Daily Manna (Coffee with Jesus)

“Now therefore fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness. Put away the gods that your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” Joshua 24:14-15, ESV

We make choices daily (even not deciding is deciding!) whether to listen to false testimonies, lies, gossip, and promotions of products that do not deliver on their promise to “transform our lives”, or to “stay away from him because he is evil, or “do not believe what she says because we do not like her”. We hear these voices from individuals and from the never-ending wealth of information that is easily obtained on our phones as we scroll as well as television, radio, and all other devices we have readily attached to us!

We all do it!  We allow ourselves to be bombarded with many voices who clamor for our attention.  But, this isn’t new to us, is it?  How can we combat and control all the voices?  We can’t but God can.  Jesus says to “seek God first…”.  Paul, the Apostle, tells us how:

“So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.” Romans 12:1-2, MSG

Here is the defined choice:  Media streams of information can inform us of what is good and is used to proclaim the redemption of the Lord but it is also used to distract us from God who loves us and wants His best for us.  God encourages us throughout His Word to love Him with all our hearts, minds, and souls.  God commanded his people then and now us to trust and obey Him “so that all will go well with us.” God knows us by name and knows exactly what we need at just the right time.  Trust Him.  Obey Him.

Deuteronomy 12

The One Place of Worship

These are the decrees and laws you must be careful to follow in the land that the Lord, the God of your ancestors, has given you to possess—as long as you live in the land. ² Destroy completely all the places on the high mountains, on the hills and under every spreading tree, where the nations you are dispossessing worship their gods. ³ Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones and burn their Asherah poles in the fire; cut down the idols of their gods and wipe out their names from those places.

⁴ You must not worship the Lord your God in their way. ⁵ But you are to seek the place the Lord your God will choose from among all your tribes to put his Name there for his dwelling. To that place you must go; ⁶ there bring your burnt offerings and sacrifices, your tithes and special gifts, what you have vowed to give and your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks. ⁷ There, in the presence of the Lord your God, you and your families shall eat and shall rejoice in everything you have put your hand to, because the Lord your God has blessed you.

⁸ You are not to do as we do here today, everyone doing as they see fit, ⁹ since you have not yet reached the resting place and the inheritance the Lord your God is giving you. ¹⁰ But you will cross the Jordan and settle in the land the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, and he will give you rest from all your enemies around you so that you will live in safety. ¹¹ Then to the place the Lord your God will choose as a dwelling for his Name—there you are to bring everything I command you: your burnt offerings and sacrifices, your tithes and special gifts, and all the choice possessions you have vowed to the Lord. ¹² And there rejoice before the Lord your God—you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, and the Levites from your towns who have no allotment or inheritance of their own. ¹³ Be careful not to sacrifice your burnt offerings anywhere you please. ¹⁴ Offer them only at the place the Lord will choose in one of your tribes, and there observe everything I command you.

¹⁵ Nevertheless, you may slaughter your animals in any of your towns and eat as much of the meat as you want, as if it were gazelle or deer, according to the blessing the Lord your God gives you. Both the ceremonially unclean and the clean may eat it. ¹⁶ But you must not eat the blood; pour it out on the ground like water. ¹⁷ You must not eat in your own towns the tithe of your grain and new wine and olive oil, or the firstborn of your herds and flocks, or whatever you have vowed to give, or your freewill offerings or special gifts. ¹⁸ Instead, you are to eat them in the presence of the Lord your God at the place the Lord your God will choose—you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, and the Levites from your towns—and you are to rejoice before the Lord your God in everything you put your hand to. ¹⁹ Be careful not to neglect the Levites as long as you live in your land.

²⁰ When the Lord your God has enlarged your territory as he promised you, and you crave meat and say, “I would like some meat,” then you may eat as much of it as you want. ²¹ If the place where the Lord your God chooses to put his Name is too far away from you, you may slaughter animals from the herds and flocks the Lord has given you, as I have commanded you, and in your own towns you may eat as much of them as you want. ²² Eat them as you would gazelle or deer. Both the ceremonially unclean and the clean may eat. ²³ But be sure you do not eat the blood, because the blood is the life, and you must not eat the life with the meat. ²⁴ You must not eat the blood; pour it out on the ground like water. ²⁵ Do not eat it, so that it may go well with you and your children after you, because you will be doing what is right in the eyes of the Lord.

²⁶ But take your consecrated things and whatever you have vowed to give, and go to the place the Lord will choose. ²⁷ Present your burnt offerings on the altar of the Lord your God, both the meat and the blood. The blood of your sacrifices must be poured beside the altar of the Lord your God, but you may eat the meat. ²⁸ Be careful to obey all these regulations I am giving you, so that it may always go well with you and your children after you, because you will be doing what is good and right in the eyes of the Lord your God.

²⁹ The Lord your God will cut off before you the nations you are about to invade and dispossess. But when you have driven them out and settled in their land, ³⁰ and after they have been destroyed before you, be careful not to be ensnared by inquiring about their gods, saying, “How do these nations serve their gods? We will do the same.” ³¹ You must not worship the Lord your God in their way, because in worshiping their gods, they do all kinds of detestable things the Lord hates. They even burn their sons and daughters in the fire as sacrifices to their gods.

³² See that you do all I command you; do not add to it or take away from it.

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

Moses pointed out that anything idolatrous remaining in the land was dangerous because it might become a tool for the devil to use in tempting Israel. Oh, dear friends, if only we could rid ourselves of all the tools of this world used to distract, deceive, and dismantle our faith in God, the Father, Jesus the One and Only who saved the world from sin by His shed blood, and in His Holy Spirit who guides us to all that is God—all that is Truth!  But then again, isn’t that up to us individually to decide what we allow to come into our thoughts and guide our behaviors?  Isn’t up to us to turn the media off when we know what they are saying is not pleasing to God or good for our growing, intimate relationship with God who we say we love with ALL our hearts, minds, and souls? God gave us the ability to choose between Him or His enemy. AND God helps us when we call on His Name!  There is no one like our God!

Joshua, who follows Moses in leadership, will proclaim to God’s Chosen People in the heat of battle against the enemies, “Choose this day whom you will serve.”  Joshua  follows up with this statement of resolve; “As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD!” (Joshua 24:14-15)

When faced with challenges in this life or doubts about something that doesn’t seem right in the eyes of God; we remember the decisive words of Joshua with our own declaration of our love and loyalty for God. Randy and I pause, pray, and have decided many times when challenges come into our lives to say out loud and in our hearts; “As for us and our house, the generations will know that we will love, trust, obey and serve God, the Father!”  All we are and all we have belongs to God who gave all He had for us so that we might live forever with Him.  We choose God!

What we think about most is what or who we worship.  What or who is occupying your mind right now?  Get rid of all that is not God in your mind.  Intentionally fix your full attention on God and listen to Him and watch a transformation within you take place!  This cannot happen if anything stands between us and God, blocking our view of God. In the plethora of voices, may we all stop, be still, let go of our devices and listen for God’s voice with readiness in our hearts to choose to follow what HE says today. God never fails. God always loves. God is faithful—even when we are not—God is faithsful.

Lord,

Thank you for allowing us to make the choice to follow you because we love you with all our hearts, minds, and souls.  Thank you for loving us first, teaching us through your Son how to love you back with the command to also love each other.  When your Love is our first thought, all goes well with our thinking.  I worship you. I trust you with my life for you are Life!

