Lesson 9 (Know who sustains us)
Deuteronomy 8:3 "And He humbled you and allowed you to hunger, and then He fed you with manna, which you did not know, neither did your fathers know it, so that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone. But by every word that comes out of the mouth of the LORD man shall live.
God wants us to live for Him, to rely on Him and to live in Him. God deals with us to mould us and transform us into something that He is able to use. When I read this passage I find that it is not me who has to humble myself but God who humbles me. That is saying that every situation I find myself, almighty God has allowed it for my good and His purpose.
It is interesting to note that when we are hungry, when we are at our lowest, God feeds us (I am talking here about our whole being, not just an isolated part of us).
He provides manna from heaven to sustain us. He wouldn't do this if He had no purpose for us. God wants to bring us to the place where He provides for us and to that place where we know He provides for us. Are we prepared to abide in that place and pick up the manna, the food that God has loving provided for us?
Or are we going to waste lots of our energy rushing about, in the wilderness, looking for something to satisfy us that doesn't exist?
Lord help me to hear your voice and then apply the words from your mouth so that I may realise that "Man does not live by bread alone" Amen
Showing posts with label Lessons from Deuteronomy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lessons from Deuteronomy. Show all posts
Tuesday, 22 January 2013
Saturday, 12 January 2013
Living with God 8
Lesson 8 (Remember what God has done)
Deuteronomy 8:2 "And you shall remember all the way which the LORD your God led you these forty years in the wilderness in order to humble you, to prove you, to know what is in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not.
Why does God have to "prove us and to know what is in our hearts"?
It is not as if the writer is saying this is what it is like being a Christian, God spying on my life, it is the writer saying REMEMBER every where you went God went with you.
God deals with us all in different ways and at different times in our lives. It is not that He is trying to prove anything but that He wants us to learn how to trust Him.
Remember, reflect on how God led you through the difficult times. Did He neglect you? It may have seemed like He had, yet the whole purpose was to know what was in our hearts, to know whether we really meant what we said at the outset of our Christian walk. "I will follow you all my days", "I will serve you".
Personally this post is very true for me at the moment. Whilst I can read the words of this text and say yes it is true "God has led me throughout my life", sometimes it is hard to appreciate in the moment that God is still with me. I can read all the passages in the Bible which say that God loves, cares and watches over me etc etc. yet I can still be all at sea.
What I am learning and what I am asking God for is to teach me to live a life that reflects His steadfastness and His faithfulness.
God of grace and mercy please remind me of you faithfulness, compassion, grace and mercy so that I might remember that you have kept me in all my ways. Oh Lord help me to receive strength from this very act of remembrance so that I can draw strength to live through my present troubles and despair knowing that you will bring me through. Amen.
Deuteronomy 8:2 "And you shall remember all the way which the LORD your God led you these forty years in the wilderness in order to humble you, to prove you, to know what is in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not.
Why does God have to "prove us and to know what is in our hearts"?
It is not as if the writer is saying this is what it is like being a Christian, God spying on my life, it is the writer saying REMEMBER every where you went God went with you.
God deals with us all in different ways and at different times in our lives. It is not that He is trying to prove anything but that He wants us to learn how to trust Him.
Remember, reflect on how God led you through the difficult times. Did He neglect you? It may have seemed like He had, yet the whole purpose was to know what was in our hearts, to know whether we really meant what we said at the outset of our Christian walk. "I will follow you all my days", "I will serve you".
Personally this post is very true for me at the moment. Whilst I can read the words of this text and say yes it is true "God has led me throughout my life", sometimes it is hard to appreciate in the moment that God is still with me. I can read all the passages in the Bible which say that God loves, cares and watches over me etc etc. yet I can still be all at sea.
What I am learning and what I am asking God for is to teach me to live a life that reflects His steadfastness and His faithfulness.
God of grace and mercy please remind me of you faithfulness, compassion, grace and mercy so that I might remember that you have kept me in all my ways. Oh Lord help me to receive strength from this very act of remembrance so that I can draw strength to live through my present troubles and despair knowing that you will bring me through. Amen.
