Gospel News — Jun-Aug 2012

them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land..." in the same way He is seeing and concerned about what his children in the refugee camps are going through. Just as He planned to come down to rescue the Israelites, He will do the same for our brethren now. However, in this move, He worked through His servant Moses in his special way. It seems as if Moses in his zeal felt that it was up to him to make the move in this direction, without God's direction - Acts 7 23 "When Moses was forty years old, he decided to visit his own people, the Israelites. 24 He saw one of them being mistreated by an Egyptian, so he went to his defense and avenged him by killing the Egyptian. 25 Moses thought that his own people would realize that God was using him to rescue them, but they did not.". While it was God's plans to work through Moses, He was going to do it in His way, because this was His people, and He had a fixed and comprehensive purpose in the entire operation.

When He commissioned Joshua to take over the lands of those foreign nations for the possession of the Israelites, He sent His captain to lead the way for Joshua, even though he still worked through him. 5:13 Now when Joshua was near Jericho, He looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua went up to him and asked, "Are you for us or for our enemies?" 14 "Neither," he replied, "but as commander of the army of the LORD I have now come." . This commander was there to specifically carry out God's commands. This did not mean that Moses and Joshua were to remain inactive, but rather they should, like the commander, work directly through God.

I think that we must strive to keep this uppermost in our minds, whenever we are

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carrying out God's service. He is our Lord and Master and we are His servants, hence we must seek His direction, and not take over and do our own thing. I wonder if this is why He instructed both Moses and Joshua, when He was preparing them for this important mission, to take off their shoes, because this was a special – a holy- mission. Hence, we must keep close to, and work under His direction in order to be effective in a spiritual way and this is best done by continuous prayer during our operation, as we are so easily side tracked. In reading the book of Acts recently I've noticed the frequency of prayer and fasting during their activities, which is a pointer to their mode of operation, as God's servants, and we've seen how the Holy Spirit directed them, and how their work prospered. In this way God could operate freely through us, accomplishing in a comprehensive way,in the process of his operation, His purpose both with us and with our brethren.

Focus MORE on Faithfulness!

Bro Neil Todd (New Zealand)

Every baptized brother or sister wants to `do better' than before. We want to improve and advance in the knowledge and the service of the Truth. This is a worthy ambition. With this objective, outlook and hope, Paul states, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." Paul also says, "This one thing I do, forgetting those things that are behind, I press forward to the goal...(Phil 3:13)

There is an enemy that get in the way! Paul terms it `flesh'. It gives rise to failure, frustration or perhaps, feebleness. It's from within ourselves and often arises from fear. Paul says, "I find another law (motivation)