Day 16: Fearless For God

Rahab helping the spies. VisualBibleAlie.com

Joshua 1:7

New King James Version (NKJV)

⁷ Only be strong and very courageous, that you may observe to do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you; do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may prosper wherever you go.

This is one of those instances when I have to choose the NKJV over the NLT. It may be that the NLT renders it a little more accurately, but I really like the way the NKJV paints an image in my mind that we should be strong and courageous for God rather than because of Him. (For a different perspective, check out my entry for Day 16 from 2010!)

Face it, it does take a lot of courage, and personal strength, to stand up for God! At the very least, Christians today are subject to ridicule. All too often, our faith and beliefs make us the target of discrimination and persecution. It's no wonder that so many Christians cave into fear and stand silent. They're terrified that speaking the truth will put them in Dan Cathy's shoes. 

(Years from now, people will be asking "who is Dan Cathy?" so, just for the record, he is the CEO of Chik-Fil-A, a fast food chain, who has come under fire for stating  his personal belief in what God says about homosexual behavior. To date, the restaurant has never discriminated against gays, whether as customers or as employees. That's irrelevant to those who see God's law as oppressive to personal freedoms.)

It's nothing new, this rage against God's people. Even back before Christ died, before the term "Christian" was invented, back when God's people were pretty much exclusive to the Israelites, there were people who would kill anyone who followed the God of Abraham. And, there were people who would risk their lives to protect His children. 

Rahab is the perfect example, and it just so happens, her story is told in the very next chapter of Joshua! Yea for me, I get a double hitter with this one. Most everyone knows who Rahab was. She was a harlot. I'm not sure if  that was an esteemed position in her culture or not, but in our culture, the term "whore" would probably be used, and it carries some very negative connotations. It carried the same negativity among the Israelites, too, because God couldn't stand harlotry, physical or spiritual.

Anyway, so the story goes, a couple of Israelites were sent to spy out the land of Jericho. They came to Rahab, who told them how her people were very afraid of the Hebrew's God. The king of Jericho got wind that she was harboring the spies, and sent soldiers from his army to her home, demanding that she turn them over. 

But Rahab lied to the soldiers. She had hidden the men on the roof among the flax stalks, and she told the soldiers that she'd been unaware of their identity, and that they had already left, as the gates of the city had closed. She sent the army on a wild goose chase in order to protect God's people, knowing full well that it would mean certain death to her and her family should her own people discover her duplicity. 

After the spies had gotten far enough in the wrong direction, she sent the two spies off to the mountains to hide for three days, lowering them from her window (her home, like many others, was built into the wall of Jericho) with a rope. In exchange for her assistance, they instructed her to hang a red cord in her window, and gather her entire family to her home, so that when the children of Israel attacked the city of Jericho, she and her family would be spared.

What bravery! Her courage wasn't because of God, it was for Him! What a beautiful thing! And God rewarded her for her courage. He not only allowed her to live, He gave her a husband from among the tribe of Judah, and included her in the ancestral lineage of King David... She was his great, great grandmother. She was also one of only five women mentioned in the genealogy of Jesus.

Ok, i know this is somewhat out of the blue, but I can't help but bring attention to another current example of someone being courageous for God. At a time when Dan Cathy is the topic of discussion and the target of such hate everywhere, it takes even more courage to speak up. This other fearless for Christ example  is the little 16 year old gymnast who has taken the world by storm in the 2012 summer olympics, and I'm going to end this post by quoting what she said, while the whole world watched, right after making history as the first black woman to ever win the Women's Gymnastic All-Around gold medal:

"It is everything I thought it would be; being the Olympic champion, it definitely is an amazing feeling. And I give all the glory to God. It's kind of a win-win situation. The glory goes up to Him and the blessings fall down on me."

May we all be so fearless for God.

Read my previous thoughts from Day 16

Day 15: Truth or Consequences

Deuteronomy 28:1

New Living Translation (NLT)

At The Entrance To The Temple Mount,  Gustav Bauernfiend 

Blessings for Obedience

¹ “If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully keep all his commands that I am giving you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the world.

