Remembering Led Joshua to Faith and Obedience. God gave him Victory.

Four centuries of Egyptian bondage, followed by forty years of wilderness wandering, then the Glory days. God spoke, Joshua listened, and the Glory Days began. The Jordan River opened up. The Jericho walls fell down. The sun stood still. Evil was booted. Homeless wanderers became hope-filled homesteaders. The Lord gave the land. The Lord gave rest.

How could this movement from Egypt to the Promised Land apply to us?

Egypt: Hebrews enslaved to Pharoah. Represents our days before salvation, enslaved to sin.

Wilderness: The defeated Christian life. Characterized by grumbling, anxiety and desire to be slaves again. Didn’t believe the Lord could give them what He promised. Out of Egypt (slavery), but Egypt wasn’t out of them.

Promised Land: The victorious Christian life. By Jesus’ grace and power, we were freed from our old life. “We are more than conquerors.” Romans 8:37. Canaan is a life defined by grace, refined by challenge, and aligned with a heavenly call. We serve out of our giftedness and delight in the Lord.

There were 2 key characteristics that allowed Joshua to lead God's people into the Promised Land.

1. REMEMBERING led Joshua to faith and obedience

• From the first mention of Joshua in the Bible, it was very important to God that Joshua REMEMBERED. Joshua was the lead soldier in the wilderness battle with the Amalekites. When Moses' hands were raised they were winning, but when they dropped the Amalekites would be winning. After the victory, the Lord asked Moses to write the story on the scroll as something to be remembered and make sure Joshua hears it.
• When God called Joshua to lead His people into the Promised Land (Joshua 1), Joshua could have responded with “I can’t”. Moses was dead, 2 million people inexperienced in battle, and the Canaanites eat people like them for breakfast. But, Joshua Remembered that God could do the miraculous. He trusted God's Word, and believed that God had already blessed them and chose to live into that blessing.
• Joshua had faith because God declared He was giving them the land, not might give, you must conquer, must prove yourself worthy, must earn or purchase! Transaction had already happened. When we give our life to Christ, He “has blessed (us) with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.” (Eph. 1:3) Not will bless, might bless, or someday could possibly bless. 2 Cor 5:17, God will “equip you with all you need for doing his will” (Heb 13:21), “God has given us everything we need for living a godly life” (2 Peter 1:3). These Promises are for us!
• God offered the inheritance to the people of Moses’ day, but they didn’t take it. They chose the wilderness- self-preservation and grumbling. We don’t want to make the same mistake. Joshua took God at his word and set about the task.
•  What are our Jerichos that keep us from Promised Land living? Does a stronghold (a false premise that denies God’s promise) have a strong hold on you? Ask God to reveal it.
  • I could never forgive that person (stronghold of resentment)

  • I could never recover or change (stronghold of defeat)

  • Bad things always happen to me (stronghold of self-pity)

  • I have to be in charge for things to go right (stronghold of pride)

  • I don’t deserve to be love (stronghold of rejection)

  • I must be good or God will reject me (stronghold of performance)

  • I’m only as good as I look (stronghold of appearance)

  • My value is based on my possessions (stronghold of materialism)

•  “The enemy does not have to kill you to destroy your witness… all he has to do is disorient, distract, disengage, distance you, disable you, deactivate you…. From your calling." Gary Barkalow, It’s Your Call: What Are You Doing Here?

2. STEEPED IN GOD’S WORD

• God was equipping Joshua for the mission of a lifetime. Command given? Read the Word of God. (Joshua 1:8) He gives us the same word. Open our Bibles, most important tool for spiritual growth.
• Desire to leave the wilderness for the Promised Land? Trust in God, engage the Bible, meditate on it day and night, think and rethink about it, let it be your guide and go-to book for questions, the ultimate authority in your life. “You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free” John 8:32. Truth saves us from guilt, fear, anger, and reconfigures our heart.
• Do we have Scripture on the walls of our heart? On the walls of our home? By our kitchen sink?

Like a mom sending her child off to school, bending down low, looking them in the eye, “Remember what God has done. Remember who you are. Remember whose you are.”

Content from Max Lucado’s book, “Glory Days: Living Your Promised Land Life Now.”

The GOOD Life

Joseph is one of my favorite Bible characters. In a life that included a fair amount of darkness, Joseph stands in the end a man who loved his people well. Despite tough circumstances, I see a man who trusted God enough to get out of bed each day believing there was good in it simply because his GOOD God was present. Joseph seemed to live very much in the presence of a very real God. I would love to live my life like Joseph lived his.

