, I think the guy can’t cut straight! He’s not accurate. He’s not like Apollos. He’s not getting more and more accurate. He’s a pied piper that is leading folks away from what God says. Accuracy matters.

So when someone defines a preacher as a “good speaker,” we really need to see how accurate that preacher is with what God has said. He may be a smooth speaker, but he may be not cutting very straight. The spirit of Priscilla and Aquila is needed today. They didn’t walk away. They didn’t talk about Apollos to others. They didn’t post something on social media. They didn’t make a scene in front of others. They cared enough to help him cut straight. They loved him enough to want him to be accurate. They took him aside. They taught him. They showed him. They helped him. And, now, Apollos was teaching accurately.

That’s the spirit we need today. More helping and less critical condemning. More showing the pattern and less pointing fingers. More taking aside and less talking to others. Apollos got it, because someone showed him how to be more accurate.

How accurate are you? Do you care?

Roger

29

Jump Start # 2399

Posted on July 29, 2019 by Jump Starts Daily in Jump Starts Daily | Tagged | Leave a comment

Jump Start # 2399

Jonah 4:8 “And it came about when the sun came up that God appointed a scorching east win, and the sun beat down on Jonah’s head so tha the became faint and begged with all his soul to die, saying, ‘Death is better to me than life.’”

 

We’ve been looking at Jonah on Monday’s in July. Jonah in July has been our series. When we come to the final chapter of Jonah, it ought to be a grand celebration, but it’s not. Jonah has finally obeyed God and preached to Nineveh. They listened. They changed. They repented. God held back the wrath that was about to boil over on them. This should have been a time of great rejoicing. Finished with his mission, Jonah goes to a hillside and sits down to watch. We are not told why he did this. There is no indication that this was part of God’s commission to him. This would have been a great time to take that boat to Tarshish. Instead, Jonah sits on a hill to watch. I don’t think he’s wanting to see repentance. Maybe the people of Nineveh were pulling down idols and offering sacrifices to God, but I don’t think that interested Jonah. He’d rather watch the city burn. Maybe he thought God might change His mind again and bring fire down from Heaven upon the city. He watched.

 

It was hot, so he built a shelter, but it wasn’t very good. God arranged for a plant to grow. It grew fast. It provided better relief to Jonah than his shelter did. For the first time in the book, Jonah is happy. The text tells us that he was extremely happy. Then overnight, another intervention by God. A worm is appointed and it destroys Jonah’s shade. The plant withers. On top of that, God made a scorching east wind blow on Jonah. The sun beat on his head. His comfort gone, his happiness gone, Jonah wishes that he was dead. He seemed to care more for a plant that didn’t have a soul than the people of Nineveh who were made in the image of God.

 

Twice God asks Jonah if he has a reason to be angry. He thinks he does, but he doesn’t. He’s unhappy because he’s miserable. He doesn’t have any shade. I suppose Jonah could have gone into the city and into a building, but he doesn’t do that. The hotter the temperature the more he stews. He’s hot on the inside and the outside.

 

As the book ends, with God’s question to Jonah, we wonder if the prophet ever got the message. Did he ever change? Did he ever get a heart of compassion like God?

 

And, what we see here are two different times God made Jonah uncomfortable. Both times were attempts to get Jonah to open his eyes and his heart. The fish that swallowed Jonah wasn’t punishment. It was his salvation from drowning. God didn’t send a rescue boat. Instead he put Jonah inside that dark, gooey fish for three days. Tossed up and down with the worst smells, wet, not knowing if it was day or night, Jonah was certainly uncomfortable. And, here in the fourth chapter, God made a plant and God took away the plant. Jonah was uncomfortable once again. And, once again, God is trying to get Jonah to open his heart to the people he just preached to.

 

The same happened to the prodigal son. He was so hungry that he wanted to eat what the pigs were eating. He wasn’t doing well. He was very uncomfortable. He was miserable. And, that got him thinking and led to some serious changes in his life.

 

And, we must see the bridge to our lives. We like comfort. The temperature must be just right, in our homes, our cars and our church buildings. We like easy chairs. We like mattresses that are comfortable. Comfort drives our society. Anymore one doesn’t even have to go into a store. Order the stuff and they will bring it out to your car or deliver it to your home. Comfort. Our banking is now easy, you can take care of business from your phone. This spills over into our thinking about sermons. We like nice sermons. Ditch the stuff about Hell, judgment, duty and commitment. Nice people want nice sermons. Could it be with all this comfort, that we have turned Christianity into a nice religion? Have we forgotten about turning the other cheek, or, taking up our cross daily, or, walking the second mile, or, fighting the good fight of faith, or, that men will hate you because of Jesus? Convenient and comfort never really fits too well with Jesus. His words were radical for a first century world and are radical for our world today.

