Category Archives: Prayer

Guide, Hebrew Roots / Commands / Law, Holy, Just, Justice / Judgment, Obeying God, Prayer, Rebuke Wrong Behavior, Repenting from Sin, Righteous

Resisting Evil People And Evil Deeds Is Crucial For A Righteous Society To Survive

There is right and wrong and it applies to everyone. YHWH sets the standard, not people who change their opinions over time and with the turn of generations. YHWH is eternal and He is just and holy as much as He is loving. Refusing to accept evil and those who commit it can help prevent generations of people from moving farther and farther away from YHWH and how He tells us to live. The more we accept sin and the more we normalize behavior that is wrong in the Lord’s eyes… the farther we get from living as He intended. It is obvious in watching our culture deteriorate over the generations… more and more schools and government and media try to ignore or reject YHWH and His ways and embrace worldly sin not only as acceptable, but honorable or preferable.  His people must humble themselves and pray and mourn for our nation and call our nation to repent and turn back to YHWH.  We must try to influence our culture to stop accepting or praising what is evil in the Lord’s sight. Do not be passive in accepting evil. Vote, encourage others, pray. Let the voice of YHWH’s people be heard.

Deuteronomy 17

Administration of Justice

      1“You shall not sacrifice to the LORD your God an ox or a sheep which has a blemish or any defect, for that is a detestable thing to the LORD your God.

      2“If there is found in your midst, in any of your towns, which the LORD your God is giving you, a man or a woman who does what is evil in the sight of the LORD your God, by transgressing His covenant, 3and has gone and served other gods and worshiped them, or the sun or the moon or any of the heavenly host, which I have not commanded, 4and if it is told you and you have heard of it, then you shall inquire thoroughly. Behold, if it is true and the thing certain that this detestable thing has been done in Israel, 5then you shall bring out that man or that woman who has done this evil deed to your gates, that is, the man or the woman, and you shall stone them to death. 6“On the evidence of two witnesses or three witnesses, he who is to die shall be put to death; he shall not be put to death on the evidence of one witness. 7“The hand of the witnesses shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.

      8“If any case is too difficult for you to decide, between one kind of homicide or another, between one kind of lawsuit or another, and between one kind of assault or another, being cases of dispute in your courts, then you shall arise and go up to the place which the LORD your God chooses. 9“So you shall come to the Levitical priest or the judge who is in office in those days, and you shall inquire of them and they will declare to you the verdict in the case. 10“You shall do according to the terms of the verdict which they declare to you from that place which the LORD chooses; and you shall be careful to observe according to all that they teach you. 11“According to the terms of the law which they teach you, and according to the verdict which they tell you, you shall do; you shall not turn aside from the word which they declare to you, to the right or the left. 12“The man who acts presumptuously by not listening to the priest who stands there to serve the LORD your God, nor to the judge, that man shall die; thus you shall purge the evil from Israel. 13“Then all the people will hear and be afraid, and will not act presumptuously again.

      14“When you enter the land which the LORD your God gives you, and you possess it and live in it, and you say, ‘I will set a king over me like all the nations who are around me,’ 15you shall surely set a king over you whom the LORD your God chooses, one from among your countrymen you shall set as king over yourselves; you may not put a foreigner over yourselves who is not your countryman. 16“Moreover, he shall not multiply horses for himself, nor shall he cause the people to return to Egypt to multiply horses, since the LORD has said to you, ‘You shall never again return that way.’ 17“He shall not multiply wives for himself, or else his heart will turn away; nor shall he greatly increase silver and gold for himself.

      18“Now it shall come about when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself a copy of this law on a scroll in the presence of the Levitical priests. 19“It shall be with him and he shall read it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the LORD his God, by carefully observing all the words of this law and these statutes, 20that his heart may not be lifted up above his countrymen and that he may not turn aside from the commandment, to the right or the left, so that he and his sons may continue long in his kingdom in the midst of Israel.