Deuteronomy 28:15

New Living Translation (NLT)Curses for Disobedience

¹⁵ “But if you refuse to listen to the Lord your God and do not obey all the commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will come and overwhelm you:

These verses, and the ones that follow them, are the essence of the Palestinian Covenant that God made with Israel. In this covenant, God has reaffirmed the promise that He made regarding the land which He would give to His people. That part is unconditional. But there is a conditional aspect to the covenant. That's what these verses are referring to. The "grace" aspect. The aspect where the Israelites write their own story, so to speak... or create their own (figurative) hell. Either obey and be blessed, or disobey and be cursed and scattered.

Sadly, the Israelites were, and are, only human. They mess up just like the rest of us do. They didn't keep God's commands, and so far, God has not set them high above all nations. Instead, Israel was, and continues to be, disobedient to God. They've been living the curses for thousands of years.

The good news is the unconditional aspects of the covenant. Israel will, eventually, turn back to God and keep His commands, at which point God will gather them from all over the world where they have been scattered, and will establish them in them where He promised their forefathers. In that day, nothing will thwart God's promise. 

Now that I've summarized what my study Bible explains at length, I have some questions. Maybe someone can help me out. A lot of God's commands include sacrifices and such. As I understand it, the Jewish people have been trying to breed and raise a perfect red heifer for a long time, and thought they had one back in 2002, but it was disqualified for some imperfection or other. But...

This covenant and the commands were made prior to the birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the perfect sacrifice, the Lamb of God. Doesn't He supersede the heifer? Why must there still be an animal sacrifice?

Day 14: Prepare For Rain

Deuteronomy 11:13-14 
New Living Translation (NLT)

Photo by Shorelander, Creative Commons Share Alike License

13  “If you carefully obey all the commands I am giving you today, and if you love the Lord your God and serve him with all your heart and soul, 14  then he will send the rains in their proper seasons—the early and late rains—so you can bring in your harvests of grain, new wine, and olive oil.

Prepare for rain. In Deuteronomy, the Israelites were about to take possession of a land that, according to the scriptures immediately proceeding these, God deeply cared for and always had His eyes on. A land flowing with milk and honey. A land that God blessed with an abundance of  life-sustaining precipitation. A land that God had deemed suitable for His chosen people.

Prepare for rain. It's my favorite line from the movie, Facing The Giants. The film portrays a lukewarm Christian high school, filled with a lukewarm football team, led by a lukewarm coach. In the scene that I like so much, a very NOT lukewarm man known only as "Mr. Bridges" is seen walking the halls after school, touching every locker as he prays out loud for the students.  He steps into the coach's office and gives him a message that he'd been led by God to give. A message that the coach is to be deeply rooted and bloom where he is planted. Curious, the coach follows the older man back out into the hallway and asks if he really believes that stuff. Mr. Bridges then tells the coach of a story he'd heard about two farmers. One believed God would provide rain in a drought, and prepared for the rain to come. The other did not. The one who had prepared reaped the benefit of the rainfall.

Prepare for rain. What does it mean to prepare? The dictionary defines prepare as to put in proper condition or readiness. In the scriptures I posted above, Israel is promised that if they carefully obey His commands, love Him with all their hearts, and serve Him in all they do, that God would provide the right amount of rainfall in each season, so that the harvest would be abundant. That sounds exactly like a proper condition, a readiness, for God to rain down His blessings abundantly.

Are you prepared for rain?

Grace, by Katherine Holladay

Song Pages by Billy Alexander Designs, obtained from www.sxc.hu

I have fond memories of the church of my youth. I loved the smell of the sanctuary – the flowers, the polished wood pews, the starch in our cotton blouses… Sunday best. I remember the beauty of my favorite song … “Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me…” I can still hear the words of our pastor, speaking of the mercy and grace of God. It would be years before I truly understood the meaning of Grace. We are promised Grace through Jesus – we, who have lived sin and often trespassed every commandment given by God – are promised everlasting life when we give our lives to Jesus … 

Ephesians 2: 4 - 7
4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love wherewith He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ (by grace ye are saved), 6 and hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.

