He had attended so many funerals in his time that he had lost count. Everywhere he looked these days, the faces all seemed so young. Virtually no one was left in his age bracket. What did people think when they glanced at his white head or his craggy face? “There's the old guy,” he assumed.
We could be talking about Frank Buckles, who at age 107 (at the time of this writing) is the last remaining American who served in Europe during World War I. Fibbing about his age in order to join the Army, he became an ambulance driver in France at age sixteen; his last duty was to escort German POWs back home after the Armistice was signed. He received the French Legion of Honor award in 2004. Buckles still lives on his West Virginia farm.1
Or we could be talking about Caleb, that long-time friend of Joshua. Caleb, too, was a gritty old veteran. When people saw his white hair and craggy face, they too may have thought, “There's the old guy.” But whenever anyone was willing to listen, Caleb could still retell the dramatic saga of how God pressured the Egyptians with ten plagues to set his people free. He could still see in his mind's eye the Red Sea rolling up in front of them. He had been a strong young man when the thunder crackled around Mount Sinai and God gave Moses the Ten Commandments. Of course, that was a long time ago….
Caleb had made a name for himself early on by standing firm in the minority. As one of twelve reconnaissance agents sent from the desert to check out the Promised Land, he was the one who interrupted all the naysayers. “Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, ‘We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it’” (Num. 13:30). Only his friend Joshua agreed with him. They lost the debate that day.
But God never forgot Caleb's bold spirit of faith. He made it clear through Moses on several occasions that Caleb would get “the land he set his feet on, because he followed the LORD wholeheartedly” (Deut. 1:36). That word “wholeheartedly” shows up five different times in relation to Caleb (see also Num. 14:24; 32:12; Josh. 14:8; 14:14). He had a one-track mind (as well as heart and soul) for the Lord. No wavering, no compromise, no negotiating with the purposes of God. There was nothing lukewarm or tentative about him.
Today we need more of that spirit in our culture, which isn't quite sure anymore whether any commitments are supposed to be permanent and unbending. Two people often stand before a member of the clergy and commit themselves to each other in marriage “for as long as we both shall love.” That way, if they start to feel differently down the road, they have a way out.
To bring children into the world implies the responsibility of providing shelter and food as well as emotional and spiritual nurture to young lives. Yet too often, parents today pull back from their own offspring, caring little for their welfare or actually leaving the household altogether.
Churchgoers profess that they serve Christ and obey Scripture. After all, he did secure pardon for them at a very high price on the cross. But then when they happen not to like something they read or something they hear in a sermon, the waffling begins. They ask whether there isn't an “alternate interpretation” of that particular passage. Surely God didn't intend for that verse to be taken at face value, did he?
Caleb would have had no tolerance for such things. He was not interested in fudging the lines or seeing where he might cut corners. God had promised a great land to Israel, and Caleb's response was, let's go get it! He had no desire to hesitate or second-guess. He was wholly committed to the divine plan for Israel.
Unfinished Business
Caleb never forgot the goal—claiming the Promised Land—even as the desert years passed into decades. He was there the day the nation finally entered Canaan, no doubt cheering as loudly as anyone. He saw the walls of Jericho collapse. He helped in subsequent battles. And finally, after some of the dust had settled, he went to see his old friend Joshua about some unfinished business.
“You know what the LORD said to Moses the man of God at Kadesh Barnea about you and me. I was forty years old … And I brought him back a report according to my convictions, but the others who went up with me made the hearts of the people melt in fear. I, however, followed the LORD my God wholeheartedly” (Josh. 14:6–8).
There's that word again.
Joshua no doubt nodded in assent. He knew where this conversation was heading. He could tell Caleb was about to raise the subject of a permanent home for himself, after all this waiting. Sure enough …
“So here I am today, eighty-five 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. Now give me this hill country that the LORD promised me that day. You yourself heard then that the Anakites were there and their cities were large and fortified, but, the LORD helping me, I will drive them out just as he said” (vv. 10–12).
