Last Lessons #12 – RIGHTEOUSNESS

But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you (Matthew 6:33).

All of us need “things” in order to live. Jesus confirms this in Matt. 6:32. It is not wrong to seek things we need, and Christians should not criticize non-believers for seeking legitimate necessities. But for believers Jesus says that he will see to it that they receive all the things they need when they make his kingdom and his righteousness their first priority.

What does it mean to “seek the kingdom of God?” What does it mean when we pray in the Lord’s prayer, “Thy kingdom come?” God’s kingdom comes when God is worshiped as King. God is king today in the hearts of millions of people. But he is not king in the hearts of all people on earth yet. Therefore, we pray that he will become King in all hearts, and that we seek for this to happen by doing what we can to persuade non-believers to believe in Christ and submit to his rule. This should be our primary activity while we are on earth.

What are you doing to introduce others to Christ? At least inviting them to church.

“Seeking first his righteousness” is another story. Of course, we Christians have received Christ’s righteousness when we became believers. We do not need to seek his righteousness. But what we are to seek, before we seek things, is practical righteousness in the way we live. Practical righteousness means that we obey God in all aspects of our behavior, our activities, our relationships, and in these days, in how we are led. We can choose how we behave, for the most part we can choose what we do with our time, we can choose our friends and our church. By God’s grace today we can still choose our leaders, including our political leaders.

In choosing our political leaders we must remember that we are not choosing them as our spiritual leaders, but we do want political leaders who do what is right for the people. If possible, we choose Christians above non-Christians. But even Christians will not be perfect. However, while they are in office, they must want to do what is right for the people and what is right in their personal lives. Their policies must be right for all people. They stand for people of all races and colors. They stand for the unborn and the elderly. They stand for the rich and the poor. They stand for the Constitution, and they stand for truth. We must not choose proven liars to lead us. All people are sinners, but for leaders, lying is the most unacceptable of sins.

As we pray that God will lead us to choose the leaders who seek that which is most righteous, then we have the promise that “all things will be added to us” including a prosperous economy, law and order, safety, and peace.

I pray that we will choose the right leaders. Are you praying for the same?

Last Lessons #11 – HONOR

Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed. Romans 13:7

We owe taxes to governments. We owe money to those we buy from. But we also owe respect and honor to those who deserve it. Government officials deserve respect and those who have served well or given their lives deserve honor.

It is distressing to see how little respect is given to government officials today. Too often we decide that government officials do not deserve respect. Romans chapter 13 makes it clear that God himself has placed government officials over us whether we like them or not. God has given them to us for our own good. Without governing authorities there is chaos. Christians obey God by obeying his gift of governing authorities.

As Christians we also owe honor. First of all, we owe honor to the Lord our God. We are to show honor to our fathers and mothers. We should honor those who preach to us and teach us. We should honor our heroes – those who have fought for us, protected us, cured us, defended our rights, and risked their lives for us. Honor is due them.

So how do we show honor to past heroes?

• Teach our children to honor them
• Visit their graves or monuments
• Protect their monuments
• Thank God for them

How do we show honor to present heroes?

• Pray for them
• Tell others why they are heroes
• Teach our children who they are
• Encourage them with our communications
• Support them financially if needed
• Thank God for them

I am so grateful for the heroes that God has put in my life. My father, my husband, my brother who fought for my freedom. My mother, my pastor, my mentors who taught me truth. They all deserve my honor.

Which heroes are you honoring today?

Last Lessons #10 – GENERATIONS

 Tell your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children to another generation. Joel 1:3

Knowledge of God began when Moses wrote the first books of the Bible and parents taught the knowledge therein to their children. For thousands of years parents taught their next generations what they had learned about God. I am afraid that we do not tell our children much about God today. Few of us take the time to do so. We are just too busy.

What is it that we should tell our children? All Christians know the answer to that. We are to tell our children from a very early age the good news that Jesus loves them. That he came to earth to save sinners. Then we tell them what sin is. We tell them the gospel and we keep on telling them for as long as they will listen so that it becomes firm enough in their minds and hearts for them to tell their children.

Unlike former generations, our children now have the written Word of God. So we not only tell our children the gospel, we make sure they read the gospel. We give them Bibles and we take them to Sunday School. We read the Bible and other Christian books to them and with them.

Finally, we show them the gospel. We show them by our own actions. We let them see, and hopefully be involved in, telling the gospel to others. There are many ways of doing this, but my husband and I did so by letting our children live as missionary kids. They saw what our life was about and were a part of it.

