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Genesis 15 Why Haven’t I Received God’s Promised Yet?

6/17/2016

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 He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it. 1 Thessalonians 5:24
He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it. 1 Thessalonians 5:24
​Genesis 15
This morning I woke up as I have for the last several weeks already sick and unable to eat or even drink. Yesterday, I nearly lost consciousness in the grocery store. I’ve been waiting for years for healing. I’ve prayed, been prayed over, prayed with, and prayed for. I’ve done whatever I’ve been told to do in order to regain my strength from memorizing healing scriptures to using oils to trying to force foods and fluids. I’ve been to see doctors and I only keep getting sicker and thinner.
This morning, I woke up and just knew that I was going to die soon from whatever this ailment is. It may sound overdramatic, but I know there is no way I can keep living when I can’t get nutrition into my body and what little I can take becomes less and less as the days pass. I felt hopeless. I felt as if I’ve been kidding myself that God will make me well. Then I prayed. I said, “God, whatever you do, it’s okay. If you heal me, I will praise you and if I die from this, I’ll die well and be healed in New Jerusalem. Then I read today’s chapter, chapter 15 of Genesis. It begins with a conversation between Abram and The LORD. Verses 1-3 say,
After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: “Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.”2 But Abram said, “O Lord God, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” 3 And Abram said, “Behold, you have given me no offspring, and a member of my household will be my heir.” 
 
The Lord had promised Abram offspring as numerous as the dust of the earth, yet he remained childless. He had already consigned himself to his servant Eliezer being his heir. Has God promised you something but it has been so long since the promise was made that you have relegated yourself into believing you were mistaken or that the promise was not from God? Have you suffered in affliction so long you can’t see the hope of deliverance? Have you like Abram and like me just given up hope that it would happen? Maybe you shouldn’t give up hope just yet. Maybe like Abram, you should bring your pain and frustration to the Lord and listen to what He has to say.
He might say, “You were right, I never promised you that, you wanted it but I want something better for you.” Maybe He’ll say, “I promised that to you but it won’t happen the way you think.” Or maybe as He did for Abram, He will reiterate the promise to you. Verses 4-6 read,
And behold, the word of the Lord came to him: “This man shall not be your heir; your very own son shall be your heir.” 5 And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” 6 And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness. And he said to him, “I am the Lord who brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess.” 
 
There were no streetlights to outshine the stars, there were no buildings to block their view, there was open sky filled with too many stars for a man to count. I remember many years ago, I was on a trip in the Amazon in Brazil. We were on a boat in the middle of a territory where people lived a primitive lifestyle. I was astounded by the sheer number of stars in the sky. I had never known there were so many. Even camping back at home had not made it so clear just how many stars I couldn’t see. Abram’s hope was restored, he believed, and it was counted as righteousness.
He didn’t know it yet, but that act of belief made him the father of faith to believers all over the world today. We are his children of faith. He was saved by faith and so are we.
How did Abram prove his belief? He said, “Alright Lord, you made me another promise too and I want to know how that one will come about.” Verses 8-11 read,
But he said, “O Lord God, how am I to know that I shall possess it?” 9 He said to him, “Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” 10 And he brought him all these, cut them in half, and laid each half over against the other. But he did not cut the birds in half. 11 And when birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.
How did God answer? Did He sit and explain the future of Abram’s grandson Jacob and his great grandson Joseph and what would happen to Israel? No, He gave Abram a command. And Abram obeyed. And then he waited and he waited for something to happen. He wouldn’t give the crows or vultures a chance to eat the sacrifice, he protected it and he waited. Verses 12-21 read,
As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram. And behold, dreadful and great darkness fell upon him. 13 Then the Lord said to Abram, “Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years. 14 But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions. 15 As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age. 16 And they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.”
17 When the sun had gone down and it was dark, behold, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces. 18 On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your offspring I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates,19 the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, 20 the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, 21 the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites and the Jebusites.”
God’s word is enough, but He made a covenant with Abram that included a sacrifice. He manifested as a smoking fire pot or furnace and a flaming torch going between the halves of the animals. The covenant the Lord made with Abram was one performed normally by two people who were making a contract, obligating each party to keep up their end of the deal. The persons making the contract would sacrifice animals, divide the bodies, and then walk between the pieces of the sacrifices in testimony that if they neglected to keep their word, they deserved death[i] (Jeremiah 34:18-19). But in this case, two parties did not walk through the center of the pieces. In this case Abram watched as God went between the pieces as a smoking fire pot, which represented the afflictions of Israel in Egypt and their blindness to their condition, and as a flaming torch which represented the light of salvation, their deliverance from affliction. God walked through the pieces Himself. He carried the promise alone. It would not be fulfilled by anything Abram did or Israel did. Salvation would be by Him and only Him, the pillar of smoke and the pillar of fire in the wilderness, The Light of the world, Jesus Christ.
God does not require us, in order for Him to keep His promises. He does not require us for our salvation. He asks that we believe, that we have faith. Our faith is expressed in our obedience, in our wiliness to bow down to His will. As we convey our faith through submission (that is obedience and letting God have His way) God does the work of saving us, sanctifying us, and keeping His word. It is not automatic, He will not save you against your will. He will not transform you without your permission. But when you allow Him to, He saves and He delivers His promises.
The Jewish people of Jesus’ day were waiting for the Promised Messiah. They were waiting to be delivered from the tyranny of Rome by a king who would bring a new kingdom to earth. They had misunderstood the promise and twisted it to their own desires so that most of them missed the Messiah. Most of them are still waiting for an earthly king to save them and have not received the King of kings and Prince of Peace. They’re blinded by the smoke of their afflictions and do not see the promise of Christ has already come.
I don’t know the specifics of the promise or deliverance you are waiting for. I do know that you can talk to God and He will tell you, what He wants you to do. Does He want you to wait for the right time? Does He want you to recognize what you thought was a promise was your own desire and not his? Does He want you to see His promise doesn’t look like what you think it ought to? Have faith, trust God for His promises and not your wishes and notions. God always keeps His word.


[i] Warren W. Wiersbe BE Bible Study Series
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Genesis 13 Faith is not Blind; It is Seeing Through God’s Eyes.

6/14/2016

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Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.  Hebrews 11:1
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Hebrews 11:1
​Genesis 13
In the previous devotional we read about how Abram’s lapse in faith led to a lie that had the potential to destroy the promise God had made to him. But Faithful God protected His promise and He protected Abram and Sarai’s future. He also continued to bless Abram, Sarai, and Lot. We will see those blessings in today’s chapter. Verses 1-7 read,
So Abram went up from Egypt, he and his wife and all that he had, and Lot with him, into the Negeb.
2 Now Abram was very rich in livestock, in silver, and in gold. 3 And he journeyed on from the Negeb as far as Bethel to the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Ai, 4 to the place where he had made an altar at the first. And there Abram called upon the name of the Lord. 5 And Lot, who went with Abram, also had flocks and herds and tents, 6 so that the land could not support both of them dwelling together; for their possessions were so great that they could not dwell together, 7 and there was strife between the herdsmen of Abram's livestock and the herdsmen of Lot's livestock. At that time the Canaanites and the Perizzites were dwelling in the land.
 
God is so loving and faithful. He brought Abram back to the beginning of his journey. When Abram looked at the familiar area and the altar he had built, I’m certain he reminisced about his entire journey to that point. He remembered what the Lord had done for him and what the Lord had promised him. God was restoring and strengthening his faith.
Abram was not just wealthy, he was very wealthy. Lot too had prospered in that time and as we will read in later chapters, Lot was a righteous man who cared deeply for the way of the Lord. Together, they had so much that the land couldn’t support them both together. They would have to separate. It was time for Lot to leave this man who had raised him since his father’s death and strike out on his own.
Lot was not the promised descendant of Abram. God wanted it to be very clear that this promise would be fulfilled supernaturally by Him, not by manmade laws that would twist what was to fit his promise. So it was time for them to separate. Verses 8-13 read,
Then Abram said to Lot, “Let there be no strife between you and me, and between your herdsmen and my herdsmen, for we are kinsmen. 9 Is not the whole land before you? Separate yourself from me. If you take the left hand, then I will go to the right, or if you take the right hand, then I will go to the left.” 10 And Lot lifted up his eyes and saw that the Jordan Valley was well watered everywhere like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, in the direction of Zoar. (This was before theLord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.) 11 So Lot chose for himself all the Jordan Valley, and Lot journeyed east. Thus they separated from each other. 12 Abram settled in the land of Canaan, while Lot settled among the cities of the valley and moved his tent as far as Sodom. 13 Now the men of Sodom were wicked, great sinners against the Lord.
 
The separation was probably not easy, there were no addresses to be exchanged or phone numbers to keep. They might never see one another again. But Abram let Lot choose the direction he wanted to go and when Lot saw the lushness of the Jordan Valley, he chose that way. Lot looked at the choice from a self-focused perspective. He saw it through his eyes, not faith. The passage implies he had some fond memories of Egypt and Jordan Valley reminded him of that. Maybe that is where he first began to get rich or married his wife. He also saw the potential in the Jordan Valley to grow his wealth. He didn’t consider the people. He didn’t look at it from God’s perspective he could have chosen any of 360 paths from where he stood, he chose the path that looked good to him and moved to Sodom. Sodom was a wicked city and Lot would find himself terribly grieved by the unadulterated evil of that place. He would try and raise two daughters there and would not be able to protect them from the corruption, though we know he tried. But he didn’t pray and ask God for direction, he chose based on what his eyes told him and not on the faith of where God would lead.
By giving Lot his freedom to choose any direction, was Abram giving anything up? He sacrificed the lushest land for his nephew. But he had faith that God would take care of him. He didn’t need to worry. Verses 14-18 read,
The Lord said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, “Lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward, 15 for all the land that you see I will give to you and to your offspring forever. 16 I will make your offspring as the dust of the earth, so that if one can count the dust of the earth, your offspring also can be counted. 17 Arise, walk through the length and the breadth of the land, for I will give it to you.” 18 So Abram moved his tent and came and settled by the oaks of Mamre, which are at Hebron, and there he built an altar to the Lord.
 
