Posts Tagged ‘ joshua ’

Daily Reading & Comments 7 April 2013: Mark 2, 1 Corinthians 6, Psalm 78, Joshua 15-17

Mark 2:22 – Jesus ushered in a new era, a new heavens and earth for the descendants of Abraham. This new wine needs fresh, new wineskins so that the expansion of the fermentation (transformation) has the room necessary for change.

We must realize that only God can make men’s hearts into new wineskins. Only God can make people ready for the transforming power of the Gospel.

We must also realize that change is impossible if the foundation and preparation are not in place for change to occur.

Mark 2:27 – Jesus is still trying to pour His new wine into old wineskins. The Sabbath was made for man, to give him a day of rest, to give him a day to honor God. The Sabbath was not made to be the judge of man.

We need rest and God designed the Sabbath to insure mankind the rest we need. We all drag around tired these days because we don’t set aside a day to rest.

It was also designed as a teaching tool to point us to the true Sabbath rest in Christ Jesus. In Christ, we rest from all our works and fully trust in His works.

1 Corinthians 6:7 – We should be ashamed of the state we are in. How often are believers suing believers in a legal system run by unbelievers? We are so unwilling to suffer and be defrauded in this world.

Saints will one day judge the world and even the angels, and yet we are both unwilling and unable to make wise, holy judgments in this life.

Psalm 78:38 – We are remiss if we fail to recount how faithful and compassionate our God is. In His compassion He atoned for our iniquity so that His holiness would not have to destroy us. In Christ, He satisfied His own holy requirement in order to redeem us from our sin.

Joshua 15:63 – Israel allowed the thorn to stay put. The Jebusites should have been driven out of the land.

Joshua 16:10 – Another story of those who should have been driven from the land but were not. Israel allowed these thorns to stick around.

We should allow Christ to conquer everything in us so that no thorn can remain and cause trouble in our walk with Christ.

Joshua 17:13 – The story of Israel is our story. We have so many opportunities to drive out the former life and yet we do not fully drive them out. We act as though we may be able to forever enslave our former self rather than destroy our former self. We cannot enslave our sin nature, we must destroy it.

2013
04/07
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Daily Reading & Comments 6 April 2013: Mark 2, 1 Corinthians 4-5, Psalm 76-77, Joshua 10-14

Mark 2:10 – The most important thing, the whole goal and emphasis of the kingdom, is found not in power to heal from sickness, or ailment, but in the authority to forgive the sins of mankind.

1 Corinthians 4:20 – God’s kingdom is about His power to cleanse us from our sins. His power over the darkness of this world. His power to bring about His kingdom and impose His will on this world.

1 Corinthian 5:10 – We seem to follow the opposite rule in modern churches. We acquit those who call themselves by the name of Christ and yet live forthrightly in sinful behaviors. We even go as far as to find means to excuse their behaviors rather than hold them to account.

Yet, we stand in judgment against those who are lost for living in sin when what they need most from us is a semblance of the same mercy we are so willing to give to those who name the name of Christ.

Psalm 76:8 – God is the only one who can still the entire earth at once. Here He stills the earth with the majesty of His judgment.

Psalm 77:13 – As much as it may seem to us from our perspective that God is absent or that He simply doesn’t care what we need is a dose of His perspective. Everything that God does, He does because He is holy. His holiness is the common denominator of our entire existence and for Christ’s life, suffering, death, and resurrection.

Joshua 10:14 – We serve a God who is able to make the heavens stand still in their place. How courageous should we be when we have chosen to be in His army and fight in the battles He is waging? Let us go and make disciples of the nations!

Joshua 11:23 – Joshua took the entire land as God had commanded Him through Moses. Jesus took the entire world as God had commanded Him through the Law.

Joshua 12:24 – When Christ returns in victory He will win agaisnt all the kings of this earth just like Joshua defeated all the kings of the land.

Joshua 13:33 – Joshua dispersed the land to the tribes as was commanded by God. The Levites received no land inheritance for God is their inheritance. We Christians are the new Levites, God is our inheritance.

