{"id":730,"date":"2014-10-19T14:44:10","date_gmt":"2014-10-19T14:44:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/redeemedman.org\/?p=730"},"modified":"2014-10-19T14:44:10","modified_gmt":"2014-10-19T14:44:10","slug":"time-to-dip-my-toe-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/redeemedman.org\/?p=730","title":{"rendered":"Time to dip my toe in."},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"Scripture\">And the Lord said to Joshua, \u2018Today I will begin to exalt you in the eyes of all Israel, so that they may know that I am with you as I was with Moses. Tell the priests who carry the ark of the covenant: \u201cWhen you reach the edge of the Jordan\u2019s waters, go and stand in the river.\u201d\u2019&#8230;.. \u00a0 &#8230;..Now the Jordan is in flood all during harvest. Yet as soon as the priests who carried the ark reached the Jordan and their feet touched the water\u2019s edge, the water from upstream stopped flowing. It piled up in a heap a great distance away, at a town called Adam in the vicinity of Zarethan, while the water flowing down to the Sea of the Arabah (that is, the Dead Sea) was completely cut off. So the people crossed over opposite Jericho. The priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord stopped in the middle of the Jordan and stood on dry ground, while all Israel passed by until the whole nation had completed the crossing on dry ground.<br \/>\n<span class=\"passage\">Joshua 3: 7-8 &amp; 15-17<\/span><\/div>\n<figure id=\"attachment_734\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-734\" style=\"width: 150px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"httP:\/\/redeemedman.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/toe-in-water.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-734\" src=\"httP:\/\/redeemedman.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/toe-in-water-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"Take the first step and God will do the rest\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-734\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Take the first step and God will do the rest<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Last month we looked at the amazing Grace of God, how, as a free gift, Jesus set us free from sin once, for all time, and there is nothing that we can contribute to this wonderful, loving relationship. So can we conclude then, that we can just sit back a let God do everything? Since God has done it all, can we continue as we were?<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;By no means!\u00a0We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?&#8221;(<span class=\"passage\">Romans 6:2<\/span>). In the crossing of the Jordan the priests carrying the Ark of the Covenant had to at least step into the water, then God acted miraculously and piled the water of the Jordan up so the rest of the Israelites could cross on dry ground, to the land flowing with Milk and Honey.<\/p>\n<p>In the book of Exodus, when God, was trying to persuade Pharaoh &#8220;To let My people go&#8221;, each time Moses had to go and speak to Pharaoh, then hold out his hand, arm or staff, THEN God performed the Miracle, releasing each of the plagues. When Pharaoh did let God&#8217;s people go and then changed his mind and cornered the Hebrews by the Red Sea. Moses was told to hold his staff out over the waters, then God parted the waters and, again, the Hebrews crossed to freedom on dry ground (<span class=\"passage\">Exodus 14:15-16;<\/span>). If we move to the New Testament, when Peter saw Jesus walking on the stormy waters of the lake, Peter had to take the first step and get out of the boat, then the miracle happened, and Peter walked on the water to Jesus. (<span class=\"passage\">Matthew 14:29<\/span>).<\/p>\n<p>So often God wants us to take a step of faith and then He acts, and acts miraculously. Faith is the key, did Jesus not say that with faith as small as a mustard seed we can move mountains (Matthew 17:20). Does God <strong>NEED<\/strong> us to act first, By no means, God created the universe, and all that is in it, including\u00a0us. And all of this he did without any action or help from us.<\/p>\n<p>So God wants us \u00a0to talk to Him (pray) and to listen to Him, then to Step out of the boat, taking \u00a0a step of faith in the assurance that He loves us, and we love him. Stepping out with no fear, for if we take the wrong step God will gently close the door, and will point us in the right direction and open the right door and then He will act. Because if, through love of Him, we demonstrate faith in him, he will faithfully demonstrate his love for us. \u00a0And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. (<span class=\"passage\">Romans 8:28<\/span>).<\/p>\n<p>I cannot encourage you enough, today, go down to the river Jordan, talk to God then dip your toes in and wait for God to part the waters. Then see what miraculous things God has in store, within the bounds of his overall plan.<\/p>\n<p>Next month let look a bit deeper in to Romans 6:2.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>And the Lord said to Joshua, \u2018Today I will begin to exalt you in the eyes of all Israel, so that they may know that I am with you as I was with Moses. Tell the priests who carry the ark of the covenant: \u201cWhen you reach the edge of the Jordan\u2019s waters, go and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-730","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/redeemedman.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/730","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/redeemedman.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/redeemedman.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redeemedman.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redeemedman.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=730"}],"version-history":[{"count":28,"href":"https:\/\/redeemedman.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/730\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":761,"href":"https:\/\/redeemedman.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/730\/revisions\/761"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/redeemedman.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redeemedman.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redeemedman.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}