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Upside-Down

Daily Reading

Deuteronomy 14-16

Daily Thought

Deuteronomy 15:4 says, “But there will be no poor among you.” Seven verses later, “For there will never cease to be poor in the land” (verse 11). Which is it?

It’s the latter. Verse 11 is an admission of reality. Jesus repeats it years later, “For the poor you always have with you” (John 12:8), and it is still reality today. Verse 4 is conditional. It is not true, but it would be true if the second half of the sentence was true. I left off the second half: “if only you will strictly obey the voice of the Lord your God, being careful to do all this commandment that I command you today.”

God would turn our world upside-down (which means the right side would be up) if we would obey him, but we don’t. We don’t even understand what he is asking of us, because we don’t understand the heart of God. For example, the eighth commandment, “You shall not steal” (Deuteronomy 5:19). We think stealing happens when someone who does not have sees someone who has and takes it from him. God says stealing is more than that. Stealing happens when someone who has sees someone who does not have and does not share with him. Read that again. 

“If among you, one of your brothers should become poor, in any of your towns within your land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart or shut your hand against your poor brother, but you shall open your hand to him and lend him sufficient for his need, whatever it may be” (Deuteronomy 15:7-8)

Does God have rules? You bet he does, and he expects us to keep them. If you love me, you will keep my commandments (John 14:15). But following God is not about following rules. It is about love, “love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:39). And it is about life, “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly” (John 10:10).  If we truly desire what life has to offer, if we truly desire to love others, if we truly desire that there will be no poor among us, there is a way. Desire God and do what God says.

Daily Prayer

Lord God, You have come to bring Your justice into the land, to give Your grace to the repentant, to bless the meek and the poor, to comfort those who mourn, to bring righteousness and goodness to those who seek Your face. May Your Kingdom come and Your will be done.

Father, I pray that my heart would be free of darkness, full of light. That I would see others, love others, and serve others the way You do. God, that I would look at others as more important than myself, that I would be sensitive to needs, that I would have open hands, and feet ready to go wherever You lead. That people would praise Your name because of the faithfulness of Your followers.

Amen

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Get It Right

Daily Reading

Deuteronomy 11-13

Daily Thought

“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, his signs and his deeds that he did in Egypt to Pharaoh the king of Egypt and to all his land” (Deuteronomy 11:2-3). There will be a generation that follows you that did not see what you have seen and you must pass it on. And you must get it right.

In the fifth grade, Mrs. O’Donnell tried to teach the class a song. She got it all wrong. I told her that. In fact, I sang it for her, so she’d know how it was supposed to sound.  Except Mrs. O’Donnell had a record by the original artist and she played it and she was right and the class laughed. In the fifth grade, I learned my dad had his own way of singing songs. When you haven’t heard the original artist, you count on your dad to get the song right. He didn’t.

“You shall therefore lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul. 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. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, 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” (Deuteronomy 11:18-21). Your children are counting on you to get it right. And if you don’t get it right, make it right.

Daily Prayer

Father God, Thank You for all You do. Thank You for Your Word which tells me Your story, about Your faithfulness from generation to generation. Thank You for Your church, the family of God, that surrounds me with Your love and grace.

You have given me Your Good News. May I share it well, may I share it accurately, may I share it in action and word. God, I pray that the picture I show of You by my life will be accurate and true, that I will sing it right and well, and compel others to love and follow You.

Amen

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Five Expectations

Daily Reading

Deuteronomy 8-10

Daily Thought

“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, and to keep the commandments and statutes of the Lord, which I am commanding you today for your good?” (Deuteronomy 10:12-13). God has five expectations of his people.

A life of awe, fearing God not in a trembling terror, but rather a respectful appreciation of his wonderfully terrifying majesty–an all-encompassing attitude toward God that saturates my being and shows through in my actions.

A life of trust, believing God at all times, in all circumstances, following his lead and direction.

A life of love, grateful and full of joy, exhibited not only toward God, but to all those he loves, that is, to each and every person I meet.

A life of service, using my God-given talents and abilities on behalf of and to better the lives of others.

And a life of obedience, reading, hearing, studying, living out His Word. The Lord’s commands are not a burden, but the very best way to live.

If I am seeking God’s will for my life, it is not hard to know. He made a list.

Daily Prayer

Father, thank you for giving me instruction that is for my best. You put me together according to Your plans. You have numbered my days, and set a path in front of me. My prayer is that I would follow that path.

Sometimes I don’t. Thank You for Your Son who paid the price for those times I stray. Thank You for Your Word which lights the path and leads me on the way to righteousness. God, as long as I stay on Your path, I get the good life and You get the glory!

Amen

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The Act of Love

Daily Reading

Deuteronomy 5-7

Daily Thought

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might” (Deuteronomy 6:5). If we love because we are commanded to love, is it truly love? Isn’t love “a many-splendored thing,” a rapturous mystery that springs from my heart, over which I have little if any control?  