Joshua 14:12 – Out of all the places in the land that Caleb could choose for his inheritance, he chose Hebron which was occupied by giants (the Anakim) and was filled with foritified cities. It may very well have been that Caleb saw this area as a spy 45 years earlier and has desired the area ever since.

May our faith be as such that the giants and fortified territories of this world do not frighten us away from living by our faith.

2013
04/07
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Daily Reading and Comments 4 April 2013: Mark 1, 1 Corinthians 3, Psalm 75, Joshua 8-9

Mark 1:41 – If we wonder who our God is and who our Savior is, His identity is found in this verse. “Moved with pity…touched him”. Jesus touched the leper. He touched the untouchable, the one that even people don’t even touch, yet He touched Him. He was moved by pity/compassion to touch and heal the leper.

So Christ is with us. He had pity/compassion on us and He touched the untouchable as God became a man in order to heal us of the destructive leprosy of sin.

1 Corinthians 3:6 – God gives the growth. We are not able to make the church grow. We are only able to be faithful to the call that God has placed upon our lives to go and make disciples. No one person of faith is any more important to the growth of the kingdom. God is the one who makes the growth.

Our walk with Christ should not be divided like so many things in this world are. We have Republicans, Democrats, Libertarians, and Greens. We have men and women. We have the upper, lower, and middle class. Yet with God, these things are not to be our focus, but rather God alone is to be our focus. He is the only one capable of sustainable growth.

Psalm 75:3 – God alone holds this world together. Nothing we do preserves this earth, or causes the sun to rise or set. God holds all things in order and we should willingly offer Him our thanksgiving at all times. We should live with continual gratitude.

Joshua 8:35 – Israel has just defeated Jericho and Ai to make their entry into the land of promise. What do they do to celebrate? They build and altar to offer burnt offerings and peace offering, then they read the word of God cover to cover.

Joshua knew that this nation would need to learn to depend completely and wholly on God and part of that is dependent on knowing what God has done and has promised. Such things can only be found in the word of God.

Joshua 9:14 – We would do well to seek the counsel of God on every decision we make, small or large, so that we are continually in His will. God desires that we abide in Him and follow after His will. Joshua is going to learn a hard lesson about God’s counsel in this episode of deception.

This world will seek to deceive us into compromise, into being unequally yoked to it and its ways. We must take care to always seek the counsel of God so that we may avoid compromises that will be costly to us.

What I find very interesting about this is that Joshua had just spent the prior night reading the entire word of God to Israel. Even with daily time spent in the word we are still susceptible to deception.

2013
04/04
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Daily Reading and Comments 3 April 2013: Mark 1, 1 Corinthians 2, Psalm 74, Joshua 6-7

Mark 1:22 – We operate in the authority of Jesus Christ as He said in the Great Commission. We are acting on His authority when we “Go, and make disciples of the nations”. Jesus’ authority extended not only to the “physical” world but also to the “spiritual” world. We engage in spiritual conflict when we obey His command to go.

1 Corinthians 2:14 – As we walk and work in this natural world we will see more evidence of the spiritual blindness that impedes our progress. The natural person is blinded to the spiritual reality and spiritual truth. Yet we are trying to win them with a gospel that is centered on things of a spiritual nature.

We ourselves, if not for the work of the Holy Spirit in us, would have no proclivity to the spiritual things. He has opened those things to us by His grace. Our response should not be to despise and reject the natural person, but rather to pray for the work of the Holy Spirit to open such a person up to spiritual truth.

Psalm 74:12 – We often seek the vengeance of God when calamity strikes. Yet, our perspective should be on His heavenly will. Why has God allowed such a thing to occur? As much as we may be hurt and upset about the circumstance, we can be certain of two things: #1 God is big enough to handle our hurts and frustrations so we can take them to Him; #2 God is allowing this circumstance as part of His working salvation in the midst of the earth.

