Deuteronomy & Joshua

It's Sunday!  The light has crept over Mt. Hood and it is beautiful.  I'm fully expecting the Lord to meet with His people today at church.  I'm excited about getting to preach God's Word and be a blessing to God's people.  I hope to see a great crowd and decision made for our Lord.  It's Sunday! I've finished up Deuteronomy and gotten 17 chapters into Joshua.  Here are a few nuggets of truth: 1) AS AN EAGLE- Deuteronomy 32:11  "As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings:"   God treated Israel like an eagle and that is how He treats us many times too.  When an Eagle stirs up his nest, the eagle is kicking the young out of the nest one at a time to teach it how to fly.  The eaglet will struggle desperately as it crashes towards the ground.  The mother then will streamline her flight in a death dive and get underneath the little one and catch it.  Only to bring it back to the nest and try the process all over again until the little one learns to fly.  For the eaglet, it must be very scary.  So it is with us when God lets us drop, only to rescue us at the last moment.  He does this to teach us to fly!  It is all a part of God's training. 2) THE MESSAGE OF THE STONES- In Chapter 3, the Israelites crossed the flooded Jordan on dry ground.  In Chapter 4, God told Joshua to choose 12 men, one from each tribe, to carry a stone found in the riverbed of the River Jordan to the other side.  They carried it to where they camped and then they piled the 12 stones together for an memorial.  They knew that in the years ahead, people would look a the stone monument and ask "What mean these stones?" (vs.21)  The answer is found in verse 24-"That all the people of the earth might know the hand of the LORD, that it is mighty: that ye might fear the LORD your God for ever." 3) THREE STEPS TO SIN- Achan sinned in taking things committed to God when Jericho was defeated.  Because it was the first city conquered, everything in it belonged to God.  When Achan's sin was found out, here is what he said lead him to sin:  "I saw", "I coveted", and  "took them".  (Joshua 7:21)  He saw, he coveted, and then he took.  So.... stop looking!  That is the first step towards the sin and that is the surest way to stop it. 4) I WANT THAT MOUNTAIN! In Joshua 14, Caleb, who "wholly followed the LORD", asks for the same mountain that the giants of the land dwelt in.  He wanted the land that scared his fellow spies, over 40 years earlier.  He said in verse 12:  "Give me this mountain."  At about 85, he still was eager to show others what a great God he had.  So it verse 14 it says:  "Hebron therefore became the inheritance of Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenezite unto this day, because that he wholly followed the LORD God of Israel."  No matter the age, there are still victories that await us as we look to the LORD in faith! Have a blessed Sunday morning!  Enjoy Church, get blessed, serve God, grow in the LORD!   Blessing on you..... Pastor Mike Mutchler