I encourage each of you to read through today’s scripture again. The specific examples which are highlighted have significance. Dwell on each one. Do not think, “we have no kings, so that is irrelevant”, for we have many who make a living and career out of political office and ruling over the people without ever living amongst them. They do so for their own wealth and power, not for some charitable act of service.  These examples are meaningful and they challenge us to ask… “Do I accept what the world says is right or what YHWH says is right?”

Resisting evil people and evil deeds is crucial for a righteous society to survive.

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Do you know for sure if you will go to heaven or hell when you die? Are you experiencing in your life the peace and joy of a personal relationship with our Creator and Father? Learn more about salvation through The Message of the Cross.

Guide, Humility, Learning To Pray Effectively, Seeking God, Teachable

Make Me Know Your Ways, O LORD

I invite each of you to take a few moments to pray with me right now and to continue this prayer through the next week every day. Ask God to help you, your family, friends and any spiritual, government or civic leaders you know. We all need God’s help to help us understand and follow His ways!

Psalms 25:4-5

   4Make me know Your ways, O LORD;
Teach me Your paths.

   5Lead me in Your truth and teach me,
For You are the God of my salvation;
For You I wait all the day.

Prayers need not be “fancy” or long or complicated to be effective. Rather, we need a humble spirit that is submitted to YHWH and trusts in Him. We need a heart that seeks a closer relationship with Him.

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Do you know for sure if you will go to heaven or hell when you die? Are you experiencing in your life the peace and joy of a personal relationship with our Creator and Father? Learn more about salvation through The Message of the Cross.

Father / Yahweh, Justice / Judgment, Prayer

We Can Bring All Our Desires Before The Lord

The Lord invites us to bring all our concerns and desires before Him. He knows them already anyway. Better to bring the request for vengeance before the Lord than to execute it yourself. Let us be truly honest and open in our relationship with the Lord. The Lord is a righteous judge and will not err in a passionate moment.

Better still would be to pray for your enemy… ask the Lord to help defeat their wicked plans but guide them to repentance and relationship with Him. Ask the Lord to help you forgive and not be bitter.

Psalm 109

Vengeance Invoked upon Adversaries.

For the choir director. A Psalm of David.

     1O God of my praise,
Do not be silent!

      2For they have opened the wicked and deceitful mouth against me;
They have spoken against me with a lying tongue.

      3They have also surrounded me with words of hatred,
And fought against me without cause.

      4In return for my love they act as my accusers;
But I am in prayer.

      5Thus they have repaid me evil for good
And hatred for my love.

      6Appoint a wicked man over him,
And let an accuser stand at his right hand.

      7When he is judged, let him come forth guilty,
And let his prayer become sin.

      8Let his days be few;
Let another take his office.

      9Let his children be fatherless
And his wife a widow.

      10Let his children wander about and beg;
And let them seek sustenance far from their ruined homes.

      11Let the creditor seize all that he has,
And let strangers plunder the product of his labor.

      12Let there be none to extend lovingkindness to him,
Nor any to be gracious to his fatherless children.

      13Let his posterity be cut off;
In a following generation let their name be blotted out.

      14Let the iniquity of his fathers be remembered before the LORD,
And do not let the sin of his mother be blotted out.

      15Let them be before the LORD continually,
That He may cut off their memory from the earth;

      16Because he did not remember to show lovingkindness,
But persecuted the afflicted and needy man,
And the despondent in heart, to put them to death.

      17He also loved cursing, so it came to him;
And he did not delight in blessing, so it was far from him.

      18But he clothed himself with cursing as with his garment,
And it entered into his body like water
And like oil into his bones.

      19Let it be to him as a garment with which he covers himself,
And for a belt with which he constantly girds himself.

      20Let this be the reward of my accusers from the LORD,
And of those who speak evil against my soul.

      21But You, O GOD, the Lord, deal kindly with me for Your name’s sake;
Because Your lovingkindness is good, deliver me;

      22For I am afflicted and needy,
And my heart is wounded within me.

      23I am passing like a shadow when it lengthens;
I am shaken off like the locust.

      24My knees are weak from fasting,
And my flesh has grown lean, without fatness.

      25I also have become a reproach to them;
When they see me, they wag their head.

