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Our Heavenly Joshua Magnified (with audio)
“On that day the LORD magnified Joshua in the sight of all Israel; and they feared him, as they feared Moses, all the days of his life.” – Joshua 4:14
We know of the Exodus of the Children of Israel out of Egyptian bondage and that the LORD God used Moses to lead them up to the Promised Land. After the death of Moses and just before Israel crossed over into the Promised Land, God raised up another leader by the name of Joshua. The LORD had Joshua lead the children of Israel across the Jordan River into the Promised Land. On the day that God stopped the waters of the river and the dry ground appeared for Israel to cross over that was the day that the LORD magnified Joshua. This special act by God, testified that Joshua was without a doubt divinely-appointed. Moses was dead, which meant that Israel could not go back to Moses for leadership or advice. In fact, Deuteronomy 34 teaches that God buried Moses in an unknown place, which meant that Moses finished his ministry never to be dug up by man. Joshua now has the credentials and the people recognized it and rejoiced in it. Joshua’s authoritative power was a matter of great importance – no one dared to question him. Moses was dead and now the people only looked to Joshua for the words of God. This is a wonderful picture of our Lord Jesus.
While Moses was alive, he spoke of a greater Prophet than he that would come after him and speak to the people. It would be this Prophet that they should hear (Deut. 18:15,18). Now we would automatically think that Moses was speaking of Joshua, but not so. The apostle Peter explains in Acts chapter 3 that Moses was actually prophesying of Jesus Christ. God’s providential hand was in this because the names Joshua and Jesus both mean “Jehovah’s saves.”
We read where “the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ” (John 1:17). The importance is that in the Law of Moses there is no grace, no mercy, and no power to help anyone to keep the law perfectly as God requires. The Law was always about justice, judgment, condemnation, and punishment. However, Jesus Christ, the Greater Prophet, is all about grace according to truth. It was He who kept all of God’s law perfectly for us, and as our Substitute, He then took all our sins to the cross and paid for them by giving His life for us. Therefore, because of His willing sacrifice and perfect obedience, God did magnify this Heavenly Joshua. Much of what the Old Testament Joshua did in the early days of Israel was a spiritual picture of what our Heavenly Joshua has done and is doing today for Spiritual Israel, the Church. There is no need to go back to Moses, when our Heavenly Joshua, Jesus, will lead us over the river of death safely into heaven, our Promised Land.
David C. Hale, pastor
Published in the Marshall County Tribune, Lewisburg, TN
Our Heavenly Joshua Magnified (Audio)
Christ Preaching His Kingdom (with audio)
Christ Preaching His Kingdom
“And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people.” – Matthew 4:23
There are three actions words that stick out. They are: teaching, preaching, and healing. These three actions are different and yet they purposely come together in the Kingdom ministry of Jesus Christ.
First, teaching. The Jewish synagogue was the central place for the community to worship God and to teach about God. The synagogue is where King Jesus showed up to teach about His Kingdom.
Next, King Jesus went about preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom outside of the synagogue. Preaching is different from teaching. Preaching is declaring abroad what has already been taught. Teaching passes on information about God, while preaching proclaims God with an impassioned cry out to the people declaring God’s truth – whether people want to believe it or not. Understand that King Jesus is the example that there is never preaching without teaching and there is never teaching without preaching. That’s why the churches who do both are usually fewer in number. Obviously, we can get a large numbers of people in church buildings with games, give-aways, programs, pot-luck dinners, and music-laser shows. However, if you follow the simple example of Jesus and teach and preach the Gospel of the Kingdom sadly there is little interest.
Lastly, we read that King Jesus came healing every kind of sickness and disease. Obviously He had compassion upon the people. However, the healings first of all confirmed that His message of the Gospel of the Kingdom has come down from heaven. The healings were signs proving that what He was teaching and preaching was true, and that He is the King of this Kingdom. Understand that miraculous healings are not everyday occurrences. That’s what makes it a miracle. Yet we have these self-proclaimed healers taking the name of God in vain. If they were authentic then why don’t they walk the halls of the nursing homes and the children’s cancer ward? Why don’t they go out into the community like Jesus did teaching, preaching, and healing? Only God heals, if He chooses to do so, but it is not in the quality and quantity as in the first century, and there is a reason. It is because those were signs for that day confirming the Gospel of the Kingdom.
Understand that teaching is true information about the Kingdom. Preaching is the true declaration about the Kingdom. Healings are the true evidence that the Kingdom has come (Matthew 12:28). King Jesus’ message was and is very simple. In His Kingdom, there is forgiveness of sin, salvation from hell, mercy for the guilty, grace for the needy, hope for the hopeless, and love for the unlovely, and that He takes the guilty, needy, hopeless, and unlovely sinner and makes them a beautiful child of the Majestic God (1 John 3:2). Yes, He makes the believer royalty (1 Peter 2:9).