Joshua 6:6 – In Revelation, John’s 7 trumpets are drawing upon the imagery of the fall of Jericho.

Joshua 6:18 – We must be careful in our walk with the Lord that we keep ourselves clear from things that will destroy our walk. Remember that all the sinful behavior and habit of this world is devoted to destruction, it is passing away. Just as Jericho fell, so will also the sinful ways of this world.

We should take great care that we are walking pure and holy before God that we have no ways within us that are devoted to destruction. We do not want that trouble brought upon ourselves.

Joshua 7:9 – The thing that is most troubling is that we not only damage our own name when we dabble in things devoted to destruction, but we are found to be standing in the way of God bringing glory to His great name.

Even little Ai became too much for mighty Israel because of Achan’s compromise. Our enemies are empowered against the gospel when we live in compromise with the ways of this world. We must resolve to avoid compromising our faith at all costs.

2013
04/03
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Daily Reading and Comments: 2 April 2013 Mark 1, 1 Corinthians 1, Psalm 73, Joshua 3-5

Mark 1:12 – Jesus was driven into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit. God had a purpose for Jesus’ life that included being tempted in the wilderness. God’s plan often involves His Spirit driving us into the wilderness. When we are there, we must follow Christ’s example and rely on the Word of God if we are going to have any hope of discovering God’s will as we endure the wilderness.

The wilderness is more about our endurance, as Jesus was there 40 days and fasted while He was there, than it is about our conquest. We don’t conquer the wilderness we survive the wilderness with growth in Christ that prepares us for the mission God has set before us.

Jesus immediately began His mission afterward with a sharp focus. Preaching the gospel of the kingdom became His focus. Is it ours? Often we must endure the wilderness to be set on our mission for the gospel.

1 Corinthians 1:23 – We preach Christ, God Himself, crucified. The core of our message is NOT as they say, that God wickedly judges man for being what he was designed to be. We preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ, who is God, and who took responsibility for man’s sin on the cross.

Our God is not some distant phenomenon to whom we must through our greatest efforts and endeavors seek to reach. No, rather the gospel we preach is that God, in Christ, is near. He is so near that God Himself died for all of our sin. God didn’t send another and didn’t require us to earn His salvation, but showed His own justice in judging sin against Christ.

Essentially He held Himself accountable for our sin, like a father taking his son’s deserved punishment, and redeemed us through His own death on the cross and His own powerful resurrection from the grave.

We preach this and the religious stumble for they seek to earn the distant God.

We preach this and the wise think it is folly, that God would/could Himself care enough and be involved enough with His creation to take His own punishment upon His creation upon Himself.

Psalm 73:17 – The pains, trials, and struggles that the righteous must endure in this life have little meaning unless we have spent time with God. He makes sense of the senseless. We watch daily as the wicked seem to increase and have abundance while the righteous suffer. Yet we come to the house of God, to the place where His glory dwells, and there we see the end. We see that God has everything designed in accordance to His plans. He has set in order that every Moses would indeed encounter a Pharoah so that He will indeed be considered just when He sits in judgment.

Joshua 3:11 – The ark of the covenant must pass into the Jordan before the people could enter the land of promise. So also Christ was baptized in the Jordan, passing through it, to make our way into the promises of God. He said He needed John to baptize Him in order to “fulfill all righteousness”. His baptism was a picture of His coming death and resurrection.

Israel’s former generation was baptized in the Red Sea and into the wilderness. Israel’s new generation was baptized in the Jordan River and into the land of promise. We are baptized into the death of Jesus Christ from the wilderness of this age into the promise of His coming kingdom.

Joshua 4:6 – The Israelites were to pull memorial stones from the Jordan River in order to provoke the question among their children as to what the stone meant to them. We should purposely put things in the paths of our children that will provoke in them the question of what Christ means to us.

Who is Jesus Christ and what does He mean to you? Such is the question we should desire to provoke among our children, be it through our light that we shine or through symbolic things we lay in their path.

