God Lives Here

Suggested Scripture: Joshua 24:13-27

Key Verse: But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.
Joshua 24:15b (NIV)

My in-laws have a beautiful door knocker that displays today's verse. It is a reminder to all who enter their home that theirs is a Christian home.

The term "Christian home" is a bit of a strange concept. Certainly a house can't be a Christian. What makes a home Christian is that the inhabitants practice Christianity. They love and serve God in their daily lives, and take advantage of every opportunity to read the Bible, pray with one another, and serve one another with loving attitudes.

But it's more than that.

What makes a home Christian is that fact that God dwells in it. He takes up residence in the hearts of those who love Him. He is welcomed into every room, every thought, and every decision. He is the true head-of-household. He protects and provides for those He calls His children and His beloved.

Reflecting Pool:

Do you live in a Christian home?

Does your relationship with God take a position of prime importance in your family life?

What things can you do to make sure that you and your household serve the Lord?

How to be Successful

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

Atkins. South Beach. Highly Effective People. Dr. Phil. Yoga for Dummies.

To anyone who hasn't been living under a rock for the last year, all of those words should ring a bell of recognition. We live in a world that thrives on the idea that a well rounded collection of self-help books holds the key to unlock a prosperous and successful life. Most, if not all of the pop-psychology and self-help books promise that they are the authority on how to be successful in whatever it is you want to do. Some of those books are about dieting, some are about developing a self-esteem, and still others are about achieving a heightened sense of "spirituality". Wouldn't it be great if there was just one book that promised success in EVERYTHING?

Although no such book really exists, there is a book that you can rely upon to help get you through life. It's called the Bible. Some people thing that the Bible is just a bunch of rules, but it's so much more than that. It is a story about God's love and the promises he makes to us, his children. Today's verse is a promise that was made to Joshua, who had taken over leading the Israelites after Moses died. God promised to do great things through him, and all Joshua had to do was have the faith that God would be true to his word.

How did Joshua develop that faith? More importantly, how can each of us develop that kind of faith? We develop that faith by spending time reading God's word, the Bible, and praying. If we follow God and try our best to do things we know are in accordance with his will, we will be successfull and prosperous. Be careful however, to remember that God's will for your life and his definition of success and prosperity are different from the definitions the world uses.

Nothing on earth can offer us what God can. Nothing and no one can ever come through on a promise that way God can. True success is from the Lord, and it starts by adhering to his word.

Keeping God's Commandments

But be very careful to keep the commandment and the law that Moses the servant of the Lord gave you: to love the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to obey his commands, to hold fast to him and to serve him with all your heart and all your soul. --Joshua 22:5

Joshua knew how important it was to follow God and keep his commands. God had blessed Joshua and allowed him to see many great things in his life. Joshua listened to God right from the start and because of that, not only did he get to enter the Promised Land (unlike Moses, the leader before him), but he also got to be a part of all the feats of power that God di for his people. Steadily, Joshua and the Israelites crushed kings, overtook fortified cities, and divided up the Promised Land into portions for God's people. None of that would have been possible if Joshua and the other Israelites had not been able to recognize that they needed to rely on God as their source of strength.

God wants to do mighty things through us too. Maybe he doesn't want us to march around any cities and make their walls fall, but perhaps he can use us to help break down the walls around the hearts of our non-Christian friends. To do this, we need to be a strong example and witness. We need to walk in all God's ways, even when those ways don't make sense or when his way isn't the popular way of doing things.

Just like Joshua, we are commanded to obey God. It's not enough to simply be aware of his commands as given to us throughout the Bible. We need to be more than just hearers of God's word; we need to do what it says (James 1:22). The greatest commandment that we are given is to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength.

Nothing should be of greater importance to us than serving God and keeping his commands. For Joshua, it was his duty as the leader of Israel to be a strong witness. We don't need such a prominent position in the public eye in order to serve God effectively. We must serve him where we are whether it's at college, in the home, or at the office. No matter where God has placed us, if we want to be able to experience all the awesome things he can do, we need to obey him. We need to walk in his ways, hold fast to him, and serve him with all that we are.

