February 7, 2024

Deuteronomy 30.15 (NIV)
“See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction.”

We are free to choose whether we will do right or wrong, but we are not free to decide what is right or wrong.*

We often say, “I had no choice in the matter,” when what we really mean is, “I wasn’t happy with any of my options.” Seldom are we in the position of having no choice at all. No one chooses when and where he is born but soon thereafter we begin making decisions, if not about what to do or where to go, at least about our internal responses and attitudes.

The smart ones among us will learn early on that choices have consequences. We can’t always know all the possible consequences but we learn to make informed choices. In the case of the Israelites to whom this verse was addressed, the choices and the consequences were clear.

Their choices? Love and obey God, or don’t. Clear and simple. The consequences? Life and prosperity, or death and destruction. Some consequences are short-term, such as Jesus’ prophecy that his disciples would be persecuted. But the long-term consequences are the same for us today as they were for the Children of Israel in Moses’ day: life or death.

Like fools we trade God for powers, and so exchange life for death.*

*Quote sources available upon request.

February 6, 2024

Deuteronomy 29.29  (NIV)

The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the revealed things belong to us.

What God has revealed he expects his children to study, meditate upon and obey.*

We are responsible for what we know – what has been revealed to us – and not for what God has not shown us. Our faith has to accept that God’s ways are not our ways. God keeps secrets for our own good, perhaps because there are things we are not equipped to handle.

 

What he has revealed is enough to “satisfy and save us.”* He does not withhold information that might be important to us. The “revealed things” can only be found in his Word so you can’t expect mysteries to be unveiled if you don’t spend time there. What he chooses to reveal is ours to keep. It is ours to search into and to live by. It is not for our amusement but for our blessing.

He’s not going to judge us on the basis of what He has given someone else, but on the basis of what we have done with what he has given us.*

*Quote sources available upon request.

February 5, 2024

Deuteronomy 28.63  (NIV)
Just as it pleased the Lord to make you prosper and increase in number, so it will please him to ruin and destroy you.

God is sovereign to give both judgment and mercy to whom He pleases.*

This may be shocking information for people who believe that God is all about love, but God is not one-dimensional. How presumptuous of us to make him in our image! From this verse, we gain insight into three attributes of God that set him apart from us.

The first attribute we see in this verse is God’s love. It pleases him to make his people prosper. We aren’t surprised by this information. We know lots of Bible verses about God’s love for his people.

The second quality is justice. When his people don’t keep their end of the deal, they cease to be his people. Justice demands that sin be punished.

This brings us to the third attribute: God’s mercy. Justice demands that sin be punished; love does not want to be separated from us; and mercy reconciles the two. Yes, God is merciful. The price of justice is punishment; the price of mercy is the blood of Jesus.

Love doesn’t exist where there’s no justice.*

*Quote sources available upon request.

February 4, 2024

Deuteronomy 10.12 (NIV) And now, O Israel, what does the Lord your God ask 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.

Deuteronomy 11.1 (NIV) Love the Lord your God and keep his requirements, his decrees, his laws and his commands always. 

Love God more than you fear hell.* 

We receive reminders to pay our taxes, which our government then uses to provide services and protection, so is it so amazing that we should be reminded to serve the Lord? We owe him for everything we have, but because we do owe him for our lives, why do we have to be reminded to love him?

If it is our duty to fear him, walk in his ways and serve him, then love must be a duty as well. We tend to think of love as something that happens to us – as if we have no choice in the matter – but according to God, we can choose to love him. And why wouldn’t we?

 

There are plenty of reasons to love him: 1) because he chose us; 2) because of who he is; 3) because he redeems us; 4) because he provides for us . . . to name a few. But we don’t always feel like loving God because loving God requires commitment. Following him is not always easy – but it is always for our own good.

Our faith must be more than stubborn adherence to a creed or constant striving for virtue. Our faith must lead us to adoration, a devotion to our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.*

*Quote sources available upon request.

February 3, 2024

Deuteronomy 8.10-18 (NIV)

When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the Lord . . . for the good land he has given you. Be careful that you do not forget the Lord. . . Otherwise . . . when you build fine houses and settle down, and when your flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, then your heart will become proud and you will forget the Lord . . . who brought you . . . out of the land of slavery. He led you through the vast and dreadful desert. . . . He gave you manna to eat . . . . to humble and to test you so that . . . it might go well with you. You may say to yourself, “My power and the strength of my hands have produced . . . wealth for me.” But remember the Lord . . . for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth.

We have not been interested in Himself but only in His blessings.*

We call upon the Lord in our distress and he delivers us. Perhaps he provided a job when you desperately needed one. Maybe he healed a loved one from disease. Remember how close you felt to the Lord when you were begging him for his blessings? Did you pray without ceasing – until your prayers were answered? What about you who have been blessed abundantly with health and wealth and love? Do you think you earned it? Deserved it? What do you have that the Lord didn’t provide?

These verses are a warning against forgetting God when things are going well. Moses reminds the Children of Israel of where they have been and “arms them against the temptations of a prosperous condition.”* We, too, may be in danger of becoming “spoiled brats.” Don’t forget to thank the Lord for what he has done for you.

Whatever they had the comfort of, God must have the glory of.*

*Quote sources available upon request.

February 2, 2024

Deuteronomy 6.6–9 (NIV)
“These commands that I give you . . . are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.  Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.”

When people say they wish they could watch more football, or they wish they could spend more time on the Internet, most of them will actually find a way to do just that. But when . . . people . . . say they wish they knew the Bible better, will they actually set out to do it?*

God’s Word is more than just a matter of knowledge. It goes to the heart and pumps through the veins and mingles with the breath and emerges in our conversation. We should talk about his Word in every conscious moment – at home and on the road, lying down or up and about. It should saturate everything we do, say and think every day.

  

The Israelites did not have individual copies of the scripture to carry with them or to place on the coffee table at home, so when they needed reminders of what the Word said, they had only to look in the mirror or check their hands or look up at the doorframe. If you have trouble remembering the Word, post it where you can see it: on the mirror; on the refrigerator door; in a strategic spot on your desk; on the dashboard of your car. Set a goal to memorize a verse a week. Immerse yourself in it daily.

  

As one of my Bible college professors used to say: “There can be no spiritual growth apart from getting into the Word for yourself.” I challenge you to read the Bible daily and see how you grow!

Scripture says far more about meditating on God’s Word than defending it.*

EXTRA SPLASH: In other words:  “Keep the law before you always and well in mind, no matter what you set your hands to do.” See also Deuteronomy 11.18-20.

February 1, 2024

Deuteronomy 6.5 (NIV)
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.

Love is something you do – not always something you can feel, but it’s real.*

We may have reached an understanding of the nuances of the word “love.” We know about the Greek words for different kinds of love: brotherly love, erotic love, and God’s love. But while we know that love isn’t just a feeling, we can’t seem to separate the action from the emotion. When we read that we are commanded to love God with all our heart, we may misunderstand what is being required of us. Can love, as we understand it, be turned on or off at will? Can it be commanded of us?

According to some Bible scholars, the Hebrew word that has been translated as “love” has more to do with loyalty and fidelity than with caring. Where we think of the heart as the seat of our emotions, the Hebrews meant it as a “place of thought and will, of decision-making and conscience.”* If we can be commanded to love God, it follows that we are able to choose to love or choose not to love. Not the worldly, emotional kind of love but one that “transforms obedience from legalism into an expression of personal commitment.”* In fact, it is liberating to know that I can be obedient to his command to love him with all that I am – even when I don’t “feel” like it.

Love is a decision.*

*Quote sources available upon request.