“Be very careful, therefore, to love the Lord your God.” (ESV – Read the chapter)
What Joshua calls the people to here is not some kind of a strong feeling, but to action. This is a command. And it is one they needed to be “very careful” to obey. This suggests that loving the Lord may not be something that comes easily. Is this really the case?
e”There remained among the people of Israel seven tribes whose inheritance had not yet been apportioned. So Joshua said to the people of Israel, ‘How long will you put off going in to take possession of the land, which the Lord, the God of your fathers, has given you?'” (ESV – Read the chapter)
When the people of Israel conquered the land, they did so by sacking the major cities, decimating the Canaanite resistance. But they didn’t finish the task God gave them. Over and over again in the course of the last several chapters of the book describing the dividing up of the land among the various tribes, we are told that they failed to completely drive out the peoples of the land as they had been instructed to do. Read the rest…
“and [Rahab] said to the men, ‘I know that the Lord has given you the land, and that the fear of you has fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land melt away before you. For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon and Og, whom you devoted to destruction. And as soon as we heard it, our hearts melted, and there was no spirit left in any man because of you, for the Lord your God, he is God in the heavens above and on the earth beneath.'” (ESV – Read the chapter)
When we set out to follow God’s lead into new and challenging places, what we often don’t think about is that the place we are going is not new to Him. He’s been there ahead of us, preparing the ground for our arrival. Read the rest…
“But, as it is written, ‘What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him’–” (ESV – Read the chapter)
I love this verse. Here’s how good our God is: We cannot even imagine all the good things he has planned for us. We cannot even fathom them. Some of them, perhaps, have not even been invented yet. And God is prepared for them. Read the rest…
“When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled.” (ESV – Read the chapter)
Two verses over from this one is the shortest verse in the Bible: Jesus wept. Here, we are told He was deeply moved and greatly troubled. Basically, Jesus was really emotional. This provides fodder for some theological pondering, which is fine, but it should also be really encouraging for us. Here’s why. Read the rest…
The Nexus 