THE ONE YEAR BIBLE CLUB

  Too old to fight? Not Caleb! He was one of the original 12 spies to spy out this land many decades earlier and was one of the two (the other was Joshua) . When a young man is entering puberty we know that a surge of Testosterone runs into and through his body. This testosterone causes hair to grow, pimples to form and aggressiveness to rise up in him. Here is the transformation from boy to manhood and the fight; that once was not in the boy, is now there! He becomes more aggressive, stronger, muscles begin to develop, but what happens in old age? The opposite, Testosterone begins to wear off in our later years of life. So much so, that men, today, can purchase drugs to increase their testosterone in their latter years. As men grow old, because of the decrease in Testosterone, they lose the fight that once was in them. They become very complacent, they become very passive. This is how it works in the Physical world and I wonder how much the Physical mirrors the spiritual? Fewer an...

   If you've ever felt or suspected that sometimes God puts you off, you may have had that suspicion confirmed in today's reading. Jesus acknowledges through this parable that often we can be asking for something and being put off, not just by this Judge, but by God himself. Jesus doesn't say "He doesn't put people off" but He does say, "He will not put you off forever". Jesus says, that our persistence in prayer will work. Asking once, twice is not enough. Even Elijah prayed a few times for rain until his prayer was answered. We sure kept asking our parents for something when we were kids, until we wore them down and they gave in. Why don't we take that same approach with our Father in Heaven? We pray for a few weeks for finances, see no change and give up. We pray for an unsaved loved for a while, see no change in him/her and we give up. We pray a couple of times for a pain to go away or a healing, no change, we give up. The list is endless of ...

   ARE Christians altruistic? There's a question that deserves some thought! I personally don't know the answer to that, but I do know that Jesus was. I am amazed how many times Jesus helped and healed people, without first negotiating with them whether or not they would follow him. "If I heal you will you follow me, If I heal you will you repent, if I heal you will you be my disciple, will you join my group?", these were never words heard from Jesus. Jesus healed and helped (and some may be scandalized by this) without even preaching to them. So why did Jesus heal, without first getting a commitment? Why did Jesus heal, knowing full well he was just being used? The answer of course was because Jesus was truly altruistic, he was the epitome of selflessness. What are the motives of Christians today? Are we helping others and being nice, pretending to care when really all we want is for them to join our church and the moment we realize they have no interest in our churc...

  OUR idea of righteousness is not even close to what "righteousness" truly is. I was at a convenience store this morning, bought a refillable coffee cup cause I'm sick of paying for a cup every time I go (I digress) so the clerk offered for me to go in the back of the store to rinse the cup. I looked around and there was tons of goods lying around that I could have easily slipped into my pocket; any thief would have taken advantage of the situation. "But you are not a thief" you would say. That's right and I could walk away feeling quite smug that I was not even remotely tempted to take anything for my gain; I could feel quite smug about my righteousness....UNTIL I read today's reading. Let's be honest, WE would have broken this oath as quickly as we made it. You deceived me and there's no way I'm going to honor this oath! "but you gave me your word, you promised", they would say, and we would reply, "I don't care!!!"...

  I'm not so sure if "catch me if you can" is the best policy to follow in life. There is a mindset that says, "it's a win win situation", if they catch me me oh well, what will they do and of course if they don't, I get away with it, so why confess?". I'm sure Achan is thinking, "man, I almost got away with it, this is embarrassing, oh well, the risk was worth it". Achan says, "yeah, it's in my tent, you found me out, go get it" (paraphrased by me of course). Imagine his surprise when Joshua says, "take him outside the camp and stone him TO DEATH, and his wife & sons too". Now the RAMIFICATIONS of CATCH ME IF YOU CAN have been amped up. Now it's no longer a game of cat and mouse chase. God cannot stand the "catch me if you can" mindset. If we confess before we are caught, there will always be Grace and most of the time there will always be leniency with those you confessed to. That being said,...

  Joshua is a pretty impressive fellow! If I asked you to quickly mention something negative, most would not be able to give an answer within 30 seconds, try it! Couldn't come up with anything, could you? In our story today we do see signs of human frailty in Joshua. Right after the great conquest and victory of Jericho, Joshua sends in a small dispatch of 3000 men to go in an wipe out a small segment of enemies remaining on the outskirts, but when those men come back with their tales between their legs and explain how they were defeated and had to retreat, Joshua falls apart. Joshua starts blurting out statements as, "we should have just stayed on the other side of the Jordan" Really?! Joshua begins to panic and blurt out that now all their enemies will hear about this defeat and they will be doomed. He goes into panic mode and a defeatist mindset. It just goes to show, how easily our confidence is broken. One loss, one set back and our faith crumbles. After a victory, ...