Joshua 15:63
…the sons of Judah could not drive them out; so the Jebusites live with the sons of Judah at Jerusalem until this day.
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The Jebusites were one of the tribes God told Israel to drive out of the land and apparently the Israelites tried to do it but just did not have what it took to get the job done. So, how does that work? Have you ever felt God called you to do something and when you gave it your best effort you just couldn’t pull it off? What a frustrating situation. It feels like God let you down. Wasn’t this His idea? Why didn’t He come through? But you know you can’t blame your failure on God. But you can’t figure out what you could have done differently either. Continue reading
Category Archives: Psalms
Why do the wicked win?
Joshua 12 is a list of kings Moses and Joshua dispossessed to give the land to God’s people. It is tough to read thoroughly – actually I usually just skim it giving half an effort to pronouncing all those weird names.
But these were kings, powerful men, greatly feared. The stroke of their hand meant life or death. Their word was law. Surely they seemed like gods and probably were treated as such. Now, they are just nobodies in a list of nobodies that nobody wants to read because, frankly, nobody cares? Continue reading
The Greatest Miracle in the Bible
“So the sun stood still, and the moon stopped … the sun stopped in the middle of the sky and did not go down for about a whole day.” – Joshua 10:13
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The sun stopped for a day! This is even more miraculous than raising Jesus from the dead. For Moses he stopped some water but here, the sun stopped! Did all the stars and planets stop rotating, too? What of the tides and gravity and all the implications of this complicated cosmic system suddenly grinding to a halt. How about folks on the other side of the planet who had two nights back to back. Absolutely amazing! Why would God do such an astounding thing? Why does it get so little press coverage in the rest of the Bible? Continue reading
Even when it hurts
In Joshua 9 the Gibeonites lied to Joshua to get him to promise to spare their lives. Theirs was an intentional, premeditated deception. They went to great lengths to cover the truth. In any court Joshua would not have been required to fulfill his vow because of their deceitfulness yet, he kept his word anyway. What’s that all about? Keeping your word even when you find new information, even when you find someone else was not being perfectly honest or walking in integrity. Continue reading
Don’t hide it from the kids.
A main focus of Joshua 4, which tells the story of the crossing of the flooded Jordan River, is a memorial of 12 stones taken out of the Jordan and set up as a reminder of this miracle. Repeatedly the Lord says ‘tell your children”, “tell your children”.
God wants us to pass on to our children a heritage of faith and one of the best ways to do this is through stories of his faithfulness to us and other heroes of the faith. Not every generation will experience the awesome miracles of a Red Sea crossing or a Jordan crossing.
Some generations will live during the 400 years that Egypt was in bondage and saw few, or no, miracles rather than the incredible days of Moses and Joshua. These generations must know of His power through the stories of others. Continue reading
What will people think?
Luke 7:31-34 – “What can I say about such men?” Jesus asked. “With what shall I compare them? 32 They are like a group of children who complain to their friends, ‘You don’t like it if we play “wedding” and you don’t like it if we play “funeral'”! 33 For John the Baptist used to go without food and never took a drop of liquor all his life, and you said, ‘He must be crazy!’ 34 But I eat my food and drink my wine, and you say, ‘What a glutton Jesus is! And he drinks! And has the lowest sort of friends!’
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Though it was not His main message this reminds us of the futility of trying to please people. No matter what you do some will complain you did too much and some will criticize you for doing too little. “You should have danced when you were mourning” or “You were mourning when you should have been dancing.” You can’t please all the people all the time. Continue reading
School Zone Ahead
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When driving, a “school zone” is a place we slow down. It is also a place of learning. In life, we often go through “school zones”, situations that come into our life to teach us to be more like Jesus. Often these are times of difficulty, loss or pressure. We are wise if we slow down as we proceed through these times.
We would like to rush ahead, go faster, get it over with but life lessons are not just about learning facts, they have to do with shaping character and that is not a quick process. If we hurry through the lesson, not allowing the situation to fully conform us to the character of Christ, we will have to repeat it later. Continue reading
We lost Jesus!
Luke 2:43
When they had finished the days, as they returned, the Boy Jesus lingered behind in Jerusalem. And Joseph and His mother did not know it;
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It is interesting that they did not lose Jesus in the market place or at Joseph’s workplace. They lost him in the temple while fulfilling religious duties. It is so easy to lose the Lord because we are busily engaged in church and religious activity. We think He is still among us, like they thought he was in the caravan, but in our activity, even good activities, we have left Him behind. Continue reading
The Grief and Glory of Christmas
Matthew 2:16
Then when Herod saw that he had been tricked by the magi, he became very enraged, and sent and slew all the male children who were in Bethlehem and all its vicinity, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had determined from the magi.
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I can’t even begin to fathom the grief caused by this act carried out by Herod in an attempt to kill the child, Jesus. As a nation we are mourning the death of the “babies” senselessly slaughtered at Newtown, CT. Imagine every boy under the age of two in an entire city and the surrounding area brutally butchered with no police to intervene. In fact, this act of brutality was carried out by the law enforcement officials.
What is wrong with my church?
Someone asked me why their church seems to continually go through conflict and tension among the members. After asking a few questions I explained that their problem is that they are in a “Laodicean church”.
Most folks think of Laodicea, in Revelation 3, as being the “lukewarm” church but the very name of the church reveals a more foundational problem. Laodicea comes from two Greek words. The first one means “the people” – where we get our word “laity”. The second word can mean justice or vengeance or, rulership. In other words, Laodicea is a church ruled by the people – a democracy. Continue reading