365 Reflections

How do we know where we belong in life?  It is the great question many ask, is it not? Accompanied with that question is the resident fear that we may not be living up to the fullest of our potential. I'm sure you can relate. For that reason we may need to take a close look at what happens in Joshua 18. Once again the people have stagnated from occupying the land. Listen to Joshua's speech: Joshua 18:3–4 (ESV)  So Joshua said to the people of Israel, “How long will you put off going in to take possession of the land, which the LORD, the God of your fathers, has given you? 4 Provide three men from each tribe, and I will send them out that they may set out and go up and down the land. They shall write a description of it with a view to their inheritances, and then come to me. Joshua instructs them it's TIME TO MOVE. This need of instigation to capture what was theirs by promise has become a recurring theme for Israel. It is getting a bit redundant. The...

Joshua 5:13–15 (ESV) When Joshua was by Jericho, he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, a man was standing before him with his drawn sword in his hand. And Joshua went to him and said to him, “Are you for us, or for our adversaries?” 14 And he said, “No; but I am the commander of the army of the Lord . Now I have come.” And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped and said to him, “What does my lord say to his servant?” 15 And the commander of the Lord ’s army said to Joshua, “Take off your sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy.” And Joshua did so. I love this passage. God's answer is so funny. But it's such a great passage for the first month of the year.  Every new year we take time to plan out what we want to accomplish. We are going to get more healthy, spiritual, social and/or accomplished. We like to do this. We like to make plans. But what about God? What do we do with Him? Because He has a way of being God no mat...

What is God making clear to Israel in Deuteronomy 18 when He forbids several vile practices of the nations in Canaan? Very simply put: We need TRUE guidance from God. Before God shows them how to follow Divine guidance rightly He eliminates the wrong options. Deuteronomy 18:9–12 (ESV) “When you come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominable practices of those nations. 10 There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering, anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens, or a sorcerer 11 or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer or one who inquires of the dead, 12 for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord . And because of these abominations the Lord your God is driving them out before you. For as long as humans have been on the Earth, they have acted in ways detrimental to their well being for the sake of inquiring of the spirits beyond. These ...

In Numbers 20 things don't go much better from Moses' failure to the next scene. Miriam dies in verse 1, Moses fails to honor God and loses out on the Promised Land and now another setback looms on the horizon. Moses has to lead the people of Israel through the territory of Edom. These are the descendants of Esau, the brother of Jacob. Most are familiar with the heated nature of that relationship but also how the two brothers resolved their differences in the end.  Moses knows well this tenuous relationship and acts incredibly diplomatic sending a nicely worded transcription to Edom's leaders. Numbers 20:14–17 (ESV)   Moses sent messengers from Kadesh to the king of Edom: “Thus says your brother Israel: You know all the hardship that we have met: 15 how our fathers went down to Egypt, and we lived in Egypt a long time. And the Egyptians dealt harshly with us and our fathers. 16 And when we cried to the Lord , he heard our voice and sent an angel and brough...