Tag Archives: will

Don’t Get Burnt – Deuteronomy 4:32-40

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40 Keep his decrees and commands, which I am giving you today, so that it may go well with you and your children after you and that you may live long in the land the LORD your God gives you for all time.

Today’s devotional pick up on the verse above hight lighting a warning from the Lord. Satan would have us think that we have a God who is out of touch, unfriendly and makes threatening demands. However when I read the above I can only see love!

The devotional cleverly picks up on the differences between a threat and a warning. A threat is something someone would make to get their own way, where a warning is made to protect the person being warned. Confused? Here are 2 examples, which is a threat and which is a warning:

  • A parent see’s a child putting his hand out toward a candle: “Don’t touch that, you will get burnt”
  • A couple argue about an outing: “If you don’t let me go, then we may as well divorce”.

My examples, although probably not scholarly clever, or extremely imaginative, I think highlight the difference well enough!

Sure they look the same! Someone is speaking of something that could happen as a result of certain actions, however the major difference is love! The parent lovingly warns their child, as it is in the child’s best interest not to get burnt.

The person making the threat in the couples argument however is using a possible outcome to get their own way, in other words a threat!

Our Lord through out the Bible never threatens us. He is our loving Father God. Everything he commands us to do is always in our best interests, and for our well being. He wants us to live happy and fulfilled lives in Him. His will is there to ensure we don’t get burnt!

Obedience

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Today Stuart challenged us to think about the things that we don’t always want to think about or discuss.  The word Obedience is one of them!  We first looked at how we have never needed to be taught to be dis-obedient!

Yes, my daughter aged 1 knows very well how to be dis-obedient!  It was described really well like this:  Any one born from a human father inherits the original sin of Adam back in the Garden of Eden.  That’s why it comes to naturally!  This also explains why Jesus was able to be on earth, without Sin and be the perfect sacrifice for our Sin as he, although born of a human woman, was the son of God!

Once we determined where dis-obedience stems from, we moved on to look at reasons that we should be obedient to Gods word and do as he wishes.

We looked at several verses (and I wish I had noted them down, I will probably ask for them) that described it as the desire to do Gods will, to be obedient.  I can’t describe exactly how Stuart put it, but will explain what I understood:

When we are born again as Christians, we accept the gift of eternal life through Jesus Christ.  It is the GIFT of God!  We did not earn it!  This of course does not mean we should then continue to live for ourselves.

Living for Christ, and being obedient to him, allows us to lead fulfilled lives, allows us to grow a strong relationship with him, as well as allowing us to do his will, including bringing others to the Lord.  I have never met anyone in my life whom has lived for themselves, and could tell me that they were truly happy.  And from my experience, when I have lived for myself and been dis-obedient, I have been miserable!  When you accept the Lord into your life, he sends the gift of his Holy Spirit who convicts your heart, and makes his desires your desires!

Before I was saved I could sin and feel no remorse!  Now if I sin, I immediately feel terrible and seek the Lords forgivness for it is our hearts desire to be obedient, to do his will, to reach the lost, and to be fulfilled.

Stuart also pointed out that although we are saved we are still to be judged, therefore if we are saved yet don’t live for him, we will still feel some loss when we reach heaven and realise there were blessings we could have benefited from!

In a nutshell, being obedient to his will allows us to grow and to be used for his glory.   And store up those blessings in heaven as you can’t take your possessions with you!