What I am doing in the present is creating effects for generations to come. I never could have imagined what it would do in my life when my dad started a bus route in our church in Detroit when I was a small child. My dad was newly saved, and he was being encouraged to serve the Lord in some capacity. At the time, he didn’t really know what his spiritual gifts were, and so he wasn’t really sure what he should do. It was also at a time when the bus ministry explosion in independent Baptist churches in the United States was in full force. Churches were buying school buses and using them to pick up unchurched children and teenagers for Sunday School. Filled with promotions and excitement, buses all over the country were being filled. My dad started a bus route. Part of the process of picking up kids was to make sure they wanted to come. That part took place on Saturday mornings where my dad and I would go visit the kids at their homes. As I have stated before, we would go and get a Faygo pop and a bag of Better Made chips, it seemed like, every Saturday before the visits would begin. My dad was raising his grandchildren, and he didn’t even know it.
Fast-forward almost 45 years later, and this past month my youngest daughter went on a mission’s trip to the Dominican Republic. It was on this trip where she ministered to kids both the Gospel of Salvation and the love of Jesus through medical missions. What is amazing to me as I write this devotional is how faithful God is to us when we are faithful to him. My dad received Jesus, and instead of selfishly looking to be served, he chose to serve. It had a generational effect on my family. That first bus ministry experience led me to build my own outreach ministry, almost 30 years later, through bus outreach. Some of our faithful leaders at Emmanuel today were reached for Christ by coming on a bus to church. What am I trying to say? Our choices, priorities, and decisions have generational implications.
When God chose Abraham to be the father of his chosen people, he did so with expectations. The Abrahamic Covenant (agreement between two parties) had a “sign” called circumcision attached to it. In other words, God demanded that his people be purely and wholly committed to him. He wanted them separated or “cut off” from sinful people groups and connected to him. The rite of circumcision was both a physical and spiritual advantage to Israel. The key: Israel had to have enough “common sense” to obey God. God wanted his people to be separate from other nations in values, behaviors, mindsets, and eternal priorities. Are we making the same important distinctions and decisions?
Have you ever watched your children in conversation with someone else? You noticed their content, their facial expressions, and their tone. I have watched my son “overreact” to a referee’s call on the field during a Michigan football game. Where do you think he learned that? I think you know where I am going. So, what generational priorities, behaviors, and attitudes are you passing down to your children? For Israel, this was NOT UP FOR DISCUSSION. God demanded that every male child was to be circumcised. God was making a covenant, or contract, between himself and Abraham. The terms were simple: Abraham would obey God and circumcise all the males in his household; God’s part was to give Abraham heirs, power, and wealth. Most contracts are even trades: we give something and in turn receive something of equal value. But, when we become part of God’s covenant family, the blessings we receive far outweigh what we must give up.
My dad didn’t realize it, but he was “raising his grandchildren” when he started me on that bus route at the age of five. In this past year, not only has my youngest child served the Lord on a foreign mission’s trip, but my son is getting ready to help lead a summer VBS in his church, and my other daughter serves in a weekly student outreach ministry called Young Life. All three of my kids (by God’s grace) are serving in some form of an outreach ministry, and just think...they never went “door to door” to invite neighborhood children to Sunday School back in Detroit. You know what that is – IT'S MY DAD RAISING HIS GRANDKIDS! What about you? What spiritual inheritance are you passing along to your grandkids?
Fast-forward almost 45 years later, and this past month my youngest daughter went on a mission’s trip to the Dominican Republic. It was on this trip where she ministered to kids both the Gospel of Salvation and the love of Jesus through medical missions. What is amazing to me as I write this devotional is how faithful God is to us when we are faithful to him. My dad received Jesus, and instead of selfishly looking to be served, he chose to serve. It had a generational effect on my family. That first bus ministry experience led me to build my own outreach ministry, almost 30 years later, through bus outreach. Some of our faithful leaders at Emmanuel today were reached for Christ by coming on a bus to church. What am I trying to say? Our choices, priorities, and decisions have generational implications.
When God chose Abraham to be the father of his chosen people, he did so with expectations. The Abrahamic Covenant (agreement between two parties) had a “sign” called circumcision attached to it. In other words, God demanded that his people be purely and wholly committed to him. He wanted them separated or “cut off” from sinful people groups and connected to him. The rite of circumcision was both a physical and spiritual advantage to Israel. The key: Israel had to have enough “common sense” to obey God. God wanted his people to be separate from other nations in values, behaviors, mindsets, and eternal priorities. Are we making the same important distinctions and decisions?
Have you ever watched your children in conversation with someone else? You noticed their content, their facial expressions, and their tone. I have watched my son “overreact” to a referee’s call on the field during a Michigan football game. Where do you think he learned that? I think you know where I am going. So, what generational priorities, behaviors, and attitudes are you passing down to your children? For Israel, this was NOT UP FOR DISCUSSION. God demanded that every male child was to be circumcised. God was making a covenant, or contract, between himself and Abraham. The terms were simple: Abraham would obey God and circumcise all the males in his household; God’s part was to give Abraham heirs, power, and wealth. Most contracts are even trades: we give something and in turn receive something of equal value. But, when we become part of God’s covenant family, the blessings we receive far outweigh what we must give up.
My dad didn’t realize it, but he was “raising his grandchildren” when he started me on that bus route at the age of five. In this past year, not only has my youngest child served the Lord on a foreign mission’s trip, but my son is getting ready to help lead a summer VBS in his church, and my other daughter serves in a weekly student outreach ministry called Young Life. All three of my kids (by God’s grace) are serving in some form of an outreach ministry, and just think...they never went “door to door” to invite neighborhood children to Sunday School back in Detroit. You know what that is – IT'S MY DAD RAISING HIS GRANDKIDS! What about you? What spiritual inheritance are you passing along to your grandkids?