Psalm 103:17-22
The LORD is always kind to those who worship him, and he keeps his promises to their descendants who faithfully obey him. God has set up his kingdom in heaven, and he rules the whole creation. All of you mighty angels, who obey God's commands, come and praise your LORD! All of you thousands who serve and obey God, come and praise your LORD! All of God's creation and all that he rules, come and praise your LORD! With all my heart I praise the LORD!
Scripture taken from the Contemporary English Version © 1991,1992, 1995 by American Bible Society, Used by Permission.
A new “craze” has developed on Facebook, as people across the country are starting pages for their hometown… like “You know you’re from Heber Springs, Arkansas, when…” People post their memories, and others comment and add to them. So far, it’s been a lot of fun… and truly heartwarming. As a fifth-generation resident of this county, my “roots” run deep. I’ll admit, when someone speaks less than favorably about my home town… especially if something particularly critical or unkind is said… I bristle and get a little cranky!
I’m sure many could say the same thing about other “home towns,” but mine has served my family well. I feel a rich heritage here… my father-in-law and grandfather were both mayors of Heber Springs. My great-great-great-grandfather operated a general store near Wilburn well over 100 years ago… a great-grandfather was a barber in a downtown shop, and a second-great-uncle ran the local livery (all important businesses in their day!). My grandmother drove one of the three school buses in our district for about 12 years… before and after serving as a chair-side assistant to one of our town’s two or three dentists. I can’t begin to count how many people know my mother as “’Miss Arline,’ the woman who taught me piano, voice, and organ – or was my kindergarten teacher!”
More than this, I can scarcely go to Wal-Mart or a funeral in this town without seeing someone who was a Girl Scout leader, Sunday School teacher, or mentor to me in some way. I grew up in a time when every adult nurtured all the town’s children, to some extent. And in that regard, countless people modeled for me a faithful worship of our Heavenly Father. I certainly didn’t realize this at the time… and maybe they didn’t, either. But God was at work, building a legacy in the children of my home town through the adults who resided here. And as many of us grew into faith-filled Christians, God’s kindnesses and promises continued to us… and hopefully beyond to those in our own paths.
I am thankful to have grown up in such a wonderful, nurturing community. My home town was far from perfect, but the love for one another – and the abiding faith in God and His promises – was constant in ways both obvious and subtle. People are nostalgic for their home town in cities of all sizes. And surely God has worked in major urban metropolises and the smallest “holes in the road.” But I am grateful He chose to plant me in this location… and I am humbled to think that I have an opportunity to continue a legacy here… both in the community, and in the Kingdom of Heaven.
Are you a good steward of all God has given you? Are you building a legacy for your descendants… one that shows respect for your community and God’s Kingdom? Are you one who gripes and complains… or someone who praises and elevates - both the people in your circle and your community at large? Are you serving God with faith, obedience, and praise? When people reminisce about your community in years to come, will they recall the people and places God used to bless and nurture them… and will you be among them? Will you have helped to continue a legacy of faith and obedience that resulted in fulfilled promises and kindness from the LORD?
Take time today to thank God for planting you where He did… for giving you the opportunity to serve Him wherever you are… and to add to a foundation of faith and kindness – blessings and promises… for generations to come. Commit to being the best citizen of God’s kingdom – and your local community – that you can possibly become. And in all things… with all your heart… come and praise your LORD!
©2011 Debbie Robus
Showing posts with label legacy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label legacy. Show all posts
Daily Devotional for July 20, 2011
John 3:31-33
"The One who comes from above is head and shoulders over other messengers from God. The earthborn is earthbound and speaks earth language; the heavenborn is in a league of his own. He sets out the evidence of what he saw and heard in heaven. No one wants to deal with these facts. But anyone who examines this evidence will come to stake his life on this: that God himself is the truth.
Scripture quotations from The Message. © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene Peterson. Used by permission of NavPress, Colorado Springs, CO. All rights reserved.
There is a show on NBC called “Who Do You Think You Are?” that follows celebrities as they examine their family tree and learn about their ancestors. In one episode, actress and singer Vanessa Williams traced her roots and discovered that her great-great grandfather had fought in the Civil War as a free man. For a black man to travel into the South as a member of the Union Army took great courage. This was incredibly dangerous… the orders were to shoot these men on sight!
Another ancestor of Williams’ was a school teacher in Tennessee… and one of the first black legislators in that state, just after the end of the Civil War. Williams recognized that a common thread in her family’s legacy was education… both of her parents were also teachers.