 

Could it be that God puts some discomfort in our lives to open our eyes? Maybe a night with pigs, spending time in the belly of a fish, or some sun beating down upon our heads is just the thing we need to see what’s really important. Jonah seems to have forgotten that. He was more upset over a plant dying than Nineveh dying.

 

Maybe some good ole’ fashioned hard times and wrecking our neatly planned schedules is just the thing some need to open their eyes spiritually. A trip to the hospital. A car that needs repaired. Having to cancel things so you can attend a funeral. Some real preaching that actually makes one think and steps on toes. A sick child and you have to take a day off of work to stay home. An air conditioner that goes out in July? A furnace that goes out in January? Your teen lost his cell phone? You have to sit around half a day waiting for a repair man to show up? Bothered? Feel some heat? A little upset? Angry? Going to cost you? Not so comfortable now are you. Now, you feel what Jonah felt. It’s not a great place to be. We want everything to be working, running, and a day without problems. Instead, we are in the belly of a fish, or sitting on top of a hillside, sweating. Upset. Fuming. Angry. What does all of this discomfort due to you? Does it make you appreciate what you have? Does it make you see what really matters? Does it change your heart? Does it allow you to see that people are more important than plants and sometimes we put ourselves in the belly of a fish because we won’t do what God says?

 

Uncomfortable—that’s the idea behind wearing sackcloth and pouring ashes on one’s head. It wasn’t like taking a warm bath with sweet smelling bath bombs. Sackcloth was scratchy. You’d pull at it. It made you uncomfortable. It was to show and experience on the outside what was going on inside. Inside one was miserable because of sin or death and now the outside was the same. With sackcloth and ashes, Nineveh repented, prayed and changed. On a hill not so far away, sat the miserable Jonah, crying and complaining because a plant died and he was hot.

 

I picked blueberries awhile back with a four year old. Her legs were tired so I had to carry her to the spot. Then she was thirsty so we had to go get some water (I had to carry her). Then I had to carry her back. Within five minutes she was hot and ready to go. We actually got some berries picked, but it was a chore. She declared very loudly that she wasn’t coming back. She reminds me of Jonah.

 

I wonder how many times Jonah looks like me? Use your times of misery to do what is right!

 

A special note: we have put this series into a book we are calling, “Jonah in July.” As an extra bonus, pulled from my sermon series, there is a section of Technical thoughts from the text and Practical thoughts that helps build faith. If you would like a copy, email me with your mailing address: Rogshouse@aol.com.

 

Roger

 

26

Jump Start # 2398

Posted on July 26, 2019 by Jump Starts Daily in Jump Starts Daily | Tagged | Leave a comment

Jump Start # 2398

Psalms 78:4 “We will not conceal them from their children, but tell to the generation to come the praises of the Lord, and His strength and His wondrous works that He has done.”

 

God is good. That thought echoes throughout the book of Psalms, from our hymnbooks and from deep within our hearts. God has treated us better than we deserve. He has been more patient with us that most of us would have been. God is kind. God is generous. God blesses. God forgives. These are truths and principles that we hold dear to our faith. Ours is not a faith in the church, but in the Lord of Heaven and earth. It is not within us, but from God that comes our help and our salvation.

 

Our passage today is set in a series of generations. It is a legacy passage. Our fathers have told us, the verse before states. And, now, we will tell the generation to come. We will pass the baton on. The keys that have been handed to us, will now be shared with those who come after us. I am a part of four living generations. That’s special. Some can even stretch it to five or maybe six generations. People before me and people after me. And, the common thread that runs through all of this is that we are family.

 

It’s one thing to look backwards through your family. We call that ancestry, or tracing your roots. I can go back to the late 1600’s. Lots of names. Lots of people. And, with most, there are a few characters, or black sheep, in that ancestry. Just about every family tree has a few nuts, some more than others. Looking backwards is one thing, but our verse talks about looking forward. The generation to come. The little ones need to be taught. The littles ones someday won’t be little. And, as we have been taught, so we must teach them. There is a flow running through this passage. Past-present-future. The hope we have for the future lies in the new generation learning and knowing the Lord. The wondrous works of the Lord must be shared with the generation to come.