In Jesus Name, Amen

“What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off? And if he finds it, truly I tell you, he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off. In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should perish.” –Jesus, Matthew 18:12-14

Who is God?  God is our Creator, the One who enjoys pouring out His blessings of all that is good over us who come to Him.  God knows all for He created all.  God knows us by name and speaks to us when we call on His Name.  God knows exactly what we need when we need it.  In fact, God knows before we know what we need!  God’s timing for delivery is perfect because God is perfection in every way.

It is God’s nature to keep His promises to His created. No matter what we do, God will still keep His promise to be faithful to His created. “In the image of God” we are created. So, it is not the Father’s desire that we perish; it is His desire that we thrive in His Presence now and for eternity.  Since the Fall of Adam and Eve, His first humans created, turned from God to give in to God’s enemy’s persuasion to do evil; we are born to rebel against God until we surrender to God.  God gave us a choice to follow Him or to fall for evil.  God wants us to love Him back—by choice.

It is in humbled surrender in repentance of our rebellion to God, that we finally see God for Who He is—Redeemer, Provider, Protector, Healer, Sustainer, as well as our Father in Heaven.  We pray for His Kingdom to come and reign in us and all around us.  We pray for His will be done in every detail of our lives on earth as it is in heaven. We begin to see how God works as He demonstrates His glorious ways in our surrendered lives. 

Yes, our God, who so loved us, also promised Jesus, the Christ, the Messiah, His One and Only Son who would come down from heaven with the proclaimed purpose and mission to save us from our sins.  This is God. This is Who God is and want He does. God is love. To know God is to finally know real Love.  God demonstrates this love for us with amazing grace and ending mercy for us by sacrificing His Son on a cruel cross. God is faithful even when we are not.  God makes a way through all the messes we make with relentless love, mercy and grace.  God loves the world—all of us.

God forgave His people.  God gave Moses another chance to chisel two more tablets upon which God would rewrite the Ten Commandments.  Moses will make an ark, a chest, in which to place God’s commandments for His people. The chest that held the chiseled tablets went with them wherever they traveled as a reminder of God’s Presence, Promise, and Purpose so they would not forget who God is and what He expects from us, for our good and for His glory.  He is God. 

Deuteronomy 10

Tablets Like the First Ones

At that time the Lord said to me, “Chisel out two stone tablets like the first ones and come up to me on the mountain. Also make a wooden ark. ² I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke. Then you are to put them in the ark.”

³ So I made the ark out of acacia wood and chiseled out two stone tablets like the first ones, and I went up on the mountain with the two tablets in my hands. ⁴ The Lord wrote on these tablets what he had written before, the Ten Commandments he had proclaimed to you on the mountain, out of the fire, on the day of the assembly. And the Lord gave them to me. ⁵ Then I came back down the mountain and put the tablets in the ark I had made, as the Lord commanded me, and they are there now.

⁶ (The Israelites traveled from the wells of Bene Jaakan to Moserah. There Aaron died and was buried, and Eleazar his son succeeded him as priest. ⁷ From there they traveled to Gudgodah and on to Jotbathah, a land with streams of water. ⁸ At that time the Lord set apart the tribe of Levi to carry the ark of the covenant of the Lord, to stand before the Lord to minister and to pronounce blessings in his name, as they still do today. ⁹ That is why the Levites have no share or inheritance among their fellow Israelites; the Lord is their inheritance, as the Lord your God told them.)

¹⁰ Now I had stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights, as I did the first time, and the Lord listened to me at this time also. It was not his will to destroy you. ¹¹ “Go,” the Lord said to me, “and lead the people on their way, so that they may enter and possess the land I swore to their ancestors to give them.”

Fear the Lord

¹² And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God ask of you but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, ¹³ and to observe the Lord’s commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good?

¹⁴ To the Lord your God belong the heavens, even the highest heavens, the earth and everything in it. ¹⁵ Yet the Lord set his affection on your ancestors and loved them, and he chose you, their descendants, above all the nations—as it is today. ¹⁶ Circumcise your hearts, therefore, and do not be stiff-necked any longer. ¹⁷ For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes. ¹⁸ He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing. ¹⁹ And you are to love those who are foreigners, for you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt. ²⁰ Fear the Lord your God and serve him. Hold fast to him and take your oaths in his name. ²¹ He is the one you praise; he is your God, who performed for you those great and awesome wonders you saw with your own eyes. ²² Your ancestors who went down into Egypt were seventy in all, and now the Lord your God has made you as numerous as the stars in the sky.

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

God was, is and always will be God.  We cannot change this truth that He is God.  Here is another truth: we are not God.  We did not create ourselves or anything around us. God created all and is in all that we enjoy today. God created us in His own image. The term has its roots in Genesis 1:27, wherein “God created man in his own image. . .” This scriptural passage does not mean that God is in human form, but rather, that humans are in the image of God in their moral, spiritual, and intellectual nature.  It is God’s desire that we seek Him with our loving desire to be like Him.  Jesus demonstrated for us what this looks like when He came to earth to seek and to save the lost!

Fact for consideration: We become like the one we think about most.  We are influenced directly and indirectly by those we walk and talk with most often. Their habits and characteristics become our habitual way of thinking and behaving.  So, the question becomes; who do we most want to be like?

Moses loved God and did what God said—mostly. Moses was not perfect but he was surrendered to God.  Moses faithfully served God as the called leader God chose for His People—mostly.  We discover, however, that Moses was not only the leader but he began to develop the compassion trait of the God he served.  When God wanted to wipe His rebellious, “stiff-necked,” stubborn people off the face of the earth; Moses interceded on their behalf, asking God to forgive them.  Don’t miss this detail of God’s story!  The forty days and nights spent with God alone rubbed off on Moses!  Then later Moses spent another forty with God to learn more!

Nothing escapes God’s notice, but God is faithful and will always be faithful.  God forgave His people.  God provided two more written tablets.  God gave His People a second chance (and a million more) to make course corrections on their journey to the Promised Land.  This is God.

KNOW THIS: God knows you. God knows me.  God knows who we are before we know!

“You have searched me, Lord, and you know me.
You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar.
You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways.
Before a word is on my tongue you, Lord, know it completely.

You hem me in behind and before, and you lay your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain.

Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?
If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
If I rise on the wings of the dawn if I settle on the far side of the sea,even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.
If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,”
even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you.

For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.

How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them!
Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand—when I awake, I am still with you.

If only you, God, would slay the wicked! Away from me, you who are bloodthirsty!
They speak of you with evil intent; your adversaries misuse your name.Do I not hate those who hate you, Lord, and abhor those who are in rebellion against you?I have nothing but hatred for them; I count them my enemies.

Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.
See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.           Psalm 139, NIV

Where could I go but to the Lord?  He loves me.  He loves you.  He loves all He created.  God promised His best and gave us His Son, Jesus who is the only Way to Truth (God) who gives us eternal Life!  Jesus willingly and obediently became our sin and paid our debt in full.  Only God forgives and removes our sin completely. Jesus completed His mission. God did for us what we could not do for ourselves—set us free, redeeming us once and for all.

“The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead, he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” 2 Peter 3:9

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” John 3:16-17

“In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and understanding, he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment—to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ.

In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, in order that we, who were the first to put our hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory. And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory.”  Ephesians 1:7-14

Lord,

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

In Jesus Name, for our good and your glory, yes and amen!

