More ... continued!

So after having my out-of-the-routine kind of morning ... I sit down to read my Bible and SHAZAM!  I always pray before I read God's Word.  I pray the Holy Spirit would be my teacher.  I'm weird (it's what I do) but I pretend He is there, sitting next to me, as a professor, pointing out things He wants to me know ... truth.  It happened in a very SHAZAM-like moment just after reading three verses!

Joshua 18:3 says ... "How long are you going to wait before taking possession of the remaining land the Lord God has given you?"  Back story ... Joshua is the head honcho to Israel.  They've been wandering the dessert for 40 years, their main guy, Moses, dies.  Joshua takes over and leads them into the land God only gave them by His words.  Once they got there, they had to defeat those who were occupying the land.  But, because God is a good God and keeps His promises ... they only had to obey and God gave them the land.  Now, the land was under Israelite control.  But there were 7 tribes (out of 12) that were being a little ... sheepish about their new found freedom.

In my personal and humble opinion, 7 out of 12 is about normal.  I believe 7 out of every 12 people who say they are "Christian" live in freedom and actually "occupy the land" so to speak.  So what about the others?  When Moses arrived at the land God was giving them (notice I say "was going to give them"?  It was a promise spoken.  It was reality.  It just had to physically take place.),  he sent out 12 spies.  Only 2 came back after seeing the occupants saying "We can do this because God said He was giving us the land."  Here the stats differ:  2 out of 12.

Why don't we all "occupy the land"?  This could be a great series, couldn't it?  Why don't we all experience freedom, peace, enlarged faith, blessing etc.?  I once heard a friend - who can I say really gets the "occupying the land" thing - say that most Christians have this kind of mentality:  "I know God loves me.  I accept that Jesus died on the cross for my sins.  But ... I suck.  I gotta do all these things to make God really like me."

Occupying the land?  I don't think so ...

unpacking bags in the land I'm occupying,
christina