Jude 1:3-5 ( NKJV )
Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. But I want to remind you, though you once knew this, that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe.
(No blog entry on Monday the 21st of June as I took the day off. It was the first day of summer after all!)
In our study of the journey of the children of Israel from Egypt to the Canaan, the promised land, we have discovered some things about our journey into God’s promises as well. Israel came to the very edge of the promise that God had given them and could not go in. They had developed a lifestyle of unbelief that produced a hardness of heart. When it came time for them to step out in faith and possess the promise they simply did not have it within them to do so.
We often find ourselves in the same condition. We know the promise. We know that God is able to meet our need, but we just can’t seem to cross over that line into true faith and action on the Word of God. We trust God in theory but in actual practice is seems we can’t quite pull the trigger. We need to break through that condition.
In Israel’s case, the solution was the removal of one generation and the establishment of a second generation who had the capacity for faith required to enter the promised land. This second generation didn’t have the slave mentality that their parents had. The older ones had lived a limited life characterized by a lack of a need to trust. They had a terrible life, but it was consistent and provided for. They didn’t have to believe for their food or shelter, it was provided.
They didn’t expect better things as their condition was not going to change. At least not for the better. They made no decisions for themselves as all decisions were made for them. They did not plan for the future because their future was already decided. They were slaves.
When they were confronted with the possibility of a better life they could not even fathom what that could mean. They had been slaves for nearly 400 years. They had no recollection of a time when they could choose for themselves. Faith must involve such a choice and they didn’t know how to make it. When the pressure was on they simply reverted back to what was comfortable to them. Slavery.
In many ways, I think we have come to a similar place. We have so many things we can turn to to meet our needs that we have no need to trust God. Our lives are provided for by our technology and the machinery of our society. We are kept passive by entertainment. We don’t really dream anymore because our dreams are lived out on the TV screen. We expect better, but only in terms of better “stuff” not better life. We don’t strive for better because what we have is so good. Most of what we have and what we comes to us without hard work or real faith. We are, in some ways, slaves just as Israel was.
What do we need to do. I believe Jude tells us. We need to contend for the faith that was once delivered to us. We need to stretch our spiritual muscles and begin again to believe that there is a life beyond what we have today. We need to contend for a faith that believes we can be part of something extraordinary. We need to contend for a faith that believes there is a promised land where God still does miracles and where we can see a move of the Spirit that will change our world.
I believe it is time for us to rise up once again. My generation has seen some good things, but not what we could see. I believe God is moving right now to press us into a place where we will cry out to God as Israel once did. They didn’t know how not to be slaves and it took a second generation to really rise above the slavery, but they did come to the place where they were tired enough of the bondage that they cried out to God for a solution.
I believe we need to come to that place and I believe God is taking us there. My question to you is, “Will you be part of a generation that, in the end, can’t go in? Will we lead our children in, or will we need to die off so the can go in.” I intend it to be the former, but if it is the latter, I am going to be a Joshua that goes into the promised land with the kids.
What are you willing to fight for. I hope you will contend with me for the faith that was once delivered to us.
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