Thursday, July 26, 2018

JOHN Good Morning! I’m John Branning, the Lead Pastor of Central United Methodist Church. Joshua son of Nun had been commissioned by Moses to bring Israel into the Promised Land. He was a leader and a general. Having spied out the land and returned with the other 11 spies, he was fully aware of the impending battle and the ferocity of the enemy. There were giants in the land. In the Book of Judges Chapter 5 we find Joshua has miraculously crossed over the Jordan with all the people and 40,000 armed soldiers, Joshua sensed deeply his responsibility to protect and lead Israel to victory and the inheritance God had promised them. At this significant moment, somewhere near Jericho, the first battlefield, Joshua "lifted his eyes", to behold a Man. Focused in a mindset of warfare, he asks the obvious question…"Whose side are you on?" The man's answer immediately brings Joshua to another plane of existence: "No, but as Commander of the army of the Lord I have now come." The young general is standing before the, Commander of the Lord's Army--and the ground he is standing on is Holy! Our natural tendency is always to ask, "Whose side is the Lord on?" How many wars have been fought by people who said, "God is on our side." But the correct question is "Who is fighting on the Lord's side?" May we always seek to be on God’s side.