Joshua 7
Have you ever noticed how in a family or a church or any type of community for that matter; when everything seems to be going great and the people are enjoying immense blessings, someone decides they have to break faith and do something really stupid and it throws everyone into chaos? Everyone gets to suffer the consequences of one persons bad choices. I see it happen all the time. People forget that no matter what it is that they do, no matter how little or big, their actions will affect others for the good or the bad.
The whole of Israel, in today's chapter, suffers the consequences of the sins of the one man, Achan. When he is caught, the cost of his sins against God and his people is his life.
We do not live in a vacuum as some might suppose. I have heard more times than I can even remember, "I'm not hurting anyone but myself." That is wrong. Whenever we choose to break faith with God or anyone else who loves us, to do what seems to be pleasing and most beneficial for ourselves, we hurt everyone around us. Whenever we choose to live life in a self-serving manner our children learn from us and consequently their lives to will exhibt the chaos, the loneliness, the broken relationships that comes from a broken faith and relationship with God.
It is like throwing a pebble into the water, the effect is that the ripples just keep spreading outward. Just as everyone around us suffers from our breaking the faith with God and pursuing false gods, so everyone benefits from the goodness of the one who did not/does not break faith with Him, Jesus Christ our LORD.
May God help us to put aside the false gods that we think will benefit us and to pursue those things that will benefit the whole community, the whole Body of Christ.
Have you ever noticed how in a family or a church or any type of community for that matter; when everything seems to be going great and the people are enjoying immense blessings, someone decides they have to break faith and do something really stupid and it throws everyone into chaos? Everyone gets to suffer the consequences of one persons bad choices. I see it happen all the time. People forget that no matter what it is that they do, no matter how little or big, their actions will affect others for the good or the bad.
The whole of Israel, in today's chapter, suffers the consequences of the sins of the one man, Achan. When he is caught, the cost of his sins against God and his people is his life.
We do not live in a vacuum as some might suppose. I have heard more times than I can even remember, "I'm not hurting anyone but myself." That is wrong. Whenever we choose to break faith with God or anyone else who loves us, to do what seems to be pleasing and most beneficial for ourselves, we hurt everyone around us. Whenever we choose to live life in a self-serving manner our children learn from us and consequently their lives to will exhibt the chaos, the loneliness, the broken relationships that comes from a broken faith and relationship with God.
It is like throwing a pebble into the water, the effect is that the ripples just keep spreading outward. Just as everyone around us suffers from our breaking the faith with God and pursuing false gods, so everyone benefits from the goodness of the one who did not/does not break faith with Him, Jesus Christ our LORD.
May God help us to put aside the false gods that we think will benefit us and to pursue those things that will benefit the whole community, the whole Body of Christ.
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