Don't Forget!

In Deuteronomy 6, God tells the Israelites, whatever you do, “don’t forget the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt.” (verse 12) God knew that they had a pattern of forgetting Him. They would forget His faithfulness, His miracles, His provision and protection.

What caused this chronic forgetfulness? Influences from outside the nation was the main culprit. The Moabites, Philistines, Jebusites – you name them. As the Israelites intermarried and did business with the surrounding nations, they were influenced to add their gods to their worship. Eventually they would forsake the worship of the one true God -- Jehovah.

But it wasn’t just the outside influences, it was their humanness or sinful nature. That nature had a tendency to wander far from God. “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way.” (Isa. 53) The sinful nature likes to play god, as if we know better than Him. The sinful nature wants its’ own way.

We aren’t any different today. We are prone to wander too -- far from God. We’re constantly bombarded by evil or negative influences all around us. Some we could block by our choices, but others just hit us in the face when we leave our homes. We also question God’s ways and will. We think we know better than God. We are all too human.

Unlike the Israelites we have an advantage. We are in the New Covenant of grace. Christ’s sacrifice broke the power of the sinful nature and set us free to be like Christ. However, we have to learn daily to grow and walk in this new freedom. This takes some concentration, commitment and intentionality.

That’s what God was really talking about in Deuteronomy 6. Jesus said that all the commandments can be rolled up into this, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind and with all your strength and your neighbor as yourself.” Falling madly in love with God with all that I am will express itself in all I do. This is a process of intentional growth in our love for God. It’s a constant process of dying to those influences that would pull me away from God, and giving attention to those things that cause me to be mindful of God.

Read the first seven verses of Deuteronomy 6 and think about how you would apply that truth for the twenty-first century. Stop right now – read and apply for your life.

⁴ Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. ⁵ Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. ⁶ These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. ⁷ Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. ⁸ Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. ⁹ Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.

I don’t know about you, but I’m an “out of sight, out of mind person.” I need constant reminders. Besides reading the Word and praying, I sing praises while taking my shower, post scriptures to remember from devotions to pop up in my computer task bar, set alarms on my phone to “set my mind on things above”, play worship songs at home and in the car. I may not write the Word on the doorpost or gates but I have them memorized in my heart and I have scripture on my refrigerator. I do regularly share what God has impressed upon me from scripture and write it in my journal. My conversation does include the Lord and many times it’s been your sharing that has influenced me.

I hope you’ll comment about how you would apply these verses for our times. We need to help one another be more consciously aware of God’s presence and power in our lives. We need to be influenced more by the things of God than by the things of this world. How will we do this in 2011?

2011 Here We Boldly Come!

It’s a new year and there’s something about beginning a new year that makes me want to de-clutter, clean house and re-organize. My office at church has desperately needed some attention so I dove into the process. I threw away bags of the obsolete, archived the old but useful or important, gave away what could be used by someone but no longer needed by me, and re-organized my office.

While looking through the box of production pictures from years past, I was overwhelmed with emotion. Tears flooded my eyes and poured down my cheeks as my chest heaved with the memories of what God has done. Yes, I saw pictures of people who have moved on, moved away or even died. But it wasn’t that which produced this emotion.

It was the memory of the fear I used to face with each production met by the constant faithfulness of God. I used to ask myself, “What in the world have I committed to? God, isn’t there someone else more qualified, more creative, more confident than me?” Fear of not having enough people for each highly creative portion of the musicals used to haunt me? When we first started I did a little bit of everything but sound. But as the ministry grew, I had to believe that God would bring along the talent needed and so, He did.

Then when we moved into the new sanctuary in late 2002 I wondered, “Okay, God, how are we going to fill all this space with sets?” ‘How will we ever get it all done in time? But, I had learned that God is faithful. So now when the fear hit the pit of my stomach, I responded “But God is faithful.” And, He was.

These pictures represented God’s faithfulness. I was overwhelmed not with fear but with gratitude for God’s continual faithfulness through all the years.

There’s an old song that says, “Many things about tomorrow, I don’t seem to understand, but I know who holds tomorrow and I know He holds my hand.” None of us know what 2011 holds for us personally, our families, our jobs, our church or our nation. But this one thing we can know – God is faithful and no matter what comes our way, He is with us to help and support, to cheer and encourage, and to bless and empower.

No fear in 2011! Let trust in God calm our spirits and soothe our troubled minds. As God has been faithful to me through every detail of the musicals through over twenty years, so He will be faithful to us as we “fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.” 2011, here we boldly come!