“Glory to the Precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ”

Proverbs 19: 9 A false witness will not go unpunished, and he who speaks lies shall perish.

May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen

Hallelujah 

We, the bride, the church should not tell lies against God and be careful – Christ is the witness for it.

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, in the portion of the Bible that we meditated upon in the past days, we meditated the changes that come in us, the bride, the church from the beginning till we attain fullness with patterns.

Next, what we are meditating is that Joshua 24: 15 – 33 And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

So the people answered and said: “Far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods; 

for the Lord our God is He who brought us and our fathers up out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage, who did those great signs in our sight, and preserved us in all the way that we went and among all the people through whom we passed. 

And the Lord drove out from before us all the people, including the Amorites who dwelt in the land. We also will serve the Lord, for He is our God.”

But Joshua said to the people, “You cannot serve the Lord, for He is a holy God. He is a jealous God; He will not forgive your transgressions nor your sins. 

If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, then He will turn and do you harm and consume you, after He has done you good.”

And the people said to Joshua, “No, but we will serve the Lord!”

So Joshua said to the people, “You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen the Lord for yourselves, to serve Him.” And they said, “We are witnesses!”

“Now therefore,” he said, “put away the foreign gods which are among you, and incline your heart to the Lord God of Israel.”

And the people said to Joshua, “The Lord our God we will serve, and His voice we will obey!”

So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day, and made for them a statute and an ordinance in Shechem.

Then Joshua wrote these words in the Book of the Law of God. And he took a large stone, and set it up there under the oak that was by the sanctuary of the Lord. 

And Joshua said to all the people, “Behold, this stone shall be a witness to us, for it has heard all the words of the Lord which He spoke to us. It shall therefore be a witness to you, lest you deny your God.” 

So Joshua let the people depart, each to his own inheritance.

Now it came to pass after these things that Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died, being one hundred and ten years old. 

And they buried him within the border of his inheritance at Timnath Serah, which is in the mountains of Ephraim, on the north side of Mount Gaash.

Israel served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, who had known all the works of the Lord which He had done for Israel.

The bones of Joseph, which the children of Israel had brought up out of Egypt, they buried at Shechem, in the plot of ground which Jacob had bought from the sons of Hamor the father of Shechem for one hundred [g]pieces of silver, and which had become an inheritance of the children of Joseph.

And Eleazar the son of Aaron died. They buried him in a hill belonging to Phinehas his son, which was given to him in the mountains of Ephraim.

According to the above-mentioned verses, Joshua told the words of the Lord to the elders of Israel, their heads, their judges, and their officers and after telling them regarding how they must serve the Lord and then the words that he is telling the Israelites are that if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But he said as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.

Then the people answered and said: “Far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods; for the Lord our God is He who brought us and our fathers up out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage, who did those great signs in our sight, and preserved us in all the way that we went and among all the people through whom we passed. And the Lord drove out from before us all the people, including the Amorites who dwelt in the land. We also will serve the Lord, for He is our God.”

But Joshua who heard this said to the people, “You cannot serve the Lord, for He is a holy God. He is a jealous God; He will not forgive your transgressions nor your sins. If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, then He will turn and do you harm and consume you, after He has done you good.” And the people said to Joshua, “No, but we will serve the Lord!” So Joshua said to the people, “You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen the Lord for yourselves, to serve Him.” And they said, “We are witnesses!” “Now therefore,” he said, “put away the foreign gods which are among you, and incline your heart to the Lord God of Israel.” And the people said to Joshua, “The Lord our God we will serve, and His voice we will obey!” So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day and made for them a statute and an ordinance in Shechem. Then Joshua wrote these words in the Book of the Law of God. And he took a large stone and set it up there under the oak that was by the sanctuary of the Lord. And Joshua said to all the people, “Behold, this stone shall be a witness to us, for it has heard all the words of the Lord which He spoke to us. It shall therefore be a witness to you, lest you deny your God.” So Joshua let the people depart, each to his own inheritance. After these things had happened, Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died, being one hundred and ten years old.

My dear people, for us to be a part of the inheritance God is showing us as a pattern through Joshua and this is being manifested in the above-mentioned facts.  That is, during the salvation of our soul God is driving away many evil deeds from within us and only then he is making us inherit Christ. But we, do not follow them and many again come forward to do the deeds that were driven away and though God has warned and told us not to accept and follow foreign gods and though we tell witness to God that we have accepted it and that we have accepted the God that our soul has known and though we confess that God is only one, our Lord God sees beforehand the evil deeds that rise in our soul and knowing that we are saying a false witness, God writes his book of law in our heart and not only that but as a witness that God is a witness in our soul, God takes a big stone and set it up there under the oak that was by the sanctuary of the Lord and is using Joshua and showing us as a pattern.

That is, the reason why Joshua said to all the people, Behold, this stone shall be a witness to us is so that we do not tell lies against God and this will be a witness and we must know this. Regarding this only in Matthew 16: 18 And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.

The above-mentioned word, we must know that as the body of Christ, the church God is making us his inheritance and we must be as those who obey his words and submit ourselves for him.

Let us pray. May the Lord bless you all abundantly. 

- To be continued