Joshua 1:5-9 says...

Today's verses are Joshua 1:5-9 which read,

5 - "No man will be able to stand before you all the days of your life.  Just as I have been with Moses, I will be with you; I will not fail you or forsake you. 
6 - Be strong and courageous, for you shall give this people possession of the land which I swore to their fathers to give them. 
7 - Only be strong and very courageous; be careful to do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, so that you may have success wherever you go. 
8 - This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success. 
9 - Have I not commanded you?  Be strong and courageous!  Do not tremble or be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go."

This passage starts with a great promise from God and ends with a great promise for God.  God says, "No man will be able to stand before you all the days of your life.  Just as I have been with Moses, I will be with you; I will not fail you or forsake you."  Then God ends with, "Do not tremble or be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go."  Jesus also echoed these types of words many times in the New Testament to the disciples.  God's presence and His power there with us is something great to know but do we act and speak as if God's presence and power are there?  I know many times that we don't...

God goes on to say to Joshua in the face of these great promises from Him to "be strong and courageous" not once and not twice but three times.  Why do we need to be commanded to "be strong and courageous" if we have the promises of God's power and presence?

"To prevail and to be solid" is another way to say this phrase.  So "to prevail and to be solid" in what?  In ourselves?  No, not by this scripture or any other but to, "...do according to all the law...do not turn from it to the right or to the left....book of the law shall not depart from your mouth...shall mediate on it day and night...be careful to do according to all that is written in it..."  All those phrases deal with us prevailing and being solid about knowing the law, obeying the law, speaking the law, studying the law, and living out the law.

Could it be that we need to be commanded 3 times to "be strong and courageous" in the face of some great promises of God because we are not doing this with the law of God?  We are not "prevailing and being solid" with God's book.  

If I am focused on knowing and obeying and speaking and studying and living out the Word of God, I will see God's presence and power.  If I am not and I want to see God's presence and power, then I need to know and obey and speak and study and live out the Word of God.  These two go together.  

"Lord, may the fullness of Your word given to us be played out in our lives today."

Pastor Adam
A simple man serving a great God and the local pastor of Stillwater Community Chapel (stillwater-chapel.org). We are in our 38th year of full time ministry. God directed us to this local body of believers on the Western Range of the Rockies to grow with them in mission and mindedness of Christ.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Galatians #15 - Galatians 6:11-18 - "On The Road Again..."

Image
  Another week closer and it involves some more travel for the Wolfgangs.  I feel like the Willy Nelson song, " On the road again... "  I don't know if I agree with the next line though. " ...I can't wait to get on the road again. " One of the members of the church in Wisconsin calculated that I will travel well over 10,000 miles to make this transition.  Traveling mercies prayers please. Last Sunday we will look at Paul's final words to the churches in Galatia.  He brought them the gospel (good news) message of Jesus and what resulted were churches forming throughout the region.  The letter is to defend that message that our salvation comes from and is in Christ alone.  Christ's sacrifice on the cross was sufficient for the forgiveness of our sins.  The summary statement of the letter is found in  Galatians 6:15 (LSB) .  " For neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. "  Translated another way earlie...
Read more

God gave us a good weather window to travel...yeah God!!!

Image
  Berthoud Pass Here we are at the top of Berthoud Pass.  It was a whirlwind week to conduct a " hand off " service in Wisconsin on 3/17 and then preach a Palm Sunday sermon in Colorado on 3/24.  We give God all the glory for this happening.  So there are two video links at the bottom of this blog.  One is for the Wisconsin service and the other is for the Colorado service.  I racked up over 12,000 in the last 7 weeks.   I love to take these pictures sitting from the front row of chairs and listening to the one God has provided for the church I had been serving for 20 months.  I now have 3 and I am so thankful for the opportunity God gave us to serve Him in this type of ministry over the last 5 years.  It has been great to add to our daily prayer list Zach in Maine, Chris in Ohio and now Stephen in Wisconsin. This was our set up for the 2000+ mile trip.  No " hiccups " except for the strong eastern winds in Kansas.  Of course e...
Read more

Resurrection Sunday in a new space...Matthew 27.62-28.20

Image
  Resurrection Sunday has come and gone but it was a sweet day to be with the gathered saints of the Stillwater Community Chapel .  We are venturing through the Gospel of Matthew and this Sunday will take us back to Matthew 1.1 but last Sunday we were in Matthew 27.62-28.20.  It was a lot to cover so the white board was truly a help to keep me on track.  This year in my Resurrection Sunday message, I focused on the contrast of the cover-up story of the disciples stealing the body of Jesus fueled by a bride and the commission of speaking of a risen Lord fueled by boldness . After the service upstairs, we ventured downstairs to the lower level and had a great meal together.  The conversations around the tables allowed us to continue to talk about the passage of Scripture we covered upstairs.  Maybe this is a very informal picture of what happens at the  Waushara Community Church called the " Going Deeper " classes of the Come For More hour following t...
Read more