Joshua 5:13-14, Romans 5:8-10, 2 Corinthians 5:18

Watch on YouTube

Whose side are you on? There’s a scene in Joshua that I always find so fascinating when Joshua is leading God’s people into the Promised Land. And so they’re going, they’re getting ready for battle and for what’s ahead of them. We’re told that when Joshua’s by Jericho,

When Joshua was by Jericho, he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, a man was standing before him with his drawn sword in his hand. And Joshua went to him and said to him, “Are you for us, or for our adversaries?” And he said, “No; but I am the commander of the army of the Lord. Now I have come.” (Joshua 5:13-14)

Such an intriguing scene, because Joshua is leading the people of God. It would seem like if Joshua is saying, oh, hey, whose side are you on that it would be a pretty clear answer. Well, I’m with you guys, but the answer isn’t that the answer is no. I am the commander of the Army of the Lord. It’s not about being on the people’s side. It’s about being on God’s side. And for us, it’s not about trying to get God onto our side. It’s about being on God’s side. What is God doing? What is God up to? What does God want?

That’s something really worth pondering today in our world where people are so quick to take sides. Are you a Democrat or a Republican? Are you for this or against this? On Facebook, if there’s a post, are you liking it? Are you hating it? Are you commenting this or commenting that? Are you for this thing at church? Or are you anti this thing at church? Or are you a yes vote? Are you a no vote? We’re so quick to take sides, but as a Christian there’s only really one side to take and it’s the Lord’s, the Lord’s side.

When we get off thinking about, okay, my opinion, my side versus their side or what they think versus what what I think, we so quickly go down a wrong path. And perhaps that’s a big part of why there’s just so much hostility and hate in our world today. And social media definitely doesn’t help with that.

So what do we do when we realize we’ve taken the wrong side? Well, first of all, we lay that before the cross and then we remember this in Romans chapter five, verses 8 to 10. It says,

but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. (Romans 5:8-10)

Let’s think about that. We were enemies of God. We were naturally a sinful people. We didn’t do things God’s way. We did things our own way. And that went against God. And yet God, God is so for us that Jesus came into this world. God the Son became human and then lay down his life and died, absorbing all the justice that your sins and mine deserve. He took the death that we deserve, and he rose again so that God can now see us through him, so that through faith in Jesus, by the power of the Spirit, now we are new people. We are new creations. We are children of God.

We are no longer enemies of God. You are now on God’s side and now, by the Spirit, you are free to live as someone who is on God’s side. How different might we approach things? How different might we look? How much of a light might we be in this world if we approach things and go towards things, not thinking about what side I want to be on. What’s God up to in this? What does God want to do in this? What would the Lord’s army, if you will, what would their mission, God’s mission, be in this situation?

One thing I know that God’s mission would be in second Corinthians 5:18, we’re told that

All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; (2 Corinthians 5:18)

So much as we think about the gospel and our role in this world, is to be people who are now sharing the good news, sharing forgiveness and people of reconciliation, where people are brought together around the cross through Christ and united in him. When we were his enemies, he died for us. We are now on the Lord’s side. And what is his side up to today?

Peace Devotions uses a combination of paid and free stock footage in the creation of our devotions. While we typically avoid the use of AI generated content in our videos, we occasionally may use AI generated illustrations, photos, or videos to help visually convey our message. We will do our best to disclaim the use of AI content when it is used. This video contains one short clip that was generated using AI.

Joshua 1:9

Watch on YouTube

Are you for touchdown celebrations or against them? I could go either way myself, but I find it’s a fascinating conversation to have because some people love them and some people absolutely hate them.

Just for some background, they used to be penalized in the NFL. Up until 2017, they released those penalties, now, every time someone scores a touchdown, it’s like a big spectacle, a big celebration, and you never know what they’re going to do. And I think the reason people hate them is because they seem to be an over expression of pride. And on the other hand, when you score, when you’re triumphant, it seems fitting to have some sort of celebration. So at what point does a confidence celebration go too far into pride?

So what we’re talking about is the difference between confidence and pride. And there are two different things there. You can tell because they have two different opposites. The opposite of pride is humility, and the opposite of confidence would be fear. This is an important distinction to make because Scripture warns us about being too prideful. And then in some verses it tells us to be strong, courageous, and without fear. One of my favorite Bible passages, for example, is Joshua one verse nine, where it says,

Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.

