OT: Joshua. Love is...

It being the 14th February, I guess I should talk about love. Sorry.

Now it's true that the Bible is choc full of love - although when you read the Old Testament, it's sometimes a little harder to see unless you view the bigger picture.

Much of Joshua concerns the Israelites killing people, but the bigger picture is that of a loving God providing for his people exactly what he promised them. If you get bogged down in the detail of the events, you can miss the significance of what happens in this book - God's work done God's way will be successful (in God's eyes...).

We also see that God gives us guidance - on Sunday we looked at the future, and this fits well with the situation the Israelites will have found themselves in once they started moving into the land - a plan has been provided, but it's sometimes hard to see how it's going to work out.
To know God's will for our lives, we could do little better than reading his word and talking to him.
God speaks to us through his word as we read it, but also in the future as we remember what his word says - how great is it when you remember some Bible verses relevant to a situation you find yourself in without having to pick up a Bible!?

Finally, as we near the end of Joshua we see God cares about all of his people - potentially millions at this point. They have all been provided places to live, a social justice system to ensure the poor and broken are supported and security in their land.

We can trust in God for these things today - think about these particular areas of God's loving character and ask him for the things you need in your life; or maybe thank him for the things he has already given you.



"Father, father help us - need some guidance from above, 'cause people got me questioning - where is the love?"

OT: Deuteronomy. Same old, shmame old!

Deuteronomy. From the Greek 'second law', or from the bored Englishman 'the law, again?! Skip that.'
Now that's what I've often thought, and still do if I read it soon after reading Exodus, Leviticus & Numbers.

But the title in the original Hebrew is much more intriguing. Its name was the first two words of the book 'elleh haddebarim', meaning 'these are the words'.

The book is believed to be the recorded oral history of Israel & the law, from the mouth of Moses, shortly before his death. Future kings are commanded to make a copy of this law - even though Israel didn't yet have a king, and wouldn't ask for one for a few hundred years...
So this book is prophecy as well as law, and comes to us from a hero of the faith. Much more exciting than a simple rehashing, no?

In a few weeks at youth lifegroup, you'll have the opportunity to meet and talk with some genuine old people and heroes of the faith in 'Meet the Grandparents'. Try to make the most of this opportunity both this month and throughout your life - the wisdom such people offer is awesome - look at what happens to Joshua at the end of the book:

And Joshua the son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom, for Moses had laid his hands on him. So the people of Israel obeyed him and did as the LORD had commanded Moses. (Deut. 34:9)

Sure, sometimes old people can waffle on (Moses managed 34 chapters...), but they will speak more nuggets of gold in 5 minutes than I could in a week. It's worth listening to!

In preparation, why not have another skim through Deuteronomy - it is the third-most cited book in the New Testament (95 references from Jesus and the Apostles, so they obviously thought highly of it)?
Try reading the first & last chapters, then pick out some bits of interest to you.
I had a read of chapter 24 and was amazed at how much spoke to me - there's such a theme of justice in the whole book, I've no doubt it will interest and challenge you if you open your heart to it.



"This is wisdom. A wise man once said: tomorrow does not equal yesterday."

NT: Acts. I mean, what's there to lose?

I'm sure you will have at least heard the song:

Peter and John went to pray.  They met a lame man on the way.  He asked for alms as he held out his palms, and this is what Peter did say...

Well, apart from wondering how a man could hold out his palms if he had no arms (sorry, bad joke, but for a long time that is what I thought the words meant), Peter had a decision to make:

• Decision 1: What should my response be?
• Options:
• Walk by with my head down and hope he doesn't notice me.
• Apologise that I have no spare change because I gave it to the last lame bloke I saw.
• Step out in faith and go for the healing
• Risks:
• Not really any, except that he might notice me and then I'd have to have a swift change of plan
• None.  Other than the obvious 'Jesus knows the truth'.  But grace is great.
• Jesus might not heal him.  Then I'd look really stupid, he'd get upset and it might halt the advance of the gospel
• Decision made: Option 3

This was only the first decision Peter had to make in this chapter.  Check back here as I get through more of them and draw together a conclusion.