Who am I, that the Lord of all the earth
Would care to know my name
Would care to feel my hurt
Who am I, that the Bright and Morning Star
Would choose to light the way
For my ever wandering heart

Not because of who I am
But because of what You’ve done
Not because of what I’ve done
But because of who You are

I am a flower quickly fading
Here today and gone tomorrow
A wave tossed in the ocean
Vapor in the wind
Still You hear me when I’m calling
Lord, You catch me when I’m falling
And You’ve told me who I am
I am Yours, I am Yours

Who am I, that the eyes that see my sin
Would look on me with love and watch me rise again
Who am I, that the voice that calmed the sea
Would call out through the rain
And calm the storm in me

Not because of who I am
But because of what You’ve done
Not because of what I’ve done
But because of who You are…

This beautiful song says it all by Casting Crowns! When we are doing well, it is not because of our righteousness but because of God’s gracious generosity and relentless love for us.  When we face troubles because our own sins or the sins of others; it is not our righteousness that brings us through it, it is because of God’s compassionate heart whose anger is only for a moment but His love lasts a lifetime; so He rescues us.  Rest in that thought.  It’s not about you or I; but all about God who love you, me and the rest of the world!

The Apostle Paul remembers the message of Deuteronomy written in Psalms and Ecclesiastes and will remind others; 

“As it is written: None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”  Romans 3:10:12

Deuteronomy 9

Not Because of Israel’s Righteousness

Hear, Israel: You are now about to cross the Jordan to go in and dispossess nations greater and stronger than you, with large cities that have walls up to the sky. ² The people are strong and tall—Anakites! You know about them and have heard it said: “Who can stand up against the Anakites?” ³ But be assured today that the Lord your God is the one who goes across ahead of you like a devouring fire. He will destroy them; he will subdue them before you. And you will drive them out and annihilate them quickly, as the Lord has promised you.

⁴ After the Lord your God has driven them out before you, do not say to yourself, “The Lord has brought me here to take possession of this land because of my righteousness.” No, it is on account of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is going to drive them out before you. ⁵ It is not because of your righteousness or your integrity that you are going in to take possession of their land; but on account of the wickedness of these nations, the Lord your God will drive them out before you, to accomplish what he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. ⁶ Understand, then, that it is not because of your righteousness that the Lord your God is giving you this good land to possess, for you are a stiff-necked people.

The Golden Calf

⁷ Remember this and never forget how you aroused the anger of the Lord your God in the wilderness. From the day you left Egypt until you arrived here, you have been rebellious against the Lord. ⁸ At Horeb you aroused the Lord’s wrath so that he was angry enough to destroy you. ⁹ When I went up on the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant that the Lord had made with you, I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights; I ate no bread and drank no water. ¹⁰ The Lord gave me two stone tablets inscribed by the finger of God. On them were all the commandments the Lord proclaimed to you on the mountain out of the fire, on the day of the assembly.

¹¹ At the end of the forty days and forty nights, the Lord gave me the two stone tablets, the tablets of the covenant. ¹² Then the Lord told me, “Go down from here at once, because your people whom you brought out of Egypt have become corrupt. They have turned away quickly from what I commanded them and have made an idol for themselves.”

¹³ And the Lord said to me, “I have seen this people, and they are a stiff-necked people indeed! ¹⁴ Let me alone, so that I may destroy them and blot out their name from under heaven. And I will make you into a nation stronger and more numerous than they.”

¹⁵ So I turned and went down from the mountain while it was ablaze with fire. And the two tablets of the covenant were in my hands. ¹⁶ When I looked, I saw that you had sinned against the Lord your God; you had made for yourselves an idol cast in the shape of a calf. You had turned aside quickly from the way that the Lord had commanded you. ¹⁷ So I took the two tablets and threw them out of my hands, breaking them to pieces before your eyes.

¹⁸ Then once again I fell prostrate before the Lord for forty days and forty nights; I ate no bread and drank no water, because of all the sin you had committed, doing what was evil in the Lord’s sight and so arousing his anger. ¹⁹ I feared the anger and wrath of the Lord, for he was angry enough with you to destroy you. But again the Lord listened to me. ²⁰ And the Lord was angry enough with Aaron to destroy him, but at that time I prayed for Aaron too. ²¹ Also I took that sinful thing of yours, the calf you had made, and burned it in the fire. Then I crushed it and ground it to powder as fine as dust and threw the dust into a stream that flowed down the mountain.

²² You also made the Lord angry at Taberah, at Massah and at Kibroth Hattaavah.

²³ And when the Lord sent you out from Kadesh Barnea, he said, “Go up and take possession of the land I have given you.” But you rebelled against the command of the Lord your God. You did not trust him or obey him. ²⁴ You have been rebellious against the Lord ever since I have known you.

²⁵ I lay prostrate before the Lord those forty days and forty nights because the Lord had said he would destroy you. ²⁶ I prayed to the Lord and said, “Sovereign Lord, do not destroy your people, your own inheritance that you redeemed by your great power and brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand. ²⁷ Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Overlook the stubbornness of this people, their wickedness and their sin. ²⁸ Otherwise, the country from which you brought us will say, ‘Because the Lord was not able to take them into the land he had promised them, and because he hated them, he brought them out to put them to death in the wilderness.’ ²⁹ But they are your people, your inheritance that you brought out by your great power and your outstretched arm.”

Chapter 10:1-2

At that time the Lord said to me, “Chisel out two stone tablets like the first ones and come up to me on the mountain. Also make a wooden ark. I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke. Then you are to put them in the ark.”

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

If no one is good or can be good, do we give up trying to be good?  NO!  We must look to God who is good—the one and only God who allows the character trait of HIS goodness to flow through us by the power of His Holy Spirit when we believe in and follow His Son, Jesus!  It is only by God’s grace that we see good for what it is—God in us.

“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” –Paul, Ephesians 2:8-10

Jesus uses the question of a rich young ruler for another teachable moment to explain the goodness of God…

“As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. “Good teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

“Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone. You know the commandments: ‘You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, you shall not defraud, honor your father and mother.”

“Teacher,” he declared, “all these I have kept since I was a boy.”

Jesus looked at him and loved him. “One thing you lack,” he said. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”

At this the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth.

Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!”

The disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said again, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”

The disciples were even more amazed, and said to each other, “Who then can be saved?”

Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.”

Then Peter spoke up, “We have left everything to follow you!”

“Truly I tell you,” Jesus replied, “no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age: homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields—along with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”  Mark 10:17-29

It’s all about God.  It’s not about me.  It’s not about who I am but who God is and what He did for me and the rest of the world who believes.  Believe and be saved.           

Lord,

I’m yours. Thank you for saving my soul and making me whole. Thank you for carrying the burden of righteousness for me.  Only you are good so I look to you for all that is good for me by your grace. Cleanse my heart, renew my mind, refresh my soul with your new mercies, and restore the joy of your salvation at work within me daily.  And I will sing all day long, “Not because of who I am; But because of what You’ve done” for you are good.  You are all I need.  To you be the glory, honor, and praise!

In Jesus Name, Amen

Don’t forget your jacket!  Don’t forget your backpack! Did you get your lunch?  Did you put those papers I signed into your backpack?  Don’t forget to take them out and give to the teacher!  Be safe!  Watch out for the mud puddles! Please walk around them not through them!  Be kind when you get on the bus!  Be careful!  Help your brother and sister!  Have great day at school!  Listen to the teacher!  I love you!!  See you later!

