Deuteronomy 21:1-22:30 + Luke 9:51-10:12 + Psalm 74:1-23 + Proverbs 12:11
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Old Testament – It is interesting to read about the cleansing for an unsolved murder in Deuteronomy chapter 21. I think God makes it crystal clear here that murder is such a horrible crime that affects the entire land and community. The Ten Commandments are obviously clear on “do not murder.” These verses in Deuteronomy go into a bit of what happens to the land when one is murdered. Interesting to think about these verses on murder – and then realize that Jesus, whose blood was wholly innocent, was murdered on a cross. Was Jesus’ murder unsolved? Who is guilty for this murder of Jesus? Whose sins put Jesus on the cross? Thankfully, whose sins does Jesus’ blood cover? Who does Jesus rescue and redeem through His innocent blood shed on a cross?
Deuteronomy chapter 22 has various rules & regs, including sexual purity. It makes sense that there needed to be rules & regs for 1 million+ Israelites wandering in the desert for 40 years – and for them as they are now about to enter the Promised Land. Essentially, these rules & regs kept the peace. But, hopefully more than that, they kept the Israelites minds & hearts focused on God and not on sin. I think the rules & regs for sexual purity are obviously still so needed today. Our culture can take us quickly into the depths of sexual impurity. Depths that are so dark – even though the culture doesn’t tell you about the darkness of sexual impurity as it is selling you the shiny lie. Sexual sin unchecked is incredibly dangerous. If you are struggling with it, please flee. Run to God and Jesus. Humble yourself in confession & repentance. And allow Jesus to heal & transform you. Sexual purity is something we must pursue diligently each and every day. Don’t start to go down any slippery slopes. It gets dark quickly….
New Testament – Luke chapter 9 has a couple of challenging teachings for us from Jesus in verses 60 & 62 – “Let those who are spiritually dead care for their own dead. Your duty is to go and preach the coming of the Kingdom of God… Anyone who puts a hand to the plow and then looks back is not fit for the Kingdom of God.” How do these verses speak to you? Today verse 62 is standing out to me – once we start our Christian journey we should not look back toward the life we left behind. At least not in a way where we wish we were back in that old life. Once Jesus rescues us, we are now His forever. We have put our hand to the plow. We will preach the coming of the Kingdom of God in the way we live our lives. We should not look back longingly toward our old life. It is behind us. Have you set your hand to the plow? And are you looking straight ahead joyfully?
Continuing this agricultural / farming theme – in Luke chapter 10 verse 2 today we read this teaching from Jesus to the disciples – “These were his instructions to them: “The harvest is so great, but the workers are so few. Pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest, and ask him to send out more workers for his fields.”
Bible.org’s commentary on Luke chapter 9 readings titled “Conflicting Commitments” is at this link and commentary on chapter 10 readings titled “When Personal Evangelism is Inadequate” is at this link.
Psalms – Psalm 74 dates from the time of the exile when the Promised Land was in shambles and the temple destroyed by neighboring nations. This is very evident by the verses we read in this Psalm. In light of this, I absolutely love the plea in verse 22 – “Arise, O God, and defend your cause. Remember how these fools insult you all day long.” And as we will read later in the Bible this year, God indeed will arise to defend his cause!
Below is an image for verses 13 & 14 of this Psalm: “You split the sea by your strength and smashed the sea monster’s heads. You crushed the heads of Leviathan and let the desert animals eat him.”
Proverbs – Proverbs 12 verse 11 is so true on quite a few levels – “Hard work means prosperity; only fools idle away their time.” I have been thinking about this “idling away time” issue recently. I know that I idle away and waste a lot of time in my life. And I know the Enemy wants us to waste time. The Enemy wants us to be distracted. The Enemy does not want us to work hard on things that are pleasing to God. The Enemy does not want the Kingdom of God to be prosperous. And if we buy into all of this that the Enemy tries to sell us each and every day, then indeed we are fools. Don’t buy into the Enemy’s Fool’s Gold!
Worship Video: Today’s readings reminded me of the Terrian song “Honestly, we just need Jesus:”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3eNdX4GbtbE
Do you need Jesus? Click here and meet Him!
Please join us in memorizing and meditating on a verse of Scripture today: “He told them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.” Luke 10:2 NIV
Prayer Point: Pray that you will ask Jesus to send you out into His harvest field. Pray that you won’t sit out the Great Commission that Jesus is calling you to in this life.
