Territory: Word Ambassadors: Prayers and Poetry

Reading: Joshua 2

“According to your words, so be it.” Joshua 2: 21

Have you ever been thrown into a new responsibility with almost no warning and no ‘to do’ list of guidelines? You have no idea what your reception will be but are expecting hostility, so you approach with caution. Or perhaps barrel on it taking a firm grip of authority.

Joshua sent two spies across the Jordan river into hostile territory with a brief mandate, “Go, view the land, especially Jericho.” That’s all they had. To them fell the responsibility to gather critical information. So they took lodgings in the house of a harlot, probably hoping to stay under the radar and unnoticed.

Instead, because she had heard, she immediately witnessed to them her belief in God and His intent to take the land. And boldly asked for refuge for herself, her family and their kin. “Swear to me by the Lord,” she said.

Perhaps the spies expected a possible confrontation with the men in the city, or perhaps captivity, but did they expect a woman, a harlot, to demand confirmation that God not only was who she believed He was, but were these two spies were confidant enough as well to trust His words for themselves and for this foreigner. Did they wonder if they could make that promise?

All three of them had to choose to accept whether they believed God’s words would bring hope and life or destruction. The decision required concrete action and not a generic maybe. And the spies gave their word in the middle of enemy territory. And Rahab accepted with trust. “So be it.”

With so little history they all agreed with confidence Rahab’s affirmation that. “The Lord your God is indeed God in heaven above and on earth below.”

Lord, we have both Your spoken words and Your written words and too often we forget to stand on Your protection in enemy territory and/or forget to share that trust when in the midst of a conflict. Whether confronting a misunderstanding or facing down a monumental challenge, please help us to listen and act upon Your truth in faith.

Psalm of Worship: Psalm 122: 7-8

“Peace be within your walls, and security within your towers.

For the sake of my relatives and friends, I will say, ‘Peace be within you’.”

Faith Seeds: Prayers and Poetry

Genesis 8:15-15, “Then God said to Noah, ‘Go out of the ark…so that they may abound on the earth and be fruitful and multiply.’ So Noah went out with….”

As we read and share the story of Noah, we often stop there in complete amazement. And yet there is more. We often stop short of Your purposes, Lord. Or I do. I sometimes reach a point, an experience that is so amazing that I stop and stay.

Yet, You do not always call us to one plan, or one purpose only. Sometimes there is another stepping-stone to take. Perhaps not for ourselves, but maybe for another, that together we might be fruitful and multiply. Despite the long years of building the ark, Noah’s work did not end there; perhaps it only began there.

And if our destination is eternity, then we really do not have an end, a stopping point. We are to be ready to follow, to take new adventures, to accept new responsibilities each day.

Please help us to recognize and complete the task You assign, and then be willing and prepared to be moved onward to the next. May it be more important to stay the course with You than to linger with satisfaction short of Your intent.

Psalm of Worship: Psalm 111:7-8

“The work of His hands are truth and justice; all His precepts are sure.

They are upheld forever and ever; they are performed in truth and uprightness.”