Joshua Generation (Non-existent)
There is no Joshua generation
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Martin Luther the one synonymous to the word Reformation said that the church was “a high, deep, hidden thing” Simply meant that it was a mystery too deep to fully comprehend. Many call it the invisible church. The church that is united by the Holy Spirit coming under the rule of Jesus Christ our King where there is now no Jew nor gentile, slave nor master, male nor female. We are all one in Christ.
Yet the invisible church is only truly seen in the visible church. You know, the usual every Sunday or Saturday where we come together sing praise together and listen to God’s word. I am oversimplifying it but that is not the main point of what I am writing today. If anything, the church or as the Greek text would have it ekklesia simply means a gathering of God’s people. Yet such a unity doesn’t seem to be apparent these days. Granted I am but one person. I am limited in my knowledge and experience. I am still fairly young, I hope, and have a long way to go in my Christian walk. Nonetheless, I share with you what these eyes see.
What my eyes see
Many of our elders and adults love to call us the Joshua generation. It is our time to rise up and take the promise land while us Moses generation remained faithful to what we were called to. Many of the Moses generation or at least those who embrace such identity are also now calling for revival because they are asking “where are the young adults?” That is a very good question. Where are the young adults? Where are the teenagers? Hence it is no surprise that their hearts are calling for revival. But what kind of revival? What are they supposed to be seeing or wanting to see? They only understand revival as how they saw it in the 1960s or 1980s.
I don’t blame them. If God can replicate that, it would be cool. We are all on the same side here anyway. But at the same time let me challenge the older ones to consider that a love for His word, the urgency to share His good news, the sudden practice of spiritual disciplines of just praying and spending time seeking the Lord is as much of a revival rather than a more… if I may charismatic experience.
For a period of time I thought this was the revival that I would be observing. To be part of that generation. Buuuut as the years go by I personally am not seeing that. If you are in the same line of work I am in, basically I see a decline in those that love God. My hypothesis? We are battling a culture. One that is consumeristic and individualistic. Even if I were to know God I do not see an urgency. Or rather, one would ask “what can I get out of this whole God business?” More money? More As in exams? Better paying job? Because that is what a consumeristic society does, it consumes. And when individualistic people are also consumeristic, the society would just end up consuming each other.
You know what I think? We are not the Joshua generation. There never was a Joshua generation. Maybe there was, but that generation of Joshua was neither strong nor courageous. If you deem me too harsh please do read all the way to the end? Allow me to say this piece as reflect and internalize it for a moment. And if I stand corrected then I don’t mind being wrong. But my heart is burdened from just observing this. We are in exile. We are not a Joshua generation. We are the Jeremiah generation. We like Israel have forsaken God’s covenant, thrown down His altars and killed his prophets with the sword (Taken from 1 Kings 19:14). We like Ezekiel see a valley of dry bones. And the Jeremiahs are seen as whinny people and kill joys. And the Jeremiahs are depressed because God told him that God would deliver Jeremiah wherever he went yet laments “He has driven me into the darkness, he has made my flesh and my skin waste away; he has broken my bones…he drove into my kidneys the arrows of his quiver; I have become a laughingstock of all people…”
The Church is not relevant anymore. The Christian Fellowships are not relevant anymore. There I said it (please read till finish). And certainly for the church to be secular just to be relevant is not the solution either. I see Christian organizations trying their best to be faithful with what little they have fully relying on God’s providence to provide daily while churches spend hundreds and thousands on advertising and programs. Churches that preach to the congregation whether they believe God can make them a millionaire while all the crowds cheer the preacher on. Theologically speaking, millionaire or not, without Jesus I am bankrupt. And if you are the child of God who owns the universe then you already are a millionaire. My issue is not that God cannot make you a millionaire. My issue is one never asks what is the purpose of being a millionaire? I see this gap and I cannot brain. For aren’t all Christians with their new citizenship called to build His Kingdom? Somewhere somehow we are missing the point. Somewhere somehow I am missing the point. Please tell me I am wrong if you so please to. But when you tell me I am wrong please do be clear what I might be missing here. But if your starting point is “while there is this happening there is also good things happening here here and here.” Please don’t. I have heard enough of that argument.
In my work place we have a few of us who would sit together and actually discuss what is truly off with this and I appreciate them a lot. We hold each other accountable. We rebuke each other. We encourage each other. These are the people whom I have identified that will bleed alongside with me should the need arise. But truth is, the harvest is plenty and the laborers are too damn few. I am of no position to claim I know the right way. I am just reporting what I see and I just fall helplessly on my knees.
