*ducks because of flying rocks*
I know! I know! I'm sorry! I should be a more faithful blogger. BUT HEY! Guess what? I finished NaNoWriMo. I didn't think I would be able to squeeze 50,000 words in one month, but I did! And it wasn't that bad. I actually finished with 50,900. Snap!
But seriously, now that I am trough I want and plan to blog more. This morning I was just wanting to share some really great scripture that I read this morning. Believe it or not...it's from Deuteronomy. I was reminded this morning that God does listen to our prayers because I have been doing this "reading through the Bible plan" and it skips all around like crazy. I was reading 2 Kings, then Jeremiah, then Joel and I just entered Deuteronomy yesterday. Well, I don't know about you guys, but sometimes I feel so discouraged reading through the Old Testament. I especially go through these times where God seems far away and idle in my life (of course, I know He's not! IT'S ME!!). So of course during those times it is that I'm reading this pretty hefty, hard-to-keep-a-two-minute-attention-span-with Old Testament books. So anyways, this morning I just prayed. "God please teach me this morning. Give me some really great verses to chew on today!"
HE DID! yea!
I hope I haven't been missing them all along (which I probably have). But I feel like God led me to the perfect chapters today. They were rich! If you haven't read Deuteronomy 4, 5, and 6. I would recommend it!
Okay, I will only talk about a few of the verses because that's all I really have time for. Chapter 4 was dealing with the subject of idols. We all know that the Israelites were prone to keep returning to idols. I always wonder why, but then, I guess I do it too. (One thing I HAVE learned reading all the OT books is the patience of God! Whooo, I'm telling ya. The nation of Israel was very naughty but God kept sparing them and bringing them back to Himself. If you are a Christian...this should sound oddly familiar.) And I know this is probably a verse that's been beat over your heads. It has mine, but I LOVE about scripture how one verse that you've heard a million times can suddenly hit you home for the millionth time.
4:24 "For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God."
When I think about that I become really grateful. The God of the universe is jealous. Not of everyone - that's too general. But zoom in a little. *looks through scope* WHOA! There's you and me down there. He's jealous of You and ME! When I stray form God and turn to idols (my mirror, the computer, TV, football, school, monstrous ACT tests, lies, my story world...ect) He is jealous of me. And desires me to toss those things aside and be with Him.
This makes me think about Devos differently. I'll be the first to admit that I approach daily devotions kinda legalistic at times. Thinking, "Well, if I don't do this I'm gonna have a bad day today." or "God's gonna be mad if I don't." or "I wanna be a good Christian."
NO! I need to approach it with this attitude. "God wants to be with me. GOD wants to be with ME. Whoa! that makes me sooo happy that I can't wait to be in His Word and pray this morning." Although, even if we aren't excited like that, it is still good to do it anyways...good practice. God says, "Read the Bible and pray." So do it. Even if it doesn't taste like chocolate at the moment.
And here is another scripture from the same chapter. Vv. 29-31 "29 But from there you will seek the LORD your God, and you will find Him if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul. 30 When you are in distress, and all these things come upon you in the latter days, when you turn to the LORD your God and obey His voice 31 (for the LORD your God is a merciful God), He will not forsake you nor destroy you, nor forget the covenant of your fathers which He swore to them.
WOW! That is a beautiful promise. If we seek God with all our hearts and souls we WILL find Him. That's a promise. If we are truly seeking Him He isn't going to hide Himself (not saying that it's always a piece of cake to feel His presence - it's not. That's part of the learning and growing experience.).
When you are in distress...when you turn to the Lord and obey His voice...He will not forsake.
Thank you, God.
Now, it is for us to dive whole-heartedly into the Word to find out what seeking and obeying God with all our heart and soul should look like, then DO IT! And stop talking about it. I feel like Christians (me especially) constantly talk about things. "We ought to do this." and "Go thou and do this." and "Be like this." and "Don't do this." BUT WE NEVER DO ANYTHING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! *pulls hair* Why are you like that? Why am I like that? *head bang*
Okay. Conclusion. Read Bible. Seek God with everything. Then do what Bible says. Be changed.
We finally got that. Moving on!
Okay Deuteronomy 5 is about the 10 Commandments. That's good reading there. Just refreshing. Hey, you know what? I found that I kinda forgot all the 10 Commandments. I did. Wellll, I KNOW them, but from five on I can't say them in order. *talks to self* Ash, dear, those are fundamentals. Learn them.
Deuteronomy 5:32-33 "32 “Therefore you shall be careful 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 ways which the LORD your God has commanded you, that you may live and that it may be well with you, and that you may prolong your days in the land which you shall possess.
Just another fantastic promise. Ponder it! More about STOP TALKING and FOLLOW!
As for chapter 6. Maybe this is dumb, but I was rather surprised to see that the greatest commandment in the old testament was to love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, mind, soul and strength. I mean, there isn't anything wrong with it of course. But for some reason it struck me as odd. I've read Deuteronomy a couple times (due to failed attempts to read through the Bible) and it never clicked with me before.
Read verses 4-8. "Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one! 5 You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.
6 “And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
I really like what God tells them to do with these commandments. In a nut shell He says, "Live and breath them." He even says to write them on your doors and gates. Hmmm. Maybe we should try it!! I like the idea.
An just a question what is a frontlet? It's giving me some great mental pictures. Lol. Hey, I don't think it's absurd though. God is saying that it should be on the front of our minds ALL THE TIME. We should constantly be thinking about God, His love, and how we can serve Him better.
That's enough of my thoughts for the day. Hope I didn't confuse the heck out of ya!
Boast in CHRIST ALONE!
2 comments:
I certainly wasn't confused when I read this. While you tackled at least four entirely different subjects all in one post (wowza!), I understand what you were saying. So in order to refrain from commenting on each subject (that'd be a long comment!), I'll simply comment on the last thing you mentioned: the greatest command God's given us. This topic seems to have been thrown at me a lot recently. God's number one rule is to love Him. Why, you ask? The answer I found was that if you honestly, purely, wholly love Him, all other things fall into place. If we can get to the place in our faith where we do everything for Him, we aren't going to do something He won't want us to. That's what Jesus was saying when He told us to love Him.
As for the poll you have, I selected Other. And since you asked for me to specify in a comment, I shall. Try being consice and precise. Deliver your point with absolute truth and power. Spare the details; being long-winded is a turn-off. So that's my word of advice!
I know. Unfortunately, the scatter-brained content of my posts a lot of times really reflects my thought process in real life. I tend to move through subjects rather quickly.
That's great though, isn't it? That if we love the Lord everything else will fall in place! We need to stop worrying about everything turning out right then, huh?
Thanks for the advice. This one was particularly bad. And also, I think since most the people who read my blog are friends and family, I tend to not care as much - they already know I'm crazy anyways. But I shall try to apply it because that is no excuse. Think and gather...then write. That shall be my new motto.
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