January 23

Genesis 46-47:31; Matthew 15:1-28; Psalm 19:1-14; Proverbs 4:14-19

We can be a historical example


Joshua 2:8 says, "Joshua, son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died at the age of a hundred and ten." The story of the people of God in the Old Testament and the story of the Christian church in the New Testament is full of characters who, with their lives, made a notable difference as they turned their lives into true testimonies of willingness, dedication and service to Jehova God. Joshua is a person who completely dedicated his life to the service of God. He did not have another job, nor did he have another profession, nor did he serve God part time while he had another full time job. No, no! Joshua is the exact example of a person 100% given to a mission from beginning to end.

It seems worthy to note that almost always the phrase "Joshua, son of Nun" appears. You may be asking yourself, "And this blesses me how?" To that, my response is this. God has always taken interest in showing himself as a Generational God and it's because of that that we find in the Bible, "the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob." In other occasions the Bible uses phrases such as "the God of our fathers." Joshua impacts my life because he represents his father, Nun, and throughout the length of his life and his testimony, he holds high the family name. Later on we find a very important moment in Joshua when he gets to the high point of his life as a servant of God saying "As for me and my house we will serve the Lord." Where am I going with this devotional on this Sunday? Here is what I am getting at my precious brethren. Let's make a firm decision to serve God in the local church, but not only temporarily, or when things in the church are going well, but instead, let's make the family commitment to support our church with our time, our money, our prayer, our abilities, our work. What would happen if each one of the members of this great Hillcrest Church family does this? We will be a Generational church that will be making history in the present and leaving an inheritance for the future.

To finish this devotional, I want to tell you something that my wife, Margoth told me upon arriving from Colombia. She told me: "My dad (who is a pastor) put together the story of the Rodriguez and found the following. Us Rodriguez are 1000 people, 500 of which are Christians." All of it started with the conversion of the grandparents, then Margoth's parents, then Margoth, then our children, Oscar A., Johan D. and Jonathan and now our grandchild, Oscar Julian. We are on the 5th generation of the Rodriguez and there have been 18 pastors serving the Lord that have come out of it. My father-in-law has a list of the 500 who have not consecrated nor given their life to the Lord and he prays for them, as well as praying for those who are Christians and praying for those who are pastors. This blessed me because I see here in Hillcrest that we can also make history, each of us with our families. I was the first converted in the Camacho family and I married a woman with an evangelical inheritance and we have spent 35 years together, serving the Lord and today in Iglesia Hispana Hillcrest with the support of Pastor Mark, we are ready to make history just like Joshua.

Brother and Sister, you too can make history! Be encouraged to leave a beautiful Christian inheritance in this church, because it's worth it to be like Joshua!

Atte.

Oscar Camacho O
Pastor, Iglesia Hispana Hillcrest