Hope
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When we fear living counterculturally as God’s light in the world, obedience is the single key to banishing the fear. Disobey, and fear remains. Obey, and fear departs. The role of the Word of God is to tell us what to do. But courage is only realized when we obey.
Follow the Word Exclusively
Do not turn from [the Book of the Law] to the right hand or to the left.
JOSHUA 1:7
The phrase zero tolerance entered our common language after 1994 legislation outlawed bringing firearms to school. There would be no tolerance for a violation of that decree. Expulsion for one year would follow, and if the school failed to comply, it could lose its federal funding. Zero tolerance meant a strict, clear-cut policy banning guns in schools. The phrase caught on, and soon we were discussing other areas that deserved zero tolerance: bullying, cheating, dealing drugs.
The term didn’t exist in Joshua’s day, but as the passage above shows, its application did. God gave Joshua a zero-tolerance policy concerning spiritual infidelity, telling him that when Israel entered Canaan, he was to follow the Word of God without turning “to the right hand or to the left.”
He wasn’t to compromise morality or principles to conform to the practices of the land’s inhabitants. He wasn’t to massage the meaning of God’s law to make it politically correct. He wasn’t to use it as a proof text for his own point of view. He was to obey God’s law and nothing else.
At the heart of the law was the covenant, the agreement between God and His people. It would not change; a new generation must hold to old revelation. In a time of uncertainty, facing a new world, this would be their assurance: Nothing important has changed. I, the Lord, do not change. Keep following Me.
We know the history that followed. The people of Israel took many steps to the left and to the right. God was patient and forgiving, but finally the nation had to suffer for its lack of faithfulness to God and His law. The nation split in two. Its people were exiled first to Assyria, then to Babylon. The Israelites paid the price, living in constant fear of enemies and invasions. They turned to the right hand and the left to serve other gods, and eventually their fears were realized when God removed His umbrella of protection.
We have a choice: we can follow the gods of this world and live with the fear that we’ll be caught in the outcomes that inevitably fall on all disobedience, or we can follow God and His Word exclusively and live without fear.
Accept the Word Totally
. . . all that is written in it.
JOSHUA 1:8
Sometimes people ask me why I preach from the Old Testament. Nearly everyone likes the Gospels of Jesus and the letters of the apostles. But why worry about all those wars and kings and prophets?
There is good reason. I include the Old Testament in my teaching because God’s message is incomplete without it. Theology recognizes two kinds of inspiration of Scripture: verbal inspiration means that the words were inspired by God; plenary or full inspiration means that all of the Bible comes directly from God. We believe, then, that every word of the Scriptures has God as its source. This is reflected in Joshua 1:8, where the word all takes center stage. We aren’t to pick and choose from God’s law any more than we are to pick and choose what federal laws we obey.
Did Joshua listen? Many years later, when he was nearing death, he gave his final address to the people of Israel, now established in the Promised Land. He echoed the words that were given to him many years earlier by God: “Be very courageous to keep and to do all that is written in the Book of the Law of Moses, lest you turn aside from it to the right hand or to the left” (Joshua 23:6).
In Deuteronomy 17:18-19, God made deep immersion in His law the first priority for Israel’s future kings. No doubt this is why David, nearing the end of his life, prepared his son Solomon for accession to kingship with words that echoed God’s charge to Joshua:
I go the way of all the earth; be strong, therefore, and prove yourself a man. And keep the charge of the LORD your God: to walk in His ways, to keep His statutes, His commandments, His judgments, and His testimonies, as it is written in the Law of Moses, that you may prosper in all that you do and wherever you turn.
1 KINGS 2:2-3
It is no small thing that God called Joshua to the Word as he stood on the banks of the Jordan. Those who desire to do anything for God and experience the richness He desires for them must be people of the Word.
The “spiritual greats” of our times have made the Word a first priority. Some pastors, leaders, teachers, and laymen have read through the Bible more than a hundred times. It is said that George Müller read it two hundred times. Missionary David Livingston read it four times in succession while he was detained in a jungle town. Charles Spurgeon said, “A Bible that is falling apart usually belongs to someone who is not.”
The Bible is the greatest source of encouragement available today. When we read it, we are changed because it is a living book. Whenever we are afraid of failure or feel as if we are failures, the Word of God should be our highest priority. The words we find there will infuse our hearts and minds with strength and courage. The more we focus on God and His Word, the less room there will be for fear.
The Principle of Divine Presence
I will be with you. I will not leave you nor forsake you. . . . The LORD your God is with you wherever you go.
JOSHUA 1:5, 9
Earlier in this chapter, we discussed the similarities in the call narratives of the Old Testament—the challenge from heaven, the fear from earth, the reaffirmation and assurance from God. There’s one other key element: God’s consistent promise to accompany us on the journey. He never says, “You go, and I’ll wait here for you.” He says, “Let’s go.”
