Isaiah 51:1 “Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness
and who seek the Lord:
Look to the rock from which you were cut
and to the quarry from which you were hewn.”

This verse was on the cover of the Church History textbook I used in seminary, appropriately enough. Ironically, that was one of the saddest classes I took, because of all the un-Christlike things that have been done in His name down through the ages. Even though we aren’t to be mired in the past, but look to the future – as came out just two days ago – it’s important to know our history, to recognize God’s acts of grace, power, and mercy in the past, and remember that He never changes. That’s a major reason for the Bible: it not only contains teaching God wants us to have, it’s the record of how God has dealt with mankind down through the ages, and we need to know it. The very next verse here mentions Abraham and Sarah, and if we didn’t have Genesis, we would know nothing about them. The devil wants us both to be ignorant about the past and hopeless about the future. God is the opposite! Christian faith doesn’t come out of thin air, it is based on the very solid foundation of God’s acts and promises throughout history, from Creation on through the birth, death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the outpouring of His Spirit, and the Church that was birthed in that process. There have been plenty of tragedies along the way, as I was reminded in that seminary class, but God has indeed not changed, and He is still eager to cleanse and save, no matter what mess we’ve gotten ourselves into. That’s what this verse is talking about. We are to have hope and expectation, planted in God, regardless of our immediate circumstances. Those circumstances aren’t as hopeless as Abraham’s seemed to be, and look what God did for and through Him!

I have long been aware of my spiritual heritage, My father, and his father before him, both loved Psalm 16:6. “The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance.” I know essentially nothing about my great-grandfather on that side, but my grandfather was a pastor and my father a missionary, so my heritage is indeed rich. As it turned out, my father did leave me some financial inheritance, but the spiritual heritage is of infinitely more value and importance. That said, I live among and minister to people who, for the most part, are the first believers in their lineage, and I’m not terribly good at relating to them. Many things that seem automatic to me seem very deep and spiritual to them. I encounter misunderstandings all the time because of that. I’m not to discount my own spiritual heritage, but I need to be particularly aware of the differences among faith, religion, and culture. I’ve encountered many missionaries who struggled with that, often not realizing that it was a problem. Japanese Churches don’t have to look like American churches, and indeed, probably shouldn’t! I want to leave a rich spiritual heritage among my spiritual children, because heaven will absolutely transcend all culture and barriers, just as it proclaims in Revelation: “After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb.” (Revelation 7:9) I want to be grateful for my heritage, but not let it limit my effectiveness in communicating the Gospel to as many as will receive it, regardless of their background.

Father, thank You for this reminder. Thank You for the man I’ll be seeing this morning. I pray that today would indeed be the day of his salvation, that he too may enter into the heritage that You have prepared for us in Christ Jesus, for Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!