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"And will go all of you armed over Jordan before the Lord, until he hath driven out his enemies from before him...But if ye will not do so, behold, ye have sinned against the Lord : and be sure your sin will find you out."
(Numbers 32:21, 23 KJV) The book of Numbers in our Holy Bible relates the victories that the Lord God had given Joshua and the Israelites as Moses led them across the land toward Canaan. After Moses died, God told Joshua to be of "good courage" and do as God told him. So they crossed the Jordan River into Canaan and they took Jericho, a large fortified city. Then they came to a little city called Ai who had a small army and Joshua was soundly defeated. God had assured Joshua that, if they kept God's commandments, Our Awesome God would be with them and they would win. What went wrong? The children of Israel had a small hidden problem (Joshua 7:1). The problem became noticeable when Joshua sent 3,000 troops against the little city of Ai. Although this should have been enough to easily defeat Ai's small army, the Israelites fled before them. Joshua had no idea why this happened. Then Our Awesome God revealed that a man named Achan had taken an "accursed thing" from the sacking of Jericho and hidden it in his tent (Joshua 7:11). Only after the small hidden problem was found and taken care of could Israel go on to win the Promised Land. We need to remember, small hidden problems must be brought to the surface and dealt with because of the damage and consequences they cause. Our Awesome God knows that we did wrong and we need to take care of the hidden problem before we go on. Do you have those "small problems" in your life? The "hidden problems" may consist of cursing aloud or in your thoughts, it may be taking things that don't belong to you, it may be pride, it could be envy, etc. but check what you think and do with what God wants, then change anything He would not want. Small "hidden things" can grow or just may be a big problem with God. All sins are large to God. If you are a Christian who has strayed away from Our Awesome God or someone who has never been a Christian or a person who needs to help minister to others, join us at Living Word Baptist Church on Sunday at 9:30 AM for Bible Study and at 10:30 AM for a Praise and Worship Service. At 6:00 PM Sunday evening, we have a Bible Study along with AWANA for children until 7:30 PM. On Wednesday, we meet at 7:00 PM for Prayer Requests, and a Bible Study follows until 8:00 PM. We welcome all people and love them!
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"And she conceived again, and bare a son; and said, Now this time will my husband be joined unto me, because I have born him three sons: therefore was his name called Levi."
(Genesis 29:34 KJV) Levi was the third son of Jacob and Leah from Our Awesome God's chosen people. Leah was still concerned about getting Jacob to love her so the Scripture above tells some of her words, but her father had tricked Jacob when they were married and Jacob probably never loved her. Levi, with his brother, Simeon, killed a man and all his relatives who lived close when they got angry over the rape of their sister, Dinah. Jacob said they made him "stink" when he described it in Genesis 34:30. From Levi, Jacob's third son, came the Levites who were dedicated to Our Awesome God's service. As such, they were later not treated as the other tribes in that the Tribe of Levi was not given a separate allotment of land during the conquest of Canaan, when the nation of Israel was first established. Moses had singled out the Tribe of Levi to serve as the nation's priests. This tribe served all positions in the temple from the High Priest, to musicians, to cleaning the instruments of the tabernacle, to lighting of incense (Luke 1:9) until the temple was destroyed in 70 AD. As priests to the nation, the Levites needed to be distributed among the other tribes rather than confined to a single territory. Instead of a land allotment, Joshua, who led the conquest of Canaan, gave 48 towns, scattered throughout the land of Israel, to the Tribe of Levi. The descendants of Levi played a role in guarding and serving the tabernacle (Numbers 3:21-37) and later on in the temple at Jerusalem. Our Awesome God established the tribe of Levi as the principal agents for communication with God in the nation of Israel. They were to lead the nation to be a kingdom of priests (Exodus 19:6) in teaching the rest of the world about God. Instead, for 1500 years they made access to Our Awesome God so difficult that few would even attempt it. He didn't really give up on them, but God also gave the Gentiles the chance to become His adopted sons through the death, burial and resurrection of His Son, Jesus Christ. You can become a son of Our Awesome God who loves you and knows your many sins as He does my sins. If God can forgive the many sins of the Tribe of Levi, He can forgive your sins. We invite you to our church services for Our Awesome God on Sunday mornings (9:30 AM) and Worship Service at (10:30 AM). Then again Sunday evening (6:00 PM) for Bible Study along with AWANA for children which goes until 7:30 PM. Wednesday evening (7:00 PM) we have a Prayer Meeting and Bible Study along with the Youth Group. When you come, ask about the choir and Prayer Team. We love visitors! "I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart."
