March 5, 2012 … God Shapes His Purpose and Future

Passage of the Day: Reference of Today’s Chronological Bible Study: Numbers, Chapters 26-27 … To study these chapters, go to this link -

Numbers 26: 63-65: … [God’s Promises and the People] … 63 These are the ones counted by Moses and Eleazar the priest when they counted the Israelites on the plains of Moab by the Jordan across from Jericho. 64 Not one of them was among those counted by Moses and Aaron the priest when they counted the Israelites in the Desert of Sinai. 65 For the LORD had told those Israelites they would surely die in the wilderness, and not one of them was left except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun.
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Numbers 27: 15-23 : … [Leadership Selected by God] … To study this passage, go to this link -
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My Journal for Today: Day 65 in my chronological read through the Bible this year; and today we see that God cares about the documentation – in His word – of His purpose, His promises, and His plan for God’s people as He leads them, using Moses and the lineage of God’s directed leadership , into the promised land. It may be boring reading; but it’s awesome in considering how patient, long-suffering, and merciful God is to carry out His designs for the future of His people in the lives of those who are obedient and have faith in His promises.

And if you’re reading along with me today, I want you to use the link I’ve provided above to go to Numbers 27: 15-23 and note how Moses went to God to selected a successor to lead the people into the promised land, knowing that he, Moses, would not be able to do so. And also note how God specifically picked a groomed and capable leader, Joshua, to be that anointed successor, … a man who had passed the test of action over many years, following God’s and Moses’ leadership. And so Joshua became the commissioned and God-anointed leader to take the people into the land which God had promised to Abraham in His covenant generations before. And it is beautiful for to me to read this morning how God picks and uses people, … people of faith and with gifts He has imparted, to carry out His plans and His promises.

Some years ago, I saw this happen in the church where I had been selected – and surprisingly so – to be an Elder for our congregation. And after my anointing and apprenticeship as an Elder, as well as after a few years of service, I wondered why I had been selected to Eldership for our flock. I just didn’t seem to have a place and didn’t seem to have the skills and gifts which matched where our church was going. But then, out of the blue, our church was confronted with a deeply disturbing and potentially divisive scenario which involved the Elders having to investigate our Pastor at the time for an alleged action of a sexual impropriety. Well, there was only one Elder on our board at this time who had had any personal experience with sexual sin; and that was yours truly. And because I had gone through many years of that sin pattern prior to becoming a Christian; and I had been delivered by God’s prevenient and sanctifying grace from that habitual sin – even to the point of becoming an anointed Elder – I was the perfect person to help lead our Eldership and our church through this fire storm and into the future God had awaiting His Church and our local body of believers.

It’s a long, complex story, which I’ll not go through here; but like the scenario which Moses was faced with in today’s highlight passage in Numbers 27, God had prepared exactly the right person, having shaped His man for the job through many years of God’s personally engineered preparation. I’ve experienced just how intimately and personally God’s preparation is when He needs His person to be His leader in His time and in His place … for His purposes. And if you’ve read through and into the future of God’s leadership, using Joshua, taking His people into His promised land, we know that God had groomed just the right man for His purposes and His plans for His people. And that will always be the case in our world as God readies us for His will for our future.

God has a plan for me, … and for you, my dear one; … and we need to surrender to His purposes for our lives to be used in His timing and for His glory.

My Prayer Today: … Lord, continue to use me in Your way and in Your time for Your glory all the remaining years of my life. Amen