00:00Welcome to the continuation of Joshua's book. Today we are in chapter 7. My name is Victor Martinez and I want to share with you a little bit about the reflection of today, of the reading of chapter 7, and here we are with the people of Israel. The book of Joshua explains to us that after capturing the city of Jericho and destroying it and burning it, the army of Israel is at the top, at the top of what is victory, celebrating and continuing their conquest to claim the promised land. And they find the next city, the city of Ai. Now this city, after sending spies, they identify that it is a much smaller city than Jericho, which would be easy to conquer. A note at this point, the army of the people of Israel is approximately 600,000 people. And the spies tell Joshua, if we send between 2,000 and 3,000 people, that should be enough. And Joshua listens to them and sends 3,000 soldiers. However, they find a defeat, not only a defeat, but 36 people from the army of Israel die. Then the army returns and Joshua had already seen places and times when the people of Israel had failed, had been disobedient, had lost an opportunity to claim what God had for them. They realized that in part, perhaps this defeat was connected to someone's sin. And in that process, Joshua undresses, is spending time with God and God reveals to him that indeed someone had sinned and as a result of that sin they had lost the battle. Eventually they find the person. This person, unfortunately, knew the consequences of his disobedience and it would literally be his death. The person ends up with death. But how does that apply to us? Thank God, there are no laws that work that way these days. However, there are laws that have consequences, not only in the earthly world, but also in the spiritual world. So the question for us is, what are we doing, that God perhaps would like us to do, but that we are in disobedience, that we are in sin and we have not yet repented, that could lead to our spiritual death? I think that is what applies today. As leaders, we must have the opportunity to identify that sometimes God will allow us to be in a place where we can achieve a battle that seems to be simple and maybe we lose it. However, it is less dependent on our ability and our capacity, but more on God's disposition to give us that victory. I want us to have a victory, to experience a victory. So if you find yourself in a place where you feel that this is bread eaten, as we would say in Puerto Rico, this is something that we can achieve, I want you to stop and before you reach that, check your heart and ask yourself, God, am I okay with you? Is my heart clean? Is my heart free from sin? And if not, you have the opportunity to stop, repent, and ask God for forgiveness. God wants to forgive your sins and wants to give you the opportunity to start again, so that later you can go and achieve that victory, whether it seems impossible or possible. So I bless you and I hope you experience freedom in repentance.