Take the Land

[parable] 7/10/11

A few weeks ago my daughter came inside with "something" tucked under her arm.  She whispered, "Psst, Moma, look!"  (she knew her daddy would not approve) I glanced up to see a beautiful long haired calico kitten. I said, "Awe, she has a coat of many colors...."   "She found us!" My daughter said so excitedly, "She just wondered up on the carport."  The next morning both of my daughters we saying, "Where is Sunday?" All morning long.  "Where is Sunday?"  Very puzzled because it was not Sunday I asked, "Sunday?' They laughed and said, "Yes, that is what we named the kitten...because she found us on Sunday."  

[end parable]

Hum, since then I have looked at that kitten and thought, "God, I know there is a prophetic message here...What is it?"  Then today as I was scrolling through my emails I had a quickened eye glance to an email from QW about being a "Watch Kitty".  My ears perked up... I added my story about the Sunday and Sandy Warner replied, "Maybe your kitty is a parable of Sabbath rest:  perfect belief in Hebrews 4."  YES, that's it! 

Hebrews 4: 

Promised Rest for God’s People

 ¹ God’s promise of entering his rest still stands, so we ought to tremble with fear that some of you might fail to experience it. ² For this good news—that God has prepared this rest—has been announced to us just as it was to them. But it did them no good because they didn’t share the faith of those who listened to God. ³ For only we who believe can enter his rest. As for the others, God said,

   “In my anger I took an oath: ‘They will never enter my place of rest,’”

   even though this rest has been ready since he made the world. ⁴ We know it is ready because of the place in the Scriptures where it mentions the seventh day: “On the seventh day God rested from all his work.” ⁵ But in the other passage God said, “They will never enter my place of rest.”

 ⁶ So God’s rest is there for people to enter, but those who first heard this good news failed to enter because they disobeyed God. ⁷ So God set another time for entering his rest, and that time is today. God announced this through David much later in the words already quoted:

   “Today when you hear his voice don’t harden your hearts.”

 ⁸ Now if Joshua had succeeded in giving them this rest, God would not have spoken about another day of rest still to come. ⁹ So there is a special rest^[ still waiting for the people of God. ¹⁰ For all who have entered into God’s rest have rested from their labors, just as God did after creating the world. ¹¹ So let us do our best to enter that rest. But if we disobey God, as the people of Israel did, we will fall.

 ¹² For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires. ¹³ Nothing in all creation is hidden from God. Everything is naked and exposed before his eyes, and he is the one to whom we are accountable.

Christ Is Our High Priest

 ¹⁴ So then, since we have a great High Priest who has entered heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to what we believe. ¹⁵ This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin. ¹⁶ So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.

[Perfection is at Hand]

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[rhema] 6/5/11

HEARD: Consider this. To find an infant by the river.

Exodus 2:5-10

⁷ Then his sister asked Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and get one of the Hebrew women to nurse the baby for you?”

 ⁵ Then Pharaoh’s daughter went down to the Nile to bathe, and her attendants were walking along the riverbank. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her female slave to get it. ⁶ She opened it and saw the baby. He was crying, and she felt sorry for him. “This is one of the Hebrew babies,” she said.

⁸ “Yes, go,” she answered. So the girl went and got the baby’s mother. ⁹ Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this baby and nurse him for me, and I will pay you.” So the woman took the baby and nursed him. ¹⁰ When the child grew older, she took him to Pharaoh’s daughter and he became her son. She named him Moses,

 saying, “I drew him out of the water.”

Deuteronomy 34: 

The Death of Moses

 ¹ Then Moses climbed Mount Nebo from the plains of Moab to the top of Pisgah, across from Jericho. There the LORD showed him the whole land—from Gilead to Dan, ² all of Naphtali, the territory of Ephraim and Manasseh, all the land of Judah as far as the Mediterranean Sea, ³ the Negev and the whole region from the Valley of Jericho, the City of Palms, as far as Zoar. ⁴ Then the LORD said to him, “This is the land I promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob when I said, ‘I will give it to your descendants.’ I have let you see it with your eyes, but you will not cross over into it.” ⁵ And Moses the servant of the LORD died there in Moab, as the LORD had said.