Monday, 7 January 2013
Living with God 7
Lesson 7 (Don't Compromise/Don't Covet)
Deuteronomy7:25 "You shall burn the graven images of their gods with fire. You shall not desire the silver or gold on them, nor take it for yourself, so that you may not be snared in it. For it is an abomination to the LORD your God".
Sometimes it is very hard to resist the temptations that the devil sets in our paths. More often than not it is to do with money, sex, or security. God wants to free us from such things.
We, especially as Christian men, but not exclusively, have a responsibility to stand up for what is right. If we don't then many more could suffer and fall into the trap of compromise.
There are many times that God warns the children of Israel not to compromise or covet. Telling them not to partake of what is not theirs.
This begs the question what is ours to take as followers of Jesus? I suppose the answer lies somewhere in knowing where our security lies as it is so easy sometimes to just take what is on show, whether that be material, physical, mentally, emotionally, visually etc. God says NO and we have to listen for our own good. We have to stand up for what is right and not be so bound up with sin that so easily ensnares us. Hebrews 12:1.
It is really difficult not to compromise in a world that says you can have what you want, when you want. In this passage we have two specific commands: -
God wants us to burn our idols, that is the things in our lives that we worship, the things that we put before God himself. God also wants us to not covet, that is to desire anything that belongs to someone else. We need to learn to be content with what we have. What I know is that God is able to deliver us from "this sin that ensnares us", sin being anything that hinders me from worshiping my God as He would have me worship Him. Let us continue to trust almighty God and be content and complete in Him and His plan for us.
Help me Lord to recognise that you are my salvation and my fortress. You alone oh God are the only one who is able to sustain me and lift me out of despair and place my feet on a rock, on solid ground so that I, through your Grace can live a life that glorifies you. Amen
Deuteronomy7:25 "You shall burn the graven images of their gods with fire. You shall not desire the silver or gold on them, nor take it for yourself, so that you may not be snared in it. For it is an abomination to the LORD your God".
Sometimes it is very hard to resist the temptations that the devil sets in our paths. More often than not it is to do with money, sex, or security. God wants to free us from such things.
We, especially as Christian men, but not exclusively, have a responsibility to stand up for what is right. If we don't then many more could suffer and fall into the trap of compromise.
There are many times that God warns the children of Israel not to compromise or covet. Telling them not to partake of what is not theirs.
This begs the question what is ours to take as followers of Jesus? I suppose the answer lies somewhere in knowing where our security lies as it is so easy sometimes to just take what is on show, whether that be material, physical, mentally, emotionally, visually etc. God says NO and we have to listen for our own good. We have to stand up for what is right and not be so bound up with sin that so easily ensnares us. Hebrews 12:1.
It is really difficult not to compromise in a world that says you can have what you want, when you want. In this passage we have two specific commands: -
- "burn the graven images of their gods", (their idols).
- "do not desire their silver or gold" .
God wants us to burn our idols, that is the things in our lives that we worship, the things that we put before God himself. God also wants us to not covet, that is to desire anything that belongs to someone else. We need to learn to be content with what we have. What I know is that God is able to deliver us from "this sin that ensnares us", sin being anything that hinders me from worshiping my God as He would have me worship Him. Let us continue to trust almighty God and be content and complete in Him and His plan for us.
Help me Lord to recognise that you are my salvation and my fortress. You alone oh God are the only one who is able to sustain me and lift me out of despair and place my feet on a rock, on solid ground so that I, through your Grace can live a life that glorifies you. Amen
Tuesday, 1 January 2013
Living with God 6
Lesson 6 (God's Promise, He is Faithful)
Deuteronomy7:8b and because He would keep the oath which He had sworn to your fathers, the LORD has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you out of the house of slaves, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.
Deuteronomy7:9 Therefore, know that the LORD your God, He is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy with them that love Him and keep His commandments, to a thousand generations.
Because God loves us He also sustains us. God is a being of faithfulness. The promise delivered to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob was that this being would be "A God to you". This promise is also true for this generation.
