"Tight lines" is a blessing fishermen offer each other, a wish for lines taut with the weight of good fish. May God grant that the lines written here be taut with His blessings.
Thursday, 31 December 2009 | |||
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Recipe for Courage | |||
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As we sit on the brink of a new year, I'm not sure I've ever
been so happy to see an old year go. A car wreck, a flooded church
building, and a raft of busted appliances at home are the memories I take
away from the last quarter of 2009. Maybe the earlier part of the year
was better. It's just hard for me to remember right now. So I'm really
ready to enter 2010. It seems likely that the Israelites were even more ready for the change in their situation reflected in Joshua 1. After forty years of aimless life in the wilderness, they were now being prepared to enter the land that God was giving them. The opening chapter of Joshua displays the hand over of leadership from Moses to Joshua, the commission to enter and possess the land, and a four-times repeated charge to be "strong and courageous." Yet the courage asked of Joshua and Israel does not seem to center so much around bravery in battle, though military action was ahead. Instead, verses 7 and 8 call for a steadfast and courageous observance of the law of God given through Moses. The foundation of Israel's success was to be spiritual, not military. As verses 2 and 3 make clear, the land was to be (and in a sense already was) a gift from God, not the product of Israelite military prowess. To be successful in this situation meant to retain a strong devotion and commitment to the Lord who gave them their land. One other theme of the text touches my own heart as the new year begins. The theme of "rest" appears in verses 13 and 15, both times understood, like the land, as God's gift. Entering into the promised land was to bring God's people a promised rest from struggle and strife. Yet the rest promised under Joshua's leadership is superceded by the promise in Hebrews 4:8-11 of a final and complete Sabbath rest for the people of God through the grace of Christ. So though I hope for better times and some rest in the new year, I ultimately look for those gifts where they are to be truly found, in the gracious blessing of knowing Jesus Christ. | |||
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Profile |
I am the pastor of Valley Covenant Church in Eugene, Oregon. I love to flyfish and hike along the beautiful rivers in our area. I welcome your comments as I share sermon work in progress and occasional other thoughts.
Thank you for visiting this blog. I invite you also to visit my web page.
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