A Joshua Generation

What does it mean to be a leader? Have you ever really thought about that? If asked, you could call some names throughout history and in the present day that you would define as a leader. Simply put, a leader is one who leads. Then what does it mean to lead? The dictionary defines it as, to go first and to show the way. In life, you are always going somewhere and you have two choices on how you will take your journey. You will either choose to lead or you will choose to follow. If you are moving with a group of people you can only be one of two places, first or behind the leader. Even if you are second in line, you are still following.

So where are you in the line, the beginning, middle or at the end? Each one of you has been given an ability to lead. It is up to you to determine who, when, where and how you lead. I can hear some of you saying now, “I'm not a leader or I don't even want to lead”. You may not feel like you have what it takes or that you may not want to lead now, but the truth is that you are in fact leading someone and you may not even know it. There is someone who watches you, someone that admires something about you and will follow your lead even when you are not aware. You are being watched by someone and there is no way around it. Even in the midst of strangers, at the gas station or shopping mall, someone is watching you and how you will respond to certain situations.

God created each one of us with the power to lead others. His plan, just like all others, was that we would use that power and authority to glorify Him by strengthening and encouraging others to walk in the ways of God. The Psalmist said that before you were born God saw you and all the days He ordained for you were written before one of them came to be (Psalm 139:16). He already knows every single moment of your life, the ones that have past and the ones that have not yet come. He has a plan for each one of them. The mistake that so many young people make is that they believe that it is too early or that they are too young to make a difference in someone else's life. They rely and expect adults to do what is right and to teach them how to walk in the ways of God. The sad reality is that many adults do not know the ways of God and they are blinded to what is right. They are hopeless and helpless and like the younger generation are also searching for someone, anyone to lead them.

Timothy was a student of Paul and was sent to establish order and lead a church while Paul was away. In a letter that Paul wrote to Timothy to give him encouragement and instruction he included this sentence, "Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity” (I Tim 4:12). When there was an absence of adult leadership, God used a young man to continue His will. The same is true today. With the increasing numbers of failed leaders, ever changing truths and rampant deceit we have created a void of conviction and morals. This world is desperate for someone that will go to your schools, your homes, your workplaces, your communities, and even your churches and will stand on the boundary lines and declare that they shall not be moved. Someone that will shout above the chaos that the answers are in black and white and we will offer no compromise. Our culture is desperate for someone to draw the line in the sand and begin to teach the uneducated the truth about what is right and what is wrong and not dilute it by the ever changing standards of this world. The behaviors of your generation and my generation as well are not acceptable. The truth has been so prostituted and blurred for personal gain that many of you do not even recognize it.

Jeremiah 12:11 says, "It will be made a wasteland, parched and desolate before me; the whole land will be laid waste because there is no one who cares”. I know that you see the land that is dying to waste. You hear of troubles and woes and witness devastation in your daily life. You do care. I am convinced that you would not be reading this book if that was not the case.

As Joshua was a young child born into slavery in Egypt, his future looked desolate. The children of Israel had been slaves in Egypt for 430 years. They thought that their lives as slaves were all that God had ordained for them. Their circumstances had been so awful for so long that many accepted it as God's will for their lives. Many had settled for bondage to be the norm and captivity as the expected. But, there were some that longed for more. They were yearning for something different. They wanted a change so desperately that they prayed for deliverance and cried out to God for help and He heard them and remembered His promise to Abraham (Exodus 2:23-25).