Don't you just love this kind of tenacity! Caleb may have been old, but he had no intention of quitting. He was not afraid of taking on the Anakites (Canaan's most towering, fearsome warriors). He firmly believed his God is stronger, and he would not let loose of the divine promise. His faith was bigger than any fear or scouting report. He meant to possess everything God had promised.
Caleb was like the Roman centurion in Jesus' time who asked for his servant to be healed. When Jesus offered to go visit the man, the centurion replied, in essence, “That's not necessary. Just say the word right here, and it will happen. I know it!” He boldly stated the conviction of his heart, so that Jesus “was amazed and said to those following him, ‘Truly I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith’” (Matt. 8:10). Yes, it is rare to find people—Jewish, Roman, American, or any other nationality—who will take God at his word without a hint of reservation. But that is God's desire for us all.
God wants us to say, with Caleb, “My life will be shaped by God's promise and plan, not by my own opinions or rationalizations. What God says, I will believe. Now let's get on with it.”
Joshua saw the glint in his old friend's eye. He knew there would be no stopping this warrior. The Bible says, “Then Joshua blessed Caleb son of Jephunneh and gave him Hebron as his inheritance. So Hebron has belonged to Caleb son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite ever since, because he followed the LORD, the God of Israel, wholeheartedly” (Josh. 14:13–14).
Did you know that Hebron was the highest-altitude town in all of Canaan? Sitting at 3,040 feet above sea level, it was higher even than Jerusalem. This was indeed the “hill country” (v. 12), which meant the fighting would be tougher. The hills were infested with gigantic Anakites. Caleb didn't care. He was ready to push against all difficulties to gain the blessing God had for him.
And he was not going to be talked out of it. Nobody dared say, “Don't you think you're maybe a little old for this? How about a nice retirement condo by the Mediterranean instead?” One look at Caleb let people know this man was still on a mission.
Sometimes subtle comments and influences from those nearby try to weaken our radical resolve in following Christ. The prophet Micah once spoke about how relatives would rise up against each other on important issues, and “your enemies are the members of your own household” (Mic. 7:6). Jesus quoted this prophecy when he was sending out the twelve disciples for a special ministry tour (see Matt. 10:35–36). He told them to press on boldly despite what others said.
When we began at the Brooklyn Tabernacle years ago, many of our first converts were young Puerto Ricans whose chaotic lives in the neighborhoods were changed by Christ. Every New Year's Eve we held a service to thank God for the blessings of the previous year and to pray for the year just ahead.
You would think that parents would have been happy about these kids finally straightening up. But I remember some of them arriving at that special service almost shaking with fear because their families were so opposed to their presence. Their parents wanted them to be at the family's wild New Year's party instead.
“So what did you do last New Year's Eve?” I asked.
Answers ranged from “I got drunk” to “I got in a fight” to “I was at this party, and they had to call the police.”
“Did your family mind that you were out of control?” I asked one young man.
“No—they were part of it!”
Now that these kids were following God wholeheartedly, their family members were actually upset with them.
It is still hard today for a young person to stand up and serve Jesus. I look at the dozens of teenagers who sing in our youth choir, and I know that most of them will go to school the very next day with metal detectors everywhere. They will have to navigate a gangsta rap culture that promotes violence, resists any kind of authority, and denigrates women. If the teenagers do well academically, they are in violation of what's “hip.” They may even get attacked physically for making good grades.
Some of them are mocked for using correct English instead of the slang of the street. When they stand for Christ and live according to God's will, they are quickly marked as odd or weird, according to the majority. How we need to pray for “young Calebs” around the country to hold firm against the flow and press ahead with Jesus.
Willing to Wait
Caleb, of course, had to stay strong-minded for God over a period of four decades. He trudged along with the other Israelites in the desert, until the nation as a whole was in position to be blessed by God. Caleb never gave up, never got despondent, never grew cynical or bitter, and never lost sight of the promise he had received. Instead, he—a man of great faith—walked alongside people who had no faith. His spirit never grew harsh.
