(Shedding Skin) Regarding: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

Greetings all, again.

Once again I have failed to be as frequent as intended, and (especially) since we are coming upon the holiday season, I will not even attempt to try to foresee the time between entries. Regardless of the space between them, I do very strongly intend to continue this blogging endeavor. I apologize for any who have wished there was less of a delay, but alas for the time being: another entry.

These thoughts were inspired by C. S. Lewis' book: The Cronicles of Narnia - The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.

More so than the other books in this series, it is presenting situations that directly mirror our Christian walk. Many people regard the Narnia series as allegorical to some level, and these passages especially seem to be so. You may find it helpful to re-read the sections mentioned (or read them for the fist time) to better interact with my monologue. The passage I would like to reference is:

Chapter 7: How the Adventure Ended

Shedding skin.

For those who never knew or have forgotten, Eustace was a dreadful rotten little brat up until this point in the story. What had happened to change him? Well, he was changed into a dragon and Aslan saved him. I think it is apparent and clear that Eustace's transformation into a dragon was simply the result of his inward rottenness. Lewis supports this by saying "Sleeping on a dragon's hoard with greedy dragonish thoughts in his heart, he had become a dragon himself (Ch. 6)." So it seems that the dragon appearance of the boy was his heart manifesting itself as his body.

After much humiliation, regret and pain Eustace is more than ready to become a boy again. One night Aslan comes to him and offers him salvation from his beastly form, and although this is his first time meeting (or believing in) Aslan, he obeys. Aslan commands him to remove his skin (like a snake shedding). He does this only to find another layer of scales, and repeats this process a couple more times. After several repetitious and futile attempts to remove himself from his scaled form, Aslan says that Eustace will have to trust Aslan and let him do it. The boy describes the process as a very painful one that is mixed with an odd pleasure, compared to picking a scab. Regardless, unlike his futile attempts, Aslan's is successful.

This passage strongly reminds me of struggles with sin and self improvement. When there is some vile thing in our life, it will continue to grow until it either catches our attention or hinders/ruins things in our life (usually not in that order) be it plans or relationships. It is often here where we know there's an opportunity for obedience, but it isn't an easy process. When one who is seeking to be clean of some filth in there life tries to achieve righteousness on their own without first receiving Christ's aid, insisting that they can do it them-self, they usually do as good of a job as Eustace managed. They do a whole lot of work, and feel as if they have made progress, only to realize, when they look back at their task they are no better of than when they started, having wasted both time and energy.

When the Lion told Eustace that he would have to trust him to do what he would. Eustace job was to be patient and obedient through the challenge. I think it is clear in here that it presents that we are never the one who actually makes the changes in our life. We must be obedient, and we must be willing to trust God. Without Him doing the pealing of the skin, we will never find real improvement. The two concepts I am highlighting are first that we must be willing to let God work, and secondly that it is God the one who does the transforming.

Joshua 24:15 ...choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

Ezekiel 36:26 "And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh."

Galatians 5

This one is short, yes I know, but it was on my mind. It is likely (no promises) that I will do another post in reference to Narnia. We can pretend it is in tribute to the movie release, but it is more just because I am reading the series.

For the King,

~Andrew Voigt

12/4/10

Joshuaspromise.blogspot.com

Fear and Trust

It has been a month and a half since my last post, I apologize. That is 3 posts that did not get created, for as I have said before: my aim is to post twice a month (that is about every other week). When I moved, about a month and a half ago, I happened to leave most of my motivation of productivity behind. One of my friends has worded it "transition depression". I personally thing that is a little strong of a phrase for it, but at the time it was a phase of laziness that I knew would pass the more I became situated back home. Enough about my negligence...

This time I would like to throw some ideas out there concerning the ideas of Fear, Trust and Obedience. This will both be less practical and exegetical then usual and more philosophical and logical. On this post more than others, I want to start conversation and hear your thoughts. Tell me what you disagree with and give me arguments and support for the way you understand these topics. Please, post sharing your ideas.

These issues have been stirring in my head for quite a while now, for most of the time since I started in Joshua about a year ago, actually. A couple of my earlier posts hit on this issue as well Acting in Confidence of God's Faithfulness and Reader's Question Regarding Fear. I have had the opportunity to have some conversations with some friends about this as well, and they have challenged me to consider aspects I hadn't before. Anyways, without further ado...

Fear, and Trust.

Joshua 1:9

"Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord you God is with you wherever you go."

The question driving me in pursuit of this topic is thus: "Is God commanding that we* act in despite of our fear/being frightened or is He commanding that we do not even have fear."

When I began to consider this passage I began from the perspective of the former, that is, it seemed to me that God was telling us to act in despite of our fears and emotions. As time has passed and I have further considered what God did and showed in the book of Joshua and as I held conversation with various people, I have swayed to hold that this is a command to not have fear (of emotion), period. Regardless the position one is currently holding to, the first question must first be: "what is fear?"

This is where the challenge in answering the first question is because there are at least 2 types of fear:

[1] Fear as an emotion: This is a feeling; something like the apprehensive feeling we get about something we are unsure of or cannot control.

I.E. when going in for a Job interview, when a spider lands on us, when we hit a patch of black ice on a corner in the winter etc...

[2] Fear controlling action: This is a motivator/demotivator.

I.E. I see being a productive member of my community worthwhile (thus I desire to avoid [fear] not to be one), so I go to the job interview; I don't want to get cavities, so I brush my teeth; I desire not to developing lazy habits, so I set my alarm even on the weekends.

