“In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths.”
I remember a childhood game called “follow the leader.” The idea was to do everything as best you could, that the person leading did. Life is similar to that game. No matter how independent we think we are, we are going to follow someone or something. We need to be sure that the one we follow is going in the right direction. If we must play “follow the leader” we need to follow the One who knows the way. Proverbs 3:6 tells us to acknowledge, or heed, the Lord. It also tells us how to follow Him. We should follow Him completely. “In all thy ways” means that if we want to follow the leadership of Jesus, we must follow Him every day and in every way. Jesus does not want to be the Lord of our “church lives,” yet be ignored in our everyday lives. Jesus actually wants to be our Lord, our leader, when we are at home. He wants to be the leader of our lives when we are at work. He wants to be the leader of our lives when we are on vacation. We cannot take vacations from the leadership of Jesus. We can trust His leadership in the use of our time and our talents. We should follow His leadership in every word, every thought and every action in our lives. I know that none of us will do this perfectly, but it is a good goal. (Don’t you agree?) We would surely stay out of a lot of trouble if we would closely follow Jesus. Frankly, I have not always found this easy to do in my life. The human will is strong and needs to be tamed by the Lord. You will not find it easy either, but you will find it rewarding. How can we do it? Proverbs 3:5 tells us how: “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding.” We should follow Him willingly. “In all your ways acknowledge Him" means to pay attention to Jesus and heed what He says. It means to pay attention to the Holy Spirit given to us by Jesus to give us proper leadership. Jesus alone is worthy of the leadership of our lives. When Paul addressed the philosophers on Mars Hill about their “Unknown god” in Acts 17, he told them, in effect, that he knew God. In verse 28 he told them: “For in Him we live and move and have our being.” That is the God that we know through our belief in Christ. We should be willing to follow the One who has this power. Someone has written: “We must hear (Jesus) as teacher, trust Him as Savior, love Him as Father, follow Him as master, obey Him as Lord, and honor Him as supreme in all things.” Good Point! This is what it means to follow Jesus willingly. We should follow His directions. “In all thy ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct thy paths.” As written earlier, we will follow someone or something. It amazes me what people will follow today. They need to know, if they will believe, that when Jesus directs the path it is the right path. There are a lot of “leaders” out there, as there was in New Testament days, seeking our attention and our loyalty. None of them deserve to direct our lives. None of them came from heaven, died on a cross, or rose from the dead for us. If you want to go in the right direction, trust Jesus for He will never lead you astray. I pray that you will meditate on this today. Bro. Joe
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"For Thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: Thou delightest not in burnt offering. 17. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and contrite heart, O God Thou wilt not despise."
The story, probably the joke, is told about an airplane that was in serious trouble. The plane was diving fast, when someone screamed: "Quick somebody do something religious." One of the passengers was a Baptist preacher and he took up a collection. He did something religious, but I doubt very seriously that it did any good. This is what David is saying here in his prayer of repentance after his adultery with Bathsheba. Burnt offerings were a fact of life for the Israelites. A lot of the Pentateuch (first five books of the Bible) is taken up with how to do burnt offerings. They were offerings, among other things, to atone for Israel's sins. But the mere act of doing a burnt offering was not sufficient; one's heart had be right when he offered the burnt offering. God is not mainly concerned with religious practices, if they are not done from the heart. For example, it is not enough just to go to church, take up space on a pew, and just endure the worship service. Just being at church is a religious exercise, but it does not, necessarily, please God. What pleases God is for our hearts to be broken and for us to come to Him in repentance with a "contrite heart." The meaning of contrite is to feel guilty about sins that have been committed. David was certainly feeling contrite at the time he wrote these verses. He knew that he had sinned, and he was not going "to do something religous," rather he was going to genuinely repent with a contrite heart. Today we see guilt as something bad, and it is if it is unnecessary, but if we have something to feel guilty about, we should be driven to repentance. Indeed, our hearts should be touched and changed. Faith begins in our hearts and we should keep close watch on what we have in our hearts. Just going through the motions and doing religious things is not enough. God calls us to joy, but we cannot be joyful if our hearts are filled with sin. That is why David told us: "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit and contrite heart..." Remember that! Bro. Joe “Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. 3. For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me.”
“Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation: and uphold me with thy free spirit. 13. Then will I teach transgressors your ways; and sinners shall be converted unto you.” This psalm was written after David committed adultery with Bathsheba and had been confronted by the great prophet Nathan. Nathan told David a story about a wealthy man who owned a lot of sheep and took away the one sheep that belonged to a poor man. When David heard that story, he was irate. Nathan answered back to him, “You are the man.” Of course, David was conscience stricken and this psalm was a result. We don’t have room on this page for the whole psalm, but I have quoted four verses that give us the gist of the meaning of the psalm. Verse 3 gives us the clue as to how we should react when we know that we are not right with God: “For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me.” Acknowledging our sins is absolutely necessary in getting right with God. After Nathan’s story, David came face-to-face with the murder of Uriah, Bathsheba’s husband, and his adultery with her. David had to stop denying that he had sinned and that he needed to acknowledge what he had done. We will get right with God when we acknowledge our own sins. Like David, it is so easy for us to see the sins of other people, but we whitewash our own sins. Until we acknowledge our sins, we cannot be right with God. God is willing to forgive us for any sin, but He wants us to admit that we have sinned. Verse 2 shows us what it was that David wanted from God in relation to his sins. When we realize that we have sinned, we feel unclean. There is no uncleanness like the uncleanness of our souls, for this is what sin does to us. The realization of the greatness of his sins left David feeling guilty and dirty. Being “a man after God’s own heart,” David was not accustomed to feeling that way. The sad thing is that many people come to feel at home with feeling dirty and they are satisfied with it. If you want to be cleansed of guilt, you need to repent, confess and ask God to cleanse you from sin. There is no need for sin to rob you of the joy that you can have in your life. God is ready and willing to forgive you and cleanse you. Come to Him like David and ask God to cleanse you. Verse 12 shows us what David really lost when he sinned and did not seek God’s forgiveness. He said: “Restore unto me the joy of your salvation; and uphold me with your free spirit.” Overt sin caused David to lose the joy of the salvation that God had given him. Jesus died on the cross to cleanse us from sin, and He wants us to enjoy the salvation that He has given us. Sin has a way of coming between us and our joy. If you are not joyful now, perhaps you need to look deeply within your heart and discover the source, if you don’t already realize it, and rush to God for forgiveness as David did. Verse 13 gives us the result of being forgiven and cleansed. Until he confessed, David could not “teach transgressors their ways.” David was accustomed to being the one right with God, and felt comfortable helping others see the right way. But until he confessed, and was cleansed, he knew that he was in no position to witness and minister to other people. If you want to be an effective witness for Jesus, follow David’s example and repent, confess and ask for forgiveness. Bro, Joe "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature (creation): old things are passed away; behold all things are become new. 18. And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; 19. To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the ministry of reconciliation, 20. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us; we pray you in Christ's stead be reconciled to Christ."
Paul wrote that Christ "hath given to us the ministry of reconcilation" in verse 18, and in verse 19 he wrote "...and hath committed unto us the ministry of reconciliation." We who have been reconciled have been given the ministry of helping other people be reconciled to Christ. Because of this ministry we have become "ambassadors for Christ." As ambassadors we have been sent on a mission to tell others about Christ. What does an ambassador do? Let's begin with what he does not do. He does not go to another country and do his own thing, or tend to his own business. He does whatever the leader of his country tells him to do. Therefore, as "ambassadors for Christ," we are to do as Christ tells us to do. For example, there are people who have been called to be "ambassadors for Christ" in faraway countries. They raise their children in that country, and many of them spend their days until retirement in that country. That is one example. Another example is people like most of us who are not called to be ambassadors in faraway countries, but are called to be ambassadors, or witnesses, where we are. We are to do what Christ tells us to do here where we are. We sometimes have the idea that because we are not called to go to another country, we do not have to be ambassadors. The Bible says "go ye." "Go ye" means all Christians. We are all ambassadors, or missionaries, for Christ. This is as true where you live as it is in Africa, Japan, Korea, etc.. We need to remember that it is an honor to be appointed an ambassador. Our country does not send people to other countries as ambassadors unless they are smart, tactful and able to get along with other people. An ambassador also has to have some knowledge of the country to which they are assigned. In order to do this, I imagine that they have to study and learn about the country to which they are going. It is a privilege to be an ambassador for the kingdom of God. We should take our ambassadorship seriously and learn and do all that we need to do to be the best ambassadors that we can be. Let's determine that in this crazy world in which we live, we will be Christ's ambassadors. Bro. Joe “Do all things without murmuring and disputing. 15. That you might be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom you shine as lights in a dark world.”