So we’re instructed to be confident. We’re instructed to be courageous and without fear. As Christians, God doesn’t want us to live our lives in fear of everything we undertake. We can do it with the knowledge that he is with us. Big things, small things, even our worst enemies. We don’t have to be afraid of them because God doesn’t want us to live in fear. But we have to be careful here because we can be too prideful. When you’re good at something. It can go to your head. And I think there’s two things to look out for, your motives and where you’re placing the credit. When we’re motivated just to serve ourselves and not use our abilities to help others, then that bleeds into pride really quickly. If we’re doing the things just to get the praise of other people. And so that people recognize you as the best, then that’s prideful. And the other one is we lose sight completely of where to properly place the credit.

Like I said, it’s awesome to be gifted at something. But why do we say it like that? Gifted? Because the proper understanding is that God has enabled you to do the things that you’re able to do. He’s placed you in this life and given you your body, your mind and soul and your members. And he preserves you. And so the proper credit for all the things that you’re able to do is to give it to God. And like Joshua one nine says, it gives us the source of our strength. The Lord your God is with you wherever you go. He is the one fighting for you. It’s his ability that your confidence is in and not your own.

How awesome is that? That Jesus Christ, the Lord of the universe, is fighting for you. He’s the true, humble servant of all. He, in perfect humility became a man, walked among us, courageously took on the sins of all mankind, and died on the cross for your sins and my sins. And then he triumphantly picks up his life again, and raises to the right hand of the father, and he gives this victory to us. He’s conquered the sins of pride that we have. He has totally conquered them and then given us that victory. And this is the one who is fighting for you.

So you have absolutely nothing to fear. We can live our lives courageously, confident in Christ without fear. Praise be to God for that.

(This is part three of a four part series. The rest of the parts will be collected on our Lord of the Sabbath page after they are posted.)

Joshua 21:44, Ephesians 6:12

Watch on YouTube

We’ve been talking about how Jesus is the Lord of the Sabbath. Today I want to look at the third major Sabbath theme in the Old Testament. We find this theme in the Book of Joshua. In fact, the book of Joshua, which is full of all these battles and conflicts, it ends with this beautiful statement. That God gave Israel rest from all her enemies. (Joshua 21:44)

The sense of this rest is the sense of being able to sleep at peace, because you know you are perfectly safe. Now, a few weeks ago, I was on a trip out of town and my wife called me at 12:30 in the morning, and right away I knew something was up. You see, she was just getting settled down for bed and someone rang the doorbell. And instantly she was alert and awake and wondering what is going on, who’s at the door, who is messing with me? And maybe it’s a result of watching too much true crime on Netflix, but from that point on, neither her nor me could get any sleep. And my wife spent the rest of the night with her aluminum bat close at hand, just in case someone were to try to storm the fortress.

What is robbing you of your peace? We think of our lives and how easily anxieties and fears, concerns about safety, concerns about the future can rob us of our peace. God wants you and I to have peace, but so often we lose our peace and not only because of financial stressors and physical stressors in our life, but we have to always be alert to what’s really happening.

Your battle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. (Ephesians 6:12)

We’re fighting against the devil who will rest at nothing to rob you of your peace in Jesus. He’ll attack you any way he can. He attacks us through busy schedules. He attacks us through fear, through dangers. And in this world where oftentimes we live in fear, Jesus is your Lord of the Sabbath. He’s the Lord of crushing your enemies under his feet.

In fact, that’s what the book of Joshua shows us all throughout that battle after battle, all the Israelites had to do was show up. But the battle belonged to the Lord. The Lord was the one who fought the battle. The Lord was the one who won the victory and he gave it to his people. Just like he gave his people that feeling of peace and security.

Your Jesus is the Lord of Sabbath who crushes his enemies under his feet. And of all the victories God has won for you. The greatest victory was the victory of Jesus hanging on the cross, or Jesus rising Easter morning to descend into hell and crush the devil’s head once and for all. He [the devil] is beaten. And for you, he [Jesus] wants you to rest, knowing all of your enemies have already been defeated by Jesus. Your sins are forgiven. Death is destroyed. The devil’s crushed under Jesus’ feet. You are safe. Amen.

Joshua 1:9

Watch on YouTube – Watch on Facebook

Do you have a goal for the new year? A resolution, perhaps? You know, as you contemplate the year that we are about to enter into, it can be both exciting and terrifying. As you think about the past year that you’ve just gone through, you might see some high points. Times of joy. But you can probably also see low points as well places of regret, shame and, failure. And you can see some places that you wish you wouldn’t have gone places where you knew what you did was wrong. And so now here you stand about to enter into a new year. How can you possibly succeed? Perhaps at this point you could use some encouragement.