He suffered along with the others for something that was not his fault. Sometimes in life we get penalized along with the majority. We feel like screaming, “Look, I didn't do anything wrong! Why do I have to be bogged down with these people?” It is not fun at all.
But for those who wait faithfully for God's promise to be fulfilled, their day will come. They keep repeating to themselves the prayer of Psalm 130:5–6: “I wait for the LORD, my whole being waits, and in his word I put my hope. I wait for the LORD more than watchmen wait for the morning.” Yes, it sometimes feels like being a security guard on the overnight shift, with nothing to do but stare at the clock, thinking the sunrise will never come again. But just wait…. God's timing is sure, and he will not disappoint you in the end.
In fact, as Isaiah 30:18 says, “The LORD longs to be gracious to you…. Blessed are all who wait for him!”
Waiting for God can be difficult. Many discouragements and distractions work to pull our eyes away from what the Lord has promised. We have all seen people become bitter and angry because God's clock moved too slowly for them. As a result, they lost out on God's fullest blessing. Caleb showed no signs of irritation during his long, long delay. He stayed full of faith until, at last, his moment arrived.
He also apparently stayed in physical shape. Although an octogenarian, he could say he was still fit to engage in battle. He wasn't about to succumb to the sentiment often heard in our time of “I'm tired now after all these years … let the younger folks do it … it's their turn, don't you think?” Caleb had what God described as “a different spirit” (Num. 14:24).
Always Ready for a Challenge
Like Caleb, those who are totally devoted to God never retire. They never get cranky and negative. Instead, they say along with this brave man, “Give me a job to do. Give me an enemy to conquer. I'm ready for a new challenge!” Some of the best ministry, in fact, can be done by those who have finished a normal career in the business world. In many cases God has been preparing them all along for opportunities they never imagined.
Bonite Affriany was fifty-eight years old when she first came to the Brooklyn Tabernacle. A native of Haiti, she was a registered nurse. She heard the gospel, responded to an invitation, accepted Christ as her Savior, and was baptized by me in July 1997. She began to grow in her faith and soon joined our Prayer Band, which intercedes throughout the week for various needs.
Her desire to serve God kept growing. Eventually she quit her job, applied for early Social Security, and began living off that plus her savings so she could give more time to ministry. In 2001 she traveled back to Haiti to buy a piece of land in Jacmel, a town of some 15,000 along the south coast. Its white-sand beaches and art galleries attract some tourists, but most people there live in abject poverty. Bonite thought she would put up a simple building, organize a feeding ministry for the children, and then return to New York to earn more money that would finance the work.
Every time she prayed about her project, however, Bonite felt a call to go live in Jacmel herself. Once when I was preaching, I began moving toward the section where she happened to be sitting and said I felt God was calling someone in our church to step out on a specific mission. I didn't know who; I was just expressing what I felt God put in my heart at that moment. She listened intently and took this as a confirmation of what she had been sensing in prayer.
This quiet, unassuming woman went out and bought a one-way ticket to Haiti. The first week she started a morning prayer meeting from eight to nine o'clock under a mango tree, putting out coconut leaves to cover the muddy ground so people could gather. The numbers began to grow. Soon she had a simple building completed so the feeding program could begin. Conditions were primitive, of course. The phones often didn't work. Electricity would come and go; on occasion Bonite would endure four or five days with only the light of a kerosene lamp after sunset. But she pressed on.
Two women from our church, Suzan and Janet, decided not long ago to take Thanksgiving week and go see Bonite's ministry for themselves. They returned to New York with amazing stories. For starters, their inbound flight to Port-au-Prince, the capital city, was delayed, causing them to miss the connector flight—the last flight of the day. Bonite's associate, ever resourceful, found a driver with a pickup truck she could hire to take them to Jacmel.
The trip, normally three hours, lasted longer than the daylight, as the truck broke down five times. Of course there were no street lights. The three women and their luggage bounced along in the back of the pickup in pitch darkness. Whenever a vehicle would come up behind them, the staff member would say, “Get down! Don't let them see the suitcases!”
“Why?” the visitors asked.