      26Help me, O LORD my God;
Save me according to Your lovingkindness.

      27And let them know that this is Your hand;
You, LORD, have done it.

      28Let them curse, but You bless;
When they arise, they shall be ashamed,
But Your servant shall be glad.

      29Let my accusers be clothed with dishonor,
And let them cover themselves with their own shame as with a robe.

      30With my mouth I will give thanks abundantly to the LORD;
And in the midst of many I will praise Him.

      31For He stands at the right hand of the needy,
To save him from those who judge his soul.

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Do you know for sure if you will go to heaven or hell when you die? Are you experiencing in your life the peace and joy of a personal relationship with our Creator and Father? Learn more about salvation through The Message of the Cross.

Prayer, Thankfulness

Devote Yourself To Prayer

As Paul closes his letter to Colossians, there is some very important advice we should not overlook as followers of Christ.

Colossians 4:2-4

    2Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving; 3praying at the same time for us as well, that God will open up to us a door for the word, so that we may speak forth the mystery of Christ, for which I have also been imprisoned; 4that I may make it clear in the way I ought to speak.

To be devoted is defined as “very loving or loyal” or as “given over to the display, study, or discussion of”. How many of us can really say that we are “devoted” to prayer by this definition? I find myself asking the Lord to help me become more loving and loyal to Him and to my relationship with Him through prayer. There are many other distractions in the world, which often seem more tangible or real in our daily lives. But we should seek to be devoted to YHWH and to our prayer life with Him.

Let us approach Him with thanksgiving for what he has done already (e.g. Christ death on the cross for us) and for sustaining us. Let us pray not only for ourselves but also for fellow brothers and sisters in Christ that that they would have opportunity to speak for Christ and be clear in how they ought to speak.

Our nation and our world certainly need prayer for effective evangelizing and witnessing to those who do not truly follow Christ.

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Do you know for sure if you will go to heaven or hell when you die? Are you experiencing in your life the peace and joy of a personal relationship with our Creator and Father? Learn more about salvation through The Message of the Cross.

Discerning / Judging, Hebrew Roots / Commands / Law, His Ways Are Not Our Ways, Idols / False Gods, Obeying God, Prayer, Seeking God, Teachable

Shun Idolatry; Seek Out And Obey The Instructions of YHWH

The LORD has told us in advance that there will be false prophets that perform signs, but will propose chasing new and different doctrine that YHWH Himself told us to follow and is recorded in the Bible. He told us to reject such people as false prophets who are leading rebellion against Him.

We are called to test everything against the commandments of YHWH. We are not to simply follow anyone who can seemingly perform a miracle or sign, though it may seem compelling. This is perhaps where people end up following false teaching and false religions.

Ironically this is also where many Jewish people struggle in accepting Christ. Don’t misunderstand, it is not because Christ taught a different doctrine… He certainly did not. However, when one encounters most or nearly all Christian churches, one finds that the doctrine and commands they teach do not line up with the commands of YHWH as given to Moses. Much has been discarded as “Jewish” that should have been kept as “God’s commands”. Many claim that much of God’s instruction is obsolete. They pick and choose which commands to follow (e.g. they say adultery is still bad, but sabbath is no longer called for or “the Old Testament  is obsolete, but you still need to give a tithe”).

We are to shun idolatry. We are to shun anything that would take the primary  place in our hearts which was created for YHWH. We are to shun anything that teaches us to discard YHWH’s commands and instructions. For most today, that means we are to make serious changes.

Deuteronomy 13

Shun Idolatry

      1“If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder, 2and the sign or the wonder comes true, concerning which he spoke to you, saying, ‘Let us go after other gods (whom you have not known) and let us serve them,’ 3you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams; for 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.4“You shall follow the LORD your God and fear Him; and you shall keep His commandments, listen to His voice, serve Him, and cling to Him. 5“But that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death, because he has counseled rebellion against the LORD your God who brought you from the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of slavery, to seduce you from the way in which the LORD your God commanded you to walk. So you shall purge the evil from among you.

