God’s Mission Entering the Promised Land

Beloved People of God,

Have you ever felt the ground shift beneath your feet? 

I’ve shared before about a time when I was home on the island, sitting with my Dad in the living room, when I felt the earth shake beneath my feet. Not only my feet. I felt it in my core. So did the recliner. So did the house! It was as if the entire island was shaken! And it was. Mount Cameroon, a few miles away across the channel of ocean between us, erupted. The ground shifted.

The next day, we went to the church in Ela Nguema, facing Cameroon and we watched the fiery lava flow into the sea, staining the rising steam with reds and oranges. I remember being in awe of what we saw, and also a little unsettled because our island is part of the same volcanic chain.

This must have been how God’s people felt as Joshua led them through the Jordan River, into the land promised to them (Joshua 1.2). Like their parents who were left in the wilderness, these men, women, and children passed through on dry ground into a land given to them at the crossroads of the world. Imagine what it must have been like for Joshua when the Lord told him—in the season when the Jordan’s banks were overflowing—to tell the priests to go stand in the river, carrying the Ark of the Covenant, and watch as the waters stopped flowing and “stood up in a heap” (3.13). The rushing river folded up on itself, the crashing waters stacked up as the priests entered and stood on miraculously dry ground (3.17). One by one the people entered God’s promise. One by one, the ground of their personal experience with God shifted. They were stepping into the Promise of God’s Mission, for themselves and for all nations!

This Sunday we are stepping into those same waters, believing the Lord is leading us as His kingdom of priests into a deeper understanding of who He is and who we are in Him (Exodus 19.6; 1 Peter 2.9). Friend, I don’t want to be left in the wilderness. I want to enter on dry ground Into the Promise, and I want us to go together.

For Christ the King, 

Brett