Brown's Daily Word 11-3-08

Good Morning,
Praise the Lord for this new day. Today our granddaughter Micah turns 3. We praise the Lord for her life. We thank Jesus for the way He has blessed us through her life. She loves Jesus. She loves to go to Sunday School and church. One of her favorite hymns is "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing". She has memorized most of the words of the hymn. One of her worship songs is "Indescribable" by Christ Tomlin (or Mr. Tomlin).
Praise the Lord for the first Sunday of November yesterday. The Lord blessed us. Some of our friends forgot to change the clocks Saturday night. They showed up at the regular time and realized much later that the time has changed. They said they had an extra hour for prayer and praise. One of the readings for yesterday was taken from Joshua 3. It is the story of the Israelites crossing the River Jordan during the flood stage.
For Christians today the crossing of the Jordan represents passing from one level of the Christian life to another. Canaan is a picture of entering into spiritual warfare to claim what God has promised. It was the very time that the Hebrew people were faced with tremendous difficulties and they knew that they were at the end of their own resources. That was when God would be able to show his power. It is never about what we can do; it is always about what the Lord is able to do. The apostle Paul said in Ephesians, (3:20) ”Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us”. Previously, under Moses' leadership, God had used “the cloud by day and pillar of fire by night” as symbols of his leading, presence, and protection. Now God has chosen to lead the people in a new way, by the “Ark of the Covenant.” The ark came to symbolize the presence and power of God with His people. The presence of the Ark represented the person and promises of God. Having it lead the way, pointed to the fact that as the people of Israel set out to cross the Jordan, to invade and possess the land, they must do so not in their own strength, but in God’s, for it was God Himself who was going before them as their source of victory. When we face times of crisis or when we need direction in life, we need to learn to be sensitive to the movement of the Lord in and around us. When God is at work among us and around us we cannot help but expect to hear the call to go forward. When God is at work, we are sometimes moved right out of our comfort zones into the path of new opportunities. “And Joshua said to the people, 'Sanctify yourselves, for tomorrow the LORD will do wonders among you.' (6) Then Joshua spoke to the priests, saying, 'Take up the ark of the covenant and cross over before the people.' So they took up the ark of the covenant and went before the people. (7) And the LORD said to Joshua, 'This day I will begin to exalt you in the sight of all Israel, that they may know that, as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. (8) You shall command the priests who bear the ark of the covenant, saying, ‘When you have come to the edge of the water of the Jordan, you shall stand in the Jordan.’' “So Joshua said to the children of Israel, 'Come here, and hear the words of the LORD your God.' (10) And Joshua said, 'By this you shall know that the living God is among you, and that He will without fail drive out from before you the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Hivites and the Perizzites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Jebusites: (11) Behold, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth is crossing over before you into the Jordan. (12) Now therefore, take for yourselves twelve men from the tribes of Israel, one man from every tribe. (13) And it shall come to pass, as soon as the soles of the feet of the priests who bear the ark of the LORD, the Lord of all the earth, shall rest in the waters of the Jordan, that the waters of the Jordan shall be cut off, the waters that come down from upstream, and they shall stand as a heap.'" “So it was, when the people set out from their camp to cross over the Jordan, with the priests bearing the ark of the covenant before the people, (15) and as those who bore the ark came to the Jordan, and the feet of the priests who bore the ark dipped in the edge of the water (for the Jordan overflows all its banks during the whole time of harvest), (16) that the waters which came down from upstream stood still, and rose in a heap very far away at Adam, the city that is beside Zaretan. So the waters that went down into the Sea of the Arabah, the Salt Sea, failed, and were cut off; and the people crossed over opposite Jericho. (17) Then the priests who bore the ark of the covenant of the LORD stood firm on dry ground in the midst of the Jordan; and all Israel crossed over on dry ground, until all the people had crossed completely over the Jordan.”
What faith it must have required for the priests to step out into the water. The priests were called upon to put one foot in front of the other and step in the water. Unless we are willing to step out on faith and get our feet wet, we are not likely to make much progress in those cross-over times of life. So as the priest followed in obedience, step by step, the river waters disappeared and they were walking on dry ground. Earlier, in the parting of the Red Sea, (Exodus 14 & 15) when Moses lifted his rod the water begin to part. When Israel crossed the Jordan River, it was not the obedient arm of the leader that brought the miracle but the obedient feet of the people. Most of us are not risk takers; we are people that are comfortable with our padded pews and predictability in serving the Lord. We don’t like it much when we are facing those defining moments, when God asks us to cross over. We, as humans, like to hold on to the familiar. God wants us to be people who are willing to grow and expand, and claim new territory. The most life-changing crossover is the moment we make the spiritual decision to open our hearts and lives to Jesus Christ, to recognize the destructiveness of our lives, and to turn to him and receive his forgiveness. Death is the ultimate crossover moment. The apostle Paul called it the last great enemy. The reality, however, is that Christ has promised us that he has taken the sting out of death. The victory is His. Christ walks through even “that” Jordan with us. Remember this as we stand to face our crossover moments, whatever they may be, as we are confronted and challenged with what is frightening but also thrilling in terms of opportunity. The end result of the miraculous crossing of the Jordan River was that God was magnified; Joshua was exalted (v. 5), the people were energized and motivated, and the people of Canaan were terrorized (1:9).
In Christ,
Brown