      6“If your brother, your mother’s son, or your son or daughter, or the wife you cherish, or your friend who is as your own soul, entice you secretly, saying, ‘Let us go and serve other gods’ (whom neither you nor your fathers have known, 7of the gods of the peoples who are around you, near you or far from you, from one end of the earth to the other end), 8you shall not yield to him or listen to him; and your eye shall not pity him, nor shall you spare or conceal him. 9“But you shall surely kill him; your hand shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people. 10“So you shall stone him to death because he has sought to seduce you from the LORD your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. 11“Then all Israel will hear and be afraid, and will never again do such a wicked thing among you.

      12“If you hear in one of your cities, which the LORD your God is giving you to live in, anyone saying that 13some worthless men have gone out from among you and have seduced the inhabitants of their city, saying, ‘Let us go and serve other gods’ (whom you have not known), 14then you shall investigate and search out and inquire thoroughly. If it is true and the matter established that this abomination has been done among you, 15you shall surely strike the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword, utterly destroying it and all that is in it and its cattle with the edge of the sword.16“Then you shall gather all its booty into the middle of its open square and burn the city and all its booty with fire as a whole burnt offering to the LORDyour God; and it shall be a ruin forever. It shall never be rebuilt. 17“Nothing from that which is put under the ban shall cling to your hand, in order that the LORD may turn from His burning anger and show mercy to you, and have compassion on you and make you increase, just as He has sworn to your fathers, 18if you will listen to the voice of the LORD your God, keeping all His commandments which I am commanding you today, and doing what is right in the sight of the LORD your God.

Pray for insight and clarity from the Spirit. Open yourself to listen to Him, even if He calls you to change. Odds are if you are growing up in culture today, even if you are in a church, you are not following all of YHWH’s commandments. It is not about “salvation”. That is received by grace through faith in Christ. Obedience is the fruit of our salvation, not the root of our salvation. Seeking to understand God’s instructions instead of being complacent “as we are” or “as we are told is acceptable” is a sign of love. Study the Bible. Really study it. Pray for discernment. Be ready and willing to make even emotionally difficult changes. If you choose to hold tight to something other than what God calls for us to do, then that is rebellion and idolatry. You are putting something else in a higher priority than obedience to Him.

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Do you know for sure if you will go to heaven or hell when you die? Are you experiencing in your life the peace and joy of a personal relationship with our Creator and Father? Learn more about salvation through The Message of the Cross.

Church / Body of Christ, Encouragement, Grace / Patience, Prayer, Rebuke Wrong Behavior, Thankfulness

Grace To You And Peace From God Our Father

What a wonderful way to greet brothers and sisters in Christ. Paul opens his letter to the Colossians with welcoming words in which he tells them he is thankful to God for them and is actively praying for them. Even if we disagree with a fellow brother or sister in Christ on some issues, what a wonderful approach to take. Begin with prayer for them, then engage them with encouragement for what they are doing well, then perhaps later challenge them on areas of obedience in their walk with Christ. This is much more effective than the approach many take today… not praying for them, skipping over what is good, and focusing immediately on what we think they may be doing wrong.

 Colossians 1:1-12

Thankfulness for Spiritual Attainments

     1Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,

      2To the saints and faithful brethren in Christ who are at Colossae: Grace to you and peace from God our Father.

      3We give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, 4since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love which you have for all the saints; 5because of the hope laid up for you in heaven, of which you previously heard in the word of truth, the gospel 6which has come to you, just as in all the world also it is constantly bearing fruit and increasing, even as it has been doing in you also since the day you heard of it and understood the grace of God in truth; 7just as you learned it from Epaphras, our beloved fellow bond-servant, who is a faithful servant of Christ on our behalf, 8and he also informed us of your love in the Spirit.

      9For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, 10so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; 11strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience; joyously 12giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in Light.

It is good for us to pray for one another in this way. Pray that those who follow Christ would be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that they will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience; joyously giving thanks to the Father.

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Do you know for sure if you will go to heaven or hell when you die? Are you experiencing in your life the peace and joy of a personal relationship with our Creator and Father? Learn more about salvation through The Message of the Cross.

