Moses had died. Joshua and the nation of Israel found themselves on the brink of a new era, at the edge of a place they had never been before. Isn't that where we are today? On the threshold of a new year . . . a year we have never seen before.
I can remember when A.D. 2009 sounded like the setting for a science fiction movie. In 2009, so I thought, we would get around with jet packs while robots did all our work. But here we are, in pretty much the same circumstances we were in when we were dreaming about flying saucers and one-hour work weeks.
How shall we enter this new year? None of us has been this way before. We don't know what kind of giants, what kind of battles, await us in the coming year.
But surely the Lord's instructions to Joshua are applicable to us today.
Heeding God's Word in Joshua 1, let's . . .
ENTER 2009 CLAIMING THE PROMISES OF GOD
1:1 After the death of Moses the servant of the Lord, the Lord said to Joshua the son of Nun, Moses' assistant, 2 “Moses my servant is dead. Now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, into the land that I am giving to them, to the people of Israel. 3 Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given to you, just as I promised to Moses. 4 From the wilderness and this Lebanon as far as the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites to the Great Sea toward the going down of the sun shall be your territory.
ENTER 2009 CONFIDENT OF THE PRESENCE OF GOD
5 No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life. Just as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you or forsake you. 6 Be strong and courageous, for you shall cause this people to inherit the land that I swore to their fathers to give them. . . 9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”
ENTER 2009 COMMITTED TO THE PATHWAY OF GOD
7 Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law that Moses my servant commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go. 8 This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful 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. 9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.
Now here's how I am trying to make this a reality in our church:
This morning I preached the above (with some added content of course) and then I presented to every family an Every Day With Jesus One Year Reading Bible (I found them at LifeWay for $5.00 each).
The idea is that everyone in our church will read the daily selection every day of every week, and each Sunday sermon in 2009 will come from one of the daily passages that we read the preceding week. This is to encourage our congregation to spend time in the Word of God every day, for you can't claim the promises if you don't read them; you can't have confidence in God's presence if you don't fellowship with Him, and you can't follow God's pathway if you don't know where it is.
What will you do to encourage those in your fellowship to be in the Word in 2009?
Tags:
2009, bible reading, joshua 1, new year, one-year bible, presence of god, promises of god
Posted at: 02:49 PM | Add Comment
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