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Romans 13 The Law and the Christian

5/18/2016

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Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. Romans 13:10
Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. Romans 13:10
​Romans 13
There is more than one kind of law. There is the law of nature, God’s Law, Mosaic Law, and governmental law to name a few. The Christian has a unique relationship with each of these laws because of her unique relationship with The LORD God who made them all. For instance a Christian may not agree with the political view of her government but she knows God is Sovereign and so she respects the government and follows the laws put in place by them. She obeys the laws of her country, state, and city because obeying those laws reflects her submission to God and shows her humility to the world and gives them a chance to see God’s love at work. Paul told the Roman Christians who lived under a government who did not always have their best interest in heart to remember who put those in control in power. Verses 1-2 read,
Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. 2 Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment.
 
All authority comes from God. So obeying the laws put in place by the country is obedience to God. When a policeman stops us for speeding, it does us no favor to be belligerent or even defensive. If we had not been breaking the speed limit, would he have stopped us? And if we were not speeding, if we were not breaking any laws then we have no reason for hostility, no reason to be defensive or fearful because we didn’t do anything wrong. Sure the policeman could still give us a citation, even if we think he’s is in the wrong. But will our antagonism stop him? Will our opposition show him the love of Jesus? Verses 3-7 read,
For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, 4 for he is God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer.5 Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God's wrath but also for the sake of conscience. 6 For because of this you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing.7 Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed.
 
The deference we show earthly authorities is a picture of our acquiescence to The Lord. It is an opportunity to love people in a way that most of the world cannot practice. The illustration of our relationship with God also extends to punishment and reward. If we are fulfilling governmental laws, we have nothing to fear from governmental authority. If we are fulfilling God’s law or know Jesus has fulfilled it for us) we have nothing to fear from God. When a policeman knocks at the door and we have done nothing illegal, we don’t have to worry. We are free to respect authority because we know that we have not earned the penalties of breaking the law.
I know that our governments are not perfect. There are people who are condemned even though they are innocent. There are people in prison for crimes they did not commit, even some who have been put to death. But we are still free to give authority the respect they are owed, because we trust God above them. We know that somehow even in a fallen and flawed world, God has us and He will use all of it for good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28).
We are not subject to Mosaic Law because Jesus, the Lamb of God fulfilled the Law by sacrificing Himself on the cross and defeating death and sin in the Resurrection. We are no longer slaves to sin. We are free as slaves to righteousness (Romans 6:18). That may sound confusing but what it means is this: At one time we lived to please ourselves and everything we did was sin because we were living outside God’s will, outside of a relationship with Him. We lived for pleasure, pride, and profligacy. But when we were set free from sin, we offered ourselves to Jesus and became free to love Him, free to love people, and free to express His love in righteousness. We offer our lives to the Lord as living examples of who He is and that means offering ourselves to loving people as Jesus loves them.
Jesus fulfilled Mosaic Law and we are no longer under a list of dos and don’ts. We are now under the Law of Love. Paul describes it in verses 8-10.
 Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. 9 For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 10 Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.
 
Truly, love fulfills every aspect of the law. If we are expressing God’s love to someone would we commit adultery, murder, steal, or even be envious of them? No, there is not an iota of love in those acts. Love cannot sin. It’s time to stop concentrating on the Law of Moses and start focusing on loving people with the ferocity of God Almighty. Let’s love people, be just as concerned for their welfare, feelings, and future as our own. Let’s be slaves of righteousness who focus on what we can do to love as Jesus loves instead of slaves of sin who focus on how not to sin and what is sin and what is not.
Believer, you have been set free! Stop putting on those shackles of sin and instead live and walk in the freedom you’ve been given. You are free to live and walk in the Spirit of God who has indwelled you. Stop concentrating on laws and sins and put your eyes on Jesus. We are free from the Law, why continue to live under it? We cannot live in between law and Jesus. There is no middle road, no tension between law and antinomianism (that is complete disregard of any sort of authority including God). Both are ways that Satan keeps people enslaved and away from the true grace of Jesus Christ our Salvation. Both are slavery to law, sin, and death.  1 Corinthians 10:21-24 reads,
 You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons. 22 Shall we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he?
23 “All things are lawful,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful,” but not all things build up. 24 Let no one seek his own good, but the good of his neighbor.
 
 
The only sin for the Christian is to know what good she ought to do and then not do it. James 4:17 tells us,
So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.
 
Instead of keeping our eyes on the list of what we should not do, lets follow Jesus, imitate Him, live out the expression of the Holy Spirit and do what we know is right. What do we know is right? It is to love one another as Jesus loved us. Time is short, people are dying without knowing Jesus. They need us to show them who He is, not tell them what they should not do. Lists of sin do not save, Jesus does. Verses 11-14 read,
Besides this you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. 12 The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. 13 Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy. 14 But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.
 
Wasting our time focusing on sin and sins only leads toward temptation and giving in to sin. Let’s walk in the light of Christ, wearing the full armor of Christ, exuding the fruit of the Spirit. Let us focus on the living the Law of Love rather than following the laws like the Pharisees did.
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Romans 7 Following Rules is not Following Christ

5/12/2016

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Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 1 John 4:8
Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 1 John 4:8
Romans 7
If you are a believer in Christ, you are not only not under the law, but you are free from it. It no longer has authority over you, it is not your master, and it has no right to influence you. Yet too many of us still live in relation to the law. We choose to give it power over us, and live by a set of rules. We say to ourselves and often to one another:
  • Do not listen to that music
  • Do not eat this or drink that
  • Do not dance
  • Do not say this list of words
Those rules and whatever rules you have made for yourself, seem good. The problem is that the laws you have made for yourself to make you a good Christian are not what makes you good. Those rules can and will bring more sin, or deviance from the righteousness of Christ into your life. We are supposed to follow Christ, not rules. We are supposed to let the Holy Spirit transform our minds and hearts, not trust the law will do it. Don’t we trust that Jesus death and resurrection holds the power He promised it does? Don’t we trust that we died to the law? Romans 6:1-5 says,
What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.
That means we are free from the law, delivered from its dominion over us.  Romans 7 verses 1-6 uses the symbol of marriage to describe our present relationship to law and sin.
Or do you not know, brothers—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives? 2 For a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage.3 Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress.
4 Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. 5 For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. 6 But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code.
 
It is the law which accuses us of sin and calls us sinners.  Believer, you are not a sinner any more. The Lord forgave all your sins, past, present, and future 1 Peter 3:18-19 says it this way,
For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, 19 in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison,
 
Why do we keep resuscitating the law that Jesus put to death? Why do we feed the law and make it so strong in our lives, when we have God Himself ingrained into our souls to give us life and make us whole and righteous? We are released from the law; it does not have any power over us, except what we give it. We can trust God. He will not lead us to displease Him. Sin is a choice we make when we try and live by the law, the flesh (our basal desires) and the world’s standards. The law has its purposes but its purpose is not to rule you. Verses 7-12 read,
What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” 8 But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead. 9 I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. 10 The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. 11 For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. 12 So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.
 
