“Yesterday is gone, tomorrow is uncertain, we have only today. Now is the time, let us redeem it, let us use it. Let us make it a vehicle of a glorious future in which Christian truth and experience will be spread abroad to become incorporated in the lives of all.”
Harold John Ockenga
In the course of history, many generations have come and gone. Men who had understanding of what should be done in their life time, what part of the script has been allocated to them. Generations that knew were God was going, what he doing and what part they had to play in it.
These generations had a clear-cut understanding of God’s Word, God’s World and God’s Work. The Word they knew was God’s desire for the nations and his passion to be worshipped by all nations and people. They had an understanding that God’s Word was not just for man’s purpose but was all about God. God’s desire and passion to be worshipped by all generations. They saw God’s Word as the story of God’s glory. The purpose of creation, redemption and the participation of man in God’s Word. The creation of time, space and matter is all directed towards the purpose of God.
These generations also had the understanding of God’s World. When Jesus said “go ye into all the world”. They knew that their small villages were not “all the world” but that “all the world” was made up of small villages they couldn’t see. That the world Jesus was referring to was beyond that immediate locality. They knew that God’s World was deeper than what they saw and understood. They made greater effort to understand the world for which Christ die for. It was William Carey the missionary to China who said that to do God’s work and to understand God’s world, you need an open Bible and an open map. They knew where to go and which part of that world needed help of the Gospel.
What’s the need having so many light in one location and other locations are still in tick darkness? They knew that there should be an even distribution of the light. Africa was considered a dark continent but no more. Just as John the Baptist. He was a bright and a shining light. We need the light where the light is most needed. I believe they understood that light should be where there is darkness not where we have so much light already. Dr. Ralph Winters said “we need to go where others will not go, and do what others will not attempt to do”.
They saw those places without the bright light of the gospel as their target. They were not satisfied with the great and warm sanctuary, the comfort of home, friends, families and good companions. They were willfully willing to reach the ends of the earth for Christ. Their focus was enshrined in the words “and the gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the earth…”
This generation had an understanding God’s Work, they knew that not all that was done even in the church buildings were God’s work. They understood the primary purpose of the home church which was to be the boost and support of the foreign churches. A place where others are to be trained and sent out. They knew it was here for them not just for us. For others not just for me. It was told of the great General William Booth at his old age, who was to speak in the Salvation Army’s ministers’ conferences, unable to attend the meeting due to ill health sent a telegram to be read. As the about 5000 ministers all listen attentively to the moderator who announced the arrival of the telegram from Booth, expecting to hear a sermon. as the moderator opened it up, to the amazement and astonishment of all only one word was found in it “OTHERS”. They were brought to the remembrance of the words in the Holy Writ “for none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself”. Even Christ understood this that it was written Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.
They knew that the fold was a preparation for the field, the purpose of raising saints was not for saints to feed saints in the sanctuary but the sheep and sinners on the high hills and by-ways. All the trainings they received was for the lands away from home. They knew that God’s Work was enshrined in the words of Christ “I am come to seek and save the lost”. That was Jesus work, His central purpose, that he would say my meat is to do will of him that sent me and to finish it. And when he saw the multitude, he had compassion on them for they were as sheep having no shepherd. He will look on the field at another time and with a soft sobering tone and with an impetus that his disciples could understand, the gravity and intensity that was building up in his heart, he would say, the fields are white unto harvest but the labourers are so few, please pray the lord of the harvest that he would send labourers to his harvest.
These generations knew that their work was to reap the harvest that Jesus spoke about. That is what we do not understand. That is why it was said of them by the angry Pharisees that they had filled all Jerusalem with their doctrine and at another point, the whole city cried out, These that have turned the world upside down are come hither also; After this generation came The Another Generation. The Bible has much to say about them, …And also all that generation were gathered unto their fathers: and there arose another generation after them, (1) which knew not the Lord, (2) nor yet the works which he had done for Israel. (3) And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, (4) and served Baalim: (5) And they forsook the Lord God of their fathers, which brought them out of the land of Egypt, and (6) followed other gods, of the gods of the people that were round about them, and bowed themselves unto them, (7) and provoked the Lord to anger… (8) and he delivered them into the hands of spoilers that spoiled them, and he sold them into the hands of their enemies round about, so that they could not any longer stand before their enemies… and they were greatly distressed… (9) And yet they would not hearken unto their judges, but they went a whoring after other gods, and bowed themselves unto them (10) they turned quickly out of the way which their fathers walked in, obeying the commandments of the Lord; but they did not so. Judg 2:10-17
This is the generation in which we are, The Another Generation. A generation of people who do not understand the purpose of creation, we do not understand the overriding reason of redemption, we know next to nothing about the very essence of God’s word. We see God’s word as our moral law and some helps, satisfying look out material with nothing to do about God. God loves me and he gives me all I need. We do not see the need of loving or reciprocating the love of God.
