Lessons From the Wall

/ newlifenarrabri

I've just been watching a short portion of the Veggie Tales version of the walls of Jericho- Alex was watching it, lest you think that I consider Veggie Tales to be devotional.

As I walked into the lounge-room, the Israelites had just completed their first lap of the city walls and endured the indignity of having purple slushies dropped on them (the cruelty!). They are sitting around the camp-fire and Josh says "Well that's the first day done. We just have to do that six more times and then…" The others start complaining and planning tourist trips to the pyramids and then "Junior" comes in with a wonderful word of wisdom about just trusting God.

Earlier today I was reading "Living Water" by Brother Yun, the Chinese Christian house-church apostle who was beaten, imprisoned and tortured for his faith before being bought out of captivity by American Christias. Yun talks about how weak the church in the west is becasue we operate by human plans and we don't trust in God, we trust our own ability rather than God's ability.

In a wry comment he says this:

The Lord saw that I  needed a rest and He arranged it in the only way He could. I was arrested in the nation of Myanmar, beaten and sentenced to seven years in prison because of my disobedience to the Holy Spirit. In prison the Lord showed me that my life was getting out of control and I needed to slow down. This was the second time He allowed me to have a holiday in prison while I learned to renew my relationship with the Lord Jesus. After I left China, I discovered that pastors in the West have Mondays off and go on summer holidays every year. In China the believers have no opporutnity to take holidays, so the Lord graciously becomes our travel agent and books us in for a time of much-needed rest at a prison. I must have had so much vaxation time stored up that the Lord allowed me to take all my vacations at once. It's a wonderful thing when God's children realise that we are nothing apart from Him. When we understand that we need to be totally dependent on Him, it takes away all comptetition, striving and selfish ambition.

Whether in China or Australia, we all need to die completely to ourselves and resolve only to obey Jesus.

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