God's Stamp of Approval

The men of Israel sampled their provisions, but did not inquire of the Lord. --Joshua 9:14

News of Joshua and the Israelites' victory over the great stronghold of Jericho spread quickly to other nations in Canaan. People had heard of how powerful these God-fearing people were, and they were afraid of losing their cities to the Israelites if attacked. The Gibeonites decided that they would trick Joshua's army into making a treaty with them. They pleaded with Joshua and his men to spare them, and an agreement was made. Unfortunately, neither Joshua nor his men checked with God on this matter. As a result, the Israelite army was put between a rock and a hard place. God had commanded them to take over the land of the Gibeonites, but Joshua was bound by his agreement with them to not attack. Check out the rest of Joshua Chapter 9 for the details.

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No matter what decisions we make, we need to check with God. We must bathe even the simplest of matters in prayer, particularly if we are still trying to learn how to recognize God's voice. We may think that we are doing the right thing, but unless it is from God, we will be setting ourselves up for failure. As we saw in the story about Joshua, it seemed like he was being a good guy to promise to help out another group of people. However, it was God's will that the lands in Canaan belong to the children of Israel. By not spending some time in prayer, Joshua lost out on a part of what could have been a big blessing.

Every day we make decisions. I'm not suggesting that we need to spend time contemplating whether God wants us to wear blue socks or white socks , but we do need to involve him in the decisions we make. The more we talk to him in prayer, the better we will be at listening to him and recognizing how to apply his will to our lives.

This story about the Israelites makes me think of a particular time when I forgot to involve God in a big decision. A guy I knew pretty well asked me if I wanted to date him. Since I knew him from an on-campus Bible study, I figured that he was "approved" dating material. I did not spend much time at all asking if God thought that this would be a good way to spend my time. After only two dates, I realized that even though this young man was a Christian, he had some very different ideas than I did when it came to letting God be involved in his life. When he asked if I thought we should continue dating, I had to be honest and tell him that because I had not spent time in prayer regarding the relationship, I felt that I should not continue in it. I'm glad that he respected that decision and we have no regrets about the short time we shared together.

After that brief dating experience, I made a commitment to check with God before I accepted another date with anyone else. Shortly thereafter, I was introduced to the man who is now my husband. One of the amazing things about our relationship is how God brought us together, and how much we prayed about our relationship before it even started. My husband told me that a few days before he asked me out on our first date, he spent more than an hour just walking around and talking to God about me and asking if it was God's will that we be together.

God wants to be involved in our lives. By including him in our decision making processes, not only will we be able to have more peace about the decisions we make, but we will have a chance to see some blessings we may not have found otherwise. He cares about the little things that matter to us, and he most certainly cares about the big things that could possibly change the direction we take in life's journey. It is important to get his "stamp of approval", especially for those big decisions.

Putting God First

Go, consecrate the people. Tell them "Consecrate yourselves in preparation for tomorrow; for this is what the Lord the God of Israel says: That which is devoted is among you O Israel. You cannot stand against your enemies until you remove it."--Joshua 7:13

This verse is taken from the description of what was happening to Israel just before Joshua led them into the Promised Land. God had been telling his people for generations that this day would come and that they would experience victory. However, the Israelites needed to exercise some faith that God would truly follow through on that promise. They needed to trust him completely, even if his methods seemed a little odd.

The children of Israel are being reminded that they need to fully rely on God and put Him first. God is to be the number one focus in their lives, in spite of the fact that they were on the eve of a tremendous change. They were not to allow themselves to become distracted by visions of glory, nor were they to focus solely on the loot they were about to obtain by invading Jericho.

Entering the Promised Land was a success for God's people. God caused the walls of Jericho to completely collapse, allowing the Israelies to walk in and take the city. Unfortunately, some of the people kept some of the treasures of Jericho, even after being explicitly warned by God not to do so. He asked that they give certain "devoted things" to the church's treasury. By not doing this, a few people invoked God's judgement, which prevented them from winning the next battle. When contemplating the loss, the Israelites asked God why he had not given then a victory like they had tased at Jericho, and God reminded them to get rid of the distractions (the plunder) before he would help them out.

Sometimes it is easy for us to become distracted by material things. We also have a tendency to think that we bring about success in our lives through our own actions. We need to realize that we can do nothing without God.
We need to give him the full credit and glory for everything, and keep nothing back for ourselves. Our God is incredibly powerful; we have no excuse for putting earthly things ahead of him on our list of priorities.