“Come to bed with me!”
"Now Joseph was well-built and handsome, and after a while his master's wife took notice of Joseph and said, 'Come to bed with me!'"But he refused. 'With me in charge,' he told her, 'my master does not concern himself with anything in the house; everything he owns he has entrusted to my care. No one is greater in this house than I am. My master has withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. How then could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?' " (Genesis 39:6-9)
Is this story really about temptation? Youth leaders the world over (including me) love to use Mrs. Potiphar's attempted seduction of Joseph to talk about sexual temptation and how to deal with it. (Hint: Say no and run!) But honestly, we don't even know if Joseph was attracted to Mrs. Potiphar in the first place. (She might have been way older than him or, you know, icky.)
For him, the issue wasn't sex, at all. The reason he gave for turning her down had to do with integrity, not saving himself for marriage. Joseph saw his position in Potiphar's house both as a gift from God and something he had earned with lots of hard work. He refused to take advantage of his master's trust or God's grace by doing something cheap, easy, and wrong.
I'm afraid some of us who would never think it okay to have sex outside of marriage might not be so careful about violating our integrity in other ways. Lie to your boss? Your parents? Steal a little time or money because you "earned" it? Joseph refused to compromise.
Think: Do you ever think about your position in your family or a job as a gift from God? What are some other ways we can misuse the positions God sets us in for our own advantage?
Pray: Ask God to help you to be as stubborn about integrity as Joseph was.
Do: Make a quick list of 5 "trust relationships" you have that you could potentially abuse to get something you want without the other person maybe finding out.
The Servant Olympics
"From the time he put him in charge of his household and of all that he owned, the LORD blessed the household of the Egyptian because of Joseph. The blessing of the LORD was on everything Potiphar had, both in the house and in the field. So he left in Joseph's care everything he had; with Joseph in charge, he did not concern himself with anything except the food he ate." (Genesis 39:5-6)Looking to be a great servant? I mean, do have a goal to be in the top five in your class in servanthood? Seriously, would you love it if every person wrote in your yearbook this year, "Nobody was a better servant than you, dude!"?
Yeah, me neither. I wish I was that ambitious about being a servant. I wish my attitude was more like Jesus' thinking. Remember what He said to the disciples when He caught them playing "who's the greatest"? He said the greatest in God's kingdom will be the servant of all. Much later, Paul wrote that Jesus nailed that attitude when he "made himself nothing" even though He was God.
Joseph, too, destroyed the servant competition. Okay, he was a slave, but he didn't let that stop him from also out-serving everyone in his weight class. How? He did everything he was asked to do better than expected. If you gave it to Joseph, it always got done on time, on budget, and improved upon. He was so reliable, his boss gave up keeping tabs on Joseph completely. What was the point? That's the quality of a great servant.
Think: Have you ever wished your were better at being a servant? Do you think there's much competition for "best servant"?
Pray: Ask God to give you the desire to serve Him and the people He puts in your life with excellence and dependability.
Do: Make a list of the top 5 most selfless and reliable servants you know. (Hint: I bet your mom makes it. And maybe a teacher?)
Who Knows You Know God?
"When his master saw that the LORD was with him and that the LORD gave him success in everything he did, Joseph found favor in his eyes and became his attendant. Potiphar put him in charge of his household, and he entrusted to his care everything he owned." (Genesis 39:3-4)We saw yesterday that Joseph made a choice that would have been hard for some of us. He chose to continue to trust that God was with Him even though his personal circumstances were devastating. He also chose to believe His God was still powerful and good. So Joseph chose to keep serving God with everything he had.
Today's passage gives us some new evidence that Joseph still had confidence in his God: He talked about Him. Joseph told his slave-owning master about the God he served. In a land famous for the open worship of many kinds of gods, Joseph was clear that his allegiance was to the one true God.
So when Joseph turned out to be the best slave Potiphar ever bought — when every area Joseph took charge of showed improvement — who did Potiphar give the credit to? He gave credit to the Lord, to Joseph's Lord, to the only true God.
Think: When you do really well at something, who gets the credit? Do the people in your life know you well enough to give credit to God for your successes? Do you give Him credit?
Pray: Ask God to give you the courage to let other people know you serve God.
Do: Make a quick list of your five greatest achievements during the last year or two. Put a check mark beside the ones you gave God some or all of the credit for. Put a star next to the ones anyone else gave God some or all of the credit for.
Still With Me?