David C. Hale, pastor
Published in the Marshall County Tribune, Lewisburg, TN
Christ Preaching His Kingdom (Audio)
God’s Electing Love – Ethnic and Individual
“From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.” – Matthew 4:17
Have you ever asked yourself, “Why did God create me?” Obviously it comes down to – love! God’s love is not that He needed us, but that He wanted us – individually! God’s love is from eternity, before we were ever born. That is why the word “elect” is so often used in the New Testament. People are afraid of election, but election is basically – love before time. That is why the believer can never commit a sin that would surprise God to the point where He would no longer love us. God from eternity loves us perfectly, which means that He cannot love us more and that He will never love us any less. However, in time, God expressed His love by creating us with individuality, and just as each snowflake is unique in it’s own way so are we created unique.
In the first century, during a time of great social and racial tension, the apostle Paul wrote, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28), and that Christ is “our peace” who has broken down divisions (Ephesians 2:14). Sadly, there are many man-made divisions within Christianity. For example, the most popular end-time belief system taught in Christianity today (Pre-mil Dispensationalism) exalts the Jewish people over all other people in the end. We know what we call exalting one group of people over another? However, a simple study of God’s word shows that the word “race” (as we understand it today) is not found in the Bible. The closes thing we have is the word “Gentiles” in the New Testament, which is used ninety-nine times in the original Greek language and all but four of those times it is the word “ethnos” where we get our English word “ethnic.”
In our verse we read of Jesus entering into Galilee of the Gentiles (ethnic nations) to preach the Kingdom of Heaven (Matthew 4:15-17). These ethnic people, who were not corrupted with the religious systems of their day, were also in spiritual darkness and was in need of the Savior. You see, the Jews, in the time of Christ, were much like what we see in our corrupt version of religion today. Rather than having a heart for God by helping others, the leaders and priest abused and misused the people for greed and gain. Remember, it was religion that convicted Jesus Christ in a kangaroo court and eventually crucified Him. So King Jesus went to the outcast and to the sinners of different ethnic backgrounds and preached the coming of His Heavenly Kingdom. Sadly, because of social pressure, many Christians emphasize their ethnicity in the world, when we are called to emphasize Christ our King in the world – however we do so out of our ethnicity. We stray away from our King’s marching orders, to go and make disciples of “all nations” (Matthew 28:19), when we try to conform Christ to our culture instead of conforming our culture to Christ, and we are called to do so as a witness in this racist world.
Paul, who was the apostles to the ethnic nations, explained that this was a “mystery,” which was hid in generations past, that the believing Gentiles would have a full inheritance with the believing Jews by faith in Christ the King, “the hope of glory” (Ephesians 3:6; Colossians 1:26,27). This goes right along with John’s heavenly vision of the Kingdom. “After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands; And cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sits upon the throne, and unto the Lamb” (Revelation 7:9,10).
Obviously, God hates racism, but God loves “ethnic” diversity, and God showed His electing love by choosing us, creating us, calling us, justifying us, and by glorifying us – individually (Romans 8:30).
David C. Hale, pastor
Email: insights@gmx.com
How do we explain the different RACES?
From the beginning of creation it was God’s will for man to populate the whole earth, but in Genesis chapter 11 we read the historic account that human society was of one language and determined with one mind to stay together (Genesis 11:4). Due to their disobedience to the LORD, He confused (or confounded) their language, so that they could not understand one another. In doing so, the Lord “scattered them upon the face of all the earth” (Genesis 11:5-9). As a result of the different languages, people married those whose language they could understand. This arrangement produced separate INBREEDING groups.
Over a few generations these inbreeding groups produced specific characteristics, including different color eyes, different shape of ears and nose, along with different shades of skin color. What most people do not know (and the media along with academia will not inform so as to continue racial strife) is that there is only on color of skin. It is called melanin. Some who are darker have more melanin, and those who are lighter have less melanin. Nevertheless, despite different characteristics, different languages, different shades of skin color, we all have blood flowing through our bodies, we all are given a soul, and we all are created in the image of God according to (Genesis 1:27).
As foreign as this may seem to this generation, “racial barriers” are broken down by the preaching of the gospel of God’s love and grace and not by Political Correctness. Political Correctness is based upon tolerance while Biblical Correctness is based upon love. Now let me ask you, “Which would you want, someone to just tolerate you, or for someone to love you?” My choice is that I want to love and be loved. If you are honest with yourself that would be your choice as well.
