The Tragedy of Neglecting Generational Thinking

“Never before had there been a king like Josiah, who turned to the LORD with all his heart and soul and strength, obeying all the laws of Moses. And there has never been a king like him since.”

(2 Kings 23:25)

“Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem three months. His mother was Hamutal, the daughter of Jeremiah from Libnah. He did what was evil in the LORD’s sight, just as his ancestors had done.”

(2 Kings 23:31–32)

““My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message,”

(John 17:20)

If we are serious about obeying Christ in His command to make disciples of all nations, it will never be enough just to have a ministry - even a significant ministry. Our good works will be of no lasting value unless it is a generational ministry. Josiah was a good king who took extraordinary measures to cleanse Judah and Israel of idolatry. Yet, as soon as he was gone and his son took over, people reverted to their pagan ways - to their eventual destruction.  Even for Jesus, cleansing the temple was not enough. Healing and preaching were not enough. Even His investment in His disciples was not enough. What was essential was a generational movement that stretched even to us today. We can see this in the generational nature of Jesus' prayer in John 17.

A key to generational ministry is imparting the legacy of the Gospel to laborers and leaders who will disciple the next generation with a vision for the one that comes after.  I must continue to prioritize investment in the next generation. One generation must commend the works of God to another. I also must pray into the generations that I can't personally touch. Just another practical lesson from the life and prayer of Jesus.

Promises, promises

“Lord, where is your unfailing love? You promised it to David with a faithful pledge.” (Psalms 89:49)

“They will say, “Where is this ‘coming’ he promised? Ever since our fathers died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.”” (2 Peter 3:4)

When I first started following Christ, I read the stories about Dawson Trotman (founder of The Navigators) going to the hills of California early in the morning to pray and seek the Lord for his city, his nation, and the nations. He and his small group of prayer partners began to "claim promises". I believe that my life and ministry flow from those promises that God kept to Daws through the decades. Looking for promises from God became a part of my times in the word and fueled my own prayer life and it has to this day. My Bible and more importantly, my life is marked with those promises.

Yet there are many promises that I have not seen fulfilled. What does this mean? Did I really hear from God? Did the promises fail? I especially had doubts about promises God gave in leading us to move to Latvia  (one such promise is in the picture below). When we were forced to leave Latvia, I had very little evidence that these promises were being fulfilled. As the years went by, I lost contact with many of the people there. Then one day, I listened to a message from Mike Treneer (International President of The Navigators) in which he stated that God gives promises not because he will do something right away, but because he will do something after a period of time. He is after our heart. It was then that I realized that I don't claim promises, promises claim me.

God's promises do not fail, but human understanding of God’s timescale often does.The promises never fail, though seeming delay may cause us to l doubt. "“For no matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ. And so through him the “Amen” is spoken by us to the glory of God.”
(2 Corinthians 1:20)

After Mike's message, I returned to my room, telling God (and Iris) that I was going to continue to believe God for Latvia whether I ever heard something from there or not. That very evening, I turned on my laptop to find a Facebook friend request from someone in Latvia. That has led to more requests and more connections. Today, the Navs again have a full time missionary in that country and several from our time there have reproduced to the third generation. God didn't have to show me this, but He did. God's promises are meant to get me through the tough times, when hope seems lost. At that time, I must grip His promises and let them grip me.

What do you do with the year of Jubilee?

“But the field, when it is released in the jubilee, shall be a holy gift to the LORD, like a field that has been devoted. The priest shall be in possession of it.” (Leviticus 27:21 ESV)

““The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”” (Luke 4:18–19 ESV)


When Jesus quoted Isaiah 61 in the synagogue that day, He was proclaiming the year of jubilee. The year of jubilee would have been good news to the poor because they would have land returned to them that they had lost. It was a proclamation of liberty: “And you shall consecrate the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you, when each of you shall return to his property and each of you shall return to his clan.” (Leviticus 25:10 ESV)

The year of the Lord's favor was the year of Jubilee. Kay Arthur says, "The Jubilee of Israel only lasted one year. After this, it was possible to begin to buy and sell property again. 'Buyer beware' had to be the motto of the day after the year of Jubilee was completed. If you were foolish enough to be taken the first time, you would probably be taken again. Then you would have to wait forty-nine more years for this celebration to come around again!"

