This Week’s Training Notes
Continuing in the Spring curriculum of The Gospel Project for Adults, From Conquest to Kingdom, we are reading through the book of Joshua and how God led His people into the promised land with His power and His presence.
This week, your group will be studying Unit 7, Session 2, God’s Presence with His People, which focuses on how the Lord goes before His people in power to lead them where He desires, even miraculously through impossible impasses.
So this week, here are your three things to know, read, and do as you prepare for this week’s session:
Something to know
Don’t neglect the fact that objects have special value as symbols for God. In this particular passage we note the ark of the covenant as a symbol of God’s presence and guidance as it holds the tablets with His commandments on them, and as it led the Israelites over the Jordan. God also commanded Joshua to appoint twelve men to pick out twelve stones to erect as an altar, as a memorial. God knows how much our eyes are powerful: to do evil and to do good. In using objects as symbols, He helps us remember Him and thus, draw closer to Him. Like a father or teacher with a child, God’s perfectly selected object lessons help us recall who He is, what He has done, and what He can do.
Something to read
For something to read, we’ve included a link to a sermon text by Lloyd Stilley on Joshua 3 in the Additional Resources called Crossing Our Jordan. Here is an excerpt and brief outline from his teaching:
As we stand on the brink of the God-sized future and consider the obstacles that hinder us, it can feel like we’re facing an impossible task between here and there. But these things are no match for the God of the Uncrossable! He knows how to get you from stuck to triumphant! Just look.
I. Follow the movements of God (3:2-4)
II. Consecrate ourselves
a. Personal repentance of every known sin
b. Putting oneself on spiritual alert to see God at work
III. Step out and stand still (7-13)
Something to do
Consider collecting or buying enough small stones for each member of your group, large enough for a word to be written on it, but small enough to carry with one hand. Allow members to write a word or a few words that describe a certain event in their lives that they could remember God at work in a seemingly impossible situation. Let people share during your group time what word they wrote and the corresponding story if they so desire. Tell them to put the stone or rock somewhere where they would see it daily as a reminder of God’s powerful work in their lives.