“Because luggage means tourists. If they see you're tourists, they'll stop the truck and rob us!”
Genuinely concerned by now, Suzan paused to remember it was Tuesday night—prayer meeting night back in Brooklyn. She pulled out her cell phone and called the church. “Pray for us right now!” she pled. “We're in a situation here that I don't want to describe, but ask the Lord to watch over us.” This message was quickly passed to me as I led the meeting. I immediately called the congregation to pray on their behalf. Late that evening, the women arrived safely in Jacmel.
By the next morning Suzan and Janet found themselves in the thick of preparing rice and beans plus a small salad for 165 children who depend on Bonite for a meal each day—in many cases, their only meal of the day. The women also worked sorting used clothing our church had sent down to Jacmel. They saw a modest learning center in action, where the poor were learning to read and write.
One day the women went to visit a Haitian prison where Bonite often ministers. They told me later, “Pastor, we're not kidding—the stench hit us in the face a good two hundred yards outside the gate. Urine, feces, filth—it was overwhelming! Bonite didn't flinch a bit.
“We went to one cell maybe twelve feet square that had been packed with forty inmates! Some of them hardly had enough clothing to cover up in our presence. We started passing out toiletries and little notebooks—you would have thought we had brought in bars of gold.
“There were two small cots in the cell, but—how in the world did this many men sleep at night? We asked, and they replied, ‘We take turns. A few lie down and sleep for an hour while the rest of us stand. Then we trade places.’”
Bonite promptly began preaching the gospel to the men in Creole, her native tongue. They listened respectfully. It was incredibly hot; the two visitors from Brooklyn fanned her to keep her a little cooler while she spoke. In the end, she prayed with the inmates and invited them to welcome Jesus into their hearts.
That evening, back at Bonite's small compound, it was time for church again—a nightly occurrence. The praises of God in Creole rang out into the darkness, followed by the preaching of God's Word.
All this was—and still is—happening because a woman now pushing seventy years of age had chosen to follow God's call wholeheartedly. She hasn't sought the comfortable life. She hasn't dropped out to spend her days watching television or shopping for another pair of shoes. She has elected instead to take the light of God's love to a difficult, needy corner of the world, and she is enjoying the smile of God on her efforts.
Ripple Effect
Bonite's work is bound to bear fruit in the lives of future generations even after she goes to heaven. Who knows what future leaders in the country of Haiti may grow up coming through her food line? When your devotion to the Lord is strong and true—when your faith hangs on, no matter what—the blessing is felt not only in your own circumstance but also in the lives of those to come.
God had promised to Caleb a homestead not only for himself but also for “your children forever” (Josh. 14:9). In fact, the next chapter (Josh. 15) gives some detail about how Caleb transferred some land with a set of springs to his daughter and son-in-law. This water source was part of the overflow of God's blessing upon Caleb.
The more we trust God and follow his assignment for our lives, the more our children and grandchildren will be blessed. Both Carol and I had parents and grandparents who trusted God no matter what. One of my grandmothers, for example, was born in Poland. She met my grandfather in a poor mining town in Pennsylvania and married him there. They came from a strongly traditional religious background, but after they experienced the living Jesus, they began to attend vibrant home meetings. As a result, they were ridiculed in a variety of ways, including garbage being thrown onto their yard. But they remained faithful to God.
They raised a daughter who shared their radical faith—my mother. She held strong even when my father became an alcoholic and lost his job because of it. He was often violent. Relatives advised my mother just to leave him. But she chose, because of her dogged faith in God, to stay and believe for a divine turnaround. That is exactly what happened after twenty-one years of drinking. For the last dozen years of his life, my dad was entirely sober. My mother, now ninety-three years old, has proved that God never disappoints those who wait faithfully for him.
Carol's maternal grandmother lived on a Wisconsin dairy farm with a husband who also drank a great deal and opposed the things of God. Some winter weeknights she would go to church and return home only to find herself locked out in the cold. But she never wavered. And her descendants, including Carol, have been inspired to steadfastness by her example of faith.