Comments from You & Questions of the Day: Back to Luke Chapter 10 verse 2 above – Do you believe that the harvest is great? Do you pray to God to send out more workers for his fields? Are you one of those workers? How are you participating in the harvest? If you’re not participating in the harvest in some way, will you pray to God to show you where He would have you participate in the harvest? Also, what verses or insights stand out to you in today’s readings? Please post up by clicking on the “Comments” link below!
God bless,
Mike
p.s. Download our monthly Small Group study notes for our Bible readings at this link.
p.s. #2 – Download a schedule of our Bible readings for the year in PDF format at this link.
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BLOG READERS HISTORICAL COMMUNITY COMMENTS:
(our Group Bible Study is below! : )
======= Ramona:
Deuteronomy 21-22:30
21 Then all the men of the town must stone him to death. In this way, you will cleanse this evil from among you, and all Israel will hear about it and be afraid. …23 …Do not defile the land the LORD your God is giving you as a special possession.
The idea that the land under our feet is affected by our sins was first introduced in Genesis when Cain killed his brother Abel (Genesis 4:10), and God told Cain that the voice of his brother, whom he killed, cried out from the ground. No fewer than nine verses speak about the effects of sin upon the earth eight in the Old Testament and one in the New (Numbers 35:33,34; Psalms 106:38; Isaiah 24:5; Jeremiah 2:7; 16:18 Ezekiel 36:17,18 Romans 8:22). In Leviticus we came across three verses that speak about the land vomiting out its inhabitants because of sin and wickedness (Leviticus 18:25,28 & 20:22)
My question is how much, if any, are the climatic changes, drought, torrential rain, earthquakes caused by our sin? Geologist and meteorologist may point to shifting plates under the earth and changing air currents above the earth, sun spot activity and such like but are our sins, the sins we allow to happen the true cause? I have wrestled with asking God’s forgiveness for someone who has sinned against a family, a community and country never fully understanding why this was something God commanded; but, I think I have been given understanding of why. Their sins, my sins effect and affect the earth. The earth cries out for justice and desires to be cleansed for filth that we, humans, God’s folks commit upon the land that God created.
Forgiveness; repentance, even for the sins of others; restoration and the activity we do to obtain, release and confer it on others is a gift that we are to give freely because forgiveness is what we need to do because it effects and affects the very ground we walk on.
Thank you Mike for your comments they helped me to further understand and see the power of forgiveness and repentance of and from sin.
I’ve been thinking that every law God gave, every decree to not do something is not given because God doesn’t want us to have fun, but it is because he wants us to enjoy life and have fun that He gives us these laws. We sin because we lack godly Wisdom to see further down the road of our sinning toward sins consequences. And because we don’t want to see the effects we pretend they are 1) none or 2) we disconnect the effects from the cause taking on the role of children who have not learned how to think abstractly. So when the consequences come to fruition we scratch our heads and say, “How did that get there!” or we try to blame it on something or someone else. We must, I must learn to look down that road because truthfully sin is pleasurable, for a season and only for a season, but the payment extracts a payment that we can never pay off. Once we move from hating the consequences of sin to hating sin itself then we will stop.
Luke 9:51-10:12
54 When James and John heard about it, they said to Jesus, “Lord, should we order down fire from heaven to burn them up?”
I love this passage because it shows me that Jesus loves the loud mouths too, we have a purpose. Yes, we need to control ourselves. But Jesus loved them and even gave them a nickname, “Sons of Thunder.” (Mark 3:17). Let’s hear it for the “big mouth” folks.
Following Jesus costs us something (Luke 9:57-62). Free doesn’t mean cheap, inexpensive may not mean value and expensive doesn’t mean quality.
Proverbs 23:23 (Amp)
Buy the truth and sell it not; not only that, but also get discernment and judgment, instruction and understanding.
John 14:16 (NIV)
Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
Jesus is the Pearl of Great Price that once found we should sell everything we have to obtain Him.
Psalm 74:1-23
1 O God, why have you rejected us forever?
Why is your anger so intense against the sheep of your own pasture?
I’m don’t know what the literary style of writing that is used in the Psalm is called but I do know that it seems to remind God of what the enemy has done and what He has promised to do to Israel’s enemy. Yet although it appears to be reminding a forgetful God, in reality it is reminding the writer and reader of the adversities of the past and how God intervened and delivered. What God has done in the past He will continue to do because He doesn’t change.
It is good to rehearse in our memory and in our own hearing our past trials and troubles to remind us of the outcome. Since God doesn’t change we know that what He did in the past He will do in the future.
