How Will You Be Remembered?

There are prostitutes and then there are prostitutes. 

'From all appearances,' Rahab was quite a prostitute!  Why as 'The Jericho Madam' (Joshua 1:1) Rahab had a thriving business, understandably, for according to rabbinical tradition Rahab was one of the four most beautiful women in the ancient world.   

But Rahab was also a disgraced woman, for prostitutes, both 'then and now,' were social outcasts, moral lepers, relegated to the 'trash heap of life.'  Yet in due season, 'Rahab The Reject' -- became 'Rahab The Righteous One.'  “The Lord your God,” Rahab declares in Joshua 2:11 “is the God in heaven above, and on the earth below!”.    

Amazing:  even prostitutes can become prophets, through the influence of God -- and -- family members of the Savior.  Why after escaping destruction in Joshua 6:17, Rahab 'lives on,' as part of the lineage of Jesus!  “[Now] Salmon the father of Boaz” -- Matthew notes, in his genealogy of Jesus – “whose mother was Rahab, Boaz the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth, Obed the father of Jesse and Jesse the father of King David (Matthew 1:5-6), beget the savior of the world!  

Amazing:  God not only redeems life, God gives opportunity for life to have impact, shaping destiny!  And so, no matter how you've prostituted life -- no matter your sin -- God has plans for you;  plans for influence and impact, plans for legacy!  

When I’m by a lake or pond I like to skim rocks.   Taking a common, craggy stone, I pitch it across the water.  At first, it appears to just dance across the surface.   But in reality, it impacts the surface -- creating ripples and waves everywhere!  

So too for us.  At first, it appears our common, craggy selves just dance across life.  But in reality, we impact life -- with ripples everywhere.

But what kind of ripples, what kind of legacy; a legacy for God or a legacy for sin?   Leave a legacy for God, for even craggy lives,  can have a great impact if yielded to the Lord.  

          

For most of his career, Alfred Nobel did one thing:  he manufactured the biggest, best dynamite ever devised; in fact, Nobel invented dynamite.  But in 1888 Nobel had a rude awakening:  he opened the newspaper and read his own obituary.  Why his brother Ludvig had died, but a French reporter wrote up Alfred instead.   The obituary was far from flattering:  “Merchant of Death” it read, “Now Dead!!”. Not surprisingly, Alfred Nobel was far from amused.  And so he sent out to craft a new legacy.   Contacting his lawyers, Alfred instructed them to funnel his entire estate into a new award for reconciliation, not destruction: the Nobel Peace Prize.

How are you funneling your life: toward reconciliation or destruction?  Listen:  few of us have done everything right, but there’s still time.  No matter your past performance, you can be remembered for peace, not promiscuity;  decency, not detriment.

Why?  Because God is a God who makes all things new!  And so:  "...break forth, shout joyfully together, You [wasted places]...For the LORD has comforted His people, He has redeemed [you]...The LORD has bared His holy arm...That all the ends of the earth may see the salvation of our God..."  (Isaiah 52: 9-10).   A salvation that graciously redeems any part of life wasted, propelling it into God's adventurous future -- leaving a legacy for Him.

And so, how will you be remembered?

Be remembered for claiming and reclaiming God's future -- in spite of any prostituted past!