In Transit
“Our homeland is in heaven, and we are waiting for our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, to come from heaven.” Philippians 3:20
You’ve seen people treat this world like it was a permanent home. It’s not. You seen people pour time and energy into life like it will last forever. It won’t. You’ve seen people so proud of what they have done, that they hope they will never have to leave—they will.
We all will. We are in transit.
Joshua 18
Division of the Rest of the Land
1 The whole assembly of the Israelites gathered at Shiloh and set up the tent of meeting there. The country was brought under their control, 2 but there were still seven Israelite tribes who had not yet received their inheritance.
3 So Joshua said to the Israelites: “How long will you wait before you begin to take possession of the land that the LORD, the God of your ancestors, has given you? 4 Appoint three men from each tribe. I will send them out to make a survey of the land and to write a description of it, according to the inheritance of each. Then they will return to me. 5 You are to divide the land into seven parts. Judah is to remain in its territory on the south and the tribes of Joseph in their territory on the north. 6 After you have written descriptions of the seven parts of the land, bring them here to me and I will cast lots for you in the presence of the LORD our God. 7 The Levites, however, do not get a portion among you, because the priestly service of the LORD is their inheritance. And Gad, Reuben and the half-tribe of Manasseh have already received their inheritance on the east side of the Jordan. Moses the servant of the LORD gave it to them.”
8 As the men started on their way to map out the land, Joshua instructed them, “Go and make a survey of the land and write a description of it. Then return to me, and I will cast lots for you here at Shiloh in the presence of the LORD.” 9 So the men left and went through the land. They wrote its description on a scroll, town by town, in seven parts, and returned to Joshua in the camp at Shiloh. 10 Joshua then cast lots for them in Shiloh in the presence of the LORD, and there he distributed the land to the Israelites according to their tribal divisions.
Allotment for Benjamin
11 The first lot came up for the tribe of Benjamin according to its clans. Their allotted territory lay between the tribes of Judah and Joseph:
12 On the north side their boundary began at the Jordan, passed the northern slope of Jericho and headed west into the hill country, coming out at the wilderness of Beth Aven. 13 From there it crossed to the south slope of Luz (that is, Bethel) and went down to Ataroth Addar on the hill south of Lower Beth Horon.
14 From the hill facing Beth Horon on the south the boundary turned south along the western side and came out at Kiriath Baal (that is, Kiriath Jearim), a town of the people of Judah. This was the western side.
15 The southern side began at the outskirts of Kiriath Jearim on the west, and the boundary came out at the spring of the waters of Nephtoah. 16 The boundary went down to the foot of the hill facing the Valley of Ben Hinnom, north of the Valley of Rephaim. It continued down the Hinnom Valley along the southern slope of the Jebusite city and so to En Rogel. 17 It then curved north, went to En Shemesh, continued to Geliloth, which faces the Pass of Adummim, and ran down to the Stone of Bohan son of Reuben. 18 It continued to the northern slope of Beth Arabah[c] and on down into the Arabah. 19 It then went to the northern slope of Beth Hoglah and came out at the northern bay of the Dead Sea, at the mouth of the Jordan in the south. This was the southern boundary.
20 The Jordan formed the boundary on the eastern side.
These were the boundaries that marked out the inheritance of the clans of Benjamin on all sides.
21 The tribe of Benjamin, according to its clans, had the following towns:
Jericho, Beth Hoglah, Emek Keziz, 22 Beth Arabah, Zemaraim, Bethel, 23 Avvim, Parah, Ophrah, 24 Kephar Ammoni, Ophni and Geba—twelve towns and their villages.
25 Gibeon, Ramah, Beeroth, 26 Mizpah, Kephirah, Mozah, 27 Rekem, Irpeel, Taralah, 28 Zelah, Haeleph, the Jebusite city (that is, Jerusalem), Gibeah and Kiriath—fourteen towns and their villages.
This was the inheritance of Benjamin for its clans.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: John 14:1-7
Jesus Comforts His Disciples
1 “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God[a]; believe also in me. 2 My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. 4 You know the way to the place where I am going.”
Jesus the Way to the Father
5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”
6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you really know me, you will know[b] my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”
Awakened By A Close Friend
August 2, 2011 — by Dennis Fisher
Where I am, there you may be also. —John 14:3
A few years ago I had some tests to screen for cancer, and I was nervous about the outcome. My anxiety was magnified as I thought about the fact that while the medical personnel were well-trained and extremely competent, they were also strangers who had no relationship with me.
After awakening from the anesthesia, however, I heard the beautiful sound of my wife’s voice: “It’s great, Honey. They didn’t find anything.” I looked up at her smiling face and was comforted. I needed the assurance of someone who loved me.
A similar assurance lies ahead for all who have trusted Jesus. Believers can be comforted in knowing that when they wake up in heaven, One who loves them greatly—Jesus—will be there.
The Book of Common Prayer expresses this Christian hope: “After my awakening, [my Redeemer] will raise me up; and in my body I shall see God. I myself shall see, and eyes behold Him who is my friend and not a stranger.”
