Joshua commanding the sun to stand still (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Now then, just as the Lord promised,
he has kept me alive for forty-five years
since the time he said this to Moses,
while Israel moved about in the desert.
So here I am today, eighty-five years old!
I am still as strong today as the day Moses sent me out;
I’m just as vigorous to go out to battle now as I was then.
“Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. Even so, when you see all these things, you know that it is near, right at the door. I tell you the truth, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.” –Jesus (Matthew 24:32-34)
I have long loved this verse because it shows a type of beauty often missing in our world.
A man, a tough, martial kind of guy, has a child by the hand. Gently.
And it’s not just any ol’ kid, either. The Commander has the son of the enemy by the hand. People who hate him have spawned this boy and he’s got him by the hand, drawing him to a private place somewhere inside the deep crevasses of the Roman military barracks.
Away from the other guys.
Away from listening ears.
Away from perhaps terrifying sounds and cruel or obscene remarks about Jews.
The young man has a message for him and believes the Commander will want to hear it. Why? Maybe he’s watched the man in action, before and noted a spark of humanity in him. Maybe the man has shared a bite of ration with him.
Maybe the boy just thought it worth the risk. After all, his message could save a man’s life — his uncle’s life, in fact.
The record states he took it upon himself to approach the Roman Commander with his news, though, and for some reason, the Commander took the boy quite seriously.
Maybe he enjoyed being watched, perhaps imitated, by a young kid.
Maybe he noted the earnestness in the lad’s face and instinctively knew something of great import was on his radar screen.
Maybe he was a dad far from his own brave son.
However it was, a huge, hardened hand of a Conquering Commander held the smooth, youthful hand of a Jewish boy, and together they changed history:
The boy’s uncle, Paul of Tarsus, escaped a wicked assassination plot, a lynch mob.
The last words we know of from this man with the huge hands are, “Don’t tell anyone that you have reported this to me.”
It was, after all, quite politically incorrect for them to have had a conversation at all.
The whole world is being shaken! And followers of Jesus around the world are experiencing one common issue: FEAR is taking hold.
USGS reports 47 earthquakes (greater than Magnitude 2.5) around the world on one day, Tuesday, 2/26/2012;
Tsunamis and hurricanes/typhoons ravaging countries;
Arab regimes are falling in many Middle Eastern countries. Most are being replaced by radical leadership seeking to impose Shariah Law and anti-Israeli sentiment, while destabilizing relations with Western democracies;
Pressure from all over the world against Israel; to divide Jerusalem; to give Samaria and Judea to the Palestinians; to exercise restraint and allow the Iranian-backed forces to continue their relentless rocket barrages, killing people and destroying properties in Israel;
Economic turmoil in the European Union; Greece bailout causing riots and potentially threatening the stability of all Western banking systems;
US government in a stalemate over increasing debt limit, balance of trade, unemployment, and the radical environmentalism that…
Home's Cool! 