The Meaning Of Life

https://biblehub.com/nkjv/joshua/6.htm

Father in heaven, thank You for giving us Your word which contains the meaning of life. Thank you for the freedom to study it as we wish and we pray that as we start, you’ll open our hearts and minds to instruction. Please send your Holy Spirit into us to teach us, the show us the truth, and to give us wisdom and knowledge and understanding. Teach us as Jesus taught the disciples. We love and worship you. Amen.

MetLife Stadium in New York hosts the NFL Teams the Giants and the Jets, and has a seating capacity of 82,500. When fans are cheering and screaming, the sound can reach as high as 95 decibels, which is enough to cause hearing loss. Imagine how many decibels 600,000 cheers can reach? Enough to tear down a wall.

In this chapter, Joshua and the children of Israel overtake Jericho. Jericho was protected by very high brick walls that sat atop of a very high base, and because fear of Israel had struck, and their “hearts had melted” and their “spirit had left them”, the city was shut up and locked down tight. No one was allowed in, and no one was allowed out.

God instructed Joshua to take his army, around 600,000 men of war, and walk around the city, with seven priests blowing seven rams horns. And they were to do this daily for six days.

On the seventh day (remember 7 is a perfect number), God instructed them to march around the city six times, and on the seventh time, they were to blow the horns and to shout!

So Joshua did as the Lord had instruct. The army, the seven priests, and the Levites carrying the Ark of the Covenant all marched as planned.

And on the seventh day, on the seventh trip around, the horns blasted, Joshua cheered them on to shout, and the sound was so loud, and vibration of the sound was so bad, the brick wall collapsed.

And no, it’s not just a fairy tale, archeological excavations have found evidence that matches the historical account in the Bible.

Why is this story important?

First, you know how much faith it took to perform this? They make jokes all of the time about how, if a modern day man started to build an ark in his backyard, that everyone would think he was nuts. What what if God actually spoke to some man today and told him to start building an ark? Would that be so implausible? Remember, it happened once.

So if we took the U.S. Army, and instructed them to walk around a walled city and to shout so the walls fell down, how do you think those soldiers would react? What? Shout and the walls will collapse? Our think our drill instructor has lost his mind. There is no way we can shout loud enough to collapse these walls.

So when Jericho filled the children of Israel in on the plan, they had to have the “faith of a mustard seed” to even consider participating in such a fiasco. Who would think?

Secondly, they knew it was possible, because “with God, all things are possible”. God sent plagues on Egypt. God parted the Red Sea. God sent manna from heaven. God lead them in the exodus by a cloud in the daytime and by a pillar of fire by night. The Glory of God was so great it caused Nadab and Abihu to perish, yet their clothing was untouched. God brought water out of a rock. God stopped the water from flowing down the Jordan River, and during the flooding months at that.

God can do anything. God is powerful. And we look at these things God did with awe, yet we often forget the intricacies of the human body, the liver which miraculously filters blood, the kidneys which filter your urine, the gastro-intenstical organs that digest food in a matter of hours, the pancrea which produces insulin to counteract glucose levels, the hearts valves working in conjunction with each other to circulate blood, the tiny alveoli that injects oxygen into the blood stream, the electrical circuit of the nervous systems, and I haven’t even begun to touch on the human brain yet. An organ that allows us to see, perceive light from dark, colors from grey, to smell and differentiate the odor of dog urine to the odor of fresh baked bread or cookies, to taste the difference between sweet and salty. Did you know that peppers are not hot? Jalapeno’s, habanaros, even Carolina Reapers are not hot or spicy, but there is something in our brain that acts with capsaicin to perceive heat, and many “pepper heads” have found ways to overcome that, whatever it is in our brain, so they can eat capsaicin without feeling the heat (although sometimes the capsaicin level is so high in a pepper that the pepper-heads are unable to overcome it.

Yes, God separated waters and torn down walls, but He can do anything. If He can design the perfect machine, the human body, from dirt, He is capable of doing anything.

Do you have faith in God? Do you believe He has the ability to work wonders, to work miracles? Have you experienced a miracle?

I was a fireman for 18 years, had a few calls, nothing that cause me to see my life flash before my eyes, but as I reflect on that careers, I think of the situations I was in in which it was nothing short of a miracle that I survived. I shouldn’t have survived. By science, I should be dead. But God was on my side. God was covering me with his protective hand to keep me alive during those battles.

There is nothing in your life so powerful that God can’t fix it. You simply have to believe, to be faithful and obedient, and to pray. Prayer works wonders.

I don’t mean to indicate that those who have perished in an accident deserved it, but if we turn away from God, He can remove his “hedge of protection” from us and allow Satan to do as he wishes. And it is Satan that causes all of the bad stuff to happen.

And sometimes, it’s all in God’s plan. My wife and I became guardians of a special needs foster daughter who aged out of the system and was going to be institutionalized. We couldn’t see that happening, so we became her guardians and she still lives with me today.

We have another former foster daughter, also with special needs, that we actually adopted, and she still lives with me today.

Then, my wife was asked to be the guardian of a special needs adult male.

All three have behavior problems, severe at times. The two girls both have seizure disorders.

And the adopted daughter has multiple seizure disorders and is a Type 1 diabetic.

Did God see this coming, and protected me as a fireman so I could live and take care of these three? My wife passed five years ago, but I continue to care for them; all three live with me, and I now consider them my family, wouldn’t give them up for love or money. Is that why He protected me when I was inside those burning buildings?

For years, I was convinced of that. I was convinced that God put me in this position to care for these three. Then it dawned on me; that thought was prideful. I must think pretty highly of myself to think that God put me on this earth to care for them. Then I found the truth. God put them on this earth to care for me.

If I was left alone when my wife passed, there is no telling where my life would be. Before I was married, I drank heavily, not an alcoholic, but I drank socially, and I was a very social person. I gave up alcohol with no problems when I got married, but there is nothing to say that after my wife passed, I might end up in the bottle again.

And that scenario is more likely. Caring for these three gives me purpose in life, so truly, they are saving me.

And frankly, I’m not caring for these three because I don’t have a clue. I’m flying by the seat of my pants, and the only way I am accomplishing this is because it is actually God who is caring for them, he’s just doing it through my hands.

So, God has a plan for each of us, a purpose for our lives. God can do anything; when you hit a wall in life, turn to God, and he’ll tear down that wall.

Amen.