The point of Paul’s reminder to the Philippians was that they conduct themselves in a way that they would “shine as lights in a dark world.” This was one of the first commands that Jesus gave in the Sermon on the Mount: “Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven. (Matthew 5:16) Just as Jesus saw the world in darkness, so did Paul, and so will we if we will just look around. This darkness did not start in the last few years. According to the Bible, the world has always been a place of darkness in need of God’s light. As Jesus ordered and as Paul admonished, we are to be the means of showing God’s light to the world. How do we do this? We do not do it by being religious, judgmental or acting like Pharisees. We let our lights shine through the lives that we live. Paul gave two examples of things that we shouldn’t do if we are to “shine as lights in a dark world.” He wrote for them to “do all things without murmuring….” The modern translation of this word is complaining. Before I come down hard on complaining, let me remind you that we all complain at some time or other. Let’s just go ahead and confess it at the outset. The problem is that for a lot of people, even Christians, complaining is a chronic condition. What is wrong with complaining? One thing is that its source is anger, and when complaining is chronic it means that the anger has found root in the person’s heart. When anger becomes engrained in the heart it tends to make one dissatisfied with everything. This is one of the devil’s tools. He loves to maket us angry and get us to complain about everything. Another thing wrong with complaining is that it is not grounded in love. If we constantly complain about people it means that we do not love them as we should. Yes, I know that some people constantly get on our nerves, but we should not let them determine how we talk or act. Evidently, complaining had become a problem in the Philippian church and was dimming the church’s light; therefore, Paul reminded them that they needed to stop complaining. If complaining was making their lights dim, it will make our lights dim as well. He wrote for them to do “all things without disputing….” The modern translation of this word is “arguing.” A more colloquial translation is “fussing.” (In Southwest Georgia, it would be translated “fussin’.”) I have to admit that it is difficult not to argue or fuss sometimes. If a person says or does something that is so obviously wrong, we want to straighten him or her out. What I have discovered, however, is that when we argue with someone we don’t get them straightened out. The main result is usually that our blood pressure is raised. I have to admit that there was a time in my life when I was more argumentative than I am now, but after multiple fusses, I began to realize that fussing and arguing didn't solve anything. It really doesn’t solve anything in Christ’s church. There was a problem with fussing and arguing in the church at Philippi. In 3:2, Paul asked the church to “beseech Euodia and Syntyche to be of the same mind in the Lord.” Evidently, Euodia and Syntyche were two powerful women in the church who were having an ongoing argument and it was causing trouble in the church. We do not realize how our fussing can affect other people. If we want to shine as lights in this dark world, we need to remember that if our behavior does not reflect the love of Christ, we will not shine for Him. We need to be careful that we refrain from constantly complaining and arguing. Bro. Joe "Come, Wait, Go" (Three Important Biblical Verbs) Matthew 11:28; Isaiah 40:13a; Matthew 28:193/28/2021 Matthew 11:28; Isaiah 40:13a; Matthew 28:19
Verbs are action words. They are important in the Bible, for the Bible is a book of action. The Bible not only tells us about God, it tells us to be active for Him. There are certainly more than three verbs in the Bible, but three of its more important verbs are found in the three text listed above. Matthew 11:28: “Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” The first important use of the verb “come” is that we come to Jesus for salvation. According to the Bible, Jesus is the only source of salvation, so people must come to Him to be saved. Matthew 11:28 tells us that we come to Jesus for rest. This does not mean that when we come to Jesus for rest that we will be able to sit and do nothing. Matthew 11:29 says, “Take my yoke upon you.” Yokes are used for work. This means that our work for Jesus will not be a burden. We can enjoy serving Jesus and be rested while we do it. In John 10:10, Jesus said, “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.”Jesus came to us in order to give us abundant life, and we must come to Him in order to have the abundant life that He promised. What did Jesus mean by “abundance”? Among other things, He meant that through Him, we have the abundance of God’s blessings in our lives. I know that I can attest to that, and I hope that you can too. Isaiah 40:13a: “They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength…” The promise of