Building a Memorial...

Why did I decide to get a blog?

There are several different reasons actually. Part of it was due to the fact that I simply miss writing. It was also partly done to encourage you from time to time as you happen to stumble upon it. However...for the most part, its done for me. Writing out my thoughts helps to organize them; to concrete them...and I need that when it comes to what I've been learning about God. Now granted, not all posts are guaranteed to be spiritual or focused directly on God, but mostly I want this blog to help me grow closer to God as I take the time to think about what He has been trying to teach me. I also want this to be a place where I can look back on what God has already done and be encouraged as I remember how He has worked in the past.

It's what I'd call a Memorial.

I've been studying in Joshua recently and just finished reading about how the children of Israel had come to the Jordan River. Before them was the overwhelming problem of the raging waters that lay between them and the Promised Land. Yet, God had promised to provide the way across, and Joshua believed Him. "Pass through the host and command the people saying, 'Prepare you victuals, (notice that he didn't say "prepare vessels of transportation!") for within three days ye shall pass over this Jordan, to go in to possess the land, which the Lord your God giveth you to possess it."

God chose to reward that faith by showing His power in a very real way to the children of Israel. He caused the waters to stop flowing and they stood up in a great big heap. Now, I'm no genius in science but I know that gravity doesn't work that way. Water doesn't just stand up in a big still heap, on its own, for no reason. This was a "God-thing" and something that only God was capable of accomplishing.

If I had been there that day, walking across dry land that only moments before had been plunged beneath an angry and surging current, I might feel a bit of fear...but mostly I think I'd be awestruck by what was actually happening around me and would try to notice every little, vivid detail in order to remember it later, exactly as it had been. I'm sure that as the Israelites saw this great wall of water, all hints of doubt and unbelief were erased from their minds as they were held in awe at the great strength of their God. I'm sure they thought to themselves that this would be a moment in time that they would surely never, ever forget; that this was something that would be forever impressed upon their minds.

Yet God, knowing how apt we are to soon forget His works, ordered an expedient for the keeping of this remembrance to all generations. He ordered for twelve stones be taken from the place where the priests had stood in the midst of the Jordan (they had held the ark of the covenant which signified God's presence among them.) These stones were to be carried across and set up as a reminder to the people as to what God had done for them. "And these stones shall be for a memorial unto the children of Israel for ever and ever." (Joshua 4:7b) Why did God feel they'd forget this miracle? Well, the Bible says that as soon as the priests feet came up out of the Jordan after crossing it, the waters of the Jordan returned to their original place and continued to flow as they had before. In one sense, as you'd stand looking at the river again, it'd be hard to believe that something so incredible had just happened. Everything looks the same again! Only now they are on the other side of the Jordan, looking back at what had seemed so insurmountable...and of course....

...there was a pile of twelve stones. They stood as a memorial, reminding the people that God was indeed very real and that He had the power to do whatever He so pleased.

Joshua 4:20-24 it says "And those twelve stones, which they took out of Jordan, did Joshua pitch in Gilgal. And he spake unto the children of Israel saying, "When your children shall ask their fathers in time saying 'What mean these stones?', then ye shall let your children know, saying, "Israel came over this Jordan on dry land. For the Lord your God dried up the waters of the Jordan from before you, until ye were passed over, as the Lord your God did to the Red Sea, which He dried up from before us, until we were gone over....that all the people may know the hand of the Lord, that IT IS MIGHTY; that ye might FEAR THE LORD your God for ever."

So, why did I get a blog?

I'm building a Memorial. Whether or not you ever choose to read another post, I personally want something that I can look back on and say "For the Lord our God, He it is...which did those great signs in our sight, and preserved us in all the way wherein we went, and among all the people through whom we passed...therefore, will we also serve the Lord, for He is our God." (Joshua 24:17-18)