Joshua 4:24 – We must be convinced that each and every thing that God does for His people is done with the design that all the peoples of the earth may know His might…His salvation!

Joshua 5:9 – It is so interesting and meaningful that God woul associate circumcision with the baptism in the Jordan River. Indeed, Israel’s new generation was circumcised in crossing the river on dry ground. The reproach of Egypt was removed from them just as the reproach of our sin is removed from us in the circumcision of our hearts that occurs by faith in Christ and is pictured in our baptism.

Joshua 5:12 – Israel no longer needed the daily bread, the manna from heaven for they were no longer in the wilderness but rather in the land of promise. We too, will one day no longer need our daily manna, daily bread, for we will exist where He is partaking continually of Him for eternity.

Joshua 5:14 – The question is not, is God for us, but rather it is are we for God. We must continually align our hearts with His will and His kingdom as we should pray often, “Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

2013
04/02
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Daily Reading Comments: Mark 1, 1 Corinthians 1, Psalm 72, Joshua 1-2

Mark 1:8 – This is the baptism we must have, that of the Holy Spirit. If we have not been baptized with the Holy Spirit we are not His. We must receive this baptism from Him and He is the only one who can baptize us in this manner. He is the only one who can put His Holy Spirit in us.

1 Corinthians 1:17 – Paul was not sent to baptize, but to preach the gospel. What does he mean by this statement? Truly, Jesus has commanded us to ‘go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them’ so why does Paul claim he was not sent out to baptize?

Paul was pointing out simply this, that his primary mission was to preach the gospel, for they cannot hear without a preacher, baptize is secondary to the preaching of the gospel. Baptism is not the goal of our work, preaching the gospel is. Yes, baptism is part of the work, but not the primary work itself.

Psalm 72:8 – Why do we preach the gospel and ‘making disciples, baptizing them’? We do so because we want to see God’s dominion extend not only from one of our borders to the other, but because we want to see God’s dominion extend to the ends of the earth. His dominion extends as we preach the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Psalm 72:11 – My heart’s desire is that all the rulers and leaders of the nations would bow their heads and serve Jesus Christ.

Psalm 72:14 – Those who are poor, needy, weak, oppressed, and outcast have a refuge and solace from the wickedness of this world. Christ sees their lives as precious. He will deliver them and have pity on them and save them and be their help. He did/does this by redemption.

Factually, we must all come to the place in which we see ourselves as the needy, poor, weak, oppressed, outcasts that we are so that we will seek the redemption that can only be found in Christ alone.

Psalm 72:17 – The day is coming in which all people on earth will call this Jesus, whom they have despised and rejected and whose people they have tortured, oppressed, and killed…they will indeed call Him blessed and I cannot wait to see that day!

Joshua 1:3 – Joshua was to lead the people to claim their inheritance. Everywhere they stepped would be an extension of God’s dominion. We have the same promise, except we are not moving into the promised land, instead we are moving into the promised world (Psalm 2:8). All the nations to the ends of the earth are now the promised inheritance of Christ Jesus, our King. We extend His dominion as we preach the gospel and everywhere we place our foot we are staking a claim for His gospel to have dominion.

Joshua 1:9 – In order to properly understand the promise of this verse, one must properly understand the verse prior. Joshua was to be focused on God’s word and on God’s mission. As long as Joshua was in God’s word and on God’s mission, God would be with him. This calls to my mind Jesus’ talk about the vine and the branches in John 17:1-5.

So long as we are “in” Christ, abiding in Him (the Word of God) we will be on His mission for the nations, to the ends of the earth, and He will be with us.

Joshua 2:9 – I’m amazed at what sort of people we find in the pages of Scripture who are drawn to the life of faith. Not a single philosopher or scholar of Jericho was drawn to the life of faith. Yet this prostitute is the one who is drawn to the life of faith and is eventually grafted in to even the very lineage of Jesus Christ.

