heaven's tree book club

September 21, 2012
Honor—The Yellow Brick Road

It is Friday again, and this week really went by fast. I did not go to any restaurant today because I was really full from last night's dinner. I actually did not go anywhere today other than to the Chinese grocery store with my dad. My knee today is a little painful more so than usual. During these moments it becomes quite difficult to want to go anywhere or do anything. Ours is a generation of comfort over sacrifice. Although I really would have liked it if I had some place to go today, I prefer that I did stay home. I am still wondering whether or not to go to Teen Harbor tomorrow, I e-mailed the leader and asked for her thoughts in regards to me joining the ministry team but she still has not replied. I will have a better idea tomorrow I suppose. This chapter today is about honor. It is a virtue that is missing today.
"MY mother's family is of Spanish descent and I spent a lot of time with them as I grew up. Honor was an integral part of our culture. My grandfather and grandmother were the eldest members of our family. They were the most respected people in any gathering that included them and the best seats in the house were always reserved for them. If one of the children sat in one of their seats, the rest of the family would just look over at them as if to say, "You can't be that rude! "We allowed the elderly to be served first and spoke to them with respect at all times, whether we agreed with them or not. We also always opened doors for women and gave them our seats. I can't remember anyone ever telling me to honor people, but I was born into a culture that modeled it.
Honor is a lost virtue in our nation.This fact was driven home to me at a Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry retreat. There were about 120 students present that weekend. Some of the students came over to my table late in the evening and began to ask questions. Within a few- minutes about 30 students were huddled around the table while I told "war stories.'They were all trying to participate in a very noisy conversation. A young man was sitting on the bench next to me. Later in the conversation, a middle-aged woman arrived. Finding no seat, she stood behind me so she could listen in on the conversation.
 I said to the young man who was sitting next to me, "Please get up and let Julie sit there."
He snapped back,"I was here first!"
I said to him, "She's a woman; I want you to give up your seat for her."The tension rose for a moment, but he finally got up and gave her his seat.
This y7oung man was one of our best students and has a great heart, but he was taught,"If you want a good seat,you need to get there early!" He was raised with a paradigm that valued "looking out for yourself" instead of honoring others. Thinking about honoring someone above himself hadn't entered into his equation. He had no grid for what I was sharing with him.
That young man is not alone. Honor has been almost completely- removed from our culture. Many of you reading this book may struggle with this chapter for the same reason that the young man did not want to give up his seat. The whole idea that some people deserve more honor than others seems unfair. However, the kingdom mind-set is completely different than that. It's difficult to read the Bible without being exposed to a culture of submission with levels of honor and authority."
Honor is missing today. We can see this when we ride the public buss. We have older women, pregnant women and blind men standing on the buss and some young person does not want to get up. He has the I got here first mentality. Years ago I would get on the buss and whoever was sitting next to the door immediately knew to get up. Now, either the driver needs to ask and sometimes still they do not get up. Ten years ago as an undergrad at Berkeley in the train system called BART, the seats next to the door were specifically for the elderly and people with disabilities. The sign was in writing and the announcement also provided the verbal communication. Still, it was usually some young kids who would not get up. When I think about these ideas, I think about when we go for a walk along the bike path. People who are 40 and older will say "Hi" while young kids never say "Hi". To my parents, they consider it rude and disrespectful to pass someone by and not say "hi". During the summer months, we ran into about 5-7 female joggers in their 20s, some white, some Asian, interestingly none of the Asian girls ever said "hi" but one white female said "hi". I say interestingly because one would think that people of the same race would say "hi" to each other. Some would think that the author and I are too much focused on tradition, but this dishonor says a lot both about this younger generation and the state of our future. We are raising a generation with no regard for human life and a leaning towards selfishness. We will be in a world of trouble once the babyboomer generation dies off and the conscience of man then will be all but gone.
As I write this I remember an incident my junior year of high school. We were outside my math class after lunch waiting for the teacher. A friend of mine Grace who is the same year has a friend name Suson who is a freshman. She was very intelligent, attractive, and also two years younger than us. The teacher came and open the door. Suson tried to go first, but Grace stopped her and said "Let Osmond go first. He's more honorable". I was a bit surprised by this statement, but get an idea of what she was talking about. I am not sure if she was a Christian, but she sure taught me a lesson in Christian life fifteen years ago. We should look for ways to honor others.

