Skip to main content

Two Hard Lessons and Then Victory

 Two Hard lessons and then Victory! 

Joshua led the Jews to conquest. However, it took a couple of difficult lessons before they all understood the seriousness of what they were about to do. 

They had to lose the battle of Aí when they decided to send just 3,000 soldiers to do the clean-up. Later they had to protect pagans from other pagans because they trusted a story from the Gibeonites. 

Joshua was a great general and in the end, he understood that one of the most important aspects of life is obedience to God and the other is intimacy with the Word of God. He started leading the people with these words in Joshua 1:8

Joshua 1:8 Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.

  • Keep it on your lips (memorize it) 
  • Meditate on it during waking hours 
  • Then do it. 
  • Then you will be successful 

At the end of the narrative, he reemphasizes a similarly powerful sentiment in these words, 

Joshua 24:14 "Now fear the Lord and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your ancestors worshiped beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. 15 But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord."

  • Fear the Lord (reverence him) 
  • Serve him faithfully 
  • Get rid of idols (things that take your attention from God) 
  • Make your choice! 
  • I and my family will serve the Lord! 

Good advice at both ends of this book! Is that where you are?

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Daughter and dog...

About six months ago we discovered that Ann was pregnant and were very excited for she and Jackson. We will have babies on this side and that of the Atlantic. We weren't prepared for that news and we we were even less prepared for the news that our little dog is pregnant. To date we have spent more on the dog than on Annie (don't tell her... Ann that is). Ann has yet to discover whether her baby is a boy or girl. Both ultrasound images were inconclusive. Though I did some further investigation of my own and was startled with what I found. to me it looks as if the baby is definitely a boy and has some resemblance from both sides of the family. Take a look for yourself and let me know what you think.
3 comments
Read more

Urgent Prayer (part 2)

Does God ever give you a gut punch? He did that just a few days ago when I watched a missionary story from the other side of the world. It was short but poignant, and it punched me in the belly button and brought a few tears too. One thing that shook me was the final statement that the missionary made. He was questioning himself and said, I wonder if what I have done will make a difference. This question comes to a missionary's mind now and again as they ponder how vast God's world is and how tiny one’s work is. As I thought, and identified, with his sentiment, the Lord brought a verse to mind that I had used recently in a youth talk. It was this one in John 12:24, “ Very truly, I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. ” When, in Matthew, the sower sowed his seed, it was the Word of God. Here in John, Jesus indicates that the seed is the life of the servant. Jesus talked of his comi...
Post a Comment
Read more

Living Up to Expectations

walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called (Ephesians 4.1) I’m sorry but I cannot imagine being primped to be a duke, prince or king! I have always thought of Prince Charles as a big wuss in waiting. His whole life has been spent preparing to be “the next king of England.” This poor guy has gone above and beyond the call of duty in being groomed for a position that Elizabeth II, his mom, doesn’t seem to want to give up. Elizabeth’s mother, the Honourable Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon, lived for 101 years for Pete’s sake! Does Charley have a chance? Doubt it. Why this talk about princely preening? Well my friend it is because we as God’s children are in a similar process. In Ephesians 4.1 Paul goes into some interesting details. He tells us the following. I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, The word vocation trips us up. I went through my career at GM working my best so that I would plea...
Post a Comment
Read more