Joshua 1:10-11

After the attack on the naval fleet in Pearl Harbor in 1941, the nation united behind the war effort. Men from all social and economic strata joined the military, including professional baseball players and famous movie stars. Women were employed in professions that had previously been dominated by men. War bonds were purchased to pay for the effort. Scrap metal drives were organized to collect materials for armaments. Food, gas, and clothing were rationed. Movies were made, and music – such as the “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy” – was composed. The whole country united in the mission of defeating the axis powers.

Similarly, all Israel was called to prepare their provisions for the next step in God’s mission. “Joshua ordered the officers of the people: ‘Go through the camp and tell the people, ‘Get your provisions ready. Three days from now you will cross the Jordan here to go in and take possession of the land the LORD your God is giving you… (Joshua 1:10-11).’’”

We too have a mission to fulfill. God calls us to join him in his Gospel mission to redeem, reconcile, and restore all things to Christ. How will you rally around that call?

Dick and Terri Greenly lived a peaceful life in Oklahoma running their state’s largest water pump company. One day a customer came into the Greenly business and told Dick that he had just returned from planting churches in Taiwan. Without giving it a thought, Dick said he’d like to go on a mission trip “someday”. The customer enthusiastically responded, “Dick, you have solar water pumps; we could go into mainland China, and we could plant churches, and we could get water to these people.” Dick was scared to death; he only said what he said because that is what Christians say. Four months later, Dick was in southern China. He installed two solar water pumps and saw how those pumps could transform an entire community. Ten years later, the Greenly’s have gotten water to a million people, drilled 3,200 wells, been to 32 countries, and made 350 business partners throughout the world who wake-up every morning to drill wells. “It all started” they said, “with just saying yes to the things that were right in from of us that are in our everyday lives.”

God has entrusted us with provisions that can be used to fulfil his grander mission. Every day we have opportunities to say yes to using those things for his grander mission. What today could you say “yes” to?

For further study:

Find out more about the Greenly’s

Get Ready (Joshua 1:1-6)

Keep this Book of the Law (Joshua 1:7-8), Part 2 of “Get Ready”