Gail Landgraf posted: " Photo by RODNAE Productions on Pexels.com Have you ever had to follow in the footsteps of a giant? It isn't ever easy. Joshua was asked by God to follow through and finish the task that Moses had left unfinished at his death. That" The IN SEASON Lifestyle
Have you ever had to follow in the footsteps of a giant?
It isn't ever easy.
Joshua was asked by God to follow through and finish the task that Moses had left unfinished at his death. That meant that Joshua would have some pretty big shoes to fill. He was tasked with bringing the people into the Promised Land.
INTRODUCTION
Welcome to the COME AS A CHILD BIBLE STUDY which we conduct every Thursday from The IN SEASON Lifestyle blog. This week brings our very first study on The Book of Joshua. So far we seem to have 113 participants and we are hoping to gather together even more.
Our purpose is to walk all the way through the bible together with the eyes of a child who desires to follow and know more about their Father. We've left all of our preconceptions behind and are looking at the scriptures word-by-word as if we have never heard them before and asking God where to take us with them.
So far this journey has been amazing. We have made it through the first five books of the Torah, and now we are moving ahead into The Book of Joshua. Every student of this course has seen something different along the way. We've discovered that this is the way our Father works with us. He shows us all what we need to know according to the things He has purposed in the destiny of our lives.
WELCOME TO OUR STUDY OF THE BOOK OF JOSHUA
From the view of the study right now I would say that the greatest take-away is the fact that we are learning how to live in The Kingdom of God even today as we all walk the earth. If God lives inside us; we should be acting and living as a type of "heavenly citizen" on this earth. That is; someone that always looks at life from an eternal perspective.
Whenever He calls us into eternity we should simply keep stepping further into this never ending "walk" that is unique for each of us. God's Holy Spirit binds us together as we journey along and we learn so much from each other.
So welcome to the very first lesson on Joshua!
Even the very first words of the book brought forth a lot of things for us to ponder and consider. These Old Testament things are turning out to be so relevant to life in today's world.
It is our prayer that God will speak into your life as you follow along with us; and that you will share what He teaches you with all that you can.
GET READY
We last left the people of Israel on the far side of The Jordan River morning the death of Moses.
God told the people that Joshua was to be their next leader. He emphasized that they needed to get ready to cross the river and go into the land that was rightfully theirs.
Remember that day when God told Abraham to walk the land and He would give Him every place where he placed his foot?
Later we learned that God told Moses the same thing.
Now those words are getting passed down to Joshua. They are VERY strong words.
Those words form such a big, bold statement.
START WALKING
All Joshua had to do was to step into the next place, and God had promised him that he would own it!
Can you visualize how amazing that is?
I know if I were Joshua and I heard those words today; I would quickly start walking.
Think about what I just said.
Especially if you are a child of God.
The promises of Abraham belong to all of us who belong to God. The covenant has not been broken.
We have that promise too!
Funny how people who follow the Word and conform their lives to the scriptures are always said to be "walking with God."
When you think of it in those terms; we all urgently need to start walking.
NO TIME TO WASTE
If every place that we place our feet becomes the land of God's people; we have a LOT of ground to cover.
There is no time left to waste.
If we all started "walking" right now, could we possibly cover the earth before the time that Jesus comes back for the second time?
I wonder.
(Visions of friends who prayer walk come to mind here.)
Why don't we all start walking and find out?
God meant for His people to thrive; yet today many of us are just sitting around waiting; like those Israelites of old as they had parked on the wrong side of the river for quite a while now. They had become very comfortable and accustomed to waiting and not moving on.
A GOD WHO BREAKS PATTERNS
This was a pattern that God was about to break. He was going to work through Joshua as a way to accomplish the breaking.
Are you allowing God to work through you the same way that He was working through Joshua?
This is the key to thriving instead of just surviving.
We have been too much like those Israelites who had been trying to survive when God wanted them to learn how to thrive.
LEARNING TO THRIVE
There comes a time when you quit waiting.
Anyone on this side of a long pandemic and times of national chaos know exactly how this feels. You catch yourself thinking; either I need to move on, or just lay down right here and die. Life can't ever be about constantly having to live in survival mode.
That isn't life at all! There comes a time when you need to rise above "survival," and find a way to thrive in spite of every obstacle in the way.
Remember how this happened with Abraham?
When God told Abraham to "go" Abraham simply grabbed Sarah's hand and they began to "go."
There were no second thoughts and no looking back.
They had no clue as to where it was that God wanted them to go; but they DID know that He didn't want them to stay where they were.
This is the place of total trust. EVERYTHING that happened next was because of God and the fact that they allowed Him to lead instead of staying in their old patterns and ways of life.
From the first step of the journey; everything became about God's way or no way at all.
A PICTURE OF THE CHURCH TODAY
This is a picture of where the Church is living today.
We have been sitting still and waiting too long and God wants us to come out of this survival mode and "go."
He wants to change our ways and our old patterns and bring them closer to who and what He is all about.
Even if we don't have all the maps or any of the answers; we must act on the word of God just as Abraham did. He will guide us. The Church today needs to begin to move on.
Joshua was in the same place. He probably pondered the life of Abraham too.
He knew what to do and we know too.
We simply have to place one foot in front of the other and know that God is going to lead us forward and give us the land.
NO LONGER SLAVES
Any old wounds from the past have had plenty enough time to heal by now. The journey through the wilderness with God leading has taught us many new things. Now we know more about who we are, and more of what God truly wants from us. The Commandments have been given and the statutes have been established. God's best ways to live have been planted like fresh new seeds in the garden of our minds and hearts. Our waiting has not been in vain; but now the waiting is over.
The most important thing we can do is to listen to Him and begin to move out of the camp and into the Promised Land.
We need to follow God's established leaders; the ones with the brave and courageous hearts like Joshua.
Everywhere that we place our feet is going to become ours.
This freedom requires constant movement.
We are no longer slaves!
It is time to exercise our freedom and begin to live in it by starting to move forward and claim the land for a better life with Our Great God.
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