Promise Land

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Be strong and courageous.  Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go. (Joshua 1:9)

Joshua is one of my favorite characters in the Bible.  He was bold, he was enthusiastic about God, and almost always saw the glass as half full.  He was my kind of guy.  The type of person I could see myself being friends with.  Let’s find out who he was and what God commissioned him to do!

The first time we meet Joshua in Scripture is when he came back from the land of giants with his friend Caleb.  Caleb said, “We can take those guys, no problem!”  That’s me paraphrasing it, of course!  There were 12 spies that went out and Joshua was one of two who came back believing they could go forward and overtake the land.  (Read Numbers 13:26-33)

Then we see Joshua is mentioned again a little later for the condition of his heart.

“Because they have not followed me wholeheartedly, not one of the men twenty years old or more who came up out of Egypt will see the land I promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob– not one except Caleb son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite and Joshua son of Nun, for they followed the Lord, wholeheartedly.” (Numbers 32:11-12)

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A Call to Love

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If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself,’ you are doing right. But if you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as lawbreakers. (James 2:8-9)

I admit that I have broken God’s Law a time or two or maybe I should say at least a million times.  I know that my thoughts don’t always line up with God’s Word and I’m learning to take each thought captive (2 Corinthians 10:5).  I know there are times I’ve shown favor to some and not others.  I know that I’ve said things, done things, and lived things that aren’t pleasing to the Lord.  As I daily walk with the Lord, I come to understand my sinfulness all the better.  I have definitely broken God’s Law to “Love others as myself.”

How are you doing with this?  Do you love others like God has called you to love them?

“A new command I give you:  Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (John 13:34-35)

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Hope of the Broken World

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His pleasure is not in the strength of the horse, nor his delight in the legs of a man; the LORD delights in those who fear him, who put their hope in his unfailing love. (Psalm 146:10-11)

Beyond Our Asking

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Beyond Our Asking

By Helen Steiner Rice

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More than hearts can imagine or minds comprehend,

God’s bountiful gifts are ours without end.

We ask for a cupful when the vast sea is ours,

We pick a small rosebud from a garden of flowers,

We reach for a sunbeam but the sun still abides,

We draw one short breath but there’s air on all sides.

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My Living Hope

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Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade–kept in heaven for you. (1 Peter 1:3-4)

We have a tremendous opportunity to take every breath in praise to our Father God.  He is the only One who gives us the air we breathe, the brain that makes it possible for our body to function, the heart that pumps the blood through us, and most of all He gave His Son so we might experience eternal life with Him in Heaven one day.  God did every tiny thing and every big thing in our lives.  He certainly deserves our praise.  Our mouths should only open up to praise Him!  Do your words speak love, joy, and peace?  I know I need to work on my words.  My words should consistently speak of God’s glory.  They should build on the work that He has done and never tear it down!  I am a continual work in progress.  I desire for my words to reflect the hope I have in Christ alone.  May our lives start to look a little like the verse above.

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