Mission Faithwalk

So the men set out in pursuit of the spies on the road that leads to the fords of the Jordan, and as soon as the pursuers had gone out, the gate was shut. Before the spies lay down for the night, she went up on the roof and said to them, “I know that the LORD has given this land to you and that a great fear of you has fallen on us, so that all who live in this country are melting in fear because of you. We have heard how the LORD dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to Sihon and Og, the two kings of the Amorites east of the Jordan, whom you completely destroyed. When we heard of it, our hearts melted and everyone’s courage failed because of you, for the LORD your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below (Joshua 2:7-11)             The last place I worked, I worked very hard to earn a reputation. I not only wanted to be good at my job, on my terms , but I wanted it known that if you invaded "my turf," you ha

  So Joshua ordered the officers of the people: “Go through the camp and tell the people, ‘Get your supplies ready. Three days from now you will cross the Jordan here to go in and take possession of the land the LORD your God is giving you for your own.’ ” But to the Reubenites, the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh, Joshua said, “Remember the command that Moses the servant of the LORD gave you: ‘The LORD your God is giving you rest and has granted you this land.’ Your wives, your children and your livestock may stay in the land that Moses gave you east of the Jordan, but all your fighting men, fully armed, must cross over ahead of your brothers. You are to help your brothers until the LORD gives them rest, as he has done for you, and until they too have taken possession of the land that the LORD your God is giving them. After that, you may go back and occupy your own land, which Moses the servant of the LORD gave you east of the Jordan toward the sunrise.”         Then they ans

Title: The Way of Kings Author: Brandon Sanderson Publisher: Macmillan Audiobooks Copyright: 2010 Stars: 4 36 CDs        This is a massive story with two narrators. In the two narrators is my major complaint with the book. The male narrator called one of the characters Sa dee-us. The female narrator called him Se DEE-us. My other irritation with the story has to do with the flora and fauna. I can't fault him for it, I just don't happen to think it a good choice.          The story itself is told from lots of different POVs and jumps around the world's timeline with comparative abandon. I love the complexity of the story. I also liked Mr. Sanderson's level of knowledge of technical items (e.g. parts of a suit of armor) and his level of development of Roshar. I want to write a story this big someday, but I have a lot of world-making to do before I can do it.

Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.”   (Joshua 1:8-19)           Yesterday, I shared about how difficult it is to be strong, courageous and careful to be obedient. It takes everything. You have to meditate on it day and night. It sounds like a lot of work. It can be a lot of work.                 When I lost ninety pounds, it took about a year of keeping track. There were times that it was boring or difficult. For the most part, however, it wasn't as bad as I expected it to be. That's what makes it especially galling that I can't seem to flip that switch back on and step into old good habits. It didn't take that much strength once I got started. It was the battle t

Then Joshua son of Nun secretly sent two spies from Shittim. “Go, look over the land,” he said, “especially Jericho.” So they went and entered the house of a prostitute named Rahab and stayed there. The king of Jericho was told, “Look! Some of the Israelites have come here tonight to spy out the land.”           So the king of Jericho sent this message to Rahab: “Bring out the men who came to you and entered your house, because they have come to spy out the whole land.”           But the woman had taken the two men and hidden them. She said, “Yes, the men came to me, but I did not know where they had come from. At dusk, when it was time to close the city gate, the men left. I don’t know which way they went. Go after them quickly. You may catch up with them.” (But she had taken them up to the roof and hidden them under the stalks of flax she had laid out on the roof.) (Joshua 2:1-6)             For anyone who doesn't already know, I'm looking forward to meeting Ra

Just as we fully obeyed Moses, so we will obey you. Only may the LORD your God be with you as he was with Moses. Whoever rebels against your word and does not obey your words, whatever you may command them, will be put to death. Only be strong and courageous!” (Joshua 1:17-18)             Yesterday, I wrote about bonds of unity, keeping our word, and praying for one another's wisdom, direction and attitude. Today, I'm going to suggest another possible prayer, a prayer suggested by the words of the two and a half tribes. When we don't have something specific to pray for someone, we can pray for their obedience. That's an area in which we all need help. Our fallen humanity rebels and we need to confess that rebellion to God regularly.             We can also pray that the Lord be with the person for whom we pray, "as he was with Moses." Can you imagine? Even if God were with us only half of the way He was with Moses, that would be pretty phenomenal. T

No one will be able to stand up against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you. “Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their forefathers to give them. Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. (Joshua 1:5-7)           Be strong. Be courageous. Be careful to be obedient. Why? Because 1) God will be with you, 2) you will lead these people (whoever they happen to be in your life) and 3) in doing so, you will be successful wherever you go.            Being strong doesn't come naturally to me. Neither do being courageous or careful to be obedient. What comes naturally is giving in to temptation or to myself. What comes naturally is to avoid unpleasantness. What comes naturally is to do what comes naturally and  