These are just a few of the last minute instructions we say as loving parents to our children as they grow from toddlers to adolescents. The words change as they go off to college or a new job and as they marry and form their own families; but the love behind the words only grows stronger!  We love them dearly and care enough to help them. This is discipline.

Be safe and don’t forget I love you!  We teach our children and their children the discipline that God teaches us which is built on an unwavering foundation of the love God has for us.  All the commands of God are built on this rock-solid foundation of His love for us. In fact, God so loved us He sent His Son to save us from ourselves and the evil behind our sins of not following in His ways that will do consequential harm to us.  Jesus brought us out of the bondage of sin once and for all—don’t forget!  There is nothing we can do to change who God is and what He has done for us.  His love never changes.  He is faithful to us even when we are not faithful to Him.  There is no one like our God!

As a public school teacher, I have seen the results of kids whose parents did not care enough to ask these loving questions of carer that led to a disciplined life in their development.  They did not follow up with meeting the real needs of their kids which provided security.  Some parents were still kids themselves as they were not lovingly disciplined either.  The lack of a disciplined life showed in their behaviors which broke my heart—and breaks the heart of God.

Uncared for kids are insecure which instilled deep fear.  Fear is displayed in a student in many ways.  Fear can drive some kids to hide in a corner and shy away from others.  Some will act out and act tough from fear.  They will attempt to take control of all situations before what they feel takes control of them.  But what God’s Word teaches me as a parent, teacher, and follower of Jesus is this: “Love drives out all fear.” 

Our loving Father God tells Moses to tell God’s people: Don’t forget who loves you most and cares enough to discipline you in a way of life that demonstrates my love for you and through you to each other— “so all will go well with you!”  A disciplined life is a life of preparation for what God wants to do in and through us for our good and His glory!  It is a life of knowing God will meet our every need through all circumstance and will always be with us.  It is realizing that God knows our hearts.  It is also knowing that God wants us to know His heart!  The more we know the heart of God the more we become like Him as we bear His image to a broken world.

Therefore, don’t forget—love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your mind, and all your soul!  His love in our hearts will be displayed in our behaviors. Our real love for God is demonstrated in our obedience to Him.  Live a discipline life of seeking the Father!

Deuteronomy 8

Do Not Forget the Lord

Be careful to follow every command I am giving you today, so that you may live and increase and may enter and possess the land the Lord promised on oath to your ancestors. ² Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the wilderness these forty years, to humble and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. ³ He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. ⁴ Your clothes did not wear out and your feet did not swell during these forty years. ⁵ Know then in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so the Lord your God disciplines you.

⁶ Observe the commands of the Lord your God, walking in obedience to him and revering him. ⁷ For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land—a land with brooks, streams, and deep springs gushing out into the valleys and hills; ⁸ a land with wheat and barley, vines and fig trees, pomegranates, olive oil and honey; ⁹ a land where bread will not be scarce and you will lack nothing; a land where the rocks are iron and you can dig copper out of the hills.

¹⁰ When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the Lord your God for the good land he has given you. ¹¹ Be careful that you do not forget the Lord your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day. ¹² Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, ¹³ and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, ¹⁴ then your heart will become proud and you will forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. 

¹⁵ He led you through the vast and dreadful wilderness, that thirsty and waterless land, with its venomous snakes and scorpions. He brought you water out of hard rock. ¹⁶ He gave you manna to eat in the wilderness, something your ancestors had never known, to humble and test you so that in the end it might go well with you. ¹⁷ You may say to yourself, “My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.” ¹⁸ But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your ancestors, as it is today.

¹⁹ If you ever forget the Lord your God and follow other gods and worship and bow down to them, I testify against you today that you will surely be destroyed. ²⁰ Like the nations the Lord destroyed before you, so you will be destroyed for not obeying the Lord your God.

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

From experience, seeking God and His wisdom far outweighs my own foolish attempts at doing life on my own.  If I want to live a life of significance, substance, and real meaning—I must begin each day with the discipline of seeking God first before doing anything else.  I’ve tried skipping this discipline and it does not go well with me!

God desires to be with us in all the details of life!  God wants to help us through good times and challenging times that test our faith in Him.  God’s love is not as much about punishment as it is about the discipline of willing, loving, surrendered obedience to Him for our own good which gives Him glory!  God even delights in singing over us when we sleep with songs of rejoicing! Who wants God’s song in the night?  I do!

“The Lord directs the steps of the godly. He delights in every detail of their lives.” Psalm 37:23

“For the Lord your God is living among you. He is a mighty savior.
He will take delight in you with gladness. With his love, he will calm all your fears. He will rejoice over you with joyful songs.” Zephaniah 3:17

“Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced his perfect love.” 1 John 4:18

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” John 3:16-17

This relentless love of God is for ALL who believe, love Him back, and follow Him.  Jesus demonstrated God’s love before, during and after His work on the cross to redeem us.  We love Him because He first loved us.  We love the Father who disciplines us by His love—The One and Only who rescued us, met our real need for Him in all kinds of ways, and cares for us daily.

Peter, the Rock upon whom Jesus built His church, the same Peter who had faith lessons to learn, teaches us what Jesus taught Him as He disciplined and prepared Peter for a life of yielding to God the Father.  Here are Peter’s words as given to him by God’s Holy Spirit who led him…

“In the same way, you who are younger, submit yourselves to your elders. All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because,

‘God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.’

Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.

Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings.

And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. To him be the power for ever and ever. Amen.” 1 Peter 5:5-11, NIV

All for our good and His glory!  May we never forget what Jesus did for us so we could come boldly to God, our Father.

Lord,

Thank you for all you are and all you have provided, are providing and will always provide so that we may know you more each day.  Thank you for teaching us how to follow in ways that help us see your glory at work daily. Thank you for being in all the details of our lives.  Thank you for your complete forgiveness of our sins that cleanse our hearts. Thank you for renewing our minds with your higher way of thinking. Thank you for transform our behaviors as we humbly surrender to your disciplines of living life well. Thank you for your wisdom. Thank you for your passionate understanding and loving, ever-faithful kindness to us. Thank you for always being with us and never letting go of us.  Thank you for loving us the way you do.  I’m yours. By your power living in me, help me to love like you love us.

In Jesus Name, Amen

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”—Jesus, John 14:15

When we begin a relationship with someone we love and adore; we begin to change.  We begin to move farther away from pleasing ourselves and taking care of our own interests and needs with an attitude shift toward to object of our affection.  We shift our thinking from pleasing ourselves to pleasing the one we think about all day long.  We want to see this person smile.  We will do most anything and give everything we have so this one will love us back. We even do silly things just to get their attention.  We will sacrifice whatever we have so we can give gifts of love to this person that we love. When they return our love with the same attitude shift in their lives, “it is a match made in heaven”!

But, if this person betrays us in any way, we are deeply wounded and disheartened.  We wonder if our love can survive this blow to our relationship.  We wonder if our love can sustain all the things they now put in the way, blocking the awesomeness of our relationship. We are jealous of all others because our love for this person is so great.  We want the best for them but we want to be the one who is the best for them.  And we are sad.

