Don't Die Until You Die: Don't give up; don't give in; keep fighting; and keep moving.

By Boyd Crook

And Jacob rent his clothes, and put sackcloth upon his loins, and mourned for his son many days. And all his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him; but he refused to be comforted; and he said, For I will go down into the grave unto my son mourning. Thus his father wept for him. (Genesis 37:34-35).

Jacobs’s sons brought him the bloody coat of many colors, the evidence of what Jacob perceived was the death of his beloved son. Joseph was the elder son of his first love, Rachael. Now the evidence was staring him in the face—Joseph was gone, dead. All of Jacob’s dreams were in Joseph.

Jacob had received an erroneous report; he believed a lie and it led him to a life of mourning. He could not be happy when grandchildren were born or when sons or daughters were married. Although he was the patriarch of the family, no one wanted to go near him because of his attitude, which was steeped in grief. He had died before he died!

Nothing more is mentioned of Jacob until the time he tells his sons they are starving and that he heard there was corn in Egypt. He did not do as David did when he knew his son was dead. David rose from petitioning the Lord for the baby’s life, washed himself and asked for food, saying the child can no longer come to me but I can go to him (2 Sam 28:23).

You know the story well, but Genesis 45:27 says, “And they told him all the words of Joseph, which he had said unto them: and when he saw the wagons which Joseph had sent to carry him, the spirit of Jacob their father revived.” All the false reports his sons had brought him were demolished in a second; when he saw the wagons, his spirit was revived. His spirit was dead for perhaps 17 years. When Jacob arrived in Egypt he was 130 years old and he was 147 when he died. He was able to see Joseph’s children and to bless them. His spirit revived, the dead parts of his heart were raised and God gave him another 17 years.

In the year 2000 my mother had to have a leg amputated; she was 86. It seemed life was over. She soon realized things would be different; she had already given up driving, but could still get around some in her home. She could no longer do the things she had done, dressing antique dolls and making quilts, keeping her hands and mind busy.

She had lived in the same home for over 30 years, living alone for 25 of those years. Finally, there was no choice; a convalescent hospital was the last resort. To her, like Jacob, life was over. It took several different nursing homes and a couple of years, but her family kept working with her, encouraging her. My sister Neva bought beads and materials for her to make bracelets and necklaces. Neva, being an evangelist, would then take these items out and show them. Several were sold and Mom became excited; she could do something! As Mom worked with those beads, making sets for grandchildren or friends and a few to sell, her spirit revived and she began to regain muscle and be strengthened. She even went out Christmas shopping for her seven children!

She also got a promise box and began to use it to minister to the staff. As each would come by, pick out a card and read it, they asked Mom for the meaning.

Mom continued to minister until she died at the age of 93. An additional seven years of life, real life. Don’t die until you die!

What are some things you can do?

Have a plan
Have a schedule, start your day with devotions, make a prayer list, honor God, give Him praise, spend time in worship. The first part is the Lord’s so give Him the first part of the day; don’t delay, thinking you have to do this or that because it is so important. Nothing is more important or necessary than spending time with God. Make it a practice; put it into your schedule; plan and do it. Your day will be much more profitable if you put Him first.

Eat right
Maintain a good nutritional diet. We are what we eat. Watch what you eat; count carbs and calories.

Exercise
(Make sure you have your physician’s OK before doing exercise). Physical exercise is necessary for good health, and good health includes not only diet and exercise, but good mental exercise too. Read, get a hobby, make friends. Plan it and do it.

Ministry:
Every one of us is called to minister.
“Even so send I you,” were Jesus’ words (John 20:21). Regardless of your physical or mental condition, everyone can pray.

Do some worthwhile volunteer work.
Use the life-skills you have and offer to help the pastor. There are many things you could help the pastor with; just ask him or her.

Get involved with the senior adult ministry in your church.
If your church does not have an official Senior Adult Ministry, ask your pastor to start one. (Check out the Ministering to Senior Adults Training Manual available at messengerpublishing.com or 1-888-444-4674. The cost is $10.00. The item number is 150114.)

Make phone calls to help raise funds or to get others to volunteer.

Go to a rest home and visit with the residents.
A touch or a smile will do wonders for these shut-ins. Every one wants to feel loved and to know someone cares about them.

“The truest lengthening of life is to live while we live, wasting no time but using every hour for the highest ends. So be it this day.” – Charles Spurgeon

Harvest Impact: And Both Are Preserved

By Wayman Ming Jr., General Secretary
What a contrast! In the previous edition of The Messenger, the focus was “next gen. ministry.” In this edition, senior adult ministry! One of the greatest tensions existing in every generation is ministering to the younger generation and the older generation. And yet, Jesus brought such a simplistic answer to this generational issue when He uttered the words: “and both are preserved” (Matthew 9:17).

Of course, Jesus is speaking here about wine and wineskins. Unfortunately the contextual pitfall is to only focus on the wine and miss the attention that Jesus gives to the wineskins. The reality is that we can’t have new wine without new wineskins and old wine without old wineskins. The wineskins are necessary to preserve the wine.

We’ve got to have the new wineskins, and we’ve got to have the old wineskins. We’ve got to have the new, and we’ve got to have the old. We’ve got to have both. Both must be included. Both must have a place. Both must have a part. Both must be preserved.

The strife that exists in next gen. ministry and senior adult ministry exists because of exclusivity. The exclusive mind-set declares, “The new wine and new wineskins are better so we don’t need the old wine and the old wineskins.” Or, “The old wine and the old wineskins are better so we don’t need the new wine and the new wineskins.” In truth, Jesus is addressing that very attitude when He declares, “and both are preserved.” Nowhere do we see the implication that Jesus desires any of the wine to perish. Allow me to make two simple observations . . . .

