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Good morning everyone. What a wonderful day we have before us. Regardless of what your circumstances are, you are a child of God and you are drawing breath. Your mission should be very clear to you at this point. Spread the good news. The question of the day is are you a person that keeps his/her word or do you make empty promises? Let’s go forward:
Today’s Prayer
Dear Heavenly Father, help us see the “nowness” of our Christian faith. The past is past, and put aside, and the future is in Your hands, Lord, but the “now” is up to us. This is where we either reflect You or not – in how we live today. Fill us with Your Spirit, enable us to be more than we are, that we may seize this precious time that will not come again, and live today to Your glory. In Jesus’ holy name we pray. Amen.
Let’s eat.
Keeping Oaths
This is what we will do to them: We will let them live, so that wrath will not fall on us for breaking the oath we swore to them. – Joshua 9:20
The bible tells us that Joshua and the people of Israel were in the Promised Land and that they were winning battles, which made them feel good about their progress. One day a band of Gibeonites came by dressed as travelers in order to fool Joshua. They wanted to make Joshua believe they were merely travelers instead of enemies. The Gibeonites asked Joshua to make a peace treaty with them. Since Joshua chose to believe their story, he did just that. That was a mistake on Joshua’s part. The Bible says Joshua did not inquire of the Lord about the Gibeonites. This forced Joshua to uphold the peace treaty with the Gibeonites, even though it was made under false pretenses.
Keeping our oaths before the Lord is a serious matter. Now you might think that Joshua had every right to consider the agreement with the Gibeonites null and void since it was done on false pretense. However, Joshua knew how God viewed oaths. He knew that a man’s word, once it was given, should be good as done. There was no reversing it. He also knew that if he did not keep his oath, he was subject to God’s disfavor, which meant his ways would not be blessed.
Whenever we become a child of God, we represent Him. When His children follow unrighteousness, He takes this personally. Unrighteousness opens us up to Satan’s attack. God’s protection shield is removed. So Joshua knew that if he did not honor his oath, he would be subject to God’s judgment.
Is there any unfulfilled oath you have made to anyone?
Ask God this morning if you have not fulfilled a commitment to anyone. Then, if there is, go and fulfill. Otherwise, you will be subject to God’s judgment for your unrighteousness.
Quote of the Day
The “words” of God and the “Word” of God stand together; to separate them is to render both powerless. Any expounder of the words of God is liable to go off on a tangent if he or she does not remember this stern, undeviating standard of exposition, namely, that no individual experience is of the remotest value unless it is up to the standard of the Word of God. The Bible not only tests experience, it tests truth. The Bible tests all experience, all truth, all authority by our Lord Himself and our relationship to Him personally.
Oswald Chambers
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REV. ELDER G E STERRETT
FOUNDER
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James H. Taylor Sr. – Kankakee City News has published my Daily meal message for a decade.