"Now Joseph had been taken down to Egypt. Potiphar, an Egyptian who was one of Pharaoh's officials, the captain of the guard, bought him from the Ishmaelites who had taken him there. The LORD was with Joseph and he prospered, and he lived in the house of his Egyptian master." (Genesis 39:1-2)"A good and powerful God would never have let such a terrible thing happen in my life!" Ever hear anyone say that? Maybe it was the divorce of her parents or some other personal betrayal. Maybe it was a physical attack, an illness, or a death. Maybe it didn't even happen to that person, but to someone she loved.
We understand the feeling. What's the good of belonging to the most powerful being in the universe if He won't act to keep tragedy from falling on our heads? Joseph could have asked that question. He'd just been attacked, robbed, and then sold to slave traders with little hope of ever seeing his dad and little brother again — and all of this by his 10 older brothers!
Instead of deciding that the God who would allow such a thing wasn't worth following, Joseph seems to have made a choice to believe the truth — that God was still with Him. He made a choice to continue to serve God. We're not told about any of his feelings, but God blessed Joseph — and kept blessing him — even though God chose not to keep Joseph from experiencing terrible circumstances.
Think: Do you judge God's goodness or power by your own personal circumstances? What's wrong with that idea?
Pray: Ask God for the courage to keep trusting Him even when hard things come into your life.
Do: Read Genesis 37:12-36 to find out exactly what Joseph's brothers did to him.
Dear Sin
"Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness. For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace." (Romans 6:13-14)"Dear Sin: I like you. I like the rush of doing something I know is kind of bad. I like the pretty package your gooey, ugly insides come wrapped in. I know I don't have to serve you any more, so I'm making this official voluntary presentation of all my body parts -- including my brain and mouth -- to do whatever wicked stuff you can think up."
It's never like that, is it? We don't think about "offering" ourselves to sin. We just do the wrong, sinful thing -- often without even thinking about it. But the result is the same as if we'd sent sin a love letter with all of our sinning body parts attached as a gift.
Paul urges us to think about it. To make a choice. To send our love letter to the God who freed us from sin and offer all our parts — mind, mouth, and eyes, included — for HIm to use to do good stuff. We've got to ask ourselves every day: Who do we really love? Who will we serve today — our want to sin or the God who saved us?
Think: Do you ever think of your brain and the rest of your body as tools you can use either to serve sin or God? How have you been using those "instruments," lately? Who have you been serving?
Pray: Ask God to give you a strong desire not to waste your life and body on sin, but to let Him use it for accomplishing His work.
Do: Write a love letter to God, offering Him your body and brain to use however He wants for His purposes.
Volunteer Sinners
"In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires." (Romans 6:11-12)All week long, there's been this lingering question about sin: Why do we still do it? Why is it still such a battle for us NOT to sin? Paul keeps saying that we died spiritually with Jesus, right? He's saying Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection is applied to us when we trust in Him. We're free, he keeps saying, from being sin's slaves. It doesn't own us any more.
So why don't we just stop? Here's the deal: We've been freed from the power of sin. It's not the boss of us. But we're not free, yet, from the "want" to sin. We still like how some sin feels. Even though we know it leads to death. Even though we know it's what Jesus died for. Even though we know it's ugly and painful and wrong. We still want it.
Paul said it's time to do battle with your wants; he called them "evil desires." The want to sin is the want for something evil, even the want for the "little sins" that don't seem like a big deal. Remember, Paul urged, you don't have to do any of that any more. Now that you're free, don't be a volunteer sinner. You can tell it "no" and walk away. That's what free people do.
Think: Are you ever tempted to think you have no choice about your sin, that you cannot control yourself? How does that fit with Paul's teaching here in Romans 6?
Pray: Ask God to remind you that you never have to give in to temptation; you always have the power to say "no."
Do: Try to memorize 1 Corinthians 10:13. It won't take long, and it's handy to have in your head when the temptation to sin feels especially strong.
He Died Once
"Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. " (Romans 6:8-9)Have you ever heard someone say, "Every time you sin, you put Jesus to death on the cross all over again"? It's a great line for trying to guilt-motivate someone to do good. "I'm making Jesus suffer even more by the sin I'm doing right now; that's awful! I've got to stop!"
It's also a lie. Jesus died. Past tense. One time. He did suffer unbearable agony for our sins. If we have any conscience at all, we should feel overwhelmed with gratitude by the idea of the pain He endured for our selfish and worthless choices to sin. And every sin we do next did contribute to His pain on the cross.
But the cross is as empty as the tomb. That terrible moment is long over. He does not continue to experience it. Paul is clear: Jesus died to sin once for all. He cannot — will not — die again. Ever. He experienced death and beat it. Mission accomplished. He's alive now and free to continue God's work in the universe. Amazingly, Christians are also dead to sin's power and free to serve God.
