Joshua 24:1- And Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem, and called for the elders of Israel, and for their heads, and for their judges, and for their officers; and they presented themselves before God.
And Joshua said unto all the people, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood in old time, even Terah, the father of Abraham, and the father of Nachor: and they served other gods.
And I took your father Abraham from the other side of the flood, and led him throughout all the land of Canaan, and multiplied his seed, and gave him Isaac. And I gave unto Isaac Jacob and Esau: and I gave unto Esau mount Seir, to possess it; but Jacob and his children went down into Egypt.
I sent Moses also and Aaron, and I plagued Egypt, according to that which I did among them: and afterward I brought you out.
And I brought your fathers out of Egypt: and ye came unto the sea; and the Egyptians pursued after your fathers with chariots and horsemen unto the Red sea.
And when they cried unto the Lord, HE put darkness between you and the Egyptians, and brought the sea upon them, and covered them; and your eyes have seen what I have done in Egypt: and ye dwelt in the wilderness a long season.
And I brought you into the land of the Amorites, which dwelt on the other side Jordan; and they fought with you: and I gave them into your hand, that ye might possess their land; and I destroyed them from before you.
Then Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab, arose and warred against Israel, and sent and called Balaam the son of Beor to curse you: But I would not hearken unto Balaam; therefore he blessed you still: so I delivered you out of his hand.
And you went over Jordan, and came unto Jericho: and the men of Jericho fought against you, the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Girgashites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites; and I delivered them into your hand.
And I sent the hornet before you, which drave them out from before you, even the two kings of the Amorites; but not with thy sword, nor with thy bow.
(I see the "hornet" for us being that Word of God which stings them when we speak it and ends up driving them from us.)
And I have given you a land for which ye did not labour, and cities which ye built not, and ye dwell in them; of the vineyards and oliveyards which ye planted not do ye eat.
Now therefore fear the Lord, and serve HIM in sincerity and in truth: and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood, and in Egypt; and serve ye the Lord.
And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.
Joshua makes it clear that he will not have unbelievers in his house.
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I've never understood how people of God could dwell with unbelievers.
I want to dwell with believers and to associate with believers.
II Corinthians 6:14 what communion hath light with darkness?
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In the Book of Judges,
God told the people not to try to dwell with the people of the land but
rather to destroy them or drive them out from the land.
But several of the tribes of Israel would not listen and tried to keep the people of the land among themselves.
2 And ye shall make no league with the inhabitants of this land; ye shall throw down their altars: but ye have not obeyed MY voice:
Why have ye done this?
3 Wherefore I also said, I will not drive them out from before you; but they shall be as thorns in your sides, and their gods shall be a snare unto you.
Why have ye done this?
3 Wherefore I also said, I will not drive them out from before you; but they shall be as thorns in your sides, and their gods shall be a snare unto you.
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If we will permit it, God will drive HIS enemies from us today.
All we have to do is to speak that Word God gives us and continue each time they come near us to speak that Word.
The Word of God separates us from them.
But if we hold back and try to keep them around us, they will be as "thorns" in our sides ... a continual bother and trouble to us.
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You think you will lead them to God?
If
we continually speak that Word from God, those appointed by God to
salvation will be saved and those others will depart from us.
In the last days, sins will be so bad that many will depart from the faith.
Jesus says:
Matthew 24:12-13 And
because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. But he
that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.
Grief over them and over their sins can cause us to be swept away.
When
one of our church group rebelled against me, I was so plagued by
thoughts of her rebellion that I was afraid I might be swept under. I
called on God and HE showed me that I must make myself focus on my
calling instead of thinking of her rebellion.
So each time memory of her came to my mind, I made myself look again at the following scriptures:
Hebrews 3:13 But exhort one another daily,
Hebrews 10:25 exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.
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So I just read the Bible, and wrote exhortations on our blog for the church to warn them.
This is my calling.
This is my calling.
We
must not focus on what they have done nor on that which they have said
but rather we think on that which God has done in our lives and on that
which God has said to us.
When Jesus returns, Peter said for us to be diligent that we would be found by Jesus to be living "in peace ... without spot ... and blameless." (II Peter 3:14)
If
we allow ourselves to be troubled by them, we will not be living in
peace. And we could even end up striking out against them in our
troubling by them.
So we have to work at disciplining our mind and praying for ourselves to make ourselves think on things of God.
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Judges 2:10-15 And
also all that generation were gathered unto their fathers: and there
arose another generation after them, which knew not the Lord, nor yet
the works which HE had done for Israel.
And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and served Baalim:
And they forsook the Lord God of their fathers, which brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods, of the gods of the people that were round about them, and bowed themselves unto them, and provoked the Lord to anger.
And they forsook the Lord, and served Baal and Ashtaroth.
And the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel, and he delivered them into the hands of spoilers that spoiled them, and he sold them into the hands of their enemies round about, so that they could not any longer stand before their enemies.
And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and served Baalim:
And they forsook the Lord God of their fathers, which brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods, of the gods of the people that were round about them, and bowed themselves unto them, and provoked the Lord to anger.
And they forsook the Lord, and served Baal and Ashtaroth.
And the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel, and he delivered them into the hands of spoilers that spoiled them, and he sold them into the hands of their enemies round about, so that they could not any longer stand before their enemies.
Whithersoever they
went out, the hand of the Lord was against them for evil, as the Lord
had said, and as the Lord had sworn unto them: and they were greatly distressed.
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I Corinthians 10:5-6 But with many of them God was not well pleased: for they were overthrown in the wilderness. Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted.
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