"Your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions." Joel 2:28
Our Fellowship in general, and many of our local churches in particular, are youth oriented. Our evangelism is youth focused. Discipleship is youth driven. Church planting is primarily done using young couples. And it is so because it works best that way.
The only problem with this focus is that we are not allowed to get old in our Fellowship. Our bodies are not allowed to succumb to the onslaught of aging. We are not supposed to have age related illnesses. Moses is tossed out as an example, so that if we don't live strong until the end we are failures. Sorry pastor Mitchell, you faltered at the end of life so you did not live up to Moses' standard. You should have quit while you were ahead.
On the idea of illness, some Pentecostals think that all illness is caused by the Devil. This poses a unique challenge. A man of God ought to be able to cast out the demon and get us old folks healed. Instead, they blame us for their ministerial failure. Do not tell me that my body is being attacked unless you have the answer on what to do to alleviate the illness. Some old folks in church trust doctors because doctors help with practical solutions to persistent problems. Doctors never blame their patients for being sick. If God will not heal us by a miracle, are we cut off from God forever?
I notice that in our text, old men are given preference over young men since they are mentioned first. Dreaming is as valuable as seeing visions. It is wrong to think that the vision of youth is more useful than the dreams of the aged.
"The end of a thing is better than it's beginning;" Eccl.7:8
No comments:
Post a Comment