Proverbs 12:11
Idling away ones time may not mean one is just sitting around doing nothing. It can also mean one is doing something that is outside of their God given purpose. We can be busy but ineffective because we are doing things outside of our assignment. Kind of like a athlete who has been ability and training of a golfer but decides to take that training and do the job of a Quarterback. He is idling his time on the wrong field and in the wrong sport, and he may get killed by the defense line.
Grace and peace,
Ramona
======= Duane:
Reading Ramona’s comments on the consequences of sin was right on. The sin that all of us have dealth with whether past or present must become a stench in our eyes if we expect to move forward. It is not enough to hate the consequences, you must come to the point that you hate , hate the sin. God wants us to be holy. We must pray and examine ourselves everyday and ask the Lord to show us if inquity is living in us. I do not want anything in my life to hinder my testamony to a lost and dying world.
Duane
======= Luch:
There are some challenging issues raised in Deuteronomy. I must say that I love most parts of the book of Deuteronomy. It’s one of the books that Jesus quoted from the most. However, for all the years that I have read the OYB I have never found a reasonable explanation for what is happening in the section on what to do when they go to war and capture women. (Deut 21:10ff) On the one hand, believers are not supposed to be
‘unequally yoked’ with unbelievers but verse 11 says, “And suppose ou see among the captives a beautiful woman, and you are attracted to her and you want to marry her. If this happens, you may take her to your home, where she must shave her head, cut her fingernails, and change all her clothes….After that you may marry her.” This is a “heh, what’s going on here passage?”. As Christians we spend a lot of time exhorting people not to be ‘unequally yoked’. Is this passage saying something different? What is the timeless principle here that we should abide by? I realize that parts of the Deuteronomic code we choose to obey and follow. For example we all follow the commands to care for the poor, etc, but what about this one? Any thoughts out there? The LORD God must have had something else in mind that we can’t appreciate with our finite minds. I know that as my sons and Christians I am mentoring read these passages they ask very sincere questions about verses like this. I honestly don’t have a simple answer. Maybe there isn’t one.
Perhaps the one main timeless principle is that People are made in the image of God, and human life is precious in His sight. People, including captives of war, are not to be treated like animals or things, and the laws in deuteronomy 21 illustrate this truth.
Luch
======= Ramona:
Luch,
Hmmm, let me see. You stated:
> … have never found a reasonable explanation for what is happening in the section on what to do when they go to war and capture women. (Deut 21:10ff) On the one hand, believers are not supposed to be ‘unequally yoked’ with unbelievers…>
What we are suppose to do, God’s Perfect Will, and what we end up doing, God’s Permissive Will—if it is even that, has always been a big problem with man. As you know if we do not keep our “sin-nature,” our flesh, under control, we will allow our fleshly desires and attractions to rule our spirits. So, as a reader of the OYB by habit, you know that from Genesis through Revelation man lives on the side of God’s Permissive Will much more than His Perfect Will. If we study the words that begin many of the sentences in today’s readings the word “if” pops up a multitude of times.
Paul, in his first letter to Timothy states this:
Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, (1 Timothy 1:9 KJVR)
The laws were given because God’s people, even those declared righteous by the shed blood of Jesus Christ, don’t always behave in a manner that is righteous.
Ramona
======= John:
Luch,
I have read that in that era before a battle women would dress to be attractive to their captors.
The rest is my conjecture:
A man sees a women all decked out and has feelings for her and takes her to his abode. The thirty days seems like a cooling off period. It allows her to mourn for dead relatives, and with all the fine clothes, nails and hair removed – the man sees her over time in her natural state.
He may get to know her as a person, or it may just allow for his testosorene level to come down from the initial meeting.
Since slaves were an asset and increased net worth, it may also give time for the man to consider the ramifications of what happens if a “marriage” does not work out. Since a failed marriage would mean the man was to release the woman with no compensation, it would negatively affect his net worth – and perhaps shame him as he might be perceived to not have good judgment (in selecting a wife, controlling his assets, etc.).
I have read that there is no recorded instance in any Hebrew literature of a son being stoned for disobediance to parents. Perhaps the punishment was so severe that parents did not want to go that route, and sons would know the line not to cross.
In like manner, I wonder how many times the situation occurred regarding female captives. Did the 30 days work as a “cooling off” period? If marriage occurred how many times did the man activate the “escape clause”? If it happened 1 in a 1,000 can we say God’s rule on this seemed to work????
