Onward Bound to Higher Ground - Day 102 Through The Bible

From the Top of Mt. Mitchell - near Mt. Celo Church

Applying God's Word to My Daily Walk

Now Joshua Was Old - (Joshua 13) Moses is dead.  Joshua is old.  The LORD says to Joshua, "You are old and advanced in years, and there remains very much land yet to possess."  Then God recounts to Joshua how His sovereign and providential Plan has been fulfilled for His people thus far.  We have walked the exodus and the wilderness with the Israelites in our study.  It has not been the easy "go and possess."  It has been wrought with horrors, defeats, sin and abandonment of God and His leaders - no matter how much they prayed for the people and sacrificed for them.  But God is focusing now on the victories, and He is encouraging Joshua to do the same.  Look up, Joshua, and remember.

Lesson / Application - A Higher Ground:  The saga of God's people continues.  Great as he was...speaking face-to-face with God...miracles of God worked through him during the Exodus...it was never about Moses.  It is not about Joshua.  It is not about me.  God's Plan is bigger than any one person, yet encompasses each of His people as if we were of greatest importance to Him.  From a mortal perspective, my time on earth seems long and arduous at times; it flies by at others.  From God's perspective, "A day is like a 1000 years, and a 1000 years are like a day." (2 Peter 3:8 and Ps. 90:4) Time is not of essence to God as it is to 21st Century America and the world.  The essence is God's Plan unfolding, the mission He has given each of us as a part of that Plan for the time we are given on earth.  Am I living in obedience to every detail God has given me through His Word and His Holy Spirit to redeem this moment in time for Him, for His people, to His honor and glory - regardless of what my circumstances may be?  (More likely in God's sovereign perspective - am I fulfilling the mission He has given me BECAUSE of the circumstances He has engineered in my life for His purposes.)  Can I get to this higher plain with Him and dwell there - not in the wilderness of complaints, unbelief and discouragement?  "I want to live above the world, though Satan's darts at me are hurled; for faith has caught the joyful sound - the song of saints on higher ground."

Forward on God's Promises (Joshua 14 and Luke 11) God promised Caleb...wherever your foot treads, that will be your land...for wholly obeying Me.  It has been 45 years.  Caleb remembers.  God remembers.  God promised us...He would send us a Messiah, a Savior.  It has been 100's of years, but He has come.  Jesus reminds us of God's promises, and Caleb illustrates one of them for us.  ASK...Caleb asks Joshua...the land you and I were promised...remember? SEEK...Caleb has been obediently following God for 45 years, seeking the land he knows God has promised Him.  Here it is...a mountain - Hebron.  KNOCK...Joshua, this is it.  This is the land I want.  God promised.  Give this to me.  "It may be that the LORD will bless me, and I shall be able to drive out (the giant Anakim) as the LORD said."  This is still not an easily-given promise after all these decades.  There will be more wars, deaths, and horrors against some of the strongest people that ever lived on earth.  But Caleb, at the age of 85, has the door opened to him by God and walks forward into His promise.

Lesson / Application: This is the story behind the story.  It is never easy.  The wait may be long.  We may have to stand against everyone for God as Joshua and Caleb did 40 years ago.  But this is faith.  This is knowing the God that leads us, Who has promised us, to Whom we are committed.  His own Beloved Son is fulfilling His mission that will have unexpected, horrible consequences - from a worldly perspective.  But God...has given us His perspective...through His Word and His Holy Spirit that He sent to us until Christ returns.  Jesus says,  "More blessed...than His own mother ("blessed above all women"), are those who HEAR the word of God and KEEP it." (Luke 11:28)  We must stay in the Word and in His will to maintain His perspective.  "I'm pressing on the upward way; new heights I'm gaining every day.  Still praying as I onward bound, Lord, plant my feet on higher ground.  Lord, lift me up and let me stand, my faith on heaven's table land.  A higher plain, than I have found; Lord, plant my feet on higher ground.  My heart has no desire to stay, where doubts arise and fears dismay.  Though some may dwell where these abound; Lord, plant my feet on higher ground.  I want to scale the utmost height, and catch a gleam of glory bright; but still I'll pray till heaven I've found.  Lord, plant my feet on higher ground."

Higher Ground by Johnson, Oatman, Jr - Lyrics (1856-1922); Charles Hutchinson Gabriel - Composer (1856-1932)