Tag: holy

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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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Carry That Weight

Daily Reading

Numbers 7

Daily Thought

The Tabernacle was portable, and was packed up, pieced out, and carted along whenever Israel moved camp. The Gershonites were responsible for the curtains, and Moses gave them two carts to carry them. The Merarites, tent poles, got four carts. The Kohathites carried the most holy things, like the ark of the Covenant. They received no carts. God said, “I want you to carry the holy things on your shoulders.”

The Hebrew word for “glory” literally means “weight.” Like the “weight of glory.” Several tons, in this case. That’s how much the ark and the holy things weighed. A cart and a couple oxen would have been nice, “but to the sons of Kohath he gave none, because they were charged with the service of the holy things that had to be carried on the shoulder” (Numbers 7:9). Wonder why?

The wonders of God surround us. The elegance of creation, the beauty of sunsets, the majesty of mountains. “The whole earth is full of his glory,” said more than one Hebrew poet. But that is not where the world will see the full glory of God. God’s intent was that now, “through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, according to his eternal purpose which he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord (Ephesians 3:10-11). The church. That’s you and me, followers of Jesus Christ. Carrying God’s glory to the world, his goodness, his grace, his gospel – it’s on us, on our shoulders. God says, “I want you to carry my glory.”

Daily Prayer

Wonderful God, Maker of heaven and earth, the seas and all that are in them, the land and all it’s creatures, the skies and the birds that soar, stars and planets, painted with all the colors of the rainbow, which you made, as well.

In all of creation, You place Your image in people. People like me.  Through the work of Jesus Christ, through the power of the Holy Spirit, I am being transformed and Your image is becoming clear again. May I display Your glory, Your wonder, Your wisdom, You grace, Your love, to the world around me. May the glory of Your work in me brighten the world and bring You praise.

Amen