We can work for good our entire lives; but unless and until, we give our hearts and lives to Christ – those works are empty and not worthy…

8 For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God 9 not by works, lest any man should boast. 10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath beforehand ordained, that we should walk in them.

The meaning of Grace is in this gift – He has given us a gift of eternal life with Him… through His Son. There will never be an equal to this treasure. Pure Grace and the mercy of a loving Father.

Hindered Prayer by Cindy Price

Guest Blogger, Cindy Arrowhead Price

We read in Romans chapter three verse 23 that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” If we, as followers of Christ, accept those words as truth, they become a self-proclaimed statement, confession our sinful nature.

That truth gives rise to a question, and hopefully a revelation, so dynamic as to produce genuine confession, followed by true repentance.

The question has undoubtedly been posed to every follower of Christ having experienced frustration in prayer; “what is hindering my walk with God?” We ask ourselves and probably our pastors, mentors and teachers of the Word why our prayers seem to bounce off the ceiling. Why do our prayers seem to go unanswered?

Each is a legitimate question. Every believer has pondered his relationship with the Lord at some point.

Never, in my many years of walking with the Lord, have I met a fellow believer who had not questioned her prayer life from time to time. It is so common within the Christian faith that performing a Google search using the words “hindered prayer” produced about 1,140,000 in 0.10 seconds.

That staggering number, dear reader, is one search from one web browser, in one language. My mathematical ability (or inability) and cause of that figure is shocking to me.

How can that be?

Having never been outside of North America where there is a church on every corner and easy access to the Scriptures, it is foreign that so many people are searching for solutions to “hindered prayer.”

Without getting any more technical (my technical ability does succeed my mathematical but not by much), perhaps I should get to my point. Yes, I do have one.

Google cannot give you the answer your seek. Sure, it will point you to some links that, with the click of the mouse, you open pages of reputable sites containing Scripture, blogs full of opinions and insights, etc. That is likely how you found this blog.

There are innumerable places to find truth, simple as it is. The truth is that hindered prayers are not uncommon for many reasons. Here, I will discuss but one; unconfessed sin. The Psalmist wrote in chapter 66, verse 18 “If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.”

If your prayers are not being answered it is time for a heart examination. Take an honest look inside your heart, asking yourself if there is anything hiding there that would not be pleasing to the Lord.

Every human occupies space on this earth is a sinner. Even those of us who have given out hearts to the Lord are sinners. A heart that belongs to the Lord is forgiven, but each heart dwells in a body of flesh that who's propensity is toward sin. That sinful nature continues within the believer, but the Holy Spirit places conviction over us that compels us to look within, find the barrier between ourselves and our Savior and remove it to regain the fellowship that we cannot live without.

How can I commit sin and remain confident that the Lord hears my prayers? I cannot. God reminded me of this basic lesson recently as I was enjoying my morning walk with my dog.

While I love to write, without a venue with which to do that, I talk or think out loud. That was what I did when God reminded me of a simple truth that literally stopped me in my tracks.

“Why am I still struggling with ________.”? God answered me immediately and clearly. There was unconfessed sin in my life.

God is perfect and His presence cannot be found where sin remains.. He cannot look upon sin. When we have sin in our lives that we have not confessed, been forgiven of and repented from, we are literally unable to get to God. We are kept from His presence because He cannot look at us. The more time we allow sin to dwell within us the more distance we create between ourselves and the Lord. That distance hardens the heart and, given enough time, will wreck all kinds of havoc in the spirit and even the body of the believer.

Confession closes that gap and places us back in fellowship with the Lord. That is why we must always have our hearts open for the Holy Spirit to search freely to bring the conviction that leads to repentance. Peace immediately comes with confession and repentance. Prayers are no longer hindered.