In this part of the story, Joseph is 17. He is Jacob’s favorite son. This family is wealthy, prominent and well-known in Canaan. So, I am going to jump into this little moment in history and say that if I had been Joseph at 17, I would have been pretty pleased with myself and my circumstances. I mean, who wouldn’t be? Known by the village, part of God’s First Family, handsome, rich, all set up to live a GOOD life. I would certainly have had a bounce in my step. And I would have wanted everything to stay just like that. GOOD.

An interesting thing happens in this story. It turns out that Joseph, the handsome, favorite son with big dreams, is despised by his brothers. (I am guessing envy was at the root.) One day Jacob sends Joseph out to check on his brothers in the fields. They see him coming and decide that they have had enough of “that dreamer” and throw him in an empty well until traders come along and they sell their brother into slavery. And just like that, the GOOD life was no more. Wealthy, prominent, adored Joseph becomes a slave – unknown, alone, powerless. No family, no money, nothing.

This is where each one of us is able to step into this story. Not because we are literal slaves, but life happens to all of us. Fancy wedding days can end in divorce. Fawned over children can lose their way. Wealth can be lost. Families betray. Friends move on. Sickness comes. Life happens and it can feel like a dark, lonely pit. And even if we are not currently experiencing this kind of suffering, chances are (and I can speak for myself here) I am working pretty darn hard to prevent it. In fact, I can work so hard to keep the GOOD life GOOD - or at least so that it looks GOOD to you - that it can feel like dark, lonely pit of its own. So, you see, on either side of this GOOD life, we can be captives.

BACK TO OUR STORY, role model Joseph is a now slave in the house of Potipher, the chief bodyguard. Having made this giant freefall from the GOOD life, Genesis 39 says, “And the Lord was with Joseph so that he prospered… the Lord was with him … the Lord gave him success in everything he did... the Lord blessed ... The blessing of the Lord was on everything…"

In Joseph’s life pits, do you know what I see? I see the Lord. My favorite character is now totally upstaged by God. The LORD is so present in those dark pit places. I know that God is everywhere all the time. But this is what I wonder: maybe Joseph saw Him more clearly, felt Him more fully when all the fluff of the GOOD life was temporarily moved aside. Even though God was always with Joseph, I wonder if Joseph was with the Lord in a totally new and radical way.

So, here is our MANNA. It is so easy to get enamored with the GOOD life. We can work for it, strive for it, suffer for it, pray for it, decorate it; we can love it so much that we even grieve the loss of it, or become a vigilante trying to save it. Be careful. This quest for the GOOD life can blind you to the God who is GOOD. My friend Joseph (I call him that even though we have not formally met, though I do so look forward to coffee with him in Heaven) ends his days as Prime Minister of Egypt. He is the ultimate success story. Because he woke up each day – both in the pit and in the palace – and chose to draw closer to the God who was GOOD, his life was filled with the blessing of a GOOD God’s presence. Oh, if that could be said of us!

God Builds a Nation

Whether it is the ‘bachelor’, the ‘apprentice’, the ‘chef’, the ‘dancer’, or the next ‘american idol’ – our reality TV shows present ample evidence that we think we know a thing or two about what makes a person worthy to be “chosen”. Even my adolescent sons are engrossed with Fantasy football, where they ‘choose’ players for every game to insure virtual domination each week.

Rewind a couple thousand years. Time has passed since Adam and Eve, and the earth is now populated. Some people seek God, others have become fully consumed with everything else, and then, there is the gray in between. At this place in time, God begins the work of building His nation, assembling His chosen people. I find this fascinating because we get to see the kind of people God chooses to be on His A-Team. We, a people so sure we know who should be chosen for what, get to see whom God chooses to be a part of the plan to save the human race.

He starts with Abraham, who was obedient in leaving his family and his country to follow God. Abraham loved God. He was also a man who sometimes wasn’t so sure of how God would protect and provide, so he told half-truths. He would take matters into his own hands, just to speed up God’s plans. I lost count of the times that God had to remind Abraham, ‘I will build a nation through you. Your descendants will be as numerous as the stars, as the sand.’ Abraham was a good man, but he was not perfect. God chose Abraham anyway. Abraham was not always faithful to God, but God was always faithful to Abraham.