Abram may have thought he sacrificed the best to Lot but he wasn’t concerned. Although Abram was very rich, it wasn’t his money he served, it was the Lord God. And God showed him every direction north, south, west, and the direction Lot had chosen, east and said all the land he could see would one day belong to his offspring. He didn’t just refer to their number as many or even too many to count, He said there would be so many counting would be as impossible as counting dust. Have you looked at dust? Have you picked up a handful of dirt and tried to count it?
Abram trusted it to God and not only for children but he understood the promise to be eternal. He understood he would never see the Promised Land filled with his progeny while he lived. He had faith that the promise was eternal and that one day he would stand in the true and eternal Promised Land with his true children, the believers. The author of Hebrews wrote,
By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. 9 By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. 10 For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God. (Hebrews 11:8-10).
 
Lot chose based on his instincts, hopes, and desires, he chose based on what he could see with his human eyes. Abram left the choice to Lot because he had faith, he trusted God no matter where He led him. God not only reiterated His promise to Abram but He restated in a way that had to blow his mind with the extent of it.
Man was created out of the dust of the earth. Abram’s offspring would be so plentiful that like the dust they would not be counted. His offspring includes Israel. But every person on the face of this earth has the opportunity to be included as a descendant of Abram, because every person has the opportunity to be adopted by faith into God’s people. We are Abraham’s spiritual children through faith in Jesus Christ. The Lord’s promise is multilayered. He promised Abram would have many natural offspring. He promised him what would one day become the nation of Israel, and He promised him countless offspring which is you and me, believer.
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Deuteronomy 12 Worship The Lord Your God, not Worship the Lord, You’re God

3/5/2016

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And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts,  praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved. Acts 2:46-47
And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved. Acts 2:46-47
Deuteronomy 12
There seems to be a common thought today that it does not matter how or where one worships God; however and wherever one chooses to worship is okay. This is the excuse for going to the beach, the farmer’s market, the theme park, or anywhere else instead of fellowshipping and studing the word of God. Which of the activities that you are doing are constituting your worship? Is it buying tomatoes, jogging, pushing your child on a swing, or eating ice cream? I have worshipped at the beach, on a hike, or sitting on the front porch. I have done things at the farmer’s market, the theme park, and the restaurant that would please God. I do strive to live a life of worship. But living a life of worship does not preclude The Lord’s commands regarding worship.
Under the Old Covenant there were specific rules for worship and under the New Covenant there are still some commandments that pertain to worship. The Lord knew Israel would be tempted to worship in ways that were abhorrent to Him. He had laid down the Law very specifically and now He had Moses remind Israel about the Law before they went in to take the Promised Land. Verses 1-7 read,
“These are the statutes and rules that you shall be careful to do in the land that the Lord, the God of your fathers, has given you to possess, all the days that you live on the earth. 2 You shall surely destroy all the places where the nations whom you shall dispossess served their gods, on the high mountains and on the hills and under every green tree. 3 You shall tear down their altars and dash in pieces their pillars and burn their Asherim with fire. You shall chop down the carved images of their gods and destroy their name out of that place.4 You shall not worship the Lord your God in that way. 5 But you shall seek the place that the Lord your God will choose out of all your tribes to put his name and make his habitation there. There you shall go, 6 and there you shall bring your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and the contribution that you present, your vow offerings, your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herd and of your flock. 7 And there you shall eat before the Lord your God, and you shall rejoice, you and your households, in all that you undertake, in which the Lord your God has blessed you.”
First Israel had to destroy every vestige of idolatry in their new country. They had to completely obliterate all the altars, Asherim poles, and idols. You and I too when we come to the Lord are to abolish our old way of life, our idolatry, remove ourselves as regent of our heart and make Jesus the Lord of our lives.
Israel was told that there would be one place of worship, one city where God would put His name and he would inhabit that place. That was where they would place the Tabernacle and worship. I can hear you protesting now, “but today believers are the Temple of God!” Yes, that is true, we are. 1 Corinthians 3:16-17 says,
“Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you? 17 If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him. For God's temple is holy, and you are that temple.”
You are God’s holy temple but that doesn’t mean that you can call any practice you do, worship. A temple can be desecrated with unholy practices. 1 Corinthians 6:12-20 says it this way,
“All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful for me,” but I will not be dominated by anything. 13 “Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food”—and God will destroy both one and the other. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. 14 And God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power. 15 Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! 16 Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, “The two will become one flesh.” 17 But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. 18 Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. 19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, 20 for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.”
You can go into the world and you can eat what you like and do what you like, beneficial or detrimental and not be defiled. Other people cannot defile you. You can defile you though. Jesus explained it this way in Matthew 15:16-20,
“And he said, “Are you also still without understanding? 17 Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth passes into the stomach and is expelled? 18 But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. 19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. 20 These are what defile a person. But to eat with unwashed hands does not defile anyone.”
Your words, your choices, your actions can defile you. Your heart can defile you. What you say and do reveals who sits on the throne of your heart, The One True God or you. If you sit on the throne, you are desecrating the temple with idolatry. The world says, “If it’s right for me, it’s right.” That is the I-theism of Satanism. If you think something is right, it does not make it right. God is The LORD. There is one Truth, one Way, and one Life; He is Jesus Christ. How can there be multiple truths? Verses 8-19 read,
“You shall not do according to all that we are doing here today, everyone doing whatever is right in his own eyes, 9 for you have not as yet come to the rest and to the inheritance that the Lord your God is giving you. 10 But when you go over the Jordan and live in the land that the Lord your God is giving you to inherit, and when he gives you rest from all your enemies around, so that you live in safety, 11 then to the place that the Lord your God will choose, to make his name dwell there, there you shall bring all that I command you: your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and the contribution that you present, and all your finest vow offerings that you vow to the Lord. 12 And you shall rejoice before the Lord your God, you and your sons and your daughters, your male servants and your female servants, and the Levite that is within your towns, since he has no portion or inheritance with you.13 Take care that you do not offer your burnt offerings at any place that you see, 14 but at the place that the Lord will choose in one of your tribes, there you shall offer your burnt offerings, and there you shall do all that I am commanding you.
15 “However, you may slaughter and eat meat within any of your towns, as much as you desire, according to the blessing of the Lord your God that he has given you. The unclean and the clean may eat of it, as of the gazelle and as of the deer. 16 Only you shall not eat the blood; you shall pour it out on the earth like water. 17 You may not eat within your towns the tithe of your grain or of your wine or of your oil, or the firstborn of your herd or of your flock, or any of your vow offerings that you vow, or your freewill offerings or the contribution that you present, 18 but you shall eat them before the Lord your God in the place that the Lord your God will choose, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, and the Levite who is within your towns. And you shall rejoice before the Lord your God in all that you undertake.19 Take care that you do not neglect the Levite as long as you live in your land.”
God gave you His name. He indwelled you. He gave you His rest. He chose to make you His Temple. And so anywhere you go can be a place of worship and should be. Worship is meant to be joyful. But it is also meant to include certain aspects. We bring the Lord offerings. We bring sacrifices. In Hebrews 13:14-18, the author wrote,
“For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come. 15 Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name. 16 Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.
17 Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.
18 Pray for us, for we are sure that we have a clear conscience, desiring to act honorably in all things.”
Praise, doing good, and sharing are sacrifices pleasing to God. All those things require “one anothers” to do. Who are we acknowledging Christ to if we are alone? Furthermore, the author tells us to obey and submit to leaders. We have to be in a local body to have leaders to submit to.
Many things we do can be done as worship, but not every act is an act of worship. Calling an act worship doesn’t make it worship. As you play beach volleyball are you really worshipping the Lord? Is riding a rollercoaster an offering to God? Is reaching the finish line of a race truly exalting the Lord? None of those things are sinful. The sin comes when you tell yourself that you are worshipping God by doing them. Some of those things can be worship, but don’t lie to yourself about it. You can’t lie to God about your motivations, don’t lie to yourself.
Even eating a meal can be worship to God. Slapping a ritually spoken “God bless this food” doesn’t make it worship, but the attitude it is done with. But there are some aspects of worship that must be done as The Lord prescribed or they become twisted into idolatry. Verses 20-28 read,
 “When the Lord your God enlarges your territory, as he has promised you, and you say, ‘I will eat meat,’ because you crave meat, you may eat meat whenever you desire. 21 If the place that the Lord your God will choose to put his name there is too far from you, then you may kill any of your herd or your flock, which the Lord has given you, as I have commanded you, and you may eat within your towns whenever you desire. 22 Just as the gazelle or the deer is eaten, so you may eat of it. The unclean and the clean alike may eat of it. 23 Only be sure that you do not eat the blood, for the blood is the life, and you shall not eat the life with the flesh. 24 You shall not eat it; you shall pour it out on the earth like water. 25 You shall not eat it, that all may go well with you and with your children after you, when you do what is right in the sight of the Lord. 26 But the holy things that are due from you, and your vow offerings, you shall take, and you shall go to the place that the Lord will choose, 27 and offer your burnt offerings, the flesh and the blood, on the altar of the Lord your God. The blood of your sacrifices shall be poured out on the altar of the Lord your God, but the flesh you may eat. 28 Be careful to obey all these words that I command you, that it may go well with you and with your children after you forever, when you do what is good and right in the sight of the Lord your God.”
So going to the beach instead of church is not worshipping the Lord. Going to the beach as church can be worship. Since you are the Temple of God, you can bring the holy things with you. You can bring your offerings and sacrifices with you and do them at the beach, on the mountain, or at a park. Why is going to any of those places instead of church not worship? Because the Lord has set and approved certain acts of corporate worship and He expects us to worship together regularly. Hebrews 10:19-25 describes a lifestyle of worship.
“Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, 20 by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. 23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, 25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.”
We are also given guidelines for the way our corporate worship should flow. Read it and consider if you are obeying your Lord when you skip church to worship the Lord elsewhere. 1 Corinthians 14:26-33 reads,
“What then, brothers? When you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation. Let all things be done for building up. 27 If any speak in a tongue, let there be only two or at most three, and each in turn, and let someone interpret. 28 But if there is no one to interpret, let each of them keep silent in church and speak to himself and to God. 29 Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others weigh what is said. 30 If a revelation is made to another sitting there, let the first be silent. 31 For you can all prophesy one by one, so that all may learn and all be encouraged, 32 and the spirits of prophets are subject to prophets. 33 For God is not a God of confusion but of peace.
As in all the churches of the saints,”
Acts 2:42-47 also describes the way fellowship should look. We are expected to be devoted to the teaching of the apostles (the scriptures), fellowship, breaking of bread (The Lord’s Supper), and prayers.
“And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. 43 And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. 44 And all who believed were together and had all things in common. 45 And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. 46 And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, 47 praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.”
It is too easy to think that because we are the temple of God we can do whatever feels right and call it worship. Putting the sun, nature, a comfortable bed, or a TV show ahead of The Lord and the fellowship of brothers is worshipping those things. It is idolatry. Verses 29-32 read,
“When the Lord your God cuts off before you the nations whom you go in to dispossess, and you dispossess them and dwell in their land, 30 take care that you be not ensnared to follow them, after they have been destroyed before you, and that you do not inquire about their gods, saying, ‘How did these nations serve their gods?—that I also may do the same.’ 31 You shall not worship the Lord your God in that way, for every abominable thing that the Lord hates they have done for their gods, for they even burn their sons and their daughters in the fire to their gods.
32 “Everything that I command you, you shall be careful to do. You shall not add to it or take from it.”
Get rid of every last trace of idolatry, of your old self and do not give into the world’s idea of worship. The world is not your church. The beach is not your temple. The Lord is not in the forest. He is either sitting on the throne of your heart or you are. Be careful. Look how easy it is to accept false doctrines as true, how long before worshipping the way the world worships becomes something as monstrous as sacrificing children or as detestable as sex slavery? Don’t even look into why Joe Schmo says he can worship his god anywhere because the whole world is the temple of god.
Believer, consider who it is you are worshipping. Are you an I-theist, doing what pleases you or are you a child of God doing what pleases your Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace, and Wonderful Counselor?
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Deuteronomy 11 Choose the Blessings of The Promised Land or the Curses of Egypt

