Day 28 in the Wilderness: Follow the plan.

“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.

#40daysinthewilderness