There are so many things I could 'brag' on God about this week.
Big things...
Little things...
ALL things really.
What I want to brag on God about today is something I learned about studying the Sunday School lesson for Sunday. Sunday will be my first Sunday teaching the Adult (or any class really) at my church. Strangly, I'm no scared.. I'm very excited. I want to do well. I want to say what the Lord wants me to say... and I want to have a good time with it.
My sister gave me the book Wed night that I'd be teaching out of, and when I opened it, my heart skipped a beat I think.
It was from the book of Joshua.
Now, I'm going to admit that I'm not the best when it comes to the Old Testiment. I really have to focus to understand what is going on.
SO, the thought of my FIRST time teaching Sunday School was on Joshua... well, yeah, the heart did beat funny for a minute.
Then I got into it.
It's the story of Achan--the man who stole the 'accursed things' when the Israelites defeated Jericho (Joshua chapter 7). The army of Israel got cocky after that victory (because Jericho was massive), and when they went to defeat Ai, they only took 3,000 people because it was a much smaller city.
And what happened??
WELP, ole Ai kicked some Israel tale! They kicked those men out of their city, killing 36 in the process.
The Israelites were all flabbergasted and their courage fell. You can imagine how cocky they had been... they had JUST came off a huge victory against Jericho. Ai was a much smaller city, but didn't fall.
Joshua prayed, pleading for God to tell them why. And God said basically, "Someone didn't obey my commandments, so I didn't go with you."
MAN!
How big of a slap in the face was that to Joshua?
Turns out, the man named Achan had taken some things he wasn't supposed too and hid them under his tent... things didn't end well for Achan (or his wife, kids, donkeys, sheep... ). But since the 'sin' was gone, God walked with them again.
OK, so I got to that last part, (Achan was stoned for his sin), and I thought WHOA! WAIT! WHAT!? STONED for THAT? (Ok, I didn't yell it, but you know what I mean lol). I thought... why would God do that? And I'm glad that doesn't happen now.
Then I got to thinking...
This was before Jesus of course. Jesus died suffering ALL sins of EVERYONE... EVER In the ENTIRE WORLD... if this one man's, Achan, sin was so great that he had to be stoned to death, can you imagine how truly painful Jesus actually had it on that cross?
*THAT* is love. That one man could bear the "stonings" of everyone is just truly amazing and honestly made me think of Jesus in a different light. I always knew that being on the cross hurt (how could it not?) and I knew that he had to bare the weight of all our sins.. but I never really thought about how heavy each sin actually weighed.
My brag on God is that he DID love us enough to give his son for us... so that we have second and third and forth and a million chances. Jesus beared all of *THAT* so we don't have too.
That's a mighty big deal.
Much Love,
Kelly
Linked with: Spiritual Sundays and...
