Two ways and God's way

Joshua and Saul: two men, two callings, two different results.

Old school, new school or God’s school?

You hear that, oh he’s old school, she is old school. It’s really not meant as a compliment.

Looking for a better way to do something is not bad, whether we are updating our processes, our Bible Studies or our songs, we all do it to one degree or another. We find it throughout the Bible and we find it throughout human history. Yet, whenever we are looking to improve or make something better, we need to always have this at the forefront of our decision making process; what does God want?

Times of transition - all throughout life there is transition. Whether it be in our personal lives, the businesses that we work for or interact with. Cities experience transition, countries experience transition, the list goes on. Sometimes these times of transition are minor, other times they are major. Sometimes, it’s just the transition from one leader to another or sometimes that new leader is helping to usher in a new form of leading.

Joshua - from wandering in the wilderness to walking into the promise.

Saul - from Judges with the tribes forming the backbone of the culture of government, to a king and kingdom based form of government

Both men, came to leadership during times of transition and both men experienced vastly different results.

Religiosity or relationship - don’t trouble the land, by troubling God’s people (1 Samuel 14:29 “Then Jonathan said, “My father has brought trouble on the land! See now that my eyes have brightened because I have tasted a little of this honey.” . Are you more concerned with method or relationship? Focusing on relationship will cause your method to be in line with what God wants. A greater victory could have been won against the Philistines, yet Saul hindered his soldiers. Saul like Jephthah made rash vows or proclamations that caused trouble to his children. Saul was concerned with methods more than relationship. To Saul, it was Samuel’s God, not his own God. 1 Samuel 15:30 “Then he said, “I have sinned! Now please honor me before the elders of my people and before Israel, and return with me so that I can worship the LORD your God.””

Neither - the response to: are you with us or with our adversaries, or are you with us or against us? Joshua 5:13-15 “And it happened, when Joshua was by Jericho, he looked up, and he saw a man standing opposite him with his sword drawn in his hand. And Joshua went to him and said, “Are you with us, or with our adversaries?” And he said, “Neither. I have come now as the commander of Yahweh’s army.” And Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and he bowed down and said to him, “What is my lord commanding his servant?” The commander of Yahweh’s army said to Joshua, “Take off your sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy.” And Joshua did so.”

During the last 3 years, these verses have been in the background of everything that I have seen happen to our city, our state, our country and the world.

Seek him in this time of transition and he will show you His will and His method.

Nothing New

The Lexham English Bible Chapter 2

Dear friends, I am not writing a new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you have had from the beginning. The old commandment is the message which you have heard

In this passage John tells us something that we need to remember.

He is echoing what Jesus told his disciples and in turn is telling us:

John 13:34-35 ““A new commandment I give to you: that you love one another—just as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples—if you have love for one another.””

While we seek the new method, what we actually need to find is not new. What we face is hard, yet our time fits Paul’s time and description pretty closely in his letter to Timothy:

2 Timothy 3:1-7 “But know this, that in the last days difficult times will come, for people will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, arrogant, slanderers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, hardhearted, irreconcilable, slanderous, without self-control, savage, with no interest for what is good, traitors, reckless, conceited, loving pleasure rather than loving God, maintaining a form of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid these people. For from these are those who slip into houses and captivate foolish women loaded down with sins, led by various kinds of desires, always learning and never able to come to a knowledge of the truth.”

Always learning, ever learning.

What is needed now, is what was needed 2,000 years ago, it was needed 1,000 years ago, it was needed 500 years ago, it was needed 100 years ago and it is still needed today. We need to love one another. Love my brother whom I have seen. Love my sister whom I have seen. A city that is lost, needs a youth/hyphen leader that loves those in the body of Christ before they can try to effectively reach and bring in the lost, broken and hurting.

What will you do when a young person that you just baptized comes to you and tells you that one of their two dads died? I’m not talking about biological or step-dad, I am talking about one of their two adoptive fathers, not mom and dad, but dad and dad. We are living in difficult times, yet the first church lived in difficult times also.

Youth worker, hyphen worker first operate in love towards the members of the body of Christ, then you will be able to minister effectively to your city.

Joshua or Saul, the choice is yours. Joshua stayed in the tent after Moses left the tent of meeting, the place where he met with God.

And when all the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance of the tent, all the people would rise up and worship, each at his tent door. 11 Thus the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. When Moses turned again into the camp, his assistant Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, would not depart from the tent

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Ex 33:10–11.

There is no way around it. Spend time with God and you will be able to minister effectively to your generation.