Going forward
Is going forward any different from moving on? The word perseverance makes me think of steadily going forward and refusing to give up, no matter what happens or how I feel. In counseling I have often described the inkling of moving on as forgetting what I have left behind, many times the bad and the good, and make a whole new ‘me.’ Sounds exhausting and weirdly impossible. Right? As to going forward, I take everything I have experienced and learned, with me, and use it as a foundation to build my life upon, my cause. My cause is to love and share Jesus more no matter what had happened or who says what.
In this final blog on this topic of perseverance, let’s ask 85-year-old Caleb. Caleb, ‘Is going forward any different from moving on? We all want to know.’
Deuteronomy 1:34 [Yahweh
speaking through Moses] And the Lord heard your words and was angered, and he swore, 35 ‘Not one of these men of this evil generation shall see the good land that I swore to give to your fathers, 36 except Caleb the son of Jephunneh. He shall see it, and to him and to his children I will give the land on which he has trodden, because he has wholly followed the Lord!
Numbers 32: 12 none except Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite and Joshua the son of Nun, for they have wholly followed the Lord.’
Joshua 14: 6 [Caleb
speaking to Joshua] You know what the Lord said to Moses the man of God in Kadesh-barnea concerning you and me. 7 I was forty years old when Moses the servant of the Lord sent me from Kadesh-barnea to spy out the land, and I brought him word again as it was in my heart. 8 But my brothers who went up with me made the heart of the people melt; yet I wholly followed the Lord my God. 9 And Moses swore on that day, saying, ‘Surely the land on which your foot has trodden shall be an inheritance for you and your children forever, because you have wholly followed the Lord my God.’ 10 And now, behold, the Lord has kept me alive, just as he said, these forty-five years since the time that the Lord spoke this word to Moses, while Israel walked in the wilderness. And now, behold, I am this day eighty-five years old. 11 I am still as strong today as I was in the day that Moses sent me; my strength now is as my strength was then, for war and for going and coming. 12 So now give me this hill country of which the Lord spoke on that day, for you heard on that day how the Anakim were there, with great fortified cities. It may be that the Lord will be with me, and I shall drive them out just as the Lord said.” 13 Then Joshua blessed him, and he gave Hebron to Caleb the son of Jephunneh for an inheritance. 14 Therefore Hebron became the inheritance of Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite to this day, because he wholly followed the Lord, the God of Israel.
Amen. There is nothing half-hearted about Caleb [his story is in the Book of Numbers, all of chapters 13 and 14]. Thank you Caleb. There is no sometimes on, sometimes off, sometimes cold, sometimes hot. There is no choosing when he would follow or when he would not. There is that reality about Caleb’s whole-hearted life going forward each day that I want to be.
Who are your heroes? There are many this week. Our medical workers and first responders for sure. Give them praise and thanks. Allow Caleb to be your hero going forward too as this pandemic quarantine delightfully concludes. Caleb was still going strong after many hills conquered and valleys to fjorded! Always prepared to fight for the next mountain that was inhabited by giants with fortified cites like you would not believe. He went forward….
And then I stop to think, Sunday’s coming. ‘I really do not have any heroes compared to Jesus.’ So, let’s begin a study in the Gospel of Mark together…Please watch an eight-minute video summary today of our Sunday Sermon Series: ‘GOING FORWARD,’ tomorrow May 3 all the way to October, in the Gospel of Mark, Mark’s record of our hero, Jesus Christ.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGHqu9-DtXk#action=share
Go to www.christianlifechapel.org and listen to the prerecorded sermon at your convenience.
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Pastor Mike Brubaker, DMin
860-537-3914
Christian Life Chapel Website
Christian Life Chapel
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