Daily Devotional For Sunday, February 9, 2025
Good Morning Southside and it’s Sunday – the day we all come together to worship and praise our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. A person who claims to be a Christians but refuses or fails to be part of a worship service is like a soldier who refuses to report to duty. While some soldiers go AWOL, a person who claims to love Jesus but goes “spiritually AWOL,” is no different than a spouse who never comes home to their spouse but still wants to be married. It’s not a marriage. I pray you will be in a church today to praise the Lord.
Today’s topic is not a topic most people want to talk about – death. In our passage today, Moses has died and Joshua has been leading the people. He is now old and realizes his time on this planet is brief. If you knew your time was brief, what words would say to the people you love? We get a small piece of what Joshua said to the Hebrews in Joshua 23:14-16:
“Now behold, today I am going the way of all the earth, and you know in all your hearts and in all your souls that not one word of all the good words which the Lord your God spoke concerning you has failed; all have been fulfilled for you, not one of them has failed. (15) It shall come about that just as all the good words which the Lord your God spoke to you have come upon you, so the Lord will bring upon you all the threats, until He has destroyed you from off this good land which the Lord your God has given you. (16) When you transgress the covenant of the Lord your God, which He commanded you, and go and serve other gods and bow down to them, then the anger of the Lord will burn against you, and you will perish quickly from off the good land which He has given you” (NASB).
Joshua’s main point is that God keeps His word to us. It is we who do not keep our word to God. Joshua had led God’s people into the land God had promised them. Now, as an old man who knew his time was short, he wanted to make sure they remembered that God had fulfilled every one of His promises to them.
Joshua reminded the people that it was God who had accomplished all these things and not themselves: “You yourselves have seen everything the LORD your God has done to all these nations for your sake; it was the LORD your God who fought for you” (v. 3). God is still inviting His people—that’s you and me—to serve Him in ways we cannot accomplish without His provision. Like the Israelites, we will only be able to accomplish God's assignments for our lives when we believe and stand on His promises, accept His invitations instead of pursuing our own agendas, and learn to depend on His power and His resources.
The Christian who “wants his cake and eats it too,” meaning, salvation without sanctification, either misunderstands salvation or has grossly deceived themselves with a lie. Salvation is more than just about going to heaven when we die. It is about establishing, growing and maturing a relationship to Jesus Christ here before we die. Genuine salvation demands sanctification just like being a parent means you have to be there to parent.
Joshua is giving his “Swan Song” in Joshua 23-24. He has faithfully led God’s people and now his time is over. So, in Joshua 23-24 he is giving his last “good-byes” to the people he loves and has led for God. If God told you today that sometime today you were going to die, would you do anything different? Would you be different to your family, friends and others? I have been with people in Hospice. They know, they really know the end is near. And as a result, they often start apologizing for where they failed in their relationship to the people they claimed they loved. We can be so busy building a financial career we forget to build a family clan.
We can be so busy trying to provide for later than we fail to provide now. Unfortunately, there have been times a person in Hospice is apologizing to their family and later you overhear one of them say, “Too little too late.” I don’t want your loved ones thinking or saying that about you. Do you know that people can’t say goodbye anymore,” writes the poet Les Murray. “They say last hellos.”
“In his book A Severe Mercy, Sheldon Vanauken tells the story of his last meeting with C. S. Lewis, who had become a friend. The two men ate lunch together, and when they had finished, Lewis said, “At all events, we’ll certainly meet again, here—or there.” Then he added: “I shan’t say goodbye. We’ll meet again.” And with that, they shook hands and parted ways. From across the street, above the din of traffic, Lewis shouted, “Besides, Christians never say goodbye!”
Avoiding goodbye when we have to move on and face the prospect of never seeing each other again in this life denies the importance of our bodily life together. Brushing over “farewell” denies that the pain of separation is real—that no matter how many texts or phone calls or Facebook updates we share, we won’t be available for each other in the same way anymore.
The word “goodbye” is actually a contraction of “God be with you.” Saying goodbye is important, in the end, because it’s one way of reminding each other that we are God’s bodily creatures. We want him to watch over us and keep our love for one another alive, right now, even before the day of our eventual reunion” (Source: Wesley Hill, “A Severe Separation,” CT magazine, p. 34).
Questions To Consider
- When it comes to your family and friends, are you ready if your death came to say either “good-bye” or “hello?” Why or why not?
- To accomplish tasks for God, we can only do them by standing on the promises of God. Which promises of God do you stand on to do tasks for Him?
- If you work, or have a career, the truth is, if you dropped dead right now, your employer would replace you. Everyone is replaceable. Everyone. So, how can you be more intentional to live today so that you can say “good-bye” or “hello” without regret later?
- We typically embrace our faith in terms of our known abilities, convenient tasks, and readily available resources. To take new spiritual territory, we’re going to have to set aside our pride and learn new responses to the Lord. How can you do that?
Scripture To Meditate On: Joshua 24:15, “If it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve: whether the gods which your fathers served which were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord” (NASB).
Prayer To Pray: “Heavenly Father, thank You for the promises You have extended to us in Your Word so we might live as overcomers, triumphing over every expression of evil. Forgive me for choosing to make my own way. I need Your help and deliverance. Jesus, I choose You as Lord of my entire being. Help me to honor You and give You priority in every aspect of my life. Lord help me to build my relationships to the people I love the most so that in the end, my final “good-bye” is really “God be with you.” In Your name, Amen.
I love you Southside!--Pastor Kelly