3/4/2016

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But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Galatians 5:22-24
Deuteronomy 11
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. (Galatians 5:22-24).
In Christ, we have been taught to exercise self-control. It is a trait of The Lord and it is one we should practice. Love is the pinnacle of who God is. God is Love (1 John 4:8). Joy, peace, patience, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control are how the love of God is expressed. Self-control is how we choose to demonstrate love. The mature Christian should be in control of her thoughts, tongue, and deeds. The less mature Christian should be striving toward that discipline.
We choose to obey the commandment of the Lord or we choose to turn to the left or right and fulfill the desires of the flesh. The Lord had been conforming you, Believer. He has been disciplining you through the trials and the wilderness you have experienced. Verses 1-7 read,
“You shall therefore love the Lord your God and keep his charge, his statutes, his rules, and his commandments always. 2 And consider today (since I am not speaking to your children who have not known or seen it), consider the discipline of the Lord your God, his greatness, his mighty hand and his outstretched arm, 3 his signs and his deeds that he did in Egypt to Pharaoh the king of Egypt and to all his land, 4 and what he did to the army of Egypt, to their horses and to their chariots, how he made the water of the Red Sea flow over them as they pursued after you, and how the Lord has destroyed them to this day, 5 and what he did to you in the wilderness, until you came to this place, 6 and what he did to Dathan and Abiram the sons of Eliab, son of Reuben, how the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, with their households, their tents, and every living thing that followed them, in the midst of all Israel. 7 For your eyes have seen all the great work of the Lord that he did.”
To love the Lord with your entirety you must know Him. To know who God is you must spend time with Him. To be discipled, one must experience discipline. Moses said, to consider the discipline we have experienced, to think about and remember who God is and has been to us. What trials have you experienced? What sins brought those consequences? Who did you become as a result of the discipline you underwent? What did the Lord do in the midst of the wilderness? The Lord made you able! He has changed and grown you. You were once a slave to the prince of the world like Israel were slaves to Pharaoh. Now Believer, you are free, a warrior, a king, and a trusted confidant to the King of kings. Verses 8-12 read,
“You shall therefore keep the whole commandment that I command you today, that you may be strong, and go in and take possession of the land that you are going over to possess, 9 and that you may live long in the land that the Lord swore to your fathers to give to them and to their offspring, a land flowing with milk and honey. 10 For the land that you are entering to take possession of it is not like the land of Egypt, from which you have come, where you sowed your seed and irrigated it, like a garden of vegetables. 11 But the land that you are going over to possess is a land of hills and valleys, which drinks water by the rain from heaven, 12 a land that the Lord your God cares for. The eyes of the Lord your God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year to the end of the year.”
Before you knew Jesus as your Lord and were freed from sin, you had to work hard for your provision. You had to plant the seeds and water them. You had to go to the river with buckets, fill them, carry the heavy burden back to your garden, and repeat the trip until the entire garden was watered. But now in the Promised Land, God takes care of the land and He is your provider. He sends the rains to water your fields. He sends the sun to feed the crops. He takes care of The Promised Land for you. He knows everything that will happen and we only have to trust Him, to love Him completely and know that He is sovereign. He is. We have a choice. We can choose self-control and obey the great commandment or we can let worries and fears creep in and turn our focus from The Lord to ourselves. Verses 13-17 say,
“And if you will indeed obey my commandments that I command you today, to love the Lord your God, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul, 14 he will give the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the later rain, that you may gather in your grain and your wine and your oil. 15 And he will give grass in your fields for your livestock, and you shall eat and be full. 16 Take care lest your heart be deceived, and you turn aside and serve other gods and worship them; 17 then the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you, and he will shut up the heavens, so that there will be no rain, and the land will yield no fruit, and you will perish quickly off the good land that the Lord is giving you.”
Obedience to God comes with promises of blessings and disobedience comes with promise of curses. The curses are for our own good; they are meant to bring us back to remembering who God is. Isn’t it better for you to remember your past discipline rather than suffer it again? We have self-control; we can choose to exercise it. There were several instances in the wilderness when Israel whined about how good they had it back in Egypt under the tyranny of Pharaoh and the oppression of slavery. They whined whenever they took their focus of the Lord and worried about how they would eat or drink. They didn’t have a good time in Egypt. They were oppressed, their children murdered, and their backs broken and whipped. They chose to forget their suffering and focus on their needs. God promised if we focus on Him by loving Him with all our hearts, souls, and strength He would bless us with an abundance. But how many of us hold back part of who we are and choose to worry about how we will provide for ourselves, how we will take care of the problems, or how we will do what has to be done? That is not worshipping and trusting the Lord; that is worshipping and trusting ourselves. But have no fear, God will let you live in Egypt if you choose to and go back to watering your garden instead of letting him rain on your fields.
How do we ensure we are keeping the great commandment? How do we keep The Lord our focus? We choose to meditate on His Word, we choose to know the Lord through His word. We study and pursue Him and we choose to keep the great commandment. Verses 18-25 read,
“You shall therefore lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 19 You shall teach them to your children, talking of them when you are sitting in your house, and when you are walking by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.20 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, 21 that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land that the Lord swore to your fathers to give them, as long as the heavens are above the earth. 22 For if you will be careful to do all this commandment that I command you to do, loving the Lord your God, walking in all his ways, and holding fast to him, 23 then the Lord will drive out all these nations before you, and you will dispossess nations greater and mightier than you. 24 Every place on which the sole of your foot treads shall be yours. Your territory shall be from the wilderness to the Lebanon and from the River, the river Euphrates, to the western sea. 25 No one shall be able to stand against you. The Lord your God will lay the fear of you and the dread of you on all the land that you shall tread, as he promised you.”
Put God’s words on your heart, set them before your eyes, bind them to your deeds, teach them, and make them the heart of our speech from waking to sitting, to walking and to sleeping. What is the whole commandment? Moses reaffirms it in verse 22; it is “loving the Lord your God, walking in all his ways, and holding fast to him.” And The Lord reiterates that keeping the whole commandment comes with a promise. He does not promise to barely care for us, He promises that all the enemy’s strongholds will be banished, that everywhere we choose to walk in Him, will be ours. Whatever part of our lives we give to Him, every part of ourselves we want changed from old to new, every fleshly desire we hand to Him will be given back to us new. No part of who we are has to remain a slave to sin. We can be the righteousness of God. Why did Christ die and resurrect? Did He do that so we could become a flickering candle or a shining lampstand? Did He lay down His life and take on all our sin so we could hold onto our sins ourselves? NO! 2 Corinthians 5:17-21 says,
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. 20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
You are not a slave to Pharaoh. The Father called you out of Egypt to The Promised Land. Jesus delivered you. His Holy Spirit has made you new. Love the Lord, your God with all your heart, soul, strength and mind. Pursue the Kingdom of God wholeheartedly and let Him shower you with abundant blessings and provision. Matthew 6:25-34 reminds us,
“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? 28 And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, 29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
34 “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”
Believer, you can choose to obey or you can choose to disobey. It is up to you, you have self-control and must choose to exercise it. It is a fallacy to say you cannot control yourself. It is a lie from the accuser who longs to enslave you to say you can’t choose obedience. And it helps to remember who God is, He is The LORD. He chooses to send the rain and the sun. He chooses to bless and He chooses not to bless. Verses 26-32 read,
“See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse: 27 the blessing, if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you today, 28 and the curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn aside from the way that I am commanding you today, to go after other gods that you have not known. 29 And when the Lord your God brings you into the land that you are entering to take possession of it, you shall set the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal. 30 Are they not beyond the Jordan, west of the road, toward the going down of the sun, in the land of the Canaanites who live in the Arabah, opposite Gilgal, beside the oak of Moreh? 31 For you are to cross over the Jordan to go in to take possession of the land that the Lord your God is giving you. And when you possess it and live in it, 32 you shall be careful to do all the statutes and the rules that I am setting before you today.”
The promises of God are waiting for you. It is time to choose self-control, obey The Lord and be blessed. Worrying is not loving the Lord, worrying means you have put yourself in God’s throne. If you choose to sit there, He’ll let you. But He has also promised to let you experience the curse of Egypt so that you will choose to take possession of the Promised Land. 
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Deuteronomy Chapters 9-10 The Lord is our Salvation and Inheritance. 

