Speaking of Caleb and Joshua, do you know that we are real Israelites in the spiritual wilderness while marching toward God's promised land? Our situation is extremely difficult because:
1. Egypt is right behind us. We are still craving for Egyptian food.
2. Enemies are all round us: Idols, fornicators are all over.
3. Adversaries are within our camp. Our old man with its ambition, pride, opinions are also creating a lot of problems in the church life.
What should we do? What is our focus? Where is our destination? Keep in mind that God allows these negative things to be present in order to expose us and perfect us. (Romans 8:28-30) Hence, our focus should be Christ, who is the center of our camp. With Christ as our center, we will go through 3 stages:
a. Union (oneness in life), signified by the grafting in Romans 11 (through crossing the Red Sea). We have God's life within us. Therefore, we need to exercise to deny our old life and live by this new life.
b. Mingling (oneness in nature), signified by the mingling of oil and flour for the meal offering (Lev. 2:4). We need to eat manna and allow God's nature to saturate and constitute us. The Lord is making us a new lump (1 Corinthians 5:7) through our new living.
c. Incorporation (oneness in person), signified by 12 stones buried under the Jordan River. Our old man has to be completely dealt with and replaced so that we may enter into the good land as one new man (Eph. 2:15, 4:24).
Not only we need to go through the above stages, we need to bring our fellow Christians to go through the same process. Don’t be satisfied with helping sinners cross the Red Sea. Bring them all the way to the Good Land!
1. Egypt is right behind us. We are still craving for Egyptian food.
2. Enemies are all round us: Idols, fornicators are all over.
3. Adversaries are within our camp. Our old man with its ambition, pride, opinions are also creating a lot of problems in the church life.
What should we do? What is our focus? Where is our destination? Keep in mind that God allows these negative things to be present in order to expose us and perfect us. (Romans 8:28-30) Hence, our focus should be Christ, who is the center of our camp. With Christ as our center, we will go through 3 stages:
a. Union (oneness in life), signified by the grafting in Romans 11 (through crossing the Red Sea). We have God's life within us. Therefore, we need to exercise to deny our old life and live by this new life.
b. Mingling (oneness in nature), signified by the mingling of oil and flour for the meal offering (Lev. 2:4). We need to eat manna and allow God's nature to saturate and constitute us. The Lord is making us a new lump (1 Corinthians 5:7) through our new living.
c. Incorporation (oneness in person), signified by 12 stones buried under the Jordan River. Our old man has to be completely dealt with and replaced so that we may enter into the good land as one new man (Eph. 2:15, 4:24).
Not only we need to go through the above stages, we need to bring our fellow Christians to go through the same process. Don’t be satisfied with helping sinners cross the Red Sea. Bring them all the way to the Good Land!
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