There are many times in our lives when we struggle to recognise that we have a faithful God but that does not alter the fact that He is a faithful God. God's faithfulness is revealed in His mercy and by our obedience. He can say in scripture that He is faithful and will keep covenant but until we make an effort and move into that promise we will never know that He is faithful and yet by the same token God will keep us in the times when we do not adhere to His voice and command, it's in those moments His mercy extends to cover us until we are bought back like lost sheep into the fold.
In our lesson today we have to learn what it is to know God, to know that He has redeemed us, it is He who sustains us and it is He who is God.
Deuteronomy7:9 "Therefore, know that the LORD your God, He is God, the faithful God"
Lord help me to draw on your faithfulness, to know you are God in all your fulness whatever that may mean. Help me Lord to trust you implicitly and to know when to walk, know when to run and know when to stay. Time, Lord is not important to you just obedience and trust in you the timeless being creator of all things.
Deuteronomy7:8b and because He would keep the oath which He had sworn to your fathers, the LORD has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you out of the house of slaves, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.
Deuteronomy7:9 Therefore, know that the LORD your God, He is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy with them that love Him and keep His commandments, to a thousand generations.
Because God loves us He also sustains us. God is a being of faithfulness. The promise delivered to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob was that this being would be "A God to you". This promise is also true for this generation.
There are many times in our lives when we struggle to recognise that we have a faithful God but that does not alter the fact that He is a faithful God. God's faithfulness is revealed in His mercy and by our obedience. He can say in scripture that He is faithful and will keep covenant but until we make an effort and move into that promise we will never know that He is faithful and yet by the same token God will keep us in the times when we do not adhere to His voice and command, it's in those moments His mercy extends to cover us until we are bought back like lost sheep into the fold.
In our lesson today we have to learn what it is to know God, to know that He has redeemed us, it is He who sustains us and it is He who is God.
Deuteronomy7:9 "Therefore, know that the LORD your God, He is God, the faithful God"
Lord help me to draw on your faithfulness, to know you are God in all your fulness whatever that may mean. Help me Lord to trust you implicitly and to know when to walk, know when to run and know when to stay. Time, Lord is not important to you just obedience and trust in you the timeless being creator of all things.
Sunday, 16 December 2012
Living with God 5
Lesson 5 (Be patient)
This post is about having patience, something that has taken me a long time to learn, yet a lesson worth learning and one I am constantly having to learn.
Deuteronomy7:22 "And the LORD your God will put out those nations before you by little and little. You may not destroy them at once, lest the beasts of the field increase upon you."
Patience is something quite a few of us lack. In a society that has grown up where every thing is provided 'on tap' , where we can easily get what we want when we want we have developed a society that has very little patience, this culture has permeated our daily lives to such an extent that we no longer are able to make good decisions, invariably we make hasty decisions based on not thought out plans. Well that's me anyway.
As we saw in the last post, God is a faithful being. Therefore it follows that He will also grant us the ability to be patient and wait His timing.
This verse tells us that it is God who fights the battles yet so often we think and act as if they are our battles. It is not, or never has been, God's intention give us a land that is an utopia. He never promised a land of ease just a land of abundance and plenty. Life is lived in the flesh by and through the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit, a spiritual life lived out in a world of indifference, a place where we recognise that the battle is the Lord's, yet one where we have authority to destroy the evil one.
God specifically says to the children of Israel "I will put out those nations before you, little by little." Or in other words "I will claim the uninhabited places for you"
So often we want to run ahead of God's plan for our lives and all we end up doing is thwarting the very thing that God wants to accomplish in our lives, that of a complete life that honours Him.
This is a promise and at the same time a warning. We can read of instances when the children of Israel just forged ahead with out God's blessing and ended up in a worse position than when they set out.
God wants us to exercise patience so that we can prove Him faithful and true.
This post is about having patience, something that has taken me a long time to learn, yet a lesson worth learning and one I am constantly having to learn.