Think: Does it make your head spin to realize that Jesus died long ago for the sin you'll do tomorrow? How does that make you feel about your future sin?
Pray: Thank God for Jesus' willing death in your place on the cross — and thank Him that Jesus is done with that moment and His battle with death is over.
Do: See if you can find a passage in the Bible that describes where Jesus is right now.
Master Sin
"For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin—because anyone who has died has been freed from sin. " (Romans 6:6-7)Romans 6 is like a "big ideas" parade, and it's too easy to just watch them march on by without really getting it. Don't do that! Jump up on the parade floats and experience them. Take a little time to really understand this.
First: What is your "old self" that was crucified with Christ (if you're a Christian)? It is not your "sin nature" or your "want" to sin. We've still go that, right?. Your old self is the BC version of you — "before Christ." Sin owned that version of you. You had to do whatever it said. You were powerless.
To escape sin's slavery, that old self had to die with Jesus when you believed in Him for the forgiveness of your sin. Death is the legal termination of a slave owner's contract. At that moment, sin became the powerless one. Its authority was "done away with." You are free. You never have to sin again.
So why do we still sin? Stay tuned.
Think: Do you ever think of unbelievers as slaves to sin? How is a slave different from someone who volunteers to do the same thing?
Pray: Thank God for freeing you from slavery to sin by allowing your old self to be crucified with Jesus.
Do: Spend another couple of minutes on this big idea float by carefully reading Romans 5:6-8 again.
Dead, Then Not
"If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. " (Romans 6:5)Yesterday, we talked about getting dead as a path to a brand new life. By placing all of our hope in Jesus' death for our salvation — by accepting that our whole life is His, is "Christ-ian" — we were spiritually duct taped to Him in His death.
The Good News is that duct tape — or spiritual superglue or [fill in analogy for unbreakable bond here] — holds and carries us right through the death and the burial to the resurrection. Do you get what that means? As a Christian, your spirit cannot, will not, die again (even when your body croaks). You are alive, just as Jesus was alive when He walked out of His tomb. Death can't hurt you.
More: When you do croak, buy the farm, kick the bucket, take your last desperate gasp of air on this fallen planet, your body will be resurrected and made brand new and eternal and perfect, just like Jesus' is. Because of Jesus. Through faith in Jesus. You are united with Him forever. Right now — and then — you are absolutely free from the power of sin and the threat of death.
So why do we still sin? More tomorrow.
Think: Do you usually think of yourself as being "united with Christ"? How should that change the way we think about ourselves?
Pray: Think about what resurrection is worth to you, then think about what you paid for it. Thank God for the gift of eternal life.
Do: Read about how your present and future resurrection should change your life today in Colossians 3:1-4.
Dying to be Free
"Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life." (Romans 6:3-4)Have you ever thought about faking your own death? It's become a standard plot device in movie and TV shows (including a recent hit superhero flick). When a character has messed up his life beyond repair — or when someone wants him dead — he fakes dying so he can either escape to a new and better life or go undercover and fix a problem in his old one.
In today's passage, Paul reminds Christians we've already pulled off the "die to get free" trick. Except we didn't fake it; we really did die spiritually. Like everyone else, we'd trashed our old lives with our sinful choices. The clock was ticking down to the moment Eternal Death would do us in for good. Jesus gave us another way out — through another kind of death.
By placing all of our trust in Him, Paul says we became so close to Him that we were marked with His death in our place on the cross; we were buried with Him (the picture of baptism); and we were spiritually resurrected to live a brand new life. Now Forever Death can't get us; sin has lost its power over us; and we've started over far away with every debt wiped out.
Think: Have you ever thought about becoming a Christian as "dying to get free"? What changes do you think someone would have to make if he faked his own death and started over brand new? What changes make sense for a Christian after "dying with Christ" and beginning a new life with Him?
Pray: Ask God to keep reminding you that you're living a new life, not an old one where you have to do what sin says.
Do: Jot down a few reasons a character in a TV show, book, or move would fake his own death.
Sin for God’s Glory?
"What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?" (Romans 6:1-2)We join this letter immediately after the writer — Paul — has made an earth-shattering statement: "Where sin increased, grace increased all the more." Astounding! God's grace is so enormous, so elastic, that it wraps all the way around our sin like an unbreakable balloon. The more we sin, the bigger God's grace gets to cover our sin (through faith in Jesus' death in our place on the cross).
You can never, ever sin so much God's grace isn't big enough to cover your sin. What a great God! The more we sin, the more impressive His forgiveness looks. So let's make Him look really impressive by collecting sins like they were MySpace friends, right?