What I do know
What I do know is that God has already won the victory. And if this is the season then so be it. We are to preach His word in and out of season. We are to be salt and light of the world. Hello salt and light does not fix things. It in itself is not a solution. Salt preserves what is decaying and it is VERY IMPORTANT in this decaying world. To seek out those that are in need and lost. To be the light in the darkness.
So let me echo what Paul said in Ephesians 4, “I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” We do not create unity, we maintain unity. Be patient. Bear with one another. Paul did not say skip rope and throw flowers on the road with one another. It never was going to be easy. But take heart that as we persevere, we do it for the hope that is set before us in Christ Jesus. Guess what? It is the hope that never fails. Confirm return of investment I kid you not. But we need to realize and see our current state, know our calling and walk worthy of it.
I tell you, till the day we see that Jesus is truly the bread of life, we will not consume Him but constantly consume what the world offers and will never be truly satisfied. C.S. Lewis once wrote “God designed the human machine to run on Himself. He himself is the fuel our spirits were designed to burn, or the food our spirits were designed to feed on… There is no ultimate happiness or peace apart from Him…” If that concept were to be true, God have mercy at how wrong we are going about it. Yes I speak including myself too. Then again that is the Gospel isn’t it? That we truly are that wretched that we need the Holy Spirit to remind us to choose Him daily.
Why it still brings me comfort? Because even Jeremiah in all his suffering could say, after all that, that the steadfast love of the lord never ceases, his mercies are afresh each morning, great is His faithfulness. And that Ezekiel also witnessed that the valley of dry bones was raised again with the breath of life with flesh and sinews laid upon them. That his Spirit will be in them once more. And that even God told Elijah that there were still 7000 Israelites that had not bowed down and kissed Baal.
We are called to maintain the tension like Daniel and his friends. To live in a foreign land and serve whoever it is you are under without compromising truth. But do it humbly by the Spirit. Or as Jesus says “give to Caesar what is his and to God what is God’s” Until Jesus comes again, we are to maintain the tension. We are to be in the community to share the Gospel. We are to run our race with perseverance as we learn to lay down every weight and sin that clings on to us while keeping our eyes focused on Jesus the author and perfector of our faith.
But as of now, we are not a Joshua generation. We are a Jeremiah generation. But take heart. If you know your God whom you worship, if you know truth, that know that at the end of the day, only Jesus can truly make things right. Only Jesus can turn a disordered world back into order. The true new world order. Till that time comes, persevere for we know victory has already been set in stone.
Writer: Eddryll
Author's views are his own and does not represent the entire team
Before anything, do follow @malaysianchristianmemes on insta.
Martin Luther the one synonymous to the word Reformation said that the church was “a high, deep, hidden thing” Simply meant that it was a mystery too deep to fully comprehend. Many call it the invisible church. The church that is united by the Holy Spirit coming under the rule of Jesus Christ our King where there is now no Jew nor gentile, slave nor master, male nor female. We are all one in Christ.
Yet the invisible church is only truly seen in the visible church. You know, the usual every Sunday or Saturday where we come together sing praise together and listen to God’s word. I am oversimplifying it but that is not the main point of what I am writing today. If anything, the church or as the Greek text would have it ekklesia simply means a gathering of God’s people. Yet such a unity doesn’t seem to be apparent these days. Granted I am but one person. I am limited in my knowledge and experience. I am still fairly young, I hope, and have a long way to go in my Christian walk. Nonetheless, I share with you what these eyes see.
What my eyes see
Many of our elders and adults love to call us the Joshua generation. It is our time to rise up and take the promise land while us Moses generation remained faithful to what we were called to. Many of the Moses generation or at least those who embrace such identity are also now calling for revival because they are asking “where are the young adults?” That is a very good question. Where are the young adults? Where are the teenagers? Hence it is no surprise that their hearts are calling for revival. But what kind of revival? What are they supposed to be seeing or wanting to see? They only understand revival as how they saw it in the 1960s or 1980s.