Sarah was Abraham’s wife and the mother of God’s team. Sarah laughed at the promises of God as being impossible, ridiculous. Sarah believed in God, Sarah loved God, but Sarah didn’t always believe in His promises. Sarah thought she knew better ways to get God’s work done. She was jealous of her servant, possessive of her son. God chose Sarah anyway. Sarah was not always faithful to God, but God was always faithful to Sarah.

Isaac, the promised son and heir of Abraham and Sarah, married Rebekah. Rebekah and her younger son, Jacob tricked Isaac into blessing Jacob instead of his older son, and the rightful heir, Esau. The favoritism in this family led to deceit, hatred, and broken relationships. Jacob ultimately flees for his life for fear his brother would kill him. This family knew God and believed in God, but they did not always seek God. They took matters into their own hands and wandered from His presence. God chose this family anyway. Isaac, Jacob and Rebekah were not always faithful to God, but God was always faithful to them.

It is really easy to get the wrong idea of God -- to think we have to act a certain way all the time, say the right thing every time, be perfect Christian robots in order to do this faith thing right. But that is just not true. God does not ask for perfect players, because He doesn’t need them. HE IS THE PERFECT ONE. This faith thing is not about what we bring to the table; it is what He brings to the table. So, when He calls out, ‘where are you?’ as we hide within our busy little lives for fear that we don’t have what it takes “to be a good Christian”, it is evidence not that we have underestimated ourselves, but instead, that we have underestimated our God.

I used the think that I had to get bigger faith to be on God’s team, to be one of His people. But when I look at His story and see whom He chose, I see that I only need teeny, tiny, mustard seed-sized faith. I need only enough faith to say, ‘here I am, Lord’. For as the old hymn sings, ‘Great is His faithfulness’.

Monday Manna: "Where Are You?"

Genesis 3:8-9 We have all heard in some form the story of creation. The six God-sized days in which we went from nothing to everything. Galaxies, billions of stars, the moon, the seas, tadpoles, butterflies, giraffes, inchworms, colors, fragrances, cool breezes, sunsets and you and me. Six God-sized days. Creation. There it was. And He said, it was good.

The Bible tells us that God knows everything, that He even transcends time. So, when God saw the splendor of the cheetah’s spots, the glorious sunrise over the sea, man and woman in beautiful relationship, He also knew what would follow: pollution, disease, war, violence, injustice ... And still, He pronounced it Good.

But how can that be? There is sorrow and suffering everywhere. Marriages crushed. Infertility breaking hearts with every female cycle. Youth (and their moms) struggling for identity in a world that glorifies staged snapshots that only mask the true cravings of a heart . Poverty suffocates. Race divides. It goes on and on. So, in all that, where is this GOOD, God proclaimed?

I love my God, because He can take my hard questions. After the creation part of the story, in chapter 3, Eve takes the forbidden fruit that is “pleasing to the eye and promises to make her wise” (Pinterest anyone?). And just like that, paradise is lost. They went from living in Eden *with God*, working alongside Him, hearing His voice (with real words), peace, harmony, relationship – to hiding from God, ashamed.

I don’t think we can grasp what they felt like. Imagine those moments when you are with family or friends and there is just this connection. You feel loved, you love in return. There is joy and an easy presence in the space. Laughter, connection, mutual respect, deep love and affection. I think that feeling times a gazillion would take us close to what Adam, Eve and God had. You see, Adam and Eve had NEVER DONE ANYTHING WRONG, so they had nothing to hide. Their relationship was complete in a way that we cannot fathom. Even with our spouses, our mothers, our besties, we hide little things. But to ol’ sister Eve, this was brand new. Total connection, total love, total intimacy was abruptly interrupted.

And do you know what our God did? In their shame, in their guilt, *when they had run away from what was GOOD, *He called out to them. He said, “*where are you?”* Remember, our God knows all things so He knew exactly where they were. He knew exactly what they had done. He did not call out to them because He needed information. *He called out to them so they would know He was right there*. They may have run away from Him, but He was right there within their reach.

Not much has changed. We, like Eve, can make a real mess of things. We will run and hide, in shame and guilt, but God who is GOOD is right there, within reach, calling out to all of us, ‘where are you?’ His call is like a rescue rope for us to reach out and grab hold of. He is calling all of us. Where are you?

What if we simply said, “Here I am?”

