Joshua's Message to the Priests (Josh. 3:6)

8/13/2009 7:50 AM

SPIRITUAL DIARY

My Worship Time                              Focus:  Joshua’s message to the priests

Bible Reading & Meditation               Reference:  Joshua 3:6

            Message of the verses:  “6  And Joshua spoke to the priests, saying, "Take up the ark of the covenant and cross over ahead of the people." So they took up the Ark of the Covenant and went ahead of the people.”

            Joshua now gives the message to the priests who were to carry the Ark of the Covenant that they, as usual, would be leading the children of Israel on their journey.  They were to take the Ark across the Jordan River, and this would take faith because the Jordan River was at flood stage at the time of their crossing and as stated in an earlier SD this river dropped very fast and therefore the water, especially at flood stage, would be very rapid and difficult to cross.

            While watching a video series at church earlier I saw where the children of Israel would have had to cross the Jordan in order to get to Jericho and the commentator was showing that the priest would actually have to leap from the bank of the river while carrying the Ark, and it was probably at that point when the Lord would dry up the river so that the people could walk through on dry ground.  This would be the second time for some of these people to walk through a body of water that the Lord had dried up in order for them to cross.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  There seem to always be rivers and seas to cross for me and of course I am speaking metaphorically but just the same they have to be crossed and I have to trust the Lord to get me across those rivers to the other side in order to show me that He is who He says that He is and in order for me to praise the name of the Lord for seeing me through these times of trouble.

My Steps of Faith for Today:

1. Trust the Lord to guide my path and see me through any troubled times ahead.
2. Give myself to the Lord for worship and service today.
3. Continue to learn contentment.
4. Trust that the Holy Spirit will search my heart for unconfessed sins so that I may confess them to the Lord.
5. Put on the Spiritual armor of the Lord:  The belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shoes of the gospel of peace, take up the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, and take up the sword of the Spirit.

8/13/2009 8:19 AM

           

Joshua's Message to the People (Josh. 3:5)

8/12/2009 11:06 AM

SPIRITUAL DIARY

My Worship Time                              Focus:  Joshua’s message to the people

Bible Reading & Meditation               Reference:  Joshua 3:5

            Message of the verse:  “5 Then Joshua said to the people, ‘Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the LORD will do wonders among you.’”

            First off I would like to quote something from Warren Wiersbe’s book “Be Strong,” which is a commentary on Joshua.  “Some of God’s promises are unconditional, and all we have to do is believe them; while other promises require that we meet certain conditions.  In meeting these conditions, we’re not earning God’s blessings; we’re making sure our hearts are ready for God’s blessings.”  The command that Joshua gave to the people was conditional for if they did not do as he told them then they would not be blessed by God.

            Dr. Wiersbe points out a number of times in the OT where a similar thing happened to different OT saints that is they consecrated themselves by washing their clothes and made a change of heart to the things of God.  Psalm 51:2, 7 point out that sin is pictured as defilement:  “2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity And cleanse me from my sin.  7 Purify me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.” 

            Genesis 35:1-3:  “1 ¶  Then God said to Jacob, "Arise, go up to Bethel and live there, and make an altar there to God, who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau." 2  So Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, "Put away the foreign gods which are among you, and purify yourselves and change your garments; 3  and let us arise and go up to Bethel, and I will make an altar there to God, who answered me in the day of my distress and has been with me wherever I have gone.’”  2 Sam. 12:20 “20  So David arose from the ground, washed, anointed himself, and changed his clothes; and he came into the house of the LORD and worshiped. Then he came to his own house, and when he requested, they set food before him and he ate.”  This is also pictured in the NT in 2 Cor. 6:14-7:1; Ephesians 4:26-27; and Col. 3:8-14.  I will copy and past the passage from Colossians:  “8 ¶  But now you also, put them all aside: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive speech from your mouth. 9  Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices, 10  and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him— 11  a renewal in which there is no distinction between Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and freeman, but Christ is all, and in all.

    12 ¶  So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience; 13  bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you. 14  Beyond all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity.”

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I believe that may have been in yesterday’s SD that I made a quotation from a Scottish Pastor who was quoted a number of times by Warren Wiersbe in his “Be” books that makes sense in the application that was studied this morning:  “The Christian life is a series of new beginnings.”  This is what the children of Israel were about to do right before they crossed the Jordan River and this was what Jacob did in the section in Genes, and David did after his son died for he changed his clothes after taking a bath and came and worshipped the Lord knowing that his sin was forgiven by the Lord but also knowing that he had to take the next step in his walk with the Lord. 

            As I battle to keep myself clean from certain sins and am being convicted by the Lord to make a new beginning without cable TV I believe that this passage is the continuation of the conviction that the Lord has been doing in my heart.  I realize that I could be using my time in a more profitable way for the cause of Christ by not watching so much TV and am sure that this would be a wonderful new beginning to my walk with the Lord.  Like these children of Israel in Joshua’s day I too need to believe that the Lord will bless my life, and that I will be ready to be blessed by the Lord by taking this step.

My Steps of Faith for Today:

1. I want to continue to pray about this situation with the TV and ask the Lord not to give up on convicting me to follow this conviction.

