Clean, Clear And Capture

Clean, clear and capture!

Numbers 33:50”Then the LORD spoke to Moses ….51 "Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, 'When you cross over the Jordan into the land of Canaan,

52 then you shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you, and destroy all their figured stones, and destroy all their molten images and demolish all their high places;

53 and you shall take possession of the land and live in it, for I have given the land to you to possess it.”

Today, people want cushy, stress-free, hassle-free and serene life and they plan out elaborately for that. Well, you book the best seats in the flight, now what happens if an infant and the family take a seat next to you? Your flight journey would turn out to be hell despite all your planning; likewise, we need to be ready for sudden calamities in our life. People try to duck problems and struggles in their life; however, trials and tribulations are part and parcel of our life. Get that straight!

While I was meditating this sermon, the carom board game came to my memory, especially the way they arrange all the coins together in the middle, with the red in the middle. The player now focusses on giving a fierce blow and scatter the coins , at the same time, he aims to sink his coin and score points. Yes, even in our daily life, we got to strike, scatter the enemies fiercely and win. Don’t settle for divorce, escape or closure, stand up to have a head-on collision with the devil and win. You are too wonderful to settle for failure, are you there? Don’t you know you are the child of the Lion of Judah?

So, I thought, if I get the School ‘permission’ with that I can be cool, if I get the best teachers I can relax, not at all, everyday some new ‘challenges’ crop up and I have to be equipped to face them. The Lord very clearly spoke to Moses to tell the people,” drive out the inhabitants of the land before you, destroy all their molten images, demolish all their high places and then take possession. Phew! This is real tough! Yes, God didn’t mince words, he made it very clear what they got to do – do hard work and possess. So what makes you think, life is going to be hunky- dory? If you want to do things God’s way, then roll up your sleeves to do some hard work, the secular people would give bribe and get a driving license or permit but you as a child of God, got to go for driving classes, stand in the queue fill out forms, do the normal testing and get the driving license; when you do so, your blessings would be everlasting. No short-cuts, anybody listening?

Marriage is going to be tough during the initial days, new place, new people, new culture…it’s going to take a lot of patience and endurance to cross the hurdles. Posting pictures of marriage is what you see on the top layer level but what the person is facing none will know, but gear up to face the challenges and never give up. When you join a new job, new country….it is going to be the same, prepare your mind for it. Same way, 365 days are not going to be cool, some day you may not have time to even breathe, projects, dead lines, work pressure are going to drive you up the wall, that’s when you have to show your ‘stamina’! Cheer up friend, face the challenge, the God you serve expects great things from you!

Well, Coming back to the scripture that we are meditating today, let me again repeat the key points that God expects from His people:

• Drive out inhabitants

• Destroy idol

• Demolish

• Bring down high places

a) DRIVE OUT THE INHABITANTS: Listen to me, it’s not going to be easy to chase away somebody who has already got his address and his name plate fixed. You cannot possess something without a fight! The present building where we run our Abide School was earlier occupied by another school, the owner of that school did not pay the rent for one year, so the building owner decided to chase him and give the building to us. Well, it was not easy, he resisted for nearly three months, we waited patiently with prayers. Since he was unable to pay the rent for one whole year, he left all the furniture behind as payment and moved away, eventually the place fully furnished with tables and chairs was handed over to us, we paid rent for the building but enjoyed the other facilities too. This is good news but there were statues in the backyard which we came in the night and threw it away.