3/3/2016

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​Deuteronomy 9- Deuteronomy 10
Why did the Lord save you? Is it because you are so good? Is He going to open the gates of Heaven for you because you work so hard for Him, serve the widows, and give all you have to the poor? Nah…sorry… you are not good enough and cannot be good enough to deserve eternal life. I know it is politically correct to be all about how good we are, to have a high esteem of ourselves. And The Lord has given you a beautiful and wonderful identity, His. But we also need to remember that without Jesus, we can’t be saved, without The Lord we cannot deserve eternal life.
Israel was about to enter the Promised Land and the Lord reminded them that it was not because of how righteous they were that He would defeat the enemy but because of how evil the enemy was. Israel did not deserve the Promised Land or the defeat of the enemy, it was a gift from God; the sons of Anakim were deserving of the wrath they would receive from The Lord. Chapter 9 verses 1-5 read,
“Hear, O Israel: you are to cross over the Jordan today, to go in to dispossess nations greater and mightier than you, cities great and fortified up to heaven, 2 a people great and tall, the sons of the Anakim, whom you know, and of whom you have heard it said, ‘Who can stand before the sons of Anak?’ 3 Know therefore today that he who goes over before you as a consuming fire is the Lord your God. He will destroy them and subdue them before you. So you shall drive them out and make them perish quickly, as the Lord has promised you.
4 “Do not say in your heart, after the Lord your God has thrust them out before you, ‘It is because of my righteousness that the Lord has brought me in to possess this land,’ whereas it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is driving them out before you. 5 Not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart are you going in to possess their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations the Lord your God is driving them out from before you, and that he may confirm the word that the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.”
Not only does the Lord say Israel was not righteous (and us by proxy) but He says they were as bad as the nations He would defeat for them. Moses described one of their vilest acts. Verses 6-29 read,
“Know, therefore, that the Lord your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are a stubborn people. 7 Remember and do not forget how you provoked the Lord your God to wrath in the wilderness. From the day you came out of the land of Egypt until you came to this place, you have been rebellious against the Lord. 8 Even at Horeb you provoked the Lord to wrath, and the Lord was so angry with you that he was ready to destroy you. 9 When I went up the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant that the Lord made with you, I remained on the mountain forty days and forty nights. I neither ate bread nor drank water. 10 And the Lord gave me the two tablets of stone written with the finger of God, and on them were all the words that the Lord had spoken with you on the mountain out of the midst of the fire on the day of the assembly. 11 And at the end of forty days and forty nights the Lord gave me the two tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant. 12 Then the Lord said to me, ‘Arise, go down quickly from here, for your people whom you have brought from Egypt have acted corruptly. They have turned aside quickly out of the way that I commanded them; they have made themselves a metal image.’
13 “Furthermore, the Lord said to me, ‘I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stubborn people. 14 Let me alone, that I may destroy them and blot out their name from under heaven. And I will make of you a nation mightier and greater than they.’ 15 So I turned and came down from the mountain, and the mountain was burning with fire. And the two tablets of the covenant were in my two hands. 16 And I looked, and behold, you had sinned against the Lord your God. You had made yourselves a golden calf. You had turned aside quickly from the way that the Lord had commanded you. 17 So I took hold of the two tablets and threw them out of my two hands and broke them before your eyes. 18 Then I lay prostrate before the Lord as before, forty days and forty nights. I neither ate bread nor drank water, because of all the sin that you had committed, in doing what was evil in the sight of the Lord to provoke him to anger. 19 For I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure that the Lord bore against you, so that he was ready to destroy you. But the Lord listened to me that time also. 20 And the Lord was so angry with Aaron that he was ready to destroy him. And I prayed for Aaron also at the same time. 21 Then I took the sinful thing, the calf that you had made, and burned it with fire and crushed it, grinding it very small, until it was as fine as dust. And I threw the dust of it into the brook that ran down from the mountain.
22 “At Taberah also, and at Massah and at Kibroth-hattaavah you provoked the Lord to wrath. 23 And when the Lord sent you from Kadesh-barnea, saying, ‘Go up and take possession of the land that I have given you,’ then you rebelled against the commandment of the Lord your God and did not believe him or obey his voice. 24 You have been rebellious against the Lord from the day that I knew you.”
25 “So I lay prostrate before the Lord for these forty days and forty nights, because the Lord had said he would destroy you. 26 And I prayed to the Lord, ‘O Lord God, do not destroy your people and your heritage, whom you have redeemed through your greatness, whom you have brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand. 27 Remember your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Do not regard the stubbornness of this people, or their wickedness or their sin, 28 lest the land from which you brought us say, “Because the Lord was not able to bring them into the land that he promised them, and because he hated them, he has brought them out to put them to death in the wilderness.” 29 For they are your people and your heritage, whom you brought out by your great power and by your outstretched arm.’
Within forty days, while Moses and God were together on the mountain top, Israel lost their faith and not only turned to an idol but poured much of their gold into creating it. The Lord was very angry with Israel but He loved them and He sent Moses down from their communion to the people. Moses was so angry that He destroyed the tablets he had just received after spending forty days in communion with God. The Lord was ready to destroy Israel and create a whole new people from Moses, but Moses interceded for Israel. He lay down prostrate, praying and pleading and during that forty days, he did not eat or drink. Chapter 10 verses 1-5 read,
 “At that time the Lord said to me, ‘Cut for yourself two tablets of stone like the first, and come up to me on the mountain and make an ark of wood. 2 And I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets that you broke, and you shall put them in the ark.’ 3 So I made an ark of acacia wood, and cut two tablets of stone like the first, and went up the mountain with the two tablets in my hand. 4 And he wrote on the tablets, in the same writing as before, the Ten Commandments that the Lord had spoken to you on the mountain out of the midst of the fire on the day of the assembly. And the Lord gave them to me. 5 Then I turned and came down from the mountain and put the tablets in the ark that I had made. And there they are, as the Lord commanded me.”
Do not miss the Lord laying out the Gospel for us here in Deuteronomy as Moses becomes a type of Christ. Moses was on the mountain top fellowshipping with God. Israel had received the Law but sinned by creating an idol, so God sent Moses to the people so that he could save the people from the death that awaited them for their sin. Moses interceded for Israel and appeased His wrath. The Lord gave Moses the law again, but this time He put it in the ark, His physical representation on earth.
The Father sent Jesus to the earth to save us from death (1 John 4:14). Jesus became the Word, which is the will of God manifested and intercedes for us with the Father (John 1:1, Hebrews 7:25). He became the propitiation, the appeasement for our sin (Romans 3:25).
Verses 6-10 continue the narrative.
(The people of Israel journeyed from Beeroth Bene-jaakan to Moserah. There Aaron died, and there he was buried. And his son Eleazar ministered as priest in his place. 7 From there they journeyed to Gudgodah, and from Gudgodah to Jotbathah, a land with brooks of water. 8 At that time the Lord set apart the tribe of Levi to carry the ark of the covenant of the Lord to stand before the Lord to minister to him and to bless in his name, to this day. 9 Therefore Levi has no portion or inheritance with his brothers. The Lord is his inheritance, as the Lord your God said to him.)
10 “I myself stayed on the mountain, as at the first time, forty days and forty nights, and the Lord listened to me that time also. The Lord was unwilling to destroy you. 11 And the Lord said to me, ‘Arise, go on your journey at the head of the people, so that they may go in and possess the land, which I swore to their fathers to give them.’
The Levites were chosen and sanctified to be The Lord’s priests, the only ones who carry the ark and because of that, the Levites would not have land for their tribe with the other tribes. The Lord is his inheritance. Jesus became our high priest and when we choose salvation, we become His royal priesthood. Our inheritance is not a plot of land in New Jerusalem, it is not a mansion in Heaven, it is Jesus Christ Himself. Our inheritance is The Lord! We become like Him and we become His bride, our soul and His knit together. This agreement is more than an outside change, it is a change of heart.
The Lord wanted Israel not only to make a covenant with him on the outside by circumcision of the penis but a true and everlasting covenant by circumcision of the heart. Verses 12-16 read,
“And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, 13 and to keep the commandments and statutes of the Lord, which I am commanding you today for your good? 14 Behold, to the Lord your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth with all that is in it. 15 Yet the Lord set his heart in love on your fathers and chose their offspring after them, you above all peoples, as you are this day. 16 Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer stubborn”
This is our covenant with God, not of physical outer circumcision but spiritual inner circumcision. It is circumcision of the heart that brings about our ability to love with Him with all our heart and soul and strength and glorify him. What is circumcision of the heart? It is letting go of pride, taking ourselves off the throne and submitting to The Lord as verse 16 says, “Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer stubborn.”
Then Moses describes the effects of circumcision of the heart. It is not the 612 Levitical laws they were required to keep. It was a description of loving the Lord with their heart and soul. Verses 17-22 read,
“For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who is not partial and takes no bribe. 18 He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing. 19 Love the sojourner, therefore, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt. 20 You shall fear the Lord your God. You shall serve him and hold fast to him, and by his name you shall swear.21 He is your praise. He is your God, who has done for you these great and terrifying things that your eyes have seen. 22 Your fathers went down to Egypt seventy persons, and now the Lord your God has made you as numerous as the stars of heaven.”
The Lord kept His covenant to Abraham, his descendants were as numerous as the stars. He would keep His covenant to Israel, they would enter the Promised Land, not because they were righteous, but because they were chosen. He keeps His covenant with us too, our inheritance is the Lord.
 