Isaiah 40:13a is that when we wait upon the Lord, He will renew our strength. We get tired and irritable when we impatiently try to do God’s work in our own time. The main point here is that God strengthens us while we wait. Psalm 27:14 also tells us about the importance of waiting upon God: “Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and He shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say on the Lord.” While we wait on God He is giving us the inner strength that we will need to serve Him. When we wait upon the Lord, we learn to live by His timing. It is difficult for us to understand, but God’s timing is not our timing. We must learn to wait on the Lord and He will bring to pass what will be best for us in our lives and in our service for Him. A salient point to make here is that when we wait on the Lord, we are equipped to serve Him. Jesus promised this in Luke 24:49: “And behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you, but tarry (wait) in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high.” Christ’s disciples were to wait for the power of the Holy Spirit, and He would equip them to do what they had been called to do. It was important that they wait for God to act. If they hadn’t waited, we might not have had the great movement of the Spirit at Pentecost. Matthew 28:19a tells us to, “Go ye therefore into all the world…” As it is important to wait on God and His timing, it is equally important for us to go when He tells us to go. He told His disciples, and us, to go into all the world. Jesus has called all believers to be missionaries where they are and in all the world. We cannot personally be missionaries in all the world, but we can witness where we are and give in order for others to go “unto the uttermost part of the earth.” We are to also go where people are hurting. Isn’t this what Jesus did in His earthly ministry? If we really want to be like Jesus, we must get out of our comfort zones and go where the needs are. It is also important that we go to God in prayer. This is where we get the strength to go into all the world and to those who are hurting. We should constantly go to God in prayer in order to be ready to go and do His bidding. We need to take these three verbs personally. Come to Jesus; wait for His timing and go when He calls. Bro. Joe “And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha you are careful and troubled about many things: 42. But one thing is needful; and Mary has chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.”
We are going to revisit Mary and Martha and see what they can teach us. You will probably remember that Jesus was visiting in the home of Lazarus and his two sisters, Mary and Martha. Martha was concerned about the meal, and whatever else, and Mary was sitting at the feet of Jesus. Martha was upset with Mary and wanted her to come help her in the kitchen. Luke 10:41-42 is the answer that Jesus gave to Martha. The problem was that Martha was distracted. To be distracted is to have one’s attention diverted from one thing to another. In this case, Martha was distracted from the presence of Jesus and Mary was taking advantage of having Him present. What distracted Martha was not a bad thing. In fact, if it had been anyone but Jesus, she would have had a case against Mary. I think that the lesson here for us is that we shouldn’t let things distract us from our closeness to Jesus. What are some things that can distract us if we aren’t careful? World events can distract us. As I write this, the world is concerned that Russia has invaded Ukraine. It is something to be concerned about, but it should not distract us to the point that we worry about it. We can’t do anything about it anyway. What we need to do in a case like this is to go to the feet of Jesus, as Mary did, and give all of the worry about that to Him. He told us in Matthew 11:28: “Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest." We should take Him up on that offer. Jesus knows what is going on in the world, and he does not want us to worry about those things. Personal problems can distract us. I am not being judgmental here, because I know something about the distraction of personal problems. Whatever the problems are, family, school, work, church, health, etc., they should not distract us from going to Jesus with them. Jesus knows what is going on in our lives, and He knows what is going on in the lives of other people who might be of concern in our distractions. He wants to minister to us, and He wants us to know that He is with us through whatever the problems may be. Some people take this to extremes and blame God when bad things happen in their lives. This is not unusual because great Bible characters questioned God at times when they were having personal problems. Psalm 13 comes to mind. In the first verse, David wails:“How long wilt thou forget me, O Lord? Forever? How long wilt thou hide thy face from me.” (Don’t judge David too harshly here, because all of us have probably thought that at one time or the other.) In the ensuing verses, David lays out his case and draws closer and closer to the Lord until he concludes in verses 5-6: “But I have trusted in thy mercy; my heart rejoices in thy salvation. 