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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)
OUR FORGOTTEN CREATOR
“Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth…” Ecclesiastes 12:1
We live in a day where so many people are quick to have opinions. These opinions fill the airwaves with pop psychologists who try to analyze all the trouble and turmoil in the world. Yet, their analysis rarely comes from the authority of our Creator. We can be quick to put all the blame upon political correctness for denying our Creator, but that is not totally accurate. The obscure or little known truth of this denial is because previous generations have replaced our Creator with a man-made “theory.” Therefore this evolutionary idea that we all ascended from mud, molecules, and monkeys has actually taken full effect upon our recent generation. When young children are taught that they just came from a lower form of animals, why are we so surprised when we see them acting like animals without a convicted conscious? “For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he…” Proverbs 23:7. So if they actually believe in animalistic evolution in their heart then they will naturally act according to what they have been taught.
We have a generation that has forgotten that God is our Creator and that everyone is responsible to Him. This generation is so far separate from our Creator that they don’t know Him so as to listen to Him. Therefore we need God to come in a miraculous way to modify the minds and hearts of multitudes.
When I was a little boy around the age of ten, I was given a cheap set of walkie-talkies. Something I enjoyed. Then one day I removed the battery and took a 9-volt electrical hook up from a cassette tape player and connected it to one of the walkie-talkies. Also the antenna was broke in half, so I took an old fashion metal coat hanger and attached it to what was left of the antenna with some aluminum foil. When these modifications were made, this cheap walkie-talkie was amplified to where I could pick up a CB transmission. The signal was weak, but if I listened closely I could hear the truckers talking their CB jargon.
The world is loud about prosperity and pleasure, while the devil softly strokes our pride with the thought of “You deserve it!” As a result we have a, “I want mine” society and they are blind to the fact that we are now reaping “survival of the fittest.” All of our social, moral, and spiritual ills are all wrapped up in the philosophical lie of evolution.
As Christians we have been modified to listen to God our Creator. Therefore, we must pray and engage this generation and the generation to follow so that they would be purged from every other voice and give our Creator a hearing. Only then will their walkie-talkie be modified to hear and remember their Creator in the days of their youth.
(Published in the Marshall County Tribune)
David C. Hale, pastor
New Life Community Church
1001 Easy Street
Lewisburg TN 37091
REASONS 4 BELIEVING 