This passage might be a bit difficult to understand for some of us. I can try to elucidate by using a baby as an example. A baby has not learned any rules or morals. He can’t do something wrong. A father would not punish his six month old son for crying in anger. A six month doesn’t know what anger is or of any laws against anger, there is no law against anger for him. For a baby, sin does not exist, because the law doesn’t exist. As he grows, he will learn the laws, rules, and morals of the world. When he is a toddler, his father will teach him that temper tantrums are not permitted. When he has one at three or four years old after he has learned that they are not allowed, he will be subject to punishment for it.
Now imagine another scenario, a child is placed in a room filled with hundreds of wonderful toys. He goes into the room and he plays with whatever toys suit him and he is not doing anything wrong. Now imagine the same child, room, and toys but this time there is a rule. The child may not play with the train set in the corner, he can play with any of the other hundreds of toys, just not the train set. Two things will happen. The first is that the moment he touches the train set, he has sinned. Before the rule, he could touch the train and it wouldn’t have been a sin but with the rule, it is a sin. Second, try as he might, knowing he is not allowed to touch the train will make him think about the train and want to touch it. The rule for not touching the train will awaken a desire to touch it. The harder the child works to follow the rule, the more he thinks about it and wants to. Verses 13-20 say it this way,
Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure. 14 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. 15 For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. 16 Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. 17 So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. 18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.
 
The law is there to reveal God’s righteousness to the world. It is there to reveal our disparity with God’s holiness and show us our need of Him. When we keep trying to follow it after we have become believers, we are constantly presenting ourselves with temptation to satisfy our flesh rather than please the Lord follow His Spirit.
No matter how hard a person tries to be good apart from God, he cannot be because under the law, righteousness is impossible. There is no virtue in any of us without God because the law doesn’t bring righteousness it reveals sin. Philippians 3:7-11 reads,
But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ.8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— 10 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.
 
Following the law, leads to temptation and sin. There will be a constant war within us as we try to be good and please God through obedience to the law rather than obedience to God. Verses 21-25 read,
 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. 22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, 23 but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.
Who will deliver us from the body of death? It is the Lord our God Jesus Christ! He delivered us when He laid down His life to destroy sin and resurrected to give us new life. Our flesh will tend toward trying to keep the law, but we have the mind of Christ, the Spirit of God, and a new heart. We do not follow the Law of Moses now, we follow the law of God. The law of God is not rules and rituals. The law of God is love, truth, and freedom. We are told to fulfill it by loving one another, caring about one another, and submitting to one another (John 15:12, Ephesians 5:21, Galatians 6:2). We fulfill it by living out the fruit of the Spirit as He makes us into the image of Jesus. 1 John 4:7-12 encourages us to live the law of God which is love.
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.
​
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Romans 4 Saved by Faith in Jesus not Obedience to the Law.

5/9/2016

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For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God Ephesians 2:8
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God Ephesians 2:8
​Romans 4
We know from what we have been reading that the law has a purpose, but that purpose is not to save or make anyone righteous. The law reveals God and His righteousness to us and it proves our inability to be righteous, it exposes our sin (Leviticus 20:22-26, Romans 3:20). The law demonstrates God’s grace because God knows we cannot keep it but promises to put the law in our hearts and give us new hearts and spirits (Deuteronomy 6:5, Ezekiel 36:26). God said, “You shall be holy to me, for I the Lord am holy and have separated you from the peoples, that you should be mine” (Leviticus 20:26). But how can we be holy as He is holy when we are incapable of keeping the law? It is because when God writes the law on our hearts and that moves us to trust in Him to give us new hearts and spirits, it is called faith. He makes us righteous not because of the law but because of the faith, the relationship with Him because we want to know more about who Holy God is.
Being righteous doesn’t mean being pious or good. Being righteous means we are forgiven of our sins, it means God no longer counts our sin against us because it no longer exists. Paul explained it by using Abraham as an example for us. Verses 1-8 read,
What then shall we say was gained by Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh? 2 For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. 3 For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.” 4 Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. 5 And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness,6 just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works:
7 “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven,
    and whose sins are covered;
8 blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.”
Abraham was not counted as righteous because he did anything. He was counted as righteous because he believed God. The Lord saved Abraham as a gift, not because he obeyed God and went where He told him to go, but because he believed God. Abraham’s belief manifested in obedience to go where He was told, but it was his faith which was counted as righteousness, not the obedience. The obedience was the product of Abraham’s faith. Verses 9-12 explain it using the example of circumcision.
Is this blessing then only for the circumcised, or also for the uncircumcised? For we say that faith was counted to Abraham as righteousness. 10 How then was it counted to him? Was it before or after he had been circumcised? It was not after, but before he was circumcised. 11 He received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. The purpose was to make him the father of all who believe without being circumcised, so that righteousness would be counted to them as well,12 and to make him the father of the circumcised who are not merely circumcised but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised.
Circumcision and uncircumcision mean nothing. It is our new hearts, our new spirits, our new selves which show our faith and God’s perfect Righteousness and Grace. Galatians 6:15-16 reads,
For neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. 16 And as for all who walk by this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God.
Faith is not something we sit in, it is not invisible or fruitless. Faith is something we walk in, it shows, and it has results. Faith results in obedience. Faith compels us to obey God, obedience proves faith. The law does not result in our transformation, it is the faith we exhibit in God to keep His promises which allows Him to change us. The Law makes us aware of God and our inability to be who He created us to be. We were created in His image (Genesis 1:26-27). That means we were made for eternity, for holiness, with the desire to be in a relationship with the Eternal God, though most of us mistook it for a desire for our own divinity. When God made His covenant with Abraham, He made the way for all of us to live in relationship with Him as Abraham lived in relationship with Him. Verses 13-16 read,
For the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith. 14 For if it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. 15 For the law brings wrath, but where there is no law there is no transgression.
16 That is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring—not only to the adherent of the law but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all,
 
Do you imagine that what Abraham believed was easier than what you or I are asked to believe? I mean Abraham audibly heard God speak, who wouldn’t have faith in God after that? God spoke audibly to many people who didn’t have faith. He spoke to face to face to Adam and Eve but they didn’t believe Him and their disbelief resulted in their disobedience (Genesis 3:1-7). When God spoke to Abraham there were not a ton of people around who followed God, prayed, or even acknowledged Him. For most people the God of the Universe was a legend or a myth but at least one family line had continued to teach the Truth; they were the exception and not the rule. God told Abraham he would be the father of many nations. That was not an easy promise to believe. Abraham was an old man, closer to death than the prime of life but he believed. Faith is rarely easy.
What has God promised you? How long have you waited? I have waited years and I am still waiting, not with hope that maybe it will be, but with assurance that it will be because God has already made it so. It isn’t easy. Sometimes I am so sick, I can’t gather the strength to walk to the bathroom. Sometimes the pain makes me so weary I wonder if I can bear it one more day. Sometimes I feel so inadequate for my lack of health that I want to give up. But God reminds me of His promise. Brothers and Sisters encourage me with His word and love. Abraham didn’t have the body of Christ surrounding him. He didn’t have the wonderful Holy Spirit within him strengthening him. He was the one who had to speak God’s word to the people around him like Sarah and Lot. He had to exhibit his faith for them and he only had God. Of course God is enough. God is able. That is faith. Verses 17-25 read,
as it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations”—in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. 18 In hope he believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told, “So shall your offspring be.” 19 He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead (since he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah's womb. 20 No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, 21 fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. 22 That is why his faith was “counted to him as righteousness.” 23 But the words “it was counted to him” were not written for his sake alone, 24 but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, 25 who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.
Abraham’s faith was counted to him as righteousness. That means God called Him righteous because He believed. That is for us too! All we have to do is believe God that He gave us Jesus Christ who laid down His life to pay the price for our sin and raised Him from death to save us.
Are you trying to earn salvation by being good enough? Are you hoping your good deeds outweigh the mistakes you’ve made? How unfair would it be if the way to Heaven, the way to know God was based on some secret scorecard? How wrong would it be for us to have to stand on a scale after we die and hope that our charity and kindness outweighed our self-indulgence and malice? God is love! He loves you! He doesn’t base salvation on being good and never has. It has always been faith in Him that causes Him to say “You are forgiven, You are mine.”
If you want to know how to be saved, if you have questions you want answered to make understanding this easier, please do not hesitate to contact me and I will gladly talk to you honestly and without judgement. You can also click on this link for more information. There are not many roads to God, there is only one way; He is Jesus. John 14:6-11 reads,
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”
8 Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.”9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. 11 Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves.
​
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Romans 3 What Good is the Law if I Can Never be Good Enough?