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[rhema] 7/26/11

HEARD:  Take the Land. Take the Land. Take the land

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~"Perfect Belief"~

Because of Moses' disobedience to God  he wasn't able to enter the Promised Land..the place of rest... So after he dies,  God turns to Joshua, Moses' aid, and says these beautifully encouraging words as He passes the sword from his servant Moses to His servant Joshua to fulfill a long awaited promise to His people...a promise of rest!  

Joshua 1

Joshua Installed as Leader

 ¹ After the death of Moses the servant of the LORD, the LORD said to Joshua son of Nun, Moses’ aide: ² “Moses my servant is dead. Now then, you and all these people, get ready to cross the Jordan River into the land I am about to give to them—to the Israelites. ³ I will give you every place where you set your foot, as I promised Moses. ⁴ Your territory will extend from the desert to Lebanon, and from the great river, the Euphrates—all the Hittite country—to the Mediterranean Sea in the west. ⁵ No one will be able to stand against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you. ⁶ Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their ancestors to give them.

 ⁷ “Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. ⁸ Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. ⁹ Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.”

 ¹⁰ So Joshua ordered the officers of the people: ¹¹ “Go through the camp and tell the people, ‘Get your provisions ready. Three days from now you will cross the Jordan here to go in and take possession of the land the LORD your God is giving you for your own.’”

 ¹² But to the Reubenites, the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh, Joshua said, ¹³ “Remember the command that Moses the servant of the LORD gave you after he said, ‘The LORD your God will give you rest by giving you this land.’ ¹⁴Your wives, your children and your livestock may stay in the land that Moses gave you east of the Jordan, but all your fighting men, ready for battle, must cross over ahead of your fellow Israelites. You are to help them ¹⁵ until the LORD gives them rest, as he has done for you, and until they too have taken possession of the land the LORD your God is giving them. After that, you may go back and occupy your own land, which Moses the servant of the LORD gave you east of the Jordan toward the sunrise.”

 ¹⁶ Then they answered Joshua, “Whatever you have commanded us we will do, and wherever you send us we will go. ¹⁷Just as we fully obeyed Moses, so we will obey you. Only may the LORD your God be with you as he was with Moses. ¹⁸Whoever rebels against your word and does not obey it, whatever you may command them, will be put to death. Only be strong and courageous!”

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[rhema] 7/28/11

HEARD: Watch this: Joshua.  Slave. Witness.  Guard.  Watchman.  Leader.

Wow, Can you imagine being the one God calls on to take the place of Moses?  The one receiving such  a command from the Almighty ~ To be the one to finally lead God's chosen people into the land He had promised Abraham... Joshua was ready... He lived a pretty incredible life himself...He had witnessed all the plagues in Egypt... He witnessed the parting of waters... He was the only one allowed to climb the holy mountain with Moses to receive The Ten Commandments... He was chosen to be a watchman at the tent prior to the tabernacle being built...And he represented his tribe as one of the twelve men sent into Canaan to check out the land... God had prepared Joshua for such a time as this... and Joshua was ready when God called... When the seventh day approached, the day of rest..the time of perfect belief, was upon the Israelites after wondering for 40 years- Joshua unwavering in his assignment, stepped up and took the Land God had prepared in advance for His chosen people... 


Fill thy Cup: 
I believe as a chosen people of God we are at the river, prepared to cross over... We are at the Sabbath Day... The day of rest... The day of fulfillment...The day of perfected belief...The day God has promised us...Thus saith the Lord: Be strong be courageous.. I have prepared a land for you... I have molded you... I have formed you... I have called you and I have chosen you... You are ready... Fear Not...Do not be discouraged...I will never leave you nor forsake you... Hold tight to the words I have hidden in your heart... do not weaver...do not look to the right or to the left...though thousands may fall at your side.... a fix your eyes on me... I will lead you into the land I have prepared...The place of my perfect rest....Be strong..Be courageous~For I love you with an everlasting love~ 

~Take the Land~

" Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. 

Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.” Joshua 1:9