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For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.

Deuteronomy 4:24

Our God is a consuming fire. He is satisfiedonly when His love totally consumes us. We usually think of a jealousperson as someone resentful and suspicious, but the Lord’s jealousy onour behalf is something that should be precious to us! He has thecomplete right to our lives. He gave us life, and He wants to protectus from anything that could harm us. That is why He has commanded Hischildren to worship no other gods, allowing nothing to distract usfrom His consuming love. The Lord opposes anything that hinders ourrelationship with Him (Deut. 6:15). 

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“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

Near the end of his life, Joshua took time with the Israelites to review all that God had done for them since they first began following Him. Godhad given them an impossible assignment: to conquer a foreign andhostile land with fortified cities and armies more powerful than theirown. The Israelites were to go forward with nothing more than God’spromise that He would go with them and take care of them. Now Joshualooked back over their experience and reminded the Israelites that Godhad kept every promise. They had experienced numerous victories andhad enjoyed God’s provision for every need. 

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Who may ascend into the hill of the Lord? Or who may stand in His holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart.

Psalm 24:3–4

God has rigid requirements for those who want to enjoy intimate fellowship with Him. There is no easy access to God forthose with unclean hands or an impure heart. It is an affront to holyGod to assume that we can indulge in our sin and blatantly disobey Hisword, then brazenly enter the holy of holies. In Old Testament times,one’s hands represented one’s activities. Clean hands symbolized pureactivities. Priests washed their hands before serving in the temple tosymbolize that only those who were cleansed could worship holy God.There are levels of intimacy with God. 

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Here is a summary of a blog post from Chuck Lawless on “10 Ways to ‘Jump Start’ Your Personal Evangelism”

1. Ask God daily to let me see people as He sees them.
2. Ask other believers to pray at least once a week that I will speak the gospel boldly and clearly (Eph. 6:18-20; Col. 4:2-4).
3. Ask God to renew my fire for Him.
4. Pray by name for non-believers at least once a week (2 Cor. 4:3-4).
5. Strive to speak a good word about God to somebody each day.
6. Force myself to get to know people I don’t know.
7. Offer to pray for others.
8. Commit to telling a non-believer what Jesus means to me at least once a week.
9. Use social media to tell the gospel.
10. Just be obedient because I want to please God.

“You heard in that day how the Anakim were there,and that the cities were great and fortified. It may be that the Lord will be with me, and I shall be able to drive them out as the Lord said.”

Joshua 14:12

Caleb ’s faith in God never wavered, though everyone around him doubted. God convinced Caleb that the children ofIsrael should enter the Promised Land, but the people were intimidatedby giants and fortified cities (Num. 13:28–33). Their disbelief forcedCaleb to wait forty years in the wilderness before he finally enteredthe Promised Land. Even after all those years, Caleb was as confidentas ever in God’s power. When God was dividing the land among theIsraelites, the people were asking for the lush valleys and grassyplains. Caleb asked for a mountain. The Israelites had driven their enemies into the mountains, where they had built fortresses. 

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