2013
04/01
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Tweets & Rants 16 March 2013: Matthew 26:17-35; Romans 10; Psalm 63; Deuteronomy 1-5

believes that Jesus is the main character of Daniel 9:24-27…He ended all sacrifice and offering by offering Himself. Mat 26:28 @WeeManWest

finds it unfortunate that sometimes a generation has to pass before the church can move on. Mat 24; Det 2:16 @WeeManWest

Matthew 26:18 God had prepared a “certain” man to take care of the Passover preparations through. We never know who that “certain” man is that God is going to bring into our lives.

Matthew 26:21 I’ve tried to place myself in that room, among His disciples, as He made this statement. I would almost think that initially the room would be silent in a stunned quiet. The hammer has essentially dropped. How would we respond if we were in the room?

Matthew 26:28 Jesus holds the first Lord’s Supper. We continue these today. Jesus’ words are what I’m drawn to in that He says His covenant is with many. This should call to our minds Daniel 9:27 in which the Prince who is to come of Daniel 9:25 makes a strong covenant (strong because it is in the blood of Christ) with manny for one “period” or covenant.

What brought this covenant into place? Daniel 9:24 states that it is about the holy city (Jerusalem) and that the 70 weeks would finish transgression, put an end to sin, atone for iniquity, bring in everlasting righteousness, seal up vision and prophecy and anoint a most holy place. This indeed is exactly what Jesus accomplished when He died on the cross! He is the anointed one in the text who comes and in cut off (He died on the cross).

Next we see that the city of Jerusalem and its sanctuary were to be destroyed, this indeed did factually occur in 70AD. It would take place in a war. It would leave the place desolate.

It says that he, which could refer to either the anointed one or the prince, will put an end to sacrifice and offering. Did not Jesus Christ bring all sacrifice and offering to an end with His own blood shed on the cross? Yes, He did indeed.

So who is the one who made desolate? The priests who would continue to make the offerings of the Law when the offerings had been brought to an end.

Matthew 26:31 Not only would there be one betrayer, but all of Jesus’ disciples would fall away. He would truly be left with nothing as Daniel’s prophecy stated.

Romans 10:4 We are so blessed to have Jesus Christ. He is the end all for those who believe.

Romans 10:9 Properly understanding what Paul is saying here is essential. We believe or have faith in our hearts. That faith will work itself out in our thoughts, words, and actions. Yet our unbelief is shown by our inaction.

A true belief in the resurrection of Christ will move our actions in Christ’s will.

Romans 10:18 The gospel had gone out to all the nations of the known world in Paul’s day. We should live with the goal of such thing happening again in our own.

Psalm 63:3 In an honest moment most of us will confess to loving our lives. We love the people in our lives, the things of our lives. Yet the love of God is so much better than this life. Believing this will truly motivate us in our walk with Christ to praise and worship.

Deuteronomy 1:8 The time has come, the wandering is over, Israel is about to take possession of the land they have been promised by God.

Deuteronomy 2:16 That generation had to pass before Israel could move on. Unfortunately, a lot of our churches are trapped in the same manner.

Deuteronomy 3:21 The vitories over Sihon and Og were intended to serve as a witness to Joshua, that God would give him victories in the same manner after they cross the Jordan into the promised land.

Deuteronomy 3:26 Moses had bugged God enough about going into the land. God would show Moses a final mercy and allow him to see the land from the mountain.

Deuteronomy 4:3 God will not tolerate compromise among His people. We cannot be wishy-washy fence-sitters. We are either with God or we are against Him.

Deuteronomy 4:6 God is exalting Israel for the sake of His name. His purpose in exalting this nation is that His own name would be exalted by all the nations because of them. God’s purpose for Israel was His own exaltation. Israel failed in that purpose and now God is using the church for His own exaltation. May we not suffer a similar fate!

Deuteronomy 4:22 Moses here serves to us as a picture of the Law. The Law can bring you to Christ, but only faith in Christ can bring you into His promises!

Deuteronomy 4:35 God did a special work in Israel that has never, and will never be repeated for the purpose that all would know that He alone is God!