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Deuteronomy 7 To Love God With Your Whole Self, You Must Give Him Your Whole Self

3/1/2016

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You shall not be in dread of them, for the Lord your God is in your midst, a great and awesome God. Deuteronomy 7:21
You shall not be in dread of them, for the Lord your God is in your midst, a great and awesome God. Deuteronomy 7:21
Deuteronomy 7
What is it to love the Lord with all your heart, soul, and strength as God commanded in Deuteronomy 6:5? It is utter devotion to Him with every part of who you are, your emotions and feelings, intelligent freewill, and your physical actions. In the Bible the three parts of humanity cannot be separate from one another. Every person is made up of the three together, נָ֫פֶשׁ, nephesh. Consider it. They are wholly interconnected and when one is damaged or incongruent the entire person is affected. If your mood is bad or good you will choose actions which are in agreement with your mood. Luke 6:43-45 says,
“For no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit, 44 for each tree is known by its own fruit. For figs are not gathered from thorn bushes, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush.45 The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.”
Did you know that God loves you wholly? He loves you with all His heart, soul, and might. He loves every part of you with every part of Him. The Father freely loves you and chose you; The Son demonstrated His love for you by laying down His life for you; The Spirit indwells you and conforms your will and your mind to His. He loves you with His grace and his wrath. He loves you as Father, Counselor, and Savior. He loves you as the God of Amen and Lord of Hosts. He loves all of you with all of Him.
Moses continued his discourse to Israel and after telling them to love the Lord God with all their heart, your soul and might, He described to them how they would take the Promised Land. Verses 1-5 reads,
“When the Lord your God brings you into the land that you are entering to take possession of it, and clears away many nations before you, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations more numerous and mightier than you, 2 and when the Lord your God gives them over to you, and you defeat them, then you must devote them to complete destruction. You shall make no covenant with them and show no mercy to them. 3 You shall not intermarry with them, giving your daughters to their sons or taking their daughters for your sons, 4 for they would turn away your sons from following me, to serve other gods. Then the anger of the Lord would be kindled against you, and he would destroy you quickly. 5 But thus shall you deal with them: you shall break down their altars and dash in pieces their pillars and chop down their Asherim and burn their carved images with fire.”
When the people entered the Promised Land and The Lord handed the people over to them, they were to devote them to complete destruction. That meant that they would kill every single person God had designated them to kill as an offering to God. The battles they would fight to rid the land of everything that was not of The Lord would be done as love to Him. He would wipe away everything that was not for Him, so that nothing of the old land remained. It would be completely new and ready for His people to possess in entirety, the land, the religion, and the people would be completely His and for Israel.
Leaving anything from the people who lived there before, would turn Israel away from God and to other things. When we’re saved, God wipes out every part of who we were before Him and we are expected to give it all to Him and not hold anything back. We do that because what we hold back will turn us away from God and to our old desires. We devote our old selves to utter destruction so the new self can love God wholly.
God chose us; He separated us out of the world to be His people and in His absolute love for us, He makes us absolutely new. But it is our choice to give Him our entirety. It was Israel’s choice to obey and destroy everything or disobey and leave a few people or take a piece of gold, or leave one image. Why did God choose Israel to be His? Why did He choose you or me? Verses 6-11 read,
“For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. 7 It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, 8 but it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.9 Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations, 10 and repays to their face those who hate him, by destroying them. He will not be slack with one who hates him. He will repay him to his face. 11 You shall therefore be careful to do the commandment and the statutes and the rules that I command you today.”
We were not better than anyone else. It wasn’t anything we did that God decided to make us His chosen nation. It was God’s choice to make us His treasured possession. The Lord chose Israel because of His promise to Abraham renewed in Jacob and his sons. He chose us to be Abraham’s children too, giving us His blood, His nature, and His name in supernatural adoption. Abraham’s promises and Israel’s promise became ours too. Those promises are immense. Eternal life with The Lord as our God and we as His people, to be holy as He is holy, and the Promised Land of New Jerusalem are only part of the blessing we receive from God. God loves us perfectly with all of who He is and He will not renege. So let us be careful to do the commandment and the statutes and the rules. Notice it is singular, the commandment not commandments. The statues and the rules He gives, that is devoting the sinful (what and who is not chosen) to utter destruction, and all the rest of the laws given are the way to keep the commandment. What is the commandment? It is to “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might”
Don’t be mistaken, we are not supposed to kill infidels, we kill our old self who was opposed to Christ. Israel was supposed to devote the people of who lived in their land to utter destruction. We are supposed to devote our old identities, our sins and desires of the flesh to utter destruction so that we can receive righteousness and the fruit of the Spirit. Ephesians 4:22-24 says it like this,
to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, 23 and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 24 and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
That is three steps, put off your old self (devote your old self to destruction), be renewed in the spirit of your minds, (allow the Lord to give you the mind of Christ in His Spirit) and put on the new self (choose to live as holy and righteous as God created us to be).
So what if you don’t want to let your old desires die? What if you want to hold onto getting high in order to achieve calm or lying in order to have provision? Well then, you will not have the peace God gives because you choose to turn to yourself, you choose to use your heart, soul and strength to attain peace and not lean on Him. You will not have the abundance of provision the Lord provides because you use your heart, soul, and strength to love yourself and not The Lord. Verses 12-16 reads,
“And because you listen to these rules and keep and do them, the Lord your God will keep with you the covenant and the steadfast love that he swore to your fathers. 13 He will love you, bless you, and multiply you. He will also bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground, your grain and your wine and your oil, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock, in the land that he swore to your fathers to give you. 14 You shall be blessed above all peoples. There shall not be male or female barren among you or among your livestock. 15 And the Lord will take away from you all sickness, and none of the evil diseases of Egypt, which you knew, will he inflict on you, but he will lay them on all who hate you. 16 And you shall consume all the peoples that the Lord your God will give over to you. Your eye shall not pity them, neither shall you serve their gods, for that would be a snare to you.”
It is not easy to give up the desires of the flesh. It can be frightening to consider the mountainous job of giving up drugs and being clean or no longer lying to make money, or whatever struggle you have to let the desires of the flesh die. But it is God who will do it, He will be with you and He will fight for you. Verses 17-26 read,
“If you say in your heart, ‘These nations are greater than I. How can I dispossess them?’ 18 you shall not be afraid of them but you shall remember what the Lord your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt, 19 the great trials that your eyes saw, the signs, the wonders, the mighty hand, and the outstretched arm, by which the Lord your God brought you out. So will the Lord your God do to all the peoples of whom you are afraid. 20 Moreover, the Lord your God will send hornets among them, until those who are left and hide themselves from you are destroyed.21 You shall not be in dread of them, for the Lord your God is in your midst, a great and awesome God. 22 The Lord your God will clear away these nations before you little by little. You may not make an end of them at once, lest the wild beasts grow too numerous for you. 23 But the Lord your God will give them over to you and throw them into great confusion, until they are destroyed. 24 And he will give their kings into your hand, and you shall make their name perish from under heaven. No one shall be able to stand against you until you have destroyed them.25 The carved images of their gods you shall burn with fire. You shall not covet the silver or the gold that is on them or take it for yourselves, lest you be ensnared by it, for it is an abomination to the Lord your God.26 And you shall not bring an abominable thing into your house and become devoted to destruction like it. You shall utterly detest and abhor it, for it is devoted to destruction.”
Scripture says, “do not be afraid” numerous times but here God does not say that. He says, if you are afraid, just remember what I have already done for you and know I will do this too. Being afraid doesn’t mean you have no faith. Not acting because of your fear means you have no faith. Faith is trusting God enough to act even in the midst of fear. Just as often the Bible tells us to be courageous. Courage is what He describes here. He says that if we act in our fear then we won’t fear the enemy. We do not have to dread the enemy, God fights for us.
Moses said, that God would clear them away little by little and not all at once. The beasts would not be hunted and they would overtake The Promised Land and make it uninhabitable to Israel. I have known people who were instantly delivered from drug addiction or instantly healed of some affliction. But more often I have seen people delivered healed slowly, bit by bit. If He instantly made you go from a size 14 to a size 4 you would not learn to remain a size 4. Your eating and exercise habits would once again make you a 14 and then a 16. If He instantly healed your drug addiction, you would not have learned why you chose calm through cannabis rather than peace through Jesus and you would keep turning to cannabis rather than Jesus. That is why He gives us self-control. We have to choose, to love God with our freewill and choose to love Him with our strength and not eat the donut, smoke the joint, or cheat someone.  He reminds us again to commit our old selves to Him, not let any of it remain. Keeping hold of those old desires will be a snare and keep us from being the righteousness of God.
Believer, the first step of loving God with all your heart, soul, and strength is giving your old self which did not love God to Him completely. We can’t hold anything back. Giving Him 99% is not all. Giving Him all of it is all. He will give you a new self that is so much better! He will bless you above all people! He will bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground, your grain and your wine and your oil, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock. But if you’re holding something back, you’re choosing to worship the idol of your drug, your money, your power, or pleasure instead of God. Jesus died once and for all so you could be free from the chains of slavery to the prince of sin and be a king of the King of kings. What are you holding back? It’s okay, give it to Him and He will give you so much more in return.
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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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Deuteronomy 4:1-44 The One True God is Revealed in His Law