Thus the original question is: Which of these two is God commanding against?

It seems to me that the command is against the fear of emotion*** I do believe, though that this will inevitably start with acting in spite of our emotional fears as well as in the end include it. That is, we begin to dissolve the fear of emotion by acting despite our fears. In a sort of testing way, which is the only way we can act in obedience despite our emotions. here is an example:

Lets say Sam is a young girl who has a very loving and strong father. If Sam's father told her to fall back with her eyes closed, he would catch her. Sam would in no way ever doubt that he would not catch her because He has shown (through previous experiences) that he is both able to catch her and faithful to follow through on his word to protect her. In this case Sam would have no fear (emotional) and she would have no fear (of motivation to avoid being dropped); However, this was not always so. When Sam was first born, she new nothing about her father, but after the years in countless times and in countless ways her father has shown her that he not only has the ability to care for her, but he loves her in a way that he will always protect her (and thus be faithful in promises).

Now let's say it is the same man, but he has adopted an 8 year old boy, we will call him Steve. The father has the boy do the same thing, but the boy is hesitant. The first time, as soon as Steve starts to fall he catches himself, but after some prompting, he cautiously falls into the fathers hands. As he does this though, he turns his head as he is falling to assure himself that the father is still there. Steve may see that the father is able to catch him, but he obviously not trust the faithfulness and willingness of the father to catch him. As they continue on this process of Steve trusting the father, Steve will have less and less emotional fear with each passing.

Sam did not have the fear of emotion and thus did not have the fear of motivation.

Steve at first had both the fear of emotion and the fear of motivation to begin with, but soon had only the fear of emotion. He had come to the point where he was acting in spite of his emotional fear for the sake of testing the father's faithfulness.

Sometimes we act despite our fear on the basis of minimal trust (like Steve), but is that 'trust' in spite of our fear actually more of a test of trustworthiness and ability towards the one who gave the promise? There is then a 'trust' that is a 'test' just as much as there is a 'trust' that removes 'fear'. These two trusts are leagues apart, as much different than the trust between two strangers shaking hands on the street and two trapeze partners flying above the audience together. It seems that if one were to truly in the purist and deepest sense trust, then the fear would dissipate, since the feared result would be (to the person) so unlikely it would be a non-issue (like Sam).

This, I believe is why I can say that God is commanding us to have no fear of those who oppose him: He is able to do what He promises, and He is faithful to do what He promises.

How do we come to that "true" trust in God that will keep us from fear as he commands in Joshua 1:9? Well, just like with anybody else, we learn (in the most thorough sense) about the ability and faithfulness of the person that makes the "promise". This happens through the experience and being informed by a trusted source. In the simplest answer it means to continue to study the Scriptures, that is hearing from a trusted source of His faithfulness and ability, and to continually act in obedience despite our emotional fears, so that He will prove Himself.

Once again, I would love to hear discussion on this. What do you agree/disagree with and why?

For those on facebook please click & post: http://joshuaspromise.blogspot.com/2010/09/fear-and-trust.html

9/14/2010

For the King,

~Andrew Voigt

joshuaspromise.blogspot.com

*I realize that this passage is directly being spoken to Joshua, but know that the promises and commands in this passage are shared with all who are people of the Kingdom of God. If you want more info on this, as me for my paper "The Commissioning of Joshua and Its Relationship to the People of God's Kingdom"

** When people reduce the world to only physical and scientific causes then (at least in their minds) eventually they will be deceived into believing it and in their deceit nothing will be not understandable (catch the double negative) and if we (supposedly) understand everything, we can thus control everything. So then, is suppressing the belief of God primarily an attempt to escape fear? (and thus try to be maintain control. As opposed to an all powerful ruler and judge having it.)

*** I realize, yes, there are legitimate emotional fears, but they are to be kept in check. The do not fear hear is "do not fear, God will do and get done what he says he will do and get done."

The Importance of Empowerment

This is a document I wrote for a ministry I was involved in a while ago. I find empowerment a powerful and important skill to learn. Please enjoy :D

The Importance of Empowerment

I consider this an important part of Ezra’s Creed, leadership and sustaining the ministry. In the most basic sense, it is important because if we do not train up people to follow us, then whatever we are doing will fall to ashes and be forgotten. If one values the cause to which they are following, they will understand that for the cause to continue, they must empower others. It also weighs on the desire to develop people, both in character and skill. This will be carried out by continuously passing off responsibilities and delegating. Our goal is not just to carry out our responsibilities, but also to teach someone else to do it.

Accepting volunteers is also affected by this. I would encourage that we should always give people the opportunity to prove themselves. Even if I think someone will be unable to do what a task or position requires, if they show a desire to carry out the responsibility, I would often let or encourage them to do it. Some people can end up surprising you.

Yes, you will at times come across an occasion when somebody fails to fulfill what they commit to, but frankly, I do not believe we should allow our paranoia to prevent us from giving them an opportunity to be challenged and grow. It is important to remember the purpose of Ezra’s Creed, that is, to present the Word of God as the Word of God. We are to approach it with personal reverence, not as a professional presentation.

