One Generation to the Next
This last week in our wrap up of the series "Shepherd, Soldier, King: The Life of David in Song" we looked at David's final admonition to the assembled people of Israel and the Psalm that was inspired by that event, Psalms 145. We saw buried in the middle of that song a call for one generation to the next to pass on the greatness of God.
As we studied this scripture I was reminded of a passage from the journal of Jim Elliot. At age 22, Jim Elliot had a promising ministry in front of him in the United States. He probably could have been a very successful pastor or evangelist or teacher. His parents were not very excited about his call to go to the Quichuas in South America. They wrote and told him so. He answered bluntly.
"I do not wonder that you were saddened at the word of my going to South America," he replied on August 8. "This is nothing else than what the Lord Jesus warned us of when He told the disciples that they must become so infatuated with the kingdom and following Him that all other allegiances must become as though they were not. And He never excluded the family tie. In fact, those loves that we regard as closest, He told us must become as hate in comparison with our desires to uphold His cause. Grieve not, then, if your sons seem to desert you, but rejoice, rather, seeing the will of God done gladly. Remember how the Psalmist described children? He said that they were as an heritage from the Lord, and that every man should be happy who had his quiver full of them. And what is a quiver full of but arrows? And what are arrows for but to shoot? So, with the strong arms of prayer, draw the bowstring back and let the arrows fly - all of them, straight at the Enemy's hosts.
"Give of thy sons to bear the message glorious, Give of thy wealth to speed them on their way, Pour out thy soul for them in prayer victorious, And all thou spendest Jesus will repay."
May we at Mercy Hill, as parents and as a church, so exult the greatness of God to the next generation that we see young men and young women with this devotion sent into the world to exult God to the next generation.