Williams was able to “connect the dots” and learn a lot by tracing the lineage of her family. She discovered values and characteristics that were handed down through the generations…ethics that defined the generations who came before her – ethics that were deeply ingrained in her own personality. While visiting the room where her great-great grandfather made laws with fellow Tennessee legislators, she noted that she had made history as the first black Miss America… but her ancestors had already paved the way with history-making actions of their own. Williams was incredibly humbled by the accomplishments of her predecessors.
While our earthly ancestors may have helped to shape who we are today, we have another lineage with a far bigger impact. Jesus, the Son of our Heavenly Father, revealed the glory of Heaven. His time on earth gave us evidence of what lies ahead for those who take a leap of faith and believe in Him. We find it fairly easy to believe the data we uncover as we trace the lineage of our earthly ancestors… but we are often less eager to embrace what Jesus has to say. We sometimes seem more eager to listen to the teachings, promises and prophecy of human beings than those of God’s only Son.
As much as we long to know who we are in terms of our human lineage, it is more important for us to know who we are in Christ. As we read in this passage, Jesus is in a league of His own… His legacy is the one that really matters. Jesus represents our hope and a future for all eternity. There is nothing wrong with looking back at our past… learning about where we came from… but we must also look forward. We must study Jesus’ teachings and communicate with Him… learn all we can about what lies ahead… and strive to “make history” in the context of the Kingdom of God.
Truly, who we are only matters in terms of our heavenly lineage. What is your legacy? Are you working on building your family “Tree of Life in Christ?” Isn’t it time you began?
©2011 Debbie Robus
"The One who comes from above is head and shoulders over other messengers from God. The earthborn is earthbound and speaks earth language; the heavenborn is in a league of his own. He sets out the evidence of what he saw and heard in heaven. No one wants to deal with these facts. But anyone who examines this evidence will come to stake his life on this: that God himself is the truth.
Scripture quotations from The Message. © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene Peterson. Used by permission of NavPress, Colorado Springs, CO. All rights reserved.
There is a show on NBC called “Who Do You Think You Are?” that follows celebrities as they examine their family tree and learn about their ancestors. In one episode, actress and singer Vanessa Williams traced her roots and discovered that her great-great grandfather had fought in the Civil War as a free man. For a black man to travel into the South as a member of the Union Army took great courage. This was incredibly dangerous… the orders were to shoot these men on sight!
Another ancestor of Williams’ was a school teacher in Tennessee… and one of the first black legislators in that state, just after the end of the Civil War. Williams recognized that a common thread in her family’s legacy was education… both of her parents were also teachers.
Williams was able to “connect the dots” and learn a lot by tracing the lineage of her family. She discovered values and characteristics that were handed down through the generations…ethics that defined the generations who came before her – ethics that were deeply ingrained in her own personality. While visiting the room where her great-great grandfather made laws with fellow Tennessee legislators, she noted that she had made history as the first black Miss America… but her ancestors had already paved the way with history-making actions of their own. Williams was incredibly humbled by the accomplishments of her predecessors.
While our earthly ancestors may have helped to shape who we are today, we have another lineage with a far bigger impact. Jesus, the Son of our Heavenly Father, revealed the glory of Heaven. His time on earth gave us evidence of what lies ahead for those who take a leap of faith and believe in Him. We find it fairly easy to believe the data we uncover as we trace the lineage of our earthly ancestors… but we are often less eager to embrace what Jesus has to say. We sometimes seem more eager to listen to the teachings, promises and prophecy of human beings than those of God’s only Son.
As much as we long to know who we are in terms of our human lineage, it is more important for us to know who we are in Christ. As we read in this passage, Jesus is in a league of His own… His legacy is the one that really matters. Jesus represents our hope and a future for all eternity. There is nothing wrong with looking back at our past… learning about where we came from… but we must also look forward. We must study Jesus’ teachings and communicate with Him… learn all we can about what lies ahead… and strive to “make history” in the context of the Kingdom of God.
Truly, who we are only matters in terms of our heavenly lineage. What is your legacy? Are you working on building your family “Tree of Life in Christ?” Isn’t it time you began?
©2011 Debbie Robus
Daily Devotional for April 18, 2011
Psalm 78:1-4
My friends, I beg you to listen as I teach. I will give instruction and explain the mystery of what happened long ago. These are things we learned from our ancestors, and we will tell them to the next generation. We won't keep secret the glorious deeds and the mighty miracles of the LORD.
Scripture taken from the Contemporary English Version © 1991,1992, 1995 by American Bible Society, Used by Permission.