Randy Sims in his book The Greatest Among You defines Empowerment as “the act of endowing someone with the knowledge, tools, motivation and authority to continue the mission of the team.”[1] In his definition he lists four things:

The first is Knowledge, this is the how to, if we merely give somebody a to-do list and say ‘have at it’, that is far short of empowering them and enabling them to be successful. Knowledge without ability, purpose and authority can do nothing. For example pretend there was a surgeon (let’s call her Alexandra) who had been practicing for 12 years. On one operation on a patient’s heart, she made a critical error and the patient ended up dying. Even though it was a mistake Alexandra feels deeply personally responsible for the incident and thus never wants to risk hurting somebody again by a potential surgical mistake. Now Alexandra still knows how to do surgeries, but she neither has the medical lab to work in and because of regrets of the mistake she never wants to do surgery again. She has the knowledge, but it does no good. Knowledge is a must, but we do a great injustice if that is all we give people. Without the knowledge nothing will get done, but knowledge alone will not get anything done.

The second is the tools. Suppose somebody named Jack was trying to learn how to assemble a car’s engine he took apart with the desire to aspire to be a mechanic. Jack went to a trained mechanic and asks for his help and instruction and empowerment to be able to assemble and install an engine. The mechanic agreed, but all he ever did was give Jack permission to use the tools in his shed. After a month of trying Jack got irritated and gave up, not only on the engine but also on the aspiration of becoming a mechanic. Did the mechanic at all empower Jack? No, in an afternoon he could have easily guided Jack in assembling the engine telling why each piece was important, and eventually the mechanic could have given Jack the authority to work along side him within his shop and they both would have gained from the empowerment. Thus empowerment is more than just supplying the tools. In our case these could be seen as our chapel opportunities, the Tent supplies and even our campus and church connections.

The third thing listed is motivation. The best motivation is intrinsic motivation that is there is something in ourselves that simply enjoys and sees value what we are doing without being concerned with the success or failure of that. This is the kind of motivation we desire to inspire in people, and the only way to do that is enable them to see what we do as valuable. I believe this is done a lot by personal testimony, personal experience and looking at the Scriptural importance of our task. Motivation is probably the hardest part of empowerment to provide, but it is the most essential. If somebody has strong enough motivation but no knowledge, tools, or authority, they will do everything they can to seek out what they need to fulfill their motivation. This is not to say that it is not important to provide the other parts of empowerment as well. If we give somebody motivation and motivation alone, they will waste much time learning and gathering what we have already learned and gathered. I think the most obvious example of this necessity is education: When people desire to learn they go to a place where the resources to learn are and the information to learn is. In short if we pass on motivation but nothing else, we are causing great waste and excess effort.

The last part of empowerment is authority. If somebody has the knowledge, the tools, and the desire to do something but they do not have any authority where they can make use of such things, they are like a caged bird. What good is a bird’s ability to fly if it cannot use it because it is kept in a cage that is too short to be flown in? Also, if one can never make use of knowledge, tools and motivation without some authority, then how can they ever grow those three? For this reason we must eagerly, but appropriately give people authority.

So as you see, each of the four parts of empowerment (knowledge, tools, motivation and authority) are essential to properly empower others. If any of them are missing, then it will be like a flat tire, yeah it goes for a while, but pretty soon the car will stop and major repairs will be needed…

“and what you have head from me… entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also” ~ 2 Timothy 2:2

5/1/10

~Andrew Voigt

Joshuaspromise@blogspot.com

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[1] The Greatest Among You by Randy Sims. Page 143

An Example from a Widow's Obedience (1 Kings 17:8-16)

An Example from a Widow's Obedience (1 Kings 17:8-16)

I had the opportunity to teach a lesson on 1 Kings 17 and here are some thoughts that stuck in my mind as a result.

Just a note for sake of context we are going to start in 1 Kings 16:29-30, 17:1-7.

So, King Ahab was an evil man who was rebellious and leading Israel in rebellion against God with his and his wife's false gods and their prophets. God declared a drought through Elijah, and this seems to be in response to Ahab's evil leadership. Once the drought was declared God sent Elijah into hiding with a promise to provide him via ravens and a stream. After some time (as happens in droughts) the stream dried up. This is where we come in.

We are going to put most of our attention on the passage 1 Kings 17:8-16

Elijah is told to go to Zaraphath where a widow would feed him, so being that his water supply has run out, he gets up and goes to Zaraphath. He sees the widow who was working on gathering some sticks for burning, and he commands her to bring to him a drink in a vessel. She begins to answer when he adds that she is to also bring him some food. She responds that she has nothing made and is at the very end of her supplies to make bread. Her and her son are on the brink of starvation and were about to cook up their last bit of bread so that they can go sit in a corner and starve to death. (v.8-12)

Elijah's response to this was first "do not fear" followed by telling her to do what she had planned but first make him his food. Only after that should she make her son and herself something. Then he shares a promise from God that the oil and flour supplies (which would be used to make the bread) would last throughout the entire drought. She was obedient, and God was faithful. Neither her flour nor her oil ran out throughout the entire three year drought. (v.13-16)

This was a fascinating act of trust and faith by the widow, take a moment to consider this. She was asked to give away her last bit of food which she had planned on eating with her son as their last meal. That would take an incredible amount of trust, but that was likely part of the reason for the format of Elijah's promise.

He began with "do not fear", which of course brings us back to the commissioning of Joshua . :) Joshua 1:9 - "Have I not commanded you, be strong and courageous. do not be frightened do not be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go." Here in the 1 Kings 17 passage we see fear once again being associated with actions. If the widow would have feared for the sake of her life as opposed to trusting God, she would have found herself dead along with her son. Instead she was given the grace to trust God and to feed Elijah.

