Tuesday, September 21, 2010

The Knockout Punch


"God wants us to obey His commands!" Was the cry by the majority of people when asked this question regarding Joshua Chapter 1: Summarize the message of this chapter in one sentence.

One lone voice answered, "Faith displays itself in action."

If you recall, Joshua 1 tells us how God commissions Joshua to take the place of Moses, God promises Joshua that he will conquer the land and no one will be able to oppose him, if he meditates on the law and does not swerve to the left or to the right. Refresh yourself by reading it, dear Reader.

God's command in scripture is that we believe Him and walk in the confidence that He does not lie. To some they hear scripture say: if we obey all that God commands us to do, we will have success. They want to climb a ladder up to God, rather than believe what God tells us when He comes down that ladder to us.

Climbing up a ladder to God is no different than all other religions of the world. There is a penance one must do to achieve Nirvana, by emptying all self; Allah weighs your good deeds against your bad deeds and may capriciously disregard your good deeds. Christianity is completely upside down from the idea that we can climb up a holiness ladder to have a relationship with God. God became man for us and for our salvation.

Joshua 1 is a wonderful chapter on faith and what it looks like. Joshua believed God and put that faith into action. To obey is to believe. It is faith that obeys, without faith we cannot please God. Faith acts on God's promises. Faith sees God's promises. Faith believes.

2 comments:

David Cochrane said...

Cool! I am glad we dont have to ladder up to God. Heights make me dizzy. :P

Unknown said...

Yeah, that's gotta be one very tall ladder to reach to heaven. I don't think it reaches that high, no matter what we think.