First Generation

Sunday night a young missionary introduced his family, their calling and led our congregation in prayer.  Afterward I picked up one of their prayer cards and spoke to them a few moments. Later I took a look at their website,Preaching Christ In Papua New Guinea and was stopped by a question there:

What would it be like if everyone in your church was a first generation Christian?

Most Christians have had experiences with new Christians – the enthusiasm they exhibit, their desire to share what happened to their lives, the thirst to learn more.  We might have come across an individual who was the first in their immediate family to know Christ, but usually there is a family member who has been praying for them for a very long time.

What would it be like living with a village who had no one? Where there was not a written language, much less a Bible in their own language. A place where Paul’s sermon to the Athenians would be appropriate:

For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you. (Acts 17:23 KJV)

What a blessing to put into their own language the words that will tell them that:

God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands; Neither is worshipped with men's hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things; (Acts 17:24-25 KJV)

What a great service to carry God’s message of creation, love and light!  To let them know that God loves them:

And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us: (Acts 17:26-27 KJV)

They will be told of generation after generation who have shared the light God provides:

The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined. (Isaiah 9:2 KJV)

To tell them what they have never been told before, and watch their comprehension:

In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not. (John 1:4-5 KJV)

What a wonder it will be for that first generation to hear of a man who died for them, telling them, as He told others:

Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. (John 8:12 KJV)

That light of His life will overcome language barriers, darkness of doubt and will light up the lives of this first generation.