George W. Truett's words are exemplified by the life of Joshua: "The study of the word of God for the doing of the will of God is life's greatest ambition and highest achievement."

The value of service, as Martin Luther King Jr. so rightly observed, is that it is available to everyone: "Everyone can be great, because everyone can serve."

When Jesus promises to welcome His disciples into eternity with the words, "Well done, my good and faithful servant," He reserves for them no higher word of praise. Joshua's epitaph should be our aspiration: "Choose this day whom you will serve. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord!"

Rahab - The power of faith
Poor, a pagan and a prostitute: three strikes that would call Rahab out in almost anyone's estimation - but God's! Rahab represents God's ability, if not God's preference, for using people others would consider unworthy. For all her disadvantages, Rahab had one thing in her favor: She was a woman of faith.

From the divine perspective, faith is the great equalizer of human relationships. Status or rank cannot negate it; neither power nor wealth can acquire it. Rahab believed in the liberating God of Exodus (Josh. 2:10), making her a true "Israelite" even though she was Canaanite by birth. She acted courageously in her faith, even at great risk. Her wise actions in saving herself and her family stemmed from her faith in Israel's God. Her faith and wisdom were twin streams flowing from a single spring.

Jewish tradition considers Rahab to be a model of Gentile faith, and remembers her as worthy to be a wife of Joshua and a mother of priests and prophets. The Gospel of Matthew identifies her as an ancestor of Jesus. She is the only woman mentioned by name in Hebrews 11, alongside Noah, Abraham, Moses and David, as a hero of faith in God. She embodies the faith of the psalmist who declared, "Happy are those whose help is in the God of Jacob, who executes justice for the oppressed (and) lifts up those who are bowed down" (Psalm 146:5-7).

Achan - The destructive power of self-centered living
The story of Achan's crime is a harsh account that shocks our modern sensibilities because of the severity of his punishment and the death of his seemingly innocent family as a result of his actions. Perhaps these consequences are so foreign to our worldview because we live in basic denial of this story's clear truth: Seeking personal fulfillment to the exclusion of communal obligations destroys families, communities and our own lives!

Achan's story reminds us that the consequences of our actions reach far beyond our individual lives. Our lives are connected in ways we may not even realize but would be foolhardy to ignore. Covetousness, greed and self-seeking are not petty, private peccadillos; they fray the very fabric of social well-being.

A friend claims it to be a law of human nature that there is always one person who is willing to sell out the entire community for personal gain. Achan's story illustrates with bracing effect that any individual gains are quickly negated by the long-lasting communal losses of such actions.

Commentator John Hamlin suggests that we compare Rahab, the faithful foreigner, with Achan, the faithless Israelite. One acted in faith by hiding endangered strangers, thus saving her family; the other forsook his community by hiding forbidden treasures, and thus destroyed his family.

Caleb - The power of whole-hearted devotion
The scientific evidence continues to mount toward a conclusive result - religious faith often produces longer, healthier and more fulfilling lives! These results should be no surprise to those who have read the following words of Caleb the Kennezzite:

"I was 40 years old when Moses the servant of the Lord sent me from Kadesh-Barnea to spy out the land; and I brought him an honest report. My companions who went up with me made the heart of the people melt; yet I wholeheartedly followed the Lord my God.

"So Moses swore on that day, saying, 'Surely the land on which your foot has trodden shall be an inheritance for you and your children forever, because you have wholeheartedly followed the Lord my God.' And now, as you see, the Lord has kept me alive, as He said, these 45 years since the time the Lord spoke this word to Moses, while Israel was journeying through the wilderness; and here I am today, 85 years old.

"I am still as strong today as I was on the day that Moses sent me; my strength now is as my strength was then, for war, and for going and coming. So now give me this hill country of which the Lord spoke on that day; for you heard on the day how the Anakim were there, with great fortified cities; it may be that the Lord will be with me, and I shall drive them out, as the Lord said" (Josh. 14:7-12, NRSV).

Active faith adds vitality to any individual's life and mature faith adds vitality to any worshipping community. Many people today are bemoaning the "graying" of the church. Although the absence of younger generations from many congregations is a serious concern, churches would be ill-advised to ignore the potential of the many "Calebs" in their midst. The power of life-long, open-ended, forward-striving, future-oriented, whole-hearted devotion to God, yoked to youthful idealism, energy and willingness to change is a rocket engine capable of launching the church as far as God wills it to go.