2/27/2016

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know therefore today, and lay it to your heart, that the Lord is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other. Deuteronomy 4:39
know therefore today, and lay it to your heart, that the Lord is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other. Deuteronomy 4:39
Deuteronomy 4:1-44
Israel was preparing to finally enter The Promised Land after forty years. They were camped eleven days journey from crossing the Jordan. Moses was speaking to them to make them ready and encourage them. Verses 1-2 begin his second discourse.
And now, O Israel, listen to the statutes and the rules that I am teaching you, and do them, that you may live, and go in and take possession of the land that the Lord, the God of your fathers, is giving you. 2 You shall not add to the word that I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God that I command you.
God’s promises are often connected to our obedience. Our obedience is learned through suffering, discipline and time in the wilderness. Israel began their trek, afraid to receive the promise of God. He turned them around and had them journey through the wilderness for forty years. They were not lost, they followed The LORD. He gave them the Law, they learned it and they learned to follow God. The Lord was clear, they were not to add to the Law nor take away from it. The Law as given in the Ten Commandments and as given to the Levites was perfect as it was. The Law revealed the Lord as He is, it gave them the way to worship Him as Him. Later Jeroboam would take away from Levitical Law and create an idolatrous worship. Later the Pharisees would add to it and so remove God from the Law. Because they added to it, they didn’t come to know The One True Living God and didn’t recognize Him when He walked among them.
If we add to or take away from God’s Word or Law we change it and it no longer reflects Him. It no longer becomes the Truth, the Way, and the Life it becomes an image of something else. The Pharisees added to the law in order to ensure they kept it. In doing so they removed the heart of God’s Word and when He came they committed blasphemy and crucified Him.
Jeroboam took away from God’s Word in order to keep Israel from going to Judah to worship. He created a religion that twisted the truth into an idolatry that led to Israel’s destruction instead of the life, He promises. Keeping God’s Word means obedience and it means remaining true to it. Not doing so has consequences. The Wilderness shows us, as it showed Israel the consequences of our choices. Verses 3-8 read,
Your eyes have seen what the Lord did at Baal-peor, for the Lord your God destroyed from among you all the men who followed the Baal of Peor. 4 But you who held fast to the Lord your God are all alive today. 5 See, I have taught you statutes and rules, as the Lord my God commanded me, that you should do them in the land that you are entering to take possession of it. 6 Keep them and do them, for that will be your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples, who, when they hear all these statutes, will say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.’ 7 For what great nation is there that has a god so near to it as the Lord our God is to us, whenever we call upon him? 8 And what great nation is there, that has statutes and rules so righteous as all this law that I set before you today?
God is in His Word, His Law. Obedience to His Word reveals Him in us and to others. The world looks at God’s obedient children and stands in awe of God. They ask where our peace comes from, where our hope lies, and how we can respond to life the way we do. Who else can say their god answers, acts, and remains so close? Who else can say their god is always with them and will never forsake them? No one because there is no God like The LORD. He is not far off. He is not silent. He is not apathetic. He cares, He leads, and He is with us. But we must turn to Him, seek to know Him, follow, and listen. Verses 9-14 reads,
Only take care, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things that your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. Make them known to your children and your children's children— 10 how on the day that you stood before the Lord your God at Horeb, the Lord said to me, ‘Gather the people to me, that I may let them hear my words, so that they may learn to fear me all the days that they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children so.’ 11 And you came near and stood at the foot of the mountain, while the mountain burned with fire to the heart of heaven, wrapped in darkness, cloud, and gloom. 12 Then the Lord spoke to you out of the midst of the fire. You heard the sound of words, but saw no form; there was only a voice. 13 And he declared to you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, that is, the Ten Commandments, and he wrote them on two tablets of stone. 14 And the Lord commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and rules, that you might do them in the land that you are going over to possess.
Other religions claim that their gods speak to them, but which can claim that they spoke audibly out of fire to the entire nation at once? Which other people can assert that their gods wrote their law with their own hands onto stone tablets? None, because their gods cannot speak or act. I have experienced God speaking the same words to many people at the same time. I have been there when someone else spoke the words He told me or I spoke and confirmed what God spoke to them. He is like no other gods. He is real and even though invisible, He is tangible in His Word and deeds. He gives us faith which opens our blind eyes to see the invisible and eternal Kingdom of Heaven. He does not need us to give Him a form or define Him by assigning Him an image. We know who He is and no image can contain the wholeness of The Lord God Creator of Heaven and Earth and everything in it. Verses 15-24 say,
Therefore watch yourselves very carefully. Since you saw no form on the day that the Lord spoke to you at Horeb out of the midst of the fire,16 beware lest you act corruptly by making a carved image for yourselves, in the form of any figure, the likeness of male or female,17 the likeness of any animal that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the air, 18 the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the water under the earth.19 And beware lest you raise your eyes to heaven, and when you see the sun and the moon and the stars, all the host of heaven, you be drawn away and bow down to them and serve them, things that the Lord your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole heaven. 20 But the Lord has taken you and brought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be a people of his own inheritance, as you are this day.21 Furthermore, the Lord was angry with me because of you, and he swore that I should not cross the Jordan, and that I should not enter the good land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance. 22 For I must die in this land; I must not go over the Jordan. But you shall go over and take possession of that good land. 23 Take care, lest you forget the covenant of the Lord your God, which he made with you, and make a carved image, the form of anything that the Lord your God has forbidden you. 24 For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.
Trying to define The Lord by deciding what He looks like and who He is outside of His Word invites us into idolatry. How many people bow down to the crucifix, instead of the Risen Lord? How many people move from the statue of a dying god to statues of past believers? It is idolatry to worship those images. It is idolatry to make a statue of anything and put it on the altar as god. It is idolatry to put anything or anyone on the altar or place anything or anyone on the throne of your heart. God has shown us the consequences and if we fall into Israel’s pattern of idolatry or the world’s motif of idolatry we too will suffer the aftermath of disobedience. Suffering teaches obedience. Even God learned obedience through His suffering. As Jesus prayed in Gethsemane and begged The Father to let Him not be crucified, when He suffered betrayal from His closest friends, when He stood trial an innocent man ready to die for our sin, He learned obedience and exercised it by laying down His life willingly. Hebrews 5:7-9 reads,
In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence. 8 Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. 9 And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him,
Moses warned Israel and prophesied what would happen as a result of their idolatry. He exhorted them not to fall into worship of images, false gods, and carvings made by human hands. He urged them to cling to God’s Word as if their lives depended on it in verses 25-31,
When you father children and children's children, and have grown old in the land, if you act corruptly by making a carved image in the form of anything, and by doing what is evil in the sight of the Lord your God, so as to provoke him to anger, 26 I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that you will soon utterly perish from the land that you are going over the Jordan to possess. You will not live long in it, but will be utterly destroyed. 27 And the Lord will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations where the Lord will drive you. 28 And there you will serve gods of wood and stone, the work of human hands, that neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell. 29 But from there you will seek the Lord your God and you will find him, if you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul. 30 When you are in tribulation, and all these things come upon you in the latter days, you will return to the Lord your God and obey his voice. 31 For the Lord your God is a merciful God. He will not leave you or destroy you or forget the covenant with your fathers that he swore to them.
Israel would disobey and worship false gods and they would be scattered among the nations, a remnant of who they had once been and a shadow of who they were meant to be. But through that suffering they would once again turn to God in obedience. God made them a promise and He has not forgotten it. He made you a promise and He has not forgotten it. When you have learn obedience and can act on it in faith, He will let you take possession of what He has given you, The Kingdom of Heaven. He will let you become who you were created to be, the image of Christ.
For that to happen, you must worship the One True God as He is and not who you make Him to be. You must bow down to The Lord and the Lord alone, not a crucifix, a statue, a bank account, a man, or yourself. Nothing and no one can measure up to the perfect vastness of God. Verses 32-40 read,
For ask now of the days that are past, which were before you, since the day that God created man on the earth, and ask from one end of heaven to the other, whether such a great thing as this has ever happened or was ever heard of. 33 Did any people ever hear the voice of a god speaking out of the midst of the fire, as you have heard, and still live? 34 Or has any god ever attempted to go and take a nation for himself from the midst of another nation, by trials, by signs, by wonders, and by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and by great deeds of terror, all of which the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes? 35 To you it was shown, that you might know that the Lord is God; there is no other besides him. 36 Out of heaven he let you hear his voice, that he might discipline you. And on earth he let you see his great fire, and you heard his words out of the midst of the fire. 37 And because he loved your fathers and chose their offspring after them and brought you out of Egypt with his own presence, by his great power, 38 driving out before you nations greater and mightier than you, to bring you in, to give you their land for an inheritance, as it is this day, 39 know therefore today, and lay it to your heart, that the Lord is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other.40 Therefore you shall keep his statutes and his commandments, which I command you today, that it may go well with you and with your children after you, and that you may prolong your days in the land that the Lord your God is giving you for all time.”
It is the Lord who made you, called you, saved you and sanctified you. No created god on earth could do that. And though we deserve death for our sins, He gives us sanctuary. He told us what sin is so that we could be holy as He is holy. He gave us a way out of sin. He knows we are not yet perfect and so He gives us mercy. Sinners can seek refuge in the Lord and be saved from the death they deserve and have their part of God’s promise too. Verses 41-43 read,
Then Moses set apart three cities in the east beyond the Jordan, 42 that the manslayer might flee there, anyone who kills his neighbor unintentionally, without being at enmity with him in time past; he may flee to one of these cities and save his life: 43 Bezer in the wilderness on the tableland for the Reubenites, Ramoth in Gilead for the Gadites, and Golan in Bashan for the Manassites.
If the people who had accidently killed without malice went to the cities of asylum they would be safe, but if they ventured beyond them, they were at the mercy of anyone seeking vengeance. Outside of God’s promise they could be killed for their crime, but within the walls of God’s protection they were secure. Don’t go looking for God’s salvation beyond the Kingdom of God. He is not there.
Believer, The Lord is your God. He alone is God, there is none like Him, none comparable to Him, and none other than Him. He is the Word, Perfect and True. He is Salvation. He is Righteousness. He is Obedience and Faith. You cannot find Him outside of the Truth. You cannot change Him into who you want Him to be. He will change you into who you are meant to be.
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Deuteronomy 2 God Promises and Delivers the Impossible