We need the new wineskins or we will run out of wine.

Unless we have new wine and new wineskins, we run out of old wine and old wineskins. If we don’t have next gen. ministry, we run out of wine. If we don’t train our Joshuas and Elishas, we run out of wine. If we don’t include our Joshuas and Elishas in the decisionmaking processes, implementation and planning strategies, vision casting and ministries of our churches, we will miss out on the new wine. Some may say that the old wine is better, but that doesn’t change the fact that we still need the new wineskins and the new wine or we will run out.

We need the old wineskins to add value to the wine.

The older the wine skin, the more valuable the wine! Winston Churchill once said, “The farther one looks back in history, the farther one sees into the future.” Methods and programs are not longterm, but the foundational principles that created them and supported them are. The more we affirm the principles of the past, the more we build on a foundation for the future.

Continuously throughout Scripture, we are reminded of the truth that God is a generational God—the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. There are lists of entire families, such as found in Genesis 5, “This is the book of the generations of Adam” (verse 1). And in 6:9: “These are the records of the generations of Noah.” Scripture obviously took the theme of generations seriously and affirmed the different nature of generations—particularly that some generations were more responsive to the gospel than others. What is more, the Bible affirmed that there is a natural succession of generations: “A generation goes and a generation comes, But the earth remains forever” (Ecclesiastes 1:4, NASU). The point is: every generation has value and adds value.

Allow me to close with the brief example of television. Televisions first became available in 1939. The battery-powered television arrived in 1950. In 1956 the first portable black-and-white television set was introduced. NBC began broadcasting all programs in color in 1966. By the early 1980s, 98 percent of all homes in the United States owned at least one TV set, and some even more. Today we have HDTV (high-definition television), and some predict that we will soon have hologram televisions where three-dimensional figures acting out scenes on our living room floors. The reality is that if there had not been a 1939 television, there would not be a 2009 television.

When we connect this example to a ministry perspective, we understand that if there had not been a 1939 generation of ministry, we would not have a 2009 generation of ministry. In other words, we need the old wine and wineskins and the new wine and wineskins. Or, in the words of Jesus, we must value the importance of “and both are preserved.”

Eye 2 Eye: When Seasons Change

By Bishop Charles Scott
It is inevitable. The seasons will eventually change. Regardless of the warmth of the summer breezes it will give way to cool fall nights. And the winter chills will not last forever; spring will announce its arrival with gentle warm winds, soft green shoots pushing themselves from the cold ground and birds that refuse to hush their singing. The Bible declares it: “While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.” (Genesis 8:22) This is an absolute.

It is frustrating to be in the wrong season at the wrong time. A recent trip to the Northwest proved this point as our family went prepared for 90-degree weather. We forgot to check the Weather Channel and discovered 65-degree weather. Someone commented to us, “Oh, you must have enjoyed the cooler weather.” We smiled and nodded, but truthfully, no, we did not enjoy the cooler weather; we did not have a jacket or a sweater or a hoodie or a blanket. We were in the wrong season, prepared for the wrong season, expecting the wrong season and suffering in the wrong season. No one can enjoy being in the wrong season. You can pretend, you can put on, you can act, you can make believe, you can confess, but you know when you are unprepared for the season. This means you are not relevant.

Nestled away in the annals of Israel’s history is a powerful verse of Scripture: “And of the children of Issachar, which were men that had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do; the heads of them were two hundred; and all their brethren were at their commandment” (1 Chronicles 12:32). An understanding of the times means that these individuals knew the season, had insight into the proper response to the season, and possessed the leadership credibility to lead others through the seasonal transitions of life. These men matured beyond pretense, refused to live in denial, faced the facts and led others to do the same. This means they were connected.

It is entirely possible to get older but remain immature. It is tragic to anesthetize ourselves with the busyness of religious activity, inebriate ourselves with contradictions, and distract ourselves with non-essentials and miss the next season. It is tragic to age but never move forforward; to get closer to retirement but not closer to a productive life; or to advance in years but refuse to advance in spiritual growth. That tragedy is global.

I must admit that it happened to me. I never thought I would see the day. It came in the mail. The application to join AARP arrived just the other day. I tore it to pieces and threw it away, smirking that I am way too young to start ordering off the senior menu. Then I found myself retrieving the invitation in order to learn just exactly what opportunity I had discarded in my state of denial. And then I heard the Lord ask, “What are you missing because you do not know your season, and what have you thrown away because you did not agree with the season?”

As I pondered the unfair below-the-belt questioning of the Lord, I reflected that we are made in the image and the likeness of God. And our Father God is a creator. From the opening lines of Scripture, the Bible declares the creative power of God. Therefore, we who are made in the likeness of God were birthed to be creative. We were born to kill giants, subdue devils, shout down impregnable walls, cross briny seas, preach life into graveyards, see into the eternal, touch the invisible, do the impossible and perform the unimaginable because we are the people of the Most High God. It requires maturity of thought to embrace the next season.

We will fail if we cannot shift with the seasons. We will become crystallized by doing outward religious duty without experiencing inward Godly transformation. We will become formalized by stagnated thinking that is not transformed by the renewing of the mind of Christ. We will become institutionalized by endeavoring to hold to a season that has passed rather than reaching for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

Our last days, our next seasons should be better than the last. For those of us who declare, “WE ARE PCG,” we sense a shift is coming in the seasons. There is an expectation that the glory of the latter will be greater than the glory of the former; the anointing will be a double portion; the fruit will be increased; and the last days will be the best days. But when it arrives, let’s pray we can see it and not throw it away. I hope we see that eye to eye, because we are PCG.