Grace For The Journey

  The Bible says in Nehemiah 9:23-24, “…and You brought them into the land that You had told their fathers to enter and possess. So the descendants went in and possessed the land, and You subdued before them the inhabitants of the land…”

These two verses contain both good news and sad news.  Upon first glance, we might even pass by them without even stopping to ponder what is being said.  This seems like a mere recounting of Israel’s history concerning the land which God had pledged to them.  It provides a great testimony in that we are being told . . .

That there was a generation who received from the good hand of God

All of the inheritance which was promised to them

And they went in and possessed the land.

As they walked in faith into their inheritance,

God took care of all their needs and defeated all of their opposition.

They simply took Him at His word, and they received a bountiful harvest because of that.  Life became an adventure, an experience of the good graces of the Father, and a fulfillment of His promises to them.  They believed Him . . . They obeyed Him . . . they received from Him all that He desired to give them.

Yet, notice the seemingly innocuous phrase, “the land that You had told their fathers to enter and possess.”

Did you catch what is recorded there?

God had promised the generation before them the very same things.

God had promised that generation the land,

The defeat of their enemies,

The consistent supply of resources,

And the resulting blessing which would be theirs through trusting and obeying Him.

But they let fear win the day.

They listened to ten leaders who only saw the challenge and not the reward. They listened to and followed leaders who served a very small God, and they ignored Caleb and Joshua who lived with a different spirit than the other ten leaders (Numbers 13:26-14:3).

That previous generation would not walk into the place of fullness.

They chose, in their own wisdom, the path of least resistance.  They avoided the fight.  They discounted the need for sacrifice. Their timidity took away their triumph.  This generation completely missed the will of God for their lives and consequently died after four decades of wandering in the wilderness.

This is what happens when a generation does not move Into what God has designed to do for them.

I love my children and think upon the future of their generation every day.  I love them, but I do not wish to ever become aware that they inherited something which I forfeited.

I want them to be blessed through me, not around me, or instead of me.

Our generation is being offered the same inheritance that all of the generations of God’s people have been offered.  It is the Father’s good pleasure to give His people the Kingdom (Luke 12:32) – I cannot and will not reduce that massive statement from Jesus down to a pocket-sized promise which fits neatly in my shirt.  God will do a great work in any generation that . . .

Will seek Him,

Wait for Him,

Trust Him,

Seek to honor Him,

And obey Him.

Truthfully, He will do that for every individual within that generation, so there is no need for any of us to wait for the rest of our generation to get with the program.  The people in Israel who came after the faithless generation actually received the promises which were made to the generation before them.  They believed, they trusted, they had learned what it meant to not rest in God’s promises and then, when their time came, they went in and received the fullness of their inheritance.  I pray you will choose to do the same.

Sadly, in our day we hear more and more news reports of stabbings, bombings, and conflict.  Murderous marauders with hate in their hearts lift their blades and detonate their bombs; Malicious money-grabbers with greed in their hearts take advantage of the naive, poor, and helpless; those who have rejected God seek to live their lives without Him resulting in chaos, corruption, and collapse of foundations needed for an orderly society; and the self-righteous religious folks focus on a social gospel rather than a saving gospel.

Our country was directed toward God for many decades.  Our situation today is desperate because we have demanded that God and His Word exit the scene of our national landscape, because we have loved darkness more than light, there is little evidence, or even concern about integrity, honesty, truthfulness, or transparency in our news media, government, and society today.  Today, fake news gets more press coverage than real news.  We live in a society where life is becoming less and less sacred and have elevated the worship of the creature above the worship of the Creator.

I am deeply concerned that God is granting this nation what she has demanded.

We have told God that we wish to be left alone, that we do not want to live our lives anchored to God’s Word and will.  God seems to be complying with our ignorant insistence.  If so, He has surely acted justly and we have no platform for legitimate protest.  We in America are as guilty as a people can be . . .

But there is a remedy . . .

There is hope in the promises and power of God!

May we, as God’s people in this generation . . .

Submit to His way,

Seek His Word,

Stand on His Word,

And share His Word in their daily lives.

Our enemies have entered our shores with demonic cries of “Allahu Akbar!”, as they serve a god of death and destruction with bloody blades and blasting bombs.  We have torn God’s protective hedge with our sin, and the enemy has breached the provision of our safety which we long presumed would remain here.  We have sinned.  We rejected His authority and asked Him to leave us alone.  If there is any hope, this generation must cry out God . . .

“Return to us!

Remember Your promises to us.  

Revive Your work in the midst of the years.

Regard our dependence and honor our prayers.”

He was willing to do this when Abraham interceded for Lot – may our prayer be that He will do it for our own nation as we also cry to Him for forgiveness and mercy?  Abraham asked Him in that day, “Will You indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked?” We ask that same question.  We dig down deep to find that fountain of mercy and grace which we know still flows for all who will get low enough to taste it.  It is not our own worth that we lift up before God, it is His everlasting mercy and grace that is our hope.

Friends, these are not days for the faint of heart.  This is not a time for ease-addicts within the Church.  We stand at the threshold of powerful Kingdom advances and God is summoning us to take our eyes off the obstacles and to fixate on His gloriously good character and His proven promises.  He is inviting us into holy adventure with Him.  I promise that, if you continue to follow Him, He will stretch you so far out of your current comfort zone that you will look back one day and be embarrassed that you ever thought that this was as far as you could go with Him.

God is asking us to stand up, step forth and fight for the renown and honor of His Son’s holy name.  He will provide all that you need.  He already knows how and when to do away with your opposition.  He has resources for you – both spiritual and material – that you will not know anything about until you step out in faith toward the place of His promise.

This is His desire for our generation, and we have less time today than we did yesterday.  He is offering this generation a powerful move of the Spirit which will result in powerful advance by the Church.  What more do we require from Him? What more must He offer to us?

This is God Word … This is Grace for your Journey …

Rest and Rejoice in this eternal truth!

Pastor Terry

Ephesians 4:7 – “But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it.”

Hebrews 4:16 – “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”