After the death of Moses the servant of the LORD , the LORD said to Joshua son of Nun, Moses’ aide: “Moses my servant is dead. Now then, you and all these people, get ready to cross the Jordan River into the land I am about to give to them—to the Israelites. I will give you every place where you set your foot, as I promised Moses. Your territory will extend from the desert to Lebanon, and from the great river, the Euphrates—all the Hittite country—to the Great Sea on the west. (Joshua 1:1-4)           After Moses died, Israel had mourned for thirty days. I can imagine Joshua being reluctant. I can imagine the Israelites being reluctant. None of them except Joshua and Caleb could remember a time when Moses was not their leader. Joshua had been a leader for more than forty years, but now he was the leader. This is close to the situation our young adults face in the upcoming election. Those who are voting for the first time probably don't really remember a time when liberal Pr

Therefore, dear friends, since you already know this, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of lawless men and fall from your secure position. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen. (II Peter 3:17-18)             I'm not going to tiptoe around it. This passage seems to cast doubt on the issue of eternal security. I'm not sure it actually does, but it seems to. Years ago, I read a story of a school located along a busy road. The children huddled near the building. When the school erected a fence between the road and the school yard, the children spread out and played freely. Was their position with the fence really any more secure? No, a car or truck could still have injured or killed them, but they felt that their position in the yard was more secure because of the fence. So the question may not be "Can one lose one's salvation?" so much as it may be,

So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him. Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction. (II Peter 3:14-16)             Sometimes, Paul's letters are hard to understand? It makes me feel better that even back then, people struggled to understand. Somehow, the fact that they didn't get it makes it seem to me that I'm not quite so stupid when I don't get it. They had the benefit of being from a culture that was closer to Paul's than mine is.             I like the fact that God puts some stuff on the highest shelf, and even keeps some back in a

The Imitation of Christ Author: Thomas a Kempis Publisher: HarperSanFrancisco, San Francisco, CA Copyright: 2000 Pages: 272 + afterward Stars: 3 or 4         My biggest problem with this book is that I didn't read it as I think it needs to be read. I read it. I think it needs to be savored... slowly. It is really a series of journal entries that are conversations with God. Whether it was the original or the translation, the language sometimes was less formal and more casually flip than I like. At other times, I appreciated the casual tone. It's one I can and should return to someday.       One of my favorite passages: "These are my terrible 'to's,' O Lord. To now what has to be known To love what has to be loved To praise what tickles You the most, To appreciate what You think precious, To vituperate what soils the eyes, To put less reliance on visible and audible evidence when it comes to forming a judgment;... To inquire always, first and for

But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare. Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. (II Peter 3:8-12)       When I was a kid, one of my neighbor's parents scolded me because I was scaring her daughter with stories from the book of Revelation. I had thought it was exciting. Recently in a Sunday School clas

Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame, Illistrated by Dick Cuffari Published by Grosset & Dunlap, New York City, NY 1966 220 ages Stars: 2        Perhaps it's that it is a children's book. I know it's supposed to be a classic story, but I wasn't impressed. Another possible reason for my lack of enthusiasm was because I didn't see any correspondence between the animals chosen as characters and the personalities involved.  My apologies to those who loved it.

First of all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. They will say, “Where is this ‘coming’ he promised? Ever since our fathers died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.” But they deliberately forget that long ago by God’s word the heavens existed and the earth was formed out of water and by water. By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed. By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men. (II Peter 3:3-7)             There are stories about a great flood in many cultures. One website gave a number as high as 600 different stories. Not all cultures have creation stories, but many of them do. Some of these stories are pretty wild. I know at least one of the flood tales involves someone throwing rocks over his shoulder, and those rocks turn into people who repopulate the pl

Dear friends, this is now my second letter to you. I have written both of them as reminders to stimulate you to wholesome thinking. I want you to recall the words spoken in the past by the holy prophets and the command given by our Lord and Savior through your apostles. (2 Peter 3:1-2)          According to my study Bible's notes, this is supposed to refer to the Day of the Lord spoken of by the prophets. It's probably right, but what comes to my mind is that the Law and the Prophets, and Jesus' "greatest command" was to love the Lord with all our hearts, souls, minds and strengths and to love our neighbors as ourselves. Yes, we're back to that again. Obeying that commandment is likely to become more difficult as the Day of the Lord approaches, because the people we're commanded to love may suffer greatly and even if we don't suffer ourselves, we'll suffer with them; or the people we're commanded to love may be responsible for our sufferin

The Iliad by    Homer Published by Simon & Schuster 13 CD set read by Alfred Molina (16 hours 3 minutes) Stars 2                 Somehow, I managed to not read this during high school or college. It was not the story I thought it was at all, and that may be part of my disappointment. Another part is the fact that it is an Eastern   and oral story, which tends to be irritating to me over time. In general, while I'm glad I listened to it, and I would recommend it as useful for cultural literacy in a well-educated person, it was not a book I enjoyed.

