Episode 160

TODAY’S READING:

Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their ancestors to give them.

Joshua 1:6

 

Good morning and Happy Friday! What a week it’s been! What started out as a great first few days of the year has truly ended with some heartbreaking emotions over the last few days. As hate and that awful flag made their way into our capital I couldn’t help but think of God’s creation.

 

What happened? How do people become so vile? We can find this kind of behavior across many nations over generations. The answer can’t be found on social media, but it can be found in our bibles. It warns us of what happens when people walk blindly for so long.

 

1 John 2:11 says “11 But anyone who hates a brother or sister is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness. They do not know where they are going, because the darkness has blinded them.”

 

The further we as people move away from our creator the harder it’s going to be to reap the fruit of the Spirit as a collective group.

 

God has called us to tp be a force of unity across all nations. He has called us all his children. My prayer today is that we are bold in our faith. We are loud in our truth. God has given us all a promise land to inherit, but if we continue to reap the fruit of the systemic racism we have in place, we will never get there.

 

It’s just like the story of Joshua and Moses. Moses freed the Jews from Egypt. They walked through the desert and finally made it to the promised land. In Numbers 13:1 it says “Then the LORD spoke to Moses saying, “Send out for yourself men so that they may spy out the land of Canaan, which I am going to give to the sons of Israel; you shall send a man from each of their fathers’ tribes, every one a leader among them.” So Moses sent them from the wilderness of Paran at the command of the LORD,…

 

In verse 27 it says “Thus they told him, and said, “We went into the land where you sent us, and it certainly does flow with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. “Nevertheless, the people who live in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large; and moreover, we saw the descendants of Anak there…

 

They didn’t enter the promised land because their people couldn’t get past the giants. The land was flowing with milk and honey, yet all they saw were problems. God rejected and had them wander the earth for forty years. Every single one of them in that generation with a bad mentality died before the people of Israel were able to walk into the land flowing with milk and honey. It’s a lesson for us all. We as a nation have a promised land, a nation in unity one that loves one another. One that has opinions, but one that has true freedom for all its people. In order to walk into that, this darkness that clouds so many has to die.

 

This isn’t to discourage us, but to encourage us. We all have the power to change what we are seeing. We have the power to be the Josuha of our generations. The one who takes us all into the promised land. It starts with reworking our families, teaching our children, working against the systems that have ripped this country apart for too long. You and I have the power of the Holy Spirit. We have discernment, but most importantly we have a creator who loves us so much, we know how to love others.

 

1 Corinthians 12:!3

For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.

 

We are all one body, and we cannot continue to neglect the parts that are in pain because if we do we will all shut down and God created us to prosper. Today we can find those around us and love them as Jesus does so that we can start sowing good seeds into the ground. This way our future generations can reap fruit. Fruit of love and unity.

 

PRAYER

Jesus we are asking that you give us all the strength to sow good seeds today so that our future generations can live in a world of peace and unity. We are asking that you heal our lands, our nations, and this world that you love so much. Help us fight the one true enemy that has ruined generations past with prejudiced thinking. We are all one body, your body. We cannot continue to neglect certain parts. We need to function as one unit so help us today as we try and be the change you have asked us to be. Let us be bold in our faith and bold in our actions. Let us love radically. In your holy name, we pray, Amen.