Deuteronomy 5:29 God desires that we would have obedient hearts. We should desire the same for ourselves.

2013
03/16
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Tweets & Rants 12 March 2013: Matthew 24:36-51; Romans 7:1-25; Psalms 57-58; Numbers 23-27

remains locked in this perpetual internal war between his flesh desires and the will of God. Rom 7:22 @WeeManWest

Matthew 24:37 Am I the only one who finds it interesting that Jesus compares His judgment coming against Jerusalem to the days of Noah and mentions specifically, marrying and giving in marriage? We mustn’t forget the story of the Nephillim and the rebellion against God they invoked among mankind.

The theme here is that life went on as usual without a thought toward God. The focus of existence was on what to do rather than on the worship of God. So it was in Noah’s day, so it was in Jerusalem’s last days.

Matthew 24:41 In Noah’s day, who was taken away from the earth and who was left on the earth? The wicked were taken from the earth in the flood and Noah was left on the earth to repopulate it in his new covenant in which he, in a sense, inherited a new heavens and new earth.

In the coming of the Son of Man in judgment against Jerusalem and Israel the unbelieving among Israel and Jerusalem were taken along with the old covenant system and who was left? The church and the new covenant!

Matthew 24:48 We should live the opposite of the days of Noah. Our existence should be God-centered…though He may tarry…we should live daily with Him on our minds and in our hearts.

Romans 7:4 It’s quite clear that either we are alive under the Law, or we have died and been resurrected into a life that is not under the Law but instead under the Spirit in Christ Jesus.

Romans 7:11 The Law creates our awareness of what is right and wrong. Sin seizes upon the opportunity to lead us into unrighteousness. The Law exposes what sin is already doing in us. In order to be free from both we must die in Christ.

Romans 7:15 We have each been in that place in which we have thought to ourselves, “why in the world did I just do that?” Sin still lurks in our flesh seeking to trap and enslave us to its will.

Romans 7:22 We delight in the law of God and in the goodness of God and yet within ourselves we are at internal war with our flesh that seeks to impose against the good things God is doing in us and turn us to captivity to sin.

Psalm 57:1 Has God truly become our refuge? Are we fully vested in Christ Jesus or are we holding back, still dependent upon our own skill and ability?

Psalm 57:5 In all that we are we should seek that God would be exalted.

Psalm 58:1 Wicked people find it impossible to be righteous in their judgments. We will note, just from the political processes of our day, that instead of justice and equality our leaders instead favor one group over another for political gain.

Psalm 48:11 The reward for the righteous is knowing that one day God will settle accounts with mankind. Justice will come.

Numbers 23:8 God alone has the sovereign authority to bless and curse.

Numbers 23:21 We must keep note of this statement for Balaam was quite certainly paying attention to it when he instructs Balack in order to still turn a profit on this venture.

Numbers 25:3 Israel was to be the covenant executioner of the Moabites for such activities and now instead has joined with them in these activities.

Numbers 25:11 Phinehas was jealous with a godly jealousy for the worship of His name alone and put an end to the plague and as such would secure the priesthood to his family.

Numbers 25:18 The Midianites are to be destroyed for having acting so deceptively among the Israelites.

Numbers 26:2 Now, 40 years later, that all the prior wicked generation has been removed (probably the last vestiges wiped out in the plague), it is time to muster up the army for invasion.

Numbers 27:18 Moses is soon to die and is going to appoint Joshua, a man full of the Spirit, to lead Israel into the promised land. Joshua and Jesus have the same Hebrew name.

Moses (the Law) can only bring us to the promised land, we need Joshua (Jesus) to bring us into the promised land. The Law makes us aware of sin and righteousness, Christ provides our righteousness and deals with our sin.

