Tall Stories

In a time when churches are closing down, we are looking to expand, in a time of winter, when people hardly want to step out the doors; God is richly blessing those who come out.
Joshua had already tasted the blessing of the promise land, saw pastoral nature in its glory, he felt the joy of pioneering new venture, he had walk up and down in the promise land before they had taken possession, and he had in his mind already staked his claim, Joshua wanted to gladly swap the wilderness life for a place in Beulah land.

He saw the lord’s benefits, he could easily progress from a wilderness life to a city life, but it would require stepping out in faith, walking away from 40 years of tradition, walking away from what he had been used to.
Instead of timidity, he would take hold of courage, instead of wilt and becoming weak, he would become strong. The bible said to be strong ion the Lord and in the power of his might,
Joshua believe the impossible could be made possible, that life held much more for him than what others were making out, when you believe and put your trust in God, the things that seemed impossible, suddenly becomes possible.

There are people who can tell some very tall stories
Some of the spies had made out it was a place to bamboozle others, with cities walled up so high, the walls could almost reach heaven, and the type of people who they saw there not only reminded them of night mares, but during the day when sunlight is reflecting, they look like Giants, and it would be suicide to take them on. Because they felt like they were grasshoppers.

Some such stories are exaggerations of actual events, for some people, the ability to tell a coherent story is important to them, they tell about exploring and finding new adventure, these stories entertained people around campfires and when there is no television to watch. We are often intrigue by these stories, where half truth is mixed in with lies, and tales of heroic mind bending illusions.

But that is exactly the type of battle that God calls us into, why, because the battle is not ours, the battle is the Lords. He only needs our willingness, if you want to be bless in this city, something's you have to let go, some peoples opinions are erroneous, if you want to be bless in this church some traditions are outdated practice, and they need to be buried, some behavior of the saints still have the world attached to it.

Joshua had to wait till every doubter in Israel was buried, having tasted the fruits of the promise land, he had to go back and wait until Moses died. Some of the old ways must die, the old system you used in 1983, cannot be used now in 2012, people who were in positions then, cannot and will not be able to see the new church vision, they are stuck in a time warp with rules and regulation that has pass their sell by date. It was good then, but not now, you cannot put new wine in old wineskin, and it will burst.

When you align yourself with what was, instead of what is, your not ready to move forward, when all you can sing is the same old half dead funeral songs, and come up with things to try and sabotaged new innovations, bound by rules that are not found in the bible, then you limit your prospect of been bless, Israel walked around for 40 years and got no further than from here to Derby.
But we are reminded that blessings are conditional, you have to do something in order for the blessings to come, it will not just fall into your lap, in most case God requires action which goes against the normal way of doing things, making unpopular decisions, walk the lonely road with just you and Jesus.