This obedience would have been completely impossible without that trust she had. If she did not trust the words of the prophet and God, there would have been no way that she would have given this man her food. If on the other hand (which happened) she did trust God and this prophet there is no way she would not have obeyed the promise. I think this is an exceptional example that we should strive to follow. All through Scripture God is giving us instructions and guidelines for proper living, and along with these instructions come promises. If we fully trust God there is no way we would not obey, but if we do not trust God there is no reason why we would trust God.

Hebrews 11:6-11 expresses that it is essential that we trust and as a result obey God. I understand this as an integral part of the connection between faith and deeds in James 2:14-26. Apparently I'm about to get off topic, so let me revert a little to the beginning of this thought. As the widow in a time of utter hardship was willing to trust God on the basis of a promise of provision, so should we trust God in all circumstances, striving to love God and others, storing up treasures in heaven. (Matthew 22:37-40, Matthew 6:19-20)

It is crucial to remember that God's instruction is not there to confine us and make us miserable, but instead He instructs us because He loves us. C. S. Lewis said in Mere Christianity, "Moral ruses are directions for the running of [the human] machine. That is why these rules at first seem to be constantly interfering with our natural inclinations. When you are being taught how to use any machine, the instructor keeps on saying, 'No, don't do it like that,' because, of course, there are all sorts of things that look all right and seem to you the natural way of treating the machine, but do not really work." God gives us guidance because He loves us, and promises us great things is we turn and seek to know and obey Him.

We are to obey God because He is trustworthy. The source of our disobedience is our lack of trust in the ever faithful God... we would rather trust in the inconsistent me's of the world.

Joshua 1:9 - Trust God because He is faithful (see previous blog post).

"Have I not commanded you, be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened do not be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go."

7/11/10

For the King,

~Andrew Voigt

joshuaspromise.blogspot.com

Regarding: the Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

I recently read Jekyll and Hyde. Well, if I were to be more accurate, I would say that today I read Jekyll and Hyde. It was a great book, quite enrapturing and intriguing. This is a book I would highly suggest that you read.

I picked up the book because of another book (actually a lecture that came from parts of the book) by Jeff Baldwin: the Deadliest Monster. While I am yet to set myself down and read this book, through various means I have been exposed to the majority of it's content, and am also recommending this book to all of my readers. It is an introduction to worldview, and Baldwin uses several fictional stories to outline and describe various understandings of the natures of man and God. In the lecture that I have heard (3 or 4 times), Baldwin argues that Stevenson's The strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde presents an accurate view of human nature before salvation in the character of Jekyll (and Hyde).

SPOILER WARNING: if you haven't read the book, don't know the story, and don't want spoilers, go read the book (it is only about 80 pages), and come back :)

While reading the book unexpectedly I started relating my battles with sin to Jekyll's battles with Hyde. Particularly at the point in Jekyll's reflections when he is comparing himself (as Jekyll) to the people around him, and he concludes that he is a good guy, despite his flaws of being attached to Hyde. At the end of his comparisons he realized that his prideful thoughts have only resulted in his transforming back into Hyde.

One strong idea that I believe shows clearly in the book is that we can't harbor sin in a isolated corner of our lives. This in fact was the purpose of Hyde, to isolate Jekyll's good and his evil. The result was that he was able to be wholly impure and evil (as Hyde), although, when he was Jekyll he was still a mix of good and bad. Even with the (at first) moderated periods of indulgence (as Hyde) his sin (Hyde) was already taking over. It rose to the point where he had committed to abstain, but only to fall victim to the Hyde within him fighting to get out.

That to say, I believe this is a great reminder that we cannot let willfully indulge in any sin. Even from the beginning of Scriptures, God has been warning us to be severely cautious regarding sin (Genesis 4:7, 1 peter 5:6-11). Now, I mentioned earlier that Jekyll and Hyde presented human nature before salvation, that is resulting in complete sin, sensuality and indulgence. Let us make no mistake that it is only through Christ's power and aid that we can ever have any victory over sin. It is only through Christ's sacrifice that we are free from the presented spiral of inevitable evil. (Romans 6:1-14)

Romans 6:1-4

¹What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? ²By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? ³Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? ⁴We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

6/27/10

For the King,

~Andrew Voigt

Please consider reading both of those books, they are well worth your time.

Irrational Fear Numbers 14:3

hey all, sorry for the delay... there was a move to Illinois in the middle of there, hope that pardons me :D

So I was going through Joshua 14 and came across a section that mentioned Caleb and some land he was receiving. That brought me to come to Numbers 13 and 14, which is what I am focusing on for this post, the main comment will be regarding 14:3.

So Israel has been delivered from Egypt and God made covenant with them at Sinai, and now they have been heading towards the promise land, grumbling, rebelling and complaining the whole way. In chapter 13 they send out 12 spies into the promise land to check it out. 10 spies returned saying that the land was hazardous and that the people there were giants with fortified cities well equipped for war. They presented that it would be unsuccessful to oppose them. The other 2 (Joshua and Caleb) said that the land was a lush as promised and that although there may be strong warriors there if God is with Israel they will succeed.

