God is our salvation

For those of you who don't have an amazing girlfriend/boyfriend who loves you, i urge to try and find one. My lovely girlfriend recently decided she was going to buy me a Keyword Study Bible. For those of you who don't know, that is like the Cadillac of study Bibles. I am kind of giddy waiting for it to come in, because i'm looking forward to being able to read it, and dive in to the scripture and have all those study tools at the tips of my fingers. I am a Bible geek, and I love it. When people ask me what my favorite parts of the Bible are, I find myself usually citing things from the Old Testament. Obviously my favorite event in the Bible is the Gospel story. But I love the Old Testament too. Some people may never read the Old Testament because it is automatically boring. I assure not all of the books in it are like Leviticus and Numbers. A lot of people think that the Old Testament is invalid because Jesus is the New Covenant, therefore everything in the Old Testament is void because Jesus said so. Not true. I learn just as much from books like Joshua then i do Paul's epistles. A general understanding of the Old Testament is almost necessary for a minimal understanding of the New Testament. For instance, my favorite picture in the Old Testament is Joshua leading the Israelites into the promised land after forty long years in the wilderness. The Israelites were led out of Egypt by God, with Moses being acting as their leader the entire way. During these forty years they worshiped false idols, complained about the leadership of Moses and did the opposite of pretty much everything God said. For this reason, God did not allow any of the people who left Egypt (even Moses) to enter the land that He had promised Abraham hundreds of years before. Instead, God waited until all of them died, to let their children enter the promised land. Joshua was chosen to take over for Moses. The interesting thing is, that in Hebrew Joshua is actually Yehoshua. Yeh being an abbreviated version of Yahweh (the Hebrew sacred name for God) and Shua meaning "Salvation". The most interesting thing about it is, in Greek "Yehoshua" is written "Jesus". Joshua and Jesus share the same name, and that name means "God is salvation". Joshua leads his people into the land that had been promised to them by God, underneath the banner "God is salvation". Jesus is going to do the same thing! Jesus came here proclaiming "I am salvation!". One day, when He comes back for us, He will gather His people and lead them into the land God has promised us, all the while proclaiming "God is our salvation!". God is our salvation people! It is all over the New Testament, but did you know it was in the Old Testament too! The entire Bible points to us putting our faith in Jesus and depending on Him to take us back to God. Please, look at what you believe and figure out if you're really letting jesus lead you back to God. Are you putting your faith into Him so that one day you will end up in the promised land, or are you just attending church and going to Bible studies so that you lead a moral life. None of it matter is you are not carrying that banner that says "God is our Salvation!". The Old Testament has a lot to teach, start looking.

Joshua 1:9- "Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous! Do not tremble or be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go."