About Finding Canaan
The Name
God appeared to the Biblical patriarch, Abraham, promising him and his Israeli descendants an inheritance--a land of their own called Canaan. Canaan was a beautiful piece of ground, though a proverbial "clothing optional" sign hung on her front gates--not the kind of paradise Godly families should enjoy.
Israel's conception and development was unique. She was created in captivity and mothered by Pharaoh, but through a painful wilderness baptism, a faithful few were adopted by God and thereby settled in Canaan, God's promised land. Merely occupying her borders didn't mean she was "found," though. The process of making Canaan holy was comprehensive and perpetual.
A numerically insignificant kingdom of priests crossed the Jordan river and were met by the host of Canaan's corruption. Cultic sex and human sacrifices were standard practice for the inhabitants. Welcome home! Imagine being promised a mansion but come to find a dilapidated, crumbling Victorian infested with roaches, spiders, and rats. Canaan was a fixer upper.
We love the idea of God's promises, though often totally neglect the process. Canaan had divinely appointed potential to be a fruitful paradise, flowing freely with milk and honey; but those blessings were contingent on a number of things; well, two basic things: personal holiness and national holiness. Israel could have the paradise version of Canaan, but she'd first have to obey God, and second, she'd have to remove the paganic sirens whose song so often attracted Israel's children to idolatry.
The name Finding Canaan signifies the perpetual process holiness demands. Baptism isn't a teleportation device from depravity to holiness. We enter the kingdom of God through a birth of water and spirit, after which we spend our whole lives finding Canaan. No living man can say he's fully found it--or he's damned; so for now, the process ensues.
The Mission
The life and character of Jesus stands apart so distinctly from the theology and nature of men that no argument can plausibly dismiss him. Indeed, "No one ever spoke the way this man does" (John 7:46).
The message of the Bible profoundly relates the God of creation to mankind, and, if studied deeply and openly, it creates faith. Faith comes from nowhere else (Romans 10:17).
Finding Canaan, therefore, is devoted to equipping the saints for the work of ministry, by means of expository Bible study, for the ultimate building up of Christ's church--until all have attained to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ (Ephesians 4:12-13).
While the Israelites were finding Canaan literally, Christians should be doing so spiritually. I don't intend to say that a Christian's faith should be uncertain and that promises in God are unsure; rather, we may know we have eternal life (1 John 5:13), and yet we do not yet consider it our own, so we press on toward Canaan's land (see Philippians 3:13-14).
Finding Canaan will progressively make available a host of theological resources to assist in this process. Resources include expository preaching recordings, exegetical Bible studies (Word Study), articles, poetry, and more.
The Author
My name is Daniel, and I'm an evangelist for the good news of Jesus in the Cayman Islands where I serve a Spirit-filled group of Christians, alongside my wife and son.
I have studied theology, art, and business (ranked by personal value to me), and my greatest passion is to preach the Bible. I rarely preach topical sermons, and I rarely preach under forty minutes. I believe the Bible is deeply profound, and since its riches cannot be fully absorbed, our task is to dive as deeply as our limited intellectual faculties permit.
I love Jesus more than I love anyone or anything. He is eternally holy and gracious. He is both my Creator and my best friend.
It is my prayer that this site and these resources will illuminate within you the beauty of Jesus, and that God would open your heart to the deep need for his preeminence in your life. Join me in finding Canaan!
Please email me at damayfield@gmail.com if you have any thoughts, comments, suggestions, or grievances. As I search about for Canaan, I'm aware of my imperfections and would sure like the guiding hand to set me straight if I were to wander off a cliff unknowingly.
Please use these resources as is fitting for the encouragement of Christ's church, only be respectful in that these resources have been privately developed and Finding Canaan holds all rights to them.
Daniel