But the Jubilee Jesus announced, "the acceptable year of the Lord," was different. Like the Jubilee of old, this event would be announced by the Day of Atonement, the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus. But, unlike the Jubilee of the Old Testament, this celebration would be eternal. Because of our faith in the Lord Jesus and the new birth, the Church has entered into a perpetual Jubilee. The only way you can fail to claim your original blessings is to be ignorant of your rights, refuse to accept what is legally yours, or be talked out of them by Satan.

Are you living in Jubilee? Bob Goff, in his excellent book, Love Does says this: "Love doesn’t try to be efficient; when it’s most extravagant, it’s least wasted”. Let's at least be as extravagant  in our love as God was when he laid out the Year of Jubilee.

God Sees our Incredible Potential

“The angel of the LORD appeared to him and said, “Mighty hero, the LORD is with you!”” (Judges 6:12 NLT)
“And I tell you, you are Peter [Greek, Petros—a large piece of rock], and on this rock [Greek, petra—a huge rock like Gibraltar] I will build My church, and the gates of Hades (the powers of the infernal region) shall not overpower it [or be strong to its detriment or hold out against it].” (Matthew 16:18 AMP)

When God calls a man; He looks at him not as he is, but as he can be. When the angel of the Lord greeted Gideon, he called him a mighty hero and pointed out that the Lord was with him. After Peter confessed Jesus as Lord, Jesus called him a rock and said that he would build his church on the rock. Jesus saw what Peter would become.


CS Lewis said, "Remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you may talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilization—these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit— immortal horrors or everlasting splendors."

So, as I imitate Christ,  how can I keep that perspective? What helps you see the potential in the people that you meet?

Who is my neighbor? His name might be Trayvon or maybe George.

I had absolutely no desire to write anything about the Trayvon Martin/George Zimmerman trial for a few reasons. First, this blog is about practical lessons from the life of Jesus and the thoughts come more from my personal reading of the scripture than from current events. Secondly, (Alert: I'm about to admit something I'm not proud of), I was a bit scared to touch this topic since I have friends that seem to have strong opinions on both sides of the issue and I want everyone to think well of me. Finally, I believe that the way the media has handled this story has been shameful and I did not want to jump on the bandwagon. So, I was not planning to write anything about the death of Trayvon Martin, the trial and acquittal of George Zimmerman, the injustice (or justice) of it all or anything like that.

Then I got the text. The text came from my literal neighbor. She lives next door and happens to be a person of color. This is what she texted me: This Trayvon case made me think of you....and the humane way in which you handled the suspect! Thank you Al for being an agent of peace, for demonstrating God's love everyday...in everything you do! I was deeply moved by this text which came out of the blue on a Sunday morning. Later, she posted to Facebook: In my neighborhood (Seattle) a few years ago, there was a series of burglaries.....one of my neighbors saw the suspect walking down the street with the laptop case he stole from my neighbor's house just minutes before. My neighbor, who was in his car, took photos of the suspect and handed it over to the police, who then found the suspect and was able to prosecute him. My neighbor is a white man. The suspect is a young black boy. No one died.

My neighbor is definitely a "person of peace".  The text and the Facebook post spurred me to re-read the story that Jesus told in answer to a person who wished to justify himself. That person asked Jesus, "Who is my neighbor?"

Jesus told the story of a man beaten, robbed and left to die who was passed over by two of his own countrymen and was helped by a Samaritan - a member of an ethnic group disdained by the Jewish people. As I read this familiar story, I was struck by what a story of race it is. Jesus makes it clear that the victim was Jewish and that the people who did not help him were also Jewish and religious. He also makes a point to clearly mention the ethnicity of the one who showed mercy, ““But a Samaritan, who was on a journey, came upon him; and when he saw him, he felt compassion”. (Luke 10:33)

Which side are you on in the verdict of not guilty? Was justice served or mocked? A seventeen year old, probably not unlike the teenager who robbed the homes in our neighborhood, is dead. The man who pulled the trigger will have to live with this for the rest of his life. Is it possible for those of us who follow Christ to  at least  feel the compassion that the Samaritan did when he encountered the victim on the side of the road?

Allow me to take the risk of making my friends on both sides of this verdict unhappy by expressing two opinions. First opinion: the presumption of innocence makes it pretty difficult to find George Zimmerman guilty of murder or manslaughter in this case. No one really knows what happened when the two began to wrestle on the ground. Second opinion: Had the story played out in the exact same way, but Trayvon was the person who had a gun and used it that night, I question whether he would have been found "not guilty".

