From a historical standpoint, this is truly significant - the last obstacle between Joshua/Israel and peace. God had promised them this land and the ONLY way that this had to be accomplished was to destroy every person so that God's people would remain pure. God stiffened the hearts of the Northern kings so that they banded together to fight against the Lord and his people. v.18 states that Joshua waged war against these kings for a long time. Victory while obtainable was not cheap, nor was it easy. It rarely is and in this case the result was a fulfilled promise and an inheritance to Israel divided according to what Moses had been directed by God.
Irene and I are grateful for God's providence as we trekked down to FL this past weekend. His mercies are new every morning, great is His faithfulness. His timing and direction to get the car fixed was truly divine and for that we are thankful.
Yesterday, we witnessed a new beginning in a church that started in a movie theater in town. When we first came to Celebration, this church was introduced to us by our friend Andy Chrisman. We have been attending when we come down here and have become friends with Pastor Joe Saragusa and his wife Carol. We have seen this church seek different places as they sought a permanent home. They left the movie theater and went accross the road to the Ramada and from there to the Omni and now to the Reunion complex during the course of their lifetime. While the location moved, the leadership was pretty much intact. Joe was the lead pastor and guided them through some difficult times and misguided personnel yet he remained faithful and like Moses was not a part of their next phase.
They have now been morphed into a larger entity and they are now a satelite campus of The Crossing - Tampa. Joe has now been a part of the Tampa group and will assume an entirely different role. The Celebration campus has a new pastor but the two campuses will all received the same "Sunday morning" message (actually Sat night) via video for all of their services from the Tampa pastor. Conceptually there is consistency but for me as I view it on a long term basis - very shallow and almost like a television service. While from a finance and resource basis this had pumped in the necessary assets for the Celebration group to survive, is the heart and essence of the people pumping stronger? Only time will tell. Next week, we for now are planning to go there and worship.
No comments:
Post a Comment