A Call To The Remnant

In the very first commandment we see that God says He is a “jealous God and that He visits the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate me.” Yet, he says that He shows “mercy to thousands to those who love me and keep my commandments.”

Now in our time, three or four generations is about one hundred years. Seems like a long time and we know that God’s mercy can break the iniquities of unbelievers. Yet His mercies extends at least that long and more to the generations that love Him and keep His commandments.

I can trace my own Christian lineage back to just over 100 years. My great great grandfather was a drummer in a Scottish regiment in the first word war, that is him with the mustache in the picture. I know next to nothing about him, but I have two pictures of him. One in his uniform, kilt and all, and the other in the uniform of the Salvation army. I can only surmise that he saw all the horrors of the first world war and gave his heart to Jesus around that time.

The Salvation Army at the turn of the last century was a powerful force for the Gospel. They marched into tenement slums where “angels feared to tread.” Enough to say that if you were in the Salvation Army at that time is was because you had been gloriously regenerated and wanted to serve Jesus in the saving of souls. And so the lineage was passed down to my mothers generation and some of her brothers, and now she is 80 and the last of ten siblings still alive.

I and a few of my cousins have taken up the banner and are moving forward in the battle. This is the mercy of God shown to the third and fourth generations and beyond. A legacy of Christ in my family on my mothers side. Interestingly, although he was the only Salvationist in our family I know of, my mother was born again in a Citadel. She did not join the Salvation Army but you can see the thread of the Lord working to the third and forth generations staring with my great great Grandad.

There is a legacy brothers and sisters. Gods faithfulness to us, and His mercy that runs down through the generations. So no matter what the state of your family when it comes to those who are saved or not saved, keep shining the light of Christ. There is a lot more going on than you know. I know that it can be discouraging sometimes when we look at the landscape of our families. Yet we are not laboring in vain, the Spirit of God is at work and His mercy, we are told, endures forever. Take heart, keep shining your light, keep praying, keep loving, keep forgiving and we shall see God’s mercy at work in the land of the living.