2/25/2016

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When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished, saying, “Who then can be saved?”  But Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” Matthew 19:25-26
When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished, saying, “Who then can be saved?” But Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” Matthew 19:25-26
Deuteronomy 2
Moses continued his speech to Israel before they made the final leg of their 40 year trek in the wilderness. He reminded them of what God had done and what they had done in that time. He now spoke to them about what happened after they refused to take possession of The Promised Land and God had turned them back to begin wandering. Verses 1-8 read,
“Then we turned and journeyed into the wilderness in the direction of the Red Sea, as the Lord told me. And for many days we traveled around Mount Seir. 2 Then the Lord said to me, 3 ‘You have been traveling around this mountain country long enough. Turn northward 4 and command the people, “You are about to pass through the territory of your brothers, the people of Esau, who live in Seir; and they will be afraid of you. So be very careful. 5 Do not contend with them, for I will not give you any of their land, no, not so much as for the sole of the foot to tread on, because I have given Mount Seir to Esau as a possession.6 You shall purchase food from them with money, that you may eat, and you shall also buy water from them with money, that you may drink.7 For the Lord your God has blessed you in all the work of your hands. He knows your going through this great wilderness. These forty years theLord your God has been with you. You have lacked nothing.”’ 8 So we went on, away from our brothers, the people of Esau, who live in Seir, away from the Arabah road from Elath and Ezion-geber.
“And we turned and went in the direction of the wilderness of Moab.”
Esau was Jacob’s older twin brother, not chosen by The Lord to be the Father of His people. But The Lord had given his descendants a land of their own. God sent Israel through that land, peaceably and let them buy food and water. They were warned that He had put fear of them into their hearts and they should be careful. They were also told, this land was not for them, it had been given to Esau. Moses also reminded the people that though The Lord did not give them the land He had given to Esau, He had been with them and provided perfectly for them. They lacked nothing. They had no reason to envy the people or want what God had not given them.
Israel had refused the land promised to them and though God still was giving it to them, they had some learning to do in the wilderness. The first lesson let them see that Gracious God gave Esau a place even though he had sold his birthright and done nothing to deserve God’s mercy. He showed them that He can give to whomever He chooses. He taught them that He would provide for them and they had no need to take what was not theirs. He taught them that they would not expect the provision He promised to be given unfairly but that in the provision the buyer and seller, the giver and receiver would be blessed. But the journey and the lesson continued. Verses 9-23 read,
“‘Now rise up and go over the brook Zered.’ So we went over the brook Zered. 14 And the time from our leaving Kadesh-barnea until we crossed the brook Zered was thirty-eight years, until the entire generation, that is, the men of war, had perished from the camp, as the Lord had sworn to them. 15 For indeed the hand of the Lord was against them, to destroy them from the camp, until they had perished.
16 “So as soon as all the men of war had perished and were dead from among the people, 17 the Lord said to me, 18 ‘Today you are to cross the border of Moab at Ar. 19 And when you approach the territory of the people of Ammon, do not harass them or contend with them, for I will not give you any of the land of the people of Ammon as a possession, because I have given it to the sons of Lot for a possession.’ 20 (It is also counted as a land of Rephaim. Rephaim formerly lived there—but the Ammonites call them Zamzummim— 21 a people great and many, and tall as the Anakim; but the Lord destroyed them before the Ammonites, and they dispossessed them and settled in their place, 22 as he did for the people of Esau, who live in Seir, when he destroyed the Horites before them and they dispossessed them and settled in their place even to this day. 23 As for the Avvim, who lived in villages as far as Gaza, the Caphtorim, who came from Caphtor, destroyed them and settled in their place.)
Now Israel had to travel through land given to Lot’s descendants. Lot was Abraham’s nephew and also not chosen to be God’s people. He had chosen to follow The Lord when given the opportunity and God had graciously blessed him. The Emin who had possessed the land before Lot were Rephaim, literal giants. They were giants like the Anakim who lived in Canaan and scared Israel enough to make them afraid to take the Promised Land. Now The Lord showed them, He had overcome giants for Lot, He could overcome them for Israel. At this point, Moses also pointed out to the people, that when Esau took the land given to them, they had to defeat the Horites, who were a fierce people as well. Israel was given the same instructions for passing through Ar as they had been when passing through Seir; do not contend with the people, the land is theirs. God gave Israel a glimpse of what they could have had and of His great power. He did it with kindness and gently as He led them and provided for them.
He showed Israel how He blessed whomever He chose and that no nation was beyond His Sovereignty. He blessed Lot, Abraham’s nephew and spiritual son but not the descendent promised to him. He blessed Esau, Israel’s brother who had sold his blessing. The Lord wanted to bless His own people but they were too afraid to believe God could do it. But God was teaching them, and their next lesson would prove to them that God could do what He promised and they could be strong because He is strong. Verses 24-25 read,
“‘Rise up, set out on your journey and go over the Valley of the Arnon. Behold, I have given into your hand Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon, and his land. Begin to take possession, and contend with him in battle. 25 This day I will begin to put the dread and fear of you on the peoples who are under the whole heaven, who shall hear the report of you and shall tremble and be in anguish because of you.’”
So far, Israel had been told not to fight and not to take the land, but now they were told they would fight, they would win and they would take the land because The Lord willed it. Because of what God did with and for Israel, nations would be very afraid of the wandering band of ex-slaves. Verses 26-32 continue the narrative.
““So I sent messengers from the wilderness of Kedemoth to Sihon the king of Heshbon, with words of peace, saying, 27 ‘Let me pass through your land. I will go only by the road; I will turn aside neither to the right nor to the left. 28 You shall sell me food for money, that I may eat, and give me water for money, that I may drink. Only let me pass through on foot, 29 as the sons of Esau who live in Seir and the Moabites who live in Ar did for me, until I go over the Jordan into the land that the Lord our God is giving to us.’ 30 But Sihon the king of Heshbon would not let us pass by him, for the Lord your God hardened his spirit and made his heart obstinate, that he might give him into your hand, as he is this day.31 And the Lord said to me, ‘Behold, I have begun to give Sihon and his land over to you. Begin to take possession, that you may occupy his land.’”
Even before the first fight was fought, God promised the Land was already being given to Israel. He said, ‘start moving in now, it is yours.’ Sovereign God hardened Sihon’s heart and the adamant king refused to let God’s people walk through his land or buy food and water from the people of Kedemoth. Verses 33-37 read,
“Then Sihon came out against us, he and all his people, to battle at Jahaz. 33 And the Lord our God gave him over to us, and we defeated him and his sons and all his people. 34 And we captured all his cities at that time and devoted to destruction every city, men, women, and children. We left no survivors. 35 Only the livestock we took as spoil for ourselves, with the plunder of the cities that we captured. 36 From Aroer, which is on the edge of the Valley of the Arnon, and from the city that is in the valley, as far as Gilead, there was not a city too high for us. The Lord our God gave all into our hands. 37 Only to the land of the sons of Ammon you did not draw near, that is, to all the banks of the river Jabbok and the cities of the hill country, whatever the Lord our God had forbidden us.”
Whatever God said they would have, He gave to Israel. They would not and could not take what He gave to Esau or Lot, but everything in the wilderness of Kedemoth was theirs. Israel was not made of warriors, it was made up of men and women who had built pyramids, farmed, and slaved away under the tyranny of Pharaoh. They didn’t have the skills to win battles. They had The Lord; they had His promises and His Might. That is all they needed at Kedemoth and The Lord taught them it was all they needed at Canaan. Kedemoth was not The Promised Land, it bordered Canaan. God gave it to Israel not for their permanent habitation yet but for their rest, growth, and understanding in order to show them He is The LORD (Deuteronomy 3:18-22).
Has The Lord promised you something? Yes, He has! If nothing else, Believer, He has promised you eternal life in union with Him. He has promised provision and gifts and blessings. I know he has promised you more. I know there are things He has given you beyond those wonderful promises. I know because He loves to give good gifts to His children (Matthew 7:11). Child of God, He adores you! Is what He promised impossible? For you yes it might be, but for God, nothing is impossible (Matthew 19:26).
Are you afraid to believe that His promise will come true because it is too hard? Let God teach you to have more faith and take possession of what He promised. God does not expect you to do the impossible without Him. He asks you to put your faith in Him and obey. He asks you to take the steps he tells you to take and let Him do the impossible. What glory and praise would there be to Him if the giant man defeats the smaller man? But what glory and praise does He receive when the child shepherd without even a sword defeats the giant warrior (1 Samuel 17:50)? Be encouraged, your weakness, your inability is what makes the promise that much greater! 2 Corinthians 12:9-10 reads,
“But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10 For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong”
I confess, God promised me something years ago. I wanted it very much but as time passed, I saw it was improbable and my hope faded. I tried to stamp out my desire for it but I couldn’t quench that fire. More time passed and it is now impossible. I believed until this morning that I was mistaken; I believed God did not promise me a daughter. I am an unmarried virgin going through menopause with no prospects of a husband. It is impossible for me to have a daughter. But this morning God reminded me of His promise, He reminded me of the step of faith He asked me to take yesterday (which I did), and He told me, “It is impossible for you but nothing is impossible for Me.”
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Deuteronomy 1 Do Not Be Afraid to Receive the Promises of God