Deuteronomy7:22 "And the LORD your God will put out those nations before you by little and little. You may not destroy them at once, lest the beasts of the field increase upon you."
Patience is something quite a few of us lack. In a society that has grown up where every thing is provided 'on tap' , where we can easily get what we want when we want we have developed a society that has very little patience, this culture has permeated our daily lives to such an extent that we no longer are able to make good decisions, invariably we make hasty decisions based on not thought out plans. Well that's me anyway.
As we saw in the last post, God is a faithful being. Therefore it follows that He will also grant us the ability to be patient and wait His timing.
This verse tells us that it is God who fights the battles yet so often we think and act as if they are our battles. It is not, or never has been, God's intention give us a land that is an utopia. He never promised a land of ease just a land of abundance and plenty. Life is lived in the flesh by and through the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit, a spiritual life lived out in a world of indifference, a place where we recognise that the battle is the Lord's, yet one where we have authority to destroy the evil one.
God specifically says to the children of Israel "I will put out those nations before you, little by little." Or in other words "I will claim the uninhabited places for you"
So often we want to run ahead of God's plan for our lives and all we end up doing is thwarting the very thing that God wants to accomplish in our lives, that of a complete life that honours Him.
This is a promise and at the same time a warning. We can read of instances when the children of Israel just forged ahead with out God's blessing and ended up in a worse position than when they set out.
God wants us to exercise patience so that we can prove Him faithful and true.
Thursday, 22 November 2012
Living with God 4
Lesson 4 (Know I am loved)
Deuteronomy 7:7 "The LORD did not set His love upon you, nor choose you, because you were more in number than any people, for you were the fewest of all people".
Deuteronomy 7:8 a "But because the LORD loved you".
We can move into, and claim our inheritance because of this verse of assurance. The children of Israel must have been apprehensive about moving into a land that was not theirs. I want us to consider that the claiming of the land is not about the physical landscape of the land of Israel but about us finding that place where God is and then finding a God who we can be still with. "Be still and know that I am God". Psalm 46:10
We have been given the opportunity to explore the deep heart of God, to come into His presence and enjoy the freedom of "living in the promised land". It is of great consolation that God has set His love on us not because we were anything special but just because He loved us. It is this love that compels us forward, or into the rest. Charles Wesley wrote:-
1:LORD, I believe a rest remain
To all thy people known,
A rest where pure enjoyment reigns,
And thou art loved alone.
2:A rest, where all our souls desire
Is fixed on things above;
Where fear, and sin, and grief expire,
Cast out by perfect love.
3:O that I now the rest might know,
Believe, and enter in!
Now, Saviour, now the power bestow,
And let me cease from sin.
Complete Hymn
God wants to bring us to discover this rest for ourselves. It is because God loves us that we are able to confidently approach the throne of Grace and find all the help we need.
This love of God is so immense, so unfathomable and so unmeasurable that we can never fully appreciate it. This love is what makes us and transforms us into a person who is different. But God knows that we will fail and we will look at that later on in the chapter, but never the less it is the knowledge that we have a God who's love transcends far beyond our wildest dreams and reaches us at our lowest point and stretches to our most exhilarated heights. It is because of this great love and our knowledge of this great love that we can live in hope and expectancy of entering into our rest, into our promised land.
Remember God has gone before, He is in front. Deuteronomy 6:10 and Deuteronomy 7:1 Let us begin to find that REST in Almighty God and live a life that trust's the community that is God and knows the fact that the Lord our God, the Lord is one.
"Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord" Deuteronomy 6:4,
We are sustained by the completeness of God not by separate strands of His being. Know that we are loved and that God is committed to our well being and our safety. There is no better place to be than in the hands of the living God.
Deuteronomy 7:7 "The LORD did not set His love upon you, nor choose you, because you were more in number than any people, for you were the fewest of all people".
Deuteronomy 7:8 a "But because the LORD loved you".
