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| The Transition Between Two
Generations Moses' generation was called from slavery to take a land flowing with milk
and honey. Being almost there, they were defeated not by the enemies' army, or the
hardships of the desert, or plague or famine, but by a few words from the spies: "...We
seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them." (Num
13:33)
Moses will go further in his description of what was in the people's
hearts when they had to face the challenge of the new land: (Deut 1:27,28)
- "The Lord hates us" (We don't trust in His love)
- "Our brothers have made us lose heart" (It's not
our fault that we are afraid)
- "The people are stronger and taller than we are"
(As we don't trust in God's love and provision, we look at our own strength and
appearance, and as we compare it with our enemies' strength, we get discouraged)
- "The cities are large, with walls up to the sky"
(So we have to find excuses for our discouragement and disobedience. We will describe how
the situation around is bad, and the more we exaggerate in our description, the better we
feel)
Do we see ourselves as grasshoppers
before the giants of this land, before the trials and adversities we face in our lives and
ministries? Are we discouraged, and do we keep describing how the situation is bad, and
how the people are hard?
Is There Hope For a People Like That?
How can a people like that be healed? Or perhaps we should ask: How
can a people like us be healed? The answer is only one: DEATH. Those people had to die in
the desert, so the new generation could take the land.
This is the only hope for us: to die, so a new generation can take
the land. I thank God that I was born in the year of the jubilee. It means that because of
God's favour in Christ, my death was given to Jesus, so now I can live. However, in order
to have the life of Jesus appearing in me, I have to put to death whatever belongs to my
earthly nature (Col 3:5). In this way, I am a new generation. Not the one to die in the
desert, but the one to live, and take the land.
Col 3:1 Since, then, you have been raised with
Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.
Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now
hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will
appear with him in glory.
Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly
nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.
Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. You used to walk in these ways, in the life
you once lived. But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage,
malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other, since you
have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is
being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.
(Marcos Barros) |
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