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This is the conclusion to our study of the book of Joshua. Today we see Joshua blessing a nation, reminding them of the faithfulness of God and admonishing them to remain faithful. It's such a beautiful example of growing old in the Lord! Takeaways: 1. Be strong and courageous. Keep going, trusting in God's promises. Don't turn back and don't give up. Things will be daunting at times. Life will get hard. There will sickness and serious issues. But keep going and be strong.  2. Obey: Always obey God. Obedience is the path of blessing. God's commandments are not trivial and they aren't suggestions. They are for our good and we honor him when we take them seriously.  3. What will your legacy be? How will the people around you remember you? Will they remember you as a loving parent, a faithful spouse, a godly neighbor; will they remember you loving people well and being generous? Will they remember how you noticed others and sought God instead of getting wrapped up in the world, or will they remember something very different? Blessing and commission: May God awaken in you a warrior who goes to battle for the things of God. May he go before you, behind you and beside you and my you be strong and courageous to do the work.

As we come to the end of the book of Joshua, Joshua asks the people how long they are going to wait before they settle into the new territory. He chides them to take the land, build it up and get busy living.  We talk about the cities of refuge, the cities for the priests and Joshua meeting the complaint of the men of Ephraim who say they don't have enough land. If you don't, then go and take some more! Our takeaways include: 1. Making a house of worship a priority. When you move to a new area, go to college or are just doing life, make having a place of worship a priority. Seek a church that teaches the Word in its truth and purity; a place where your gifts will be used, and where there is a focus to reach the unchurched.  2. Get busy living: Stop somedaying! Do what needs to be done. Fix and clean the house, garage, yard; get the will made; travel while you can; be about the Father's business because right now is when you are alive and right now is when you have the opportunity.  3. Ask God to have the same mercy and compassion that he has. He sees the big picture. He knows your heart. He sees and knows your weaknesses and fears and he's already taken them into account.  4. Thank God for godly leaders and the people who share their faith, mentor you, walk with us.  Blessing: Go and do whatever God puts on your heart with all the energy he provides. Make worship a priority and ask for a heart of compassion to bless the people God brings your way.

In this episode we're reminded first, that most of us can not pronounce the names in the bible and that's OK.  Second, Caleb went after the land and got it. Even as an old man, Caleb went into battle bravely.  Third, when it came time to give his daughter to a man in marriage, Caleb wanted his future son-in-law to be a brave man who trusted in God to bring him to victory, so he set up a challenge promising his daughter to the man who conquered a certain territory.  Fourth, Caleb's daughter reminds us that it is good and wise to ask! Don't be afraid to ask God for more.  Fifth, stand on the promises of God! Sixth, the importance of stepping up and stepping into all God would do for us.  The takeaways include:  1. Choose your spouse wisely. And if you are married to an unbeliever, stay in the marriage, (assuming you aren't being abused and there aren't biblical reasons to leave), pray for your spouse and love them well. If you are unmarried, be very choosy about who you marry.  2. Ask! Go to God in prayer. Don't try to get through the tough stuff of life on your own! 3. Don't give up or shrink back when things get hard. Remember why you are fighting.  Blessing and commission: Keep going. Keep praying. Keep contending for what is good.

We're skipping some names and sections of chapters, and moving on to Joshua 14 and the account of Caleb. Caleb was one of the spies who came back to Moses and whole-heartedly encouraged the rest of the children of Israel to take the land God had promised. He trusted God completely.  Now, 40 plus years later, he was waiting to finally obtain the land he was promised.  Takeaways:  1. God's promises are reliable. What God says is as good as done. 2. We will always be at war. We don't retire from being a Christian, and so the battle rages on until God takes us home. 3. Age is just a number. Young or old, we are entirely usable to God until he brings us home.  Blessing and commission: May God grant you great power to influence many for kingdom good and God's glory, and may you trust in God's promises and use them to fuel the important kingdom work God has equipped you to do.

Once again the kings of Canaan came against Joshua, and once again God told Joshua to confidently go out to meet the enemies because success was certain.  Even though the enemies Joshua faced were better equipped and numerous, Joshua and the Israelites defeated them with the Lord's help.  Takeaways:1) Make God a priority. We never know when our time of grace or our friends/family/co-workers time of grace will end. 2) Perspective is everything. We can stay in the doom and gloom or we can look at everything as a learning experience, learn the lessons, trust God to work things out and move on. 3) It's all God. He is gracious enough to include us in his plan, but it's all him, all the time. He gives us life, breath, the abilities and opportunities. So it's all him. 4) Be grateful and full of joy right now. Don't wait for another season to see the blessings around you. Notice the blessings now.  Commission: May you embrace today knowing God has got everything under control, courageous to do all he's putting in front of you, embracing true humility as you enjoy this season.