I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-- I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference                                                                      Robert Frost (The Road Not Taken)                   This last stanza   of Robert Frost's poem doesn't quite describe my life. Oh, I suspect I've often taken the road less traveled by. I also suspect I've taken it less often than I like to imagine I have.   What really describes my life, but would not sound nearly as desirable, is that I have taken the road I didn't want to take. The most obvious examples of this are the road I took to an MBA and the road I took to lose 90 lbs.      This past year is the most recent example. While walking one day last summer, I suffered a creative fit and wrote a picturesque bit of prose comparing the clouds to a Sunday afternoon idyll on a lake.   That first was the best of a series

       This is especially true of those who follow the corrupt desire of the sinful nature and despise authority. Bold and arrogant, these men are not afraid to slander celestial beings; yet even angels, although they are stronger and more powerful, do not bring slanderous accusations against such beings in the presence of the Lord. But these men blaspheme in matters they do not understand. They are like brute beasts, creatures of instinct, born only to be caught and destroyed, and like beasts they too will perish. They will be paid back with harm for the harm they have done. Their idea of pleasure is to carouse in broad daylight. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their pleasures while they feast with you. With eyes full of adultery, they never stop sinning; they seduce the unstable; they are experts in greed—an accursed brood! They have left the straight way and wandered off to follow the way of Balaam son of Beor, who loved the wages of wickedness. But he was rebuked for hi

For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell, putting them into gloomy dungeons to be held for judgment; if he did not spare the ancient world when he brought the flood on its ungodly people, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others; if he condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by burning them to ashes, and made them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly;   and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man, who was distressed by the filthy lives of lawless men (for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard)—   if this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue godly men from trials and to hold the unrighteous for the day of judgment, while continuing their punishment. (II Peter 2:4-9)             This morning I'm reminded that God never says, "Oh my Self, what am I going to do now?" He knows how to rescue godly men from tri

But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them—bringing swift destruction on themselves. Many will follow their shameful ways and will bring the way of truth into disrepute. In their greed these teachers will exploit you with stories they have made up. Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping.   (II Peter 2:1-3)             The other day I saw something on Facebook about why there are crackpots that associate themselves with a respectable group of people. Of course, if you pick any respectable group of people, there will be those who say that they are not respectable, that the whole group is nothing but crackpots and lunatics, but I don't believe that's true.   Statistically speaking, 68.2% of people fit into what might be considered the norm. Yes, they're "

And we have the word of the prophets made more certain, and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation. For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit (2 Peter 1:19-21)    “Know and understand this: From the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One, the ruler, comes, there will be seven ‘sevens,’ and sixty-two ‘sevens.’ It will be rebuilt with streets and a trench, but in times of trouble. After the sixty-two ‘sevens,’ the Anointed One will be cut off and will have nothing . The people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary . The end will come like a flood: War will continue until the end, and desolations have been decreed. He will con

We did not follow cleverly invented stories when we told you about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For he received honor and glory from God the Father when the voice came to him from the Majestic Glory, saying, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” We ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with him on the sacred mountain.   (II Peter 1:16-18)                           I'm listening to the Iliad. I can't begin to tell you how many of the characters announce that they are the son or grandson of some god. I seriously think that the author must have spent months trying to come up with new ways for people to die from wounds inflicted by a spear, arrow or sword. Then there are the gods, whose interactions make Survivor and soap operas look tame, who interfere on one side or the other, often appearing in the likeness of another person, and more often than not being discovered in the

So I will always remind you of these things, even though you know them and are firmly established in the truth you now have. I think it is right to refresh your memory as long as I live in the tent of this body, because I know that I will soon put it aside, as our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me. And I will make every effort to see that after my departure you will always be able to remember these things . (II Peter 1:12-15)             Have you ever thought about the legacy you're going to leave? Peter wanted his legacy to be people who were firmly established in the truth. When my mother was dying, we bought Bibles for my siblings and their children. She wrote notes to each recipient. As I look through history, here have been people who left legacies of knowledge, healing, wisdom, freedom... these are all worthy legacies.             Yesterday, someone posted a meme on Facebook about the fact that people don't attend funerals to talk about what a lovely couch s

For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But if anyone does not have them, he is nearsighted and blind, and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins. Therefore, my brothers, be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never fall, and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. So I will always remind you of these things, even though you know them and are firmly established in the truth you now have. I think it is right to refresh your memory as long as I live in the tent of this bo

For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge;   and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. (II Peter 1:5-8)               "You've just gotta believe " Well, it's a good place to start.  "I'm a good person." That's good to hear. I won't even argue that no one is 100% good. It's true, but for the moment, we'll assume that you're "good." T here are times when it seems as if people think that believing and being good are God's only goals for us.              Recently, I saw a video of a high school football team. Each player brought an orange rose out to lay at the feet of a cheerl