anyone who was at f.b.b.c. for the mid week service will remember how pastor used the crossing over Jordan and entering into the promised land as a kind of picture of where the church is now and so on. i heard a different message altogether.
as the children of Israel leave Egypt and enter into the wilderness we see a kind of salvation there, but they have not completed the journey by far. 40 years spent wondering and wondering trying to get it right. i see in this the christian who has come to faith but is also wondering trying to get it right. so then after many years they arrive at the promised land, they cross over and it's easy street from there....right? NO, there is war waiting for them in that land. the difference is that now they have God to help them fight the battles. pastor said here, now that we are here don't just sit down and do nothing. it's time to go to war! time to win the battles. but i just thought of the christian who thinks that when he does find vital reality with God and he finally stops his wilderness wanderings, he thinks, oh man now i can relax, now its easy street. oh no my friends, the bible shows us when we become closer to God when the christian does find his way out of the world and into the light, the battles get heaver and they hit harder. we enter into his rest because now he is there to fight for us, not with us! but for us! for the battles are such as you and i on our own can never win.
