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A Wandering Aramean

Daily Reading

Deuteronomy 24-27

Daily Thought

The Israelites presented their first fruit offerings with these words, “A wandering Aramean was my father. And he went down into Egypt and sojourned there, few in number, and there he became a nation, great, mighty, and populous. And the Egyptians treated us harshly and humiliated us and laid on us hard labor. Then we cried to the Lord, the God of our fathers, and the Lord heard our voice and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression. And the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with great deeds of terror, with signs and wonders. And he brought us into this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. And behold, now I bring the first of the fruit of the ground, which you, O Lord, have given me” (Deuteronomy 26:5-10). This is the story of the Israelites, the story of God’s leading, of their faith and following. The first fruits are a celebration of God’s blessing, and the hardships, toil, and wandering are part of the story and must be remembered.

This is our story as well. Each of us are wanderers, lost until we are found by Christ. “Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God” (1Corinthians 6:9, 11).

“My father was a wandering Aramean” is our story. It is our first-fruit offering, the celebration of salvation, the reminder that we were wanderers, born of wanderers, “and the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10). Jesus loved me first.

Daily Prayer

Loving Father, You are my Savior and my Deliverer, my Rock and my Fortress, my Rescuer and my Redeemer. You made a covenant, a promise, a vow with me. You are my God. I, with all who believe in You and place our lives in Yours, all of us, we are Your people. The bride of Christ.

I am created in Your image, fearfully and wonderfully made. The image is clouded by sin, but You are restoring it. God, fill me with Your Spirit so Your glory is evident, so that I resemble Your Son, so that all who see me see a reflection of You.

Amen

Daily Question

What was it like when you first met Jesus?

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Grace > Tolerance

Daily Reading

Deuteronomy 21-23

Daily Thought

God demands repeatedly of Israel, “So you shall purge the evil from your midst” (Deuteronomy 13:5; 17:7, 12; 19:19, 21; 22:21, 22, 24; 24:7). Israel was the one nation in history where God joined together Church and State, “I will be your God and you will be my people.” In that close relationship, when God’s holiness is a daily display, Israel is to bless the world as an example of God’s presence. You cannot have God in your midst and evil, too. Evil must be purged. 

For example, Deuteronomy 22:22, “If a man is found lying with the wife of another man, both of them shall die, the man who lay with the woman, and the woman. So you shall purge the evil from Israel.” The Pharisees used this passage when challenging Jesus with a woman caught in adultery, “Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?” We like Jesus’s answer, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” God, in the Old Testament, seemed so severe, so stiff. Jesus says, “Neither do I condemn you” (John 8:3-11). 

We think Jesus tolerant, and we think we like tolerance, but our definition of tolerance is “live and let live” and it is wrong. Romans 1 describes what happens when God lets people live in their sin. God gave them up (let them live) in their lusts (v 24), their dishonorable passions (v 26), their debased mind (v 28), and the result? “They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless (vv 29-31). It turns out God uses “live and let live” as a tool of his wrath and judgment. It turns out “live and let live” is really “let die.” It turns out an eternity of that kind of tolerance would be hell.

Rather than our idea of tolerance, I am grateful for God’s, “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8), and as a result, “there is therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1). Jesus said to the woman caught in adultery, “Neither do I condemn you” (John 8:11). That’s not tolerance, that’s grace. That’s not “live and let live,” Jesus died for that sin. That’s the good news of Jesus Christ.

Daily Prayer

My God, Your reign and Your Kingdom is good. At the Name of Jesus every knee will bow, above the earth, on the earth, under the earth. Every tongue will confess Jesus Christ is Lord.

I know I test Your patience a lot, yet Your love never ceases. May my love, my faith, my devotion, my delight in righteousness continue to grow. I desire nothing less, nothing else.

Amen

Daily Question

When you recognize a pattern of sin in someone, how do you deal with it?

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Forever True, Eternally Grateful

Daily Reading

Deuteronomy 17-20

Daily Thought

This is how you know whether a prophet is true or false: “When a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that the Lord has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You need not be afraid of him” (Deuteronomy 18:22). But if it does come true…

The prophet Isaiah: “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel” (Isaiah 7:14).

The prophet Micah: “But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days” (Micah 5:2).

The prophet Zechariah: “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey” (Zechariah 9:25).

The prophet Isaiah again: “But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5).

“For unto you is born this day in the city of David, a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” ~Luke 2:11

Daily Prayer

Father God, Your Kingdom come, Your will be done. You are forever true and I am eternally grateful. Thank You for sending Your Son, King of kings and Lord of lords. May I and my whole household serve You all our days in this present life, and all eternity in the age to come.

Thank You for coming close, for Your Son becoming flesh and blood, displaying Your glory in our midst. Thank You that I am a citizen of Your Kingdom through the righteousness of Your Son. May my entire household love You and serve You with all our heart and soul and strength.

Amen

Daily Question

How do you decide whether to trust someone or not?

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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). Uh, 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 100% 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 last sentence 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 everything he 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

Daily Question

How well do you keep God’s commandments?

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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 what you have learned. 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 at me. 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. Of course, you won’t always get it right, so when 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

Daily Question

What are some of the good things you learned from your parents?

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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, right here, announces what he expects of his people. This is the good life.

    • A life of awe, fearing God not in a trembling terror, but rather a reverential 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 toward 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 you are seeking God’s will for your life, it is not hard to find. 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 live the good life and You get the glory!

Amen

Daily Question

Of God’s expectations of you, which are most difficult and which come easily for you?

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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. Love grows into reality with a decision, I choose to love you. I choose to love you no matter what, no matter how I feel or how you make me feel. I love you the way I learned to love, the way God loves me. 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 two, maybe–irritable and resentful could be emotions, and even they are what love is not, not what love 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, my enemies, everyone.

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

Daily Question

What are your greatest obstacles to loving certain people?

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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

Daily Question

When have you listened to God and done what he said?

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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

Daily Question

In what ways has the church blessed the world?

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One Who Is Eternal

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).

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 this was accomplished 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

Daily Question

Are you holy as the Lord God is holy?