The people began crying out, siding with the spies that gave the discouraging report. they asked why they were delivered from Egypt just to die and wanted to return (14:1-4). At this Moses and Aaron along with Joshua and Caleb fell on their faces before the people begging them to trust God to give them victory. They pleaded that the people should not fear the people of the land (see Joshua 1:1-9 :D ) stating that doing so would be rebelling from God (14:5-9). Then the people threatened to kill those four, but God intervened threatening to smite the people (14:10-11)...

Take a moment to consider Numbers 14:3

People in their fear and states of despair are quick to accuse God of only wanting to bring them into suffering. here is an amazing example of how easily people will turn from God, claiming that He is unable to do what he has promised. in Numbers 13:2 God says that He is giving the land to them. He didn't say that he might give it or would consider giving it or that he would try to give it. No, He said that He was giving them the land.

His giving them this pledge implies that he has the right and ability to give it to them (or is a liar). We are shown later all throughout the book of Joshua that He is able and does give the land to Israel. God made a promise, but the people are quick to disbelieve Him when they see the task at hand. These challenges appear too big and they begin to fear the people of the land. in doing this they are either calling God a liar in that He would not hold true to His primes or they are accusing Him to be unable to come through, a liar, not all knowing, or deceptive.

We all are quick to see the large obstacles in our lives and shrink back fearing defeat, but I believe we should more often have the attitude of Joshua and Caleb and Trust God to be faithful to His promises and working for our good, as well as His (Romans 8:28, Romans 11:36).

For the King,

~Andrew Voigt

6/9/10

Caution in the Calm (Deut. 6:10-12)

^{Deuteronomy 6:10-12}

¹⁰ “And when the Lord your God brings you into the land that he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you—with great and good cities ^jthat you did not build, ¹¹ and houses full of all good things that you did not fill, and cisterns that you did not dig, and vineyards and olive trees that you did not plant—and when you eat and are full, ¹² then take care lest you forget the Lord, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

English standard version. (Dt 6:10-12).

Proverbs 30:8-9

⁸ Remove far from me falsehood and lying;

give me neither poverty nor riches;

feed me with the food that is needful for me,

⁹ lest I be ^full and deny you

and say, “Who is the Lord?”

or lest I be poor and steal

and profane the name of my God.

English standard version(Pr 30:8-9)

I am currently in transition between the end of school and an internship. This is a very easy place for me to be because I have no pressing responsibilities and I an in no particular strife or life challenge. Especially today it has been pressing on me how frustrating it has been this last week to stay on task and to stay diligent both the the tasks I should be doing while at home for these two weeks and in keeping my diligence in devotions and obedience to Christ. It escapes me how this passage came to mind, but it did so.

I am blessed with the ability to spend these two weeks between school and the internship at my parents house, but I believe as is stated in the passages above dangers come when we are in easy life circumstances and it is of utmost importance that we continue to press on in diligence during these times. Israel was warned that when they were brought into the land and were provided for, they were to 'take care' unless they forget God. When things are good, it is easiest to forget that we are dependent on God.

It seems that when I am in times of trial and challenge calling on God happens almost by itself because it is clear that I am not perfect and need Him. On the other hand when things are good and I have all that I 'need' it becomes all to easy to forget the one who gave the blessings. That is the very reason God told the Israelites to be careful and to constantly be remembering God and His promises (Deuteronomy 6:4-9, Joshua 1:8, Psalm 1:2).

I urge you, along with myself to take heed to this warning and to take care in both hard times and easy times to remember to be obedient and diligent to remember and dwell in the promises of God.

For the King,

~Andrew Voigt

5/24/10

Joshua's Promise: Part 1 (Joshua 1:8)

Today I had my graduation ceremony from College. I graduated with a B.A. in Pastoral Ministry. Over all I have had a great three years and God has richly blessed me. I deeply am grateful for both the training and the friends He has provided me with. Anyways, our class verse happened to be Joshua 1:9, which was actually complete coincidence, but it is a good excuse to start explaining my blog's name. This post is dedicated to my class and fellow graduates, especially Catherine, Collin, Kyle, Grant and Naomi.

I may get a little long this time, but please stay with me. My focus today will be on verse 8; verse 9 will come in more detail at a later date.

click for Joshua 1:1-9

These two verses are where I first got the name for Joshua's promise, especially verse 8. More properly it would be called the promise the God gave to Joshua, but thanks to the flexible use of the genitive (possessive) I could make it sound more slick :D. Anyways, I'll start with verse 8.

Joshua 1:8-9 (ESV)

⁸This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. ⁹Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go."

Trust God:

Before I go anywhere with this, I must mention that it is absolutely essential to trust God. What I mean by this is that you believe what he says is true in a manner that not only makes you obey it cognitively, but that you would also obey it in action deed and thought. If you truly trust God then you will believe that the blessings that He promises the faithful are better than anything you could ever receive or do on earth, thus you desire (and therefore will) to act in line with that belief. In short, belief and trust ALWAYS leads to action, if you don't believe a promise and don't trust God, you won't act in line with His promises. If you do believe and trust God you will act in line with His promises.

The People of Israel just got through reviewing the laws, commands and instructions God had given them throughout Deuteronomy ("second law"). So trusting God's promises meant living in obedience, so that they would receive the promises of blessings. God stated that obedience would bring blessing and disobedience would bring curse (Deut. 11:26-28). This happened before moses died, but Joshua opened with the death of Moses, and we find ourselves in the commissioning of Joshua (of which this entry is the closing lines of).

