BUTS AND INTERVENTION BY GOD




 Image result for clip art showing the conjunction but  Pastor Tommy Teague always reminded us that a statement followed by the conjunction, "but", negated all that was stated before the but.   Well here goes!

Jericho has been routed by Joshua and the Israelites.  God is with Joshua, "and his fame spread throughout the land."  (Remember that all chapter and verse markings were added eons later.) The first  word of chapter 7 of Joshua: BUT Achan of the tribe of Judah took some of the "devoted things".  God has forewarned Israel  before going into Jericho, "But keep away from the devoted things, so that you will not bring about your own destruction by taking any of them."  Tragically, Achan has taken a beautiful robe, five pounds of silver, and a wedge of gold weighing about 1 1/4 pounds. He paid a horrific price for his family and himself...their very lives. I grant you this is a VERY negative BUT in the lives of the Israelites.

 Rather than focus on the negative activity and the BUT, I want us to see some very positive BUT'S...the times that God intervened in your behalf and mine.
  1. Joseph's words to his brothers in Genesis 50:20: "You intended to harm me, BUT GOD intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives."
  2. 1 Sam. 23:14:  "David stayed in the desert strongholds and in the hills of the Desert of Ziph.  Day after day, Saul searched for him, BUT GOD did not give David into his hands."
  3. 3. Isaiah 40:8: "The grass withers and the flowers fall, BUT THE WORD of our GOD stands forever."
  4. Matthew 19:26: "Jesus looked at them and said, 'With man this is impossible, BUT WITH GOD all things are possible." 
  5. Romans 5:7-8: "Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. BUT GOD demonstrates His own love for us in this: While were still sinners, Christ died for us." 
There are probably a "bizillion" more times that God has applied the BUT GOD to your life and mine.  I encourage you today to make a list of the times that God intervened with a BUT in your behalf.  Just consider that any of the negative BUT'S in your life have been covered by the blood of the Lord Jesus and buried in Marianna's Trench..Micah 7:19b "you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea." ( The Trench is some 7 miles deep located in the western Pacific Ocean.)  Praise HIM, we have been blood covered and blood bought.  May we glorify HIM today.  #IHAVE THREESONS    

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