Paul answers that. Depending on your translation, he says: "No!" "By no means!" "God forbid." "May it never be!" "Certainly not!" Why? Because God's impressive grace doesn't stop at covering your giant pile of sin; it also flipped off the shock collar that kept you from breaking free of sin in the first place. (More on that idea tomorrow.)
Think: Is it a weird idea that God's grace is limitless -- that we can never out-sin His ability to forgive? Or is it so normal an idea that we take it for granted?
Pray: Thank God for His impossibly impressive grace and forgiveness for your sin (if you've trusted in Jesus' death in your place on the cross).
Do: To get a clearer picture, read Romans 5.
Hurting Together
"But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it." (1 Corinthians 12:24-26)Yesterday, we talked about unplanned finger-ectomies. Dead fingers. Missing digits. But what about if you just cut your finger most of the way off. Honestly, that would hurt for way longer than just cutting it all of the way off. Percentage-wise, your fingers aren't that big a part of your body. But when your fingers are in agony, your whole body is paying attention.
Paul said the church should be like that. None of the spiritual gifts makes that person more important than the rest of the people. Every believer is equal and connected. We should hurt just as deeply for the wounded person who sits next to us in the back row with the gift of helps as we do for the wounded pastor on the platform with the gift of teaching. And we should celebrate just as sincerely when the encouragement-gifted lady has a triumph as when the evangelist-gifted guy does.
Why doesn't it always work that way? Because humans like to rank people by importance, intelligence, popularity, and financial status. It's completely normal, and it's dead wrong in the church. The body can't heal if it just pretends like the broken leg is fine and dandy. The church can't thrive if we pick and choose who we'll hurt and hooray with.
Think: How often do you hurt for hurting people in your church? How often do their successes make you happy?
Pray: Ask God to help you to have the right amount of concern for all the people in your church.
Do: Remember a moment when one small part of you was in pain and that's all you could think about even though the rest of you was fine.
Dead Fingers
"The eye cannot say to the hand, "I don't need you!" And the head cannot say to the feet, "I don't need you!" On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, while our presentable parts need no special treatment." (1 Corinthians 12:21-24)Know anybody missing a few digits? It can happen fast, especially around big farm or construction equipment. One minute, you've got ten fingers. Then — chomp — you're down to eight. Here's the deal: The person who loses a few fingers can survive and adapt; they do okay. The finger, on the other hand, isn't so lucky. It's done. The rule of thumb is that a finger without a body is just dead skin and bones.
Paul said the same applies to Christians. We're built to work together. Some of us are fingers. Some of us are elbows. Some of us are livers. But none of us can say we don't need the rest of the body. We need each other to survive. If you've been ditching the rest of the body (meaning not hanging with other Christians), you're going to start to shrivel up spiritually.
Here's the other deal: Some of the glamor parts are expendable (fingers, arms, legs, eyes, etc.), but most of the "hidden" parts are essential (livers, hearts, rectums). The body really, really needs the "non-public" parts, or we're toast. If your spiritual gifts are behind-the-scenes instead of up front, thank God that you are so important to the body.
Think: Do you ever wonder if you really need to go to church or spend time with other believers? What are the consequences for you of trying to live for God on your own? What are the consequences for the body when you make that choice?
Pray: Ask God to help you understand your part in the body of Christ and to be glad for the part He made you.
Do: Cut off one of your fingers and watch to see how long it lives on its own. [Lawyer's note: This is an imagination exercise; PW will not be held responsible for any loss of actual fingers. Thank you.]
have a look at this license plate on youtube.http:...
have a look at this license plate on youtube.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-An8jzBWNI
G rated
CDL 007
"If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body." (1 Corinthians 12:17-20)Do you look at license plates? I've always wanted a cool plate on my car. Not a "vanity" plate I had to pay extra for, just a cool set of the regular numbers and letters that stands out from the crowd a little. Maybe something that makes a cool acronym or ends in 007. It never works out that way.
God is not the Department of Motor Vehicles. When you go to the DMV to get plates for your car, an often bored looking lady behind the counter reaches for the closest stack and hands you whatever is on top of the pile. Your vehicular ID is assigned at random and without any thought about how it fits you or your world.
That's fine for license plates, but people sometimes accuse God of working that way in our world. He doesn't. If you read the middle of today's passage, you'll see that He hands out spiritual gifts by design to specific people in specific situations to meet specific needs. Or as Paul put it, He arranged the parts of the body of Christ according to His plan. There are no accidental feet or happenstance ears. Your part in the body is your part for a reason. For His reason.
