Joshua 4

As I began to read this chapter the message of it was obvious to me, but that obvious doesn't always mean that I do it. The Lord told Joshua to send 12 men, one from each tribe, to go to the middle of the river and bring a stone with them to be set up as a memorial. I guess the new thing that I saw this time was that the stones came from the middle.

Right in the middle, not that I know exactly where that is most of the time, I am to carry out "stones" as a memorial. Heart lessons, journal entries, letters, photographs, whatever I can to be set up as a memorial to God's faithfulness. I find it interesting that these were not just itty bitty stones. They were huge stones. They were told to carry them on their shoulder. They had to be big in order to create the memorial that would stand for all the years that it stood. Sometimes the things I have to carry out of the middle of our Jordan aren't easy to carry. They may hurt my heart to carry them. They may be seen by others as nothing but an ugly rock. But I am to carry them. I am to set them up not as reminders of what a hard time I experienced, but as reminder of God's strength.

"This was so that everybody on earth would recognize how strong God's rescuing hand is and so that you would hold God in solemn reverence always." Joshua 4:24. Everybody! Even those that don't believe in Him. These people will recognize the strength of God's hand. I think about Garren and how much God's hand is at work in the middle of his Jordan. Garren will carry out his stones and set them up so everyone will see how God saved him. I believe that and it makes me cry with sadness that he is in his Jordan and with joy that God is rescuing and His hand will be seen.

The stones are not just for everyone else to see God's hand, but for me to hold God in solemn reverence. For me to realize my limits and His unlimited grace, mercy, strength, etc. I truly could go on and on. How sad to have gone through the Jordan, been brought out with dry feet on the other side and not to put God in the proper place in my life, revered above all else.

So I thought this chapter's message was obvious and the blog would be very brief. Funny how as I began to write God taught me more. This is one thing I love about God. When I think I know, He reveals how much I don't.