FBC Daily Devotional – July 21, 2021

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A brief bit of encouragement for your day from God's Word

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Well, a good Wednesday morning to you. I already made it to the middle of the week. Hope you're having a good week.
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Well today we read in Joshua chapters 3 & 4 and it's the account of the children of Israel crossing the
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Jordan River and entering into the land of Canaan and before they actually enter before they actually cross the river, the
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Lord tells them I'm gonna do something for you today that will be incredibly powerful and memorable and he tells them
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I'm gonna you're gonna walk across this river on on dry ground and And then he says he gives this instruction to Joshua.
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He says I want you to take one leader from each of the twelve tribes and To have that leader pick up a stone out of the middle of the
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Jordan River bed That dry who's gonna be a dry riverbed pick up a stone and it probably had to be a pretty good sized stone
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And carry it out of the riverbed. I want those 12 guys carry those 12 stones out of the riverbed
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Okay So we'll do that Why are we gonna do that The Lord says
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I what I want you to do is when you get through you cross everybody's crossed over those 12
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Leaders with their 12 stones. This is gonna be near Gilgal Not far from Jericho.
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He says he said I went I want those 12 Leaders with their 12 stones to erect a monument with those stones.
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This isn't gonna be an altar It's gonna be a monument it's gonna be something that The people of Israel could look to frequently throughout their history
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Anytime they pass by that way anybody passing by that way, they would be able to see that large
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Monument of stones and The Lord explains why
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Here's why I want you to do this. He says and listen listen carefully in Joshua 19
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He says He spoke to the children of Israel verse 21 when your children shall ask in their fathers in time to come saying
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What are these stones? Why why these why this pile of rocks here?
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Then you shall let your children know saying Israel crossed over this Jordan on dry land for the
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Lord your God dried up the waters of the Jordan before you until you had crossed Over as the Lord your
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God did to the Red Sea when he dried up before us Until we had crossed over that all the peoples of the earth may know the hand of the
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Lord that it is mighty That you may fear the Lord your God forever
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Do you get the point Lord says I want you to build this monument this heap of stones and I want it to stay there and Stay there through the generations so that when the children and the generations to come come by and they ask you
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What what are these stones here for that? It will it will remind you will remind them you will tell them the story and it'll be a reminder of God's power and It will be an encouragement to the generations to come to put their confidence in the
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God who split the seas and Brought the people into the land and gave them this land
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It will it will give them the confidence that they would need and the confidence that the immediate
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Generations to come next couple of generations to come would need to be
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To be confident that the Lord is actually going to rid the land of the pagan inhabitants
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He says I want you to do this that you may always fear the Lord Reverence him respect him
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Now this got me thinking about monuments in my life What what monuments do
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I have to look back upon and reflect Looking at that thing
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That causes me to think about My God's a powerful God My God is a faithful God.
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My God is a merciful God My God is long -suffering My God is patient He is gracious and compassionate
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He provides for his own What monuments do I have to remind me of that?
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as I reflected I I thought of a few I thought of a few I think I've shared with the audience before that several years ago
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Our family was between ministries and I didn't have I didn't have income that was going to be suitable
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To meet all our bills and yet the Lord Used many different people many different situations to provide and we have a calendar
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Still have it and this was and this event happened. Let's see 8 10
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Almost 29 years ago 29 years ago. That's incredible to me to think about that.
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But we still have this calendar from 29 years ago where On that calendar we wrote down amounts of money that the
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Lord Sent to us through different individuals and and it just astounded us at the time because we never asked for anything we never asked for anything and yet the
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Lord just laid it on people's hearts and he provided and That calendar serves as a monument
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What monuments do you have? What do you have? Father I pray that you would help us to remember and even to have some very tangible reminders that you are a powerful
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God a faithful God a God who provides for your people a God who is saved and Who has
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Who is spared? and a God who has met the needs of your people
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May we never forget this we pray in Jesus name Alright.