"He told me, "Revival is not coming from the youth, but from ONE generation, old to young? He reminded me of the passage in the Book of Acts that says, "It shall be in the last days, God says, that I will pour forth of My Spirit on all mankind; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy7, and your young men shall see visions and your old men shall dream dreams" (Acts 2:17).Take note that revival does not have a gender, a generation, or a social class. God went on to show me that every time the "youth message" was preached, the middle-aged and the elderly were being told, through omission, that they weren't important or valued anymore. He told me that the devil knew that he couldn't stop worldwide revival by resisting it, so he has tried to curse the planet by separating the generations.
The prophet Malachi saw this coming long ago and prophesied about it. Here is what he said about the last days:
Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord. He will restore the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, so that I will not come and smite the land with a curse (Malachi 4:5-6).
This passage makes it clear that as the generations join hands, the curses over our land will be broken. God went on to explain to me that the prince of the power of the air has influenced modern thought to value young people above the elderly in a way that dishonors older folks.The Lord showed me that the Bible intentionally gives more honor and respect to the elderly, but that our culture disempowers them. I began to understand that the wrong spirit was influencing many preachers and they were playing right into the hands of the evil one."
This passage is like a sharp sensation right to my spirit. God never intends for the generations to be separated. When we miss a segment in our church, we are in trouble. Our church has old but not young. For a while now, I felt so filled with boredum with being in an aging church. I did not value the older women as God does. This is the work of the devil to separate and create friction. Generation specific fellowships are good for fostering peer interaction, but we should not separate the generations. It is like when we have gender specific groups and race specific groups and class specific groups. This should not be. We are all equals in the eyes of God.

"Honor is one of the greatest attributes of nobility in the entire Bible. When the kingdom is present inside us, honorable behavior comes naturally to us. We give honor to all men not just because they deserve it, but also because we are honorable citizens of the King. When we walk in our royal call, our behavior is not determined by our temporal environment but by the eternal environment that lies inside us.
Whenever we treat people honorably even if they refuse to honor us, we demonstrate that we have a standard within us that isn't determined by the people around us. We don't just honor people because they are honorable, we honor people because we are honorable. For a Christian, honor is a condition of the heart, not just the product of a good environment. Honor doesn't mean we agree with the people we are honoring; it simply means we value them as people who have been created in the image and likeness of God."

"At Bethel Church, we have worked to honor everyone in our city7, regardless of their religious persuasion. One example of our effort to honor people is the way we have shown the Native American community7 that we value them. A few years ago we had a service in which we invited the leaders of the local Native American tribe to come to church so we could repent for the way our forefathers sinned against their people. Most of the people in our local tribe don't know God y7et, but they were deeply moved by our sincere love for them. As time passed the Lord began to talk to us about bringing forth fruit of our repentance. We invited the tribal leaders back to our church and gave them a $500-a-month honorarium to bless and honor them. We made a covenant with them that we would continue giving this money for as long as we remain leaders of Bethel Church.
The local tribe has come back to our church on several occasions to honor us with gifts. We have developed a great relationship with them and GOD IS MOVING AMONG THEIR TRIBE! We are seeing firsthand how God designed life to flow through our honor.
Life flows through honor. I pray that we gain understanding of how to honor God and all people in this world, regardless of age, religious background, or persuasion."
Prayer:
Father, it is so true, life flows through honor. I love how this chapter ends with this powerful illustration. We need to see people, all people regardless of what they look like through Your eyes. I confess that I am not happy attending a church where the average age is 75 and I am the only young adult. Please help me to change my attitude and to cherish all people and honor all people especially the elderly. I sometimes treat my dad more like a friend which isn't bad but it opens up for disrespect sometimes. Please help me to honor my parents. This world is in trouble with the younger generation dishonoring others. We hear of school bullies and school violence more and more and young kids don't know how to value human life. We are in trouble and really in need for Your people to take the lead in honoring others.