Good Morning Everyone,
Our theme for this month: “True Greatness”
Our Bible verse for today: “So here I am today, eighty-fives years old! 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.” Joshua 14:10-11 (NIV)
Our thought for today: “Great people are enthusiastic.”
I have always loved the example set for us by Caleb. This was a man who approached all of life with enthusiasm and vigor, with passion and purpose, with courage and confidence.
Caleb was one of the twelve spies sent by Moses to spy out the Promised Land and along with Joshua, he was the only one who was not intimidated by the challenges it presented. While the other ten were afraid and counseled the people to turn around and not attempt to take possession of the land, Caleb, along with Joshua, urged them to just go forward with courage and confidence, obeying the Lord and trusting Him. Unfortunately the people didn’t listen to Caleb and Joshua and they paid a big price for it.
Forty-five years past for Caleb, forty of them where spent wandering in the desert and five years of finally conquering the Promise Land. Now Caleb stood before Joshua, eighty-five years old and still full of vim and vigor. He was looking forward to the future and was eager to take possession of his portion of the land, ready to get busy building an inheritance for his family – at eighty-five!
I don’t know about you but I want to be a Caleb! I want to spend my years in the passionate pursuit of the promises of God, facing challenges with courage and confidence, trusting that God has a good and perfect plan and that if I just keep moving forward in faith and obedience, it will come to pass.
The secret to Caleb’s greatness is revealed to us in this same passage of Joshua 14. Three times (in verses 8, 9, and 14), we’re told that Caleb followed the Lord “wholeheartedly”. In other words, with nothing held back. He was enthusiastic, gutsy, passionate, and determined, and he followed God with His whole heart.
People like Caleb live lives that are unusually productive and rather than whining or complaining, they just do what needs to be done. I want to be more like Caleb and I hope you do too. I hope to someday be eighty-five, still full of fire and passion, and still accomplishing the plans God has established for me.
As the editors of “The Leadership Bible” noted, “Caleb was a great leader because he had a great passion. He had a great passion because he had a great purpose. He had a great purpose because he had a great God. And he knew his great God well.”
May that be true of us as well.
God Bless,
Pastor Jim
Oak Hill Baptist Church 