First, today on this beautiful Sunday here in North Carolina,
I want to give a shoutout to all the awesome mothers out there. Happy Mother’s
Day! I have been blessed to have two of the greatest mothers in all the world
in my life. My mother, Albertina Agnes Kozlovsky Grooms, was a Godly mother who
loved and prayed for all her children and grandchildren and was a beautiful
example of the Proverbs 31 wife and mother! She went to be with the Lord on
October 11, 2018 at 90 years of age. We all dearly miss her and today we honor
her memory! The other great mother, of course, is my wife, Edith Obenshain
Grooms! She has also loved and blessed our five children and grandchildren with
her prayers and sacrificial service and Godly example! The world is definitely
a better place because of her! Happy Mothers Day!!!!!
We all face difficult challenges in life and need
encouragement and motivation to overcome and deal with them. Joshua is a great
book to teach how we can by faith find our greatest encouragement from the Lord
and experience and enjoy blessed and victorious lives despite our circumstances
and problems.
The last couple of days we learned how Joshua was
encouraged by God because he had a definite calling and commission. He knew God
placed him in his role of leadership and had given him specific instructions as
to what His will and plan for his life was. Whenever we know that the Lord has
called us and given us a commission, we can have confidence and courage to face
whatever we must deal with.
God gave Joshua a threefold task to perform and for each of
those three tasks, God gave him three special promises. God promised He would
enable Joshua to cross the river and claim the land (vv. 3-4). God promised Joshua
that he would defeat the enemy (v. 5). And God promised Joshua that he would be
to one to apportion the land to each tribe as its inheritance (v. 6). God
didn't give Joshua explanations as to how He would accomplish these things,
because God's people live on promises and not on explanations. When you trust
God's promises and step out by faith (v. 3), you can be sure that the Lord will
give you the directions you need when you need them.
First, God promised Joshua that Israel would enter the land
(vv. 3-4). Over the centuries God had reaffirmed this promise, from His first
words to Abraham (Gen. 12) to His last words to Moses (Deut. 34:4). God would
take them over the Jordan and into enemy territory. He then would enable them
to claim for themselves the land that He had promised them. There would be no
repetition of the fear and unbelief that had brought the nation into defeat at
Kadesh Barnea (Num. 13). God had already given them the land; it was their
responsibility now to step out by faith and claim it (Josh 1:3; see Gen.
13:14-18). The same promise of victory that God had given to Moses (Num.
11:22-25), He reaffirmed to Joshua; and He carefully defined the borders of the
land.
The lesson for God's people today is clear: God has given
us all spiritual blessings...in Christ" (Eph. 1:3), and we must step out
by faith and claim them. He has set before His church an open door that nobody
can close (Rev. 3:8), and we must walk through that door by faith and claim new
territory for the Lord. It is impossible to stand still in Christian life and
service; for when you stand still, you immediately start going backward.
"Let us go on!" is God's challenge to His church (Heb. 6:1), and that
means moving ahead into new territory.
The Bible is a Book of Promises! May the Lord give us grace
to believe and by faith claim them for our lives and families today!
God bless!
