March 10, 2006 - Deuteronomy 11-13 and Mark 12:1-27
The book of Deuteronomy is always so helpful and insightful for me. This passage was no different. What did the Lord say to you?
In chapter 11 the Lord tells the people that He is not speaking to the children, because they have not seen the great acts of God that their fathers had seen. He was calling on the fathers to trust Him and then to teach their children to trust Him once they entered the Promised Land. I believe that principle is a good one for us today. That is why God wants every child to have godly parents. The parent can teach the child based on what he or she has experienced with God. This gives the child a firm foundation on which to build his or her own relationship with the Lord.
In chapters 12 and 13 the Lord issues another command. He tells them to utterly destroy the pagan altars and the signs of pagan worship in the Land, and then, He even says that they should stone anyone who leads them to rebel against God and worship idols. This may seem extreme to us, but it is necessary for us. Satan is our enemy. He will do anything to defeat us as believers. God wants to give us victory over our enemies, so that we can rest from warring against them. (12:10) The only way that happens is for us to trust God and obey Him, so that our enemies are totally driven out of our lives, and we do not leave a place from which Satan can attack us. Most people want to eliminate as little of the world out of their lives as they can and still be a Christian. That is not God's will. His will is to destroy all of the strongholds of Satan in our lives and to clean them out completely. Then, we can continue to trust Him and be free from the daily stress of fighting Satan's strongholds. We can be focused only on Him. Is that your desire today? I pray that it is.
Mark 12 reinforces this truth by showing that God tests us to see what is in our hearts. The parable of the vineyard shows that He gave the people every opportunity to listen to Him and to honor Him, but they would not. Therefore, they failed the test. However, they wanted to test God. They sent people to Jesus to ask Him questions. This was a test because they doubted that He was God. The Bible says that God tests us, but we are not to test Him. Testing God shows a lack of faith. God can't bless that. Do you see what I mean? Most of us want to be exempt from God's tests, and we want to test God all of the time. We have it backwards. James chapter 1 says that we should have a positive attitude toward God's tests because they build faith and endurance. Let's pray that we will be faithful to God and pass His tests. Let's also stop putting God to the test.
Tomorrow, I intend to read Deuteronomy 14-16 and Mark 12:28-44.
In chapter 11 the Lord tells the people that He is not speaking to the children, because they have not seen the great acts of God that their fathers had seen. He was calling on the fathers to trust Him and then to teach their children to trust Him once they entered the Promised Land. I believe that principle is a good one for us today. That is why God wants every child to have godly parents. The parent can teach the child based on what he or she has experienced with God. This gives the child a firm foundation on which to build his or her own relationship with the Lord.
In chapters 12 and 13 the Lord issues another command. He tells them to utterly destroy the pagan altars and the signs of pagan worship in the Land, and then, He even says that they should stone anyone who leads them to rebel against God and worship idols. This may seem extreme to us, but it is necessary for us. Satan is our enemy. He will do anything to defeat us as believers. God wants to give us victory over our enemies, so that we can rest from warring against them. (12:10) The only way that happens is for us to trust God and obey Him, so that our enemies are totally driven out of our lives, and we do not leave a place from which Satan can attack us. Most people want to eliminate as little of the world out of their lives as they can and still be a Christian. That is not God's will. His will is to destroy all of the strongholds of Satan in our lives and to clean them out completely. Then, we can continue to trust Him and be free from the daily stress of fighting Satan's strongholds. We can be focused only on Him. Is that your desire today? I pray that it is.
Mark 12 reinforces this truth by showing that God tests us to see what is in our hearts. The parable of the vineyard shows that He gave the people every opportunity to listen to Him and to honor Him, but they would not. Therefore, they failed the test. However, they wanted to test God. They sent people to Jesus to ask Him questions. This was a test because they doubted that He was God. The Bible says that God tests us, but we are not to test Him. Testing God shows a lack of faith. God can't bless that. Do you see what I mean? Most of us want to be exempt from God's tests, and we want to test God all of the time. We have it backwards. James chapter 1 says that we should have a positive attitude toward God's tests because they build faith and endurance. Let's pray that we will be faithful to God and pass His tests. Let's also stop putting God to the test.
Tomorrow, I intend to read Deuteronomy 14-16 and Mark 12:28-44.