Do you have trouble facing mortality? Jesus promised to be there when we slip from this world into the next. He said, “Where I am [heaven], there you may be also” (John 14:3). What a comfort for believers to know that after death we will be awakened by a close Friend.
What wonders await us in yonder fair land!
The face of our Savior, the touch of His hand,
No tears and no crying, no sighs or despair,
For Jesus is waiting to welcome us there. —Kerr
To see Jesus will be heaven’s greatest joy.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
August 2nd, 2011
The Teaching of Adversity
In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world —John 16:33
The typical view of the Christian life is that it means being delivered from all adversity. But it actually means being delivered in adversity, which is something very different. “He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. No evil shall befall you, nor shall any plague come near your dwelling . . .” (Psalm 91:1,10)— the place where you are at one with God.
If you are a child of God, you will certainly encounter adversities, but Jesus says you should not be surprised when they come. “In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” He is saying, “There is nothing for you to fear.” The same people who refused to talk about their adversities before they were saved often complain and worry after being born again because they have the wrong idea of what it means to live the life of a saint.
God does not give us overcoming life— He gives us life as we overcome. The strain of life is what builds our strength. If there is no strain, there will be no strength. Are you asking God to give you life, liberty, and joy? He cannot, unless you are willing to accept the strain. And once you face the strain, you will immediately get the strength. Overcome your own timidity and take the first step. Then God will give you nourishment— “To him who overcomes I will give to eat from the tree of life . . .” (Revelation 2:7). If you completely give of yourself physically, you become exhausted. But when you give of yourself spiritually, you get more strength. God never gives us strength for tomorrow, or for the next hour, but only for the strain of the moment. Our temptation is to face adversities from the standpoint of our own common sense. But a saint can “be of good cheer” even when seemingly defeated by adversities, because victory is absurdly impossible to everyone, except God.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Some Things Just Aren't Negotiable - #6407
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
You know, you and I are living in a, well, a pretty adjustable world. I mean, we have adjustable rate mortgages. I have an adjustable wrench that changes sizes for different jobs. We have adjustable clothes, and that's a good thing because we seem to have adjustable bodies these days. We even have one size that fits all. And we have negotiations going on between nations, who are constantly adjusting their views, and their policies, and their public statements that things they said would never change. As the situation changes, we all seem willing to change almost everything with it--sometimes including the truth.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Some Things Just Aren't Negotiable."
Now, our word for today from the Word of God is found in Luke 5:5. And we find out that Simon Peter, for all of his weaknesses, had one thing that gave him the heart of a disciple. There was one bottom line in his life that simply was not negotiable. And I think this is what Jesus loved about him. Maybe you remember the incident where he had just been out all night fishing, and he came in and Jesus said, "Now, I'd like you to go out again." Okay, it was already the heat of the day, and Simon Peter could think of all kinds of reasons to do something else. It's going to be inconvenient, we're going to get the nets dirty again, we just finished cleaning them. I'm going to look foolish to the other fishermen, because "Hello! Nobody goes out in the middle of the day." It's not going to work because you don't catch fish in the heat of the day. And he'd already tried and he failed.
A lot of reasons; a lot of things that told him not to do it. But listen to what he says, "Master, we've worked hard all night and haven't caught anything. Which sounds like that's going to be the reason he won't do what Jesus said. But listen to the next sentence, "...but because You say so, I will let down the nets."
See, the heart of a disciple of Jesus says what Peter did. "If you say so, I'll do it." That's the bottom line no matter what anyone else says. Now, today there's a dangerous drift from that kind of spirit-filled, scripture-anchored stability. "Thus saith the Lord." Well, that's often compromised by "thus saith society" or "thus saith the Gallup Survey" or "72% of Americans say..." or it's compromised by the latest best seller or what somebody said on a talk show.
Sometimes I think we have a tendency to follow sociology more than theology. For example, you could take the issue of divorce. In the Christian world, divorce became accepted pretty quickly. Now, society says it's okay, but, well, has God changed His mind? In Luke 5:5, God says, "I hate divorce." Not "I hate divorced people," but "I hate divorce." See, the problem is we tend to have an adjustable truth if it's out of step with what's culturally cool or personally convenient.
God's truth has always been out-of-step with the culture. Like Peter, we must go to the Bible alone for our view, not to what makes sense to us or to say, "Well, now this is affecting someone I know, so maybe I could change my view." I always say, "When the verse gets a face, the verse is going out the window." See, the Bible clearly tells us what fulfilling womanhood is, no matter what sociology says. It tells us what manhood is; that marriage is forever. It talks about sex that is meant to be between a man and a woman within a lifetime, permanent commitment. Anything else is outside of God's boundaries. It certainly shows us that politics are not the focus of a Christian's energies, but the Kingdom of God.
It's time that we returned with humility to an open Bible and say, "God, how do You feel about it? And whatever You say, that's it! I'll do it." Now, we have to always speak with love and humility, but always with His authority. We, who love the Bible, are the only ones with the whole story; we've got God's truth. And those things? They just aren't negotiable.
