Leaving a legacy

My dad shared his faith with me and
I am now sharing my faith with my children
and grandchildren. Thanks be to God!

After God gave Moses the Ten Commandments, he said these words: "Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the door frames of your houses and on your gates." (Deuteronomy 6:4-9)

I have been blessed because I was raised in a Christian home. My parents, grandparents and their parents before them were believers in Christ. I have a history, written by my great, great, great, great, great, great grandfather, John Gordon, and in it he shares his own conversion to Christianity. What a beautiful legacy he left for the generations that would follow him. 

As a child, I often wondered why God placed me within a Christian family, why he chose for me to be born at a specific time and in a particular place. 

When I read Acts 17:26-28, I realized that God is ultimately in control. "From one man he (God) made every nation of men that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. For in him we live and move and have our being. As some of your own poets have said, 'We are his offspring'."

Although my parents were Christians, their faith was not a guarantee that I would become a Christian. I ultimately had to make that decision for myself. I heard a saying once that, "God doesn't have any grandchildren," and it's true. Those who come to faith in Christ Jesus as their Lord and Savior become the children of God in a very real sense. But since I was raised in a Christian home, I was taught Christian values at an early age and when it was time for me to make a choice, it was an easier decision.

My heart is burdened for those who have not received a legacy of Christian values. I know many people who have become "first generation" Christians. They have endured ridicule and some have been shunned by their families because they chose to follow Christ. But what a blessing it is to begin a legacy for the generations to come.

Here is an account from my grandpa Gordon regarding his conversion.

"In May, 1838 I got under conviction. I found that I could not get to heaven on other people’s faults and imperfections. I had to stand or fall for myself. I saw I was lost and undone forever without religion, but the difficulty was how to get religion. I could not see any consistency in the way that some people said that they got religion."

"Thus, I was confused and bewildered. One day, when I was following my  plow, I began to cry out in the agony of my soul; 'what shall I do? what shall I do?' At last there was a passage of scripture which came vividly to my mind; 'If the wicked man turn from his wickedness and does that which is right, his past sins shall not be mentioned to him.' Well, I thought this is the easiest plan I ever heard of and I immediately  (though I was following my plow) vowed to God that I would do it and I would obey and be governed by the gospel to the best of my ability, God being my helper, let man say or do what he would. As soon as this vow was made, I felt relief but I was so ignorant I hardly knew what to do. I began to read the New Testament and going to meetings of all kinds and conversing with everyone that made a profession of religion, asking all the questions I could, and would compare the results with the scriptures. All the instructions that were in accordance with the scriptures I would receive, no difference from what source it came and all that did not, I refused."

Grandpa Gordon and his wife, Mary, were baptized on Sunday, May 1839 and he said that he felt a peace of mind which he had never felt before.

I am so grateful for his testimony and I want to leave a similar testimony for my descendants. My advice to you today is to find a way to share your love of Christ with your family and friends.