Lately, I had been beginning my mornings with bible study, and munching on spiritual cookies and drinking spiritual milk—as the LORD provides. Lately, I was led to read the story of Paul of Tarsus. I was munching through chapter 13 of Acts at a slow pace. I really chewed up Paul’s speech to the Jews and Gentiles in Antioch. He gave a summarized history of Israel during the wilderness, time of Judges, and Kings Saul and David. When Paul spoke of David, I swallowed something in verse 36 of chapter 13. It said: “For David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God”.
Of course, the context of the passage is about David’s death, and seeing corruption. Jesus Christ died and was resurrected—seeing no corruption. That’s a different subject for a different blog. However, I swallowed something down to my heart. David served his generation by the will of God. David was a man after God’s own heart, and he died with honor—according to Paul—serving his generation according to God’s will and purpose. David wasn’t perfect: he had his sins and problems. He did the best that he could to love God and love his neighbor.
3000 years later—from the time of David’s reign—I am reading Paul’s version of his tribute to David. He served his generation the best that he knew how with the guidance and will of God. This sparked a question in my mind: “How can I serve my generation?”. It is such a simple, yet such a burdensome question. But, I can ask it with sincerity and honesty to y’all, O readers, and to God in prayer. To my readers, it’s a rhetorical question; to God, it’s a question of purpose—“What is Your will for my life? How can I serve my generation?” These are hard questions to ask.
But, they are necessary questions to ask for a man and/or woman who seek the LORD, and desires to be an instrument of His—for His purpose and glory. We cannot serve a generation that’s asleep in the grave or a generation not yet born because the former waits for judgment, and the latter waits for existence. History is written down for today’s generation to learn from the triumphs and follies of past generations. The responsibility to love one another is a step in the right direction for those of today’s generation to serve those not yet born. There’s much more to loving your neighbor as yourself than what I just summarized—this is one reason reading the bible is so important to consistently do.
