Shepherd's Garage

"Without faith it is impossible to please God."  But we do need to be sure that we have good sense of what Biblical faith is.

We want to be wise and do the right thing and yet we will still find ourselves struggling to be wise.  How do we resolve this?  Ecclesiastes 7:19-29 has some answers for us.  There is one righteous one who never sinned,  That makes all the difference.  Give it a listen and see what you think.

As we study through Joshua and Judges we keep running into the problem of idolatry.  It is easy to dismiss this as a problem they had but we do not struggle with.  We have our idols and we keep them for a number of reasons.  One reason we keep them around is that we stay focued on what we want instead of what we need.  God is more interested in what we need than what we want.  So when He does not give in to what we want we look to other places.

Just like the Israelites had a territory to conqueor in Joshua and Judges, we have one as well.  Ourselves.  That is the hardest thing we will have to conqueor in this life.  There are lots of things we can look at and learn from the story of Joshua and Judges but maybe the prime one is this.  The last verse of Judges sums up the problem.  "Everyone did what was right in his own eyes."  Strive to move beyond yourself and do what is right in the eyes of God.

Abel's blood cries for one things.  Jesus blood speaks a better word to us.  It's why we can say Happy Easter.

Ecclesiastes chapter 7 begins with the importance of a good name.   Ecclesiastes 7:13 tell us this.  Consider the work of God: who can make straight what he has made crooked? ESV. Life will at times be crooked and it was God who made it crooked.  What's that all about?  Let's explore.

We read through the book of Joshua and it's easy to just look at the stories.  What meaning do these stories have for us today.  Maybe if you looked at like this:  We all have a territory to conquer.  That territory is ourself.  Read this way, Joshua is very useful for us as we see the the ways in which the battles we fight are either won or lost.

Will you be Rahab or Achan?  Good question to ask yourself.  Will you have faith and work for God's purposes or will you work toward your own ends?

Joshua gets to meet the commander of the Lord's army and then hear a word from the Lord.  Lots to talk about here but the main point for today:  Quit trying to get God on your side and make sure you are on God's side.

Ecclesiastes 7:9-13 continues the discussion about how to have a good name.  Two things are emphasized:  Control your anger and do not live in the past.