Saturday, March 5, 2016

March 6, 2016

"The Lord threw them into confusion before Israel, so Joshua and the Israelites defeated them completely at Gibeon. Israel pursued them along the road going up to Beth Horon and cut them down all the way to Azekah and Makkedah.  As they fled before Israel on the road down from Beth Horon to Azekah, the Lord hurled large hailstones down on them, and more of them died from the hail than were killed by the swords of the Israelites. On the day the Lord gave the Amorites over to Israel, Joshua said to the Lord in the presence of Israel: “Sun, stand still over Gibeon,  and you, moon, over the Valley of Aijalon. So the sun stood still and the moon stopped till the nation avenged itself on its enemies, as it is written in the Book of Jashar. The sun stopped in the middle of the sky and delayed going down about a full day. There has never been a day like it before or since, a day when the Lord listened to a human being. Surely the Lord was fighting for Israel!"  Joshua 10:10-14
Joshua prayed after he had earlier neglected to pray. He found himself in a predicament because he had earlier neglected to pray.

But when he did pray he prayed a Big Hairy Audacious Prayer and God answered it!

Joshua commanded the sun to stop in mid-sky and the moon to remain in place and God answered! The sun did stop and the moon did hold it's place and Israel did rout it's enemies!

Not only does the Book of Joshua record this but so does scientific astronomical evidence!

I seemed to remember hearing something about this scientific study and sure enough when I Googled it I found this:

Did you know that the space program is busy proving that what has been called “myth” in the Bible is true? Mr. Harold Hill, President of the Curtis Engine Company in Baltimore Maryland, and a consultant in the space program, relates the following development: I think one of the most amazing things that God has for us today happened recently to our astronauts and space scientists at Green Belt, Maryland. They were checking the position of the sun, moon, and planets out in space where they would be, 100 years and 1000 years from now. We have to know this so we won’t send a satellite up and have it bump into something later on in its orbits. We have to lay out the orbits in terms of the life of the satellite, and where the planets will be, so the whole thing will not bog down. They ran the computer measurement back and forth over the centuries and it came to a halt. The computer stopped and put up a red signal, which meant that there was something wrong either with the information fed into it, or with the results as compared to the standards.

They called in the service department to check it out and they said “what’s wrong?” Well they found there is a day missing in space, in elapsed time. They scratched their heads and tore their hair. There was no answer. Finally, a Christian man on the team said, “You know, one time I was in Sunday school and they talked about the sun standing still.” While they didn’t believe him, they didn’t have an answer either, so they said “Show us.” He got a Bible and went back to the book of Joshua where they found a pretty ridiculous statement for any one with “common sense.” There they found the Lord saying to Joshua, “Fear them not, I have delivered them into thy hand; there shall not a man of them stand before thee.” Joshua was concerned because he was surrounded by the enemy and if darkness fell they would overpower them.(check references below.) So Joshua asked the Lord to make the sun stand still! That’s right-”The sun stood still and the moon stayed-and hasted not to go down about a whole day!”

They checked the computers going back into the time it was written and found it was close but not close enough. The elapsed time that was missing back in Joshua’s day was 23 hours and 20 minutes-not a whole day. They read the Bible and there it was “about (approximately) a day.” These little words in the Bible are important, but they were still in trouble, because if you cannot account for 40 minutes you’ll still be in trouble, 1,000 years from now. Forty minutes had to be found because it can be multiplied many times over in orbits.

As the Christian employee thought about it, he remembered somewhere in the Bible where it said the sun went BACKWARDS. The scientists told him he was out of his mind, but they got out the Book and read these words in 2 Kings: Hezekiah, on his death-bed, was visited by the prophet Isaiah who told him that he was not going to die. Hezekiah asked for a sign as proof. Isaiah said, “Do you want the sun to go ahead 10 degrees?” Hezekiah said “It is nothing for the sun to go ahead 10 degrees, but let the shadow return backward 10 degrees.” Isaiah spoke to the Lord and the Lord brought the shadow ten degrees BACKWARD! Ten degrees is exactly 40 minutes! Twenty-three hours and 20 minutes in Joshua, plus 40 minutes in Second Kings make the missing day in the universe! Isn’t it amazing?! Our God is rubbing their noses in His Truth!

There truly never has been another day like this one recorded in the Book of Joshua! Never before and never again! BUT there INDEED was this day when God heeded the voice of a man and ordered the sun to stay where it was!

That God can be your God!

If He can stop the sun He can certainly step into your predicament and deal with your problem also!

Just go to Him in prayer!


March 5, 2016

"On the day the Lord gave the Amorites over to Israel, Joshua said to the Lord in the presence of Israel: “Sun, stand still over Gibeon and you, moon, over the Valley of Aijalon.So the sun stood still  and the moon stopped, till the nation avenged itself on its enemies, as it is written in the Book of Jashar. The sun stopped in the middle of the sky and delayed going down about a full day. There has never been a day like it before or since, a day when the Lord listened to a human being. Surely the Lord was fighting for Israel!" Joshua 10:12-14
Even when you are in the Promised Land you need to pray. Pray over little things and pray over big things. Pray over everything!
When you forget to pray you can be deceived into making a bad decision and end up in trouble. Even in the Promised Land! Just ask Joshua.
He learned the hard way when he forgot to pray before making a treaty with the men of Gibeon. He ended up with a problem and found himself in a predicament.
What do you do when you are in a predicament because you forgot to pray?
You do what Joshua did. You pray a big bold bodacious prayer. Like you should have in the first place!
Joshua found himself in a fight against the five kings of Canaan because of the unwise treaty to which he had obligated himself with the Gibeonites. 
Had he prayed over that decision he wouldn't have found himself in this dilemma. He knew that. He may have regretted that. He probably would have done it differently if he had a do over. But what did he do in this predicament? He prayed!
What did he pray? He prayed that God would stop the sun so he and his army could have time to defeat the enemies of God! In other words he followed up his failure to pray by praying a much bigger prayer!
How many times have you let one failure, sin or careless moment lead to more failures?
Me too.
Give Joshua credit! He did not do that! He didn't let his failure define his future. Rather than let his past defeat him he let it drive him back to dependence on God!
The lessons from this stirring story are fourfold!
First, consult God over everything!
There is nothing to small to pray over.
Pray first and act second.
Second, call on God every time!
Don't use God as an escape hatch or a parachute. Make Him you first option every time!
Third, prayer works every time it is tried!
Fourth, God's power is not limited by your failure!
So, what keeps your from praying?
Is it a past failure to pray?
Is it a past failure in prayer?
If you fail to prayer or fail in prayer then do like Joshua and fail forward in faith!