In modern times the message may be that if you meet an attractive woman outside your “sphere”, do not rush into marriage. Make sure there is an engagement period where you get to know the “real” her, and don’t let physical attractiveness cause you to marry quickly.
[NOTE: These are my thoughts and I reserve the right to have 30 days to reconsider my hypothesis ] j/k well, they are my thoughts.
John
======= Anka:
Old testament vs new…Reading through the the old testament so far,few people loved God…I mean really loved God.They followed him when it was convenient,sometimes out of fear but their hearts were hardened.Husbands seemed to “love” their wives for their beauty.Abraham and Isaac were willing to sacrifice their wives to save their skins,men could “marry” a wife without loving her and God had set rules on how to divorce a wife so she would have some sort of protection.I wondered,why didn’t God just ban men from marrying more than one wife…maybe God knew they just weren’t capable of love…they did a pretty bad job of obeying him anyway so asking them to be faithful to a wife (someone who was weaker in strength)when they were not faithful to God(who had displayed his strength)would have put the Israelites in trouble big time.
In the new testament,we find people who just love Jesus,Peter had a family but followed Christ around,John’s favorite spot was on Jesus’s breast,the lady with the expensive perfume didn’t care what anyone said…she was going to show her love…years after Jesus was on earth,his followers sometimes pay for their faith with their lives…people learn how to love…Now God can expect us to love one wife because if we love Jesus,he puts love for others in our lives…and we can obey him out of love….And know God is love.
God bless you all
Anka
======= Duane:
I think the bookended passages today between the Deuteronomy reading and the Psalm reading is absolutely heartbreaking. We’ve been reading through all of the commands given to the nation of Israel while they are preparing to assume the Promised Land.
And all they have to do to retain the land is to cling to their God and not play the harlot.
And then in the Psalm it is readily apparent that they have not kept up their end of the bargain. And the greatest loss they suffer is that every meeting place they have with God is now destroyed. The Psalmist is crying out to God because they have lost almost every evidence that they are a sacred and special people.
Duane
====== Jenny:
Jesus was not murdered, but by His LOVE He took my sins, your sins, our sins upon Himself.
John 10:17-18 “…I lay down my life—only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.”
When I watched the Passion of the Christ, i really got into it and saw what Christ did for me…every lashing, every hammering, i saw my sins…part of the reason i was bawling like a baby, not just bcos He was fully innocent, but bcos He came for this very purpose, He did that for me!! I thought to myself…’could i endure that for anyone??? those i love the most? (let alone for my enemies!)’…i have to say it was probly a no. this goes to show God’s love is beyond our capacity.
Sexual impurity is such a problem these days! especially with the internet, its so accessible…just remember, the viewing of pornography or any sexual material, or entertaining lustful thoughts is detestable to God!!! The flesh is`weak but this isnt an excuse, we must master our flesh. Think of it that way, chose to not be a slave like the world is. say no to satan.
The cost of disciple in Luke 9 is so applicable to us today too. In our initial conversion I’m sure many of us put it off a few times, oh let me do this or this first. But God says: today is the day of salvation. When living the Christian life, we shouldnt put other things before Him, He should be our number 1 priority. In any area, if God says to do this or that, for example God says, forgive so and so….dont come up with excuses, just do it. If He tells us to put something aside, we shouldnt even hesitate. I was miserable without christ, but even now i’ve had the enemy tell me to go back to the world, i have to quickly rebuke those thoughts. why would i want to go back? i had nothing good in that old life…even my worst days now are better then my best days then! I believe this passage is warning us to take a check on our hearts.
Jenny
======= Katie:
We are working the harvest at TCA this week, with the Last Chance play. Last night the platform was full at altar call. Hallelujah!!
Lord, use even me in your ministry to the lost.
Sometimes I don’t know what to do … (don’t know if anyone else thinks that too), so I appreciate direction and leading as to how to work in the Harvest.
Lord, I ask you to bless the efforts of TCA, and I ask for lives to be led to YOU in Jesus’ name!
Also, this week at work I plan to invite coworkers to Easter Sunrise Service. Especially my nonChristian friends. Thanks for the direction in that!!!!