God said to Moses: “I will certainly be with you. . . . Now therefore, go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall say” (Exodus 3:12; 4:12).
To Gideon: “Surely I will be with you, and you shall defeat the Midianites as one man” (Judges 6:16).
To Jeremiah: “‘Do not be afraid of their faces, for I am with you to deliver you,’ says the LORD. . . . ‘For I am with you,’ says the LORD, ‘to deliver you’” (Jeremiah 1:8, 19).
And to Joshua: “As I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you nor forsake you” (Joshua 1:5).
For forty years, Joshua had witnessed God’s faithful presence with his mentor, Moses. Now God promised Joshua that he, too, would be blessed by the presence of God in his life and leadership.
Nothing is more important, or more confidence boosting, in the call of God than the promise that God will be with us. God’s promise of His active presence and power always accompanies every person He calls. This renders meaningless any excuse or objection to the call. Whether the person called feels inadequate or incapable becomes irrelevant, because he carries with him God’s power to accomplish what God calls him to do.
In the New Testament, God makes the same promise to us that He made to His Old Testament saints:
“I will never leave you nor forsake you.” So we may boldly say:
“The LORD is my helper;
I will not fear.
What can man do to me?”
HEBREWS 13:5-6
The Principle of Divine Prosperity
You will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.
JOSHUA 1:8
This is undoubtedly one of the boldest promises in the entire Bible. To most people today, success means the accomplishment of goals and financial achievement. In the Hebrew language, however, it means to be prudent or to act circumspectly. In a spiritual sense, this means letting one’s life be guided by God. Joshua had this kind of success and prosperity. He ran into his share of bumps in the road, and he had his failures. But the great scope of his life indicated prudence and wisdom, and he was a successful man.
Now picture this with me: Joshua learns that his new job assignment is to lead these nomadic people against the Canaanites. It’s a great promotion,
but he fears it’s too much for him. Filled with anxiety, he goes into the Divine Consultant’s office, where he is given these six principles to overcome his fear of failure and guarantee his success. He walks out standing straight and tall, with a confident spring in his step. He has received a transfusion of courage.
As Joshua came to the end of his life, he gave testimony to the power of these principles to bring prosperity and success to his nation:
Behold, this day I am going the way of all the earth. And you know in all your hearts and in all your souls that not one thing has failed of all the good things which the LORD your God spoke concerning you. All have come to pass for you; not one word of them has failed.
JOSHUA 23:14
I know these principles work, because I have made them the core principles for my own walk with God. On many occasions when I’ve faced the challenges of ministry, these powerful words have given me the shot of courage I needed to push on and find the success God promises. As I write this chapter, I am reminded of the times when I was most afraid of failure. The first was my last year in seminary. I had spent four years in college and four years in graduate seminary training, and within weeks I would have to step out of that comfort zone into the real world. I remember thinking, I wonder if I’ll be able to do this. What if I’m just not cut out for the ministry?
My first assignment after graduating was to serve as a youth pastor and Christian education director at a large church in New Jersey. Those were great days for Donna and me. We hung out with the high school kids day and night, and God gave us the privilege of mentoring some of the greatest young people we had ever met. We still hear from some of them to this day.
During the last months of our second year in New Jersey, I began to feel a growing desire to preach. My few preaching opportunities made me eager to do more. We didn’t have to wait long for that desire to be met. A longtime pastor friend was building a network of churches in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Out of the blue, he called me to ask if I would have any interest in becoming the pastor of their newest church plant.
With many reservations, Donna and I agreed to visit the church. I would preach in the mother church and then meet with the seven families who had agreed to help start this new work. I was pretty certain that God did not want me to do this, but I felt obligated to listen to their proposal.
As we traveled home afterward, we were both overwhelmed with the faith and excitement of this core group of people. And we were shocked that they wanted us to come to lead them in this venture of faith. They gave us a couple of weeks to make our decision, and we ended up taking every single day! As the deadline drew near, I was conflicted. Looking back, I now realize that a big part of my indecision was the fear that I would not be able to accomplish what they wanted me to do. What if we went to Indiana and failed to make the new church a success?
Other issues also clouded my mind. During our visit, I had driven around the area where this church was to be planted, and I counted at least five well-established churches. And I was to be the pastor of seven families meeting in a mobile home! That’s right—a mobile home. One of the core members of the new church sold mobile homes, and he had agreed to assemble four of them into an L-shaped arrangement that resulted in an “auditorium” that would seat one hundred people, with the other section housing a nursery, a few classrooms, and a small office.
If you were driving around Fort Wayne, Indiana, looking for a new church home, would you have chosen the mobile home church over one of the five beautiful churches in our part of town? Neither would I! The fear of failure was palpable, and I knew how to get rid of it—stay right where we were in an established, comfortable church.
With only a few days left before the deadline, I drove to the New Jersey shore to spend the day thinking and praying. It was colder than I’d anticipated, so I popped into a coffee shop on the boardwalk to get warm. I took my coffee and a copy of the Philadelphia Inquirer to a booth and settled in—and began reading a story that changed our lives.