Many Christians, of course, do not have such a godly heritage. Some are the first in their families ever to trust Christ. They have the privilege of starting a new ripple effect of blessing that will affect future generations.
When you stop to think about it, you realize that the early Christians in the first century were in uncharted territory when it came to standing strong for Christ. This was a new day altogether in God's plan for the earth. They were rejected by the religious leaders of their time because they preached that the long-awaited Messiah had come. Their activities were considered illegal by some of the governing authorities. They had little money for food to feed them, no technology to help them, no buildings to shelter them, no consultants to advise them, not even a New Testament to inspire and guide them. Yet they forged courageously into the Roman world and “spoke the word of God boldly” (Acts 4:31).
We catch a glimpse of the apostle Paul's all-out commitment in his farewell comments to the Ephesian elders. He tells about his upcoming trip to Jerusalem, how dangerous it is likely to become, and then says, “However, I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the good news of God's grace” (Acts 20:24).
This kind of devotion is so radical, this faith so deep, that it almost takes our breath away. Paul had no assurance that he would come out of his next mission all right. (In fact, he didn't; he was taken into custody there in Jerusalem and spent most of his remaining years in chains.) But it was totally irrelevant to him. He focused instead on fulfilling his calling from Christ.
The authorities, whether religious or civil, really could not defeat Paul, because he didn't care what happened to him personally; it was all about the will of God. He truly was not concerned with living or dying. He wrote to the Philippian church, “What shall I choose? I do not know! I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far; but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body” (Phil. 1:22–24). His devotion to Jesus consumed every part of his being.
The same could be said of others in that century and throughout church history. Wholehearted followers of God do not worry about their comfort level, their retirement, or their reputation among their peers. They seek only to stay on track with their Lord.
Determined, Yet Dependent
As with Paul, we have seen in the life of Caleb that strong determination to serve God no matter what happens. But we can also see a meek side to Caleb. He was more than just a proactive “Type A” personality who liked to fight anyone who got in his way. Notice the all-important phrase in his statement to Joshua about tackling the Anakites with cities “large and fortified, but, the LORD helping me, I will drive them out just as he said” (Josh. 14:12).
In other words, this campaign would not be based solely on human bravery. Caleb knew he needed “the LORD helping me” in order to accomplish anything, large or small. The same is true for us. Only with the Lord's help can we conquer the enemies that stand in our way. God's power and grace are required for every challenge before us. We cannot attempt to claim the first half of Philippians 4:13—“I can do all things”—without understanding the rest of it: “through Christ who strengthens me.”2
Following God wholeheartedly for the long haul requires us to be totally dependent upon him and his Word. We grasp what he says to us and hold on tightly, refusing to let it slip from our hands and hearts. We then commit ourselves to acting on that promise at every opportunity, whether it comes our way tomorrow or forty years from tomorrow.
Patrick Hamilton, the first Scottish martyr of the Protestant Reformation, was burned at the stake in 1528 in St. Andrews. He was only twenty-five years old. From a wealthy family, he had studied in Paris, encountered the truth of salvation by faith in Christ alone as taught by Martin Luther, and came home to Scotland to spread the gospel. The archbishop chased him away to Luther's Germany, but he soon returned, determined to preach what God had placed in his heart. He was quickly put on trial and executed before his influential friends could rally support for him.
I tell you Patrick Hamilton's story to introduce this marvelous statement of his: “No man can do a greater honor to God than to count him true.”3 He knew that relying on the faithfulness of God mattered more than anything else, and he was willing to pay with his life for that conviction.
Hamilton's murderers expected that his death would stamp out the Reformation in Scotland. In fact, it had the opposite effect. Everyone began talking about what he had stood for. Said one person who had attended his burning, “The reek [smoke] of Mr. Patrick Hamilton has infected as many as it did blow upon.”4
Wholehearted people like Patrick Hamilton, the apostle Paul, and Caleb make that kind of impact on the world. They unleash the power and truth of God in ways that cannot be dismissed. They take control of territory that others fear to approach. They prove that with God, nothing is impossible.