Life In Real Time Online

Deuteronomy 30:3, 5: “Then the Lord your God will restore you from captivity, and have compassion on you, and . . . The Lord your God will bring you into the land which your fathers possessed, and you shall possess it; and He will prosper you and multiply you more than your fathers.”

Observation: The Lord was continuing His final instructions to His chosen people before they crossed the Jordan to enter the Promised Land. Moses was soon to die, and the people who had wandered in the desert for forty years were standing on tiptoe, eager with anticipation.

Application: The very thought of God’s restoring me from captivity is a stunning reality—stunning first, that He is able to restore me, and second, that He will. I have been a captive in so many ways in my life, to unrighteous habits and thought-life, and to judgments and hurt that have closed my heart for a season.

The very thought that the Lord Jesus Christ will restore me to Himself is profoundly amazing. And make no mistake about it, it is to Him that I am being restored. He is the One who has made me, and His purpose was that I could fellowship with Him first in the garden, and now in all eternity as His beloved.  This is staggering. His kindness to me is overwhelming. His restoration is complete, covering everything I have ever done to separate myself from Him.

My heart soars with joy over the knowledge of how high and how deep, how wide and how long is His redeeming love (see Eph. 5:18). My part in all this is to simply love Him above all else and all others, and to obey everything He tells me.

Prayer: Lord, about the part that’s mine to do—to love You and to obey You—oh, how much is wrapped up in those simple words. How many priorities still must be changed in my life to be completely at one with You. Yet I know You don’t require impossible things of me. So help me to quiet myself afresh today, to care about hearing Your voice above all the noise of life. Thank You for tantalizing glimpses of what You intend our relationship to be like. Thank You for using a bridal paradigm to express that deep sense of longing and unity that You died to win for me. Lord Jesus, I give myself to You today.

Deuteronomy 28:2, 15: “All these blessings will come upon you and overtake you if you obey the Lord your God. . . .  But it shall come about, if you do not obey the Lord your God, to observe to do all His commandments and His statues with which I charge you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you.”

Observation: This chapter is broadly divided into two parts. The first recounts the blessings God will pour onto those who obey Him and follow His commandments. They are far-reaching, profound, and encompass every aspect of life. The second part, much longer, is a description of the devastation to be loosed upon those who do not obey God and do not follow His commandments.  These, too, are far-reaching and profound, touching every aspect of life. Even more importantly, this devastation and destruction goes beyond this life into all eternity.

Application: As I read of these blessings and curses, the Lord reminded me how redemptive suffering can be. I see it in Luke 15 where the Prodigal Son chose to squander his inheritance and ended up living with pigs. But ultimately, the depth and breadth of his loss drove him back into the arms of his father.

I think about a man I know, formerly lukewarm in his faith, who found himself in a horrible marriage. Today, the marriage is no better, but his heart is good, having been ignited with love for Jesus. I think of dear loved ones who struggle with unforgiveness in their hearts over past offenses—for one an imagined offense, and for another, an offense against his grandfather. Both men are in deep bondage to their judgment. One struggles, wanting freedom that can only come with a surrendering of pride. The other is consumed by his unforgiveness and appears poised to go into eternity in his lost condition.

And I think about my wife, Cindy, and me. We struggled over the years to come to grips with the reality that we have a very, very good God who could have healed her of MS but didn’t. He did, however, heal our hearts through lessons learned while waiting on Him.

God decrees that rebellion, judgment, and pride will necessarily result in the horrible consequences of Deuteronomy 28, but He also gladly offers a way of escape—a way that tears us from the grip of sin in our lives and binds us to the renewing life of Christ.

Prayer: Thank You, Lord, for giving me the ability to make choices. Thank You that I am free to choose You, even ‘til the moment of my death. Lord, cause me to be conscious of each unsurrendered area of my life so I can repent of that sin and bind that part of my heart to the life of Christ in me.

Deuteronomy 25:17-19 “Remember what Amalek did to you along the way when you came out from Egypt, how he met you along the way and attacked among you all the stragglers at your rear when you were faint and weary; and he did not fear God. Therefore it shall come about when the Lord your God has given you rest from all your surrounding enemies, in the land which the Lord your God gives you as an inheritance to possess, you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven; you must not forget.”

Galatians 5:1, 7: “It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery. . . . You were running well; who hindered you from obeying the truth?

