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Ministry Encouragement Podcast – Episode #042 – 4-17-13
Rev. Jim W. Hollis, Executive Director of Proactive Ministries – www.proactive-ministries.org
Atlanta, GA Offices: (770) 803-9988
Welcome to this our forty-second Episode of the Ministry Encouragement Podcast. Today I am delighted that you are sharing in this podcast ministry and helping me build a wonderful, supportive community of faith around it. In sharing with you today, I am going to be discussing the topic of:
Moving From Waiting to Victory – Joshua and Jericho
We will explore together quite a journey of faith from the book of Numbers, starting in Chapter 13 of that book through the book of Joshua, Chapter 6. I encourage you to read those sections in full, which we will not cover completely in this episode. Rather, I will be hitting the highlights of this incredible faith journey of Joshua as he was named the new Leader of the people of Israel after the death of Moses.
Joshua was available to hear God’s call. He had been faithful in believing God’s promises and trusting in God’s faithfulness. He had, along with Caleb, been one of the first spies who were sent by Moses into explore the Promised Land. They came back from that first trip with a majority of the Leaders giving a bad and fearful report about the land to which God had promised to give them. (Numbers 13 and 14) It was in this time that we saw Joshua and Caleb refute the negative and fearful report of the group that “We seemed as grasshoppers among all the giants in the land.” And the people of Israel when meeting in assembly decided out of that fear to stone both Moses and Aaron. They declared they would choose new leaders and go back to return to slavery in Egypt! Wow! Can you imagine going any lower than this?
God declared that these doubters and nay-sayers would not inherit the land or cross into it. Rather God choose Joshua as the new Leader and they did, through faith cross into the Promised Land, across the Jordan River and took the city of Jericho. It is a fascinating account of trusting God.
We are being called today to move from waiting to action in our own time and culture. For too many decades the American church has become inward focused and comfortable. The more comfortable we become the lower our spiritual risk level goes. And so it’s time for a great awakening, a time of moving out beyond the walls to love others unconditionally with the love of Jesus Christ, in the power and grace of the Holy Spirit.
Thanks for being part of this podcast, you are a blessing to me. I love receiving your emails, comments, phone calls and messages. Please remember to share this with others you know via Facebook, email or by in person sharing. Please feel free to call me at our ministry offices in Smyrna GA with your prayer requests, concerns, questions or thoughts.
And should you be a Pastor or a church leader, who is ready to see your congregation move from Waiting to Victory, please feel free to contact me personally – I would love to talk with you about your specific situation and challenges. Our office phone is:
(770) 803-9988
Email: jim@ministryencouragementpodcast.com
Facebook: Jim W. Hollis
Twitter: @jhriskforchrist
May the Lord bless you until our next Episode.
Jim
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