God is a jealous God for our love, adoration, and attention.  Why, we might ask?  Can God not handle our love for other things that grab our attention and draw us away from Him?  Can’t God share us with other gods that attract and distract us from Him?  And the greater question; does His love for us change if we are unfaithful to Him?  Oh my yes, this is worth going deeper still to evaluate our love for our God and His love for us.  We must go beyond our human thinking to how God might think.

Throughout God’s Word; God answers these questions simply and profoundly.  Our relationship with God is the most important relationship we will ever have because this relationship is forever.  The love of God is like no other on earth! God first loved us and chose us to be His. The prophets say God sings over us at night and delights in all the details of our days. God promised a Messiah to the Jewish nation and to the rest of the world centuries earlier and then delivered on His promise beyond what the Jews could ever dream or hope for from God.  God sent His Son to sacrifice his life for ours; a once and for all sacrifice, for the sins of the entire world!  God sends His best all because of His great Love for us.  God wants us to love Him back and He sent Jesus to show us how to love.

God is a jealous God but not for the reasons humans are jealous.  God wants the very best for those He has created and loves.  God is jealous and saddened for us when anything gets in the way of pouring out His blessings of His best over us for our good and His glory.  Yes, God wants us to simply love Him back with all our hearts, all our minds, and all our souls.  For God is our God.  “Know therefore that the Lord your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commandments.” 

Deuteronomy 7

Driving Out the Nations

When the Lord your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess and drives out before you many nations—the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites, seven nations larger and stronger than you— ² and when the Lord your God has delivered them over to you and you have defeated them, then you must destroy them totally. Make no treaty with them, and show them no mercy. ³ Do not intermarry with them. Do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons, ⁴ for they will turn your children away from following me to serve other gods, and the Lord’s anger will burn against you and will quickly destroy you. ⁵ This is what you are to do to them: Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones, cut down their Asherah poles and burn their idols in the fire. ⁶ For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession.

⁷ The Lord did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. ⁸ But it was because the Lord loved you and kept the oath he swore to your ancestors that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt. ⁹ Know therefore that the Lord your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commandments. ¹⁰ But

those who hate him he will repay to their face by destruction;
    he will not be slow to repay to their face those who hate him.

¹¹ Therefore, take care to follow the commands, decrees and laws I give you today.

¹² If you pay attention to these laws and are careful to follow them, then the Lord your God will keep his covenant of love with you, as he swore to your ancestors. ¹³ He will love you and bless you and increase your numbers. He will bless the fruit of your womb, the crops of your land—your grain, new wine and olive oil—the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks in the land he swore to your ancestors to give you. ¹⁴ You will be blessed more than any other people; none of your men or women will be childless, nor will any of your livestock be without young. ¹⁵ The Lord will keep you free from every disease. He will not inflict on you the horrible diseases you knew in Egypt, but he will inflict them on all who hate you. ¹⁶ You must destroy all the peoples the Lord your God gives over to you. Do not look on them with pity and do not serve their gods, for that will be a snare to you.

¹⁷ You may say to yourselves, “These nations are stronger than we are. How can we drive them out?” ¹⁸ But do not be afraid of them; remember well what the Lord your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt. ¹⁹ You saw with your own eyes the great trials, the signs and wonders, the mighty hand and outstretched arm, with which the Lord your God brought you out. The Lord your God will do the same to all the peoples you now fear. ²⁰ Moreover, the Lord your God will send the hornet among them until even the survivors who hide from you have perished. ²¹ Do not be terrified by them, for the Lord your God, who is among you, is a great and awesome God. ²² The Lord your God will drive out those nations before you, little by little. You will not be allowed to eliminate them all at once, or the wild animals will multiply around you. ²³ But the Lord your God will deliver them over to you, throwing them into great confusion until they are destroyed. ²⁴ He will give their kings into your hand, and you will wipe out their names from under heaven. No one will be able to stand up against you; you will destroy them. ²⁵ The images of their gods you are to burn in the fire. Do not covet the silver and gold on them, and do not take it for yourselves, or you will be ensnared by it, for it is detestable to the Lord your God. ²⁶ Do not bring a detestable thing into your house or you, like it, will be set apart for destruction. Regard it as vile and utterly detest it, for it is set apart for destruction.

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

Warren Wiersbe writes;

Most Christians today live in pluralistic societies in democratic nations and don’t have the authority to annihilate everybody who worships a false God, nor should they want that authority. Our task is to love those we disagree with and seek to win them to faith in Christ. But at the same time, we must maintain a separated position and not be contaminated by the ideas or activities of the lost world.  “Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers”… Psalm 1:1

However, separation is not isolation! If believers are isolated, how can they be “the salt of the earth” and “the light of the world” (Matthew 5:13, 14) like Jesus taught believers who followed Him?  How can we influence others for the Lord? Believers can be separated from sin with the Helper God sent to us—His Holy Spirit who has power to help us overcome. Guided by the Holy Spirit who leads us to all truth we involve ourselves in the normal challenges and activities of human life.  With God’s Holy Spirit helping us our relationship with God grows deeper and stronger.  With God’s Holy Spirit we grow in our faith, hope, and love.  By His Spirit living in us, we love for others grow and will begin to bear the fruits of the character of Christ!  Those fruits include: love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. (Galatians 5:22-23)

As we grow in grace, because of His Grace, we learn to love and enjoy what pleases God.  We also learn to despise and reject what displeases Him. It’s not just a matter of our will obeying God’s commands; it’s also a matter of developing a heart that enjoys obeying God (Ephesians 6:6).

We must pause, reflect, and prayerfully evaluate our hearts and ask; “Why are we doing what we’re doing?” (Instead of often asking God why is He doing what He does!) 

Are we doing things that please ourselves or others, or to impress the world?

Are we doing the will of God because we want Him to bless us?

Or do we do “the will of God from the heart” (Ephesians 6:6)—because we love Him? To obey God just to avoid punishment and receive blessing is a selfish motive that follows the philosophy of Satan (Job 1–2), but if we obey God out of love, it pleases His heart and He will give us what is best and what glorifies Him the most.

Like Israel of old, the church today must move forward by faith, conquer the enemy, and claim new territory for the Lord (2 Cor. 2:14–17; Eph. 6:10–18). But unlike Israel, we use spiritual weapons, not human weapons, as by faith we overcome the walls of resistance that Satan has put into the minds of sinners—and all have sinned! 

“While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”  We must allow this thought to humble us daily as we seek God daily.  Jesus, the Christ, was sent by God who loved us so much He sent His Son to save us—all our sins—forever.  Jesus willingly laid his life down on a cross we deserved and be nailed to that cross to pay for our sins—yours, mine, and for the whole world of people, created in God’s image, to be redeemed from the world of sin to God’s world of righteousness and goodness!  When I think of this truth alone; I am brought to my knees in grateful thanksgiving!

Believe, repent, and be saved for eternity!  Then tell everyone that God is the one and only God and He loves them!  So much so, He sent His Son to save and help them!

Lord,

Thank you for your Word that teaches, corrects, and compels us to tell Your Story of Your glory, love, mercy, grace, assurance, repentance, comfort, help in times of trouble, comfort in times of grief, along with your perfect wisdom to live this life in ways that please you as we love you back with our very lives given to you!

In Jesus Name, Amen, Yes!

This is my story, this is my song
Praising my Savior all the day long
This is my story, this is my song
Praising my Savior all the day long

“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”Jesus replied: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” –Jesus, Matthew 22:36-40

Love God.  Love Each Other.

