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Good Evening Church Family! God is able and faithful! I just love the Old Testament. The stories are motivating and enlightening! I was reading today in Deuteronomy 4-6. Moses is reviewing with Joshua and the people where they have come from, where they are going to and what will happen if they go astray (which he shares with them that that will at some point). He reviews in chapter 5 all of the 10 commandments but chapter 6 he lays out the choice of blessing or cursing that they can live in. Two things stood out to me for our lives were 1) fear God and 2)keep all His statutes and commandments for generations. Let's look at fear God... we don't hear this much any more. I remember as a child there was a holy fear of the Lord you felt every time you went to church... a reverence, an honor, an understanding that He was an awesome God and to be treated with utmost respect. Over the years, I feel some of that has been lost. For lack of better terminology, God has been made to be a God more on our level. But the truth is He isn't and we wouldn't want Him to be. As a child, I had a good fear of my dad. A respect and honor of him. He was loving and the best dad but you knew you didn't cross his instructions. Consequences happened when you did that caused pain to your backside. :) In that respect or fear of my dad, I learned to respect other adults and those in authority, as well as my Heavenly Father. It was not a bad fear, like "I'm afraid" but a good fear, like "I recognize you are in authority over my life". The lack of fear or respect for God displayed by the Church as a whole is one of the reasons I believe we are where we are at in society. Lawlessness is a lack of fear or respect for those in authority. Everyone wants to be on the same level nowadays but if everyone is on the same level there is no one leading and no one in authority. Can you see how this lack of fearing God has spilled over to the world around us? No one fears hell or the righteousness of God and that trickles down to no one fears or respects parents or police or government officials or those in places of authority. The order that God set up was to not hinder us but to help us to all stay in the good boundaries that He intended. He created a system for there to be law and order for the purpose of peace. I know we can't change the world back overnight but we can start with our own lives. We can start by doing what Scripture says and "Fear the Lord your God and serve Him only." Deuteronomy 6:13 & Matthew 4:10 We need to get back to the place where God is on a higher level than us and we respect, honor and revere Him for who He truly is. He is our heavenly Father that we can talk to and be with but He is also our King and he deserves our honor and respect. Both views of God can be in place at the same time in a healthy way.
The second part Moses shared is to keep all the Lord's statutes and commandments for generations. Moses knew the hearts of the people he was talking to and he knew they were going to make mistakes and have times and seasons of not obeying what God had said. But he told the people what would happen in their lives when they did obey. In chapter 6, Moses shares the blessings that will happen for the Israelites if they do obey and that blessing that will continue for generations if they pass on the love and obedience of the Word. The message is still the same for us today. If we will follow his commandments and do what he has instructed us in His word to do, we will enjoy the blessings of the Lord in our lives. What are some of those blessings? Long life, multiply your family, live in the land of promise, prosperity, and all will go well with you! I can almost hear someone ask, "How do I follow ALL of the commandments in the Bible? There are so many." That's where reading the Bible daily and listening to the leading of the Holy Spirit come into play. When a truth is revealed to you, you do it. You ask the Holy Spirit to help you to remember to do or not do what you have read in the Word. He is so faithful to help us to remember God's word. He is the voice of the Lord we hear in our Spirit directing and leading us. As we learn these truths, we share them with our children and grandchildren and great grandchildren. We pass on the knowledge that we have of the word! The greatest example is by living out what you have learned before them. They will see it in action in your life and the blessings that you have because you do and they will want to know them for themselves! It's not a heavy thing... it is a lightening thing! Heaviness comes from sin. When we do what the Lord commands in His word, we live lives that are free from sin and its consequences. Again, this is why the Lord told Moses to tell the people these two important truths. He wanted His children to enjoy the life He was giving them and the future He had for them and He gave them the instructions to be able to do it. I can't say it enough... God is so faithful!!! So, let's learn from Moses and the children of Israel and fear God and obey His commandments. Let's get back to a healthy respect, honor and fear of the Lord so that the system the Lord set in place for us to live lives of peace is back in place. As others see us getting things back to the right order they will also see the blessings that we are living in and want that for their own lives! We may not be able to change the whole world but we can start by changing our own lives and set an example to lead others to the way they should live. Let's ask the Holy Spirit to help us to do both of these things and to show us how to live it out daily before others. Have a blessed rest of your week, Church Family and let's set the example for generations to come! Blessings, Pastors Sheli and Steve
'What's Up at Your RC??'
From Pastor Sheli's Weekly 'Prayer & Praise' email