Cities of Refuge

As we're finally saying goodbye to Joshua, I was thrilled to teach one last lesson. I think it was a perfect ending for such a book as this! Really.

At the end God spoke to Joshua (Joshua 20) and told him to build Cities of Refuge for a guilty person to hide after a crime. Well, that also meant unintentional sin.
The more I studied that portion of Scripture, the more it became clear to me that Christ is my City of Refuge! And He had upgraded the "illegal allien" policy since His death: now ANYONE who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved! (Rom.10). And now ANYONE- guilty or not , can find refuge there.

So, check it out: I am studying this chapter and I decided to look up the meaning of the names of those cities.
See for yourself:

KEDESH=to consecrate, sanctify, prepare, dedicate, be hallowed, be holy, be sanctified, be separate.

SHECHEM= neck as a place of burden; to incline shoulder; to load up a man or a beast with a burden.

HEBRON= to unite, join, bind together, be joined, be in league, have fellowship with, be compact.

BEZER= to gather, restrain, fence, fortify, make inaccessible, enclose.

RAMOTH= to be lifted up, to be raised.

GOLAN= to uncover, remove ,to reveal (as God reveals Himself)

Can you see a prefect picture of Christ as He offers Himself there? What is it that you need of Him today? HE CAN DO IT!

Jesus is your Kedesh-a place where you're pronounced pure again and whole again!

Jesus is you Shechem- a place where He offers His neck and shoulders for your burden.

Jesus is your Hebron- a place where you find perfect fellowship and sweet company.

Jesus is your Bezer- a place where He keeps you inaccesible from others to get you.

Jesus is your Ramoth- a place where you're lifted out of your pit and placed on solid ground.

Jesus is your Golan- a place where your shame, pain and hurt are uncovered and removed and God is revealed in a new glory!

Where do you run when you're in trouble? Who or what have you made your refuge city? If it is not Christ- it is a false security! RUN to GOD!

So, in Joshua 20 it says that the guilty person could stay in the city as long as the high priest lived. After his death, the guilty person has to go back and deal with the past.

Hebrews 7:24-25

but because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood. Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.

That means we can stay there all we want to!! Celebrate that with me, somebody!!!!!! Praise GOD!!!

Are we still having Easter this year???

Can you tell that satan is working over time lately?
Some stuff that is shown on TV is just out of control.
First they found the Tomb of Jesus and tried to sucker us in. Gosh! Really, do they think we're THAT stupid?!?
And as if that wasn't enough, "jesus" himself appeared on TV last night. Puertorican (sp?) guy who lives in Florida now claimed to be Jesus of the Bible. This guy was smoking, drinking, had bad financial credit, problems with the law, DUI and divorce tried to convince the world of his "diety" or whatever. The funny thing is his reasons why he's doing what he's doing...Get this!!! He said that he died for all the sins the first time he came 2000 years ago, now no sin is in his body (he used Scripture and quoted Paul about "no sin should control me") and he said now we are all free to do what we want to do. There is no such thing as sin. How easy! He also said that there is no devil and no hell. The only punishment we'll ever get is natural punishment (like jail and stuff) here on earth. And!!! He and all of his followers (which by the way he has opened several churches in several countries already!) have tatooed "666" on their wrists!
C'MON now! Really! Do you really think that Christians are THAT low to buy it. My feelings were hurt because somebody totally underestimated my intellegnce THAT much!!!
What really grieved me was that he had so many followers and they all bring their kids to that "church" and kids call him "abba father" and praise him. They also convinced that all kinds of immorality is fine and one little boy said ,"because god does the same"......SAD! Very SAD!!!
They have not only limited me, they lowered my GOD so much. They have have no clue HOW BIG my GOD is!!!! Oh, how dissapointed one they will be.
A lady from that church said ,"there is only one god and no other. And he just left this building and got into his BMW"....LOL....
Well, I'd rather serve my God who is everywhere with me at all time, who is not giving an easy way out , but seeks the best way to transform my life! Who loves me unconditionally and prepared an eternity for me, because I'm on a short trip here on Earth.

2 Tim.3:1-7" But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— having a form of godliness but denying its power. (don't even even try hard to get of form of godliness!)Have nothing to do with them.
They are the kind who worm their way into homes and gain control over weak-willed women, who are loaded down with sins and are swayed by all kinds of evil desires, always learning but never able to acknowledge the truth...."

