Joshua 7 - The Gibeonites
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- Written by: Chris Appleby
Joshua & The Gibeonites audio (10MB)
Common Sense isn’t Always
The Israelites have left Mt Ebal and Mt Gerizim behind and are now moving south to continue their conquest of the land. The whole population of Canaan has heard about them by now and the kings of the land below the hill country band together to prepare a defence. But not the leaders of Gibeon. They’ve seen what’s happened to Jericho and Ai and they figure the same fate awaits them if they resist. So they takes a different tack. They prepare a subterfuge.
Joshua 6 - Mt Ebal & Mt Gerizim
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- Written by: Chris Appleby
Mt Ebal & Mt Gerizim audio (9MB)
Joshua 8:30-35
It’s interesting how some places take on a greater significance than others. For Australian sports fans the MCG is the sporting arena. For Elvis fans it’s Graceland in Memphis Tennessee. For car racing fans this weekend it’s Mt Panorama in Bathurst. Di & I have just been to some of the significant places of the New Testament: places like Laodicea, Philippi, Pisidian Antioch, Corinth and especially Ephesus. It was great to walk on streets where Paul and Silas, Timothy and Luke would have walked; to walk on the Roman Road that’s still lying there by the side of the modern highway; to think about the fact that these were places where the most significant growth of the early church took place. Well, today in the book of Joshua we come to just such a place.
Joshua and the people of Israel have destroyed Jericho and Ai, so they now control the main entry into Canaan and the northern end of the highway that passes through the mountains south to Jerusalem and Hebron. But they don’t go south; they move north, to a place where they can carry out one of the instructions that Moses left for Joshua before he died.
They march north and eventually come to a place where the road turns west and passes between two mountains, Mt Ebal on the right and Mt Gerizim on the left. This is one of those places. Here between the two mountains is the city of Shechem.
Joshua 5 - Achan & Ai
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- Written by: Heather Cetrangolo
Achan And Ai audio (10MB)
During the week I represented a man in a family law mediation. He had recently separated from his wife, and we were negotiating for him to have contact with his children. It’s hard to imagine, for those of us who haven’t been through it, what it would be like to be negotiating with total strangers, about how many hours a week you are allowed to spend with your own children … especially if you have been in a Christian marriage.
The couple in this case were both practicing Christians – active members of their church. There hadn’t been any violence or abuse or adultery in the marriage. The relationship had simply broken down irretrievably for no obvious or striking reason … although they were, as many couples are, under financial pressure and pressure from extended family … my client finds himself in a situation he never imagined he’d be in … sitting with me in the Legal Aid Dispute Resolution Centre, praying, that he will still be able to have a relationship with his kids.
As I sat in the mediation and listed to the mediator carry on about what children need after separation … and tolerated the discussion that canvassed everything but what God might have to say about it all … I wondered … why are we here? Why are two believers even subjecting themselves to this process? - arguing against each other before an unbeliever? (and Paul says this in 1 Cor)
This couple haven’t broken the law. Why has the church palmed them off to the civil authorities? Why can’t we help them internally? Or are we so ashamed when we fail, when our people divorce, that we’d rather not get involved?
I noticed that the woman who ran the mediation was watching us very intently. Watching us pray. Watching our behaviour … and the world does have its eyes on the church, and people watch intently to see exactly what we do when things go wrong.
And the world wants to know …
Proverbs 1. 1-7
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- Written by: John Altmann
What kind of teacher is God?
When you think about God and his words in the bible, do you think – boring, uninteresting, not really able to hold my attention and teach me anything?
There’s a lot of information in the world now isn’t there? And the rate at which information is being created is astonishing. [8am – How many of you have used the internet? Who feels a bit overwhelmed by the amount of information out there and how do you find your way around it?] [10am – While I’m preaching this sermon there’ll be around 12,000 hours of new video material uploaded onto YouTube! That’s a lot to keep up with. Do you ever think about the fact that if when you start a university course today by the time you finish it most of what you learnt will be out of date!]
Is God responsible for all that information? Does God want us to have to just learn more and more? Does he want to overwhelm us with information or does he have somewhat different priorities for what he wants us to learn from him?
Joshua 3: Two Kinds of Memorial
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- Written by: Heather Cetrangolo
Two Kinds of Memorial audio (4MB)
Lately, when I look in the mirror, there are a few things that bother me.
I notice that my top lip has a particular dip in it that is exactly like my mother’s. I also have a slight overlap in my front-two teeth just like she does.
I’ve noticed that I have the exact same forehead as my Dad’s Mum, and that my hair is starting to resemble my Dad’s long frizzy hair that he had in the 70’s.
And sometimes, when I’m being cheeky, I do this thing with my mouth that my grandmother on my Mum’s side does.
And it’s not only when I look in the mirror. Every now and again I catch myself in the middle of a passionate speech about something that is only moderately important, and I notice that I’m overreacting and I think, “I just sounded exactly like my Dad.”
And when I’m at kid’s club and eighteen kids arrive, and Annette has to leave suddenly, which means I have to cook … I noticed myself kind of panic and rush around in a manner that strongly resembles my mother.
And the problem with all of this, is that it totally ruins the promise I made to myself as an adolescent, that I was not going to be like my parents … that I was going to be my own person.
