FBC Daily Devotional – July 21, 2021

Well, a good Wednesday morning to you. I already made it to the middle of the week. Hope you're having a good week.

Well today we read in Joshua chapters 3 & 4 and it's the account of the children of Israel crossing the

Jordan River and entering into the land of Canaan and before they actually enter before they actually cross the river, the

Lord tells them I'm gonna do something for you today that will be incredibly powerful and memorable and he tells them

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.

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

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

And carry it out of the riverbed. I want those 12 guys carry those 12 stones out of the riverbed

Okay So we'll do that Why are we gonna do that The Lord says

I what I want you to do is when you get through you cross everybody's crossed over those 12

Leaders with their 12 stones. This is gonna be near Gilgal Not far from Jericho.

He says he said I went I want those 12 Leaders with their 12 stones to erect a monument with those stones.

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

Anytime they pass by that way anybody passing by that way, they would be able to see that large

Monument of stones and The Lord explains why

Here's why I want you to do this. He says and listen listen carefully in Joshua 19

He says He spoke to the children of Israel verse 21 when your children shall ask in their fathers in time to come saying

What are these stones? Why why these why this pile of rocks here?

Then you shall let your children know saying Israel crossed over this Jordan on dry land for the

Lord your God dried up the waters of the Jordan before you until you had crossed Over as the Lord your

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

Lord that it is mighty That you may fear the Lord your God forever

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

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

God who split the seas and Brought the people into the land and gave them this land

It will it will give them the confidence that they would need and the confidence that the immediate

Generations to come next couple of generations to come would need to be

To be confident that the Lord is actually going to rid the land of the pagan inhabitants

He says I want you to do this that you may always fear the Lord Reverence him respect him

Now this got me thinking about monuments in my life What what monuments do

I have to look back upon and reflect Looking at that thing

That causes me to think about My God's a powerful God My God is a faithful God.

My God is a merciful God My God is long -suffering My God is patient He is gracious and compassionate

He provides for his own What monuments do I have to remind me of that?

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

Our family was between ministries and I didn't have I didn't have income that was going to be suitable

To meet all our bills and yet the Lord Used many different people many different situations to provide and we have a calendar

Still have it and this was and this event happened. Let's see 8 10

Almost 29 years ago 29 years ago. That's incredible to me to think about that.

But we still have this calendar from 29 years ago where On that calendar we wrote down amounts of money that the

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

Lord just laid it on people's hearts and he provided and That calendar serves as a monument

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

God a faithful God a God who provides for your people a God who is saved and Who has

Who is spared? and a God who has met the needs of your people

May we never forget this we pray in Jesus name Alright.