Joshua and his men defended the Gibeonites when the kings of Canaan came against them. They lost no time and caught the kings by surprise. Then Joshua commanded the sun the stand still, so they could continue to route their enemies and God gave him what he asked.  Takeaways: 1. A lot can change in a little time. One day you're wondering if anything will ever change and the next you're on your way and things are dramatically different.  2. Right doesn't mean easy: Joshua and his men marched all night, fought all day, and then the sun stood still and they fought some more. We are usually going to have to work at the things God calls us to do.  3. Look to God to provide. Always pray your way through.  May you be more like a lion than a chicken! Charles Spurgeon

The lesson recorded today is all too familiar. A spiritual high is followed by a spiritual low.  We ended chapter 8 with a high. The people paused to read the law. Joshua wrote the law out. The Israelites were standing on the promises of God. Chapter nine takes us to a spiritual low: Joshua and the leaders fail to inquire of God and make a poor decision because of it.  Takeaways: Tell them! How will anyone know you are a Christian if you don't tell them. Make talk about God, prayer, what he has done a normal part of your conversation.  2) Don't assume you understand unless you do. If you haven't been through it, you don't understand. You can empathize, but you just don't know.  3) Pray. And then pray some more. And wait on the Lord until you get your answer.  4) Your word is your bond. Do not make flippant promises. Do what you say and say what you mean. If you said it, do it, even if you realize you got duped.

Joshua 8 takes Joshua and the children of Israel back to the business of conquering the land. After the setback of Achan's sin, they need to refocus and get back to work.  God encourages Joshua and gives him the plan of attack. Once Joshua and his men carry it out, they bring the people together to read the law, to remember who they serve.  Setbacks are not meant to paralyze us or take us out. They are simply a hurdle. Some are bigger than others. Some have longer lasting issues than others.  Satan and his army may want nothing more than to take us out. If they can't steal our faith, they can certainly try to keep us from living it out and using it in the kingdom of God.  Takeaways include: 1. Don't let setbacks permanently take you out of the kingdom or keep you from kingdom work.  2. Obey: Do whatever you have to do with a heart set on pleasing God, not on personal gain, or with a chip on your shoulder. Take God's commands seriously. 3. Remember to give thanks and set apart time in your schedule to get back into God's Word.  Commission: Get up by the power and strength God provides. Go in the grace God provides and work for the Lord and men and be a blessing to both!

It's so much easier to sweep it under the rug or pretend it's not an issue; to endure the flare up then go back to status quo until it becomes an issue again.  God wasn't messing around. When Achan took some of the sacred things dedicated to God, God brought the campaign to conquer Canaan to a halt and told Joshua to deal with it.  Generational sins would be non-existent If only we would learn to do the same.  When sins arise, stop. Acknowledge it. Get to the bottom of it. Then you are prepared to move on.

Tracy Tulle felt the fire in her belly every two to three years, and each time she did, she took another job, learned something new and took on new challenges. But not all challenges come as opportunities. Some challenges force new growth, a new location, and some even require you to pull back and re-evaluate where you are and where you're going to go.  And sometimes the biggest challenge is stepping away from it all and waiting on the Lord to show you what is next.

When it came to taking the land, the Israelites would see it was all God. God brought them to this point, God made the fortified walls fall down. God would give them the land.  Sometimes the hardest part is obeying God when it doesn't make sense. Why stay in a marriage that is subpar? Why not throw caution to the wind and seek pleasure when obedience feels like drudgery? God blesses obedience. He sees the effort you put in.  Jericho was the first place Israel conquered and it was to be set apart for God. They could take the plunder from the rest of the land, but Jericho was God's. God's kingdom works as his children support kingdom efforts. Are you setting aside some of what God has given you for the work of the church? God tells us to test him. Give to him and he assures us he will bless us. In all the years we've given, I've never missed what we've given to God. I think you'll find the same.

Accused, charged, sent to jail, and finally, when her day in court came, exonerated. How do you rebuild a life that's been shattered? That's what Rachel Goodle is in the process of doing.  Hear the second part of this two part series about this remarkable woman, what she's been through and how God continued to show up through the whole ordeal and even now. (If you missed the first episode go back and listen to part 1). In this episode I get a chance to go a little deeper into what happened and how she's still processing and healing from what she went through.  Please join me in prayer for Rachel as she navigates life after this experience. She's an amazing woman of God. I have no doubt he has big plans for her.

Rachel Goodle loved being a teacher at Oak Creek High School. An act of kindness-allowing a student to wait in her classroom for the basketball game to start-ended up having devastating consequences and started a chain of events she never imagined. What ensued was HR meetings, supervised classroom visits and ultimately three days in a Milwaukee jail while the news reported an inappropriate relationship with a student. The Get Moving Series is all about courageously moving forward, and sometimes that means just surviving another day. Listen in as I get to know Rachel, her story and her courageous faith.

This is the fifth episode in the Get Moving Series. The people are about to take the land, but first, Joshua and the people paused as the men were circumcised as a physical sign of God's covenant with Abraham.  We, too would do well to pause before embarking on important life changes, to rededicate ourselves and our lives to the Lord.

Each time that God carries us through a difficult situation, we can be sure he will be with us in whatever we face in days ahead. The Israelites erected a monument to remind them of the miracle they experienced in crossing the Jordan River.  It's easy to put off reading the Bible; or to get distracted during the Christmas or Easter season and go through the motions, rather than taking the time to remember why we set aside time to remember what God has done for us.  The Israelites that crossed the Jordan were not the same as their forefathers. This generation was obedient. Joshua, too, held fast to the directions Moses gave him. They remembered the error of the former generation, learned the lessons and did it different.