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:
- 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
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