Now consider with me Joshua 1:8

Blessings and Prosperity:

I want to walk through the verse backwards, so we'll start with the last phrases "For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success." Here is where the part about trusting God comes it, do you trust Him that what He calls good, prosperous and successful is actually good and desirable?. In the immediate context this is referring to the conquering of the land, but we can apply this to every believer because the promise is repeated in the first Psalm. This psalm states that, "Blessed is the man... Whose delight is on the law of the Lord and on His law he meditates day and night... in all he does, he prospers...." If we trust God it is enough for to understand that God promises blessing, whether or not we know what that is. I think my shortest and most straightforward answer to this is Matthew 6:19-20 and 1 Timothy 6:17-19. God promises good for obedience, do you trust Him?

Do:

moving back, looking at what is the "for" there for. In other words, how do we make our way prosperous and have good success? well the next (previous) line of the verse is: "be careful to do according to all that is written in it." What brings about the blessings and success is the obedience to the Word. Oh... but isn't by faith through grace and not by works (Ephesians 2:8)? By all means yes! But that faith (trust) will result in the works, continue to the next verse (Ephesians 2:8-10) "for we are... created... for good works... that we should walk in them." This is faith and deeds, faith spurs on works (James 2:14-26).

The second note on this part is that we are called to do 'all'. In short we cannot pick and choose. God is God, He gives the blessings and curses, He makes the rules. It is similar to a institution saying that if you pass all our classes, they will give you the degree. A: you have to put for the effort B: they set the requirements. Now, we are human and sinful and are unable to be sinless (for we have already sinned),and thus we already fail the requirements. Thankfully by His grace God has made provision for us through Christ, but we are still required to strive for obedience (1 John 2:1-6).

How do we do?

Once again moving back a phrase with the question in our mind: "how can we do according to this law?" Well, the next clause is: "You shall meditate on [this book of the law] day and night so that you may..." (also see Psalm 1:2). We are called to meditate on the Word both day and night. This is a call not only to habitual study of the Word, but also memorization. Take note that when these words were originally spoken, the Israelites didn't all have their own copies with personalized leather bindings... not, actually they didn't, most of them would have heard it only on rare occasions (Deut 31:9-13). In order to be diligent they would have been intentional about bringing Scripture to mind on regular occasions. I encourage you to take advantage of the blessing you have of having the Scriptures so readily available and be intentional about taking the time to study and memorize Them. Now this was not a command to each individual, but it was a command to Israel as a whole, lets look at the last (really first) phrase in this verse...

Word up:

"This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night..." The 'but' here is important it implies that letting the Book depart from the mouth will prevent one from meditating on it day and night, which will prevent doing according to all that is written which will keep one from being prosperous and having good success. Here, my dear friends is my challenge to you today. Keeping the Book from 'departing' from the mouth implies talking, now this comes across in at least two ways. The first one is the form of meditating where you memorize and recite Scripture to yourself.

The other one is that we are to be in continual communication regarding the Word of God if we ever even hope to come closer to obedience to it. In fact this brings to mind the commands accompanying the "Shema" (Deut 6:4-9) mainly verse 7. Israel was commanded to talk of them when they sat at home, when the walked by the way, when they laid down, and when they rose. They were to speak of them when at home, and when away from home (always), and they were to speak of them when they went to bed and when they woke up (morning and night). We should strive to find ourselves doing likewise, especially if we trust God to be faithful of His promises of blessings (and curses).

I want to finish here with Joshua 1:9 (ESV)

"Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”

As we go our ways in life we will face challenges and confusing times. God's charge to Joshua (and us) to be strong and courageous is a call to trust and obedience. Joshua 1:7 points out that being strong and courageous is done by being careful to be obedient, do that. God promises blessing to those who trust Him even if life is hard and does not make sense. Do you trust Him? Then grasp Joshua's promise, because God gave it to you too. (Proverbs 3:5-6)

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Fellow graduates,

I have been blessed by the friendship of many of you, thank you. Please take to heart this promise of blessing and bring yourself to obedience to the Word no matter what life brings you in good time or bad. Be careful of the good times, for God warned the Israelites the same thing. (Deut 6:10-15) When we are blessed with pleasure and ease, we tend to think more of ourselves and forget God and His promises. Make the habit of keeping God and the Word in your mouth along with meditating on it day and night. It won't be easy, but I guarantee that if you trust God at His Word, He will prove Himself faithful and you will not regret a moment of the challenge. In fact when brought into eternal blessing you very well will find yourself asking why you ever doubted. Never forget to live for the King because He is worthy, He is faithful, His promises are true and His blessings are worth it.

Joshua 1:8-9 (ESV)

⁸This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. ⁹Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go."

5/16/2010

For the King,

~Andrew Voigt

Reader's Question Regarding Fear

This was a question in response to my post "Acting in Confidence of God's faithfulness" on 4/24/10.

From Tom T.

"Dude, I really like your note about having confidence because God is faithful. I and many other people struggle with having confidence even though we know that the Creator of the universe is with us. In the second to last paragraph you talk about repeated themes throughout the passages and mention "do not fear God because he is faithful". Did you mean to say, "do not fear your enemies/other people because God is faithful"? You know the English and I don't get along very well and I make typos all the time, so I just wanted to point that out for you."

Thanks again for the note!

Until the coming of the King,
Tom"

Hey Tom,

I'm glad to be an encouragement, thank you.

As for your question, Yes, in a way... :D

I suppose how I answer your question depends on what one would describe what it means to fear, on the other hand if one genuinely follows this out, they will neither fear nor fear [men or anything other than God that is]... let me explain.

