Deut 11:1-32
Repeatedly Moses stresses the importance of obeying God's commands; we do well to pay attention! To put it in modern parlance: 'obey and be blessed, or disobey and be bashed!' God's great power means He knows everything about every person; whether to bash or bless. Moses was speaking to those who have seen God's mighty deeds (how else can you describe the feeding of over two million people for forty years without any crops being planted and no infrastructure to get food to everybody?) at first hand (v.7), so should have been able to expect obedience. But he knew that the people were prone to disobedience. Although all they had to do in return for land and blessing was to obey God, they still failed once in the land. The wearing of certain items denoting their faith in God was meant to encourage obedience.
Deut 12:1-32
Again the rules and regulations were explained to the people. The most important one was that only God was to be obeyed. Anything to do with the worship of idols was to be destroyed. God was going to tell them where they were to offer sacrifices to Him; no where else would do. (This culminated on the building of the Temple in Jerusalem, the only place where God accepted sacrifices; only fellowship offerings could be eaten in the towns and villages.)
God's laws were never to be altered by addition or deletion. Jesus found the scribes and Pharisees disobediently 'interpreting' God's laws in whatever way suited them, changing what God intended into what man wanted.
Luke 8:22-39
When Jesus stilled the storm the disciples were stunned. After all, they did not expect that the rabbi Who called them to follow Him was no ordinary man. But Jesus' words: 'Where is your faith?' (v.25) implies that the disciples could have performed the same miracle. How? By believing implicitly that God would answer their prayers. Having laid His glory and power aside when He became a Man for a season, Jesus demonstrated through His life how we are to live lives of faith in God. He did not use any personal divine powers during His earthly ministry. To do His miracles He used the same tools - faith, prayer, belief in the Father's power, and spiritual gifts - as are available to all believers!
In the same way as He stilled the waves, Jesus drove the demons out of the demented man. It is sad that the people of that region preferred to have their pigs back than have Jesus dwell amongst them. However, the formerly demented man was left to witness to the healing power of Jesus. Telling others about the wonderful things God has done for us is what witnessing is about!
Psalm 70:1-5
In the midst of his petitions for God to help him against his enemies, David finds time to praise God before continuing with his appeal. We, too, must not dwell only on our needs, but make a point of praising God for Who He is.
Prov 12:4
An 'excellent wife' will please her husband, but a wife who shames her husband hurts him far more than merely superficially.
No comments:
Post a Comment