To Gain the Good Land (3)

“‘See, I have set the land before you; go in and possess the land which the LORD swore to your fathers—to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—to give to them and their descendants after them.’” Deuteronomy 1.8

Ready…or not?
It seems like something we shouldn’t have to say, but it’s an important part of the pattern for gaining what God intends for us in our walk with and work for Him:

We have to show up, ready to conquer the land.

This will seem quite elementary, I know, but it must be stressed. Israel missed this the first time around. They showed up to Canaan, but they were not ready to enter it as God commanded. All that faithless generation perished in the wilderness. In Psalm 68, David sought to rally the people to sacrificial giving, so that the temple of God could be built for His glory. He focused their attention on the faithful Israelites who showed up with Joshua and boldly achieved the conquest of the promised land.

God is seeking to bring His glory into every area of life – all cultural and social arenas, every relationship, role, and responsibility – all of life. As He filled the land of Canaan with His blessed people, so He intends to fill the world with Himself, through the people He has redeemed through Jesus Christ (Eph. 1.15-23; 4.8-10).

By blessing us with all His exceedingly great and precious promises, and sending us to the world as agents and ambassadors of His Kingdom, God intends to make known His glory throughout the world. He has positioned us in Jesus Christ, with the hope of glory and the ability to know God in His glory, so that we might glorify Him in everything we do.

But we have to show up ready for this mission, if we intend to achieve our objective and gain the good land.

True learning
Let me see if I can explain. Most Christians have been involved, at one time or another, in some Christian educational activity – Sunday school class, Bible study group, conference or seminar, and so on. We’ve read books, heard sermons, trolled the Internet, and so forth, feeling like we’re learning a lot about what it means to be a Christian.

But we may be more like Israel, wandering in the wilderness, than those faithful tribes who laid hold of the promises of God in the good land of Canaan.

Having employed a good many of these educational resources myself over the years, I’m not sure, to paraphrase the Spaniard in The Princess Bride, that what we think we’re doing is what we’re actually doing. We think that in these educational activities we are learning. We keep on using that term, but I’m not sure that what we understand by “learning” is the same as what God intends. Too often people involved in Christian education act as though going to an activity and learning are the same thing. I know this because, typically when I teach, I will assign specific activities for people to carry out in between class sessions, to help them work out in their lives what we’ve talked through in our time together. Practical next steps, if you will.

It never fails. When asked for a report on how these practical assignments went, fewer than half the people will have even bothered to do them. They come to the class, listen to the teaching, participate in the interaction, and go away persuaded that the educational activity is over. Then they get on with their lives as though nothing new should result from what we’ve discussed.

Such people are convinced they’re learning; but when they show up to claim the promises in their everyday lives, they’re not ready, and so they make no progress in their walk with or work for the Lord.

They are like Israel wandering in the wilderness. When push comes to shove in their daily lives, they prefer to wander in the wilderness, going from class to class, sermon to sermon, teaching activity to teaching activity, but never showing up in the everyday activities of their lives, ready to live and struggle for the glory of God!

We don’t learn anything merely by sitting in classes, just as Israel didn’t learn anything by listening to Moses in the wilderness. When it came time to lay hold on the Promised Land, Israel demurred, and turned back to perish in the wilderness. What David celebrated in Psalm 68 is not that faithless generation, but the one that showed up to lay hold on the promises of God in the good land of Canaan.

We learn by living out what we have been taught in the roles, relationships, and responsibilities God has assigned to us every day of our lives – in our Personal Mission Field. Our homes, families, neighborhoods, places of employment, communities, social and cultural circles – these are the very places where God intends for us to shine as lights for His glory, realizing His promises and radiating the reality of the risen Christ for all to see and know.

Establishing a presence
Like Israel, bringing the banners and presence of God into the land of Canaan (Ps. 68.7-23), our efforts to make Christ known – in all His goodness, mercy, wisdom, kindness, and saving might – will not always be welcomed. But God has called us both to prepare and to show up, ready for the struggle, ready to lay hold on His precious and very great promises in the cultural arenas and with the people to whom He sends us day by day. There, if we have prepared well, devoting our days and work to the Lord (Ps. 90.12, 16, 17), we may expect to shine the light of Christ and His glory into every area of our lives.

This determination to show up, every day, ready and eager for the fray, must be part of the pattern of any endeavor on which we embark for our Lord.

For reflection
1.  Do you agree with the idea that not much real learning is being accomplished through our present efforts in Christian education? Why or why not?

2.  Describe a time when you feel as though you learned something. What did that process involve? How did you know you had learned it?

3.  What does it mean for you to be “present and prepared” for serving Christ in the week to come?

Next steps: Have you ever mapped out your own Personal Mission Field? Do you know how to begin working that Personal Mission Field? Watch this brief video (click here), then download the worksheet and map out the good land to which God sends you every day.

T. M. Moore

This is part 3 of a 5-part series, Living toward the Promises. You can download this week’s study as a free PDF, suitable for personal or group use, by clicking here. You can learn more about living toward the promises of God by ordering a copy of the book, I Will Be Your God, from our online store (click here).

We invite you to register for the free online course, One in Twelve: Introduction to Christian Worldview. In this course T. M. Moore provides a sweeping panorama of how life in the Kingdom of God unfolds in an age in flight from God such as ours. Set your own schedule and study at your own pace. Learn more, and register for One in Twelve, by clicking here.

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Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.