Deuteronomy 6

Love the Lord Your God

These are the commands, decrees and laws the Lord your God directed me to teach you to observe in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess, ² so that you, your children and their children after them may fear the Lord your God as long as you live by keeping all his decrees and commands that I give you, and so that you may enjoy long life. ³ Hear, Israel, and be careful to obey so that it may go well with you and that you may increase greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, just as the Lord, the God of your ancestors, promised you.

⁴ Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. ⁵ Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. ⁶ These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. ⁷ Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. ⁸ Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. ⁹ Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.

¹⁰ When the Lord your God brings you into the land he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to give you—a land with large, flourishing cities you did not build, ¹¹ houses filled with all kinds of good things you did not provide, wells you did not dig, and vineyards and olive groves you did not plant—then when you eat and are satisfied, ¹² be careful that you do not forget the Lord, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.

¹³ Fear the Lord your God, serve him only and take your oaths in his name. ¹⁴ Do not follow other gods, the gods of the peoples around you; ¹⁵ for the Lord your God, who is among you, is a jealous God and his anger will burn against you, and he will destroy you from the face of the land. ¹⁶ Do not put the Lord your God to the test as you did at Massah. ¹⁷ Be sure to keep the commands of the Lord your God and the stipulations and decrees he has given you. ¹⁸ Do what is right and good in the Lord’s sight, so that it may go well with you and you may go in and take over the good land the Lord promised on oath to your ancestors, ¹⁹ thrusting out all your enemies before you, as the Lord said.

²⁰ In the future, when your son asks you, “What is the meaning of the stipulations, decrees and laws the Lord our God has commanded you?” ²¹ tell him: “We were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt, but the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. ²² Before our eyes the Lord sent signs and wonders—great and terrible—on Egypt and Pharaoh and his whole household. ²³ But he brought us out from there to bring us in and give us the land he promised on oath to our ancestors. ²⁴ The Lord commanded us to obey all these decrees and to fear the Lord our God, so that we might always prosper and be kept alive, as is the case today. ²⁵ And if we are careful to obey all this law before the Lord our God, as he has commanded us, that will be our righteousness.”

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

Jesus, Son of God, became the human Son of Man who felt all that we feel as humans from the inside out and outside in. But the difference between Jesus and humans was He was without sin. He was the perfect, without the blemishes of sin and the foolishness of unrighteous behaviors to mar His character.  Jesus was the one and only who could become the Lamb of sacrifice once and for all for our sins. God loved the world, so He provided The Lamb to save the world.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” John 3:16-17

Jesus, Son of God, demonstrated the Love of God before, during, and after the Sacrifice to save us when He moved into the neighborhood of humanity!

What kind of love is this? John, Jesus beloved disciple, explains:

“Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. ¹² No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

God’s love is so great His Holy Spirit was sent to live IN us!  “This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.” 1 John 4:13-16

“God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.” 1 John 4:16

This is God’s story that becomes our story to tell our children to tell their children, and their children…

Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine
O what a foretaste of glory divine
Heir of salvation, purchase of God
Born of His Spirit, washed in His blood

Perfect submission, all is at rest
I in my Savior am happy and blessed
Watching and waiting, looking above
Filled with His goodness, lost in His love

God gives us a blessed assurance with confidence to love!  “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your mind, and all your soul, Moses teaches the Israelites to teach their children.  Jesus made God’s love complete by His Sacrifice for us. We who believe, confess, repent, and follow Him whole heartedly are assured of His love forever! 

“This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.  We love because he first loved us. Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.” 1 John 4:17-21

This is my story, this is my song
Praising my Savior all the day long
This is my story, this is my song
Praising my Savior all the day long

Oh what a Savior, wonderful Jesus
Oh what a Savior, wonderful Jesus

Death could not hold You, You are victorious
Praise to the risen King
Death could not hold You, You are victorious
Praise to the risen King!

Oh what a Savior, wonderful Jesus
Oh what a Savior, wonderful Jesus
Oh what a Savior, wonderful Jesus
Oh what a Savior!

(Elevation Worship; Songwriters: Fannie Crosby; Don Wyrtzen)

Lord,

There are not enough words invented to thank you and praise you for saving our souls all because of your completely enormous, relentless, undeniable, gracious love for us.  Help us, by Your Holy Spirit living in us, to love others like you love us.  I love you, Lord, with all that is in me!

In Jesus Name, Amen

Live well and prosper sounds like something Dr. Spock would say, right? But Dr. Spock’s exact words were, “live long and prosper.” The Vulcan “salute” was devised by Leonard Nimoy, the actor who portrayed the half Vulcan character Mr. Spock on the original Star Trek television series. A 1968 New York Times interview described the gesture as a “double-fingered version of Churchill’s victory sign”. Nimoy said in that interview that he “decided that the Vulcans were a “hand-oriented” people”.

The greeting first appeared in 1967 on the Star Trek second-season opening episode, “Amok Time”. In his 1975 autobiography I Am Not Spock, Nimoy, who was Jewish, wrote that he based it on the priestly blessing performed by Jewish Kohanim with both hands, thumb to thumb in this same position, representing the Hebrew letter Shin (ש in Square Script, or Paleo Hebrew‎), which has three upward strokes similar to the position of the thumb and fingers in the gesture. The letter Shin here stands for El Shaddai, meaning “Almighty (God)”, as well as for Shekhinah and Shalom. Nimoy wrote that when he was a child, his grandfather took him to an Orthodox synagogue, where he saw the blessing performed and was impressed by it.

So, it began with Almighty God!  All blessings have their beginning with God for God is the Creator of all. All that is created began with God.  Even you and I! So, it stands; whatever God says, we will do, for He knows what is best for us.  If we trust and obey, love and worship our God, our lives will be less stressful and worrisome when obstacles and troubles sidetrack us as we live in an imperfect world marred by sin.  We will “live well (and long) and prosper, when we follow the commands of God who will help us. Our favorite promise of God delivered by the prophet Jeremiah later to God’s people is still true for us today;

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”  Jeremiah 29:11

These words of encouragement were delivered to a troubled people who had not obeyed God.  Jeremiah spoke God’s word over them to remind them that following God’s commands with committed hearts for God would allow them to live well and prosper.

It is the 40th year of the exodus from Egypt. Many Israelites had died since God gave the commandments at Mount Sinai. God held the entire nation responsible for obeying the commandments. God longs for his people to abide by his stipulations, so that all will be well with them and the generations that follow them. It pleases him when his people profess willingness to obey his commandments, but he knows their hearts will lead them to disobey.  It seems that God must reminds us daily to trust and obey for that is the way to live long, live well, and prosper in his love, mercy, and grace—with His love being the greatest gift of all!

Deuteronomy 5

The Ten Commandments

Moses summoned all Israel and said:

Hear, Israel, the decrees and laws I declare in your hearing today. Learn them and be sure to follow them. ² The Lord our God made a covenant with us at Horeb. ³ It was not with our ancestors that the Lord made this covenant, but with us, with all of us who are alive here today. ⁴ The Lord spoke to you face to face out of the fire on the mountain. ⁵ (At that time I stood between the Lord and you to declare to you the word of the Lord, because you were afraid of the fire and did not go up the mountain.) And he said:

⁶ “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.

⁷ “You shall have no other gods before me.