We can move into, and claim our inheritance because of this verse of assurance. The children of Israel must have been apprehensive about moving into a land that was not theirs. I want us to consider that the claiming of the land is not about the physical landscape of the land of Israel but about us finding that place where God is and then finding a God who we can be still with. "Be still and know that I am God". Psalm 46:10
We have been given the opportunity to explore the deep heart of God, to come into His presence and enjoy the freedom of "living in the promised land". It is of great consolation that God has set His love on us not because we were anything special but just because He loved us. It is this love that compels us forward, or into the rest. Charles Wesley wrote:-
1:LORD, I believe a rest remain
To all thy people known,
A rest where pure enjoyment reigns,
And thou art loved alone.
2:A rest, where all our souls desire
Is fixed on things above;
Where fear, and sin, and grief expire,
Cast out by perfect love.
3:O that I now the rest might know,
Believe, and enter in!
Now, Saviour, now the power bestow,
And let me cease from sin.
Complete Hymn
God wants to bring us to discover this rest for ourselves. It is because God loves us that we are able to confidently approach the throne of Grace and find all the help we need.
This love of God is so immense, so unfathomable and so unmeasurable that we can never fully appreciate it. This love is what makes us and transforms us into a person who is different. But God knows that we will fail and we will look at that later on in the chapter, but never the less it is the knowledge that we have a God who's love transcends far beyond our wildest dreams and reaches us at our lowest point and stretches to our most exhilarated heights. It is because of this great love and our knowledge of this great love that we can live in hope and expectancy of entering into our rest, into our promised land.
Remember God has gone before, He is in front. Deuteronomy 6:10 and Deuteronomy 7:1 Let us begin to find that REST in Almighty God and live a life that trust's the community that is God and knows the fact that the Lord our God, the Lord is one.
"Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord" Deuteronomy 6:4,
We are sustained by the completeness of God not by separate strands of His being. Know that we are loved and that God is committed to our well being and our safety. There is no better place to be than in the hands of the living God.
Monday, 12 November 2012
Living with God 2
Lesson 2 (God is always in front)
Deuteronomy 7:1
“When the Lord your God brings you into the land you are about to enter and occupy, he will clear away many nations ahead of you: the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites. These seven nations are greater and more numerous than you." NLT God wants us to be bold in our approach to Him.We have seen that it is He who goes before us and prepares the way for us to begin to claim the uninhabited places in our lives for Him. Here in this chapter we have some interesting analogies as to what God would have us do in order for us to rightfully claim what is our inheritance, that of a life lived with God and for God, a life sustained by Him and for His good pleasure and His enjoyment. God wants relationships on an individual level. The important thing in life is that I am fully in accordance with the will of God for me. Life is corporate yet individual, it is relational yet individual which is why we have church gatherings. But it is not all about church, it is about who I am in God. It is when I begin to appreciate who I am in God and begin to live out my relationship in community that I then begin to understand what unclaimed riches there are in Christ. God is waiting for us to claim the uninhabited places of our lives, the places that God says are our rightful inheritance in Him and in His plan and design for us. God is already there are we as individuals prepared to go and claim them. Are we prepared to move into the unknown of God. It is only when we do will we see the hand of God at work. We all need to find the place or places where God is. Life eternal is about finding God throughout our lives and keeping Him and His purpose in focus. We all need a glimpse of the holy in order for us to appreciate who we are dedicating our lives too.
“When the Lord your God brings you into the land you are about to enter and occupy, he will clear away many nations ahead of you: the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites. These seven nations are greater and more numerous than you." NLT God wants us to be bold in our approach to Him.We have seen that it is He who goes before us and prepares the way for us to begin to claim the uninhabited places in our lives for Him. Here in this chapter we have some interesting analogies as to what God would have us do in order for us to rightfully claim what is our inheritance, that of a life lived with God and for God, a life sustained by Him and for His good pleasure and His enjoyment. God wants relationships on an individual level. The important thing in life is that I am fully in accordance with the will of God for me. Life is corporate yet individual, it is relational yet individual which is why we have church gatherings. But it is not all about church, it is about who I am in God. It is when I begin to appreciate who I am in God and begin to live out my relationship in community that I then begin to understand what unclaimed riches there are in Christ. God is waiting for us to claim the uninhabited places of our lives, the places that God says are our rightful inheritance in Him and in His plan and design for us. God is already there are we as individuals prepared to go and claim them. Are we prepared to move into the unknown of God. It is only when we do will we see the hand of God at work. We all need to find the place or places where God is. Life eternal is about finding God throughout our lives and keeping Him and His purpose in focus. We all need a glimpse of the holy in order for us to appreciate who we are dedicating our lives too.
