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Microsoft Word - MS-Joshua 1, Courage
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Opening Prayer
Almighty God, as you have sent Jesus to be for us light and truth, send now your
Spirit upon us to grant us grace and strength to follow in his footsteps this day.
Amen
Looking Back
Take some time to settle yourself. Invite the Holy Spirit to help you quiet your mind. Review your
calendar and journal for the past two months.
· List the people, projects, and events that have occupied your time.
· What emotions colored your experiences?
· When did you sense that Jesus was present to you?
· When did he seem distant or you seem distant from him?
· Note any life lessons or themes that have surfaced for you in this time. Offer that up to Jesus.
· Expectation- What do you hope will happen during your time with Jesus today? What do you
seek? Tell him that.
Scriptu
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Be Strong and Courageous- Joshua 1:1-9
1 After the death of Moses the servant of the LORD, the
LORD said to Joshua son of Nun, Moses' aide: 2 "Moses
my servant is dead. Now then, you and all these people, get
ready to cross the Jordan River into the land I am about to
give to them--to the Israelites. 3 I will give you every place
where you set your foot, as I promised Moses. 4 Your
territory will extend from the desert to Lebanon, and from
the great river, the Euphrates--all the Hittite country--to
the Great Sea on the west. 5 No one will be able to stand up
against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses,
so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake
you.
Crossing the Jordan, Steve Stuckey, 2007 Acrylic on
6 "Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these
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people to inherit the land I swore to their forefathers to give
them. 7 Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey
all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be
successful wherever you go. 8 Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it
day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and
successful. 9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be
discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go."1
1 Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 Biblica. Used by permission of
Zondervan. All rights reserved. The "NIV" and "New International Version" trademarks are registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by
Biblica. Use of either trademark requires the permission of Biblica.
Reflection Questions: Joshua and the people of Israel face a major transition. Moses has died and
the nomadic people are preparing to enter a land filled with danger and opportunity. Describe the
transition that you and the people you serve face. How do you feel? Tell the Lord. What promise has
Joshua been given and why should he trust the promise? Why should you? Be strong and courageous are
qualities of being. What does it look like when those qualities are at work in you? (note: courage is
derived from the Latin word "cor" meaning "heart." The root word in Hebrew means "be alert."). In
order to be courageous, what does the Lord say Joshua must "be alert" to? What does it mean to
meditate? What helps or hinders you and your students from doing so? Note the promise that brackets
the exhortation? How does this passage speak to your life today?
Exe
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e t- Take some time to walk around and enjoy the gardens. It is His gift to you
today.
Rea
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Gabriel Marcel distinguished between approaching life as a problem and entering it as a mystery. If we
deal with life as a problem, we reduce it to what we can do something about; we are concerned with
figuring out and fixing. And, while there is an important place for figuring things out and fixing them, if
that is all that we do we become myopic, mangers and mechanics of what is immediately before us, with
no peripheral vision and no horizons. We miss most of life. But if we approach life as a mystery, we are
forever coming upon meanings that exceed our definitions, energy and resources unguessed in our
calculations. "Mystery is not the absence of meaning, but the presence of more meaning that we can
comprehend."
Eugene Peterson in The Unnecessary Pastor, page 69
I feel more and more convinced that only a spirituality which thus puts the whole emphasis on the
Reality of God, perpetually turning to Him, losing itself in Him, refusing to allow even the most
pressing work or practical problems, even sin and failure, to distract from God- only this is a safe
foundation for spiritual work. This alone is able to keep alive the awed, adoring sense of the mysteries
among which we move, and of the tiny bit which at the best we ourselves can apprehend of them- and
yet, considering that immensity and our tininess, the marvel of what we do know and feel.
Evelyn Underhill, Concerning the Inner Life, Page 26
"Certainty is the mark of the common-sense life: gracious uncertainty is the mark of the spiritual life. To
be certain of God means that we are uncertain in all our ways, we do not know what a day may bring
forth. This is generally said with a sigh of sadness, it should be rather an expression of breathless
expectation. We are uncertain of the next step, but we are certain of God. Immediately we abandon to
God, and do the duty that lies nearest, He packs our life with surprises all the time."
Oswald Chambers "My Utmost for His Highest"
I wi
w ll be
b wi
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t you .Be
B Str
t ong. Be
B Courag
a eous .I wi
w ll
never leave or forsake
k you!
MS-Joshua 1, Courage; CSUN- September 2009
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