5/8/2016

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What if some were unfaithful? Does their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God? By no means! Let God be true though every one were a liar, as it is written, “That you may be justified in your words, and prevail when you are judged.” Romans 3:3-4 on photo of Bee on Bush Sunflower
What if some were unfaithful? Does their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God? By no means! Let God be true though every one were a liar, as it is written, “That you may be justified in your words, and prevail when you are judged.” Romans 3:3-4
Romans 3
There is a lot of sin in the world but there are many people trying to be the best person they can be. There are countless people all trying to be good people. When we look around and compare ourselves to one another we can say, “I’m pretty good. I’m way better than Hitler. I’m not as good as Mother Teresa. But then who is?” We use the law, either the Law given to Moses or the instinctive law God put on our hearts to help us understand the difference between right and wrong. The problem is being good, regardless of how good we are, cannot justify us. Good deeds do not eradicate bad ones. God is not keeping score. There is no balance to be tipped one way or the other. We cannot be good enough to earn Heaven.
So why did God give Israel His Law? What good was it? What good is there in knowing and understanding God’s law? Verses 1-8 read,
Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the value of circumcision? 2 Much in every way. To begin with, the Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God. 3 What if some were unfaithful? Does their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God? 4 By no means! Let God be true though every one were a liar, as it is written,
“That you may be justified in your words,
    and prevail when you are judged.”
5 But if our unrighteousness serves to show the righteousness of God, what shall we say? That God is unrighteous to inflict wrath on us? (I speak in a human way.) 6 By no means! For then how could God judge the world? 7 But if through my lie God's truth abounds to his glory, why am I still being condemned as a sinner? 8 And why not do evil that good may come?—as some people slanderously charge us with saying. Their condemnation is just.
What does all that mean? What is Paul saying? Basically this says that being entrusted with understanding the law is a big deal. Yes we are unfaithful, just as many of the Jews who received the law before us were. Our faithlessness did not make God faithless. He remains Faithful and Righteous regardless of our sin and inconstancy. Our inability to keep the law only shows how truly loving, faithful, and true The Lord is. But that does not excuse sin. In fact, it gives us all the more reason to be obedient to God because of His grace. Romans 6:12-18 in The Message reads,
That means you must not give sin a vote in the way you conduct your lives. Don’t give it the time of day. Don’t even run little errands that are connected with that old way of life. Throw yourselves wholeheartedly and full-time—remember, you’ve been raised from the dead!—into God’s way of doing things. Sin can’t tell you how to live. After all, you’re not living under that old tyranny any longer. You’re living in the freedom of God.
15-18 So, since we’re out from under the old tyranny, does that mean we can live any old way we want? Since we’re free in the freedom of God, can we do anything that comes to mind? Hardly. You know well enough from your own experience that there are some acts of so-called freedom that destroy freedom. Offer yourselves to sin, for instance, and it’s your last free act. But offer yourselves to the ways of God and the freedom never quits. All your lives you’ve let sin tell you what to do. But thank God you’ve started listening to a new master, one whose commands set you free to live openly in his freedom!
There is no one capable of being good enough on their own. No person can claim that. We are born with a nature, a disposition toward self-satisfaction and sin. We can’t do anything about it. Even if the only wrong thing someone ever did was have a bad thought when she was seven years old, she still had to understand that it was wrong because she came to understand that there is right and wrong in the world. She might be as good as a person can be, but she can’t be good enough, she cannot earn her way to Heaven. Verses 9-20 say it like this,
What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, 10 as it is written:
“None is righteous, no, not one;
11     no one understands;
    no one seeks for God.
12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;
    no one does good,
    not even one.”
13 “Their throat is an open grave;
    they use their tongues to deceive.”
“The venom of asps is under their lips.”
14     “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.”
15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood;
16     in their paths are ruin and misery,
17 and the way of peace they have not known.”
18     “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
19 Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. 20 For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.
So is it hopeless? I mean seriously, if we can’t be good enough to ever deserve salvation, what is the point? We can’t earn it. We cannot be righteous on our own. But God loves us desperately. He made a way to eradicate all the bad stuff, to change our nature, justify us, and make us righteous. Verses 21-26 explain it.
But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— 22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction:23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. 26 It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
 
The law shows us the unattainable righteousness of God. Jesus Christ is the righteousness of God manifested or demonstrated apart from the law and puts it within our reach. All we have to do is believe. That belief is not a shallow belief that says, “Jesus sure is cool and I know He was a great teacher.” No it is a belief that Jesus is God our Savior, The Lord of the universe. It is a submission in faith that He is the Christ and we can trust Him to take charge of our lives, souls, and spirits. He is the propitiation for our sin. What does that mean? Propitiation is the atonement, the compensation, appeasement and penance for our sin. Sin has a price and that price is blood and death. God said it in Genesis 2:16-17 when he told Adam that an understanding of good and evil would mean death. He said it when He gave Israel the laws in Leviticus that sacrifices and blood were required to atone for their sins. And He said it though Paul in Romans 6:23.
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Only Jesus Christ can save us, only He can justify us and make us righteous. Believer, you and I have no right to think we’re any better than the people we accuse and judge as sinners. They are lost, they don’t know the truth and love of Christ. We don’t have anything to do with our own goodness because we are not and cannot be good on our own. Verses 27-31 read,
Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith. 28 For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law. 29 Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, 30 since God is one—who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith. 31 Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law.
Trusting God for our salvation and transformation doesn’t mean the law means nothing, it has meaning and purpose. The only way to keep God’s law is through Jesus Christ. So allowing Him to be our Savior doesn’t mean tossing the law to the side, it means we keep it now, because through Christ we can. Don’t be confused, we don’t sacrifice bulls, ostracize lepers, or concern ourselves with the myriad of 613 commandments. Those laws were fulfilled, they were met in Jesus Christ. We keep the law by obeying Christ. He said it this way,
 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.  This is the great and first commandment.  And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.  On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 22:37-40).
Later He said it this way,
A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.  By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:34-35).
He explained a little about the way He loved us and what that looks like in John 15:12-17.
“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.  Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. These things I command you, so that you will love one another.”
Reader, you cannot be good enough, no matter how good you may be. You need Jesus who loves you so much He laid His life down for you so you could be His friend. Believer, you have nothing to boast about except Jesus. You are no better than anyone else on this earth. If God compared you to the worst of the worst on your own merit, you would look the same. Are you loving people enough to tell them about Jesus? Are you loving them enough to show them how good Jesus is? Are you loving them enough to love them as Jesus loves you?
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Galatians 3 Saved by Faith in Jesus not Faith in the Law

4/15/2016

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And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. Philippians 1:6
And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. Philippians 1:6
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Deuteronomy 22:1-12 All the Laws of God are Fulfilled by Love