Thursday, 1 November 2012
Living with God 1
Lesson 1 (The Contract)
Deuteronomy 6:4-8 4 “Listen, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. 5 And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength. 6 And you must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands that I am giving you today. 7 Repeat them again and again to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up. 8 Tie them to your hands and wear them on your forehead as reminders. 9 Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. � NLT
Right at the outset of Moses speech we find that God says "for your own good and for you to reap the benefit from this land of plenty you need to commit yourselves wholeheartedly too what I am saying." This is not just a matter of loving God but one of a wholehearted commitment to Him. This short passage is all about dicipline. If we are to learn what it is to 'live with God' then we need to learn how to dicipline our lives to learn more about Him and to live a life in harmony with Him. A life with God is not just about doing good works for Him, although demonstration of God's love is vital, but one of finding and reminding ourselves of what God is like and being prepared too change and become more like Him.
We see in these verses how God through Moses is being very specific.
1 Love God with all
2 Commit wholeheartedly
3 Repeat them to our children
4 Let them be your conversation
5 where a wwjd (what would Jesus do)
6 put up reminders in your house.
In other words tell the world, be bold in your approach to God Almighty.
So the contract is two way. Me with God, God with me. This is not an academic execise but one of participation, self dicipline and determination to follow a God who brings us out to bring us in.
Deuteronomy 6:4-8 4 “Listen, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. 5 And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength. 6 And you must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands that I am giving you today. 7 Repeat them again and again to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up. 8 Tie them to your hands and wear them on your forehead as reminders. 9 Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. � NLT
Right at the outset of Moses speech we find that God says "for your own good and for you to reap the benefit from this land of plenty you need to commit yourselves wholeheartedly too what I am saying." This is not just a matter of loving God but one of a wholehearted commitment to Him. This short passage is all about dicipline. If we are to learn what it is to 'live with God' then we need to learn how to dicipline our lives to learn more about Him and to live a life in harmony with Him. A life with God is not just about doing good works for Him, although demonstration of God's love is vital, but one of finding and reminding ourselves of what God is like and being prepared too change and become more like Him.
We see in these verses how God through Moses is being very specific.
1 Love God with all
2 Commit wholeheartedly
3 Repeat them to our children
4 Let them be your conversation
5 where a wwjd (what would Jesus do)
6 put up reminders in your house.
In other words tell the world, be bold in your approach to God Almighty.
So the contract is two way. Me with God, God with me. This is not an academic execise but one of participation, self dicipline and determination to follow a God who brings us out to bring us in.
Tuesday, 23 October 2012
Living with God
The next 9 posts are a reflection on a few verses in Deuteronomy following the Israelites as God speaks, through Moses to set out some living standards.
Lets recap.
The Israelite's have endured some 400 years as slaves in Egypt. They have been abused and mistreated beyond belief. They have crossed the red sea by means of a miricle, they were subjected to a diet of quails and manna for 40 years and another genertion have now crossed another river by yet another miricle. And now God speaks. God says to Moses who in turn speaks to the escaped slaves of Egypt in Deuteronomy 6:23 "I have bought you out so I can bring you in" My question is what have they been bought out of and what have they been bought into and can this have any application to our lives today?
God wants to bring us out of bondage just like He bought the Israelites out of their bondage. Bondage to the Israelites was a place where their worth was measured by how many bricks they could make. It was a place where they were not free to live a life of their own. It was a life of forced labour to an owneress task master. A master who required every ounce of life so that all of their liberty was curtailed. It was from this backdrop that God acted to release a people He called His own from a hopless and desperate situation to one of freedom and hope, to a place where they could be free to be themselves and be able to explore all that a life with Him has to offer. God bought them out to a place where they were valued for who they were, with no expectations except that of pleasing a redeemer and king.