 

Here are some thoughts:

 

At home: little ones need to learn to pray. They need to learn to pray with respect and honor to God. At first, they may thank the Lord for butterflies, dandelions, cotton candy and Pop tarts. That’s cute. In time, parents need to guide them into deeper thoughts and praying about people and learning to give thanks. How this is done is by parents praying after the little ones. You hear their prayers and then they hear your prayers. Sometimes it is good to make a suggestion or to give them a name to include in their prayers. Using popsicle sticks to write names on and then randomly drawing those from a jar is a way to keep prayers fresh and directed.

 

Get your child their own Bible. At first, it may need to have more pictures than words, but teach them the stories. Help them understand how special the Bible is and why it is different from all other books. Teach them to take care of their Bible.

 

Talk about worship when you get home. Talk about the songs you sang. Talk about the lesson. Talk about Bible classes. Help your child to see that God is not kept in the church building and when we leave, we are not done with God until next week. As you travel about, sing songs that are spiritual in nature. I’ve seen little ones rolling that Gospel chariot along, and you can barely understand what they are saying, but you can tell they are getting it.

 

At worship: bring Bible based books for the little ones to look at. Keep the toys at home. Keep the food at home, unless they are very little. I’ve sadly seen teenagers stuffing song book racks with discarded potato chip bags that grandma brought for them. That’s not helping the next generation. There is a difference between what we do at a ball game and what we do in worship. The sooner you get to teaching that the better.

 

As the children get older, bring notebooks for them to take notes in. If the preacher has fill-in-the-blank note cards, help your child with his. He may not fully understand what he is writing, but lessons are being taught. So many congregations today use powerpoint for the songs and that’s a wonderful tool. But I remember my wife taking out the song book and following the song along with her finger as our children watched and sang. That taught them many things, from reading, to music, to knowing our hymns, to praising God. Telling the generation to come.

 

I’ve seen some parents hand their child a quarter or dollar to drop in the collection plate. That’s nice, but that really didn’t teach them much, especially if they are getting about school age. All that shows is that dad hands me money and I drop it in. Wouldn’t it be better to have your child do some work around the house and get a “paycheck.” From that, they have money that must be saved, money that will be given on Sunday, and money to spend. Many lessons are being taught that way. Telling the generation to come.

 

We must realize that if we do not tell them, then they will not know. They won’t learn the truth about God from school, friends, or Youtube. They will know about God, but likely, it won’t be the truth. Teaching the generation to come takes time. It takes patience. It takes a love for them and a love for the Lord.

 

Have you ever been in a relay race? All it takes is for one person to drop the baton, and everything falls apart. A team can go from first to last, just like that, when one drops the baton. It is essential spiritually that we make sure that we are not dropping that baton. It was handed to us. Now, we must handed to others.

 

Let’s get busy…there is a generation that needs us.

 

Roger

 

25

Jump Start # 2397

Posted on July 25, 2019 by Jump Starts Daily in Jump Starts Daily | Tagged | Leave a comment

Jump Start # 2397

 

Genesis 50:24-25 “Joseph said to his brothers, ‘I am about to die, but God will surely take care of you and bring you up from this land to the land which He promised on oath to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob.’ Then Joseph made the sons of Israel swear, saying, ‘God will surely take care of you, and you shall carry my bones up from here.’”

 

Our verse today, the final words of Joseph, to his family is layered with many great thoughts for us. Joseph knew the end was near. He wanted to be buried in the land that God had promised to his forefathers. He believed that one day this people would dwell in that land. We must remember that at this time Joseph is second only to Pharaoh. This would be like the death of a Vice-President to us. You can imagine how Egypt would have honored him.

 

The book of Genesis begins with the creation of life. The book ends with a coffin in Egypt. Joseph had spent 90 years in Egypt. It was his home, but not his heart. Exodus 12 tells us that the sons of Israel lived in Egypt for 430 years. It wasn’t until Joshua 24, that the bones of Joseph are buried in the promise land. For centuries Israel carried those old bones of Joseph. From place to place that they traveled, they carried those old bones.

 

Israel carried those bones, but they didn’t carry Joseph’s great example of godliness with them. Time after time, Joseph was in trouble but he always knew that God was with him and God was doing things through him. Sold by his brothers, falsely accused of inappropriate behavior, forgotten in prison, the long road of hardships would be enough for most of us to turn our backs on God. But not Joseph. He holds to God’s unchanging hands over and over. The very people that carried those bones of Joseph didn’t make it to the promise land themselves. It would be their children who would see the promises fulfilled. They would carry those bones and they would bury Joseph. The adults that left Egypt, also left God. Their complaining and faithless ways kept them from seeing what was promised. These people carried a great example, but they never developed that spirit among them.

