The Lesson We Can Learn From Joshua

       The Book of Joshua is an amazing and wonderful book that many times gets overlooked in our study of scripture. I hear quite often, especially from the youth that the Bible is "so boring", when that tells me they obviously have never read Joshua and the conquests of God's people into the Promised Land. But what can we learn, if anything, from this book besides the history? After all, we are New Testament Christians and Joshua was leading the Israelites after the death of Moses, so it is simply history, right? Actually, this is the time when God's people were the most faithful than in any other time in the Bible, or since. And because of their faithfulness, God stayed with them, ensured their victory, and even stopped the sun from setting for an hour to give His people victory. All they had to do in return was to follow His commands exactly, even if they didn't understand them at the time. Complete obedience is necessary for our reward, just as it was for theirs. Partial obedience is the equivalent of total damnation, and God just wants us to simply obey His commands. Unfortunately, many today feel that partial obedience, or just by God's grace we are saved. We can learn from Joshua that there is more to the story.
       After the death of Moses, Joshua became the leader of the Israelite people, and God commands Joshua to cross the Jordan and enter the Promised Land. God tells Joshua that if he walks with Him, He will stand by the people and fight for them. So the promise of God was conditional, just as it is today (Mat. 7:21). In Joshua 1:16-18, we read where all the people spoke with voice, and all declared unity with God, swearing to obey. So the first thing they do is send spies into Jericho to scout out the land. They come upon a woman named Rahab, who hides the spies from the king, and asks them to spare her and her family when the army attacks. The spies agree, but again there is a condition. She must tell no one of the Israelites, she must tie a scarlet rope and hang it from her window, and all that she wants saved must be in her house at the time of the attack. She did exactly as she was told, and she was spared. If she had faltered in any way, she would have surely perished.
       In chapter 3 of Joshua, the people begin getting their exact commands from God to attack Jericho. The ark is to go before them, for God is always our king and should be followed. In verses 7-8, God parts the Jordan just as the priests feet touch the water. Then in chapter 4 there are commands that many did not understand at first, but they did them anyway without question. Each tribe were to take one stone and place it in the river as a memorial to the greatness of God. The people were to march around the city for six days, and then on the seventh day let out a great shout. Why? What did this have to do with anything? It was because God was testing them, to see if they could follow simple instructions. They did, and the walls came down, and the city fell. Of course, the faithfulness of the people was short lived, as Achan, a man in the army, went against God's wishes and broke the law, and he paid with his life.
       You see, God just wants us to do the same thing today. He has given us His very specific rules and laws that really are not that hard to understand, and simply follow them. After all, that is why He wrote them down. It wasn't for His own amusement, it was for man to follow, because without it, man would simply wander aimlessly and create his own wild religious ideas. 1 Cor. 6:9-11, James 1:21-22 tells us to do as God says, not as man says. If we just go, and teach the Word, the exact Word, God will be with us and guide us (Mark 16:20). Today, so many people want to be somewhat obedient, that is, obedient to their own extent. They figure that God won't mind that the rules might be changed a little, because they always kept Him in their minds. This is simply not true. Achan paid for this mistake with his life, as did Ananais and Saphira later on in the New Testament. God was proud of His people, yet it wasn't long before they turned their back on Him, and it would take a savior to reunite us with God, but on His terms and conditions. Thank God that so many men gave their lives so that we might have the gospel today, and follow our Father's simple commands.

What Would a New Church Look Like?

