Sanctify Yourself for the Journey - Day 97 Through the Bible

One of many hand-painted murals on the sides of buildings in our historic hometown of Burnsville, NC.

My Lessons and Reflections from Today's Readings

Sanctify Yourselves for Transitions and Journeys :  (Joshua 3 and 4 and Luke 9)  The people of Israel are about to enter the Promised Land after 40 years of wilderness wanderings for their sins of unbelief and idolatry.  Moses is dead.  A new leader, Joshua, has been commissioned, blessed and received by the people.  The Promised Land - like many of God's promises - doesn't just come with flowing milk and honey.  It comes with war, with fear and trepidation.  The orders:  Go in.  Possess.  Sanctify yourselves.  Note the latter...and what follows it...for the LORD will do wonders among you.  Your job:  Purify, consecrate, your lives.  This is often done through prayer and study of Scripture. Rid yourself of all sin, become holy before God - separated to Him..for Him...by Him.  40,000 Israelites go forward ready for claiming the promise.  In Luke 9, the disciples are sent out by Jesus.  The orders:  Heal the sick.  Cure diseases.  Use your God-given power and authority over all demons.  Preach the kingdom of God.  The  two sides of the Promise:  You will have power and authority to do these things.  Some will receive you.  Some won't.  Still...Go...Possess the world for God's kingdom.  These are still our marching orders in the Great Commission by our Great High Priest.  Before being sent out, the disciples were being taught by...changed by...Jesus.  They were being sanctified, sanctifying themselves for this task - this mission.

Into the Midst of the Jordan/ Memorials to God: (Joshua 4)  Another miraculous parting of the waters - from the Red Sea with Moses to the Jordan River with Joshua and the promise in both...God will be with you.  He will do this for you.  God goes first with His priests, the Levites, through the presence of the ark.  As the soles of the priests' feet touch the river, the waters are cut off - clearing the way for the Israelites to cross over in safety.  But God and the priests stand in place - until everyone is safely over.  And then...Joshua sends 12 men - one from each tribe - back into the difficulty, the fearful place...to collect 12 stones from the midst of the troubled waters to carry to their resting place (Gilgal) as a memorial to the LORD for all the children of the generations to come...to remember...to never forget...how God led us miraculously...again.  Joshua also set up 12 stones in the midst of the Jordan - where the presence of God had been in the ark - where the feet of the priests touched the water as they bore the ark...the ark of the covenant - the covenant, the promise of God to bless His people if they would obey Him.  "He found him in a desert land
 and in the wasteland, a howling wilderness;
 He encircled him, He instructed him,
 He kept him as the apple of His eye.  As an eagle stirs up its nest,
  Hovers over its young,
 spreading out its wings, taking them up,
 carrying them on its wings, so the Lord alone led him... (Deut. 32:10-12)

Into the Midst of Jesus Christ / Memorials to God: (Luke 9) As the disciples return from their commission, all the people near Bethsaida gather to hear Jesus preach.  5000 (probably more including women and children) have gathered to hear the Master, but the disciples tell Jesus to send them away to get provisions and lodging, that there is nothing in this deserted place  But Jesus commands them:  "You give them something to eat." They are incredulous.  How?  There is only a basket here with 5 loaves and 2 fish.  But this is the God of creation, who parted the Red Sea and heaped up the waters of the Jordan for the Israelites to cross to the Promised Land.  And these are still His people...journeying to the Promised Land of life eternal with Him.  He miraculously blesses and multiplies the bread and fish...food enough to fill them all and 12 baskets of leftovers besides.  The Bread of Life gives bread for life...daily...continuously... becoming Broken Bread for us...whatever it takes...all it takes... to bring His people home with Him...the greatest memorial of all to God - the lives of His saints saved through the miraculous, sacrificial work of His beloved Son.  "For we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ." (2 Cor.2:15).

My Soul's Need for God: As the deer pants for the water brooks, so pants my soul for You, O God.  My soul thirsts for God, for the Living God.  When shall I come and appear before God?...When I remember these things, I pour out my soul within me...Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him for the help of His countenance.  (Psalm 42: 1-5)

I think the reason we sometimes have the false sense that God is so far away is because that is where we have put Him. We have kept Him at a distance, and then when we are in need and call on Him in prayer, we wonder where He is. He is exactly where we left him. - Ravi Zacharias