Regardless of the race haters and racial instigators – racial barriers can be broken down whereby different people celebrate their cultural differences under God’s love and grace. In fact, there are many Biblical examples of racial barriers being broken by the simple preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ. In Acts chapter 2, Jews from every “nation” believed. In Acts chapter 8, there is the bringing in of the Samaritans and the Ethiopian eunuch into Christianity. Acts chapter 10 records the preaching of the gospel to many Italians in the house of Cornelius. While in Acts 17:16-34, the gospel is preached to the Greeks in Athens. Therefore, if any racial barriers are to broken down it will come through the Church of Jesus Christ being BIBLICALLY CORRECT.
The truth is that the original manuscripts of the Bible do not use the word “race” to describe different people. Rather, God uses the words “NATIONS, TRIBES, KINDRED, TONGUE, and PEOPLE.” If you find a bible that uses the word “race” it is because the translators were influenced by an evolutionary mind set simply because the concept of “race” was purely invented for convenience in evolutionary biological and anthropological studies. Such concepts led to the pseudo-scientific belief (false-belief) that one race is superior to others. Once again, this is an evolutionary mind set. This historical truth cannot be emphasized too much. Even though we cannot and should not label all evolutionary scientists as racist in their personal philosophies, but like it or not, this humanistic philosophy can be traced throughout history as promoting racism. All a person has to do is read the writings of Charles Darwin and see the “race” language he used to promote his white Anglo-Saxon heritage as superior.
The Bible teaches that there is only “one blood” or one race of men upon the face of the earth – the human race (Acts 17:26), and that freedom from this sin cursed world is for “whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Romans 10:13). So I encourage you (regardless of the culture or color of the church), find a fellowship of believers in the Lord Jesus Christ and learn the bible. As you come to the knowledge of God’s sovereign grace, you too will see “race” – erased!
“And (GOD) hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation;” Acts 17:26
Judge Righteously
“Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment.” – John 7:24
One of the biggest misconceptions is that Christianity is a religion. That comes from sociology whereby sociologists categorize and lump all the world religions together and because they know no different they include Christianity. Nevertheless, let me point out that religion involves a system of rules and regulations empowered by laws and commandments. In short, religion is “do” oriented – whereby man to tries to get to God. What sets Christianity apart from all the world religions is that Christianity is a relationship based upon grace, mercy, and forgiveness empowered by love. In short, Christianity is “done” oriented – whereby God came down to man in order to be the “author and finisher” of our faith (Hebrews 12:2).
Just because all other world religions claim to be worshipers of a god it appears to the world that Christianity is just another religion – one among many. This demonstrates that outward appearances can be very deceptive.
In 1884 a 15-year-old boy died of Typhoid fever. Days after the funeral his grieving parents met with the president of Harvard University, Charles Eliot. Mr. Eliot met with the boy’s parents, who were dressed in ordinary attire, and he asked what he could do. They expressed their desire to fund a memorial in their son’s name. Mr. Eliot hastily said, “Perhaps you have in mind a scholarship?” The parents said, “We were thinking of something more substantial than that… perhaps a building.” In a condescending way Mr. Eliot explained to the parents that their desire would be too expensive, and so they departed. Later the next year, Mr. Eliot learned that the parents had gone elsewhere and established a $26 million memorial in the name of their son Leland Stanford Junior, better known today as Stanford University!
Our opening scripture is one of the lesser-known passages in the New Testament. The Lord Jesus spoke these words as a rebuke to the Jewish religious leaders of His day. These law-oriented religionists criticized Jesus for making a man completely well on the Sabbath. They could not rejoice in the healing of this infirmed man by the hand of Jesus. They wandered away from the mercy that God delights to show (Hosea 6:6; Matthew 12:7) and had exalted the Sabbath day above hurting souls. To them it appeared that Jesus broke the Sabbath, but Jesus was Lord over the Sabbath (Matthew 12:8).
If you have not noticed, Jesus is instructing us to judge – but only according to righteousness! Are you surprised? Most people are. If we find ourselves in a sticky situation it is better not to judge at all (Matthew 7:1), but if one is in the place where a judgment must be made. Let us take the words of our Lord and judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteously according to mercy, grace, and love.
David C. Hale, pastor
Email: reasons4believing@gmail.com
Lifting Up Praise
“Bless the LORD, O my soul; and all that is within me, bless His holy name! Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits.” – Psalm 103:1,2
Compassion and Life
Then He came and touched the open coffin, and those who carried him stood still. And He said, “Young man, I say to you, arise.” So he who was dead sat up and began to speak. And He presented him to his mother. – Luke 7:14,15
As the Lord Jesus taught throughout the cities of Galilee, He and His disciples came to the village of Nain. As He approached the city there was a large funeral procession. The young man being carried out was the only son of a widow. When Jesus saw the mother, His heart overflowed with compassion for her and He said, “Do not cry.” Then He graciously walked over to the open coffin and touched it, and as the pallbearers stopped and stood still Jesus said, “Young man, I say to you, arise.”
