Chosen/New Generation...

Corey Jang did a excellent review (at least for me) of the first 5 books of the bible yesterday in the adult Sunday school class. One of the things that stuck out at me was something that Tim had mentioned in a few posts earlier...the comment about the "new generation".

The original generation of Israelites who saw the 10 plagues, experienced the miraculous crossing of the Red Sea, and the 10 commandments from God to Moses, for some reason still couldn't make that love connection with God. Instead they chose to do things their own way...to satisfy themselves instantly. As a result of their disobedience, that generation of people were not allowed to enter the promise land. God promised the Israelites a land that was "filled with milk and honey". If they had only obeyed, the original generation would not have wander the desert for 40 years and to die there. If they had obeyed, they would have entered the promise land in just a tiny fraction of the time they spent wandering. Instead, it was the next generation of Israelites who got the opportunity to enter the promise land. How shortsighted were their eyes?

That made me think about us today. I wonder how many of us are actually denying ourselves of greater things because we chose to live a path that's contrary to the path that God intends for us to take. Instead of experiencing God's abundance riches (whatever that may be), we are actually short-changing ourselves when we decide to take matters into our own hands by using our human logic and intelligence (however high/low that may be). How many of us have try to "force" things to happen...instead of waiting on God's perfect timing for everything? By causing something to happen to give us an instant feeling of good, we are actually causing ourselves days/weeks/months of emotional pain and drama. For example, by causing things to happen NOW so that you can get a girl/boyfriend, you might actually be preventing yourself from the perfect person that God has in mind for you. So you might just be settling for second best!

Another thought was Tim's comment about the new generation. I do pray that the current group of youth (college/high school/middle school) would be a new generation. Having been around Cumberland English congregation for 17 years now, majority of the previous "generation" of youth have fallen away. Why have they fallen away? Because they were simply following their natural urges...and following what everyone else is doing in this world. All of those things seem natural to them. You've seen the whole fish analogy...that as believers, we need to go "against the flow"...to swim up stream in a sense...counter to everything culture or society throws at you. For your age right now, the primary focus is to have fun and to have a guy/girlfriend. I'm not saying those things are bad...but what I am saying is that for most people your age, that's their PRIMARY focus. It would be lucky if loving God is even a distant second. So if any of you want to test yourself and see if you might be one of the "new generation", consider where most of your thought and physical energy is invested in. Is it on God? Or is it on things that bring you some sort of instant gratification or give you a temporary warm fuzzy? It would be very easy to focus on the fun/warm fuzzy feeling stuff...but if you do, you would end up like all the previous generation...nothing special. Not only that, you might just be delaying or even removing some awesome blessing that God had in mind for you. So deny your natural urges...because if you don't, there's not much that sets man apart from an animal, which just gives way willingly without thought to its natural urges constantly. If you want yourself to be set apart from the previous fallen generations, to be special, to be a light in a dark world, then cast your eyes and mind constantly on the Cross. That's where it all starts...