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Whose Side Are You On?

                      Now when Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua went up to him and asked, “Are you for us or for our enemies?”
             “Neither,” he replied, “but as commander of the army of the Lord I have now come.”
             Then Joshua fell facedown to the ground in reverence, and asked him, “What message does my Lord have for his servant?”
              The commander of the Lord’s army replied, “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy.” And Joshua did so. (Joshua 5:13-15)

        It's easy to assume God is on our side. How could He possibly be on "their" side? They are nasty, cruel, terrible, rotten and sinful people. They are heathens, infidels, pagans, idolaters.... But when Joshua met the commander of the Lord's army, the commander wasn't on Joshua's side. The answer, of course, is that God isn't on our side - we need to be on His side. Sometimes, that means accepting things that aren't the way we are sure they should be. Aren't the "good guys" supposed to win? That may depend on your definition of "win."
         Sometimes, winning involves giving ground that we thought was taken. This is one of those things that can be hard to understand. Back with Barack Obama was running to his first term of office, I pointed out to some conservative friends that in some ways, it would be a good thing for a Liberal to win, because when Liberals win and are in office, then Conservatives get off their backsides and start working, but Liberals tend to sit back and let their leader work. When Conservatives win, Liberals get busy, but Conservatives sit back, sure that everything is now "under control" and things will be done as they want. When Christians win and are in charge, Christianity can suffer. When Christians aren't in charge, and are suffering, Christianity can often grow.
         Joshua was standing in pagan, enemy territory, but it was holy ground because the commander of the Lord's army was there. It was God's land. No matter who wins office in November, the earth is still the Lord's. We need to be careful, because if we "win" we may lose, but if we lose, we may ultimately win. Make sure you're on God's side.

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