⁸ “You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. ⁹ You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, ¹⁰ but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.

¹¹ “You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.

¹² “Observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy, as the Lord your God has commanded you. ¹³ Six days you shall labor and do all your work, ¹⁴ but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your ox, your donkey or any of your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns, so that your male and female servants may rest, as you do. ¹⁵ Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the Lord your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the Lord your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day.

¹⁶ “Honor your father and your mother, as the Lord your God has commanded you, so that you may live long and that it may go well with you in the land the Lord your God is giving you.

¹⁷ “You shall not murder.

¹⁸ “You shall not commit adultery.

¹⁹ “You shall not steal.

²⁰ “You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.

²¹ “You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife. You shall not set your desire on your neighbor’s house or land, his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”

²² These are the commandments the Lord proclaimed in a loud voice to your whole assembly there on the mountain from out of the fire, the cloud and the deep darkness; and he added nothing more. Then he wrote them on two stone tablets and gave them to me.

²³ When you heard the voice out of the darkness, while the mountain was ablaze with fire, all the leaders of your tribes and your elders came to me. ²⁴ And you said, “The Lord our God has shown us his glory and his majesty, and we have heard his voice from the fire. Today we have seen that a person can live even if God speaks with them. ²⁵ But now, why should we die? This great fire will consume us, and we will die if we hear the voice of the Lord our God any longer. ²⁶ For what mortal has ever heard the voice of the living God speaking out of fire, as we have, and survived? ²⁷ Go near and listen to all that the Lord our God says. Then tell us whatever the Lord our God tells you. We will listen and obey.”

²⁸ The Lord heard you when you spoke to me, and the Lord said to me, “I have heard what this people said to you. Everything they said was good. ²⁹ Oh, that their hearts would be inclined to fear me and keep all my commands always, so that it might go well with them and their children forever!

³⁰ “Go, tell them to return to their tents. ³¹ But you stay here with me so that I may give you all the commands, decrees and laws you are to teach them to follow in the land I am giving them to possess.”

³² So be careful to do what the Lord your God has commanded you; do not turn aside to the right or to the left. ³³ Walk in obedience to all that the Lord your God has commanded you, so that you may live and prosper and prolong your days in the land that you will possess.

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

Jesus spent days on a mountain teaching thousands of people the true intent of God’s Laws centuries later.  Jesus would demonstrate how to obey God’s commandments as he walked the earth.  Jesus then, at the just the right time, demonstrated God’s love for us by willing laying down His life for ours so that our sins would be paid in full, to be remembered no more.

There is no one like our God!  Why trust in anyone or anything else?  I do not know.

If we truly want to give unto God a portion of all He has given to us—trust Him because we love Him.  Obey God’s commands because we love Him. Before leaving earth to ascend back into heaven Jesus told his followers;

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. –Jesus, John 14:15-17, ESV

God knew we would need Help and so He gave us His Holy Spirit to lead us to all Truth.  His Holy Spirit points the way to God’s wisdom, correcting our thinking, while transforming our behaviors. The Holy Spirit lives in all who believe in Jesus.  The Holy Spirit gives us power from God, the SAME power that rose Jesus from death to life, to trust and obey—so we can live well and prosper!  Trust and obey, for there’s no other way….

Lord,

Thank you for saving our souls and making us whole by redeeming us from our sins! Thank you for an intimate relationship with you that enables the power of your Holy Presence to come and dwell within our being, guiding us to truth, and then helping us to obey with power from you!  We don’t deserve all you give to us; but as for me I will be eternally grateful to you! May we live well and prosper today in your love, mercy, and grace so others will know!

In Jesus Name, Amen

The Lord bless you and keep you
Make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you
The Lord turn His face toward you
And give you peace

Amen, amen, amen
Amen, amen, amen

(The Blessing, Songwriters: Chris Brown / Steven Furtick / Cody Carnes / Kari Brooke Jobe, Elevation Worship)

Who we trust most depends on who we adore with a desire to obey.  Who we adore, think about, and depend on most births a pure loving relationship because of the habitual character traits of trust, love and faithfulness. We are drawn to people who possess these traits.  We are assured of them as we witness these traits displayed in their behaviors.  Because of their love expressed for us we instinctively look for ways to make them smile to honor that person or persons in our lives.  Trust builds faith. Betrayal shatters relationships to the core. 

Ah, but people are not perfect—we are not perfect.  God knows that about us.  God also forgives. Forgiveness is a habitual characteristic of God. God demonstrates complete forgiveness and expects us to forgive, too.  We must develop this kind of unconditional forgiveness and obediently display it our behaviors because God has delivered forgiveness to us—mainly Jesus. God did through Jesus what we cannot do for ourselves—forgive and remove our sins forever.

In fact, there is nothing we do that will prevent God from forgiving a sincere, repentant person seeking His forgiveness. That’s who God is and it is one of traits we love about God! We love God and want to do what He says because He first loved and forgave us.  We forgive others as an act of obedience to God for our good and His glory!  It is our adoration, awe, and love that grows our relationship with God.

One of the most striking examples of this obedience principle is found in 1 Samuel, where the prophet Samuel declares to King Saul: “Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the Lord? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams.”  King Saul lost his way in the world.  His arrogance led him to think he was God.  He believed that he could do what he wanted and then sacrifice a few animals to settle things with God.  Yikes.  This way of life is not only dangerous it’s poor theology as it is not the intent of God. God knows our hearts and knows our motivations in obedience and in sacrifice.

Jesus, Son of God, came to earth and expands the obedience because we love principle:  “Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to them; then come and offer your gift.” –Jesus, Matthew 5:23-24  Yes, indeed, to obey is better than sacrifice.  Love and forgive.  Trust and obey.  Jesus demonstrated the character of God in this way, “while we were yet sinners, He died for us.” 

Now, after forty years of wandering in the desert, Moses carried out God’s instructions to teach the people and prepare them to enter the promised land.  Their obedience to God will be for their good and declare the glory of God who leads them through all circumstances of life—a life with a future that God already knows and has prepared—if only they will love, trust, and obey—for there’s really no other way to be at peace!

May His favor be upon you
And a thousand generations
And your family and your children
And their children, and their children

May His presence go before you
And behind you, and beside you
All around you, and within you
He is with you, he is with you

Deuteronomy 4

Obedience Commanded

Now, Israel, hear the decrees and laws I am about to teach you. Follow them so that you may live and may go in and take possession of the land the Lord, the God of your ancestors, is giving you. ² Do not add to what I command you and do not subtract from it, but keep the commands of the Lord your God that I give you.

³ You saw with your own eyes what the Lord did at Baal Peor. The Lord your God destroyed from among you everyone who followed the Baal of Peor, ⁴ but all of you who held fast to the Lord your God are still alive today.

⁵ See, I have taught you decrees and laws as the Lord my God commanded me, so that you may follow them in the land you are entering to take possession of it. ⁶ Observe them carefully, for this will show your wisdom and understanding to the nations, who will hear about all these decrees and say, “Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.” ⁷ What other nation is so great as to have their gods near them the way the Lord our God is near us whenever we pray to him? ⁸ And what other nation is so great as to have such righteous decrees and laws as this body of laws I am setting before you today?