Hallelujah
Katie
======= Erin:
My boyfriend is coming to church with my mom, my sister, and I this Sunday…I am praying that it will be a good experience for us all!! Not only are my mom, sister and I trying to find a church to attend regularly in our hometown, but I am praying that my boyfriend will join me on my Christian walk…
Erin
======= Ramona:
Deuteronomy 21:1-22:30
WOW! My eyes have been open to some things I’ve read before which I was never allowed me to see. I made this statement before and I think some took offense which does not make the statement false or wrong: What we see and hear is colored by the contents of our hearts. And truly the condition of my heart prevented me from seeing the provision God provided for woman that insured they would not be victimized through exploitation.
I am a product of the effects of slavery in the United States. As a daughter of descendents of slaves and old enough to have childhood memories of Jim Crow laws, that proclaimed separate but equal, I must admit I have always wrestled with the Bible’s words on dealing with slavery and its duel laws and methods with dealing with people who were not “like us,” so to speak. When I began this journey, I chose to take a mindset of accepting what I read in this Book as God’s Word even if I did not understand. If God IS good, than everything that God decrees must be good also whether I understand or not. Thus, the belief that the condition of my heart filters everything I read and try to understand in the Bible comes from suddenly understanding things that previously were in the dark. But God is good and today something was removed from my heart that made me see that God does truly love me. God loves woman and though it may appear that God is trying to subjugate the “other” sex, He is in fact liberating them from the whimsical nature of men’s minds and hearts.
God will not leave us as “orphans.” He will not encourage or give His support to men having “sex” with women, which to him is “marriage” and then throwing them away when they are tired of them. She and her offspring MUST be provided for and in the manner that is due them by His law and not by man’s law and whim.
I had a problem with the twenty-second chapter, verses thirteen through thirty, especially that whole thing about stoning the woman at the door of her father’s house, who was accused of not being a virgin and who had no proof that she was. Well, the law provided for cases of rape inside and outside of the village/town; however, today, I don’t think anyone would want to remain married to someone who raped them. Yet marriage was a way for women to have security, it wasn’t really about “falling in luv,” and God’s Law, when upheld, prevented mistreatment.
God, I thank you for opening up the eyes of my heart and showing me Your Truth where I was unable to see.
Grace and peace,
Ramona
======= Kristie:
Thanks Ramona for your insight. I too struggled with this passage. Why would God have a woman marry someone who raped them? Why didnt’ he say something like, “She is still considered a virgin.”
Yet that would be covering up the effects of real shame, like sweeping it up under the carpet.
It think there things in this passage we don’t see in western culture, like shame.
And I am talking about healthy shame….like covering yourself up a bit as a woman, instead of letting it all hang out. Or these movies stars who are so proud about producing a baby out of wedlock!
One thing that did come to light for me is the importance of marriage. We downplay it nowadays….but it seems here that it is a provision and a good thing for our society and for women.
Ramona, I appreciate your reference to the “other” or second sex. I have been doing some reading on the history of modern feminism. I just read a book called the Miseducation of Women that gives interesting insight into Betty Friedan having second thoughts later in life, and Simone de Beauvoir longing to just have a family.It was an interesting read…not written by a Christian (he is into evolutionary psychology)…but you could apply it to a biblical world view that God did indeed create us differently.
Kristie
======= Art:
I find it interesting in the Deuteronomy passage about an unsolved murder, that the atonement remedy is taking a heifer to a remote place and breaking its neck, especially in light of how Judas died (in a remote place): by hanging. Not sure if that’s a valid parallel or if so, what it means, but coming as it does right next to the one about being nailed to a tree bringing a curse, it got me thinking. At the very least, we can say that the murder of Jesus is ‘unsolved’ in the sense that no one individual was responsible and yet every one of us is responsible.
Art
======= Elizabeth:
Hello Everyone,
Just a couple of honest reactions to today’s reading for whatever they are worth.
1. Deuteronomy 22:5-12 strikes me as a particularly bizarre combination of rules—don’t dress like the other gender, don’t mix seed types, don’t mix linen and wool, wear tassles…. Although I know I am free from this law, and I know it is about maintaining purity/separateness from the surrounding pagan cultures, it confuses me to try and think through this. Can we apply one piece (gender appropriate clothing) and ignore the other (mixing seeds, wearing clothes with mixed garments). I guess I just struggle with whether to just overlook the whole of it as obsolete or how to sift and sort all the heaviness of it all.