2013
03/12
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Tweets & Rants 6 March 2013: Matthew 23:1-12; Romans 5:1-11; Psalm 53; Numbers 12-14

believes it is difficult to respect authority when that authority isn’t doing right, yet Jesus taught us to respect it. Mat 23:3 @WeeManWest

thinks someone/politicians labeling themselves a “servant” is more than likely trying to prove it to themselves. Mat 23:11 @WeeManWest

believes we should serve in humility demanding NOTHING, waiting patiently for Christ to exalt us in His due time. Mat 23:12 @WeeManWest

is certain that unless we believe we are sinful, corrupt, and incapable of good we will not be ready for Christ. Psa 53:3 @WeeManWest

wastes effort doing things expecting God to join in when instead he needs to join God where His is already working. Num 14:42@WeeManWest

Matthew 23:3 Jesus taught us a respect for authority while recognizing that often those in authority do not practice what they preach. Often those in authority will use their “authority” to create themselves and out clause or to just not abide by the standard they have set for the common person.

Matthew 23:4 So often those in authority use the burden and labor to keep the common man occupied while they themselves become the beneficiaries of the work of the common man.

Matthew 23:5 As Jesus teaches elsewhere so He revisits here, those who do their works to be seen by others are in the wrong. All the pomp and pageantry of this world is vanity. Whether its ceremonial pageantry in religion, industry, or politics you still face the same worthlessness.

Matthew 23:11 Serving others is what truly leads to greatness in the kingdom of Christ. Are we the servant or the served? Our goal should be to humble serve for the honor and will of Christ.

Applying this also to the political realm where our leaders call themselves “servants”. Servants don’t make the rules but rather abide by the rules of their master. When someone is a master, a rule-maker, they are not serving but are being served. Don’t be so easily decieved by the slick words and pageantry of the elites!

Matthew 23:12 If we must exalt ourselves then we are in defiance of Christ. We should serve in humility and demand NOTHING and wait patiently for Christ to exalt us in His due time!

Romans 5:2 We stand by the grace that we have accessed by faith we have received through Christ. Nothing of our salvation is our own it is all God’s and for His glory alone does it come to us.

We rejoice in this hope, that God is not looking at any of our works of which even the most righteous among them are like filthy rags, but rather that God looks at us and sees the works of Jesus Christ which are complete in Him alone.

I add nothing but my own sin to the equation. Yes, my faith leads me to good works that yet are tainted by my own sinful motivations, attitudes, and actions. Woe unto me if I were to think any work of my own added anything to what Christ has done to save me wholly and completely into everlasting life.

Romans 5:3 We rejoice in our sufferings. REALLY?! Last time I checked most of us tend to moan and complain in our sufferings. Paul is describing a faith that embraces our sufferings for the value they will produce in our lives.

Suffering stinks!

Yet suffering is the powerhouse of spiritual production for the life of faith! Suffering produces endurance in our walk. Endurance is beneficial in and of its own because we must endure so much turmoil at the hands of our enemy that we need the ability to endure.

However, endurance that is born through suffering then produces character in our walk. Character/integrity is a solid compass for all of our living. Character then produces hope. Why? Because our character witnesses to us  having been born from our endurance that was forged in our suffering. Our character KNOWS undoubtedly from where it has come and gives us hope of where we are going.

Romans 5:8 Jesus didn’t sit around and wait for us to get things right before He came to die for our sins and reconcile us to God. Jesus knew we would NEVER get things right. Instead, Jesus came at just the right time to reconcile us, the avowed enemies of God, to God. He died for His enemies!

Romans 5:10 How powerful the knowledge that Jesus died for us while we were His enemies in order to reconcile us to God and make us His allies! Why? Because now we can be even more confident that if God would spare not even His only Son on our behalf when we were His enemies how much more can we expect from God in our redemption now that we are reconciled to Him as His allies?!

Psalm 53:1 I’ve heard many a Christian assert that April 1 is National Atheist’s Day on the basis of this verse. Yet, the context here condemns all of mankind for we all live like atheists!

We live as though there is no God or worse yet that our achievements are our god or still even worse yet that our achievements make us a god!

Psalm 53:3 Until we take to heart what this verse says and realize that this verse is saying this about us we will not be ready to truly grow in Christ Jesus.