⁹ Only be careful, and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them fade from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and to their children after them. ¹⁰ Remember the day you stood before the Lord your God at Horeb, when he said to me, “Assemble the people before me to hear my words so that they may learn to revere me as long as they live in the land and may teach them to their children.” ¹¹ You came near and stood at the foot of the mountain while it blazed with fire to the very heavens, with black clouds and deep darkness. ¹² Then the Lord spoke to you out of the fire. You heard the sound of words but saw no form; there was only a voice. ¹³ He declared to you his covenant, the Ten Commandments, which he commanded you to follow and then wrote them on two stone tablets. ¹⁴ And the Lord directed me at that time to teach you the decrees and laws you are to follow in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess.

Idolatry Forbidden

¹⁵ You saw no form of any kind the day the Lord spoke to you at Horeb out of the fire. Therefore watch yourselves very carefully, ¹⁶ so that you do not become corrupt and make for yourselves an idol, an image of any shape, whether formed like a man or a woman, ¹⁷ or like any animal on earth or any bird that flies in the air, ¹⁸ or like any creature that moves along the ground or any fish in the waters below. ¹⁹ And when you look up to the sky and see the sun, the moon and the stars—all the heavenly array—do not be enticed into bowing down to them and worshiping things the Lord your God has apportioned to all the nations under heaven. ²⁰ But as for you, the Lord took you and brought you out of the iron-smelting furnace, out of Egypt, to be the people of his inheritance, as you now are.

²¹ The Lord was angry with me because of you, and he solemnly swore that I would not cross the Jordan and enter the good land the Lord your God is giving you as your inheritance. ²² I will die in this land; I will not cross the Jordan; but you are about to cross over and take possession of that good land. ²³ Be careful not to forget the covenant of the Lord your God that he made with you; do not make for yourselves an idol in the form of anything the Lord your God has forbidden. ²⁴ For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.

²⁵ After you have had children and grandchildren and have lived in the land a long time—if you then become corrupt and make any kind of idol, doing evil in the eyes of the Lord your God and arousing his anger, ²⁶ I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you this day that you will quickly perish from the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess. You will not live there long but will certainly be destroyed. ²⁷ The Lord will scatter you among the peoples, and only a few of you will survive among the nations to which the Lord will drive you. ²⁸ There you will worship man-made gods of wood and stone, which cannot see or hear or eat or smell. ²⁹ But if from there you seek the Lord your God, you will find him if you seek him with all your heart and with all your soul. ³⁰ When you are in distress and all these things have happened to you, then in later days you will return to the Lord your God and obey him. ³¹ For the Lord your God is a merciful God; he will not abandon or destroy you or forget the covenant with your ancestors, which he confirmed to them by oath.

The Lord Is God

³² Ask now about the former days, long before your time, from the day God created human beings on the earth; ask from one end of the heavens to the other. Has anything so great as this ever happened, or has anything like it ever been heard of? ³³ Has any other people heard the voice of God speaking out of fire, as you have, and lived? ³⁴ Has any god ever tried to take for himself one nation out of another nation, by testings, by signs and wonders, by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, or by great and awesome deeds, like all the things the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your very eyes?

³⁵ You were shown these things so that you might know that the Lord is God; besides him there is no other. ³⁶ From heaven he made you hear his voice to discipline you. On earth he showed you his great fire, and you heard his words from out of the fire. ³⁷ Because he loved your ancestors and chose their descendants after them, he brought you out of Egypt by his Presence and his great strength, ³⁸ to drive out before you nations greater and stronger than you and to bring you into their land to give it to you for your inheritance, as it is today.

³⁹ Acknowledge and take to heart this day that the Lord is God in heaven above and on the earth below. There is no other. ⁴⁰ Keep his decrees and commands, which I am giving you today, so that it may go well with you and your children after you and that you may live long in the land the Lord your God gives you for all time.

Cities of Refuge

⁴¹ Then Moses set aside three cities east of the Jordan, ⁴² to which anyone who had killed a person could flee if they had unintentionally killed a neighbor without malice aforethought. They could flee into one of these cities and save their life. ⁴³ The cities were these: Bezer in the wilderness plateau, for the Reubenites; Ramoth in Gilead, for the Gadites; and Golan in Bashan, for the Manassites.

Introduction to the Law

⁴⁴ This is the law Moses set before the Israelites. ⁴⁵ These are the stipulations, decrees and laws Moses gave them when they came out of Egypt ⁴⁶ and were in the valley near Beth Peor east of the Jordan, in the land of Sihon king of the Amorites, who reigned in Heshbon and was defeated by Moses and the Israelites as they came out of Egypt. ⁴⁷ They took possession of his land and the land of Og king of Bashan, the two Amorite kings east of the Jordan. ⁴⁸ This land extended from Aroer on the rim of the Arnon Gorge to Mount Sirion (that is, Hermon), ⁴⁹ and included all the Arabah east of the Jordan, as far as the Dead Sea, below the slopes of Pisgah.

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

The Lord our God is still Present with us today.  There is no one like God!  

“Acknowledge and take to heart this day that the Lord is God in heaven above and on the earth below. There is no other.” (v.39)

God is still God.  God is faithful, compassionate, merciful, loving and trustworthy.  Because God so loved the world; Merciful God made a Way to help us find our way back to Him.  God’s Way was Jesus, His Son who came to rid the world the oppression of sin by His once and for all sacrifice.  He did want we could not do for ourselves no matter how many rams we might possess.  Obedience, loving God back with love and adoration in worship of Him alone is what God desires!

God demonstrated His love for us by sending a part of Himself, Jesus, to come down from heaven, human form to because the Son of Man, namely Mary and Joseph first, before growing in full stature as a man to move into the neighborhood of humanity.  The Son of God was commissioned to seek and to save the lost without value to the rest of the world at that time.  The Son of Man was loving, kind and compassionate and spoke words “not of this world;” words they “had not heard spoken to them before” Jesus.  In truth, Jesus’ words and deed fell over them like a warm blanket in the cold cruel oppressed world. 

Their world was ruled by evil Roman infantry who kept the peace as their leaders conspired to conquer everything at all costs.  Their world also consisted of legalistic, pompous religious law keepers who had no real relationship with God.  Sacrifice of the people mostly meant giving goods and money to the priests who added addendums to God’s Law to benefit themselves—just anther form of oppression.  Sacrifices became less that stellar ways to line the pockets of the priests.  Jesus changed everything as He taught the goodness of God with a more clear understanding of the intent of God—Love God.  Love Others.  All the commands of God hinge on these two.  Love leads us to forgive others as God has forgiven us.  Keep it simple yet profound when lived.

In the morning, in the evening
In your coming, and your going
In your weeping, and rejoicing
He is for you, he is for you
He is, He is

Amen, amen, amen

Paul clearly reminds us of the God who loves and forgives: “Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord! . . . Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” (Read all of Romans 7-8!) Rejoice in what God, through Jesus, has done for us!

God doesn’t want His children to obey Him just to get blessings or to avoid chastening, but because they love Him from the heart. Moses’ application of the law to the new generation magnifies God’s love for Israel and the importance of Israel loving the Lord. They were now to be a mature people who obeyed God from the heart. The Lord is a merciful God (v.31), but we shouldn’t tempt Him because He is also a jealous God (v. 24)—wanting our whole hearts, all our minds, and all our souls—all to Him we surrender.

Lord,

Thank you for teaching us what is best for us with loving patience, merciful kindness, with grace unending.  There is no one like you!  Thank you for your love and forgiveness.

In Jesus Name, Amen