3/23/2016

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And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” Matthew 22:37-40
And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” Matthew 22:37-40
a drawing of a home in ancient Israel with parapets on the roofa drawing of a home in ancient Israel with parapets on the roof
 Deuteronomy 22:1-12
God cares about how you treat your fellow man. How you treat others reflects your attitude toward God. Jesus said that loving your neighbor the way you love yourself was like the great commandment to love the Lord with your entire being (Matthew 22:37-40). Many laws that Moses gave to Israel were about how loving others played out in behavior. Verses 1-4 read,
You shall not see your brother's ox or his sheep going astray and ignore them. You shall take them back to your brother. 2 And if he does not live near you and you do not know who he is, you shall bring it home to your house, and it shall stay with you until your brother seeks it. Then you shall restore it to him. 3 And you shall do the same with his donkey or with his garment, or with any lost thing of your brother's, which he loses and you find; you may not ignore it. 4 You shall not see your brother's donkey or his ox fallen down by the way and ignore them. You shall help him to lift them up again.
Have you ever lost something? Maybe your donkey didn’t wander off through a broken fence, but you left your wallet or your cell phone somewhere or you can’t find that ring that is so precious to you. I know when that happens to me, I pray that the person who found it was an honest person. I retrace my steps and search for it. The relief I feel when I find it is wonderful. The disappointment at losing it and not finding it can be big too.
When you are the one who finds it, what do you do? I’ll tell you that for me, the temptation to keep what I find is pretty difficult to overcome sometimes. I found a purse once on the side of the road. I was a home care nurse at the time. I was broke. I was hungry. The purse had an I.D. two credit cards, and some money. I looked up the phone number for the name on the driver’s license and left a message. I carried that purse with me all day as I went from home to home doing my job. On my way home that evening I got a call from the owner of the purse, she came to my home and was so relieved and grateful to get her purse back intact, that she was in tears.
I left the message right away so that I would not have to deal with the temptation through the day, I resisted the devil and fled the temptation. If I had not called, I would have had to deal with the thought of spending the money on lunch for myself on a day, I had no money for food. If I had done that, I would not have the same consideration for my neighbor as I had for myself. I would have shown that Jesus was not the Lord of my life, I was. I would not have had the opportunity to love my neighbor and reflect the image of Christ to her.
Loving your neighbor as yourself, means giving the respect you hope will be shown to you. It means loving the way God loves them, seeing them through His eyes. Don’t you hope people will look at you with mercy and love instead of judgement and selfishness? That respect can be shown in others ways too. Verse 5 reads,
A woman shall not wear a man's garment, nor shall a man put on a woman's cloak, for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord your God.
The Lord made you the gender you are. He made you as a wonderful gift, a blessing to people around you for a purpose. To wear the clothes or take on the attributes of someone else is an abomination to the Lord. It shows Him you have no regard or love for Him or yourself. It causes others to be tempted into sin. I’m not saying every little girl has to play with dolls and can’t enjoy playing with cars or vice-versa. I’m saying that there are some roles specific to gender and we are not supposed to take the roles of the other. Wives submit to the husband to reflect the churches submission to Christ. Husbands love the wives to reflect Christ’s love for the church. When these roles are reversed, or not lived up to, the marriage is perverted, it looks like the world’s marriages. Men beat their wives. Wives nag and henpeck husbands. Children rebel. Marriages break. Christian marriages, where the husbands and wives agree with the roles God gave them are a beautiful reflection of Christ and the church, a partnership where submission is easy and love flourishes.
Women have a special role, only they can fill, just as men have a special role only they can fill. Only a man can fertilize an egg. Only a woman can carry the baby, give birth, and feed her child. So there are laws about hunting animals and motherhood as well. Verses 6-7 read
If you come across a bird's nest in any tree or on the ground, with young ones or eggs and the mother sitting on the young or on the eggs, you shall not take the mother with the young. 7 You shall let the mother go, but the young you may take for yourself, that it may go well with you, and that you may live long.
Killing the mother or taking the mother means that she and her young die. It depletes the population and could result in food shortages in the future. God knows what is best. It may not affect things now, but it will affect the future. He cares about our future. He provides for us now and He supplies for us then.
Verse 8 is an interesting law, that at first I could not understand.
When you build a new house, you shall make a parapet for your roof, that you may not bring the guilt of blood upon your house, if anyone should fall from it.


A parapet is an extension of the wall that protects the roof and allows people to use the roof as a terrace or a place for defense.




Why would the Lord command the homes to have these? They have several purposes. They allow for defending the home from invaders. But here the reason The Lord commanded it was for safety. In Israel at this time the roofs of homes were used as another part of the home. Guests slept on the roof. People slept there in the summer. The way we use our patios or porches, Israel used their roofs. It was a protection against allowing people to be hurt. It was home insurance, a pool gate, or some other design to keep people from getting hurt and creating discord. It showed respect and concern for others.
It also reflects God’s concern for us in the hedges He puts in place for our protection. Job 1:10 describes the protection God gave to Job from Satan. Satan is aware of these protections and will not breach them, unless God removes them. Job 1:8-10 reads,
And the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?” 9 Then Satan answered the Lord and said, “Does Job fear God for no reason? 10 Have you not put a hedge around him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. 11 But stretch out your hand and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face.” 12 And the Lord said to Satan, “Behold, all that he has is in your hand. Only against him do not stretch out your hand.” So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord.
 
The Lord is our Hedge. Psalm 34:7-8 describes Him in this way.
The angel of the Lord encamps
    around those who fear him, and delivers them.
8 Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good!
    Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!
 
The Lord has also given us laws about farming. I could do an entire study on this passage, and I might. I will try and keep it brief in this one. Verses 9-11 read,
“You shall not sow your vineyard with two kinds of seed, lest the whole yield be forfeited, the crop that you have sown and the yield of the vineyard. 10 You shall not plow with an ox and a donkey together. 11 You shall not wear cloth of wool and linen mixed together.
​
Mixing crops is often done today, but it requires specialized techniques to endure the entire crop succeeds. God commanded not to mix crops, livestock, and even materials. Why? Because the farmers had to live and work together if one had wheat and another oats. They were united as neighbors. Oxen have a different diet than donkeys, they require different care. Wool is not made the same way linen is.
But another reason is the spiritual truths these laws teach us. You either sow fruit of righteousness or fruit of disobedience. Imagine the outsider looking at your life. He sees you on one hand going to church every Sunday, being a pious church member, and wearing your saintly church clothes. You look like a Stepford. But he also sees you drunk at the club every Saturday, yelling obscenities and cursing the people around you. He sees your clothes meant to entice people to sin. You look like a whore. Whatever fruit you could have reaped by the Sunday you is lost to the Saturday you. The Sunday you is not real. You can’t produce different fruits from the same tree. You can’t plant different seeds and expect the same crop to grow. Jesus said it this way in Matthew 7:15-20,
“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. 16 You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles? 17 So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. 18 A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Thus you will recognize them by their fruits.”
 
