What? Luke's Updating?!

Yes ladies and gentlemen... an update.

I'm here at the best University in the World, James Madison University, half-way through my first week of school, and already the Lord is piling on the lessons. Praise Him for that!

Something I wanted to share with you is a little lesson the Lord laid on my heart during my discipleship time with one of my small group guys, Benny B. We're going through the history of Israel in preparation for studying Judges and we came across how the Lord is constantly telling the Israelites things in the past tense.

(Before the battle of Jericho) Joshua 6:2- Then the LORD said to Joshua, "See, I have delivered Jericho into your hands, along with its king and fighting men."

The LORD is constantly doing this throughout the book of Joshua. A very sensible and logical question would be: If the Lord has already given them the battle, why do they need to fight and risk their lives? Why don't we just wait for them to all die, for the LORD said He has given them into our hands.

A question I find myself asking quite often as well is: Why do I still struggle with certain sin in my life?! The LORD has promised victory over sin and I know that I've already been forgiven. 2 Corinthians 5:17 says that if I really am in Christ I am a "new creation; the old has GONE". But if the old has gone, why is it still here?

The lesson we can all learn from the Israelites here is that while the Lord promised them victory, just as the Bible talks about us being "dead to sin" (Romans 6:1-15), the Israelites still needed to go through with the battle and thereby glorify God to the maximum amount. God could certainly have destroyed the army before the Israelites (he sent hailstones in Joshua 10 to aid Israel), but He would not have received the same amount of glory as He did when they made the conscious decision to follow Him and His ways. The Lord desires and deserves the GREATEST amount of glory, but how would He be glorified if we were all as robots, following every programmed command in us? The Lord, although He has created us and known us since before we were in the womb (Jeremiah 1:5), desires for us to choose Him over sin, and although He has promised us the victory over and forgiveness of sin, we are still called to go through the motions and fulfill this promise.

Think of it as a hidden gift the Lord is going to give you. He gives you the directions on how to get to the gift's location, you just need to follow them correctly in order to obtain this gift. The Bible is his directions/instructions, and the gift is victory over sin.

I am no pro at what I have just written (ie, I'm a hypocrite), but I praise the Lord for this glorious revelation of teaching and pray that we all may seek Him and serve Him that much more for His greatest glory in our lives. Let's go CLAIM the victory over sin by living our lives the way He commands us.

In His strength alone...

Luke