It seems to me that there is the fear of emotion and the fear of action. For example, some things will give you a feeling of fear or fear of emotion, but you will still stand up against them, like public speaking, asking a girl out, the first time you drove on the freeway, moving away, resisting peer pressure or trying to slay a dragon. Sometimes that fear of emotion will overcome you and will become a fear of action so that you don't give your speech, you don't ask the girl out and never know what could have been, you never go on the freeway and thus never get your license, you become addicted to a destructive substance or habit, or you don't go slay the dragon and thus are never a 'hero' and don't get the girl (just to give us a medieval example :P ).

At the very least what I mean by 'do not fear' is that we are to let nothing produce in us a fear of action (besides God). I see I typed hastily and did not explain myself when I typed "Do not fear God because God is faithful, and trust God because He is trustworthy." because indeed the Bible does say to fear God and [thus] keep His commandments (Deut 6:2; 8:6). That would obviously be a fear of action, and what I meant by my previously quoted line was that our fearing God is actually our trusting God to be faithful to His promises (both of blessing and of curse).

Now, logical speaking if we fully trust God and have no ounce of doubt within us, then I doubt fear of emotion would arise. That is easier to talk about than to practice, but I wonder if David's knees weren't shaking a little when the lion jumped at his sheep, or the bear approached him, or as Goliath mocked him (whether or not was nervous I don't know, but i know I would've been). But then again, emotions are never logical even though mental alignments and perspectives to effect them. Once again, i would say without a doubt this is talking about at least the fear of action, so that the God of Joshua will be the determining factor in any and every action. This means to have 'strength and courage' is more to act than it is to feel.

To answer your question, what I meant by saying that would be closer to: "Do not fear (by actions) your enemies, other people, yourself, or your situation because God is faithful and worth trusting*.

This was a very good question for asking, thank you. Also I appreciate your feedback!

"So you shall keep the commandments of the LORD your God by walking in his ways and by fearing him." ~ Deuteronomy 8:6

For the King,
~Andrew Voigt

*I'm only mentioning trust here and not 'trusting and worth obeying' because I believe that is implied. What it means to genuinely trust God absolutely must cause action in line with that trust(consider James' 'faith and deeds'). The development of my understanding of this came strongly from Scott Hafemann's book "The God of Promise and the Life of Faith" and my personal studies in the book of Joshua. I strongly suggest both Hafemann's book and the book of Joshua :D.

Give Credit where Credit is Due: Ezekiel 36

Today I was sitting in the Tent of Meeting (a week long event at NWC where there is a tent set up and people go in and read out loud through the Bible in order) and I was in there during Ezekiel chapter 36, and it was a great reminder of God's initiative regarding our sanctification and righteousness. There is no way I am going to be able to do this passage justice in a simple blog post, but it was good for me to hear today, and I want to share that with you all.

if you don't have a Bible handy, here is a link to the passage.

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=ezekiel%2036:22-38&version=ESV

This passage is filled with God saying "I will... I will... I will...", and that is what hit me today. It seems like we are always striving to do better. When we are not falling into sin, we are trying to be righteous and trying to love God, but often times I believe we overlook something that God is clearly presenting here. That would be that we are unable to make ourselves repentant, and righteous. Especially verses 26 and 27 God is stating that unless He enables and empowers us, our heart will remain hard and we will not be caused to walk in His statutes.

Often times we take responsibility for our own maturity and spiritual devotion, but this passage makes me ask if we have any right to claim such a task and minimize God's grace. Now, I am not saying that it doesn't take effort and we don't have to work for it*. I am saying though that we need to give credit where credit is due. We should be grateful to God for any growth we ever see in ourselves because it is only by His replacing "stone hearts" with ones of "flesh" that we can come to see truth and be obedient to Him which will bring blessing**.

This doesn't mean we don't work and strive to aim towards growth(1 Cor 9:24-27; 1 Cor 3:7), but it does mean that we are not responsible for any growth that we are given. This is why the Ezekiel passage stuck out to me today. In my dealing with transition, future and growth it is easy for the perspective to come into my head that "I'm glad I have worked to become who I am, and I better keep working hard for my improvement." This is a horribly arrogant thing to do, and it robs God of great praise that is to Him alone due. It is a great pitfall for pride and sin and must cautiously be avoided. That is what Ezekiel reminded me of, that any good in me is due only to God's grace, and any future growth I will have has the same source. So I encourage you all whenever you see anything good or righteous in your live, that you do not fail to note that it has come only as a blessing from God, "for the sake of [His] holy name."

"Then they will know that I am the LORD." ~ Ezekiel 36:38

5/1/10

For the King,

~Andrew Voigt

*Consider Joshua 1:3 in comparison with Joshua 1:6 and the seeming contrast of "I have given to you" and "you will cause this people to inherit." If I ever get around to writing about the name of the blog (Joshua's Promise) this will be one of the entries in that post series.