 

As they carried those bones of Joseph through the wilderness, they probably never realized that they were carrying a resident of Heaven. Joseph is named specifically in Hebrews 11 as one who gained approval by God. He made it. He’s in the trophy case of Heaven. He is shown to the Hebrew Christians as an example of what they ought to be doing. It doesn’t seem that Israel thought much about the bones that they were carrying about. How special that person was. How he had honored God throughout his life. How they could learn from him.

 

As I think of this great passage, there are three lessons before us.

 

First, you and I tend to carry old bones around as well. I’m not talking about our bodies, though some of us may feel like we are just a bag of old bones. We carry old baggage around. We tend to carry the past with us. We tend to carry and remember the hurts we received. We carry negative things that has happened to us. And, the older we get, these bag of bones sure seem to get heavier and heavier. And, as we age, we find ways to keep adding more bones to these bags. We drag these old bag of bones from congregation to congregation. We drag them from relationship to relationship. We open the bag up and show those old bones to anyone that will stop and listen. We’ve told these same stories for decades and decades about what people have said about us, and what was done to us. We shuffle on down the road with these heavy bags of bones from the past. These bones are reminders of sin, guilt, shame and suffering.

 

Paul’s words to the Philippians, forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead is something that we seem to have a hard time with. It’s hard to forget the past when you are dragging a bag of old bones behind you. The past is following you, everywhere.

 

Some won’t let us forget. They are always there to remind us of our mistakes and how we let them down. They happily dig up those old bones and place them back on your shoulders to carry. This happens in marriage. This happens in parenting. This happens among brethren.

 

It was a good thing to carry Joseph’s bones. But some of the bones that we carry should not be carried any longer. Forgiveness, including forgiving yourself, is the key to dropping that heavy bag of bones. Let the past stay in the past. Learn your lessons. Do better. But stop carry those old bones with you.

 

Second, we are surrounded by an immense amount of examples of what we ought to be doing. We stand upon the shoulders of those who were before us. They sacrificed. They taught. They devoted time to help us be who we are. They gave us opportunities. And, for those of us who preach, most of us were not very good at the start. Yet, there were brethren who believed in us. There were open doors of opportunity and hearts that were kind and patient with us. We were definitely a work in progress. And, as Israel carried that coffin out of Egypt, what a great reminder, example and hope that they were carrying. We look around at where we are today, some of us are in congregations that are large, powerful and doing well. The congregation I am with started in the front room of a person’s house over a hundred years ago. I doubt those few believers could ever imagine a congregation that numbers in the hundreds. We all have a wonderful spiritual history, both personally and congregationally. Many do not know the story and the history of their congregation. It ought to be told. It needs to be shared. Most congregations have weathered storms and enjoyed good times of growth. Solid preaching, compassionate shepherding and leading has helped these congregations touch the lives of people world wide. The body of Joseph represented the past. There was Jacob. There was Isaac. There was Abraham. Joseph follows that line. A line of believers. A line of promised people. A line connecting to God. There are names, good names, of men and women who have walked well with the Lord. We don’t carry their bones, but we do need to carry their examples and their memory among us. We owe much to them.

 

Third, we are leaving footprints for our children to follow one day. The bones of Joseph represented more than just the past. The bones pointed to the future. He was to be buried in the promise land. He believed in that promise. He believed that one day Israel would dwell in that land, just as God said. His bones were more than a museum, they were the future. Too often, we’ve made the church like a museum. Everything seems old and in the past. Where’s the future? Where are we going? The bones of Joseph was a reminder that the wilderness wasn’t the destination. Egypt wasn’t home. There was a land and it’s to that land that we must travel to. We must work to make the church stronger and better for our children. Leave this place better than we found it. We ought to look down the line and see future leaders, three years out, five years out, ten years out. We need to help these men be ready by mentoring them and training them. Get the church positioned financially so it can do things. Develop, teach, train, show—those are the key components of preparing those who will follow us.

 

It will be our bones that the next generation carries. Not literally, but in their hearts and memory. What will they carry? A people that fussed and argued and fought about everything? A people that had the heart of Jesus?

 

Carrying bones—what a great lesson for us.

 

Roger