Twelve Stones

What prevents you from living a life of victory over sin, driven by a passion for God’s glory, which willingly partakes in Christ’s sufferings, and is profoundly touched by all the devastation that exists around us?

For most of us, it is because we live in our American, middle-class, five-day work week, play on Saturday, and go to church on Sunday little world which is quite separate from God’s reality as portrayed in the Bible. There is a war going on and it’s not just located in Iraq and Afghanistan. It is located in the hearts, souls, and minds of every man and woman on the planet. It is a war that requires us to be vigilant and remember the things God has done.

We have forgotten some basic fundamental principles about God’s world and how it functions. I am not talking about the simple fact that “Jesus Loves Me, This I Know” or “God so loved the world that He gave His only Son”. No, I am talking about basic principles that put everything we do in context; that provide a blueprint for every thought and every action in our lives. Because the reality is that everything you do and everything you say proceeds from something you believe.

For example, there is a myth that has spread through our churches that says “God doesn’t give you more than you can handle”; which is a poor interpretation of 1 Corinthians 10:13.

No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.

First of all, the scripture isn’t talking about “everything” that happens to someone. It is specifically talking about temptation. For most of us, if we just sit around temptation long enough, our flesh will submit to sin. That is why God warns us to flee from immorality (1 Cor 6:18); flee idolatry (1 Cor 10:14), and flee from lust (2 Tim 2:22). What God actually promises is a way out of temptation when it is happening. Unfortunately, few of us ever run away from the temptations that surround us.

Some of those things we believe are lies that we learned from the world. One of the most damaging lies we believe is that “there is a division between what is secular and what is sacred.” You can’t talk about God in government or Jesus at work. God has no place in school, specifically in biology and earth science. This lie has infected our minds so much that we accept an overdeveloped separation between church and state, science and creation, religion and education, church and work. What’s worse is that most of us have resigned ourselves to the fact that our faith in God is something separate from what we do or who we are.

So how do we start to live our lives where our faith is more the mark of our identity than our last name, our address, our place of work, and even our country? I say we start by remembering some things that we have forgotten, and then use God’s word to find the Truth and destroy the lies we uncover one by one. In order to do that, we are going to have to take a journey back to the Jordan River.

When the Israelites crossed over the Jordan River into the Promised Land, this is what God said” Joshua 4:1-7

When all the nation had finished passing over the Jordan, the Lord said to Joshua, “Take twelve men from the people, from each tribe a man,and command them, saying ‘Take twelve stones from here out of the midst of the Jordan, from the very place where the priests’ feet stood firmly, and bring them over with you and lay them down in the place where you lodge tonight,’ Then Joshua call the twelve men from the people of Israel, whom he had appointed, a man from each tribe. And Joshua said to them, ‘Pass on before the ark of the Lord your God into the midst of the Jordan, and take up each of you a stone upon his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the people of Israel, that this may be sign among you. When your children ask in time to come, ‘What do those stones mean to you? Then you shall tell them that the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord. When it passed over the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. So these stones shall be to the people of Israel a memorial forever.

Unfortunately, in Judges we find that the very next generation grew up and did not know the Lord or remember what He had done. We are doing the same thing today. What is even worse is that the majority of Americans say they believe in God, but he doesn’t resemble the One from the Bible. He resembles Morgan Freeman from Bruce Almighty or George Burns from Oh God.

One of the keys is that we condition ourselves to be in a constant state of remembrance. The only way to do this is to develop a habit of remembering key elements of God’s reality. To build our own twelve stone memorial to God. This week, I will share with you my twelve stones.

Let us become captivated by the Truth and compelled to His Service.
Troy