     What would a new church look like if all they had to go on was the Bible? Sounds interesting doesn't it? I think a question like this could even put a little panic into some denominational leaders of today, whose organization looks nothing like the descriptions in the Bible. I was recently told by someone lately who is a member of a major denomination that the church of the first century no longer exists, things change, and hey, change is good right? If so, why didn't God foresee these changes? He gave no instructions, examples, references or even inferences to what to do in the future, except to do His will which He already gave to us. In Mal. 3:6 He says He does not change, and in the next verse He begs us to return to His ordinances. His ordinances, not those of men who think the rules need to be rewritten to keep up with the times. How arrogant can anyone be to think they can help God better explain things than He can? So, what am I talking about? How has man changed the church of our Lord, and is it for the better?
     There are something in the neighborhood of 2,000 different Christian beliefs in society today. Each one is at least a little different than the next, and many if not all denominations have many separate sects within their own organizations that do something a little different, thus the reason for their split at sometime in their history. It may be due to financial, types of worship, times of worship, days of worship, the way they sing, don't sing, pray, don't pray, or a million other nuances that make them different. Some churches have their ministers wearing suits and ties, while others make them wear long flowing robes with crown-like hats that reach the ceiling, while some prefer a more relaxed style of shorts and flip-flops. Some prefer wine with their communion, grape juice, maybe even grape soda, (yes, I have even seen that), and recently I saw on the news of one drinking beer, which was okay because God told them so. But here's the kicker, even after all their different and separate beliefs, they all believe that the other groups are okay as well as long as they believe God. In reality, I think they are afraid to offend anyone, forgetting that God has already given us instructions and we could be offending Him. But what if all we knew was erased, all churches of every belief closed down and our memories vanished. What would happen then? What would a new church look like if all we had to go by was a single surviving Bible? Guess what? This has happened, and the results might shock you.
     In the 1950's, Communism was spreading rapidly in Southeast Asia, gobbling up countries like Korea, China, Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. When the communists took over, usually what they would do is outlaw any type of religion and religious materials. If there were any missionaries in the area, they had to flee quickly, usually with nothing more than their clothes on their backs. Many items were left to be destroyed, but in some cases, small villages would be able to hide certain items from their enemies. This is exactly what happened in a small village in Laos where a Presbyterian mission group left a case of Bibles behind in their rush to escape. The villagers found the Bibles and hid them to use later. After a few years, these Bibles were brought out and a few people began reading them and spreading the truth that they were reading. It was kept as a closely guarded secret to protect any believers.
     In the 1990's, word spread to the U.S. of a number of villages in Laos and Northern Vietnam were practicing Christianity when no group had been there to teach them. When a mission group finally got permission to go there, what they found shocked them entirely. The Christians there were following a pattern that had been set up strictly by the Bible standards. They were meeting on the first day of the week as the Bible stated, believed that you can only be saved by hearing, believing, confessing Christ as their savior, repenting for their sins and being baptized by full immersion. Why would they do these things? Because the Bible told them so. There surprisingly wasn't any prayer's bench, choir, men blessing people, Holy water or people being saved by grace only or by sprinkling water over their heads. The name of the churches were simply the church at whatever village they were from, just as in the Bible, and the together they called themselves the churches of Christ, just as in the Bible. It appeared the church of the first century has not died, and is in fact alive and well just as God has said His church will never die, and His Word shall abide forever.  

What Would I Do If I Were the Devil?

       What do we know about the devil? Many people, when they hear his name have instant images in their minds of maybe a monster, or a little red being with horns and a pitchfork. Maybe you might think of him as the way the modern movies portray him, a tall skinny, pale skinned man wearing a black cloak and moving among the people, but in the shadows. But let's think about this for a minute. If the devil looked like this, and he walked the earth possessing people and physically causing mayhem, wouldn't we see him for what he is and therefore run to God? Is that what the devil wants? Think about it, he doesn't want people running to God, and he doesn't need people running to him, he needs people staying away from God. That's how he wins. This is why the Bible describes him as the "deceiver" or "prince of lies" or simply, "the enemy". He is a monster, but not in the classic sense that parents use to scare their children. He wants us, sure, but he can't physically take us, God won't allow that. So he must trick us to pull us away from God. How can he do that? Let me tell you what I would do if I were the devil.
       If I were the devil, I would try to devalue marriage. I would convince men and women that the most important things in life are material things, and the only way to get those things are to work harder and longer so they are away from their families more and more. If they are away from their families, I would then encourage the men and women to start having conversations that are inappropriate, ones that might lead to relationships that only Satan would approve of. If I could drive a wedge between the families, I could drive God away from the homes. Spend more time at work, and less with your children, because remember, Christianity is a learned religion, and if you aren't spending time teaching your children about God, how else will they learn? From their friends? From school?
       If I were the devil, of course I would want the White House, but that is too obvious. I would want the courthouses as well, which is more important than the White House because then I could encourage judges to make decisions like Roe vs. Wade, but those decisions won't force people to do what is wrong. What I would really want is the schoolhouse. If I could get into the schools and convince teachers and staff to force the children to accept "alternate lifestyles" and even punish them if they don't, I could change the next generations way of thinking. I would punish those children who refused to accept homosexuality as a way of life. Have teachers as well as student bully them, and laugh at them. I would convince teachers to teach evolution as fact and creation as merely a fairytale, and put up theories that can't be proven as fact. I would do what the government of England has done, making it illegal to even teach creation.
       If I were the devil, I would tell people that it's ok to worship God however you wanted. This is a big one. The Bible is simply a loose book of rules that man can interpret however he chooses, and it's ok as long as God is the center. After all, isn't this what the Bible teaches in Ephesians 4:4-6, when it says "One Body, One Faith, One God, One Church?" Isn't this why Paul admonishes the Galatians, calling them foolish, and saying he thanks God that he did not baptize them for they would then follow his teachings instead of Christ? I would convince people to worship however they wanted, in fact have many denominations, thousands, and still believe that all are okay and going to Heaven. I would even tell people to go to church on Sunday. That's right, go to church for an hour or two, but the rest of the week, do whatever you want, as long as you don't offend anyone. Be Holy one day a week, be mine the other six. And whatever you do, don't offend another human being for their belief, even if it offends God, because God has forgiven you and you don't have to do anything else because you are saved by His grace alone. Faith and works aren't really that important. I would convince people this is what the scriptures teach, and there's no need to study ALL that it teaches.
       There is so much more, but this is where I would start if I were the devil. Luckily though, this is just imagination, just make believe, because it is much more plausible to be that monster that haunts us in the dark, or comes out when we play certain board games or even call upon him. Thankfully, this is all a joke, and the devil probably doesn't even exist, and all we have to do is live until we die.