My walk was long and reviving that particular morning. My Lord and I had much to discuss. More accurately, He had much to say and I was eager to listen. Just to hear Him speak to me....

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9) NIV

Day 13: The Way Out

Photo by Vivek Chugh, available at www.sxc.hu

Deuteronomy 4:27-31

New Living Translation (NLT)

²⁷ For the Lord will scatter you among the nations, where only a few of you will survive. ²⁸ There, in a foreign land, you will worship idols made from wood and stone—gods that neither see nor hear nor eat nor smell. ²⁹ But from there you will search again for the Lord your God. And if you search for him with all your heart and soul, you will find him.
³⁰ “In the distant future, when you are suffering all these things, you will finally return to the Lord your God and listen to what he tells you. ³¹ For the Lord your God is a merciful God; he will not abandon you or destroy you or forget the solemn covenant he made with your ancestors.

The back story here is a warning to the Israelites, just as they are about to go in and take possession of the Promised Land, that if they started acting stupid and ignore God, they'd lose everything. But here is His continued promise, that no matter how badly they screw up, He will always love them. No matter how far they've turned from God, if they will turn back and truly seek Him, hear His voice, and obey Him, He would be there, waiting.

We all mess up. Sometimes we seem to never get it right. We're just like the Israelites! We become selfish and stubborn, arrogant and self-righteous, we go through periods where we behave as though God isn't good enough. Heck, we probably even forget that He is, once in a while. 

But God is such a loving and forgiving Father. He really is a Father to us. Just like our parents, if they're good parents, will always love us no matter how far we stray, God has this unconditional love for His children. I think sometimes it's easy to picture God as some remote, distant, judgmental spirit sitting on a thrown somewhere, and to forget that really, He is so much more. If He is distant, it's generally because we won't let Him near. If we are worried that He's just judging us, it's pretty much because we know we're misbehaving and are either enjoying our disobedience too much to repent, or we are so caught up in it that we can't remember how to get on our knees.

Sooner or later though, we'll always hit rock bottom. And when we do, if we really, really want to make things right with God, He's just a prayer away.

Day 12: How Was I To Know?

Numbers 22:31-34

New Living Translation (NLT)

Angel blocks Balaam's path. VisualBibleAlive.com

³¹ Then the Lord opened Balaam’s eyes, and he saw the angel of the Lord standing in the roadway with a drawn sword in his hand. Balaam bowed his head and fell face down on the ground before him.
³² “Why did you beat your donkey those three times?” the angel of the Lord demanded. “Look, I have come to block your way because you are stubbornly resisting me. ³³ Three times the donkey saw me and shied away; otherwise, I would certainly have killed you by now and spared the donkey.”
³⁴ Then Balaam confessed to the angel of the Lord, “I have sinned. I didn’t realize you were standing in the road to block my way. I will return home if you are against my going.”


Everybody knows the famous story of Balaam and his talking donkey. This passage takes place immediately after the donkey found her voice. Aside from talking animals, this seems to be something that happens to me, all the time!

Don't laugh, it probably happens to you, too.

Seriously, let's think about this. How often are we so determined to do something, get somewhere, accomplish some major feat, and it just seems like no matter how hard we try, something gets in the way of our success? We might even call it Murphy's Law, although nobody's ever told me exactly who Murphy is.

Maybe it has nothing to do with Murphy. Maybe it's God getting in our way. Maybe He has placed an angel in our path, not so that we'll fail at life, but so that we'll fail in our attempts to do something that God ultimately knows is not going to be good for us.

What if every time we want to blame Murphy, God opened our eyes and we could see an angel standing before us with a sword drawn, asking us why we were so hellbent on being self destructive? Would we be like Balaam? Would we plead our case by saying 'how was I to know you were trying to redirect me to something better?'

Perhaps instead of always complaining that the world is against us, or that fate is against us, or karma, or Murphy, or whoever else, we should stop... think... and then ask God to show us where He wants to lead. Wow. Imagine how much less heartache we'd suffer in our lifetime if we just opened our eyes to what God is trying to show us.