Observation: God reminded the Israelites that when they had grown weary, they had been severely attacked by their enemy, the Amalekites in this instance. He was encouraging them not to forget, not to fail to come back to a war footing so they could utterly defeat their enemy. And in Galatians, Paul similarly stirred his listeners to take a strong stand against the enemies of my soul; otherwise I will stumble and fall.

Application: As I read this I can think back on seasons in my life where I have stood strong and my heart burned with passion for Christ. Yet in other seasons, my ardor had cooled and I became more vulnerable to attack. Bad habits, bad use of time, poor choice of priorities—these become a downward spiral sapping vitality from my life in Christ. But I am called to war against such ease, to run without growing weary, to remember who the enemy is, and to fight until he has been utterly defeated in my life.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, I ask You to be my strength for the battles ahead, not just the “big” battles, but also those small, day-by-day decisions that ultimately end up ordering my life and determining the course I will follow. Father, cause zeal for Your Word, Your Son, to be stirred up in me. Let me be one of those old guys, if I live long enough, about whom others would say, “He has been with the Lord.”  Keep me from compromise; let my life be lived sacrificially before You to the very end. I desire to end well, Lord.

Deuteronomy 22:1, 3 “You shall not see your countryman’s ox or his sheep straying away, and pay no attention to them; you shall certainly bring them back to your countryman. . . . Thus you shall do with his donkey, and you shall do the same with his garment, and you shall do likewise with anything lost by your countryman, which he has lost and you have found. You are not allowed to neglect them.”

Observation: God here establishes rules for relationship among His people. His commands are startling by their intrusiveness. No one would be permitted to live anonymously in his neighborhood, excused from next-door attentiveness by the excuse of a busy workweek. This was a clarion call for involvement in the lives of others.

Application: The passage reinforces the importance of community, of living in caring relationship with one another. If someone has a need, I am first commanded not to ignore it; even more, I am to do all I can to meet it.

It makes me think of the tendency of people who are hurting or ashamed over some failure in their life or in the life of a loved one, to withdraw from fellowship with others. Such withdrawal is too often met with cooperation from friends who welcome any excuse to not be bothered. Usually, though, withdrawal comes at precisely the stage of life where fellowship with others could be most helpful. The support of a caring, loving network can do much to bring light to a life darkened by pain.

Prayer: Lord, show me more as to how this passage applies to me today. Make me sensitive to needs around me, and eager to help with others’ losses. Teach me to be Your hands and Your heart in reaching out to others.

Deuteronomy 19:1, 8-9 “When the Lord your God cuts off the nations, whose land the Lord your God gives you and if the Lord your God enlarges your territory, . . . and gives you all the land which He promised . . . if you carefully observe all this commandment . . .  to love the Lord your God and to walk in His ways always . . .”

Observation: The Lord was describing His plan to give the Israelites all the land promised them, and even more, so there would be plenty of cities of refuge. The magnificent sweep of His promises was that if obeyed, He would be surpassingly generous in response.

Application: In the course of relating His promises to the people, God makes clear that there is a division of labor in His economy. God has a role, and I have a role. His part is to do the warring to cut off His enemies, to defeat every foe so my territory can be enlarged. My part is to possess what He has made available, and to love Him and to walk in His ways.

How often I confuse my role with God’s. Is it the responsibility of an employee to see that the rent is paid, equipment purchased, supplies laid in for the day’s work? Of course not. That is the responsibility of the owner, properly delegated.  Still, when I survey what seems to have been laid before me, it seems I must be quarterback, receiver, and blocker as I rush the goal. But that is never God’s intent. He is the owner; it is His job to plan, His job to run interference so each play will delight with its apparent ease.

My problem is that I grow impatient or conclude that I know better than He what needs to happen. So I try to assume His responsibility, warring in the flesh, mistaking presumption for great faith. Whenever I do that, I am actually operating in a lack of faith, because I do not trust Him to do what He has said He would do.

Prayer: Father, teach me to wait upon You, to be content in Your timing. Your resources are more than sufficient to win every battle, so when it seems that I am losing, when I see myself sinking like Peter did as he walked on the water, remind me, Lord, that the battle is Yours, and cause me to learn what You want me to learn while going through Your process. I choose to sit at Your feet, focusing on Your beauty, waiting on You, yearning to become one with You in every way. I love You, Lord.

Deuteronomy 17:18 “He shall write for himself a copy of this law on a scroll in the presence of the Levitical priests.”

