And Another Thing

Isn't it funny how once you start thinking about something spiritual, God seems to send several other things related to it your way in the next few days? The women of our team meet every Wednesday afternoon for lunch, prayer and study. We've been working through the Beth Moore series Believing God, which has videos online for us to watch and homework during the week. (Let me just take this moment to plug this bible study- it is amazing!) In our homework for the past week, part of the study took us into the book of Joshua, reading about Rahab and the "battle" of Jericho. Looking at the beginning of Joshua 2, Beth writes:

"...I like the fact that the king of Jericho knew the spies were there. God intentionally made the Israelites, like the body of Christ, a peculiar people. Ordinarily, the devout of the Lord stick out like a June bug in January. After wandering in the desert for 40 years wearing the same old clothes, conspicuous tassels on their garments, and their hair in certain ordained styles, they didn't exactly fit in. Their disguises didn't work. (Mine didn't work, either, no matter how good they were.)"

That's what I'm talking about- we're freaks! We stick out even when we're trying not to! It's been a good week having these thoughts in the forefront of my mind.

Another treasure from this week's discussion of Rahab was her proximity in terms of lineage to King David. No one much talks about it, but Rahab was the mother of Boaz. Is it any wonder that Boaz was so kind and open? His mother had experienced the kind of redemption that only the Lord can bring! Rahab had a bad start, but went on to become the great-great grandmother of a man after God's own heart. How awesome it is to think about the legacy of transformed lives!

We've been told (and have seen enough to suspect it's true) that "whole" families are fairly uncommon in Salvador. It's the result of the people living far from God. Sin has run rampant and has torn apart their lives. But the story of Rahab encourages me. I can only imagine what God will do through the lives He changes here!

Sorry for yet another sermon. Soon I'll go back to reporting on the mundane details of our lives. It's just silly to write about our trip to the grocery store today when such wonderful things are running through my head!