Not according to God’s Word, and not according to life either. Attraction springs up and disappears at its own whim, but not love. True love begins with a decision, I choose to love you. I choose to love you no matter how I feel or how you make me feel. I love you the way I have learned to love, the way God has loved me. No matter what, even at my worst, God sacrificed his best for me–”God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). God wills his best toward me, and I in turn will my best toward others. I love them as I love myself.

More than feeling and beyond choice, love is action, and often an act of sacrifice. “God so loved … that he gave” (John 3:16). Count the emotions in 1Corinthians 13:4-8, “Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.” I count one, maybe–irritable could be an emotion, and even that is what love is not, not what it is.

What love is is displayed by God toward me in his Son, Jesus Christ; and by me, in turn, toward God, presenting all of me, my heart, my soul, my might, to him. When I love God in this way, I will love those he loves, as well–my neighbors.

Daily Prayer

Heavenly Father, I am amazed at Your love. Your Son sacrificed for my sake. Your Son considering me and everyone else on this planet above Himself. He released His hold on Your presence, and emptied Himself of glory, and died. Shamefully died for my shame.

Thank You. You saved me, showed me what love looks like, and gave me the capacity to love others. If You had not first loved me, I would not even know what love looks like, because I was consumed with me first. But now, I too am learning to consider others before and above me. To love them as I love myself. What an amazing love.

Amen

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Listen

Daily Reading

Deuteronomy 3-4

Daily Thought

The verb shema: “to hear,” “to listen,” is used almost 100 times in the book we are reading right now, Deuteronomy. It shows up in our passage today, Deuteronomy 4:1, “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.”

Some translations use “hear” instead of “listen.” Have you ever discussed the difference, perhaps with your parents? For me, it began something like this: Me: “I heard you!” Them: “Yes, but I don’t think you were listening,” and for the next hour (it seemed) I learned the difference. When Jesus said (repeatedly), “He who has ears to hear, let him hear,” he was speaking as a parent. “Listen!”

Jesus said, “Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me” (John 14:21). That’s listening. Hearing and obeying, receiving what God has said to us and allowing it to penetrate and shape my heart and change my life. The words of God, “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'” (Deuteronomy 4:6).

All I have to do to hear is be there when a sound is made. It takes no effort on my part. To listen, however, means I pay attention. I show up. All of me.

Daily Prayer

My God, thank You for talking to me, for writing me. Your Words give me life. They lead me into the future, they give me hope, they shape my character. They are good.

May I be one who listens, and may I prove it by what I do. May I let Your Word have its way in my life so that my life will be different, that my life will reflect You, that others will see in me Your glory, Your goodness, Your grace.

Amen

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Break Camp and Advance

Daily Reading

Deuteronomy 1-2

Daily Thought

The Israelites were at Horeb, a.k.a. Mt. Sinai. God meets Moses, the Ten Commandments, thunder and lightning, thick clouds and trumpet blasts. It was awesome, wonderful, uplifting, edifying, inspirational, and terrifying. Everything that makes up a good church service. It was also long (like a church service). Now it is time to go. The LORD our God said to his people at Horeb, “You have stayed long enough at this mountain. Break camp and advance…” (Deuteronomy 1:6-7).

God has a promise to fulfill. God has a purpose for his people. “I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Genesis 12:2-3).

Centuries later, with the Lord Jesus, the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain. They worshiped Jesus there. A church service. Finally Jesus said the same to his followers, ”Go!” (Matthew 28:16-19). Every church service every week should close the same way, “You have stayed long enough at this mountain. Break camp and advance…”

…that all the earth shall be blessed.

Daily Prayer

Father God, it is good to gather and worship. It is wonderful to hear Your Word. I love to be blessed. Who wouldn’t?

God, it is good to scatter and bless. May I bless others by sharing the blessings You have poured out on me. I know Your Son, may I make Him known. May I be filled to overflowing with Your Spirit. May I love and serve and share Your good news to people everywhere, across the street and around the world.

Amen

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No Sin Unpunished

Daily Reading

Numbers 35-36

Daily Thought

No sin unpunished, but each and all shall be atoned for in proportion to the sin. This is the substance of the Law of God, and in Numbers 35, this means the blood of the murderer is required for the blood of murdered. To leave a sin unaccounted stains the land. “You shall not defile the land in which you live, in the midst of which I dwell, for I the Lord dwell in the midst of the people of Israel” (Numbers 35:34). “You shall be holy, for I am holy,” says God (1Peter 1:16).

Our sin is not only personal, but eternal. It is always an affront to the One who created us to be holy. An atonement for an eternal sin, and all sin is eternal, must itself be eternal–eternal separation from what is holy, from God. It requires eternal death. Paul cries, “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” (Romans 7:24). Or it requires the death of one who is eternal. “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Romans 7:25).  