In the Old Testament, the Lord came to Joshua and the Israelites as they were about to enter into the Promised Land. And he encouraged them with the words we read in Joshua chapter 1, verse 9. The Lord says

Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified and do not be overwhelmed, because the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. (Joshua 1:9)

When the Lord said this, he wasn’t telling Joshua and the Israelites to get more testosterone. No, he was telling them, and if you look at the surrounding passages, you see, he’s insisting that they cling to his written word. That’s where he would supply their strength. You know, if we look into ourselves for that strength, ultimately we are bound to repeat those same types of failures from the past because we are, by nature, sinful. No, rather, we want to rely on the Lord’s strength.

If you think of what happened with Joshua and the Israelites as they entered the Promised Land, the Battle of Jericho, the first one, it wasn’t even really a battle. They simply marched around the city seven times and then they gave a shout and the walls fell down. The Lord was demonstrating to them that he would be the one who would supply the strength that they needed. And the Lord is the one who will supply the strength that you need. In his written word, he tells you that, and in fact, he demonstrates it in that he sent his son Jesus.

Jesus came to our Earth with a goal. And he was successful with that goal. His goal was your salvation. He accomplished it with his holy life, with his holy death on the cross, whereby he took all of your failures and regrets into himself. And he proved that he met his goal and he was successful in his resurrection from the dead. And now Jesus wants you and me to repent of our past failures and sins and to trust in him as our Savior.

And that way, we know that no matter what lies ahead of us in this year, ultimately we will be with him in heaven because of his work and his success. So, dear friend, you can look to the future and be excited. Because, you know, the Lord is with you. He will supply the strength you need. Be strong and courageous, the Lord, your God will be with you wherever you go. Amen.

Jeremiah 23:24, Matthew 28:20, Psalm 51:17, Joshua 1:5

Watch on YouTube – Watch on Facebook

In Jeremiah Chapter 23 God asks a few rhetorical questions that help us understand more about him and what he is like. He says there in verse 24.

Can anyone hide in secret places so that I cannot see him? declares the Lord. Do I not fill heaven and earth? declares the Lord. (Jeremiah 23:24)

Yes those rhetorical questions, the obvious answer to them that God is looking for is of course, no. No one can hide their deeds from God. No one can go someplace where God is not because of this fact: God is omnipresent or everywhere present.

As I have said before in some previous videos these details about God are often scary, but also comforting for us as Christians. It is a bit scary to think about God being omnipresent or everywhere at all times. It’s scary especially when we think about our sins. As we think about the things that we’ve done in secret. Things that we’re ashamed of.

Maybe we’ve stolen something and we’d hate anybody to ever find out about that. Maybe we’ve abused illegal substances or even legal substances and we’d hate for people to find out that we’re doing that. Or maybe we’ve misused our sexuality, a gift that God has given us for marriage. We’d hate people to find out about the things that we do in private.

You know it’s been said before the coming of the Internet that pornography use wasn’t quite as big as it is today. And I think part of the reason is, is because people were embarrassed of the way of getting pornography. Yes some were not, as always, but some were. Who wants to go to a store and let other customers know that you’re buying a dirty magazine? Or who wants their car seen in the parking lot of a pornography store? Times have changed haven’t they? Anybody can go online nowadays and look up any sort of image, any sort of video, no matter how despicable.

Those things are hidden from many people. Things that we can do in secret that nobody knows about, but God does. Because God is everywhere present and God can see those terrible deeds.

It’s certainly terrifying to us to know that God sees those things, but is also incredibly comforting for us as Christians to know that God is everywhere present. What it means for us is that even if the world would turn its back on us. Even if they reject us because they find out about some secret thing that we have done in our past, or our family and friends turn away from us, God will not. In fact Jesus promises in Matthew Chapter 28.

I am with you always to the very end of the age. (Matthew 28:20) And this is the same God who invites us to come before him and confess our sins as he declares a broken and contrite heart, he will not despise. (Psalm 51:17) When he promises I will never leave you and I will never forsake you. (Joshua 1:5)

Yes, we can be scared when we find out some of these descriptions of God, but also we find incredible comfort in the fact that God is with us always to the end of the age. Yes, God is everywhere present. May that comfort us. Let’s Pray.

Dear God, help us to confess to you our private and hidden sins knowing that you will not reject us, but always forgive us for Jesus sake. Bring peace and comfort to our hearts that even if the world might abandon us, you never will. But you are with us always to the end of the age. Amen.