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As we pause on this Memorial Day to remember the amazing sacrifices made by the men and women of our military, the Philanthropy family wants to personally say THANK YOU to each member of the service both past and present! You are amazing and brave beyond words.  As we thought about the day that America sets aside as a memorial to our brave heroes, we were reminded of a young man in the Bible who was told by the Lord to set up a memorial of his own.

       In Joshua chapter 4, we catch up with the Israelites as they are about to cross the Jordan River.  The Lord gives them safe passage by drying up the waters of the Jordan so that they can pass through on completely dry land!  Once everyone made it safely across the currently dry riverbed, the Lord speaks to Joshua and gives him an interesting assignment….

 ”When the whole nation was finally across, God spoke to Joshua: “Select twelve men from the people, a man from each tribe, and tell them, ‘From right here, the middle of the Jordan where the feet of the priests are standing firm, take twelve stones.  Carry them across with you and set them down in the place where you camp tonight.’”

      Rocks don’t seem like the lightest souvenirs to mark the miracle that just occurred =) but the Lord has a really specific plan in mind.  He knew that, like many of us, the Israelites had an unfortunate habit of forgetting how powerful and faithful their Lord was.  He instructed Joshua to tell the people:

“When your children ask their fathers in times to come, ‘What do these stones mean?’ then you shall let your children know, ‘Israel passed over this Jordan on dry ground.’ For the Lord your God dried up the waters of the Jordan for you until you passed over, as the Lord your God did to the Red Sea, which he dried up for us until we passed over, so that all the peoples of the earth may know that the hand of the Lord is mighty, that you may fear the Lord your God forever.” (Joshua 4:21-24, ESV)

      We have all done it… The Lord hears our cries and comes through in an amazing way that only He can! We are breathless at his work and faithfulness!  We tell everyone that we know (and random people we don’t know!) about what He has done! But then…. We get a little distance from the moment.  We fall back into old ways of thinking and “forget” the miraculous thing He did for us.  The Lord wanted to make sure that the Israelites did NOT do that with this particular event.  He wanted to make sure that for generations and generations to come, anyone that saw the stones and asked their purpose, would be told the story of a great God dried up the Jordan River for His people to pass safely.

      How has the Lord been faithful in your life recently?  We pray that the Lord helps you “set up memorial stones” in your heart so that you always remember the place where God came through and provided you safe passage into or out of something….the place that He healed the thing you asked for or even provided a need before you knew it existed.  May we always REMEMBER the faithful acts of our Father and , like the Lord desired in Joshua, may we share with every generation after us the stories of His goodness and His works!!

Together in Him~

Your Philanthropy Family

      It is easy to forget the massive size and complexity of the planet we live on.  We get rolling in our own little grooves and paces of life and “being in awe of all the Lord has created” gets backburnered. (Not totally sure “backburnered is a word but roll with me) It’s easy to forget how BIG of a God He must be to create such a MASSIVE and INTRICATE planet!! Think on a few facts….

•  Earth has a surface area of more than 196 MILLION square miles – and not all of that in habitable!

•  There are places in the ocean that are so deep, they have never been explored!

•  There are currently over 7 BILLION people in the world and that number is constantly growing!

And then….

You have moments where the Lord reminds just how small and intimate this HUUUGE planet can be when He’s involved =)

     Several times recently, Philanthropy has been the place the Lord has chosen to use to re-connect people whose paths should not have crossed!! A few Saturdays ago, a family one of our Philanthropists met several months ago -  over 8 hours away from Franklin! -  at her past job in Charleston came into the store!  She was absolutely shocked to see them and there may have been some squealing and hugging =)  The way their paths crossed the first time was interesting and a blessing to them both… For the Lord to coordinate another meeting MONTHS later just takes our breath away!  On top of just the sheer “coincidence” of them arriving at the store, they discovered numerous other seemingly random connections that made it clear the relationship between these two parties was supposed to happen! It was a perfectly timed encouragement….

Our God is HUUUGE – Even bigger than the massively giant planet He’s created!  The same God that made oceans so deep they can’t yet be fully discovered, cares about us SOOO much that he orchestrates amazing connections between His children here on Earth!

Stand amazed at our Lord today!

Together in Him~

You Philanthropy Family