- araratchurch
- Sep 12, 2022
- 3 min read
“Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given you, as I said to Moses. From the wilderness and this Lebanon as far as the great river, the River Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and to the Great Sea toward the going down of the sun, shall be your territory.”
Joshua 1:3-4 NKJV
I have never had beautiful feet. Additionally, my feet have always been a problem to fit. When I was a little girl I can remember wearing “corrective” shoes. Well, what that meant is that the shoes were really, really ugly. But—in terms of practicality—they were meant to keep my feet from “turning over.” So, the old cliché about women being crazy over shoes and never having enough shoes, has never been descriptive of me. The reason? For me it’s always been about finding shoes that weren’t torturous and—at the same time—did not leave people screaming and running in horror when seeing me wearing them.
My father had feet, ankle, and knee problems; he even apologized to his children for passing on the problems with feet. But—let me tell you something—I love the “feet” my father gave me!
“How beautiful upon the mountains Are the feet of him who brings good news, Who proclaims peace, Who brings glad tidings of good things, Who proclaims salvation, Who says to Zion, “Your God reigns!””
Isaiah 52:7 NKJV
You see, my father spent his life telling others about the goodness of God. You could say—that at times—he begged others to come to the Lord and find rest for their soul.
My father took seriously the imperative to preach the gospel. He knew that someone cannot believe what they have not heard.
“How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, Who bring glad tidings of good things!””
Romans 10:14-15 NKJV
Additionally, my father never went out without wearing the right “shoes,” the shoes mentioned as being part of our spiritual armor!
“and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace;”
Ephesians 6:15 NKJV
Think of it, we’ve all been told that Satan will be crushed under our feet.
“And the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen.”
Romans 16:20 NKJV
Yes, we are given authority over the power of the enemy; and, that authority comes through spreading the gospel and driving darkness away by the power of God’s word. So, if we don’t spread that light, then darkness remains.
Today we find Joshua being reminded that the Lord has promised the children of Israel the land where ever his foot would walk. Now take note: the land had already been promised, but the promised was only realized when Joshua’s feet stepped on it.
We have been promised authority over all the powers of the enemy. But, we only access and realize that power as we step into his territory through the spreading of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
“So Joshua took the whole land, according to all that the Lord had said to Moses; and Joshua gave it as an inheritance to Israel according to their divisions by their tribes. Then the land rested from war.”
Joshua 11:23 NKJV
Later on we see that Joshua did walk, and thereby possess. Let us not fall short of what God has promised by not walking into what the Lord has already said is ours.
For today write this in your “wilderness journal”:
Believe with your feet.
- araratchurch
- Sep 9, 2022
- 3 min read
“Moses My servant is dead. Now therefore, arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, to the land which I am giving to them—the children of Israel. No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life; as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you nor forsake you. Only be strong and very courageous, that you may observe to do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you; do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may prosper wherever you go. This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.”
Joshua 1:2, 5, 7-8 NKJV
The Edsel is famous, not for its success, but for its failure. After Ford sank $400 million into the development of this new division, the whole project went bellyup within a couple of years.
And then there’s the Cadillac, Cimarron. The Cimarron was Cadillac’s effort to scale down their “land-yachts” into something more compact and more fuel-efficient. Rather than being Cadillac’s segue into a new market niche, the Cimarron was a bust on all fronts; it pleased no one and was phased out after six (tortured) years in production.
Now, it’s not just in the area of car innovation that we find attempts at improvement, tanking. Whether it’s New Coke or Google Glass, and beyond, there is no dearth of examples of innovation going terribly wrong.
Additionally, we can find people in all areas of business, coming up with their own idea of how to do things, to the detriment of what had been successful.
Of course this is not a treatise against innovation; but it is a warning.
I believe that in the Church “world” there have been attempts at “innovation” that have gone terribly wrong.
Now, they haven’t gone wrong in that they didn’t attract people; but because they aren’t attracting the Spirit of God! The effort to make the church more “seeker friendly”—whereas that sounds like a noble cause—has resulted in churches that don’t please God. In this case, efforts at innovation—though possibly well-intentioned—have been a big flop in the eyes of our Lord. Additionally, the result has changed the Church from a “force to be reckoned with,” to a pathetic imitator of the world system.
Concerning this, a favorite scripture of my father comes to mind:
“Thus says the Lord: “Stand in the ways and see, And ask for the old paths, where the good way is, And walk in it; Then you will find rest for your souls. But they said, ‘We will not walk in it.’”