Observation: Moses was telling the people what he had heard God say, which included the fact that one day they would have a king. God required the king  to write out his own copy of the law, and do so in the presence of the priests.

Application: The priests were probably there to make an honest man of the king, making sure he wrote the law completely and accurately. But of greater interest to me is that the king wasn’t to hire the writing done; he was to do it himself.

Think about why the king was to write the law himself. Why not just read what others had written; surely with a good teleprompter and cue cards he would be able to convince most of the people through future prime time telecasts that he knew the law inside and out.

I think about my own quiet time journaling in the context of this verse. I learn much more when I write it down. I read more purposely for meaning, and find myself being more intentional about asking God to teach me something from that day’s reading.

Before journaling, I used to do my Bible reading in a comfortable chair; now I sit at a table, which makes me much more attentive. Habakkuk 2:2 says, “Write down the revelation and make it plain on tablets so that a herald may run with it”  (NIV). Reading what others have written is good, but it is far more excellent to write myself what I hear God saying from His word. I realize that journaling is probably a very good idea.

Prayer: Father, thank You for Your faithfulness to meet me each morning. I know I can never recapture those countless mornings when I failed to meet You, but I’m just grateful for today with You, and look forward with eager anticipation to tomorrow.

Deuteronomy 13:3 “The Lord your God is testing you to find out if you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.”

Observation: Through Moses, God warned the people to have their guard raised high against false prophets who, though they come with signs and wonders, are not from God.

Application: The context here is that people and things will come into my life with the intent to draw me away from following God wholeheartedly. My response is to be two-fold; first, recognize the distraction for what it is so my heart and soul will be protected; and, secondly, kill the tempter. Remarkably, the rest of Deuteronomy 13 says to kill the tempter even if he or she is a prophet whose words come true, or even if he was my brother, “the wife you cherish,” or “a friend who is as your own soul” (verses 1, 6).

Whew! God seems pretty serious about wholeheartedly following Him. But this passage also makes clear that God uses the distracting things of life to test my heart. Will I be faithful to follow Him even amidst the distractions and temptations of life? His desire is that I brutally oppose those things that could distract my walk with Him.

Turn off the TV! Cancel some subscriptions! Say no to some things I’m doing or being asked to do that don’t reinforce and build my secret life in Him. It’s interesting that verse 3 says I’m to love Him not just with my heart, but with my soul, as well. It’s soulish things that are my most immediate problem, things my eyes delight in or things I love to eat or the hottest car, the bigger home. Even such phrases as “love to eat,” “hottest,” or “bigger” reveal soulishness that is to be opposed as ultimately distracting me from whole-heartedness.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, I’m thankful that You came to lay down a marker. The line in the sand that You draw is not flexible. You never bend Your standards nor reduce Your expectations for me. Yet even as You see me struggle, You remain my most faithful cheerleader, my affirmer. I’m so grateful that You look at me as the finished work You have in mind. Forgive me for my soulish pursuits, Lord, and draw me into greater intimacy with You. Let me be content to simply be still, allowing my mind to fix its gaze on nothing but Your beauty, Your majesty, and Your passion for me. I love You, Lord.

Deuteronomy 10:1-3 “At that time the Lord said to me, ‘Cut out for yourself two tablets of stone like the former ones, and come up to Me on the mountain, and make an ark of wood for yourself. I will write on the tablets the words that were on the former tablets which you shattered, and you shall put them in the ark.’  So I made an ark of acacia wood and cut out two tablets of stone like the former ones, and went up on the mountain with the two tablets in my hand.”

Observation: When Moses had first come down the mountain with the original tablets of the Ten Commandments, he had found the people in rebellion and had destroyed the original tablets. So now, God was instructing him to cut two new tablets, build an ark to keep them in, and carry them up the mountain so God could again write His commandments.

Application: These instructions must have felt like real punishment to Moses. The stunning thing about these verses is how much easier Moses’s life would have been if everyone had been obedient the first time. After all, the first time, God had cut the stone tablets out of the rock himself, using His finger. The second time around, Moses had to do it.

How did that work? Did he use a band saw with carbon-tipped blade or perhaps a laser beam? Then, he was told to build an ark of acacia wood. Did the local Home Depot carry that kind of lumber? No, he would probably have to find an acacia tree and saw his own.

