Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go.
God commanded Joshua these words. As long as he stayed in the path that God had marked for him, he would be protected and the land that God gave the Israelites would remain theirs.
Today's Comments: We all know how well the Israelites listened to God. A very short time after they settled into the land, they allowed apostasy to set in. The result was that they eventually lost that great land that God had given to them.
My Pastor, David Baumann, writes a wonderful Blog. It can be read at johnonefive.blogspot.com. The verse above directly relates to the entry that he made on Friday, September 18th. When God gave the Promised Land to the Israelites, inclusivity was not an option. To the contrary: God specifically picked out one group of people from hundreds of nations, kingdoms, and principalities. And it was when his own chosen people failed to honor Him that we were adopted as His heirs.
It seems to me that there is no such thing as total inclusivity in Christianity. To the contrary: we have been set aside from the rest of the world by God: we are members of the body of Jesus Christ.--- the Church. We may be diverse; but like Joshua, we must be careful to follow the path that God has set for us, lest we lose our way. If we keep our hearts and minds fixed upon Jesus, we will not stumble. If we allow ourselves to let the world dictate to us its pluralistic and secularistic meaning of inclusivity, then we will surely lose our way.
And maybe The Episcopal Church already has. But even in apostasy, God has never abandoned his people; nor do I believe that He will abandon His church, or a part of it. He may discipline or execute corrective action. But He has always been faithful to His people; even when they have abandoned Him in apostasy, He has brought them back. I pray that our parish, Blessed Sacrament, and other parishes like her will be used by God to bring the Episcopal Church back to the path that He wants us to take.
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