my burg

Bible reading for July 3.  Joshua 5. "And the commander of the LORD'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." (Joshua 5:15)  FIRST, WORSHIP. Again, the Israelites are in the promised land but they are not yet gearing up for battle, but rather, they are worshiping God. Circumcision was the sign of the Abrahamic covenant and also commanded under the Mosaic covenant, performed to indicate that they belonged to the Lord. (This was quite an act of faith for all the fighting men would be incapacitated for a week or more.)  They also observed their first Passover in the new land. Do you see that they were unhurried about engaging in battle, since their first priority was to seek the Lord and be obedient to him? Would we learn today how important it is to take time to pray and seek God before we undertake any new project!   THE COMMANDER. Who was this man, or being (vv 1...

"One thing have I asked of the LORD, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to inquire in his temple."  (Psalm 27:4 ESV) "To dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of our life means to be so vividly conscious of our fellowship with the living God that every morning, noon and night our thoughts go out to Him, that we hear his voice in the soul, that we are aware of his holy Presence within, experience his workings in our heart and in our conscience, and that we carefully avoid the things which we would not dare to do if God stood before us and spoke to us." (Abraham Kuyper, To Be Near Unto God )