For as long as I can remember, my grandparents have told me about “way back when” – their own history… and that of their ancestors. They have passed on a legacy to me of good and bad times… of heartaches and struggles – and great accomplishments. I know how hard my Grand-dad worked to get a high school diploma, coming to Heber Springs from Wilburn when he was 19 and boarding “in town” – stoking the stove at the high school each night with coal while his classmates slept snugly in warm beds at home, so that he could afford to attend school alongside them. I have his high school diploma, Senior Class photo and other memorabilia from the Class of 1930… framed and hanging on my office wall.
I’ve heard countless stories about how my mother-in-law and her sisters boarded in Iowa City, miles from their country farm, so that they could attend U-High – the high school associated with the University of Iowa – in the early 1940s. She has told me how many of her instructors were authors of the textbooks from which she studied… how she had access to indoor swimming and all of the amenities of the college… and how she and her sisters worked for pennies to buy food to supplement the home-canned goods her mother sent with them every weekend or two when they would return home for a visit. We’ve visited the campus with her and even walked through classrooms where she and her sisters once sat for lectures.
Were it not for the oral histories of our parents and grandparents, teachers and others, we would not know how we got here. We wouldn’t know the hard work and struggles, the heartaches and hardships that were endured to pave the way. We would not know the achievements and accomplishments of those who came before us. And all of this information does matter.
But none of this holds a candle to the legacy of our Heavenly Father and the servants and saints who paved the way for us to be able to worship God as we do today. What if nobody had shared the Good News of Jesus Christ? What if no one took the time to tell children and young people about God and His mighty works? What if the message of Jesus’ death on the cross and resurrection three days later were never told? What if nobody ever shared how God had worked in their life and blessed them? What if we never did this for anyone else?
Verse 7 of this Psalm says “Never forget the works of God, but keep His commands to the letter.” Don’t keep God a secret! Share His work within you with others. Keep the Spiritual history alive in every sense of the word. Pass along to the next generation the marvelous fame and fortune of God Almighty! Share what He has done – and is doing – in your life with others and be a part of His legacy.
©2011 Debbie Robus
My friends, I beg you to listen as I teach. I will give instruction and explain the mystery of what happened long ago. These are things we learned from our ancestors, and we will tell them to the next generation. We won't keep secret the glorious deeds and the mighty miracles of the LORD.
Scripture taken from the Contemporary English Version © 1991,1992, 1995 by American Bible Society, Used by Permission.
For as long as I can remember, my grandparents have told me about “way back when” – their own history… and that of their ancestors. They have passed on a legacy to me of good and bad times… of heartaches and struggles – and great accomplishments. I know how hard my Grand-dad worked to get a high school diploma, coming to Heber Springs from Wilburn when he was 19 and boarding “in town” – stoking the stove at the high school each night with coal while his classmates slept snugly in warm beds at home, so that he could afford to attend school alongside them. I have his high school diploma, Senior Class photo and other memorabilia from the Class of 1930… framed and hanging on my office wall.
I’ve heard countless stories about how my mother-in-law and her sisters boarded in Iowa City, miles from their country farm, so that they could attend U-High – the high school associated with the University of Iowa – in the early 1940s. She has told me how many of her instructors were authors of the textbooks from which she studied… how she had access to indoor swimming and all of the amenities of the college… and how she and her sisters worked for pennies to buy food to supplement the home-canned goods her mother sent with them every weekend or two when they would return home for a visit. We’ve visited the campus with her and even walked through classrooms where she and her sisters once sat for lectures.
Were it not for the oral histories of our parents and grandparents, teachers and others, we would not know how we got here. We wouldn’t know the hard work and struggles, the heartaches and hardships that were endured to pave the way. We would not know the achievements and accomplishments of those who came before us. And all of this information does matter.
But none of this holds a candle to the legacy of our Heavenly Father and the servants and saints who paved the way for us to be able to worship God as we do today. What if nobody had shared the Good News of Jesus Christ? What if no one took the time to tell children and young people about God and His mighty works? What if the message of Jesus’ death on the cross and resurrection three days later were never told? What if nobody ever shared how God had worked in their life and blessed them? What if we never did this for anyone else?
Verse 7 of this Psalm says “Never forget the works of God, but keep His commands to the letter.” Don’t keep God a secret! Share His work within you with others. Keep the Spiritual history alive in every sense of the word. Pass along to the next generation the marvelous fame and fortune of God Almighty! Share what He has done – and is doing – in your life with others and be a part of His legacy.
©2011 Debbie Robus
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