“The blood of Jesus, God’s Son cleanses us from all sin. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1John 1:7, 9). No sin unpunished, but each and all shall be atoned for in proportion to the sin, and they were in Christ Jesus, so that “we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” (Hebrews 10:10). 

“You shall be holy, for I am holy” (1Peter 1:16).

Daily Prayer

Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. We worship You, adore You, praise You. But how, then, do we approach You? For we are not holy. Far from it.

By the blood of Jesus Christ, who bore our sins, we are made righteous with his righteousness. We may approach You, O God, with confidence, through a holiness not of our own, but through our Savior, our Lord, our God, Jesus Christ.

Amen

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Forever True

Daily Reading

Numbers 33-34

Daily Thought

The LORD commanded Moses to keep a list of the places Israel camped after departing Egypt–“When they went out of the land of Egypt by their companies under the leadership of Moses and Aaron, Moses wrote down their starting places, stage by stage, by command of the Lord, and these are their stages according to their starting places” (Numbers 33:1-2). It is more than a list of places, it is a testimony to the sovereignty and faithfulness of God. No difficulty too great. 

The LORD parted the Red Sea to let his people escape, then closed it and drowned the Egyptian army. When the people of God met danger, God prevailed over their enemies. When they thirst, God supplied water, and fed them daily manna from heaven. Miriam died at Kadesh (v 36), and the LORD provided another woman to lead the choir. Aaron died at Mount Hor (vv 38-39), and his son Eleazar stepped in. Eventually Moses died, and Joshua succeeded him. In all of these changes, God remained the same, true to his people. 

God is great, and in the midst of our freedom to wander, he still accomplishes his purpose. The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Command the people of Israel, and say to them, When you enter the land of Canaan…” (Numbers 34:1-2). No matter, they are going to the Promised Land.

Daily Prayer

Faithful Father, no matter what, no matter the ways I wander, no matter my heart’s rebellion, you came to seek and to save me. You are forever true and I am eternally grateful. Thank You for Your grace, for Your long-suffering, for Your patience and persistence. I strayed and you found me and put me on the right path.

You have invited me to follow You. I will follow. I will be a disciple of Your Son, Jesus Christ. I will learn from You and grow in Your likeness, so that I might display Your glory and point others to the way of life.

Amen

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Busted

Daily Reading

Numbers 31-32

Daily Thought

Google Street View takes ground level pictures of the streets of America–and whatever is happening on the street. Like the husband’s car parked in front of the “other woman’s” house. Like the men entering and exiting strip clubs. Like the teenager breaking the window of a car. They thought nobody was watching. They got caught by Google, and it was the best thing that could have happened to them.

Do you know how a student who copies a couple answers on a test turns into a cheater? How a flirt becomes an adulterer? How a girl who steals a bracelet becomes a thief? They get away with it, that’s how.

The book of James describes the downward spiral, if unimpeded. “Each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.” Getting caught is good for us. “You have sinned against the Lord, and be sure your sin will find you out” (Numbers 32:23). The sooner the better.

Daily Prayer

Dear God, You are God, the only God, the God who created this world and all that is in it. You are sovereign over it and intimate with it. You are all-knowing, all-powerful, everywhere present. You are God.

You are also love. You sought me to save me, to redeem me, to sanctify me, to finish what You started. You who began a good work will bring it to completion. Father, mold me, refine me. I count it joy when I encounter trials, because I know it will shape me. I pray for Your wisdom to face trials and to grow in the likeness of Your Son. Thank You for loving me so much.

Amen

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Two-Face

Daily Reading

Numbers 28-30

Daily Thought

“Two-Face” is a Batman villain who flips a coin to choose. Heads he does good. Tails evil. When you can’t trust someone half the time, you can’t trust them anytime. Who knows which half is which?

Echad is Hebrew for “one.” Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is echad. The Lord is One (Deuteronomy 6:4). The LORD: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Three. One. Echad.

Duplicity means two. Duplicity says, “I can’t trust you.” Honesty is a flip of the coin.

Echad is completely trustworthy. Moses spoke to the heads of the tribes of the people of Israel, saying, “This is what the Lord has commanded. If a man vows a vow to the Lord, or swears an oath to bind himself by a pledge, he shall not break his word. He shall do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth” (Numbers 30:1-2). What he says and what he does shall be echad, one and the same.

Daily Prayer

My God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Holy is Your Name. Always trustworthy, always true, always faithful. Made in Your image, in this I fell. May I be restored in integrity. May I be one as You are one.

God, may I live a life of transparency and truth. Since You see me even when I hide, it is ridiculous for me to be anything but honest, it is foolish for me to be anything but trustworthy. You know me inside and out, my deepest thoughts and intentions. May I reflect You. May my ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and my ‘No,’ ‘No.’

Amen