Lessons from the Life of Joshua

Aug 21, 2022

This morning in our series ‘The Miraculous & The Mundane’, we looked at the life of Joshua. Joshua (first seen in Ex 17:8-16) was the aide of Moses, a military man from the tribe of Ephraim who (along with Caleb) was one of only two men who saw both the miracles God performing in rescuing Israel from Egypt and the miracles He performed to usher them into the Promised Land.
The secret to Joshua’s success was the time he spent in God’s presence, preparation for understanding that the battle belongs to the Lord and victory comes from Him (see Ex 33:7-11). Even in that first battle against the Amalekites, we see his victory was the result of the prayers of Moses and the practical help of Aaron and Hur who held his hands up. (Ex 17:11-12) The miraculous, mundane and very practical often go hand-in-hand.
God intervened in miraculous ways when Joshua succeeded Moses as leader of the Israelites. He gave him explicit instructions (Josh 1:1-6, Josh 3:13-17), but before they actually won their first battle at Jericho, they had to face more mundane tasks, such as circumcising all the men (Joshua 5:2-9) and celebrating Passover (Joshua 5:10-11). We too are called to the mundane task of eating bread and drinking wine to remember the death and resurrection of the Lord (Luke 22:19). We need to understand that our focus must be on what Jesus has done for us and that every spiritual victory ultimately comes from this holy sacrifice.

Prayer for Fredrick & Reeba

Aug 21, 2022

As you know, we support Fredrick and Reeba who work in Bangalore, India. For some time now the situation there has been difficult, with Hindus bringing about opposition to Christianity as many Hindus convert to Christianity and are baptised. A lawsuit ha been filed against the church and against Fredrick, with false accusations about building violations and illegal baptisms. Fredrick has had to visit the Police Commissioner’s office to give evidence that these allegations are untrue and the next hearing is on 27th August. Please pray for them to find favour and for justice to be done so that their work can continue unhindered.

Please also pray for the Tailoring ministry (graduation is in November and they are saving money to buy the sewing machines they give to each woman who graduates) and for their ministry to remote areas such as Kaparahalli. Reeba asks for prayer for her friend Sharmila who has cancer which is spreading. Treatment for this is expensive in India, and the family (which has a son who is deaf and cannot speak) has had to borrow almost £2500 to pay for this treatment. Pray that the Lord will intervene and help in this situation.

 

The Calling of Matthew

Aug 20, 2022

Dave spoke last week from Mattjew 9:9-13, the calling of Matthew as a disciple of Jesus. Matthew (Levi), a hated tax collector, was called by Jesus to follow Him. When this happened, he put down his pen, didn’t even finish the form he was working on, pushed back his chair, got up and just started walking after Jesus without once looking back over his shoulder. He left behind everything he had been doing, everything that had given his life meaning up to that point and started following this itinerant rabbi from Nazareth who had suddenly walked into his life and said that He wanted him with Him. Jesus did not wait for Matthew to come to Him, He called Matthew.

With that call there came the convicting power of God upon this man, and he was instantly changed. The same power that raised a little girl from the dead, that healed the sick, that released the demon possessed, brought salvation to a despised sinner. The result was that Matthew left his job and made restitution to all of those he had robbed. The call of Jesus brought salvation and repentance to this man.

Matthew then invited Jesus and His disciples to dinner at his house. But he also invited his fellow tax collectors and other sinners. Matthew was so overcome with the change in his life that he wanted all his fellow partners in crime to experience the same change. So, he invited them all along to meet Jesus, probably in the hope that they too would be saved. The Pharisees were not so impressed, believing that Jesus was consorting with sinners. But Jesus came for the benefit of every one of us who need Him.  The irony is that the Pharisees needed Jesus as much as anyone, but their religious pride causes them to miss it.

We do well to learn from the mistakes of the Pharisees.It is possible to be so active in the service of Christ that we forget to love Him. It is certainly possible to be so busy in the service of Christ that we forget to love our neighbour. It can be so easy to come to church out of habit and to forget the One we come to worship.

In this incident we see Jesus as the one who moved from the comfort and security and power of being at God’s side, to being among us, as one of us, and suffering and dying as one of us, living out the message of the gospel. This is what He calls us to do as well. How will God answer our prayers for the lost in this world, how will people come to be blessed on account of us, if we do not leave behind our righteous judgements, our undoubtedly true judgement of a situation, and venture out to where it is most uncomfortable, and show mercy? We have to leave our cosy routines and our comfort zones to meet others as Jesus did. We are called to go and make disciples of all nations (Matt 28:18-20. Nothing else will do.

 

 

The Dangers Of Compromise

Aug 11, 2022

In our Bible study tonight we looked at the churches in Pergamum and Thyatira (Rev 2). Both churches had much to commend them, including hard work, faithfulness, love and perseverance, but they also had problems, with some wanting to compromise (as Balaam led the Israelites to do in Numbers 22-24) and some being led astray by false teaching (in the manner of Jezebel). Sexual immorality, compromising with idol worship and other ways of ‘fitting in’ with the world can easily lead us away from God.
The human tendency is to want an easy life and to seek new ideas that promise shortcuts to happiness and prosperity. This is not God’s way. Friendship with the world quickly makes us an enemy of God. (James 4:4) Jesus’s advice is to repent. We need a radical about-turn back to God when we have gone astray.
The rewards He promises to those who are victorious – hidden manna, a white stone with a new name, authority to rule over nations – remind us that we must look to eternal rewards and treasures rather than the fleeting pleasures of sin.

Fuel Faith

Aug 7, 2022

The deliverance of Israel from Egypt is one of the greatest miracles ever told. We see how God heard the cries of His people (Ex 3:7) and entered into their suffering (see Is 53:3), but we are all too aware that every time God acts on our behalf, there is a tendency to forget what He has done when the next problem arises! The Israelites were allowed to leave Egypt with great wealth because of the mighty things God did, but all too soon they were faced with another problem: Pharaoh realised his loss and went after them with hundreds of chariots. Ahead of them was the Red Sea (death by drowning seemed inevitable); behind them was death from the Egyptian army. Could the God who had worked in one way in Egypt itself actually rescue them from ‘this’ problem?
We need to remember what God has done for us so that our faith is fuelled when the next difficulty or challenge comes, for whilst the challenges may well be different, our God is the same. There is no need to succumb to the ‘slough of despond’ (as John Bunyan put it) because we can (like Moses) turn to God and ask Him for help, no matter what our situations. Ps 103 remind us to ‘forget not all His benefits’, and there is real benefit in counting our blessings and remembering what God has done. We are to fuel faith with a faith-filled memory, for the same God who delivered Israel through the parting of the Red Sea is able to deliver us from evil and use every difficulty and suffering for good in our lives.

The Parting Of The Red Sea

Aug 7, 2022

One of the defining moments in history was when God rescued Israel from slavery in Egypt. Tonight, Garry got the children to re-enact this Biblical story.

We had Pharaoh and his henchmen in their ‘chariots’:

We had an angel leading the way (and then protecting the Israelites) and Moses holding forth the staff:

The Red Sea parted to let the Israelites through, but the waters came back upon the Egyptians, drowning them all. Our Israelites rejoiced just as much as the real ones at this event!

We also had a birthday to celebrate: