March 25 - Distance Learning

 Read today’s texts first: Joshua 21,22; Psalm 47; 1 Corinthians 10

MAXIMize YOUR DAY

It is best to study at SHK, the School of Hard Knocks,  through Distance Learning.

I’m a big proponent of hands-on training. It has been the guiding value behind the Bible college and the church institutes I’ve led. Every student applies what they are learning immediately within the real-life world of a local church. But there is one school, from which we all need to graduate, where I would recommend completing each course by “distance learning.” The school is SHK, better known as the School of Hard Knocks!

Have you ever wondered why there are so many stories of failure in the Bible, especially within the history of Israel? Most other ancient documents, like those chronicling the Pharaohs or Caesars, often minimize or omit their leaders’ missteps and exaggerate their accomplishments. But the Bible is all about real people in real life making real mistakes. Now these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did….These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the culmination of the ages has come (1 Cor. 10:6,11).

For the most part, I grew up learning from the mistakes of others. Avoiding the traps of adolescence was worth the labels of “nerd” or “goody two shoes” (what does that mean anyways?). When I did persist in learning the wrong things the wrong way, I would look back later, shake my head, and wonder why I didn’t keep my distance. I could have - God always provides an escape route every time we are tempted (10:13).

“Lord, I am so grateful that Your Word helped me learn most of the hard lessons of life without the hard knocks. But when I failed some of those lessons, I am also grateful that You never kept Your distance from me.”

March 24 - Our City of Refuge

 Read today’s texts first: Joshua 18-20; 1 Corinthians 9

MAXIMize YOUR DAY

Jesus is our only “city of refuge” and to be
outside His protection is sure death. 

The legal system in the old wild west was swift, but not always just - saloon brawls, gun fights in the streets, notorious gangs, and pistol-packing posses who seldom waited around for the circuit-riding judge to show up. But the revenge-driven justice system of the older east, especially the middle east, was far more wild and woolly than the west.

God’s law stood in stark contrast to the vicious “law of the land” typical of the Canaanite nations. To protect those who were unjustly charged with premeditated murder, God commanded Israel to set aside six of the Levitical settlements as Cities of Refuge, three on each side of the Jordan, evenly accessible to all. The practical purpose for that time was clear (20:1-6), but like so much of God’s laws for Israel, there was also a foreshadowing of the future Messiah. Jesus would eventually become our ultimate refuge (Ps. 46:1; Heb. 6:18).

Jesus is a place of refuge accessible and available to all, Jews and Gentiles alike (20:9). He is our only refuge, and to be outside His protection is sure death (20:5). The most incredible parallel is that total freedom comes only after the death of the High Priest (20:6). But unlike the Cities of Refuge, Jesus provides a haven for the truly guilty, which includes all of us. Beyond the mercy of God pictured by these cities, the grace of God is illustrated by Jesus, who died in our place.

“Lord, You are my refuge and my strength, an ever present help in time of trouble (Ps. 46:1). I will never leave the protection of Your presence.”

March 23 - Pulling Up Roots

 Read today’s texts first: Joshua 15-17; 1 Corinthians 8

MAXIMize YOUR DAY

Sins are like weeds. If you don’t pull them out
by the roots, they will grow and multiply
bigger and stronger than ever!

Unlike my friends, I didn't get an allowance from my parents. We lived in a nice house, our dad seemed well-off (he owned six businesses), but the Buzza kids had to work for every cent. One of my favourite chores was pulling weeds. The demographics for this free-enterpriser were ideal - two acres of yards, lots of gardens and rockeries, and a ravine behind us when pickings were slim. At one cent per weed, the pay rate may violate child labour laws today, but back then seven weeds could buy you a popsicle! My dad did have one big condition, though - no root, no money!

Now that I’ve had my own rockeries, I understand the principle. With the return of spring comes weeds, and I could always see a big difference where I weeded last fall from where Jan “helped” me. She didn’t grow up with my dad so she didn’t pull up the roots when she weeded. Well, they not only survived the winter, they grew back bigger and stronger than ever, with new baby weeds!

This is a simple explanation for why God wanted all the corrupt Canaanite nations completely uprooted from the promised land (Deut. 31:3-6). If they were allowed to hang around, they would soon spread and choke off the spiritual life of Israel (Deut. 31:16-21). But as God predicted, Israel became lazy, tired, or fearful, and stopped short of driving out all the Canaanite nations from their allotted lands (15:63; 16:10; 17:12). The rest of the story we will be reading in the days ahead, but bookmark these verses. They become the reason for Israel’s continuing failures and ultimately their deportation from the promised land.

“Lord, I ask for your help in pulling up the roots of sin in my own life, anything that could spring up later to choke off our relationship or hinder anyone else in their relationship with You (1 Cor. 8:9-13).”

March 22 - Old Faithful

 Read today’s texts first: Joshua 12-14;1 Corinthians 7

MAXIMize YOUR DAY

May what was said of Caleb be said of me:
He has a different spirit and follows me wholeheartedly!

Spring has sprung, the grass has ris, it’s the time I used to visit my good friend I lovingly called “Old Faithful.” I’m not referring to my gushing friend in Yellowstone, although this old geezer has visited that old geyser many times (each May on student tour). I am talking about my beloved Craftsman lawn mower with its reliable Briggs and Stratton motor. Two decades old, zero maintenance, never flush the fuel tank, never change the oil, started first pull every spring. I loved my mower! Faithfulness is one of my core values. Although I don’t always live up to it, I aspire to!

That’s why the story of Caleb inspires me. He and Joshua were the only two of the ten spies who believed Israel could possess the promised land, giants and all. God said Caleb has a different spirit and follows me wholeheartedly (Numbers 13:30; 14:24,30). He lived up to his name, which literally means “faithful,” “whole-hearted.”

Caleb, Joshua, and Moses were the only grown men to survive the wilderness wanderings, with God’s help. And knowing God was with him, at the ripe young age of 85, Caleb asked for the hill country of Hebron. Guess why? Because that’s where the giants lived, in the most fortified cities in all of Canaan. Love that guy, maybe more than my mower! God loved him too, and helped him take the land for himself and his family (14:6-14).

“Lord, You gave me this appreciation for the quality of faithfulness. Now I pray that I can live up to it and finish my life well. Like Caleb, if I need to face a few giants in my old age, I can “mow” them down with Your help!”

March 21 - Listening Skills

 Read today’s texts first: Joshua 9-11;1 Corinthians 6

MAXIMize YOUR DAY

God wants us to listen to Him and, shocker,
He actually wants to listen to us. 

I regularly teach pre-marriage couples about interactive and reflective listening gleaned from my 46 years of wedded bliss to Jan. Okay, I pretend to know what I’m talking about but after more than four decades, I admit, it’s still a work in progress. Guys - can you ever understand what your wife is really saying? 

If that’s true of married couples, imagine the communication gap between man and God! And yet, God wants us to listen to Him and, shocker, He actually wants to listen to us. That’s the way it was in the beginning - Adam and Eve walking and talking with God in Eden (Gen. 3:8). That’s the way it can be with us now if Jesus lives in our hearts (Rev. 3:20). But we can even see God pursuing that kind of relationship with man before the finished work of Calvary. He talked with Moses face to face (Ex. 33:11; Deut. 34:10). Now, in our reading today, He is listening to Joshua (10:14).

In earlier blogs we’ve talked about the importance of listening to God, consulting with Him before every major decision. For the most part, Joshua did that, and when he didn’t (eg. Ai, the Gibeonites), the consequences were devastating. But we know that; we see it over and over again in Scripture, and we can get the impression that our relationship with God is one-sided. Just listen to God and do what He says (like marriage, right guys?). But what stood out to me in this passage was this verse: there has never been a day like it before or since, a day when God listened to a human being (10:14).

That was true. God may never again rearrange the solar system because we asked Him to, but He does listen to us. Recently, God encouraged me with a miracle of my own, small to some but huge to me, just to confirm I had made a good decision. It was a special moment between us, too personal for this blog, but life-changing for me. “Lord, thank You that not only do You speak regularly to me, You also listen.”

March 20 - Ai Yi Yi!

 Read today’s texts first: Joshua 7.8; Psalms 69; 1 Corinthians 5

MAXIMize YOUR DAY

You can’t eat yesterday’s manna (except on the Sabbath) and you can’t fight new battles with old strategies. 

Joshua and the Israelites quickly go from the thrill of victory at Jericho to the agony of defeat at Ai. I love Bible names, especially when they fit the story. For example, at Shittim, they were in deep doo-doo (Numbers 25:1-3). After their first attack on Ai, it was “Ai yi yi” (Joshua 7:3-5). Another way to remember this city is “A (eh), I got this!”

After their miraculous rout at Jericho, they quickly became overconfident. One look at the far less fortified city of Ai and the scouts were saying, “hey, we don’t even need to send the whole army. Two or three thousand should do it. Give the other guys the day off!” So Joshua forgot about his bare-footed conversation with Jesus, decided he didn’t even need to pray this time, and, as a result, lost 36 men.

This is so typical of human nature. As soon as things start to go well, we think we’re the reason and soon forget about God. Then we fail, fall flat on our faces, come crawling back to God, only to repeat the cycle. It happens over and over again with God’s people, the Israelites and us, myself included!

There are at least two things to remember from this story. First, keep sin out of the camp. We can see it with Israel (7:11,12) and with the church (1 Cor. 5:1,2). If we expect God to fight our battles for us we had better keep our hearts pure. Second, don’t fall back on what worked in the past. Israel learned you can’t eat yesterday’s manna (except on the Sabbath) and you can’t fight new battles with old strategies. It’s fascinating to see how God gave Israel a new plan for every challenge they would face - for Ai it was the first recorded example of the classic pincer movement. Israel would need to consult with God every time they went to war. The same is true for us.

“Lord, thank You for the successes You’ve given me in the past. But today is a new day and I need to hear from You for the challenges ahead!”

March 19 - Shoes Off

  Read today’s texts first: Joshua 3-6; 1 Corinthians 4

MAXIMize YOUR DAY

While Nike is telling me to put on their shoes and
“just do it,” I’m taking my shoes off and saying
I can only do it with God’s help!

I grew up playing in the ravine behind our house. No matter where mom was in the house, when I came in through the back door she could somehow hear me, and I could clearly hear her: “shoes off!” Mom worked hard to keep our home clean and she didn’t want any of her six kids trailing the grime of the dirty world outside inside, on to her spotless linoleum!

Joshua heard the same thing from God, just like his mentor Moses did (5:15; Exodus 3:5). God’s command had the same intent as my mom’s, sort of. This is holy ground - take your shoes off! Don’t bring the grimy sin of this world into My presence! That’s why Jesus taught us to confess our sins when we pray (Matthew 6:12) so that those contaminants can be removed from us as far as the east is from the west (Psalm 103:12).

But for Joshua, taking off his sandals was more than just removing the sin of his past; it was a symbol of his humility and dependence on God moving forward. God promised to give Joshua the land everywhere he placed the sole of his foot (1:3). But He was now saying (clearly the Commander in this story was a Christophany, Jesus Himself), if you expect to take this promised land, you will have do it My way or no way.

When we face impossible circumstances, when there are walled fortresses in front of us that need to come crashing down, we can’t lace up our old boots and expect to kick down those walls ourselves. God often leads us into situations we can’t overcome in our own strength. He wants us to strip away our pride and humbly acknowledge our desperate need for His help (1 Cor. 4). “Lord, I do that today. While Nike is telling me to put on their shoes and “just do it,” I’m taking my shoes off and saying I can only do it with Your help. With Joshua, I fall at Your feet and ask, what does my Lord say to His servant (5:14).”