 

Words To Live By: I Corinthians 7 - 18

Leaders Of The Church

A major problem we are facing in todays "Christian" society, is our want or need to follow someone, a leader who can tell us what to think or how we should read and understand the Bible. There are even many groups who actually tell their congregation that only the ministers can understand all the Bible has to say, basically saying, "We will tell you what you need to know". And yet so many people follow along, don't study the Bible, just the parts they are told to. Many times these leaders will even change what they believe from time to time, and few challenge this. The Pope is a good example of this. He has the power to change the Word of God as society changes. When Catholicism started in the 5th century, women were not allowed to be priests, now there is a sect that allows it, homosexuals were an abomination, now they are accepted, only Catholics were true Christians, until Pope John Paul announced ALL Christians were Catholic in 1982, and the new Pope just announced that you don't even have to believe to go to Heaven, you just have to be a good person. In other words, don't listen to the Bible, I'LL tell you what to do to be saved. It isn't only Catholics that do this, far from it in fact. Recently a mega-church in Texas lead by a very charismatic preacher, announced there is no Hell. That blatantly goes against scripture, yet his congregation grew. The very famous Joel Olsteen has preached for years about the sin of homosexuality, until recently on a Sixty-Minutes interview, he finally buckled under the pressure and changed his tune. All of these examples are just a small portion of these so called leaders changing the Word of God. How can they defend their actions? Has God changed His mind, or did He not get it right the first time? Malachai 3:6 says "For I Jehovah change not" and 1 John 2:5 says "But whoso, keepeth His Word, in him verily is the love of God perfected". So who shall we put our faith in? God is the one true father, the only one we should be calling father, and Jesus Christ is the only leader and founder of the church, which was founded on Pentacost. Preachers and Ministers should encourage their congregation to study all of the Bible, and to put trust in what the Bible says, not what they say, because man is far from perfect and will make mistakes, but God doesn't, and He does not change because He did get it right the first time. We need preachers to teach us the Word and to help save the lost, but they can only do that by preaching the Truth, which we can all know. Follow what God has said, and if anyone tells you the Bible got it wrong or times have changed so the Word changes, who are you going to follow? Your soul depends upon the answer.

It Isn't Easy Being Saved

     Many times people believe that once you are saved, life should be easier, that God will take care of all of our problems and we can just sit back and do what we want, or nothing at all, and still receive our Heavenly reward. This is a very dangerous position to take, and one that will condemn us instead. You see, when we are saved through baptism, it does not mean we are saved forever no matter what. We must continue to walk with God, follow His Word, and do as He commands us. Once we are saved, Satan will begin working harder than ever to derail us and win us back into his fold. We can fall away, and be lost for eternity.
     We might get it into our heads that, hey, I've been saved, so little sins aren't that big a deal. We may not be committing murders or assaults, but little white lies, maybe drinking or anything else "small" won't hurt us, Jesus will protect us. Leviticus 4:27 however tells us if we sin, even in ignorance, we are guilty of all sin. James tells us in 2:10 that if we follow the complete law, or the major points, yet offend in just one point, any point, we are lost. There is no such thing as a small sin, so when Satan throws these temptations at us, we must stay strong and keep God first. These moments of weakness will hit us often, in fact everyday, but God has given us something to protect us, as long as we follow His commandments, Jesus.
     We will falter and sin, we are human after all, no one is perfect, but if we are saved and ask for forgiveness, and truly mean it in our hearts, it will be given to us. The amazing thing about God, is He can not only forgive, but forget. We are not able to do that completely, we of course can forgive, but it is impossible for us to forget. Hebrews 10:17 says this is exactly what God does, forgive, forget, and move on. How wonderful that is, only if we do our part, it is not automatic. Romans 6:1 tells us we can continue in sin, and the tool we have to fight it off is the Bible, with it we have everything we need to live a good and Godly life. It will not be easy, but Christians have always faced trials and persecutions in life, and we are still here, doing as our savior says,