Verse 12 reads,
You shall make yourself tassels on the four corners of the garment with which you cover yourself.
How do these tassels remind us to love our neighbors as ourselves? They reminded the Israelites of their covenant with God to keep His commandments and be holy (Numbers 15:37-41). They were an outward symbol to others that they were God’s chosen. It was this fringe on Jesus’ clothing that the bleeding woman touched and was healed (Luke 8:42-48). We wear our obedience to God, we wear our love for one another so that people will see the light of Jesus and know we are His and He is Lord (Matthew 5:13-16). Jesus said it this way in John 13:34-35,
“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. 35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
 
Believer, every law god gave to Moses has its purpose in revealing Him. It is fulfilled in loving the Lord and loving others. God is revealed to the world in your love. No we don’t build parapets on our roofs today or wear tassels on our cloaks. But we do care about the welfare of others and love them the way Jesus loves us.
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Deuteronomy 19:14-21 The Law of Christ is Stricter than the Law of Moses

3/20/2016

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This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. John 15:12
This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. John 15:12
​Deuteronomy 19:14-21
The law is a good thing for those who don’t break it and detestable to those who do. It isn’t meant to make your life difficult or unenjoyable, it is meant to make your life peaceable and enjoyable. It is meant to deter evil and show each of us how to live side by side.
Verse 14 reads,
“You shall not move your neighbor's landmark, which the men of old have set, in the inheritance that you will hold in the land that the Lord your God is giving you to possess.”
Why does everyone want just a little more or what Joe Green has that he does not? The grass on Joe’s side of the fence is the same grass that is on your side of the fence. If it is greener, maybe it is because he works harder to make it that way. If the fruit on his trees looks better, juicier, and bigger, maybe it is because he has toiled and suffered and the results have shone through.
We have our inheritance, we do not need anyone else’s. Heaven is more than we can begin to grasp. Sure there are times when we might fall for the enemy’s lies that Joe has it better than us but that isn’t the case. There is the life in Jesus, where we walk in the Spirit and mature to become the image of Christ which ends with an instant transformation to perfection and eternal life. And there is life without Christ where some walk in what looks like freedom but is really blind slavery. It ends in the winepress of the wrath of the Lamb and in eternal suffering. Don’t be envious of the supposed freedom and inheritance of the lost. Live fully in Christ and make them want the inheritance you have received.
We, Christians live by grace and that is not an excuse to live like sinners but a reason to live righteously. It is a reason to show we are not slaves to sin, money, drugs, sexual immorality, or any of the other devices of the devil. The law we live by is stricter than the Law of Moses, it is perfect love. We are not perfect yet and following the law of perfect love requires faith in The Lord. Verses 15-17 read,
“A single witness shall not suffice against a person for any crime or for any wrong in connection with any offense that he has committed. Only on the evidence of two witnesses or of three witnesses shall a charge be established. 16 If a malicious witness arises to accuse a person of wrongdoing, 17 then both parties to the dispute shall appear before the Lord, before the priests and the judges who are in office in those days.”
A single accuser could well be lying. If there is no one to corroborate her story then she is not to be believed until sufficient evidence is found. I have been the victim of a lying witness. She was believed and I paid for her crime. I was able to forgive her, because I understand that she is my Sister in Christ and I let the Lord deal with her sin. It isn’t my place to hold it against her. I would be able to forgive her easier if she were not in Christ because God would exact punishment on her and my forgiveness would reflect my Lord’s forgiveness toward me and perhaps lead her to know Jesus.
People try to hide their own guilt by pointing to someone else. How quickly we tend to believe the accuser. “He pulled the trigger.” “She stole it.” “He hurt me.” There is no love in believing unsubstantiated accusations.
This law can teach us about life in Christ. The devil stands accusing us day and night, he is a liar whose job it is to deceive the world. He accuses the faithful in order to destroy our efficacy for Christ. A friend recently told me to show some mercy to myself. I have not done that. I believed the accuser and fell for his despicable lies about me. I nearly died under the weight of his charges. But this morning listening to my Lord, I can in faith forgive myself because Jesus already did. Satan will receive the punishment he longs for us to receive. He will be thrown into the bottomless pit (Revelation 20:10). We live by faith and have victory over that serpent because rather than lie or believe the lies, we are covered by Jesus and have the testimony of Christ. Revelation 12:9-12 reads,
And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. 10 And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. 11 And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death. 12 Therefore, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short!”
We are not like the world who believe every stray accusation and want people to suffer for unproven crimes. God is Just. We must care about justice as much as He does and that means not believing the accuser of the brethren in any form he takes. We have the Spirit of Truth within us. We wear Jesus’ righteousness. We have the shield of faith and the fiery darts of the accuser sends our way are extinguished. (Ephesians 6:16). His witness with ours is enough.
We also have to be careful not to accuse with only ourselves as a witness. If a brother or sister is living sinfully, we go to him, not to punish but to lift him up out of sin. If he refuses to listen, we go back to him with two or three witnesses so that everything that happens will honor Christ. Jesus said it this way in Matthew 18:15-16,
“If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother.16 But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses.”
Furthermore, two or three witnesses filled with the Holy Spirit who agree in prayer can make powerful things happen. In Matthew 18:18-20 Jesus told us,
“Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. 19 Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. 20 For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.”
Do you understand the implications of that? Two of us agreeing can bind evil and loose good. Two or three of with the Holy Spirit among us can ask the Father for anything and it will be done. Let’s believe this! Let’s get together and loose God’s healing and restoration! Let’s loose the power of Heaven over this earth! Let’s bind the accuser and make him ineffectual over the body of Christ and the lost slaves he rules.
A false witness among us will not agree with the truth, she will agree with the accuser and try and keep him in power through division, wounds, lies, and finger pointing. There is vengeance waiting for her, just as it waits for the devil. We are not to allow that malevolence to be among us. Verses 18-21 warn us to expel it from us.
The judges shall inquire diligently, and if the witness is a false witness and has accused his brother falsely, 19 then you shall do to him as he had meant to do to his brother. So you shall purge the evil from your midst. 20 And the rest shall hear and fear, and shall never again commit any such evil among you. 21 Your eye shall not pity. It shall be life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.”
Evil was purged from ancient Israel through punishment, often quite severe in order to deter it before it began and let people see the wages of their sin. Jesus paid for our sins, but that doesn’t give us a license to live licentiously. It instead charges us to live up to a higher law. Jesus said it this way,
“You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ 39 But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. 40 And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. 41 And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles.42 Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you.
43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. 46 For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? 47 And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? 48 You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matthew 5:38-48).
We do not allow brothers and sisters to destroy the church with lies. But we do forgive sins and show mercy and love to such the degree Jesus did. It is that love, the offering of the other cheek instead of hitting back, the heartfelt blessing toward the curser, and the free giving to the one who takes that shows who Jesus is and gets people wondering how we are able, why we are so different, and where that kind of goodness comes from.
Jesus gave His life for us and for them. He let them beat Him and offered himself completely. He was cursed and spat on, yet He said, “Father, forgive them” (Luke 23:34). We only have one law, but it is a law much higher than all the laws before it. It is a law difficult to live up to but easy to carry. Jesus said it in John 15:12-17.
“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command you.15 No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. 17 These things I command you, so that you will love one another.”
One commandment which covers the entire law; love one another as Jesus loves us. But remember how it is Jesus loves, not with words like honey and sweetie, but with action, perfection, submission, and power.
 
