I actually started writing this article a couple of weeks ago while seated on a B-777 on a runway in Paris, France. The 8 hours ahead of me seemed just a hop compared to the previous 10 days. France was just a place to change planes on my journey home from Chennai, India. You see, the previous 10 days were spent as part of a team ministering to some of the poorest people in India. This was my second trip to that part of the world. I had been invited to teach in a Pastors conference and then participate in open air crusades in the evenings. These meetings were 9 hours from Chennai by train. We were in a remote area in the interior of India during most of the trip. Unbelievably, this is one place on earth that many, many people have never heard the Name Jesus Christ.

Even though I had been there previously, I was still coming home in a fog of stunned disbelief. The contrast between cultures could not be father apart. Hindu is the predominate religion there. They worship 30 million gods. Shrines to their gods abound. Every house, business and street corner seems to have one. There is not only abundant idol worship, but also witchcraft there is real and quite oppressive. It is not a Halloween decoration or a Hollywood storyline. It is life.

Simply saying poverty is a way of life does not begin to describe conditions. Begging is a lifestyle for those in this area not fortunate enough to eek out a living doing fieldwork by hand or tending sheep. The average wage is 30 to 90 dollars a month. Living conditions are unbelievable, the land suffers from severe drought, and 75% of the people in this area do not have suitable water to drink. Starting to get the picture? On top of this we spent the last day and a half dedicating wells that the ministry I was with bored for the survivors of the tsunami on the coast. You heard the stories. Thousands were killed. It made me shudder to know that EVERY person we saw had a story of loss and devastation.

I titled this, “God Blessed America”. It is easy to automatically think after reading this discourse so far that the “blessing” is our land and economy. We are blessed. (I told my wife upon my return that Iowa was the Garden of Eden compared to there!) But, that “blessing” is fleeting and will blow away with the generations. Our riches blessing friend is our Godly heritage and accessibility to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Remember what I said earlier? Many, many of these people have NEVER even heard of Jesus Christ. How many times have you heard the Gospel? Have you ever done anything about what you heard? I’ve heard this query posed in the past, “What right to we have to hear the Gospel more than once when half the world has never heard it the first time?” I agree. Friend, we are blessed!

A good man leaves an inheritance to his children's children. Prov 13:22 Wow! What a word to consider this Father’s Day. What a challenge! What a directive! I am glad that there is this marvelous gift called Grace. The Bible say that no good thing dwells in man. There is none righteous, no not one. I have nothing of any real and lasting value to leave my children but a life lived by Grace. This legacy of a life lived in and from the Father of fathers is only possible through Jesus Christ. Yet, that statement does not exempt me from my responsibility to do my part. Gen 1:11,12,21,24,25 say that everything will produce after it’s own kind. This truth is far reaching. Adam was created in the image of the wholeness of God. He sinned. His son Seth was in the image of his fallen father. What we do and don’t do as parents is certainly passed on as an inheritance. Good or bad, it’s an inheritance. Let us strive to live our lives as unto the Lord and leave a good inheritance for our children and our children’s children!