Sitting with Jesus - Weekly Prayer for September 14th

Redeemer –

Last night was a wonderful Vision Sunday celebration as we looked back on all that the Lord has done in our presence over these past 6 months. We have needed the Lord to lead us and guide us to this point. We will also need him to lead us and guide us going forward. Which makes this week’s prayer particularly applicable to our lives together.

Below is a prayer for this week that acknowledges our need for the Lord to direct our lives in all things. As you Sit With Jesus this week, meditate on this prayer and invite the Spirit of God to lead you in every area of your life.

Prayer for the Sunday closest to September 14

O God, because without you we are not able to please you, mercifully grant that your Holy Spirit may in all things direct and rule our hearts; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

It has been a joy and a privilege to be a part of this new work with each of you.

• ford

Ordinary Stories for Ordinary Time - Teresa Kincaid

Church -

Below is a link to another 'Ordinary story' of Redeemer from Teresa Kincaid. These simple acts of hospitality are making a profound impact in their new neighborhood. Just another example of how in our everyday, ordinary lives we can Participate with Christ in the Redemption of All Things!

Enjoy!

*If you are enjoying these stories, please consider contributing to them for the benefit of the rest of the church. Contact me (ford@redeemerrraleigh.org) and I can give you some very simple instructions on how to share your story. It just takes a couple of minutes but will encourage many

Sitting with Jesus - Weekly Prayer for September 7th

Redeemer -

Yesterday was another great joint service. Thanks to everyone who participated and served in order to make it happen. Who knew Teresa, Glenn and Andy had such pipes and amazing dance moves! That joint choir may have to make another appearance in the future.

As we begin a new week, I want to pass along a prayer that may help you as you Sit with Jesus this week. It is a prayer which asks the Lord guard and keep those who trust not in their own strength, but in the mercy of the Lord. We are always tempted to trust in the things we can see and touch, but the scriptures always call us back to the only one who can truly keep us safe. I hope that this prayer is helpful for you this week.

Prayer for the Sunday closest to September 7

Grant us, O Lord, to trust in you with all our hearts; for, as you always resist the proud who confide in their own strength, so you never forsake those who make their boast of your mercy; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Ordinary Stories for Ordinary Time - Sarah Hughes

Church Family -

What a wonderful weekend we had Roughing it with Redeemer these past two nights. Thank you to everyone who planned and participated in this church retreat. It was a joy to be together. For those of you who were unable to join us, we missed you and prayed for you this morning.

At church today, we considered Psalm 134 and how in light of the way that we have been blessed by God, we are able to live lives blessing Him in reply. These lives of response are our 'Ordinary Stories' and below is a link to the next one. We pray that you will enjoy it, be encouraged by it and challenged to consider how you too can Participate with Christ in the Redemption of All Things.

In the love of Christ,

ford

Sitting with Jesus - Weekly Prayer for the week of August 24th

Church –

Below is our prayer for our church this week. It is a prayer asking the Lord to allow our unity to show forth His power. What a fitting prayer in light of our sermon yesterday from Psalm 133. How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity. I pray that this prayer will be helpful as you Sit with Jesus this week.

The Sunday closest to August 24

Grant, O merciful God, that your Church, being gathered together in unity by your Holy Spirit, may show forth your power among all peoples, to the glory of your Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Also, I wanted to include the Prayer for Unity from our Prayer Book that we prayed yesterday at church together.

For the Unity of the Church

O God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, our only Savior, the Prince of Peace: Give us grace seriously to lay to heart the great dangers we are in by our unhappy divisions; take away all hatred and prejudice, and whatever else may hinder us from godly union and concord; that, as there is but one Body and one Spirit, one hope of our calling, one Lord, one Faith, one Baptism, one God and Father of us all, so we may be all of one heart and of one soul, united in one holy bond of truth and peace, of faith and charity, and may with one mind and one mouth glorify you; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Sitting with Jesus - Weekly Prayer for the week of August 17th

Redeemer –

As Barney reminded us last night from Psalm 131, it is good for us to calm and quiet ourselves before the Lord. This is why we encourage the church each day to take time to Sit with Jesus. It is in these moments of stillness and quiet in the presence of God that we learn to listen to His voice, discover our true selves and find our ability to trust and hope in Him.

Below is the prayer for the church this week. I pray that it might help you find a few moments of quiet and stillness with your Lord today.

The Sunday closest to August 17

Almighty God, you have given your only Son to be for us a sacrifice for sin, and also an example of godly life: Give us grace to receive thankfully the fruits of this redeeming work, and to follow daily in the blessed steps of his most holy life; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.