Not all children have the privilege of being raised in Africa or in any poverty-stricken country. But your children, or other children you know, need to see how you show the gospel to others.

There are plenty of ways to do this – in your home, in church, in school, in the multitude of charities that are available.

The very best charity that is telling, and reading and showing the gospel is the Rafiki Foundation (www.rafikifoundation.org). Rafiki has built villages in ten African countries and makes sure that every orphan, every school child, every teacher, every staff member not only hears the gospel, but studies the Bible and sees it worked out every day. That is so they can teach the next generation of Africans. You might want to help Rafiki with this.

How are all of us telling, reading, and showing our children, our grandchildren, our great-grandchildren, and other children the gospel of Jesus Christ so they can tell their next generation?

Last Lessons #9 – GO

 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age. Matthew 28:19-20

When my husband Bob, my two-year-old daughter Annie, and I sailed out of New York harbor for Africa we passed by the Statue of Liberty. It was quite an emotional and scary experience. We were leaving our country, our families, our friends, and everything familiar for a four-year term expecting to live in Tanzania for the rest of our lives.

It was 1957 and I was 28 years old.

All I knew was that God had called Bob and me to be missionaries in Tanzania, East Africa. Bob was a doctor and would be working for our first term at a hospital in rural Bumbuli. I was a teacher, but my goal was to help people know God. Of course, I had no idea how to do that, so I would be doing anything I was asked to do along with caring for my husband and daughter.

I have learned that we never know ahead of time what our calling will entail. What I did know was that the medical needs in Tanzania were great, so Bob would have plenty to do. I also knew that my heart was set on helping the Africans know God but before I could do that, I had to learn much from the Africans. That’s another story for another time.

Our scripture tells us that if God has called us to go somewhere (even to Africa!) he will be with us. That’s his promise and we can be sure he will be faithful to that promise.

People, including some family members said to Bob and me, “How can you make such a sacrifice – especially sacrificing your children?” But going to Africa was not a sacrifice. I am here to tell you that it was not only not a sacrifice, it was the greatest adventure of our lives. We never regretted it. Not that it was easy, but we were living the abundant life and that life is always exciting.

But to experience this exciting life we have to actually GO! We go to wherever God sends and we trust him for the rest. That’s what faith is all about.

God may not be calling you to GO, but if you can’t GO, then SEND. Matthew 28:19 is for all Christians. We are to do what we can to make disciples of all nations, to spread the gospel throughout the whole world. And we had better hurry if we want to be a part of this great commission because Matthew 24:14 tells us that when all nations have heard (and most have heard now!), then the end will come.

That will be the day! Hallelujah!

Last Lessons #8 – PREPARATION

 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. Ephesians 2:10

“Beforehand” means that before we were even born, God prepared good works for us to do. Think of that! Not only does God prepare the works for us to do, he prepares us to do them. He trains us and gives us the desire to do that which is good. But what I have learned is that we usually don’t see how God prepared us until we look back.

I remember that as a senior in high school, I had an English teacher who gave me a love for literature (especially poetry) and grammar. That motivated me to earn a college degree in English education and then to teach high school English in Florida. Then when I decided to go to graduate school, my counselor at the University of Florida said I should study administration and supervision of secondary schools. Why in the world would I study that? I had no desire to be a high-school principal. However, what I did not know then was that years later I would be instrumental in starting Christian classical schools in Africa. There you go!

Definitely the most wonderful preparation for good works in my life was marrying Bob Jensen. I came very close to marrying someone else a few years before I met Bob, but God stopped me. I look back now and almost break out in a cold sweat when I think what would have happened if I had married that guy.

Bob and I were both in the military when we met. Bob was a major in the Army Medical Corps and I was a second lieutenant in the Women’s Medical Specialist Corps. Since Bob outranked me, he ordered me to marry him and I said, “Yes sir”. That marriage lasted for 60 years and ended only when Bob died at age 88 in 2014.

The amazing part of this story is that we were in love and engaged before we discovered that both of us wanted to become missionaries. God had prepared us by taking his man from Minnesota and his woman from Florida and having us meet in Texas so that we would serve him in Africa! All according to his plan.

I am a “look forward” person, but sometimes I look back and say, “Ohhh, that’s why!” as I see a tiny piece of how God prepared me for the “good works” he wanted to do through me when I had no idea what he was doing.

Haven’t you found that true for you? If you take the time to look back at what the Lord saved you from and what he prepared you for, you will be encouraged in all the works God planned for you beforehand. That’s what keeps me going.