I read several posts on Facebook by friends who are seeking to follow Jesus. They ranged from, "the right verdict was reached, this was never about race" to "who is going to join me tonight at the rally to protest this injustice?". People are taking sides. My friends whose skin color is a darker shade than mine  believe a great injustice was done, so do those who (though white) live and serve in the inner city. My white, evangelical friends (with a couple of exceptions) think that the right verdict was reached.

One friend posted the following statement in which I'm in wholehearted agreement:
We get nowhere so long as we continue to play into a culture of fear, division, and "other." What am I doing to advocate for equality, harmony, love, reconciliation, education, compassion, and understanding? Are the principles and qualities that I integrate into my actions and conversations and thought patterns further stirring up a culture of fear and division, or am I walking in the opposite spirit? What would it look like if we chose radical love and compassion over gut reactions and suspicion?

So why do I look at issues of race and ethnicity? Because Jesus did. You can read about it in Luke 10.

The Ark, the Milkshake, and the Glory of God

“After the battle was over, the army of Israel retreated to their camp, and their leaders asked, “Why did the LORD allow us to be defeated by the Philistines?” Then they said, “Let’s bring the Ark of the Covenant of the LORD from Shiloh. If we carry it into battle with us, it will save us from our enemies.””(1 Samuel 4:3 NLT)

“Then she said, “The glory has departed from Israel, for the Ark of God has been captured.”” (1 Samuel 4:22 NLT)

“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14 NIV)

“I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one:”(John 17:22 NIV)

“He called you to this through our gospel, that you might share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.”(2 Thessalonians 2:14 NIV)


As human beings, we long for the power and glory that only comes from God. This is especially true during desperate times. Early in Samuel's life, the Israelites were in such times of desperation. Already under Philistine domination, they had just fought a new battle with their oppressors in which they lost 4,000 men. The military leaders realized that they needed a new strategy. Desperate times called for desperate measures. In spite of the the anxiety of the high priest, they decided to take the Ark of the Covenant into the battle. Their strategy was simple, "it will save us from our enemies".

Instead, the Israelites experienced an even greater defeat. More that 30,000 people lost their lives, including the two sons of the high priest. When the high priest heard the news, he also collapsed and died. Finally, his daughter-in-law went into labor and died in childbirth. As she lay dying, her last words were, "The glory has departed from Israel". This was a significant insight. It was not the Ark that set Israel apart, it was the glory of God that the Ark merely pointed to.

We all want glory, but when we grab for it the results are disastrous. My friend Dave Young says that stealing glory is like trying to get that last bit of a thick milkshake out of the bottom; inevitably you get glory all over your face.

When Jesus came, the glory of God was all over him. He was the Ark personified. The apostle said, "We have seen His glory". What did Jesus do with the glory that He had from the Father? He gave it away to all of those who submit to His leadership. That very thing that we long for has been given to us. They key is to seek the giver, not the gift. It's not good to treat the glory of God as something we can simply use for our own purposes, but in Jesus, God invites us share in His glory for His purposes.

Where's Your Heart? The Surrender Principle

“And she said to him, “How can you say, ‘I love you,’ when your heart is not with me? You have mocked me these three times, and you have not told me where your great strength lies.”” (Judges 16:15 ESV)

“And He said to them, “Rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written: ‘THIS PEOPLE HONORS ME WITH THEIR LIPS, BUT THEIR HEART IS FAR AWAY FROM ME.” (Mark 7:6 NAS95)


Delilah was a self-serving prostitute, but she did get one thing right with Samson. "How can you say,'I love you', when your heart is not with me?" Jesus said the same thing about the hypocrites in His day, "this people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me".

This fits with what I read yesterday in the excellent book by Michael John Cusick on sexual struggle, "Surfing For God". Cusick writes about the surrender principle. He says that our hearts attach to anything to which they have surrendered. That is why it is critical to surrender to the leadership of Jesus in all areas and to root out those areas where I surrender my heart to someone or something else. It is a matter of the heart and surrender is the way to impact the heart.

In the painfully funny viral video called "Shoot Christians Say", one of the trite questions that they mock is the overused, "how's your heart?". Perhaps the better question is "where's your heart?".