(Psalms 40:8 KJV) "And the seventy returned again with joy, saying, Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through thy name." (Luke 10:17 KJV) All of our life is affected by how we Christians relate joy, happiness, and pleasure to both our discipleship and our relationship with Our Awesome God through Jesus Christ. How do you tell and show others that you are really enjoying your work for the Lord? From the things they said, the disciples experience at evangelism far surpassed their expectations. They came back filled with rejoicing. When they said, “even the devils are subject unto us,” it would seem that their ability to cast out demons was far better than they had expected. They were happy to see this happen as they had trouble before. After all, the nine apostles had been unable to cast the demon out of the boy back in Luke 9:37-41. That they were able to cast out demons was proof to the disciples that they had great authority in Jesus' name. They had something to rejoice for in service to Jesus Christ because they saw proof that they could help. They told others what Our Awesome God had allowed them to do. But they were specially trained by Jesus Christ. All who serve the Lord know that Our Awesome God does not always make battles easy for us to fight and, like Joshua, Paul or the disciples, He doesn't always go physically before us,. But how many problems does He get rid of that we never knew were there? And He will always help if you ask Him. When we do something that we can see has helped His cause, we should rejoice because we will probably only see a small portion of the good that Our Awesome God does with the service we perform. We should show and tell others of the joy we get from serving the Lord. Don't be bragging about your accomplishments - brag instead on the Lord. He did it! You just supplied the hands! Find joy in serving Him every day! We Christians should show our joy, happiness, and pleasure in serving and in our relationship with Our Awesome God through Jesus Christ. If you are a Christian who has strayed away from Our Awesome God, or someone who has never been a Christian, or a person who needs to help minister to others, join us at Living Word Baptist Church on Sunday at 9:30 AM for Bible Study and at 10:30 AM for Worship Service. At 6:00 PM we have a Bible Study along with AWANA for children until 7:30 PM (September through May). On Wednesdays, we meet at 7:00 PM for Prayer Requests, and a Bible Study follows until 8:00 PM. We welcome all people and love them! "And Joshua rent his clothes, and fell to the earth upon his face before the ark of the Lord until the eventide, he and the elders of Israel, and put dust upon their heads.
(Joshua 7:6 KJV) Read Joshua 7:6-15. Our Awesome God tells us in His Holy Bible about humans and their failures or setbacks. He wants us to learn from the mistakes of others and to realize we will not win often when God isn't helping us. Are we sure He wasn't helping us every time we won even if our purpose wasn't right? Failures happened to these Biblical characters: * When Abraham should have stayed in the land and trusted the Lord, he fled to Egypt because of the drought (Genesis 12:10). * Moses, in trying to help his people, ran ahead of the Lord and killed the Egyptian (Exodus 2:11-12). * When David should have been on the field of battle, he stayed home and committed adultery (2 Samuel 11). * Peter, in spite of his self-confidence and his great boast, denied the Lord (Matthew 26:69-75). These are all failures that are found in the Bible because, if we live and really do anything, we will fail at some time in our lives. God wants us to know and be able to handle failures as well as successes, and to know where success comes from. We need to understand that failures come when we do something in our own strength and that we should include God's instruction to make our next try a success. Was Our Awesome God consulted in any of the above incidents? There are many causes for failure. Some are the product of specific acts of sin, but some are not. Some are simply the product of ignorance or of circumstances beyond our control like a drop in the stock market or extreme weather conditions (drought, floods, wars). But we need to pray before and in the aftermath of a failure and wait for His answer. Once Our Awesome God (or our Lord) reveals the answer and what we should do, our prayer request is ended. We accept His answer and immediately obey Him. This obedience may include asking the Lord and others for forgiveness or to include other specific details but if God said it, do it. Now a failure can start things going for God's glory and your learning more about Our Awesome God. LWBC is a Bible believing church that tries to live Jesus Christ's commandment to "love one another as I have loved you." (John 15:12 KJV). Join us this Sunday as we learn more about Our Awesome God and how to teach others from His Holy Bible. Our church starts with small groups on Sunday at 9:30 AM and Worship Service at 10:30 AM. On Sunday evening at 6:00 PM, a Bible Study meets for an hour and there is AWANA for children until 7:30 PM. Wednesday service is at 7:00 PM. We love visitors! "And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God."
(Romans 12:2 KJV) "And Joshua said unto them, Fear not, nor be dismayed, be strong and of good courage: for thus shall the Lord do to all your enemies against whom ye fight." (Joshua 10:25 KJV) Read the Our Awesome God's Holy Scripture above and especially Romans 12:2 carefully. It would seem that, according to this Scripture, we are to be in the world but not like the world. We are to be different. Not prideful or envious. Why? Because these forces that think they control the World (or earth) hate or battle with God because of pride and envy. We, as Christians, are Our Awesome God’s children and the earth is God's. Thus, if the world is in conflict with God, the world is also in conflict with us. A big part of our Spiritual Battles is the Worldly or Earthly Battles we face because we are Christians and need to defend our faith. Remember Joshua in 10:25 as he told them that God would fight for them. The prayer of Jesus to Our Awesome God in John 17:14-26 expresses the heart of Jesus since He knows the battles that we will and do face in this world. We are not called to be a part of the world, we are sent in to the world to be a witness of Jesus Christ. This is a miraculous calling and it takes the miracle of the Holy Spirit living in us to fulfill it and to remember God has won the real battle. It also takes discernment to know the ways of Our Awesome God and the ways of the world. Because we are born into this world, we naturally think according to it. We have to be transformed to understand God’s ways instead (Romans 12:3). The battles here on earth are becoming more frequent and are becoming more intense when a person decides to accept Jesus as their Savior, the enemy will then attack from all directions. He will use circumstances, events, people, things and even doubt in a new Christian's mind to steal his heart back to his old ways. When we are made aware of the world's influences and how they are in contrast to God's ways, we must then learn how to operate in the world as a true follower of God. It is one thing to be naive to the world's deceptions but once the truth is revealed, we have a responsibility to obey Our Awesome God's directions for us. Tomorrow the Our Awesome God series will include "#3 The Inner Battle." If you are a Christian who has strayed away from Our Awesome God or someone who has never been a Christian or a person who needs to help minister to others, join us at Living Word Baptist Church on Sunday at 10:30 AM for worship and at 6:00 PM we have AWANA for children and Bible Study. On Wednesdays, we meet at 7:00 PM for Prayer Requests, and a Bible Study follows until 8:00 PM. We welcome all people and love them! |
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December 2016
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