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Messages for Calebs II
Living
a long, healthy, and fruitful life or What to do if you're
a Senior Citizen and Obama Healthcare becomes law
Caleb
was a vigorous 40-year-old Israelite soldier who was ready to invade
Canaan as God had commanded. He had seen
God’s power demonstrated
ten times in Egypt to deliver the Israelites from a life of slavery,
and had decided to follow the God of Israel fully and wholeheartedly.
Now he was ready to receive his inheritance from God in Canaan. But
Caleb turned out to be one of only two adult Israelite men who wanted
to obey the Lord. The others had a spirit of fear and doubt which caused
them to disobey the Lord’s command to invade Canaan. Instead
of fearing the God who had saved them from slavery, they feared the
Canaanites. Their rebellion brought God’s holy anger upon them.
They would die off in the desert over the next forty years; none
of them would see the Promised Land.
Forty-five years later, Caleb prepared to take his inheritance in
Canaan. Listen to his testimony:
Joshua 14:10 “Now then, just as the LORD promised, he has kept
me alive for forty-five years since the time he said this to Moses,
while Israel moved about in the desert. So here I am today,
eighty-five years old! 11 I am still as strong today as the day Moses
sent me out;
I’m just as vigorous to go out to battle now as I was then. 12
Now give me this hill country that the LORD promised me that day. You
yourself heard then that the Anakites were there and their cities were
large and fortified, but, the LORD helping me, I will drive them out
just as he said.”
13 Then Joshua blessed Caleb son of Jephunneh and gave him Hebron as
his inheritance. 14 So Hebron has belonged to Caleb son of Jephunneh
the Kenizzite ever since, because he followed the LORD, the God of
Israel, wholeheartedly [fully].’
At the very advanced age of 85 years, Caleb was still in good health.
This is amazing in light of the statistic that a baby born in the United
States in 2006 had a life expectancy of 78.1 years. Not only did this
85-year-old former slave from some three and a half millennia ago outlive
the average American today, he was incredibly still vigorous enough
to go to war and to fight at that age! We disciples who would like
to live a long healthy life may have something to learn from Caleb.
Following God wholeheartedly without fear and doubt
Caleb is known for following the Lord fully and wholeheartedly. He
believed in the God of Israel who had delivered them from slavery.
He had no fear or doubt that they could defeat the militarily superior
Canaanites because the Lord was with them. Thus he did not hesitate
to obey His command to possess the Promised Land.
Fear and
doubt do not please the Lord. Disobeying His commands displeases
Him. Is it possible that fear, doubt, and disobedience have negative
consequences on physical health?
Caring for God’s temple: our physical bodies
Because
of the unbelief of the other Israelites, Caleb’s inheritance
was put on hold for some forty years while the others died off in the
desert. While there may have been some disappointment at the lengthy
delay, Caleb held on to God’s promise. When he saw his contemporaries
one by one succumb to sickness and death over the years stretching
into decades, he did not wallow in self-pity and slide into physical
inactivity and deterioration. Instead, he knew that the fulfillment
of God’s
promise to him was getting ever closer. We can imagine Caleb taking
good care of his physical body over the forty years in anticipation
of the day when he would invade the land and possess his inheritance.
This is a man of great faith.
In the
same way, God has work for us to do. We must labor while it is still
day; the works of the enemy kingdom must be destroyed until
Christ returns. The Kingdom of God must be proclaimed to the lost,
the sick must be healed, all nations must be discipled before the great
and dreadful Day of the Lord. After we complete our work we will go
to the Lord to receive our reward and our inheritance. But in order
to complete all the good works which God has prepared in advance
for us to do, we must remain healthy and vigorous like Caleb.
Our personal testimony
My wife and I began to serve the Lord full-time thirty-one
years ago in 1978 as pioneer missionaries to a primitive and untouched
region
in Indonesian Borneo. Indonesia has more Muslims than any other nation
on earth. Just two years earlier in 1976 I made Jesus Christ my Lord
and Savior. In 1977 I experienced the love of Jesus Christ in a very
powerful and intimate way. The following year we went to Indonesia
in obedience to Christ’s Great Commission. At that time I had
not quite finished reading the Bible. We went by faith alone having
no financial support from any church and no mission board to send us.
No church or organization in Indonesia had invited us or was expecting
us. We flew into the jungle island of Borneo without knowing where
we were going to stay or what we were going to do after arriving. We
did not allow fear or doubt to stop us from obeying God’s command
to go. As a result, the Lord was faithful and opened the way for us
to proclaim His Kingdom with power. He graciously made us fruitful
during nearly nine years of ministry in Borneo. That is how we began
our ministry for the kingdom of God thirty-one years ago.
Download
our testimony: Dancing
on the Edge of the Earth
The Lord
is pleased when like Caleb we follow Him fully and wholeheartedly---when
we resist the fear and doubt which seek to discourage us from obeying
His command. When he is pleased with us, He can enable us to stay
healthy and vigorous so that we can complete all the good works He
has ordained for us.
Numbers 14:8 “If the LORD is pleased with us,
he will lead us into that land, a land flowing with milk and honey,
and will give it
to us.
Self-control & self-discipline
The Lord
has given me the grace for self-control in my diet. I do not overeat,
but limit myself to eating mostly healthy
foods. Although
I enjoyed “junk food” in my younger years, I am now able
to exercise self-control and deny myself. I abstain from soft drinks.
Rarely do I touch red meat; fish, especially salmon, is now a frequent
main course. I eat lots of fresh vegetables, fruit, and nuts. (Once
in a while I'll enjoy some ice cream.)
Moreover,
I am not a person who by nature enjoys physical activity. But the
Lord has given me the self-discipline to exercise
every
day at a local gymnasium when I am not busy traveling and conducting
The Elijah Challenge Training. I do both cardiovascular training
as well as weight training.
By God’s
grace I am physically fit and in good health. A couple of years ago
I underwent
oral surgery
to have
an impacted wisdom tooth removed. Before the procedure a nurse took
my blood pressure. Knowing my age, she could hardly believe the reading
on the blood pressure gauge. The Lord is good.
So
here I am today in 2009 having reached an age when people are called
Senior Citizens! But I am still as strong today
as the day the Lord
sent me out to Indonesia; I’m just as vigorous to go out to battle
now as I was then thirty-one years ago.
In old age the righteous will stay fresh and green
When we follow the Lord fully and wholeheartedly, He can give us the
grace to fulfill the words of the Psalmist:
Psalm 92:12 The righteous will flourish like a palm
tree, they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon; 13 planted in the house
of the LORD,
they will flourish in the courts of our God. 14 They will still
bear fruit in old age, they will stay fresh and green, 15 proclaiming, “The
LORD is upright; he is my Rock, and there is no wickedness in him.”
In accordance
with God’s
promise above, I am praying that my wife and I will stay fresh and
green into our old age, and continue
to bear fruit for Him. We will never “retire” but plan
to serve Him actively until the very moment we leave this world. We
have no health insurance or retirement to speak of. We have chosen
to store our treasure in heaven. The Lord is faithful and "all these
things will be given to us as well."
More
Messages for Calebs
" God
is Love"
(or
How to have confidence on Judgment Day)
Obedience
is not a dirty word
To
the Church in America: what should we now do?
Other
articles | Featured
essays
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