Read:
Joshua 4:1-18
1 When the whole nation had finished crossing the Jordan, the LORD said to Joshua, 2 "Choose twelve men from among the people, one from each tribe, 3 and tell them to take up twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan from right where the priests stood and to carry them over with you and put them down at the place where you stay tonight." 4 So Joshua called together the twelve men he had appointed from the Israelites, one from each tribe, 5 and said to them, "Go over before the ark of the LORD your God into the middle of the Jordan. Each of you is to take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites, 6 to serve as a sign among you. In the future, when your children ask you, 'What do these stones mean?' 7 tell them that the flow of the Jordan was cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD. When it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. These stones are to be a memorial to the people of Israel forever."
8 So the Israelites did as Joshua commanded them. They took twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites, as the LORD had told Joshua; and they carried them over with them to their camp, where they put them down. 9 Joshua set up the twelve stones that had been [a] in the middle of the Jordan at the spot where the priests who carried the ark of the covenant had stood. And they are there to this day.
10 Now the priests who carried the ark remained standing in the middle of the Jordan until everything the LORD had commanded Joshua was done by the people, just as Moses had directed Joshua. The people hurried over, 11 and as soon as all of them had crossed, the ark of the LORD and the priests came to the other side while the people watched. 12 The men of Reuben, Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh crossed over, armed, in front of the Israelites, as Moses had directed them. 13 About forty thousand armed for battle crossed over before the LORD to the plains of Jericho for war.
14 That day the LORD exalted Joshua in the sight of all Israel; and they revered him all the days of his life, just as they had revered Moses.
15 Then the LORD said to Joshua, 16 "Command the priests carrying the ark of the Testimony to come up out of the Jordan."
17 So Joshua commanded the priests, "Come up out of the Jordan."
18 And the priests came up out of the river carrying the ark of the covenant of the LORD. No sooner had they set their feet on the dry ground than the waters of the Jordan returned to their place and ran at flood stage as before.
Have you ever faced a trial or trouble in your life that you didn't know how in the world you were ever going to come through? We'll I have and still face things in my christian walk that can be challenging. One thing that we need to do when we enter into prayer and worship is to remember how God brought us out of certain situations. we need to look at the story of Joshua and see how God dried up the river of Jordan for them to walk on dry land to the other side. One thing that we need to do though is to remember our first love with the Lord in the new birth with Him. In this story of Joshua, as soon as the ark of the covenant touched the water, the water dried up for them to cross over. I can see this as God making a path for you today as you try and cross over to your promise land. So many times we try and cross over to the other side of our destiny and certain situations alone. We struggle to the other side to find that there was no help with the situation. God never attended for you to fulfill your destiny and dreams alone. You can actually try and fulfill something in your life that God may have actually called you to, but you do it by yourself with the wrong timing. You can't look back at the river and say, "There is a stone of remembrance to prove that Gods' fingerprints were all in this situation. Another thing I see as a life application for us in this story is that there have been ministers' from the past who have stood sound in doctrine and remained true to God in there ministry. We can look back and see that we to can walk in truth and character just as they did. The last thing I want us to look at is when they got to the other side with the ark, the rivers came back to it's original state. Alot of times we look back at where we missed it and not look at where God pulled us through. We can't dwell on the past mistakes and failures of the past when we enter the presence, but we can dwell on a remembrance stone of Jesus shedding His blood for us on the cross. We can look at a remembrance stone of our born again experience with Christ through repentance, and we can look at a remembrance stone of how God brought us to the other side many times in our life. Never look back and dwell on that which is forgotten. The bible tells us that He has thrown our sins as far as the east is to the west. He has thrown them in the sea of forgetfulness. Yesterday is in the tomb but tomorrow is in our womb, and birthed within us are memories of great things God has done for us. Are you alone with a stone today? Have you carried your stone in the wrong place today and found yourself in a world of mess? Let's place our troubles, pains, and sins upon the altar today. We can place our life in the hands of the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, just as they placed the stones in a place that was instructed to them, and we can look back at not where we missed it, but where God was with us.
prayer:
Lord we need you today to show us again the times you were there for us upon our own river of Jordan. Help us Lord to not place our stone in places that we shouldn't place them, but help us to obey your instruction and be obedient today in our worship, devotion, and prayer. We place our lives in your hands today and ask that as we praise and worship you the rivers dry up so we can walk to the othe side of our destiny and calling that you have called us to. We ask in your precious name. Amen.
by Keith Edwards
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