A Prostitute in Our Midst?

Do you know about Rahab?  She was a prostitute and certainly not someone I would want to visit with.  I mean"What would people say?"  If she is going to live among us, she will surely have to clean up her act.  And she brought her whole family, too.  I wonder what they're like.  Not that I really want to take on introducing them to my friends.

They say she saved the spies who went to look over Jericho, but when she bargained for her own life, she included her family as well.  I have to admit she did have integrity and family loyalty.  She hid the spies until the troops of the King of Jericho left, and she told them how to escape.

Of course she would want to join us.  She told the spies that everyone she knew feared Israel, and she jumped on our band wagon as soon as she could.  She had heard of the miracles God did to protect our people in the desert.  She was just trying to save herself since she knew that God would give Jericho to Israel.  For a while I wasn't so sure.  I mean they had the best position,
 after all.

It really seems sort of flighty of her to believe things she had only heard about and to hide the spies under stalks of flax on the roof.  If they had found the spies, she would surely have been in big trouble.  Only if you really had great faith or you were really stupid would you take that risk.  Humphff.
But Joshua kept the promise and rescued all the members of her family after the walls fell.  I guess that's one reason they went to her house in the first place--the house was on the wall.  The other reason we won't discuss.  I wonder who intruduced her to Salmon?  She was a foreigner, after all.  I wouldn't think his family could have been very happy about it.  She did bear him children.  I think Boaz was the first.  I really wasn't sure he would ever amount to anything, but who knows.

Read the story of Rahab in Joshua 2, 6:22-25, Matthew 1:5.

Confession

Confession--admission, acknowledgment, declaration of guilt   I found these synonyms for confession.
            In the Bible, the word confession means more that just an admission of guilt. Confession, from God's point of view, means that we see our sins like God sees them. This is more than just admitting to an error or missing the mark. God sees sin as a separating agent: It not only blocks our access to His mercy, but it also blocks His delivery of our forgiveness. I John 1:9 says if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
           Now, what does it mean when we say we confess Christ? It means the same thing. We see Christ like God sees Christ. God sees Jesus in power and glory. He sees Jesus as the only perfect and acceptable sacrifice for sin. He sees Him exalted as well as slain. When we see Christ like God sees Christ, we shout, "I confess!" We raise our hands in praise and surrender. Romans 10:9  proclaims that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you shall be saved.
           I like this exercise where I can see things like God does. What else can I confess? Maybe the Word. How does God see the Bible? How should I? What about my neighbor? Or the preacher? Or my enemy? Or the missionary? Here are things I can explore.
           How does God see me? Does He recognize my fear? Does He read my shame? My repentance? Is my joy pleasing or offensive to Him?

Jeremiah 31:3  says  I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore, with loving-kindness have I drawn you.

Oh what a confession I have: He loves me with an everlasting love.