Songs by Brother Randy Richardson included, "If Jesus comes Tomorrow," "What Then," and Pastor Bob Cartwright, "I'm Too Close To Heaven To Turn Around."
Just right to start the sermon about Joshua leading the people. After the death of Moses, the Lord spoke unto Joshua and said, "Moses my servant is dead; therefore you will arise and go over this Jordan, thou, and all this people unto the land which I do give to them, even to the children of Israel." Then he said that everywhere Joshua's foot stepped was given unto Him. Just as He had promised Moses, He did likewise to Joshua. He told him he would never leave him nor forsake him and no man would be able to stand in the way of his path. The land was so blessed that it even produced a cluster of grapes so large that it took two men to run a stick through the cluster and carry it on a pole. This land was surely blessed by God, for it produced beyond imagination. All they had to do was claim the land; for God had already told them it was theirs.
It takes power such as the power spoken of in the first chapter of Acts. In the eighth verse, Jesus told them that they would receive power after the Holy Ghost came upon them. You see, we often forget that we have the power in the name of Jesus, no matter what the job we can accomplish through the strength which He has given us. Jesus was preparing the people for the power to live not only in this world but to have hope for a new life with God in the eternal heavenly home. He told them that even when men sleep as if they were dead, they will rise again just as he did.
In 1 Thessalonians 4:16, we read that the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God; and the dead in Christ will rise first then they that are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air; and so shall they ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.
You see it is all about accepting the things God has given us by the power of the Holy Ghost. We live so beneath our needs just because we, as the children of Israel, are afraid to claim what God has for us. We just don't have the faith to believe what is in store for us. He said the eye has not seen nor the ear heard what the Lord has prepared for us. We are promised that God has not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation. Psalms 50:15-17 warns us that we are not to call upon God only when we are in trouble, for he, as it says in the scripture, will laugh at your calamity. God is not here only for the bad times but if we are evil, in verse 17, he tells us that we hate instruction and cast his words aside. That is a time when God will reprove the evildoer and he will take away the power that he once possessed. We are to love and obey his commandments if we want to be numbered among those called his children.
Look at today with sickness everywhere, where are we to turn? There is no place but to Jesus the healer of men. It is so hard to watch those who are suffering and even the medical field is baffled at the inability to save lives. You see we must turn to our Father and ask for His mercy and healing. We must have the Holy Spirit within us to be able to touch the heart of God.
Pastor Bob gave the example, if you build a form for concrete and never put the cement into the form, what do you have? An empty box is all that you have. Likewise, if you are a body empty and without the spirit, you will never obtain a home for eternity. But there is another dreaded place that has been prepared for the evil and disobedient. It is a place that burns forever and ever. Where do you want to go?
Come hear the word of God at the Cove Mission of Hope. Everyone is always welcome at the Cove in Lanagan, Mo. It's the church at the top of the hill with the steeple pointing souls to God.
Opinions expressed are those of the author.