This is The Another Generation that do not know God’s World. Our knowledge of God’s World is limited to our location, families, friends and nothing beyond. We live for the now and bury the future. The Another Generation do not understand the essence of mission neither do they have light on missions. Sometimes we wonder why the previous generations left the comfort of homes to lands of great occultism and cannibalism where the luxuries of employment, bright future was great bleaks. The Another Generation prefers the comfort zone. The challenge is not that they just are willing to be tied down but to tie others who make attempt at moving into God’s work.
The Another Generation love the praise of men and anything done which will not be accompanied by the praise of men will be neglected. We will better and comfortably spend money on building things within the church that will carry our names and become our reference point than investing money on evangelical projects. Dr. Ralph Winter said “you will do so much more than you have done if you wouldn’t care who received the glory”.
The another generation have forgotten that there is such a command as “Go Ye into All the World” not just The World but All the World. The Another Generation do not know of the perishing except those within their parish. The Another Generation have leaders that “knows not the Lord… they are blind leaders, dumb dogs loving to slumbers. This is the another generation Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.
The world around keeps going down and we are singing the Hallelujah to heaven. This is a generation that which is described by C.S. Lewis as having “a tendency to think but not act and to feel but not to act. If we go on feeling and thinking but not acting, then one day we will be unable to act”. We don’t have visionaries and so the dead among us is great, for where there is no vision the people perish. The another generation is unaware of the current state of the gospel. They spend so much within while spend and do less outside. Keep so much of human resources within and send out those who May profit next to nothing in the field. They pray so much about the transient and all their hope starts and ends in the immediate consumption. Eternity is not reckoned. We hive so much where mot and rot will corrupt but fail to lay treasures up in yonder land.
This is The Another Generation, a people who cannot light the load because they do not feel or are refusing to feel the pressure of the weight of such a load of sin, poverty and dryness in the souls who languish. Our hearts are fun lovers, not ready to step out of the comfort zone as the founding fathers did. Our founding fathers opened the gates of the lands to the entrances of the gospel, broke down the barriers, silenced the activities of demons and got their captives freed, they set fire where all the woods couldn’t burn, sprung the light, darkness was disparaged. But today there have risen Another Generation that have not the sons of Issachar who knows what Israel is to do. Generations before us spread the Gospel to the lands where it was not once named. Paul said so have I strived to preach the gospel, not where Christ was named, lest I should build upon another man’s foundation. The Another Generation changed its paradigm to multiplying and interpreting the gospel to those who are already tired of hearing. “No one has the right to hear the gospel twice when others have not heard once”- C.T. Studd
“No one has the right to hear the gospel twice when others have not heard once”
– C.T. Studd
God is calling us to join him where he is working, the 10/40 window is calling, can you not hear the hearts crying out for your utmost contribution in getting the gospel to their door steps? “Good intentions can’t replace good performances” —Leroy Eims
“Good intentions can’t replace good performances”
—Leroy Eims
The generations before us saw the task of world evangelization as accomplishable in their generation. They trained workers, individual Christians were not left out, they taught the believers, equipped them, and sponsored those who were ready to go. The believers in the home churches saw themselves as in the words of Duncan Williams as “custodians of all heavens blessings and processors of none”. Their prosperity, talents, human resource and all materials were only for the purpose of world evangelization. How will people who are custodians say to the owner “NOT SO LORD”? This what our generation is doing, the not so Lord generation. Release that material resource, not so lord. Release that human resource not so Lord but our paradigm should shift from not so Lord to what will thou have me do? What will thou have me do with my knowledge, certificate, money, my children, my spouse, my procession? What will thou have me do?
Joel lamented by saying “Hear this, ye old men, and give ear, all ye inhabitants of the land. Hath this been in your days, or even in the days of your fathers? Tell ye your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children another generation. The works of our founding fathers are crumbling before our faces, lands which they had planted and watered the gospel with their tears as Paul will say I travail in birth again till Christ be formed in you, those lands have been taken over because of the negligence of The Another Generation. Lands where the gospel was sown, it’s now either Islamic or a secular state, some have even gone into the post Christian era. Demons have taken control, gates closed, Christians persecuted and martyred, church auditoriums destroyed or bought over for secular activities, Bibles destroyed. Some of the Churches that once sent missionaries to Africa are now empty. Who permitted this? The Another Generation.
Joel will say spread the news, tell others and let them tell others. We need to wake up the sleeping generation to wake. Quake the sleeping generation to wake. The world is waiting and if we don’t wake they will wake us as they woke up Jonah in the stormy sea. Let this generation wake up for people are waiting. If you refuse to wake, if you refuse to arise from your slumber, or wake the sleeping giants around you, misuse and abuse God’s privileges, power and prosperity, friend know for sure as Mordechai said deliverances will arise from else way and you and your father’s house will be destroyed. Sons and daughters of God, remember that God’s work will be done with or without you, it’s only a privilege for you to be a part.
Inemeno Udobang
Vice President, Campus Momentum