8/12/2009 11:53 AM  

           

The Oficers' Message to the People (Josh. 3:1-4)

8/11/2009 9:32 AM

SPIRITUAL DIARY

My Worship Time                    Focus:  The officers’ message to the people 

Bible Reading & Meditation                        Reference:  Joshua 3:1-4

            Message of the verses:  “1 ¶ Then Joshua rose early in the morning; and he and all the sons of Israel set out from Shittim and came to the Jordan, and they lodged there before they crossed. 2  At the end of three days the officers went through the midst of the camp; 3  and they commanded the people, saying, ‘When you see the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God with the Levitical priests carrying it, then you shall set out from your place and go after it. 4 ‘However, there shall be between you and it a distance of about 2,000 cubits by measure. Do not come near it, that you may know the way by which you shall go, for you have not passed this way before.’”

            Israel was on the move again and they now are poised to cross the Jordan River, but before they cross they waited for three days in order to give the children of Israel some time to rest and also some time to receive their marching orders for as the officers told them, “For you have not passed this way before.” 

            In his book “Be Strong” Dr. Warren Wiersbe points out that the “Ark of the Covenant” is mentioned sixteen times in chapters three and four of Joshua, and as I have learned before the Ark of the Covenant was a very important to the nation of Israel, for it was there that the Lord’s presence was and it was there that the blood would be sprinkled on the day of Atonement.  It was there that the Book of the Law was found, and the rod of Aaron that budded.

            The message to the people was when they saw the Ark moving, being carried by the Levites that they were suppose to follow them, but to stay back about a half mile from it.  This is the first sub-section in the first section of this chapter entitled “The Word of Faith” that Warren Wiersbe has in this the forth chapter of his commentary on Joshua.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I want to focus in on the portion of verse four that reads, “For you have not this way before.”  The Christian life is a series of new beginnings as noted in many of Warren Wiersbe’s books and this small section of verse four of chapter three of Joshua reinforces this saying.  Each day seems to be a new beginning for me as I walk with the Lord, I know that some things are the same, but there is an opportunity to do something different for the cause of Christ each and every day of my walk with the Lord on this earth and for this I am thankful.

My Steps of Faith for Today:

1. Give myself to the Lord for worship and service.
2. Trust the Lord to guide my path today.
3. Continue to learn contentment.
4. Trust the Lord to have His Spirit to search my heart for unconfessed sin so that I may confess it to Him.
5. Put on the Spiritual Armor:  The belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shoes of the gospel of peace, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, and the Sword of the Spirit.

8/11/2009 10:23 AM   

Covenant Faith (Josh. 2:15-24)

8/8/2009 8:08 AM

SPIRITUAL DIARY

My Worship Time                                        Focus:  Covenant Faith

Bible Reading & Meditation                        Reference:  Joshua 2:15-24

            Message of the verses:  “15  Then she let them down by a rope through the window, for her house was on the city wall, so that she was living on the wall. 16  She said to them, "Go to the hill country, so that the pursuers will not happen upon you, and hide yourselves there for three days until the pursuers return. Then afterward you may go on your way." 17  The men said to her, "We shall be free from this oath to you which you have made us swear, 18  unless, when we come into the land, you tie this cord of scarlet thread in the window through which you let us down, and gather to yourself into the house your father and your mother and your brothers and all your father’s household. 19  "It shall come about that anyone who goes out of the doors of your house into the street, his blood shall be on his own head, and we shall be free; but anyone who is with you in the house, his blood shall be on our head if a hand is laid on him. 20  "But if you tell this business of ours, then we shall be free from the oath which you have made us swear." 21  She said, "According to your words, so be it." So she sent them away, and they departed; and she tied the scarlet cord in the window.

    22 ¶  They departed and came to the hill country, and remained there for three days until the pursuers returned. Now the pursuers had sought them all along the road, but had not found them. 23  Then the two men returned and came down from the hill country and crossed over and came to Joshua the son of Nun, and they related to him all that had happened to them. 24  They said to Joshua, "Surely the LORD has given all the land into our hands; moreover, all the inhabitants of the land have melted away before us.’”

            This section tells about the covenant that Rahab makes with the two spies and the sign of the covenant was a scarlet cord or rope, probably the rope that she used to let the spies down with.  The scarlet cord is a reminder of blood which was the sign of the covenant that the Lord made when He had the children of Israel put the blood of a slain lamb over the doorposts of their homes in Egypt so that the death angel would Passover them.  There were other signs spoken of in the Bible, the rainbow, circumcision, the wine and the bread.  There were also covenants between people in the Bible, the covenant between David and Jonathan comes to mind.

            It is also important to remember that Rahab’s faith was not in the sign of this covenant that she had with the two spies, but in the Lord whom she feared and whom she would get to know better as her faith and walk with Him grew.  Rahab demonstrated great faith as she left the cord in her window, and as she told her family what was about to happen to this city, for one of the members of her family could have gone to the king and told everything to him risking the life or Rahab and the rest of her family.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  My faith rests in the Lord and not the sign of the New Covenant, but in what the Lord did for me on the cross and the fact that God raised Him from the dead in order to prove that His sacrifice was accepted for payment of my sins and now He lives in heaven to make intercession for me and will one day return to the clouds above the earth to take me to be with Him forever.

My Steps of Faith For Today:

1.  Give myself to the Lord for worship and service.
2. Put on the spiritual armor:  the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shoes of the gospel of peace, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit.
3. Continue to learn contentment.
4. Keep a short list with the Lord of sins and trust the Holy Spirit to search my heart for unconfessed sin so that I can confess them to the Lord.
5. Trust the Lord to guide my path today and to bring someone into my path who needs to hear the Gospel. 

8/8/2009 8:40 AM