Think: Are you convinced that God made you as you are — including your spiritual gifts — for a good reason? Why is it hard for us to believe that sometimes?
Pray: Thank God for arranging your part in the body of Christ just as He wanted you to be.
Do: Look for some cool license plates this week.
I’m No Superman
"Now the body is not made up of one part but of many. If the foot should say, 'Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,' it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. And if the ear should say, 'Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,' it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body." (1 Corinthians 12:14-16)Wait a minute! Didn't Paul just write in the last verse that we are all one body? Baptized by one Spirit? All of us given that same one Spirit to drink? Isn't being a Christian all about unity?
Well, kind of. But it's not about being stamped out by a cookie cutter, one identical item after another. Christians get accused of wanting everyone to be that way sometimes, but that's not God's idea. We are unified by the same power source (the Holy Spirit), but we're all given different powers.
Geeky metaphor alert: It's kind of like Aquaman and the Flash -- united by being superheroes, but with wildly different supernatural abilities. Aquaman will never run faster than Superman, and the Flash will always have to come up for air. Our spiritual gifts help to define our purpose in life. The Flash can't stop being the fast guy just because he's mad he can't swim so good. We've got to get comfortable with the gifts God gives us.
Think: What are the most important parts of your body? What are the least important parts? Are you sure? Are there any parts you can live without?
Pray: Ask God to help you to come to a clear understanding of what your specific spiritual gift/gifts are -- and what they are not. Then ask Him to help you to be fully satisfied to use your gifts to serve Him and others.
Do: If you're a comic book fan, make a quick list of a few of the lesser superheroes. Think they're ever resentful not to be Supes, Batman, or Spidey?
One Spirit to Drink
"For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. " (1 Corinthians 12:13)Slow yourself down for a minute to catch the impact of this short verse's big ideas about the Holy Spirit.
Paul clearly states that every single believer is included in Christ's body by the one and only Holy Spirit of God. Every believer. God throws out our human comparison measuring sticks (nationality, skin color, height, hair, money, popularity, smarts, smells, etc.). None of them count for or against you.
Without exception, every true believer in Jesus the Lord is filled up with the Holy Spirit at the moment we trust in Him to save us from our sin. What poetry! We drink the Spirit into us by our faith in Christ. This is the living water Jesus promised to the woman at the well, the kind that keeps us from ever feeling spiritually thirsty again.
And He brought us presents.
Think: How often do you consciously think about the fact that, as a Christian, God's Spirit lives in you? When you do think about it, what difference does it make to you?
Pray: Thank God for giving you the one Spirit to drink, along with all of your Christian brothers and sisters around the world.
Do: Try to imagine following Jesus in this life without the power of God's Spirit in you.
Don’t Be Ignorant
"Now about spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be ignorant. . . . The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ." (1 Corinthians 12:1,12)The Bible describes a weird and wonderful thing that happens to every single person who puts his or her trust in Jesus Christ for salvation from sin. And, honestly, way too many of us are ignorant about it. Paul called this thing "spiritual gifts." It's the idea that we're each given the supernatural ability — through the power of God's Holy Spirit with us — to do certain things unnaturally well for a specific purpose.
Threemajorpassages describe some of these gifts. Some churches teach that all the gifts are still "active" today; others say some of the sign gifts were needed only while the church was being established. What we're going to focus on this week is not the what or how of spiritual gifts, but the why. What's the point of this crazy power God hands out to HIs people through His Spirit?
Paul's metaphor: a human body. The church — all of us who say Jesus is Lord of all — is often called "Christ's body" in the New Testament. Like a human body, Paul writes, we've got lots of parts. That is, we're all parts of His body. In other words, I'm a toe; you're an eyelash, etc.
See, I told you this was going to be a weird and wonderful idea.
Think: What are some ways in which the church operates like a body?
Pray: Ask God to help you get a better understand for why he gave you a spiritual gift.
Do: Speed drill: List as many body parts as you can think of in 3 minutes. Go.
Three Questions for Leaders
"Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go." (Joshua 1:9)Three big questions pop up for me from God's instructions to Joshua about leadership:
1) Do I really believe I control my own emotions? God obviously cared a lot about Joshua's state of mind, not just his actions. He commanded Joshua to be strong, to be courageous, and to reject fear and discouragement. We have the choice what to feel. God gives us the power to choose feelings that help us to do what He asks of us.
2) Do I really believe God is right? If so, I'll do exactly what He says. When I disobey Him (or don't take the time to know what He says), that's evidence I'm not convinced He knows what he's talking about.