6. I will sing unto the Lord, because He hath dealt bountifully with me.” If we will take our minds and hearts off of the problem and put them on Jesus, He will give us an answer, or give us what we need to cope with the problem. We will discover as David did, that God has, indeed, “dealt bountifully” with us. Whatever is troubling you, hurry, hurry to the feet of Jesus with whatever it is that is troubling you. He knows, and His presence will comfort you. I have dealt with only two things that can distract us from fellowship with Jesus, but I think they illustrate what we need to do when we get distracted by the world. Satan is in the business of distracting us, and he does a very good (evil) job of it. Remember that when our attention is distracted away from Jesus, it is Satan at work trying to discourage us and bring us down. Don’t let him do that to you. Bro. Joe “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God…”
The Bible is plain and simple about one thing: “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” The Bible also declares that there is no one who can say that he or she is good in every sense of the word. Jesus even told the rich young man not to call Him good. If anyone could have been called “good” on this earth, Jesus could have been. I think that Jesus reprimanded the young man because He did not want anyone to use that word “good” loosely. We should all strive to be good people, but when we think that we have reached a satisfying level of goodness, we are only fooling ourselves. We can really become complacent in our “goodness.” So we all need to realize that we “have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” There are different ways that we try to excuse our sinful behavior, and that is what this article is about. There are what I will call “excusers.” These people know that what they do is wrong, but they excuse it on the basis of the reasons for their situations. Their common excuse is that their parents are to blame. If their parents had been better role models, they would not have given in to certain sins. Another excuse is that other people prodded them to do wrong. This reminds me of Adam and Eve after they sinned. When confronted with his sin Adam said “It was the woman’s fault. She gave me the fruit and I ate it.” Eve, in turn, blamed the serpent. What both of them said was true, Eve did give Adam the fruit, but she didn’t make him chew it and swallow it. The serpent did beguile Eve, but he did not pluck the fruit and put it in her mouth. They stood without excuse. There are other things that provoke excuses, but these two illustrate the point for us that we should not make excuses for our sins. There are what I will call the “deniers.” These people deny that there is such a thing as sin. Anything that we do is alright, because there is no God to Whom we will have to answer. There are some things that they see as wrong, like mistreating other people, but that is not called sin. To the “deniers” we don’t have to answer to a higher power for anything that we do. I guess that these are the people who say that anything goes as long as we don’t feel bad about it. Whole industries are built around that supposition. “Deniers” do not believe that the Bible has any authority in the lives of people and that we can just ignore it. There are what I will call “self-righteous sinners.” In the sense of living moral lives, these people are straight as an arrow. Their problem is that they have a shallow view of sin. They think because they don’t swear, lie, drink alcoholic beverages, smoke, chew, dip, etc. they are not sinners. There is one sin that these people overlook, and that is the sin of pride. The Bible does not go easy on pride. There are a lot of references to the sinfulness of pride, but I will use one to illustrate the point. Proverbs 16:18: “Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall.” The elder brother in what we call the “Parable of the Prodigal Son,” is a good example. He took great pride in the fact that he had not wandered off into the “far country” as his brother had, but in his pride he could not rejoice in the fact that the younger son had come home. He refused to go to the party because his pride had been hurt. We who are involved in church really need to heed this lesson. Finally, there is what we will call “the truly repentant.” These people are truly sorry for their sins, and they seek the forgiveness of God regardless of the causes of their sins. They don’t make excuses, deny, or look down on other people, but they go to God for forgiveness and get forgiven for their sins. It is just a simple matter of forgetting our pride, confessing that we have sinned, and getting God’s forgiveness. Let this last person be characteristic of us. Bro. Joe “And by chance there came down a certain priest that way: and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.”
