Morning Musing: Joshua 23:12-13

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“For if you turn back and cling to the remnant of these nations remaining among you and make marriages with them, so that you associate with them and they with you, know for certain that the Lord your God will no longer drive out these nations before you, but they shall be a snare and a trap for you, a whip on your sides and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from off this good ground that the Lord your God has given you.”  (ESV – Read the chapter)

Have you ever tried clearing a path for the first time?  I haven’t, but before we moved into our new house, we rallied some men from the church to come and help us clear the backyard.  No one had touched it for what was likely several years and it was a mess.  The patch of trees and branches and vines was so thick that you could just barely see through to the land behind us.  It took the group of us several hours, several chainsaws, a tractor, and two different days, but we got it done.  With all the mess and poison ivy (which I discovered the hard way I can get…twice) now gone, it’s well on its way to be a great space.  Eventually.  I can’t imagine how much work it would have been to have tried doing all that work on my own. Read the rest…

Digging in Deeper: Deuteronomy 20:1

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“When you go out to war against your enemies, and see horses and chariots and an army larger than your own, you shall not be afraid of them, for the Lord your God is with you, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.”  (ESV – Read the chapter)

Reading verses like this in books like this is tough when it comes to the Scriptures.  Moses is about two-thirds of the way through his farewell speech to the people of Israel here.  And he’s talking about a hypothetical future situation and what the people should do if they are to face something like this.  The challenge is this: What on earth are we supposed to do with something like this?

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Digging in Deeper: Hebrews 10:24-25

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“And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.”  (ESV – Read the chapter)

“Going to church doesn’t make you a Christian anymore than going to an auto parts store makes you a mechanic.”  Ever heard something along those lines?  “I can worship just fine when I’m on my own, so I don’t need to be in church all the time.”  How about that one?  Or maybe this: “I connect with God better out in the woods than I do in a roomful of people.”  Or perhaps this: “The church is full of hypocrites; it’s better for my faith to not be around all those people very often.”  You know what?  There’s at least a little bit of truth to every one of these. Read the rest…

Morning Musing: Joshua 18:2-3

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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…