3) Do I really believe God is with me — and for me? If so, I can do any impossible thing He asks. Paul put it this way: "If God is for us, who can be against us? . . . . in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us." (Romans 8:31, 37)
Think: Do you wrestle with the answers to any of these questions? Which answer do you need the most help to believe?
Pray: Ask God to help you believe Him more and more in each of these three areas, then thank Him for the ability to control your state of mind. Thank Him that He is always right. And thank Him that He is always with and for you.
Do: If you haven't already, memorize Romans 8:38-39.
Speak it. Think it. Do it.
"Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful." (Joshua 1:8)This last week, we've listened closely to God's instructions to a new leader about to set off on an impossible mission that can't possibly fail — because it is God's mission. Have you noticed what God did not say to Joshua? "Just be like Moses, and you'll be fine."
God didn't call Joshua to follow a human pattern for leadership. He called him to follow His own voice. Specifically, He told Joshua to find success by installing the Law on the hard drive in his head. "Don't be consumed with asking, 'What would Moses do?' Be consumed with My Law. Speak it. Think it. Do it."
Today, we can follow that same pattern will all of God's Word (not just the Law). We can make the Bible our default setting for words, thoughts, and actions. Talk about it with friends and family. Roll it around in your brain while staring at the ceiling at night or moving through your day. Know it well enough to obey God's instructions in every critical moment.
What a rich life that would be.
Think: What percentage of your words in a given day are about God or His Word? What percentage of your thoughts? How do your choices reflect those percentages?
Pray: Ask God to help you to be passionate about His Word and to spend more time talking about it, thinking about it, and acting on it.
Do: Start by memorizing today's verse (Joshua 1:8) and rolling it around in your head as you fall asleep tonight.
Power. Guts. Obedience. Success.
"Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go." (Joshua 1:7)Again the command: Be strong. Be courageous. In yesterday's verse, the source of that courage and strength came from God's absolute promise: "You will accomplish this mission."
Today's verse: Same command, but a new source of confidence: "Obey my law completely, and you will be successful." Obedience to God can bring strength, courage, confidence into our lives, because we're on exactly the path He called us to follow. Disobedience — from all out rebellion to dabbling in sin — can sap our strength and kill our courage.
Why? We become divided. We want two opposite things — to accomplish God's purpose for us and to indulge in the sin God has warned us away from — at the same time. On top of that, God has promised blessing to those who obey and discipline when His children wander off. Be convinced about Him; run toward the blessing.
Think: Have you found in your own life that obedience to God can bring more confidence, courage, and strength? Have you seen a choice to sin lead to less confidence in yourself and your mission in life?
Pray: Ask God to help you to have the strength and courage to obey Him this week.
Do: In a sentence or two, describe what you see as your God-given mission in life today.
Get Gnarly
"Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their forefathers to give them." (Joshua 1:6)I was watching a motocross event the other day. One rider's coach held up a sign when his guy came around a turn. It said, "Get gnarly!" He wanted the rider to cowboy up, to get his game face on, to dig deep. Use whatever sports lingo you want. He wasn't urging better technique or clear thinking or even more speed. He wanted to see some toughness.
Three times in one paragraph, God tells Joshua the exact same thing. But this ain't no pep talk. These are commands from the voice of the living God to one small human about to do an impossible thing: "Be strong." "Be courageous."
How? Why? Because we can. God provides all the power to those doing His will. But it's still up to us to hit the gas, to get up again after we hit the dirt the first time, to hit back and keep moving. I don't care who you are. If you're doing what God asks, you will be strong if you choose to be. You will be courageous when you have to be. You will biff sometimes, but God won't let you come up empty when you're following His course for you.
Think: Do you think of strength and courage as things you can just choose to have? Do you think Joshua wondered if he could be strong and courageous enough to do what God asked? Do you?
Pray: Ask God to help you obey Him today with strength and courage to do everything He's asked of you.
Do: Hit an online dictionary and read through all the definitions for strength and courage.
Never Never Never Leave
"No one will be able to stand up against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you." (Joshua 1:5)In today's passage, God hands over to Joshua the key promise behind Moses confidence as a leader and as a person. Over the course of his life, Moses had learned to believe this promise, and it gave him the courage to make hard choices, to do amazing things, and lead people under his influence.
The promise is simple: "I will be with you; I will never leave you." We think of being an adult or a leader in just the opposite way. We grow up and away from our parents and teachers to lead our own lives, to be independent, to take care of ourselves, not to NEED anyone.
But that's a lie. Real leadership, real maturity, is all about needing God more than anyone else. It's about relying on God as the source of all of our strength and wisdom and courage. Moses knew and Joshua learned that leadership isn't about the person in the top position; it's about the God who supplies that person with everything he or she needs.