The God of the OT is the God of the OT, but sometimes I struggle to reconcile the two. He cares for sparrows, yet calls for the breaking of a heifer’s neck near a stream…
2. In Luke 9, I always struggle with Christ’s comment:
“Leave the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” -Luke 9: 60
I’ve read various commentaries on this passage in the past and understand that Jesus was not heartless, but wanted his followers to not procrastinate and count the cost….but, I still wonder exactly what it means to “go and proclaim the Kingdom of God” Should I be out on our downtown streets evangelizing? Is that enough? Should I be forever on the hunt to “slip Jesus into a conversation”? Should I be inviting all of my friends and neighbors to church regularly? I always feel this pressure to do more…..yet I also don’t like feeling “pushy” or like I am treating people like a project.
Just honest ramblings here,
Elizabeth
======= Colleen:
Mike, I enjoy reading your blog each day, I get some really insightful thoughts on the Daily reading.
The verses that ‘jumped out’ at me this Good Friday is from
Deuteronomy 21:22 “If someone has committed a crime worthy of death and is executed and hung on a tree,
23 the body must not remain hanging from the tree overnight. You must bury the body that same day, for anyone who is hung is cursed in the sight of God. In this way, you will prevent the defilement of the land the Lord your God is giving you as your special possession.
Moses, by the Spirit, uses this phrase of being accursed of God, when he means no more than being treated most disgracefully, that it might afterward be applied to the death of Christ, and might show that in it he underwent the curse of the law for us; which proves His love for us.
The exposure of the corpse was limited to one day. Thus, a criminal who was crucified had to be buried before sunset. The hanging on a tree of the condemned person’s corpse was considered a “curse”. The idea behind the phrase cursed by God seems to be not that the person was impaled because he was cursed but that to leave him exposed there was to invite the curse of God upon the whole land.
That is part of why Joseph of Arimathea was anxious to take Jesus from the cross and bury Him before the new day began. Jesus, when being nailed on the cross, became “accursed” for us—He, being innocent of any crime or sin, took away the curse for the violation of the law (that is, the death penalty) that we, through our sinful conduct, had brought upon ourselves could be made right with a Holy God. Paul cites this text (Gal 3:13 ‘Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree’) to make the point that Christ, suspended from a cross, thereby took upon himself the curse for our sins.
Colleen
======= Dave:
I cannot seem to leave my old life behind me, yet I want to soooo bad!
Dave
======= Frederick:
Luke 10:12
12 I tell you, it will be more bearable on that day for Sodom than for that town.
In today’s OT and NT verses, it can be seen that God looks at sins not only at a personal level, He also looks at the community.
Frederick
======== Bob:
CONFLICTING COMMITMENTS Luke 9:57-62. I really had to shake my head when I read Bob’s commentary on Following Jesus. A fresh and meaningful interpretation of What Jesus is Saying to us. Here is one I had backwards: “God can be used to make your family life better.” God has now become the means, and the family is the end. “This is absolutely, categorically wrong!” God is the end, and we and our families are the means. The family is the means by which we serve God. If we have placed family above Jesus Christ, it is wrong. And here is where it gets really difficult: “Family interests are often really self-interests when you get right down to it. We see in our children our unfulfilled expectations, our desires, our aspirations.” How about this little self interest theme: “Am I sending my children to a Christian school to isolate them from the world, and in the process depriving them of the opportunity to follow Jesus by proclaiming the gospel in a non-Christian school? By building fortress walls between society and our children, are we really saying we cannot or do not trust God to save and to sanctify our Children? ” I think we have to re-evaluate our position with God and our family. If we can’t make the statement, “Nothing must be given priority over our commitment to Jesus Christ. Nothing! ” That’s my objective! It is time to sober up and shake my head. Thank you Jesus.
Bob
======= Joyce:
Mike,
Thank you for pointing out that all the rules and regulations in Deuteronomy 22, including sexual purity, are for the good of the Israelites, for them to focus on God, not on sin.
As you said, the rules & regs for sexual purity are still so needed today.
“Shun immorality and all sexual looseness [flee from impurity in thought, word, or deed]. Any other sin which a man commits is one outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body.” (1 Corinthians 6:18 Amplified Bible)
May God have mercy and help us,
and may we be very vigilant in staying away from sexual sin!
Grateful for this blog!
Joyce
======= Dee:
The harvest is so great! Yes..I have been puzzled last few days..how someone so healthy and to me 68 is not very old dies suddenly and I noticed on obit..grew up or is catholic..and I don’t have any problems with her religion or anyone’s preference but I have known this woman almost 38 years and I don’t think I ever brought up Jesus..so yes there are few workers ..sometimes I don’t share like I need. I pray I will get bolder and several of us do better at sharing love of Jesus especially with this blog being a beacon of hope. God bless u Mike
Dee
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