We are all fallen away and corrupted in this world. None of us are capable of doing anything truly good. We all carry some hidden motive, deep within our being, that taints even the best of our good works.

Numbers 12:1 Moses is catching it from all sides and angles. Not only are the people complaining about everything, but now also his own family is speaking against him. Many are the trials and troubles of the righteous in this world.

Numbers 12:3 Moses was very meek. He was extremely humble, even more humble than all the people on earth. Moses’ humility is what stands out in this episode more than anything.

Moses humbly complies and goes to the tent with Aaron and Miriam. When God has sentenced Miriam, Moses prays for her healing.

Meekness leads to mercy. Yet, neither meekness nor mercy are weaknesses but rather strengths. Humility and mercy are two of the most difficult things for us to do as human beings.

Numbers 13:28 Israel was to inherit the land and the spies’ report of the land was that it was good, it was exactly as God had promised. Yet, the big word is “however”. However shifts the emphasis from the land to its people.

They saw the land to be a good land but saw the task to conquer the land to be a giant task.

Numbers 13:30 Caleb views the land through faith and sees it as their land for the taking. What God has promised He will provide. Faith allows us to see God’s promise as the reality instead of our circumstance.

Numbers 13:32 The other spies lacked faith and instead of trusting in God’s promise as the reality they instead made the circumstances the reality. They told the people that the land would eat them up. Often we will surrender to our greatest fears when we fail to look at our circumstances through faith in God’s promises.

Numbers 13:33 Apparently the land had a population of giants living in it, the Nephilim (Genesis 6) were in the land. Some archaeology is beginning to confirm this fact of history.

Numbers 14:1 This generation shows themselves rejected. They are so trapped in the mentality of the oppressed that they cannot trust God to keep His promise. Rather than rejoice at the opportunity ahead they weep.

Numbers 14:4 After deciding in their lack of faith and in their victim/oppressed mentality that it would be better to either die in Egypt as an oppressed slave or die in the wilderness from old age than it would be to even attempt to conquer the land of promise the Israelites begin searching for a new leader to take them back to Egypt!

No return policy exists for the plan of God. You don’t get to enjoy His deliverance to turn back to the old life.

They were worried their children would become prey, yet their children are the ones through which God will later conquer the land.

Numbers 14:8 The men of faith speak out: Moses, Aaron, Caleb, and Joshua. God will bring them into the land. The people of the land are no threat to Israel if God delights in them. Four men of faith speaking to a couple million people who lack faith.

Numbers 14:12 As the people were ready to stone the men of faith God shows up and is ready to disinherit the entire nation due to their unbelief. Yet, humble Moses intercedes again, even on behalf of this nation of people who were ready to stone him to death.

Numbers 14:16 Moses pleads with God on behalf of His own great name. All of this life is about the greatness and glory of the name of God among all the nations.

Numbers 14:28 The Israelites were going to get exactly what they feared, sort of. That generation was going to die in the wilderness with the exception of Joshua and Caleb. I wonder if Moses and Aaron were listening?

Instead God is going to take the next generation, the ones this generation thought erroneously would be prey, they would be the generation to conquer the land of promise.

Numbers 14:34 Certainly I do not ever want to know the displeasure of God. He sentences them to 40 years, a year for every day that the land was spied out, to wander aimlessly in the wilderness until that generation dies off.

How terrible to never get there? They are on the border of the land of promise and yet will never set foot in it.

Numbers 14:37 The men who had lied about the land and led the people into this rebellion against God were struck with plague and died immediately. We should be careful never to be at war with God.

Numbers 14:42 Israel presumed to go into the land anyway, in spite of God’s decree. Moses warned them that God was not with them and that they would be defeated and so they were!

We need God with us in our lives. Therefore, the simplest solution is to watch to see where God is and follow Him into that work. We must be spiritually attentive to the work of God in and around us so that we can join Him in His work and be where He is.

2013
03/06
CATEGORY
Radical Rants
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