Learning To Pray Effectively, Purposeful / Intentional, Seeking God

On The Mountain For Forty Days

A simple message for today, but a very important one.

When we take time to focus on our Father in heaven, He will hear us and our relationship with Him will grow. Like every other relationship, the more time and effort we invest in knowing the other person and being with them and respecting what is important to them… the closer we will get with them.

You would not expect to spend 5 minutes a day with your spouse and have a good relationship or your children. Why do so many assume this is enough for God? You would not see your wife or children only once a week for an hour on Sundays. Why do we think this is ok for God?

Moses is one of several great examples documented in the Bible for us. He had many responsibilities in leading the people. However, He put God first and took significant amount of time to go and listen and speak with God.  He respected and obeyed God’s instructions above his own desires.  He was close to God and God was close to Him as a result. God listened to Him and guided Him.  Moses was able to clearly understand God, without doubts or uncertainty.

Deuteronomy 10:10-11

  10“I, moreover, stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights like the first time, and the LORD listened to me that time also; the LORD was not willing to destroy you. 11“Then the LORD said to me, ‘Arise, proceed on your journey ahead of the people, that they may go in and possess the land which I swore to their fathers to give them.’

I clearly have more room to grow in this area, but I am moving in the right direction over time to grow closer to YHWH, by His grace and patience. We each should take time to pray for His help and reflect on our lives. We must decide if we are going to do what it takes to invest in our relationship with the almighty Creator of the universe, or not. To defer a decision on this for later is still a decision. To ignore God or put Him as a low priority behind work or even family is also a choice not to put Him first.  We either are or are not in a growing relationship with our Creator. There is no middle ground.

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Do you know for sure if you will go to heaven or hell when you die? Are you experiencing in your life the peace and joy of a personal relationship with our Creator and Father? Learn more about salvation through The Message of the Cross.

Government, Guide, Hebrew Roots / Commands / Law, Obeying God, Prayer

The 10 Commandments Matter To God and They Should Also Matter To Us

Many probably forget this, but when Moses came down off the mountain(Deuteronomy 9) with the 10 commandments the first time, he found the people sinning in rebellion to YHWH. He was so angry he broke the tablets with the 10 commandments on them. It was quite a dramatic scene. Once the situation was addressed, however, YHWH must have thought it was important because He told Moses to come back so He could provide a replacement set of the commandments.

Deuteronomy 10:1-5

The Tablets Rewritten

     1“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. 2‘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.’ 3“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. 4“He wrote on the tablets, like the former writing, the Ten Commandments which the LORD had spoken to you on the mountain from the midst of the fire on the day of the assembly; and the LORD gave them to me. 5“Then I turned and came down from the mountain and put the tablets in the ark which I had made; and there they are, as the LORD commanded me.”

The commandments are important to our Father. They are not all inclusive of all instructions He has provided, but they are an important summary and for many a good starting place. They are not obsolete. Neither YHWH nor human nature nor sin have changed in thousands of years. YHWH’s instructions are there for our benefit, not His. We should honor and respect that which our Father has provided to help guide us.

Ask yourself… Do you know what the 10 commandments are? When is the last time you reviewed them and prayed over them for the Spirit to show you what changes you need to make in your life?

Ask also… What can we do to ensure that the commandments are honored throughout our country instead of constantly being under attack by atheists. Are we as Christians, fighting as hard to protect the ten commandments and instructions of God throughout our culture as the atheists are fighting to eliminate them? Pray for guidance on how you can get involved to help.

Praying for our nation is a great spot to start… for our nation to embrace YHWH and His ways rather than reject them. Pray for the plans of the wicked to be destroyed and the righteous to be lifted up and protected.

The 10 commandments matter to YHWH and they should also matter to us.

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Do you know for sure if you will go to heaven or hell when you die? Are you experiencing in your life the peace and joy of a personal relationship with our Creator and Father? Learn more about salvation through The Message of the Cross.