**Consider Joshua 1:8 and see previous comment about explaining the blog's name.

Acting in Confidence of God's faithfulness (Joshua 11:1-9)

Acting in Confidence of God's faithfulness

Joshua 11:1-9

In my personal studies I have been going through the book of Joshua, and yesterday I was going through the first couple parts of chapter 11, specifically verses 1-9. Once again, when a king heard of the victories of Israel (this time it was Jabin, King of Hazor) he sent to the kings of Madon, Shimron, and Achshaph, along with kings from the north hill country, the Arabah, the lowland, some from Naph-Dor, the Cannanites, Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Jebusites, a and the Hivites in Mizpah. -- (Verses 1-5)

All these peoples gathered together at the waters of Merom to unite against Israel. There were over 14 people groups, kings, or kingdoms all against Israel at once. This group was described as numerous as the sand on the seashore. Not only that, but they were well equipped for war with "very many horses and Chariots"(Josh 11:4). Against the face of such a huge enemy God says to Joshua that he is not to be afraid and that the next day God would give them victory, all those people would be killed, their horses would be hamstrung and their chariots burned. -- (Verses 6-9)

Now, I'm not sure about you, but I think it would be a nerve racking experience to be the leader of a nation that was about to go up over 14 nations some (probably most if not all) of which were "greater and more powerful" than Israel (Deut. 4:38; 7:17; 9:1; 11:23). Despite how dreadful such a situation would be, God tells Joshua to "not be afraid of them" (Josh 11:6). That seems like a big order (especially because it is in regards to an emotion, or is it? What is fear? what is God commanding here?), but God gives reasons to support such courage. This reason is actually God Himself and has nothing to do with Israel (Deut. 7:16-23; Joshua 1:9). As I've seen again and again, Joshua is showing us that God is faithful, and His reason for Joshua (and by extent Israel) to not have fear is that He is faithful and able to do what He has promised. In short, they should not fear because they can trust God to do what He has promised.

Now, as we continue to trust God and believe His promises, He may cause bigger and bigger acts of His power to be displayed. Look quickly what has happened here in Joshua so far:

1. Israel trusted God to bring them through the Jordan and He did, God is faithful. (Joshua 3-4)

2.Israel trusted God to deliver Jericho and He did, God is faithful. (Joshua 6)

3. Israel failed to trust God (by the disobedience of Achan) and their trusting their own war power and not God (Joshua 7:2-3), thus they suffered defeat at Ai, God is faithful (Joshua 7)

4. Israel repented and trusted God to deliver Ai. He did, God is faithful (Joshua 8)

5. Israel trusted God against the army of the 5 kings, and He gave them victory. God is faithful. (Joshua 10:1-28)

6. Israel trusted God through a series of city sieges, and He gave them victory. God is faithful. (Joshua 10:29-43)

7. Now Israel is put up against over 14 other kingdoms and God gives them victory. God is faithful. (Joshua 11)

Truly God has been fighting for Israel! In all this the idea is repeated: Do not fear God because God is faithful, and Trust God because He is trustworthy. All this power and promise fulfillment should bring us back to Joshua chapter 1 where God first Charges Joshua to be "Strong and Courageous" because God is with them (Joshua 1:6,7,9). This display of promise fulfillment, power and victory should remind us that the success or failure of any and everything we do is controlled by God and He will bring about what He will. Our job is doing what we are called and commanded to do with confidence.

"Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go." -- Joshua 1:9 (ESV)

4/24/10

For the King,

~Andrew Voigt

"Doing Justice" to Scripture Presentation

When we are given the responsibility of presenting Scripture, with what thoughts and attitudes should we approach this task?

When we present, we often prepare with the intent of not messing up or missing lines in the presentation. I wonder if this is enough though. Should we not aim to "do justice" to the passage rather than to just not mess up? By that I mean aiming to not make a mistake is by all means part of it, but that is only the first stage. That can be done easily by using virtually exclusively rote memory of words and gestures.

I'm yet to know what it is exactly, but there seems to be a change that happens when someone has 'gotten personal' with a text. I have used the term to "memorized intimately" before to refer when we include our voice, actions, thoughts, and emotions in our Scripture memorization and presentation, but rarely to I see it presented where the presenter is the person in the Scripture. When that happens, the presentation seems to come across with a new level of 'power'.

That power is first and foremost because it is God's word that we are proclaiming, but such a presentation seems to make Scripture feel more real and enables us to closer relate to it. I wonder how we can learn to approach our task in this manner more often and train others to do likewise...

When taking on my responsibilities with what is now called Ezra's Creed (a Bible ministry on NWC's campus) Mark B. gave me a line of advice which I believe he received from Dr. Ardel C.. This advice was also a statement of caution speaking to the importance and demand that such a task calls. This has has remained on my mind for the last two years as a guide to most of what I have put my hands to in this ministry. The line was: "If you are going to do it, do it well."

That is what I am talking about here, not just to memorize and recite Scripture, but to do it well so that it comes alive to people. The first time I saw this happen was in 2008 when during a Word of Witness chapel on the life of David, Steve J. presented David's Psalm of repentance (Psalm 51). I wish I could link you to a video of it, but that was before we were recording them. I know though that I was not the only person who had tears in there eyes by the end of the passage.

Even though Steve was on stage with an auditorium full of students, nobody saw Steve, we all saw David. I think that is what part of it is, coming so close to the text that you can speak as if you were the one who first spoke the words of the text. You don't just show what emotions they may have had you have the emotions they had. I pray that through this ministry, more people will watch Scripture come to life and move into their lives. That is what it is about.

For the King,

~Andrew Voigt

If you are interested in more information on Scripture presentation and memorization, please look around at Josiah's Gift's web page. They are a ministry that is passionate about getting people into the Word of God and presenting the Word of God as the Word of God.

Their website: http://josiahsgift.wordpress.com/