Glory Days by Max Lucado

Author:Max Lucado
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: ebook
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Published: 2015-06-30T16:00:00+00:00

“Defeat your enemies!”

“Amen!”

“Order a blessing on your barns!”

“Amen!”

“Lavish you with good things!”

“Amen!”

“Throw open the doors of his sky vaults and pour rain on your land” (see Deut. 28:1–13).

“Amen!”

The proclamation of the curses followed the same pattern. “Cursed is anyone who . . .

“Carves a god image!”

“Amen!”

“Demeans a parent!”

“Amen!”

“Takes a bribe to kill an innocent person.”

“Amen!” (see Deut. 27).

Back and forth, back and forth. Voices reverberated off the stone cliffs. All the people—children, immigrants, old-timers, everyone—in antiphonal rhythm proclaimed their values. “There was not a word of all that Moses had commanded which Joshua did not read before all the assembly of Israel, with the women, the little ones, and the strangers who were living among them” (Josh. 8:35).

Keep in mind the when and where of this assembly. When did this event happen? In the midst of an invasion. Where? Smack-dab in the middle of enemy territory. These desert-toughened people pressed the Pause button on the physical battle in order to fight the spiritual one.

Heeding God’s Word is more critical than fighting God’s war. Indeed, heeding God’s Word is fighting God’s war. Conquest happens as the covenant is honored.

Do you want a Promised Land life?

Desire the fullness of Glory Days?

Want to experience Canaan to the fullest?

Obey God’s commands.

What’s that? You expected something more mystical, exotic, intriguing? You thought that the Canaan-level life was birthed from ecstatic utterances or angelic visions, mountaintop moments or midnight messages from heaven?

Sorry to disappoint you. “Obedience,” wrote C. S. Lewis, “is the key to all doors.”4 Don’t think for a second that you can heed the wrong voice, make the wrong choice, and escape the consequences.

At the same time, obedience leads to a waterfall of goodness not just for you but for your children, children’s children, great-grandchildren, and the children of a thousand generations in the future. God promises to show “love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments” (Ex. 20:6 NIV).

As we obey God’s commands, we open the door for God’s favor.

Case in point? The remarkable change of Pitcairn Island. In the spring of 1789 a band of mutinous sailors settled on this tiny dot four thousand miles east of New Zealand in the South Pacific. Angered by the harsh rule of Captain Bligh, the mutineers had given him and his followers the boot and a boat and watched them float out to sea.

Captain Bligh made it to safety and eventually testified against the crew of the ship called HMS Bounty. But what became of those sailors who settled on Pitcairn? The men took Tahitian wives and recruited Tahitian workers. They had the opportunity to create a stable society, but instead they created a sinkhole of violence, adultery, and drunkenness. They elevated no standard, no morals, no laws. Within a decade they were dead from disease and attacks. Only one mutineer survived. Alexander Smith.

Left on the two-square-mile island, he began to read the Bible. He later testified, “When I came to the Life of Jesus, my heart began to open like doors swingin’ apart.

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