2 Tim. 4:3,4 " For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.

BOOOORING

Like I wrote earlier, we're studying Joshua with my group. I LOVE that book. The story of insecure young worshipper who achieved a lot simply because he BELIEVED GOD!

I have heard a story of a man who was given an opportunity to go in a bank and take whatever he wanted. He man came out with a penny. Whose fault was that he was poor? The same thing with us- God's bank account of blessings has our name on it and we can dithdrawl (sp?) anytime we want. Whose fault that we are poor spiritually?
Looks like Joshua was the man who learned early that FAITH is a PIN number for that account and he got blessed.

With our group we'll read several chapters at a time, and then we'll scan them through together and I share with them what stood out to me. Oneof my precious ladies said the other day ,"boy! I don't know what you're going to teach, but I'll tell you that some of those chapters were BOOOORING" ( she has the most amazing British accent, so picture that). I agreed with her wholeheartidly. Some of those chapters should be named "The worst baby names book ever" or "If you don't love your baby, name it something like that"....(LOL). Another lady looked at the chapter and said ,"I am NOT reading this portion outloud!" Ha-HA!
As I was preparing for that lesson and saw the list of the king's names, I asked God to give me something fresh on that. He did!
We read in chapters 11-19 all the achievments of Joshua and his army. Then you'll see the whole list of the Kings and their location- 33 altogether.

I looked and at list and God started speaking to me. He said, "look again....what do you think those kings represented to Joshua?"...."Obstacles?"-I said/asked God. He smiled, "yes....some are bigger than others. But all of those kings were fighting Joshua to have ultimate authority over him and make him captive to their will. Are you getting the point now?"...........AHHHH.....
I stared at the list again and I could almost picture the Scripture being re-written before my eyes....."and Lenna by faith had conquered the kings....the king of offense and hurt feelings that tried to stop her from fulfilling her purpose...the king of insecurity that tried to convince her she was no good in the Kingdom of God......king of fear that tried to stop her from moving to the new heights.....king of doubt that ried to paralize her with unbelief.....all these kings tried to establish their thrones in her heart, but by faith Lenna and her God have overcame them all, because she believed.".... wouldn't that be wonderful????

You can put your own enemy in the blank. The king of eating disorder, pornography, lust, fear, unbelief,bitterness, resentment etc. Put your own king that you have and are battling at the moment, the king that is trying to put his throne next to God's throne in your heart and gain control over you. And be sure, just like Joshua was, that GOD is in the middle of that battle with you and He is getting the hail out to kill your foes right before you eyes! JUST BELIEVE!!!!
And at the end of your life, there will be a chapter that records your personal victories through and by faith. Anticipate, beloved! The LORD SABAOTH( The LORD of the Heavenly Army) is with you!!!!

"Yet amid all these things we are more than conquerors and gain a surpassing victory through Him Who loved us." (Rom. 8:37 AMP)

update

Ok....I really haven't been here for a while....lots of things happened!

I got really sick and had a surgery last week. My very first one EVER. My husband got really worried, though he did an excellent job hiding it and being strong for me. He slept on the chair in the hospital next to me and prayed with me every time I got scared. The surgery went well and I was out of hospital the same day. I am feeling MUCH better though and I don't miss that gall bladder at all!

This whole expirience made me slow down and take a deep breath ( after the pain drugs kicked in, since you can't breathe when you're having a gall bladder attack :))) and be still. It is nice once in a while to do that. At first, when I started having minor attacks from my gall bladder, I was convinced that enemy was messing with me (andmay be he did!), but God showed up through all of that in a mighty way! Like one of my favorite devotions said one time, "Defeat may serve as well as victory: to shake the soul and let the glory out!".....Love it! If enemy tried to crush me and put me down, God just used that time to heal me, restore me and refresh me.
While in the hospital and then at home on the couch (I couldn't walk much or sit straight :) for a while) I have caught up on reading some books and picked few new. I read the Bible and just enjoyed my little break! How refreshing! I think God missed me........I missed Him too....
Through all of it- God showed Himself Faithful , Just and more than anything Loving and Caring! He is so good to me!
My Bible Study ladies were so great! Speaking of Bible Study- next Monday is our last visit of Joshua! We're about to say good bye to another great achiever of God and ready to expirience personal victories through Christ who leads us into triumph!

Oh YEAH! I got my BETH MOORE tickets this week too! YEAY!!!!!!! All the "Beth Moore groopies" please stand up and shout "Hallelujah" with me :)