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Deuteronomy 14:1-21 You are God’s Own, Meant to Stand Out

3/7/2016

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And the voice came to him again a second time, “What God has made clean, do not call common
And the voice came to him again a second time, “What God has made clean, do not call common
​Deuteronomy 14:1-21
Believers, you are a chosen people, holy and set aside from every other people on earth. You are God’s own, you are His treasured possession. And because of that you do not live like the world, you live like a citizen of Heaven.
Today we are set apart because the Father chose us, Jesus Christ bought us for a steep price and His Holy Spirit indwells us (Ephesians 1:4,1 Corinthians 6:19-20). We are made new and changed from the inside and it affects our behavior. Under the Old Covenant, God chose Israel and His Spirit rested on a few people, not in them. They showed their distinction as God’s own people by their behavior. Following God’s Law changed them from the outside in. They learned faith through obedience to the law. We are given faith and exercise it through obedience to righteousness. But our law is not exactly the same as theirs, since Jesus fulfilled it and we do not earn justification through sacrifices any longer. In the first 21 verses of Deuteronomy chapter 14, Moses reminded Israel about the laws of clean and unclean food. They were not just any people, they were God’s and so He gave them express rules for what foods were permitted and forbidden. Verses 1-21 read,
“You are the sons of the Lord your God. You shall not cut yourselves or make any baldness on your foreheads for the dead. 2 For you are a people holy to the Lord your God, and the Lord has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.
3 “You shall not eat any abomination. 4 These are the animals you may eat: the ox, the sheep, the goat, 5 the deer, the gazelle, the roebuck, the wild goat, the ibex, the antelope, and the mountain sheep. 6 Every animal that parts the hoof and has the hoof cloven in two and chews the cud, among the animals, you may eat. 7 Yet of those that chew the cud or have the hoof cloven you shall not eat these: the camel, the hare, and the rock badger, because they chew the cud but do not part the hoof, are unclean for you. 8 And the pig, because it parts the hoof but does not chew the cud, is unclean for you. Their flesh you shall not eat, and their carcasses you shall not touch.
9 “Of all that are in the waters you may eat these: whatever has fins and scales you may eat. 10 And whatever does not have fins and scales you shall not eat; it is unclean for you.
11 “You may eat all clean birds. 12 But these are the ones that you shall not eat: the eagle, the bearded vulture, the black vulture, 13 the kite, the falcon of any kind; 14 every raven of any kind; 15 the ostrich, the nighthawk, the sea gull, the hawk of any kind; 16 the little owl and the short-eared owl, the barn owl 17 and the tawny owl, the carrion vulture and the cormorant, 18 the stork, the heron of any kind; the hoopoe and the bat. 19 And all winged insects are unclean for you; they shall not be eaten. 20 All clean winged things you may eat.
21 “You shall not eat anything that has died naturally. You may give it to the sojourner who is within your towns, that he may eat it, or you may sell it to a foreigner. For you are a people holy to the Lord your God.
“You shall not boil a young goat in its mother's milk.”
Why should you stand out from the crowd? Why should you care about how you behave when you are free from sin? Read verse 2 again and know that The Lord is talking to you.
“For you are a people holy to the Lord your God, and the Lord has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.”
Jesus fulfilled the laws about clean and unclean foods, sacrifices, and offerings when He laid His life down on the cross for you. And even while He walked on the earth before His death and resurrection He declared all foods clean. The Pharisees were deeply devoted to keeping God’s Law, though not deeply devoted to God. They were so devoted to the Law that they made all sorts of traditions and rules and added them to it, which in and of itself broke the law. (Deuteronomy 4:2). They confronted Jesus because He and His followers did not obey the traditions meant to keep people lawful. They questioned Jesus about eating without washing their hands and so making clean food unclean. Jesus responded in Mark 7:14-23.
“And he called the people to him again and said to them, “Hear me, all of you, and understand: 15 There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him.” 17 And when he had entered the house and left the people, his disciples asked him about the parable. 18 And he said to them, “Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, 19 since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled?” (Thus he declared all foods clean.) 20 And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. 21 For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, 22 coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. 23 All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”
After Jesus ascended to Heaven, He gave Peter the message again in a vision when He told him that gentiles could become Christians and that He should welcome them (Acts 10:9-16). God said to Peter, “What God has made clean, do not call common.” (Acts 10:15). Believer, you have been made clean by God! Don’t call yourself common! Don’t be common! You are extraordinary, rare, cherished, noble, refined, and distinctive. You have been made holy! Don’t live as a commoner, live like a king or a queen, the bride of Christ, a child of God, and a royal priesthood.
People should see you are not like them. They should look at you and see Jesus. Maybe they won’t recognize Him but they should know you are not like the collective, you are distinctive. When Jesus justified you, you were born again, given a new identity and a new name. Don’t live as a prisoner whose name no longer identities him. He is known as a number among many, 24601. You are known by a name just for you (Revelation 2:17). You are special! Be who you are meant to be.
We do not behave righteously because we are trying to earn Salvation, we behave righteously because God made us able to, because He indwells us and compels us to respond to Him with joy and love which overflows, and because the faith He gave us is proven by good works (James 2:17-18). 1 Thessalonians 1:2-10 in The Message reads,
“Every time we think of you, we thank God for you. Day and night you’re in our prayers as we call to mind your work of faith, your labor of love, and your patience of hope in following our Master, Jesus Christ, before God our Father. It is clear to us, friends, that God not only loves you very much but also has put his hand on you for something special. When the Message we preached came to you, it wasn’t just words. Something happened in you. The Holy Spirit put steel in your convictions.
5-6 You paid careful attention to the way we lived among you, and determined to live that way yourselves. In imitating us, you imitated the Master. Although great trouble accompanied the Word, you were able to take great joy from the Holy Spirit!—taking the trouble with the joy, the joy with the trouble.
7-10 Do you know that all over the provinces of both Macedonia and Achaia believers look up to you? The word has gotten around. Your lives are echoing the Master’s Word, not only in the provinces but all over the place. The news of your faith in God is out. We don’t even have to say anything anymore—you’re the message! People come up and tell us how you received us with open arms, how you deserted the dead idols of your old life so you could embrace and serve God, the true God. They marvel at how expectantly you await the arrival of his Son, whom he raised from the dead—Jesus, who rescued us from certain doom.”
The Law has been fulfilled in Jesus’ work. We no longer have to concern ourselves with what food is clean or unclean because we were made clean. We no longer have to sacrifice and make burnt offerings because Jesus sacrificed Himself once and for all. He bought us for a price and because of that we obey Jesus’ command in John 15:12 to love one another as He has loved us. That doesn’t mean having warm fuzzy feelings for everyone, it means tangibly doing good, submitting to one another, taking care of one another, and living holy lives.
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Deuteronomy 6 Obey the Great Command and Things Will Go Well With You

