The Meaning of Legacy

Legacy; Noah Webster’s 1828 original American Dictionary of the English Language says that legacy has its root in a Latin word that means “to send” or “bequest.” It is to leave or give “a particular thing, or certain sum of money given by last will or testament.” The sentence that he uses to demonstrate the right use of the word is of particular interest to us, “Good counsel is the best legacy a father can leave to his child.”
As I talked about last week, Legacy Ministries has always been about equipping believers who could invest that equipping in the lives of young people in order to help develop spiritual leaders for the next generation. What we have learned is that nobody is in a better position to invest in the lives of students than the people that God ordained to be the primary spiritual influence in their lives, their parents. Just as the original meaning of the word implies, a legacy is something that a father (or mother) gives to his children.
Sometimes, for something to be passed on to the next generation, the old must die so that all things might become new. That is what happens in our lives when we die to ourselves and are raised to the newness of life that we have in Christ. By placing our faith and trust in the person and work of Christ, we become partakers in his death and resurrection.
As partakers with him, we gain both the forgiveness of sins and the newness of life. More than the forgiveness of sins and newness of life, we gain brotherhood. God not only forgives us and raises us up, but he adopts us as his children and makes us joint heirs with Christ. It is in our adoption as sons that we receive an inheritance, our spiritual legacy.
Praise God for the revelation of that truth in scripture. I pray that as we continue to work with families and churches that God will use Legacy to show both that God intends to use families to pass that spiritual heritage from one generation to the next, and that those families serve as pictures to a lost and dying world of the amazing forgiveness and newness of life that comes from being adopted into the family of God.
That really is why we do what we do, and I hope you will commit to pray for us like never before as God calls you to be a part of the ministry that he has called us to. Every person can have a part in sharing the Legacy message as you support us prayerfully and financially.
Again, I ask that you continue to pray for us and to support Legacy in any and every way you can. We desperately need your help to continue to help churches and families to invest in the development of spiritual leaders for the next generation.