You know what I think? We are not the Joshua generation. There never was a Joshua generation. Maybe there was, but that generation of Joshua was neither strong nor courageous. If you deem me too harsh please do read all the way to the end? Allow me to say this piece as reflect and internalize it for a moment. And if I stand corrected then I don’t mind being wrong. But my heart is burdened from just observing this. We are in exile. We are not a Joshua generation. We are the Jeremiah generation. We like Israel have forsaken God’s covenant, thrown down His altars and killed his prophets with the sword (Taken from 1 Kings 19:14). We like Ezekiel see a valley of dry bones. And the Jeremiahs are seen as whinny people and kill joys. And the Jeremiahs are depressed because God told him that God would deliver Jeremiah wherever he went yet laments “He has driven me into the darkness, he has made my flesh and my skin waste away; he has broken my bones…he drove into my kidneys the arrows of his quiver; I have become a laughingstock of all people…”
The Church is not relevant anymore. The Christian Fellowships are not relevant anymore. There I said it (please read till finish). And certainly for the church to be secular just to be relevant is not the solution either. I see Christian organizations trying their best to be faithful with what little they have fully relying on God’s providence to provide daily while churches spend hundreds and thousands on advertising and programs. Churches that preach to the congregation whether they believe God can make them a millionaire while all the crowds cheer the preacher on. Theologically speaking, millionaire or not, without Jesus I am bankrupt. And if you are the child of God who owns the universe then you already are a millionaire. My issue is not that God cannot make you a millionaire. My issue is one never asks what is the purpose of being a millionaire? I see this gap and I cannot brain. For aren’t all Christians with their new citizenship called to build His Kingdom? Somewhere somehow we are missing the point. Somewhere somehow I am missing the point. Please tell me I am wrong if you so please to. But when you tell me I am wrong please do be clear what I might be missing here. But if your starting point is “while there is this happening there is also good things happening here here and here.” Please don’t. I have heard enough of that argument.
In my work place we have a few of us who would sit together and actually discuss what is truly off with this and I appreciate them a lot. We hold each other accountable. We rebuke each other. We encourage each other. These are the people whom I have identified that will bleed alongside with me should the need arise. But truth is, the harvest is plenty and the laborers are too damn few. I am of no position to claim I know the right way. I am just reporting what I see and I just fall helplessly on my knees.
What I do know
What I do know is that God has already won the victory. And if this is the season then so be it. We are to preach His word in and out of season. We are to be salt and light of the world. Hello salt and light does not fix things. It in itself is not a solution. Salt preserves what is decaying and it is VERY IMPORTANT in this decaying world. To seek out those that are in need and lost. To be the light in the darkness.
So let me echo what Paul said in Ephesians 4, “I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” We do not create unity, we maintain unity. Be patient. Bear with one another. Paul did not say skip rope and throw flowers on the road with one another. It never was going to be easy. But take heart that as we persevere, we do it for the hope that is set before us in Christ Jesus. Guess what? It is the hope that never fails. Confirm return of investment I kid you not. But we need to realize and see our current state, know our calling and walk worthy of it.
I tell you, till the day we see that Jesus is truly the bread of life, we will not consume Him but constantly consume what the world offers and will never be truly satisfied. C.S. Lewis once wrote “God designed the human machine to run on Himself. He himself is the fuel our spirits were designed to burn, or the food our spirits were designed to feed on… There is no ultimate happiness or peace apart from Him…” If that concept were to be true, God have mercy at how wrong we are going about it. Yes I speak including myself too. Then again that is the Gospel isn’t it? That we truly are that wretched that we need the Holy Spirit to remind us to choose Him daily.
Why it still brings me comfort? Because even Jeremiah in all his suffering could say, after all that, that the steadfast love of the lord never ceases, his mercies are afresh each morning, great is His faithfulness. And that Ezekiel also witnessed that the valley of dry bones was raised again with the breath of life with flesh and sinews laid upon them. That his Spirit will be in them once more. And that even God told Elijah that there were still 7000 Israelites that had not bowed down and kissed Baal.
We are called to maintain the tension like Daniel and his friends. To live in a foreign land and serve whoever it is you are under without compromising truth. But do it humbly by the Spirit. Or as Jesus says “give to Caesar what is his and to God what is God’s” Until Jesus comes again, we are to maintain the tension. We are to be in the community to share the Gospel. We are to run our race with perseverance as we learn to lay down every weight and sin that clings on to us while keeping our eyes focused on Jesus the author and perfector of our faith.
But as of now, we are not a Joshua generation. We are a Jeremiah generation. But take heart. If you know your God whom you worship, if you know truth, that know that at the end of the day, only Jesus can truly make things right. Only Jesus can turn a disordered world back into order. The true new world order. Till that time comes, persevere for we know victory has already been set in stone.
Author's views are his own and does not represent the entire team
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