2/29/2016

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You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might Deuteronomy 6:5
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might Deuteronomy 6:5
​Deuteronomy 6
Don’t we all want things to go well for us? We pray things will go well; we bid well for one another; we leave one another will well wishes. There is more to things going well than just hopes. Remaining within God’s will, appreciating that He is The LORD, and understanding who we are in Him lead to things going well. Israel had spent forty years in the wilderness learning the commandments, the will of God and now just before they entered The Promised Land, Moses reminded them of what they learned and exhorted them to be obedient to their discipline. Verses 1-3 read,
“Now this is the commandment—the statutes and the rules—that the Lord your God commanded me to teach you, that you may do them in the land to which you are going over, to possess it, 2 that you may fear the Lord your God, you and your son and your son's son, by keeping all his statutes and his commandments, which I command you, all the days of your life, and that your days may be long. 3 Hear therefore, O Israel, and be careful to do them, that it may go well with you, and that you may multiply greatly, as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has promised you, in a land flowing with milk and honey.”
Obeying the commandment requires fearing the Lord, which is respecting Him and appreciating Him as Sovereign Lord, as I Am, as all of who He is. It means knowing Him as who He says and demonstrates Himself to be and not as who we make Him to be. It also means that we will live in a way that teaches our sons and their sons to know Him like that. Obedience to the commandment—the statutes and the rules— comes with a promise, that it may go well with you, that you may multiply greatly in a land of abundance. What is the commandment? What single commandment is the statutes and the rules? Verses 4-5 read,
“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.”
God said it here in Deuteronomy before He said it to the scheming Pharisees in Matthew 22:34-40
But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. 35 And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. 36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
Jesus said, loving your neighbor with equal concern you have for yourself is like loving God with your entirety. And it is on these two that all the Law and Prophets are hinged. He said it to Moses as well, the command to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and might covers all the laws. This is the commandment that He required be taught. This commandment is what the Ten Commandments spell out. This greatest commandment is the crux for all the Law and every word of God.
He wants us to know this greatest commandment to the point it is part of us, written on our hearts, before our eyes so that it is how we view the world, and on the foundations and entries of our lives and households. This commandment should define who we are as it defined Jesus Christ. Verses 6-9 read,
“And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”
At some point, many Israelites, those who considered themselves most pious and dedicated took this command which is The Word Himself and removed Him from it. They wrote the words of Deuteronomy 6:5 on tiny scrolls and wore them (and still do) on their hands and foreheads and place them on the doorposts of their homes. I have a Mezuzah on my door. There is nothing wrong with keeping a reminder of God’s Word with you, but how many of the Pharisees who decorated themselves in grand piety had the commandment truly on their hearts as well as on the foreheads and hands? How many who flaunted their religiousness knew the True God well enough to recognize Him when He walked among them? How many of them lived out the truth of the commandment?
And what about us? We put on ‘Christian’ T-shirts, place ‘Christian’ bumper stickers on our cars, and decorate online profiles with “Christian’ pictures, but then we curse at the driver who cut us off in traffic, we gossip about that poor girl who needs prayer, and we promise prayers that we never speak. How can we wear a banner that says “Jesus loves you” and not love people with all the humility, grace and mercy of The Lord?
What is it for things to go well? What does that mean? Does it mean no suffering? Does it mean no battles? The Hebrew word translated as well is טוֹב, towb. It means beautiful, pleasant to the senses, useable and appropriate for its purpose. It is the word used when God described creation in Genesis 1:4
And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness.
Things go well for us when we become as we were created to be light separate from dark. That is why obedience to the commandment of verse 5 makes things go well for us. Loving God so completely with who we are, what we feel, what we do, and how we think expresses itself in loving one another the way Jesus loves us. That love shows the word who Jesus is and it continually disciples us to become more like Him. John 13:31-35 reads,
When he had gone out, Jesus said, “Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him. 32 If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself, and glorify him at once. 33 Little children, yet a little while I am with you. You will seek me, and just as I said to the Jews, so now I also say to you, ‘Where I am going you cannot come.’ 34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. 35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
The Promised Land was made for the promise that things would go well for Israel. In it they would rest in The Lord, depend on Him, and worship Him. He would prove their faith. Verses 10-15 read
“And when the Lord your God brings you into the land that he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you—with great and good cities that you did not build, 11 and houses full of all good things that you did not fill, and cisterns that you did not dig, and vineyards and olive trees that you did not plant—and when you eat and are full, 12 then take care lest you forget the Lord, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. 13 It is the Lord your God you shall fear. Him you shall serve and by his name you shall swear. 14 You shall not go after other gods, the gods of the peoples who are around you— 15 for the Lord your God in your midst is a jealous God—lest the anger of the Lord your God be kindled against you, and he destroy you from off the face of the earth.”
When things go well, we have no need to look anywhere but to The Lord Our God. Taking our eyes off of Him, not crediting Him for His abundant provision and chasing good fortune rather than God kindles His anger so that He can bring us back to towb again. Keeping faith in God alone allows us to abide in towb.  Verses 16-19 read,
“You shall not put the Lord your God to the test, as you tested him at Massah. 17 You shall diligently keep the commandments of the Lord your God, and his testimonies and his statutes, which he has commanded you. 18 And you shall do what is right and good in the sight of the Lord, that it may go well with you, and that you may go in and take possession of the good land that the Lord swore to give to your fathers 19 by thrusting out all your enemies from before you, as the Lord has promised.”
At Massah, Israel complained about being thirsty. They disregarded everything He had done for them, their deliverance from Egypt, their lives, the riches He let them carry, everything. They whined that they would die of thirst. By their lack of faith they said, “Is the Lord among us or not?” God gave them water out of a rock. (Exodus 17:1-7). He doesn’t require a river or a spring. He can make a rock into a spring. He can make a spring out of thin air. He can move a mountain from here to there. He reminded them who He was in a generous and gracious way even though they had no faith. But now forty years later, they had learned and it was time to stand on what they had learned and not forget again God was with them.
Obedience shows our faith, obedience proves our faith, and obedience grows our faith. Did the people of Israel really think God had saved them from Pharaoh only to let them die of thirst? Or did they just need to complain and flaunt their suffering? They could just as easily trusted Him to provide. Do you think The Lord delivered you from the prince of the world to leave you as you are? Don’t you trust Him enough to know that He is carrying you through the wilderness for the purpose of making things go well with you, for making you the light of the world.
However you live your life, whether as a testimony to Christ or as a testimony to yourself, your children will ask what it means. They will want to know why you live in faith, why you obey the Lord, why you love Him and why you love people. The answer you give is the Gospel! It is the Truth which will enable things to go well for them too. Verses 20-25 read,
“When your son asks you in time to come, ‘What is the meaning of the testimonies and the statutes and the rules that the Lord our God has commanded you?’ 21 then you shall say to your son, ‘We were Pharaoh's slaves in Egypt. And the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. 22 And the Lord showed signs and wonders, great and grievous, against Egypt and against Pharaoh and all his household, before our eyes.23 And he brought us out from there, that he might bring us in and give us the land that he swore to give to our fathers. 24 And the Lord commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear the Lord our God, for our good always, that he might preserve us alive, as we are this day. 25 And it will be righteousness for us, if we are careful to do all this commandment before the Lord our God, as he has commanded us.’
Living in faithful obedience, enjoying the abundance of God’s promise will make your children and your fellow man ask how and why. You can be ready to give a reason for your hope. You can say, “Because the Lord delivered me from slavery to sin and gave me eternal life. My Lord impels me to love as He loves and trust that He always has my good in mind. He keeps me safe in Him so I can enjoy eternity with Him.”
I hope and pray that things go well for you. I pray that we will live in faithful obedience to love the Lord with everything we feel, all our trust, all we do, and all we think by loving others as He loves us. You, believer are the light of the world, separated from the darkness. Obey this great command and shine the good light of Christ into the darkness of the world.
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Deuteronomy 5 Reflection on What is Learned in The Wilderness Comes Before Taking the Promise