Forgive Others / Seek Forgiveness, Interceding for Others, Justice / Judgment, Merciful, Rebuke Wrong Behavior, Seeking God, Worthy of Fear / Reverence

The Intercessory Prayer of the Righteous Is Powerful

The intercessory prayer of the righteous is powerful. Let us remember to pray for one another not just in sickness and hard times but also when we sin. The people of Israel sinned against God multiple times through disobedience.  God was ready to destroy them. Moses interceded on their behalf. He was not part of this sin, but prayed to God for the people anyway. God had mercy on them, not because they deserved it, but because in part of the intercessory prayer of Moses.

Deuteronomy 9:7-29

7“Remember, do not forget how you provoked the LORD your God to wrath in the wilderness; from the day that you left the land of Egypt until you arrived at this place, you have been rebellious against the LORD. 8“Even at Horeb you provoked the LORD to wrath, and the LORD was so angry with you that He would have destroyed you. 9“When I went up to the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant which the LORD had made with you, then I remained on the mountain forty days and nights; I neither ate bread nor drank water. 10“The LORD gave me the two tablets of stone written by the finger of God; and on them were all the words which the LORD had spoken with you at the mountain from the midst of the fire on the day of the assembly. 11“It came about at the end of forty days and nights that the LORD gave me the two tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant. 12“Then the LORD said to me, ‘Arise, go down from here quickly, for your people whom you brought out of Egypt have acted corruptly. They have quickly turned aside from the way which I commanded them; they have made a molten image for themselves.’ 13“The LORD spoke further to me, saying, ‘I have seen this people, and indeed, it is a stubborn people. 14‘Let Me alone, that I may destroy them and blot out their name from under heaven; and I will make of you a nation mightier and greater than they.’

      15“So I turned and came down from the mountain while the mountain was burning with fire, and the two tablets of the covenant were in my two hands. 16“And I saw that you had indeed sinned against the LORD your God. You had made for yourselves a molten calf; you had turned aside quickly from the way which the LORD had commanded you. 17“I took hold of the two tablets and threw them from my hands and smashed them before your eyes. 18“I fell down before the LORD, as at the first, forty days and nights; I neither ate bread nor drank water, because of all your sin which you had committed in doing what was evil in the sight of the LORD to provoke Him to anger. 19“For I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure with which the LORD was wrathful against you in order to destroy you, but the LORD listened to me that time also. 20“The LORD was angry enough with Aaron to destroy him; so I also prayed for Aaron at the same time. 21“I took your sinful thing, the calf which you had made, and burned it with fire and crushed it, grinding it very small until it was as fine as dust; and I threw its dust into the brook that came down from the mountain.

      22“Again at Taberah and at Massah and at Kibroth-hattaavah you provoked the LORD to wrath. 23“When the LORD sent you from Kadesh-barnea, saying, ‘Go up and possess the land which I have given you,’ then you rebelled against the command of the LORD your God; you neither believed Him nor listened to His voice. 24“You have been rebellious against the LORD from the day I knew you.

      25“So I fell down before the LORD the forty days and nights, which I did because the LORD had said He would destroy you. 26“I prayed to the LORD and said, ‘O Lord GOD, do not destroy Your people, even Your inheritance, whom You have redeemed through Your greatness, whom You have brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand. 27‘Remember Your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; do not look at the stubbornness of this people or at their wickedness or their sin. 28‘Otherwise the land from which You brought us may say, “Because the LORD was not able to bring them into the land which He had promised them and because He hated them He has brought them out to slay them in the wilderness.” 29‘Yet they are Your people, even Your inheritance, whom You have brought out by Your great power and Your outstretched arm.’

Pray for one another… for mercy, forgiveness, a spirit of repentance when we sin. Notice that Moses did not excuse the sin or accept the sin of the people in order to rationalize asking for mercy. He strongly acknowledged the sin was wrong and without excuse and in need of repentance. However, he prayed for mercy anyway. Also note, the people were rebuked for their sin by Moses and he demanded a change in behavior. Intercessory prayer is not an excuse to keep sinning and assume we will receive mercy anyway. The sin must stop.

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Do you know for sure if you will go to heaven or hell when you die? Are you experiencing in your life the peace and joy of a personal relationship with our Creator and Father? Learn more about salvation through The Message of the Cross.

