What was the most sacred place that you have ever been in? The kind of place where awe and reverence for God were experienced, a place that was set apart from all other places, a holy place. You know, as I tried to answer that question myself I kept drawing blanks. There have been a lot of awe inspiring places like Notre Dame Cathedral in Montreal or the mountain ridges of the Yukon or the wonder of the light in the sky at daybreak that seems to breathe promise. But the most sacred place I could remember has been in the presence of other people as we together discovered the presence and reality of God's holiness and grace. I remember praying with a woman in my office for healing and to both of our amazements it occurred right there and then and we were filled a sense of awe and worship at God's grace and presence. I can remember a time of sitting in a friends living room and hearing of how someone had come to a place of faith in Christ and was selling his cabin, traps, fishing nets and moving back to town where the people were so that he could be a Christian there among them. I remember a time of decision in my own life where I cried out to God in the midst of uncertain circumstances and declared Him to be my God, whether I stayed or went, whether to do this or to do that?He is my God and I will seek after Him. These were the most sacred places that I could remember. Two things contributed to the sense of the sacred, my conscious awareness that I am in the presence of God in some . . .
Rev. Spence Laycock
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My point is that grace is certainly the expression of love moving downwards, it is undeserved favor but it is guided or directed by a series of considerations in every case. Like the feathers on the shaft of an arrow or the grooves or the inside of a gun barrel, these considerations guide the expressions of grace every time. Humanly we can see how this is so, we get that, but what guides God's mind when it comes to Him being the bestower of grace? It still is an absolutely free act of His will towards us, Ephesians 2:8,9 demonstrates that, but what directs His will to be gracious to whom He will be gracious? Does God just show grace to everyone and under every circumstance, like a great grace dispensing machine where all you do is pull the lever and you get . . .
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Have you ever had to choose to move towards something that you knew was going to be painful and yet you also knew it would ultimately lead to that which was very good? How do you resolve the problem of pain while trying to hold onto that which is essential to right relationship? Do I hate the dentist, do I distrust and pull away from my parents who sent me there, or do I resolve to see purpose beyond pain. It's a simple question to answer when we think of cavities cleaned and filled to rot no more, but it's more difficult to answer when we consider the pages of the Old Testament.
In Deuteronomy 7:1 all the people of Israel were told that they would take over the land of Caanan from seven nations that were greater and stronger than themselves. Verse 2 says, ? ?you shall defeat them, then you shall utterly destroy them. You shall make no covenant with . . .
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I'd like you to imagine for a minute a great chalk board or blackboard. On one corner is written the equation, 1+1= blue. In another corner appears the equation, 1+1=3, down at the bottom appears 1+1= k, then 1+1= loud, and faster and faster other equations like 1=1= dark, 1+1= touch, 1+1= *, 1+1=%, 1+1=?
Then a great hand appears and with a piece of chalk writes in the very center of the board, 1+1=2.
Have you ever wondered why God would swear to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob that He would give them a particular piece of land? Why was God so passionate about the physical land of Israel , and not just then some 4000 years ago, but even today? Deuteronomy 11:21 quoted God as saying this about the people of Israel being obedient to Him in order to stay upon the land, listen to the intensity that God feels for this land? ?'that your days and the days of your sons may be multiplied on the land which the Lord swore to your fathers to give them, as long as the heavens remain above the earth.? Why is God so passionate about the land of Israel , the place where the people of Israel are to be? Is it possible that it is here, on the center of the chalkboard, that God has written for all to see, the truth about who He is, about what is and we are? To Him it is a foundational, even elementary concept upon which all other truth is built. The land of Israel was the chalk board where . . .
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This morning we are going to consider a place in Israel that is one of the oldest ruins on the face of the earth. Next to Jerusalem , no other Israeli city has received as much interest or research. It is the city of Jericho , and what took place there 3400 years ago has everything to do with us here this morning. The nation of Israel was a people of about 1million, living in a tent city called Gilgal, just 5 miles or so from Jericho . By faith they had been rescued from Egypt , by faith they had survived forty years of desert wanderings, by faith the Jordan River had stopped flowing so they could cross. Now the waters of Jordan flowed again, closing their exit, now they were ?in the cage with the tiger?- so to speak. In front of them was a fortress of incredible, even legendary, strength. It was the first city and perhaps the greatest city they were to face and God directed them to move forward. Consider for a moment what this meant. Here's a picture of the way it was built.