2/24/2016

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but he called out to them, “Don’t be afraid. I am here!
but he called out to them, “Don’t be afraid. I am here!" John 6:20 (NLT)
Deuteronomy 1
Today as we continue in the pursuit to know God more deeply we will begin reading Deuteronomy. God desires for us to know Him and love Him (Hosea 6:6). He is clearly depicted throughout The Scriptures as The LORD, Father God, Jesus Christ the Son, and The Holy Spirit. Allowing Him to reveal Himself to us in books where He is not so plain such as Deuteronomy allows us to know Him in an intimate way that reading only the New Testament does not. He is in the entire Word and leaving portions of it out of our study leaves portions of The Lord out of our knowledge and so endangers us to worship a god based on part of the truth, a god of our own making, a god who is not The LORD.
Authored by Moses and comprised primarily of three discourses spoken to Israel, Deuteronomy is the fifth book of the Pentateuch. The name means the second law. It is the second revelation of the Law to Moses and to Israel. The Hebrew name for the book is Elle haddabharim, which mean "These are the words." That is how the book begins. Let’s dig in to the first chapter. Verses 1-5 read,
“These are the words that Moses spoke to all Israel beyond the Jordan in the wilderness, in the Arabah opposite Suph, between Paran and Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth, and Dizahab. 2 It is eleven days' journey from Horeb by the way of Mount Seir to Kadesh-barnea. 3 In the fortieth year, on the first day of the eleventh month, Moses spoke to the people of Israel according to all that the Lord had given him in commandment to them, 4 after he had defeated Sihon the king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon, and Og the king of Bashan, who lived in Ashtaroth and in Edrei. 5 Beyond the Jordan, in the land of Moab, Moses undertook to explain this law, saying, 6 “The Lord our God said to us in Horeb, ‘You have stayed long enough at this mountain. 7 Turn and take your journey, and go to the hill country of the Amorites and to all their neighbors in the Arabah, in the hill country and in the lowland and in the Negeb and by the seacoast, the land of the Canaanites, and Lebanon, as far as the great river, the river Euphrates. 8 See, I have set the land before you. Go in and take possession of the land that the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give to them and to their offspring after them.’”
Israel had been wandering in the desert for forty years because of their lack of faith to take The Promised Land. The Lord had grown their faith in those years. All the generation of the faithless (over twenty years old at the start) had died except for Caleb and Joshua (Numbers 14:30). Even Moses would not get to enter The Promised Land because he had lacked faith. The Lord had taught the second generation that He is their God and they were His people. They had to learn that truth because they could only depend on The Lord. Isn’t that what our suffering teaches us, to know God and depend on Him?
They were eleven days journey from reaching the Promised Land, the same distance as Egypt to Kadesh-barnea (what would become Israel). They eleven days away from the promise that most of them had lived their entire lives walking towards. There was still a lot ahead of them. They would have to take the land from the people already there, so The Lord had to prepare them. He began by reminding them of what they had gone through the last forty years and having Moses explain the law to them. Verses 9-18 read,
“At that time I said to you, ‘I am not able to bear you by myself. 10 The Lord your God has multiplied you, and behold, you are today as numerous as the stars of heaven. 11 May the Lord, the God of your fathers, make you a thousand times as many as you are and bless you, as he has promised you! 12 How can I bear by myself the weight and burden of you and your strife? 13 Choose for your tribes wise, understanding, and experienced men, and I will appoint them as your heads.’ 14 And you answered me, ‘The thing that you have spoken is good for us to do.’ 15 So I took the heads of your tribes, wise and experienced men, and set them as heads over you, commanders of thousands, commanders of hundreds, commanders of fifties, commanders of tens, and officers, throughout your tribes. 16 And I charged your judges at that time, ‘Hear the cases between your brothers, and judge righteously between a man and his brother or the alien who is with him. 17 You shall not be partial in judgment. You shall hear the small and the great alike. You shall not be intimidated by anyone, for the judgment is God's. And the case that is too hard for you, you shall bring to me, and I will hear it.’ 18 And I commanded you at that time all the things that you should do.”
How wise was Moses to know that the responsibility of an entire nation was so great? He didn’t know at that time that it would be forty long years, he thought it would eleven days or so. He was a humble man who knew enough the great honor of leading Israel was also a difficult one he could not do alone. Solomon said in Ecclesiastes 4:9-12,
“Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. 10 For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up! 11 Again, if two lie together, they keep warm, but how can one keep warm alone? 12 And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him—a threefold cord is not quickly broken.”
Israel was only too happy to accept the commendation of appointing judges among them. They heard this command and received it gladly. Some promises seem easy to receive, especially the ones with titles and privileges. But they didn’t receive every command from God with such willingness. They were prideful and stubborn like we are. Remember as we read that Israel represents us. What they did and lived is supposed to teach us so that we might skip the mistakes they made. But pride, obstinacy, and rebellion are deep-seated traits of the flesh that too many of us have refused to give to The Holy Spirit. Verses 19-21 read,
“Then we set out from Horeb and went through all that great and terrifying wilderness that you saw, on the way to the hill country of the Amorites, as the Lord our God commanded us. And we came to Kadesh-barnea. 20 And I said to you, ‘You have come to the hill country of the Amorites, which the Lord our God is giving us. 21 See, the Lord your God has set the land before you. Go up, take possession, as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has told you. Do not fear or be dismayed.’”
Israel was right there just outside The Promise Land. God said, “Go take it, it is yours, don’t be afraid.” But this command to take what they had been promised horrified them. They were terrified to receive what The LORD had promised.  Verses 22-28 describe Israel’s response to The LORD’s command to receive their promise.
“Then all of you came near me and said, ‘Let us send men before us, that they may explore the land for us and bring us word again of the way by which we must go up and the cities into which we shall come.’ 23 The thing seemed good to me, and I took twelve men from you, one man from each tribe. 24 And they turned and went up into the hill country, and came to the Valley of Eshcol and spied it out. 25 And they took in their hands some of the fruit of the land and brought it down to us, and brought us word again and said, ‘It is a good land that the Lord our God is giving us.’
26 “Yet you would not go up, but rebelled against the command of the Lord your God. 27 And you murmured in your tents and said, ‘Because the Lord hated us he has brought us out of the land of Egypt, to give us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us. 28 Where are we going up? Our brothers have made our hearts melt, saying, “The people are greater and taller than we. The cities are great and fortified up to heaven. And besides, we have seen the sons of the Anakim there.”’
Instead of taking the land as God commanded, they checked it out first. They looked at the Land through their eyes and abilities, not The Lord’s. Instead of being encouraged by the fruit the land offered, they were discouraged by the report of the people. Where was their faith in God? They had just crossed through the Red Sea and remained perfectly dry while the army of Egypt had drowned behind them (Exodus 14:26-31). Where is our faith when God tells us to take what He has promised? Where is our faith when He tells us to do the impossible? For too many of us, we forget we can depend on The Lord, we forget His promise means He will do it, and we think somehow we have to do it by our heart, soul, strength and mind. Deuteronomy 31:6 reads,
“Be strong and courageous. Do not fear or be in dread of them, for it is the Lord your God who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you.”
The Lord God Almighty is with you and He will never leave you nor forsake you, don’t be afraid. Go ahead, accept His promise, take the steps you are afraid to take because He said, “Be courageous.” Courage is not having being fearless, it is acting in faith regardless of your fear. That courage comes from depending solely on God, not looking toward your own strength, your bank account, or other circumstances to save you. The author of Hebrews understood that it is fear that leads us to idolize money and other earthly solutions rather than Our All-Sufficient Lord. Hebrews 13:5-6 says,
“Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” 6 So we can confidently say,
“The Lord is my helper;
    I will not fear;
what can man do to me?”

Israel downright refused to take The Promised Land. So He had to teach them, strengthen them and enable them to receive it. Moses reminded Israel of what went on the day they stood where they would stand after another eleven days journey looking at the Promise of God about to be manifested. Verses 29-41 read,
“Then I said to you, ‘Do not be in dread or afraid of them. 30 The Lord your God who goes before you will himself fight for you, just as he did for you in Egypt before your eyes, 31 and in the wilderness, where you have seen how the Lord your God carried you, as a man carries his son, all the way that you went until you came to this place.’ 32 Yet in spite of this word you did not believe the Lord your God, 33 who went before you in the way to seek you out a place to pitch your tents, in fire by night and in the cloud by day, to show you by what way you should go.
34 “And the Lord heard your words and was angered, and he swore,35 ‘Not one of these men of this evil generation shall see the good land that I swore to give to your fathers, 36 except Caleb the son of Jephunneh. He shall see it, and to him and to his children I will give the land on which he has trodden, because he has wholly followed the Lord!’37 Even with me the Lord was angry on your account and said, ‘You also shall not go in there. 38 Joshua the son of Nun, who stands before you, he shall enter. Encourage him, for he shall cause Israel to inherit it.39 And as for your little ones, who you said would become a prey, and your children, who today have no knowledge of good or evil, they shall go in there. And to them I will give it, and they shall possess it. 40 But as for you, turn, and journey into the wilderness in the direction of the Red Sea.’”
The Lord would still fulfill His promise, but only when Israel was ready. The faith of Joshua would ensure The Lord’s promise for their children. Israel was turned around and led back the direction they came, not back into slavery, they were already delivered, but to walk following The Spirit and learning that God is All-Sufficient and Almighty. Verses 41-46 tell us what happened next,
“Then you answered me, ‘We have sinned against the Lord. We ourselves will go up and fight, just as the Lord our God commanded us.’ And every one of you fastened on his weapons of war and thought it easy to go up into the hill country. 42 And the Lord said to me, ‘Say to them, Do not go up or fight, for I am not in your midst, lest you be defeated before your enemies.’ 43 So I spoke to you, and you would not listen; but you rebelled against the command of the Lord and presumptuously went up into the hill country. 44 Then the Amorites who lived in that hill country came out against you and chased you as bees do and beat you down in Seir as far as Hormah.45 And you returned and wept before the Lord, but the Lord did not listen to your voice or give ear to you. 46 So you remained at Kadesh many days, the days that you remained there.”
Israel said, “You’re right! We don’t wanna go back to the wilderness! That eleven days journey was tough! Okay we have faith! We’ll fight like you said.” But God said, “No don’t fight.” He had not told them to fight, He had said He would fight for them. He knew they were not ready to walk in the faith they would need to walk in order to take possession of The Promised Land. He had to take them through the wilderness first.
It might be frightening to take what God has promised you. It was frightening to take the eternal life, the promise of Jesus Christ and live as a child of Our Father in Heaven in the power of The Holy Spirit against the prince of the world. But Jesus overcame him for you. He fought for you then and He fights for you now. If you can’t receive His promises just yet, rejoice He will strengthen you and prepare you to receive them.
Did He promise you healing, blessings, and provision? They are yours. Did He promise you would do greater works than He has done? You will. Did He promise you offspring physically and spiritually, favor, and prosperity of provision and ministry? He will give it. Receive it, do not fear or be dismayed, take the steps He has told you to take or let Him lead you through the wilderness until you have the faith to receive it. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.” (Hebrews 12:6).
​
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    As I read the Bible every day, I take what God teaches me, what He says, and write it out. I then share that with you. It gives me a deeper understanding of the Word and I hope that it will encourage you as it does me, to put your love and faith into action.

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