Jeremiah 6:16 NKJV
Today we find Joshua being instructed by the Lord to continue in the same way, according to the same plan, that Moses did. With that, the Lord promised to be with Joshua as He was with Moses. Now, it would’ve been very easy for Joshua to decide to try to “make his own mark,” or do things his own way; but he realized that Moses’ way, was actually, the Lord’s way.
Whatever is going on in our lives, whatever we think needs to be changed or “improved,” one thing of which we must be very cautious, is of moving away from the plan of the Lord. After all, if the “old ways” of doing, are God’s ways of doing, we do well to stick with them.
For today write this in your “wilderness journal”:
Follow the plan.
- araratchurch
- Sep 8, 2022
- 3 min read
“Now before they lay down, she came up to them on the roof, and said to the men: “I know that the Lord has given you the land, that the terror of you has fallen on us, and that all the inhabitants of the land are fainthearted because of you. Now therefore, I beg you, swear to me by the Lord, since I have shown you kindness, that you also will show kindness to my father’s house, and give me a true token, and spare my father, my mother, my brothers, my sisters, and all that they have, and deliver our lives from death.” So the men answered her, “Our lives for yours, if none of you tell this business of ours. And it shall be, when the Lord has given us the land, that we will deal kindly and truly with you.””
Joshua 2:8-9, 12-14 NKJV
Roy "Wrong Way" Riegels (April 4, 1908 – March 26, 1993) played for the University of California, Berkeley football team from 1927 to 1929. In the 1929 Rose Bowl game (Riegels’ team versus Georgia Tech), Riegels snatched up a fumbled ball and then did the unthinkable: instead of running the 30 yards between him and Tech’s end zone, he turned and ran toward his own goal 70 yards away! He nearly made it into his own end zone but was tackled by his teammates on the 1-yard line. His team then chose to punt rather than risking a run so close to their own end zone. However, the punt was blocked and was run in for a safety, putting Tech ahead in the game. Although other plays were played, and other scores were scored, that blunder was seen as costing them the Rose Bowl victory in that Riegels’ team only lost by one point (8 - 7). This 69 yard wrong way run is often referenced as the worst blunder in college football history.
At the time, in an interview with the Associated Press, Riegels explained how this had happened: "I started to turn to my left toward Tech's goal. Somebody shoved me and I bounded right off into a tackler. In pivoting to get away from him, I completely lost my bearings.”
It’s always a bad thing when you run for the wrong team. For Riegels, it was disorientation, coupled with the intensity of the competition, that would lead him to run for the other team.
Sadly, it isn’t just in football that disorientation, brought on by a variety of dynamics (fear, jealousy, hurt, spite, need for vengeance, etc.), leads to someone “running for the wrong team,” or actually fighting against the “friendlies.” Never is this phenomenon more destructive, even deadly, than when people (for reasons stated above, among others) are found actually fighting against God!
As you may know, The apostles faced much resistance and persecution; but none more than what they experienced at the hands of the religious leaders. The religious leaders would have done well to heed the wise advice of Gamaliel (a leader among the Pharisees).
“And now I say to you, keep away from these men and let them alone; for if this plan or this work is of men, it will come to nothing; but if it is of God, you cannot overthrow it—lest you even be found to fight against God.””
Acts 5:38-39 NKJV
Indeed, Paul (Saul)—in his religious zeal—found himself fighting against the Lord.
“And he said, “Who are You, Lord?” Then the Lord said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. It is hard for you to kick against the goads.””
Acts 9:5 NKJV
Today we find Rahab, a harlot in Jericho, asking the two spies (sent by Joshua to spy out the land) to spare her life. She explains to them that she has recognized that they are on the winning team of the Lord. Now, imagine how she must’ve felt about the prospects of all she had ever known, being destroyed. Yet, she didn’t allow the fog of that angst, to keep her from recognizing with whom she should be aligned. And sure enough, when it came time for the children of Israel to destroy Jericho, Joshua made good on the promise made to Rahab by the spies.
“But Joshua had said to the two men who had spied out the country, “Go into the harlot’s house, and from there bring out the woman and all that she has, as you swore to her.””
Joshua 6:22 NKJV
It’s very easy to allow the pressures of life, and the complexities of our own inner workings, to disorient us as to who are the “good guys” in our own situation. However, we must allow the Holy Spirit to keep us oriented toward the always-winning-team of the Lord, and not find ourselves fighting against God.
For today write this in your “wilderness journal”:
Stay on the right team.