Think: God has promised all of His children, "Never will I leave you." What does that promise mean to you? Does it help you to be any more confident or courageous in your everyday life?
Pray: Thank God for His promise to never leave or forsake you. Ask Him to help you to need Him more.
Do: Read Matthew 28:19-20 and notice the very last sentence of Matthew's story of Jesus on Earth.
Titanium Promises
"I will give you every place where you set your foot, as I promised Moses. Your territory will extend from the desert to Lebanon, and from the great river, the Euphrates—all the Hittite country—to the Great Sea on the west." (Joshua 1:3-4)Sometimes God gives us impossible missions. That is, He gives us missions that would be impossible to complete on our own. God doesn't scour to the earth to find the most capable people and give them the toughest jobs. Instead, he takes the people most ready to trust Him and He does the impossible through them.
To reassure Joshua — a man with the impossible mission of leading a single nation into a hostile territory to conquer and occupy it — God personally gave Joshua the promises He'd previously given to Moses and Israel. And when God gives a promise, it's an absolute guarantee. All that's left is to believe it and take the next step.
Your impossible mission as a Christian is to live on earth in the power of God — and to escape "the corruption of the world caused by evil desires." How? Peter said we can accomplish this because God has also given us "his very great and precious promises." With God's personal guarantee of success, what can't you accomplish for Him?
Think: Do you tend to think of promises as "maybe's" or "definitely's"? How often do people keep their promises to you? How often does God?
Pray: Ask God for the courage to take Him at His Word; ask Him to help you believe His promises this week.
Do: Make a short list of five of God's promises to you in the Bible. (There are lots to choose from.)
Prepared to Obey?
"After the death of Moses the servant of the LORD, the LORD said to Joshua son of Nun, Moses' aide: 'Moses my servant is dead. Now then, you and all these people, get ready to cross the Jordan River into the land I am about to give to them—to the Israelites.' " (Joshua 1:1-2)This week, we're going to read about Joshua and talk about what it means to be a leader. It's hard to imagine a more intimidating job than his. How do you "take over" for Moses? God handpicked Moses to lead His people out of captivity in Egypt. God showed Himself to Moses and delivered to him the Ten Commandments and the Law. God inspired Moses to write the first five books of the Bible. Moses had been the top guy in Israel for 40 years!
If I'd been Joshua — about to lead Israel into the Promised Land after Moses' death — I would have been scared. For 40 years, the people of Israel had been waiting for this very day. And now their leader Moses was gone. How was Joshua going to pull this off?
God's first words to him: "Get ready to go." Joshua is about to learn that even when God is the one taking care of everything, good leaders must prepare to do what God tells us. We can't just wait for all the details to fall into place on their own. Part of obeying God is getting ourselves (and those under our influence) ready to obey God.
Think: How do you prepare to obey God's instructions to you? What do you do to get yourself ready to honor your parents, to remain sexually pure, to keep yourself from telling lies? Is anyone following your example?
Pray: Ask God for new insight from Joshua's life about how you can get yourself ready to obey whatever He asks you to do.
Do: Make a short list of a few people in your life under your influence, anyone who might follow your example one way or another.
Instant Message
"In [Christ Jesus our Lord] and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence." (Ephesians 3:12)You can't just walk right up to the king. In many nations throughout history, to approach the king without being invited resulted in a quick and painful death. Only a few select people could come to the King without first being asked, maybe some family members and few trusted servants. Everyone else had to make an official request through someone else.
That's how it used to be with God, too. When He set up His official relationship with Israel, only representatives were allowed to come into His presence at a very specific time and place — and very carefully — to ask His forgiveness for Israel's sins.
Jesus changed all that. He paid for the sin that stood between us and the Father. Those who trust in Christ have our sins forgiven completely. The result? No need for a middleman and the exact right words in the right order on the right day. Jesus gave us a pass to walk right into God's throne room to talk to Him at any time and for any reason. That's real freedom. Are you using yours?
Think: How would your relationship with God be different if you could not talk to Him directly? Would it be less personal? Less meaningful?
Pray: Thank God for the freedom and confidence to talk directly to Him at any time without fear.
Do: Use your freedom to approach God with confidence today.
Wasted Freedom
"It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery." (Galatians 5:1)" 'Everything is permissible'—but not everything is beneficial. 'Everything is permissible'—but not everything is constructive. Nobody should seek his own good, but the good of others." (1 Corinthians 10:23-24)
Happy 4th of July! Hope you're planning to do something special to celebrate your freedom today. We're borrowing the theme of this weekend to talk about spiritual freedom. Yesterday, we saw that Jesus died to free us from the power of sin. He also freed us from having to follow every rule and regulation of God's Old Testament Law by keeping it all perfectly Himself before He died.