All Knowing, Blessed, Character of God, Consequences of Sin, Disobeying, Rebelling Against, Ignoring God, Faithful, Father / Yahweh, Guide, Hebrew Roots / Commands / Law, Justice / Judgment, Obeying God, Prayer, Pride, Protector / Deliverer, Through Prophets

All The Commandments That I Am Commanding You Today You Shall Be Careful To Do

Over and over again in scripture YHWH emphasizes a very key point which is lost on most Christians today. He calls for us to live according to His commandments and be blessed, remembering Him and He contrasts that with a dire warning about ignoring His commandments and growing prideful and diminishing His role in our lives.

We can certainly see this today as many Christians declare “Christian freedom” as an excuse to not obey God’s clear instructions. They ignore more and more of His instructions over time. We can see it even in looking back over our own lifetime, let alone over the past thousands of years since Jesus walked among us in the flesh. Today most who identify as Christian do not love God above all other things. They may use those words, but many things take His place in their heart and how they spend their time, money, and talent declare they love other things more than God. We are a culture of coveting. Sabbath is ignored and considered “odd” and “unnecessary”. Children do not honor their parents. The majority of people in the USA identify as Christian, but as a culture we tolerate the murder of unborn children and embrace “diversity” amongst those who worship false gods. We allow persecution of Christians for living God’s instructions regarding failing to honor homosexual marriage but are told to tolerate all manner of sinful behavior amongst people who reject or ignore God. We let Atheists continually chase God out of our public schools and government and mainstream life. Surely we are not on the path God calls us to follow as a nation.

Deuteronomy 8

God’s Gracious Dealings

     1“All the commandments that I am commanding you today you shall be careful to do, that you may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land which the LORD swore to give to your forefathers. 2“You shall remember all the way which the LORD your God has led you in the wilderness these forty years, that He might humble you, testing you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. 3“He humbled you and let you be hungry, and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you understand that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the LORD. 4“Your clothing did not wear out on you, nor did your foot swell these forty years. 5“Thus you are to know in your heart that the LORD your God was disciplining you just as a man disciplines his son. 6“Therefore, you shall keep the commandments of the LORD your God, to walk in His ways and to fear Him. 7“For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, flowing forth in valleys and hills; 8a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey; 9a land where you will eat food without scarcity, in which you will not lack anything; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills you can dig copper. 10“When you have eaten and are satisfied, you shall bless the LORD your God for the good land which He has given you.

      11“Beware that you do not forget the LORD your God by not keeping His commandments and His ordinances and His statutes which I am commanding you today; 12otherwise, when you have eaten and are satisfied, and have built good houses and lived in them, 13and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and gold multiply, and all that you have multiplies, 14then your heart will become proud and you will forget the LORD your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. 15“He led you through the great and terrible wilderness, with its fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty ground where there was no water; He brought water for you out of the rock of flint. 16“In the wilderness He fed you manna which your fathers did not know, that He might humble you and that He might test you, to do good for you in the end. 17“Otherwise, you may say in your heart, ‘My power and the strength of my hand made me this wealth.’ 18“But you shall remember the LORD your God, for it is He who is giving you power to make wealth, that He may confirm His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day. 19“It shall come about if you ever forget the LORD your God and go after other gods and serve them and worship them, I testify against you today that you will surely perish. 20“Like the nations that the LORD makes to perish before you, so you shall perish; because you would not listen to the voice of the LORD your God.

I believe this passage is incredibly relevant today for the USA and most western nations. As we continue to diminish God and chase after sin He will surely remove His blessing from our country and leave us to the depravity of our own minds. For those of us who are followers of Christ, we must not tolerate sin and false religion. (Atheism is a religion too… it is not a “neutral” position.)

Pray for Christians throughout our nation and the world that we would be passionate and courageous for Christ. Pray for our nation to humble themselves, repent and turn back to God.  Pray for those who identify as Christian to live as Christ called us to do. Pray that the plans of the wicked would be defeated and God would lift up the righteous in His right hand and bring victory.

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