To God we are measured for who we are and not by what we do for Him. The call of God on our lives is not about being put into a position that compels us to repay God for His gracious acts but one that brings us into a new found freedom with Him, that then enables us to claim and move into that freedom that God intended for us at the outset of creation. If we look at Deuteronomy chapters 6 - 9 we will find some insight into being set free from sin and how God promises to equip us so that we can establish ourselves with Him through life's circumstances. Moses speaks to the people in Deuteronomy 7:1 and reminds them of God's greatness, how that it was He who went before them and continues to go before them. God calls the people of Israel to go into the land, the promised land and claim it. Our position in God is that we claim what is rightfully ours, that of eternal life. We have to posses by faith the uninhabited places in our lives for God. God says "I will go before you and drive out". Notice that when God called the people out of Egypt, He was in front and notice He says He will go before and drive out. So claiming the uninhabited places in our lives is not about what we can do in our own strength it is all about what God does on our behalf. Paul puts it this way Colossians 1:27 "Christ in you the hope of Glory" We need to learn about the greatness of God and what He does, not about what we think we are capable of. We need to begin to see God as Isaiah did in Isaiah 6:1 high and lifted up with His train filling the temple"
Lord help me to see how great you are and not to focus on my own limitations. Lord lead me into your promised land and help me to overcome and overthrow those places in my life that are not of you.
Lets recap.
The Israelite's have endured some 400 years as slaves in Egypt. They have been abused and mistreated beyond belief. They have crossed the red sea by means of a miricle, they were subjected to a diet of quails and manna for 40 years and another genertion have now crossed another river by yet another miricle. And now God speaks. God says to Moses who in turn speaks to the escaped slaves of Egypt in Deuteronomy 6:23 "I have bought you out so I can bring you in" My question is what have they been bought out of and what have they been bought into and can this have any application to our lives today?
God wants to bring us out of bondage just like He bought the Israelites out of their bondage. Bondage to the Israelites was a place where their worth was measured by how many bricks they could make. It was a place where they were not free to live a life of their own. It was a life of forced labour to an owneress task master. A master who required every ounce of life so that all of their liberty was curtailed. It was from this backdrop that God acted to release a people He called His own from a hopless and desperate situation to one of freedom and hope, to a place where they could be free to be themselves and be able to explore all that a life with Him has to offer. God bought them out to a place where they were valued for who they were, with no expectations except that of pleasing a redeemer and king.
To God we are measured for who we are and not by what we do for Him. The call of God on our lives is not about being put into a position that compels us to repay God for His gracious acts but one that brings us into a new found freedom with Him, that then enables us to claim and move into that freedom that God intended for us at the outset of creation. If we look at Deuteronomy chapters 6 - 9 we will find some insight into being set free from sin and how God promises to equip us so that we can establish ourselves with Him through life's circumstances. Moses speaks to the people in Deuteronomy 7:1 and reminds them of God's greatness, how that it was He who went before them and continues to go before them. God calls the people of Israel to go into the land, the promised land and claim it. Our position in God is that we claim what is rightfully ours, that of eternal life. We have to posses by faith the uninhabited places in our lives for God. God says "I will go before you and drive out". Notice that when God called the people out of Egypt, He was in front and notice He says He will go before and drive out. So claiming the uninhabited places in our lives is not about what we can do in our own strength it is all about what God does on our behalf. Paul puts it this way Colossians 1:27 "Christ in you the hope of Glory" We need to learn about the greatness of God and what He does, not about what we think we are capable of. We need to begin to see God as Isaiah did in Isaiah 6:1 high and lifted up with His train filling the temple"
Lord help me to see how great you are and not to focus on my own limitations. Lord lead me into your promised land and help me to overcome and overthrow those places in my life that are not of you.
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