Joshua 18:1b-3 "The country was brought under their control but their were still seven Israelite tribes who had not yet received their inheritance.So Joshua said to the Israelites 'How long will you wait before you take possesion of the land that the Lord, the God of your fathers, has given you?"

*These left over tribes were filled with laziness, selfishness and procrastination. They showed no passion to take the land. No desire to fulfill their commitment. They had to be prodded and pushed out of their comfort zone by their leader. They wouldn't have chosen by themselves to go and conquer... they only did it because they felt like they had to.

*The last seven tribes took the path of least resistance. Not only were they holding themselves back... they were holding back all of Israel from the fulfillment of God's promise!

*You know what I say... either conquer the land or GET OUT OF THE WAY!

*We all have land to conquer! We have to take the land from our enemy and win it for Christ.

*What land? our neighbors, our co-workers, our families, our friends, our classmates... and anyone else we come in contact with.

*In order to conquer the land we must first conquer ourselves, and this is the choice... either conquer the land (yourself) or it will conquer you.

*This requires discipline, passion for our calling (to seek and save the lost) and love for Christ and others above ALL else.

*Are you conquering or are you being conquered? How long will you wait before you take possesion... or should I say take responsibility?

Ready to conquer :) You with me?
 

1 Corinthians 7:34-35ish
"34 ... The time and energy that married people spend on caring for and nurturing each other, the unmarried can spend in becoming whole and holy instruments of God. 35 I'm trying to be helpful and make it as easy as possible for you, not make things harder. All I want is for you to be able to develop a way of life in which you can spend plenty of time together with the Master without a lot of distractions."

*Before I even start on this blog, I feel like I need to say that I believe with ALL my heart that marraige is a gift from God and I too hope to marry someday.... so here it goes...

*  I think marriage is a beautiful, God given thing. In fact I have spent most of my life wanting to be married.And I have met a lot of people in there 20's whose main focus and desire is to find "Mr. or Mrs. right"... to find "the one" that God has for them. Pretty much every Christian ( or non christian, for that matter) between the ages of 20 and 35 who is unmarried are waiting and wondering the same thing... "Is that HIM? Is that HER? Could this be THE one? Where? When? How? EVER!?!"

*Well, here is a thought... while married people are taking care of thier families and nurturing each other... WE as single people get to spend the time we would be spending on earthly relationship with the God of the universe!... we get to spend time in the ultimate relationship! We think we have it so hard, and we get so lonely thinking "If we only had that special someone things would be like... blah blah blah..." BUT, it is a privelage to have all the freedom in the world to spend with the Lord! We are free of the responsibility that comes along with marriage and a family ( the married people are screamin' AMEN!) Marriage is a gift... but us single people who think it's daisies and roses after we say "I do" are sadly mistaken... marriage is a commitment and work... that obviously the Lord hasn't chosen to give us yet... (thus the reason we are still single :)

*One day, if the Lord wills it... then we will get to enjoy marriage and family and the blessings that come along with it... BUT until then we must embrace the freedom of time and the opportunity to focus on our relationship with Jesus.

*Qiut thinking about how great it will be when you get married and embrace how great IT IS to serve God with wholehearted focus... or as Paul would say enjoying being unmarried "because the unmarried can spend more time and energy becoming whole and holy instruments of God."

*Hmmmm... sounds good to me! Get over it, love God!
                                                                           
                       Embracing God... and only Him,
                                          Pants

Jesus is NEAT!!! I love Him!! :)

 

.... Thankful, Pants