on to the next part

Judges 1

"A time came after the death of Joshua, where the people of Israel asked God, 'Who will take the lead in going up against the Canaanites to fight them?'" 1:1

It has been a few weeks since I finished my 6 month long journey through the life of Joshua. I took a little break to walk through some love letters with Jesus. But now I am back to the next part, and walking through the land of the Judges.

By faithfully obeying the Lord, Joshua led the Israelites to a big victory - walking them right into the Promised Land. After he died, the tribes failed to clear out all those in the land, so the Lord had to withdraw his promise to help drive the people out on his own. This new generation of God's children abandoned Him, worshiped idols, and forgot all that their ancestors did to fight for their freedom.

But. God doesn't require "good" people in order to do his work. He can and does work with us in whatever condition He finds us. He does some of His best work using the most unlikely people. At our worst, He still sees what He creates us to be at our best.

Soon after Joshua died, Israel began to loose control. The people missed his leadership, because he had this unique way of keeping them focused on God. Even under his spiritual leadership, all of Israel had to realize that the Lord was really who they followed, not a man. It is easy to focus solely on a person, their wisdom, confidence, boldness, and leadership; rather than focusing on the One who gives them what they need to lead well. Are you worshiping the gifts God gave someone to lead you with, or are you worshiping the giver of the gifts?

This is real stuff for me right now. I served under two of the most amazing leaders I have ever known, at We Will Go (David and Amy Lancaster). They taught me so much about truly loving Jesus, serving Jesus, and knowing Jesus. Their wisdom that poured out on me was so crucial for me to continue on this journey I am on. Daily Word shared and poured into me. Ushering me into being stretched and growing with the Lord. Modeling what a Godly marriage and family looks like. Always, always, always pointing me right to the Father.

Now I am essentially on my own. They are only 1/2 mile away, and still love me so well, but I have had to come out from under their leadership, and submit to the one who leads them. I could do like the Israelites did, after Joshua died, and forget all I was taught and all I knew - and suffer the consequences of that. But, I choose to worship the giver of the gifts, fully trust who my leader is, and see the blessings of serving Him alone flow from his throne. What an amazing and beautiful and hard thing that is!

This is one of my favorite pictures ever. Sweet Ms. Aldora. She loves the garden so much and I love the simplicity of her just sitting on this bucket looking out over those freshly planted rows. She lives close to my house in Midtown now, and I went by to visit her last week. We sat on her little front porch and I learned so much about her life. She had two big bags of pecans that she had picked up that I bought from her.

Acknowledge God as your leader. Avoid the temptation of relying on human leaders. Regardless of their spiritual wisdom.