As the sovereign words proceeded out from the Lord Jesus the power of life was infused into this young man’s dead body so that he became alive. The young man who was dead sat up, and then in a tender moment Jesus presented the son back to his mother. As the news of this spread, great awe swept throughout the land with all the people giving praise to God.
During Jesus’ ministry we find Him in many different places teaching the gospel and engaging the people. We find Jesus in the market place (John 5:1-9). We find Jesus in the temple (John 5:14; 7:14). We find Jesus in the synagogue (Mark 3:1; John 18:20). We find Jesus on a mountainside (Matthew 5:12). We find Jesus by the seaside (Mark 4:1). When we read the scriptures we find our Lord Jesus in many different places, except for one – a funeral!
We never read of Jesus attending a funeral, burying someone, or even preaching a eulogy. In our opening scripture Jesus stops a funeral. Why is that? It is because Jesus is life (John 6:47; John 11:25; John 14:6). John the Baptist testified that, “In Him was life; and the life was the light of men” (John 1:4). Jesus is the very opposite of death. So having the very essence of life flowing out of Himself that is why every time we read about any dead people around Jesus, He showed compassion and they were raised to life. Just ask Lazarus (John 11:43,44).
What a wonderful lesson for those of us who claim the name to Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. We should have the desires to exemplify compassion and testify of the eternal life found in Jesus to those around us. How many times do we get caught up in our busy schedule and forgo the opportunity – due to inconvenience? No one was more inconvenienced and taken advantage of than Jesus, yet He took time to stop a funeral procession. I’m sure this mother was glad that Jesus was not too inconvenienced to share His life.
David C. Hale, pastor
Email: reasons4believing@gmail.com
OUR SABBATH REST
“Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest…rest unto your souls.” – Matthew 11:28,29b
Newness of Life
“Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with Him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.” – Romans 6:3,4
Piddlin’
“He who says he abides in Him (God) ought himself also to walk just as He (Jesus) walked.” – 1 John 2:6
Little Ricky was in about the third grade when he started to walk home from school. After a few weeks his mother noticed that each day it took him longer and longer to arrive home. This concerned her so she said something to Ricky’s father.
Ricky’s father asked him, “Why is it taking you so long to come home from school?” Little Ricky replied, “Oh, I’m just piddlin’!” “You’re just pidllin?” his father asked. “Yeah, I’m just piddlin’.”
The next night Ricky’s father woke him up and said, “Get your clothes on.” “But daddy, it’s the middle of the night.” Ricky replied. “I know – get your clothes on,” said his father.
Next Ricky’s father told him, “Since you like to piddle, go outside and walk up and down the sidewalk – and piddle!” Little Ricky, walked up and down the sidewalk as his father watched from the window. Shortly, Ricky came up to the door and asked if he could come in. His father replied, “No, you’re not done piddlin’.” Needless to say little Ricky walked straight home from school then on.
How often does God our heavenly Father catch His children piddlin’ around in this life? So many times we have God upon our lips, but our hearts often drift away with the desire for more money, a higher position, or greater prestige and we miss thanking God for what we already have. Other times we get caught up piddlin around in religion. We go through the motions of religious rites and church activities, and miss worshipping God with a heart of love and thankfulness for the life here and the eternal life to come.
When we piddle around we are far from home, far from the Father’s love, far from the Father’s provision and protection. Therefore, in love, the Father gets our attention. Even though He is close by watching us, He may give us a little time to piddle in this world so that we may see the emptiness and vanity of it all.
Seeing that our earthly fathers corrected us, we had some kind of respect for them although the discipline was unpleasant. Nevertheless, in the end it formed our character and it demonstrated care and concern. The writer of Hebrews in chapter 12 explains that we should all the more gladly submit to God’s training. When our heavenly Father catches us piddlin’ around, with a loving and tender hand He corrects us so that we would immediately come straight home to Him.
How far have you piddled away from God’s presence? As our opening verse teaches us, we ought to walk as Jesus walked. Jesus walked in constant communion with the Father. His whole life was a deep love relationship with His Father – and so it should be with all of God’s children.
(Published in the Marshall County Tribune)
David C. Hale, pastor
New Life Community Church
1001 Easy Street
Lewisburg, TN 37091
REASONS 4 BELIEVING 