You know the parable: A man enroute to Jericho from Jerusalem was beaten, robbed, and left for dead on the side of the road. A priest happened by, looked at the man, and “passed by on the other side.” Later, a Levite happened by, looked at the man, and “passed by on the other side.” Then what we call, “the Good Samaritan” happened by and stopped to help the man. The focus of this article will be on the priest and Levite, who both went to the other side of the road instead of helping the man. What does “the other side” represent to us? First, the other side is the easiest side. The priest and Levite saved a lot of time. Obviously, both of these men considered their time too valuable to spend it with a dying man. They also saved themselves a lot of bother. Not only would helping a dying man be time consuming, it would be bothersome as well – all of the blood, you know. They just did not want to be bothered. Sadly, the priest and Levite are still alive in spirit today. There are many church members who do not have time for people, nor do they want to be bothered with people. Other people’s problems can be so messy. Let us pray that we will not be the “priests or Levites.” Second, the other side is the most pleasant side. It is not pleasant to bind up wounds. Perhaps the Jewish religious leaders did not want to get their hands dirty or get blood on their clothes. After all, they would have been considered unclean. Most human problems are unpleasant. We have to minister to others in spite of it. It is also not pleasant to be a witness to suffering. It is easy to stay uninvolved in life’s suffering. We can tell ourselves that people are not really hurting or really hungry, etc. Priests and Levites are still among us, and it could be you or me if we are not careful. Third, the other side is the least expensive side. It cost the Samaritan to leave the other side: Luke 10:34-35: “And went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. And on the morrow when he departed, he took out two pence, and gave them to the host, and said unto him, Take care of him; and whatever you spend more, when I come again, I will repay you.” But it also cost the priest and Levite to “pass by on the other side.” It did not cost them money, but it did cost them before God. Surely, God was not pleased that they chose to pass by the man. It also caused, or should have caused them to lose self-respect. I’m not asking you, or myself, to pick up every hitch-hiker that we see. I am asking us to be aware of human suffering and minister to those who are suffering. The cost of “the other side” will be higher than dealing with suffering humanity. Ask yourself: When you stand before God, would you prefer to be the Samaritan, or the priest and Levite? Do not live on the other side. Notice suffering and hurting people around you, have compassion on them and lend a helping hand. Take the time, bother, and money to be a “good Samaritan.” Jesus thinks that we should. Bro. Joe (The beginning of every year is filled with expectations. Deuteronomy 10:12-13 presents some good expectations as we begin this year. Read them and take them to heart.)
“And now, Israel, what does the Lord thy God require (expect) of thee, but to fear the Lord thy God, to walk in all His ways, and to love Him, and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul. 13. To keep the commandments of the Lord, and His statutes, which I command thee this day for thy good?” The Book of Deuteronomy is actually a sermon by Moses as the children of Israel waited to enter the "Promised Land.” It is a summation of Israel’s travels and events from Egypt to that present time. In Deuteronomy, Moses gives some summary statements that serve as advice for God’s people as to how they should live. Deuteronomy 10:12-13 is one of those summary statements. It answers the question as to what basic requirements, or expectations, God had for Israel as they entered Canaan. It is good advice for us as well. The first expectation was “to fear the Lord thy God.” This does not just mean to be afraid of God, but hold Him in deep reverence and awe. One of the problems that Israel faced and that we face today is that, “there is no fear of God before their eyes.” God, as we know Him in Jesus, is not just “the man upstairs.” He is the creator of the universe and the master of all that He created. We would do well to heed Moses' advice. Do you really hold God in awe and reverence? The second expectation was “to walk in all His ways.” Moses wanted Israel to understand, as we are to understand, that there are two ways that we can walk – God’s way or our way. Moses knew from experience that Israel had a penchant for walking in their way as opposed to God’s way. God allows us to choose the way we will walk. If we walk in His way, the way might be rough sometimes, but it will be the rewarding way. If we walk in our way, we will eventually walk into disaster. I know what I’m talking about here, and you probably do too. God wants His people, including those of us who belong to Him through Jesus, to live right, to make right decisions instead of making wrong-headed decisions. I think that the disastrous journey of the prodigal son in Luke 15 is an example of what can happen when we take God’s resources and go our own way. He took a rough route until he came to his senses and sought out his father. The third expectation was “to love Him.” Jesus said that the first commandment is to “love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.” We should love God with all of the fiber of our being. If we will just think of all that He has done for us in Jesus, we should have no problem loving Him. When we love Him, we are returning the great love that He has for us. The fourth expectation was “to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul, and to keep the commandments of the Lord…” Notice that we are to serve Him from our hearts. Everything that we do that really counts in our lives comes from our hearts. If He has our hearts, we will serve Him wholeheartedly. Our salvation from God begins in our hearts, and everything else in our lives should come from our hearts. We are to serve God with all of our souls. This means that our service should proceed from who and what we are in Him. The “soul” is who and what we are, and it should be defined by our devotion to God/Jesus. We are to serve Him with our minds. When Christ saved us, He did not kill our minds. God wants us to keep our transformed minds on Him, and to think when we serve Him. We should serve Him with “the mind of Christ.” How are you doing in these areas of your life? Do you hold God in deep reverence (fear)? Do you walk in all His ways? Do you really love Him? Do you serve Him from deep within yourself? Think about it. Bro. Joe |
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