APRIL 24 "NO DISCIPLE BY JOSHUA?"

If you follow the life of Joshua, you will find little to no error, in his service to God. Nor will you find any flaws in his character. Perhaps Joshua learned enough watching Aaron over the years, to learn what not to be and what not to do. Joshua is pretty much a straight shooter, impeccable in his ways, so why does he not leave a disciple, why "no disciple" for Joshua? Where would Israel have been if Moses had not discipled Joshua? Yet, even knowing the impact and the importance of a disciple, Joshua leaves none.  "No disciple" is the only thing you can hold against Joshua, but it doesn't make sense. If Joshua was such a stellar disciple in every other area, why did he fail in this most important area? I've often thought about this and there can only be one conclusion......it's not that he failed to think, or to leave a disciple, it's that there was none to disciple. Yes, Moses discipled Joshua, but Joshua was interested in being discipled, it takes "two to tango" as the saying goes. I believe, that this group got so apathetic that there was nobody in the "up an coming", there was no man that saw that as a place he would like to be, no the places they could see themselves were, let's say, less than Holy. You'll notice the trend continues, as God begins to raise up individual judges to rescue Israel, but every time the deliverer,the judge dies, there is nobody to follow in his footsteps. Currently in one of our churches we have a leadership, Joshua position, that has recently vacated and to everyone's dismay, there is no likely candidate to step into his shoes and neither is there anyone volunteering. I believe, Joshua did not fail in leaving a disciple. I believe there was no man desiring or willing to be discipled and that's how bad the apathy and spiritual lethargy had gotten in this bunch. The proof, is in following the mind set of the people, through the era of The Judges. Synergy can be both a good thing and a bad thing, depends in whose favor it's working. I remember a time where synergy created a movement in our church where every man wanted to be a disciple and get sent out to Pastor. Surely God was not calling 95 percent of men in a church to leave to go Pastor. No doubt some of those men were called, but many were not and just caught up in the synergy of that moment. As it goes, the more people who wanted to be discipled, go out and preach, the more people that wanted to go out and preach. However this synergy can work against you too. The more people that aren't interested in being discipled, then the more people....I believe this is the time frame Joshua is in. They've seen the costs, the sacrifices and hardships and this group sees absolutely no reason why they would ever want that whole discipleship thing, " you must be crazy", they think and this mindset then becomes pervasive throughout the camp and Joshua has no man even remotely interested in the job. How sad that is for Israel and how sad that is for a church, to have "no disciples", to have no men, who desire to be a Moses, who desire to be the next Joshua. For all the bells and whistles of the modern day church, you can tell a lot about the  spiritual climate of a church, by looking around to see, if there be any disciples!