Today's two verses point out two ways to waste our freedom in Christ. First, we can refuse to accept our freedom from the Law. We can refuse to see ourselves as forgiven people, loved by our Father, with no risk of losing His acceptance. We can live with endless guilt for every misstep. We can believe that our salvation still depends on our obedience to the rules list and not our faith in Jesus. That's not freedom.
Or we can waste our freedom in the opposite direction. How? By using it as an excuse to live the most selfish lives possible, doing only what we want when we want to do it with whom we want to get whatever rush or satisfaction we crave. We can forget we have been freed from having to serve ourselves and ignore that we now have the power to do real selfless good to each other.
Everything on the menu is available, but not everything on the menu is worth eating.
Think: If you think of freedom as a road, are you more likely to slide into the ditch of legalism or selfishness? What can you do about that?
Pray: Ask God to give you the courage and boldness to live with real freedom from both legalism and selfish indulgence.
Do: Watch something go boom.
Forever Freedom
"For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God." (Romans 8:20-21)This weekend seems like the perfect time to talk about freedom. On July 4th, Americans celebrate our political freedom and honor the men and women who have fought and are fighting now to defend it. Freedom is also huge deal to God. According to the Bible, every single one of us is born a spiritual slave. We belong to sin, and we obey it every time it calls. We are not free.
Sin brings death, and all living things on the planet carry a countdown clock around our necks, ticking away the moments until we're physically dead. All of creation, Paul wrote, is in a constant state of inescapable decay. It's ugly and it hurts.
Jesus changed all of that. He died the death our sin had earned us. For those who trust in Him, in His substitution in our place on the cross, He gives an amazing gift: freedom from the power of sin, freedom to be part of God's family. Now all of creation waits for the completion of our adoption for the ultimate freedom from the burden of sin forever. It is coming.
Think: If you're a Christian, do you ever think of yourself as a former slave to sin? Do you ever long to be fully free from the consequences of living on a sin-drenched planet? Why or why not?
Pray: Thank God for your freedom from the power of sin through Jesus? Ask Him to help you to appreciate and use that freedom every day.
Do: Try to think about your spiritual freedom this weekend during your Independence Day celebrations.
Enough Trouble
"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." (Matthew 6:34)Jesus' final word in this passage on the issue of money and worry and worrying about money is refreshingly realistic. He has been telling us, "Don't worry; your Father cares for you." But He has NOT been saying, "Since your Father cares about you, you'll never have a day of trouble in your life."
In today's verse, He practically promises that you and I will have trouble "tomorrow." Trouble comes built in to every day on this side of heaven. It's a fact of life in a fallen world. People who make a goal of not having any trouble will spend their lives feeling sad, angry, frustrated — and worried.
Instead, Jesus says, "Trust your Father to take care of you today and leave tomorrow to itself." Does that mean we don't make plans or preparations for tomorrow or next month or next year? Of course we do. But Jesus tells us not to invest the emotional energy in worrying about how those plans and preparations will turn out. Always worrying about the next day leads to a life of endless worry. Focusing on today — and how God provides in it — leads to a life of endless gratitude.
Think: Are you surprised Jesus would admit that trouble comes built into this life? Do you expect there to be trouble or are you surprised when things don't go according to your plans?
Pray: Ask God for the courage and self-control not to worry about tomorrow. Thank Him for how He has provided for you today.
Do: Make a quick list of ways that God has provided for you today.
First: Look
"So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well." (Matthew 6:31-33)What's the difference between a child of God and a pagan (someone who does not serve the one true God)? One difference, according to Jesus in this passage, is that pagans are consumed with worry about what they will eat, drink, and wear. God's kids, on the other hand, assume that because He loves them and is powerful enough to care for them He will provide what they need when they need it.
What practical difference would that make? For one thing, it should free up God's kids to do other things with their mental and emotional energy — like spending their inner lives in a continual treasure hunt for evidence of God's kingdom and His righteousness.
According to Jesus, God's only birth Son, all of us who make our first job in life to discover the realm and rightness of our Father will see Him provide for all of our needs time after time after time. In other words, while we're always on the lookout for what He's doing in our world, He never loses track of what we need.
Think: What do you do in your life to actively "seek first his kingdom and his righteousness"?
Pray: Ask God to help you to never make your to-do list more important than seeking Him.
Do: Tell someone this week about one way in which God has provided for your most basic needs.
