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Guideposts for the Journey What are we leaving for others to follow as they come along behind? by Roger C. Palms Some years ago, when I was facing depression, a missionary doctor home on leave counseled me and prayed for me. God used the time spent with that man to set me free, enabling me to get back into the race God wanted me to run. Once again, I moved out into life newly encouraged and newly equipped. Now it is my turn to do the same for others. Some years later, when my prayer life became dull and listless and I was not seeing the hand of God on my life, another man talked with me and prayed with me. It was liberating for me. That’s a help I can now pass along to others. These men, and many other men and women like them, have invested themselves in me. God used them as they set out guideposts for me to follow. Now I have to ask, “What guideposts am I leaving for others to follow as they come along behind me?” Does it matter? Should I care? I am called to help, to teach, to encourage, to give to others what others have given to me. I have been helped to run my race. It isn’t enough that I finish well; I must help others finish well too. Four guideposts Four guideposts have helped me along the way. I’d like to leave them on the road, in clear view, for others. Know that God is God 1 and I am not. God knows my today and He knows my tomorrows. He knows how to direct me in ways I cannot even guess. The wisest thing I can do is not to struggle with God but to 20 • Bible Advocate® - www.cog7.org/BA © Maria Isabel Villamonte—Dreamstime.com
e submissive. He has the best in mind for me. That’s a guidepost I want to leave on the road for others: Don’t try to be God yourself. 2 Be certain that God’s Word, the Bible, is inspired; it is God-breathed. But be equally certain that my personal theology is not. All Scripture is Godbreathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting [not that I correct it but that it corrects me] and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work (2 Timothy 3:16, 17). Even though God’s Word is inspired and I try to live by it prayerfully, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, I know that I will never know everything about the Bible with absolute understanding. Why? Because I am not absolute. That guidepost says to all who pass by, “You don’t know everything, and you don’t have to.” I hope this guidepost will take a lot of pressure off people. Grasp the significance 3 that the church, the body of believers, is bigger than my view of it. Christ is the head of the church. It isn’t my church; it is His. Christ is central. As a member of the larger body and of a local church, I am to worship Him, learn from Him, and encourage others to follow Him. But the local church I know, even my denomination, is not the whole church. God’s church, the universal church, is greater than my small understanding of it. Because He is Lord of the church, He will keep it. The survival of the church does not depend solely on me or on what I do as a member of it. This guidepost I leave on the road will tell others, “You are important to the church, but its success is not based on what you alone are doing.” Always acknowledge that 4 the Holy Spirit is here to help me understand and discern what is truth. He is the Counselor, the Friend who comes alongside. I don’t have to depend only on myself. The Spirit helps me in my praying, in making decisions, and gives me words to say when I speak to others about saving faith in Christ. This guidepost I leave behind will say to those who come after me, “Always look to the leading of the Holy Spirit. When you do, you will never think of yourself as the only infallible teacher of truth.” Fixing my eyes on Jesus Having these four guideposts helps me on this journey of faith. Hebrews 12:1, 2 reads: Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith. . . . Thanks to others who helped me, I can fix my eyes on Jesus and teach others who follow me to do that too. I am today’s missionary, today’s counselor, today’s evangelist with the good news of Christ. My investment, prayerfully made in the lives of others, will multiply in them as seed sown in good soil. God the master gardener will multiply it, sometimes thirty fold, sometimes a hundred fold. Like that great cloud of witnesses spoken of in Hebrews 12, I want to be one of those who cheer on the next generation so that they too, in their day, will “press on toward the goal to win the prize . . .” (Philippians 3:14). What difference will my life make? That depends on how well I keep the guideposts in sight and not get off the road. What I leave to those who are following behind me can be a good heritage. Roger C. Palms, former editor of Decision magazine, lives in Fort Myers, FL. Scripture quotations are from the New International Version. I want to be one of those who cheer on the next generation so that they too, in their day, will “press on toward the goal to win the prize . . .” (Philippians 3:14). January-February 2008 • 21
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