2/28/2016

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And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh Ezekiel 36:26
And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh Ezekiel 36:26
Deuteronomy 4:45 – Deuteronomy 5
Israel stood on the precipice of the Promised Land after forty years of wandering in the wilderness, they were finally about to take the promise they had waited so long receive. Moses had followed the Lord and Israel had followed Moses. But now he would not enter the Promised Land with them; he would die and they would go on without him. He would have to trust that they had learned what God had taught them and that Joshua could receive his mantle. He reminded them of what they had realized and gathered in their time learning from God. Deuteronomy 4:45-49 reads,
These are the testimonies, the statutes, and the rules, which Moses spoke to the people of Israel when they came out of Egypt, 46 beyond the Jordan in the valley opposite Beth-peor, in the land of Sihon the king of the Amorites, who lived at Heshbon, whom Moses and the people of Israel defeated when they came out of Egypt. 47 And they took possession of his land and the land of Og, the king of Bashan, the two kings of the Amorites, who lived to the east beyond the Jordan; 48 from Aroer, which is on the edge of the Valley of the Arnon, as far as Mount Sirion (that is, Hermon), 49 together with all the Arabah on the east side of the Jordan as far as the Sea of the Arabah, under the slopes of Pisgah.
When we are on the threshold from the wilderness to the promise, we often have to wait, a period of rest and quiet. It is a time to reflect on what our suffering has taught, how we have changed, and who we have become through it. It is not easy to have patience. We want the promise now. The promise is not going anywhere. It will be no less the gift one week or eleven days from now as it is now. In fact it will be more of a blessing when it comes to us prepared and at the right time.
My friend Jim often uses the example of a young child asking her father for a Ferrari. The father promises to give it to her, but he waits until she is old enough to drive it. I can extend the metaphor by saying that he waits to give her that car until she drives well, has driven and cared for a jalopy, then moved on to being a safe driver and maintain a newer car, and then when she is able to handle the responsibility of the power of the Ferrari he gives her that car promised a decade earlier.
We have to learn the basics first, how to drive. Then we move on to the responsibility of the inexpensive used but safe car. That’s the car that we can’t speed in because the engine is too small or the transmission can’t handle high speeds. We learn what happens when we break the rules and get a ticket for not stopping at the stop sign. Then we move on to a better car and we show that we can drive that one without speeding, even though we now could. And then and only then does our father give us the sports car. But before he does, he sits down with us and reminds us about the rules and laws that came with the promise.
So Moses, The Lord’s friend spoke to Israel and reminded them the laws and statues that they were given in the Wilderness. Chapter 5 Verses 1-5 read,
And Moses summoned all Israel and said to them, “Hear, O Israel, the statutes and the rules that I speak in your hearing today, and you shall learn them and be careful to do them. 2 The Lord our God made a covenant with us in Horeb. 3 Not with our fathers did the Lord make this covenant, but with us, who are all of us here alive today. 4 The Lord spoke with you face to face at the mountain, out of the midst of the fire, 5 while I stood between the Lord and you at that time, to declare to you the word of the Lord. For you were afraid because of the fire, and you did not go up into the mountain. He said:
Israel, these people standing in front of Moses, not their fathers but they themselves had received the Law and they themselves had agreed to keep it. The next generations would each agree based on that agreement. There would come a point in their lives when they had to agree with The Lord and choose to keep the Law themselves. They were circumcised, not as an agreement to keep the Moses Law, but as a sign of Abraham’s promise that they were part of His chosen treasured possession. Each man’s circumcision was his father’s agreement to raise him as God’s own. Keeping the Law is a covenant that each man makes with God himself.
Your parents can teach you. Your Sunday school teacher can present the facts. Your friends can testify. But only you can choose Christ for yourself. Only you can accept the contract for Jesus to be payment for your sins and make Jesus your Lord in order to enter the Promised Land of eternal life with Jesus. God may have prearranged your marriage to Christ, but He does not force you to say ‘I do.’
In verses 6-21 The Lord reminded Israel of the basics, the core of the law, the Ten Commandments.
“‘I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
7 “‘You shall have no other gods before me.
8 “‘You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 9 You shall not bow down to them or serve them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, 10 but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.
11 “‘You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.
12 “‘Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, as the Lord your God 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, you or your son or your daughter or your male servant or your female servant, or your ox or your donkey or any of your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates, that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you. 15 You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.
16 “‘Honor your father and your mother, as the Lord your God commanded you, that your days may be long, and that it may go well with you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.
17 “‘You shall not murder.
18 “‘And you shall not commit adultery.
19 “‘And you shall not steal.
20 “‘And you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
21 “‘And you shall not covet your neighbor's wife. And you shall not desire your neighbor's house, his field, or his male servant, or his female servant, his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor's.’
Unlike the Levitical laws of sacrifices, feasts, and offerings which taught what sin was and that payment for sin required death, these are the laws that exemplify loving God and loving people. These laws did not dissolve when Christ died on the cross. They remain because love remains. Fulfilling the law of love means we obey the Ten Commandments, not in order to be saved, but because we are saved. Verses 22-29 read,
“These words the Lord spoke to all your assembly at the mountain out of the midst of the fire, the cloud, and the thick darkness, with a loud voice; and he added no more. And he wrote them on two tablets of stone and gave them to me. 23 And as soon as you heard the voice out of the midst of the darkness, while the mountain was burning with fire, you came near to me, all the heads of your tribes, and your elders.24 And you said, ‘Behold, the Lord our God has shown us his glory and greatness, and we have heard his voice out of the midst of the fire. This day we have seen God speak with man, and man still live. 25 Now therefore why should we die? For this great fire will consume us. If we hear the voice of the Lord our God any more, we shall die. 26 For who is there of all flesh, that has heard the voice of the living God speaking out of the midst of fire as we have, and has still lived? 27 Go near and hear all that the Lord our God will say, and speak to us all that the Lord our God will speak to you, and we will hear and do it.’
28 “And the Lord heard your words, when you spoke to me. And the Lord said to me, ‘I have heard the words of this people, which they have spoken to you. They are right in all that they have spoken. 29 Oh that they had such a heart as this always, to fear me and to keep all my commandments, that it might go well with them and with their descendants forever!”
Moses reminded Israel how great God is. He reminded them even His voice was too much for them to bear, that they had been in His presence and lived, and how they had felt because of it. It was too much for Israel. And God who loves them so much wished they would always remember the fear they had for Him that day so that they would not sin and suffer, so that he would not have to destroy Israel and scatter the remnant.
When I drive, I endeavor not to speed. I wish I could say I don’t speed because I respect the law that much. That should be the reason but the real reason is, I am afraid to get a speeding ticket. That is why the consequences are in place, to keep us from breaking the law.
Remembering who The LORD is can help us remember He is Justice, He is the Lion of Judah, He is the Wrath of the Lamb and He is the Lord Almighty. It is the first step to knowing God instead of knowing about God. Knowing about God without knowing Him can lead to removing Him from the equation and rather than walk in the Spirit, we walk in ritual. We go to church because it is time to go to church. We serve the poor because we are on the committee. We do what we do because we are supposed to do it. God is Yahweh, I Am. He is The LORD your God. He is Creator. He is The Lord God of Hosts!
The Lord had compassion on Israel, they could not bear His presence. Moses could, because Moses had God’s Spirit on Him, Moses was God’s friend.  Believers have that closeness with God today. His Spirit indwells us. He calls us friend. We move from keeping the law out of fear of death to keeping the law out of love and expression of who God is. Verses 30-33 read,
“Go and say to them, “Return to your tents.” 31 But you, stand here by me, and I will tell you the whole commandment and the statutes and the rules that you shall teach them, that they may do them in the land that I am giving them to possess.’ 32 You shall be careful therefore to do as the Lord your God has commanded you. You shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left. 33 You shall walk in all the way that the Lord your God has commanded you, that you may live, and that it may go well with you, and that you may live long in the land that you shall possess.
We have to remember what we learned in the wilderness to live long in the promise He give us. Suffering removes your heart of stone and replaces it with a heart of flesh, which The Spirit then writes His law on. Ezekiel 36:24-28 says,
I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land. 25 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. 26 And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. 28 You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God.
 
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