It was an article about Vince Lombardi, the fabled coach of the Green Bay Packers. He had just left Wisconsin to become head coach of the struggling Washington Redskins. It was the talk of the sports world: Why would Lombardi leave his spectacularly successful franchise in Green Bay and move to what was then the worst franchise in the NFL? What caught my attention was a line in the middle of the article—a pullout quote from the coach set in bold type: “I have discovered in my life that it is more challenging to build than to maintain.”
I finished my coffee, drove the hour back to Haddon Heights, and told Donna that we were moving to Fort Wayne. God had vanquished my fear of failure—for the moment.
The fear returned as we spent the next few weeks preparing our transition to Indiana. I believed God had spoken to me that day at the Jersey Shore, but I was still nervous and afraid—until we arrived. When we walked into the little house where we would live, we saw a sign taped on a kitchen cabinet door:
GOD’S COMMANDMENTS ARE GOD’S ENABLEMENTS.
To this day, I don’t know who put the sign there, but I believe God moved them to do it. It suddenly dawned on me: God wouldn’t tell me to do something that He wouldn’t enable me to accomplish! Why should I be afraid if God had committed Himself to my success? What God did for Moses, Gideon, Jeremiah, Joshua, and others, He would do for me. And He did. For twelve years, God patiently helped me learn to be a pastor and caused the church to grow. When we left Fort Wayne, God had proved to Donna and me that the only way we learn to trust Him is to step out of our comfort zones into the “fear zone” and say yes to Him.
If you are in a similar place today, may I encourage you to replace your fear of the unknown with hope in God and His Word? If there is something God wants you to do, let your actions put your fear to flight.
[1] Robert A. Caro, The Passage of Power, vol. 4 of The Years of Lyndon Johnson (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2012), 16.
[2] Caro, 21.
[3] From the Special Features segment of The Fugitive, © 1993 Warner Bros. Pictures.
[4] J. Oswald Sanders, Robust in Faith (Chicago: Moody Press, 1965), 72.
[5] William Sykes, The Eternal Vision: The Ultimate Collection of Spiritual Quotations (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 2003), 70.
[6] Paul Laurence Dunbar, “Right’s Security” in Lyrics of Lowly Life (New York: Dodd, Mead and Company, 1898), 179.
[7] J. I. Packer, Knowing God (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1973), 23.
CHAPTER 3
HOPE DURING A FINANCIAL COLLAPSE
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Oh, fear the LORD, you His saints!
There is no want to those who fear Him.
PSALM 34:9
Ethelda Lopez was ready to let go and enjoy the golden days of her time on earth. She’d been a hard worker her whole adult life, and she had planned well for retirement. Now, when that pension check arrived each month, she felt a nice sense of security.
Then one month, the check didn’t come.
It had to be a mistake. After Ethelda made a few phone calls, her discomfort increased. A Sacramento accounting firm had managed her investments, but the company was no longer to be found. Every time she phoned she got a repeated recording: “This number is no longer in service.”
Ethelda had worked for AT&T for three decades. Her benefits should have been rock solid. She’d paid into her investment plan all those years, and now she was cut off and cast adrift like a boat from its moorings. Her ultimate worst-case scenario was looming: she couldn’t make the mortgage payment.
Ethelda fired off more phone calls—to mortgage companies, to her political representatives, to bank managers—to anyone at all who might be able to shed light on this craziness. But it was all to no avail. Her money was all gone—lost, embezzled, stolen. What difference did it make how it had happened? She was suddenly, unexpectedly destitute. Every night she cried herself to sleep.
Her worst fears were realized the day she stood on the lawn of the c
ounty courthouse and watched as her dream home was auctioned off to strangers. Someone wanted to know why she was crying; did she need some kind of assistance? Oh, yes. But when she tried to explain that it was her home on the auction block, nothing but unintelligible whimpers came out.
Our homes are our sanctuaries, the places where we retreat, relax, and regroup. If even this space is up for grabs, what certainties are left in the world? The idea of losing a home hits us—well, as they say—right where we live.
Loss is an inevitable part of life. Nothing that’s visible is lasting, and one of the first harsh realities we face is the moment we first learn that truth. We lose a friend or we lose a job or we lose our fortune, yet life goes on.
In a very real sense, we’re all nomads—pilgrims bound for an eternal world who are just passing through this physical one. This world is not our home, and when we leave it, any possessions that outlast us will be owned by someone else. The impermanence of this world and all that is in it is actually good news for those of us who have faith in God. It means we’ll be moving on to better things.
But other people live only for the here and now, as typified in Jesus’ story of the prosperous but ignorant homeowner. This man placed his faith in his holdings, and then one night he heard the voice of God: “Fool! This night your soul will be required of you; then whose will those things be which you have provided?” (Luke 12:20).