Finally, this really, really old guy was to carry the blank stone tablets back up the mountain. Wow! Think how tempted he must have been to mutter epithets under his breath against the rebellious Israelites, but he knew better. After all, he was already paying the price for their rebellion in all this hard work he had to do. With each cut of the chisel in the stone, with each stroke of the saw, with each labored step up the mountain carrying his heavy burden, he must have been thinking how much easier it would have been to obey God the first time.

How many difficult things in my life might have been easier had I been quicker, or more thorough, in my obedience the first time around?

Prayer: Lord, remind me not to break these new tablets! Help me to learn of You the first time, to follow with a glad heart wherever You may lead so I don’t have to keep repeating lessons already taught. And show me Lord what situations I may be in now where I’m in danger of having to repeat a lesson because I’m not paying sufficient attention the first time.

Mark 14:13-15 “And He sent two of His disciples and said to them, ‘Go into the city, and a man will meet you carrying a pitcher of water; follow him; and wherever he enters, say to the owner of the house, “The Teacher says, ‘Where is My guest room in which I may eat the Passover with My disciples?’” And he himself will show you a large upper room furnished and ready for us there.’”

Observation: Passover approached, and a place was needed for Jesus and the disciples to share it. Jesus gave clear instruction as to how they would take advantage of preparations already completed.

Application: The remarkable thing about these verses is that Jesus had every detail of their need prepared in advance of the question the disciples asked in Mark 14:12. He knew where they would celebrate, what the conversation with the proprietor would consist of, and even how they would find the proprietor, down to the detail of saying that their guide to him would be a man carrying a pitcher of water.

What a wonderful reminder that Jesus cares about the smallest details of my life. No matter how bleak things may seem, no matter how thick the darkness or how great the exhaustion clouding my vision, no matter how heavy my heart or how devoid of answers I may be, Jesus always is able to speak exactly the right word to bring clarity of vision and refreshing direction.

In asking one of my young grandchildren to go on some great adventure with me such as walking to the mailbox, she has never questioned my planning for the event. There is no concern expressed as to weather conditions or wonder if we would be back by such-and-such a time. Instead, she simply trusts that being with me is enough; no thought of the details behind my plan ever occurs to her. In the same way, Jesus, who said He only does and says what He knows the Father wants Him to do and say, long ago had figured out how to meet the minutest need of my life.

In this is affirmed Psalm 139, which says that His thoughts about me are more than could ever be counted, and that they began long before I was formed in my mother’s womb (see verses 13–18). What profound reassurance, enabling me to simply rest, secure in His presence.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, I am so ashamed of all the times I can remember being afraid of some lack in my life. You have already planned for every detail, relationally, financially, and professionally; all needed provision is already “in You” and has been since the beginning of time. Cause me to become quiet enough to hear what You are saying, and to then trust in You.

Mark 13:2 “And Jesus said to him, ‘Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone shall be left upon another which will not be torn down.’”

Observation: A student of Jesus had just remarked on the beauty and magnificence of the surrounding buildings as they came out of the temple. As delighted by the works of men’s hands as the student was, Jesus struck to the heart of pride. He pierced through any satisfaction in temporal accomplishment by saying that it all had to come down.

Application: Was there anywhere a construction project more magnificent than the Jerusalem temple? Had not Solomon brought together the finest artisans and carpenters, and gathered the most precious building materials, to make this house for God? Hadn’t God’s own presence been manifest there?

We do the same thing today, spending months with architects and boards of directors, lining up lenders and meeting with governing authorities seeking permits for various aspects of our construction projects. We raise up mighty corporations and spend the bulk of our lives primarily in relationship with colleagues, not with family. We push to pay off the mortgage between the time the kids are out of college and the date of our retirement, working feverishly at the same time to build up an impressive 401(k). How much like my own heart are those buildings that looked so good to the outward observer. But Jesus said that all stones must fall.

He knows that my heart can be hard and cold as stones at times, prideful over accomplishments or possessions.  But His purpose is to break my heart, to utterly defeat pride of accomplishment, to tear down every high thing I have lifted up in my own strength and in my own eyes.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, thank You that You are teaching me to cooperate with the work You want to do in and through me. I’m sorry for being such a slow learner, and I repent and ask Your forgiveness for every instance of stubbornness or rebellion against the correcting things You have wanted to do in my life. I want my life, my family, to be something You have built, Lord—something that will stand for all eternity. Show me day by day what my part is in the work You are doing in my own heart. Thank You, Lord.