Deuteronomy 30:17-18 Heart

 17But if your heart turns away and you do not listen, but are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them, 18I declare to you today that you will surely perish; you shall not prolong your days in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess.

Heart ❤️ 

Look at the warnings in this scripture and take them to heart ❤️!

The LORD sees our heart ❤️ it defines us, it is who we are!

1 Samuel 16:7 But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or height, for I have rejected him; the LORD does not see as man does. For man sees the outward appearance, but the LORD sees the heart.”

Luke 16:15 So He said to them, “You are the ones who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is prized among men is detestable before God.

Let’s examine ourselves today for other gods! 

What can be another god in our lives? Anything that takes time away From the One true God!

Let that sink in and ask the Lord to reveal it to you!

LORD, we lift up our hearts to YOU and ask that YOU reveal any other gods that are drawing us away from YOU. Please correct us, in Jesus name I pray. Amen

Blessings 

Deuteronomy 30:15-16 Old or New?

 15See, I have set before you today life and goodness, as well as death and disaster. 16For I am commanding you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments, statutes, and ordinances, so that you may live and increase, and the LORD your God may bless you in the land that you are entering to possess.

“Under the terms of the Old Covenant, Israel had a choice: life or death, good or evil. It was up to them. God was going to glorify Himself through Israel one way or another. How it would happen was really their choice.” (Guzik)

We that are in Christ Jesus do not relate to God on terms of the old covenant but under the new covenant. Under the new covenant our relationship is not based on what we do for God but what Jesus has done for us!

1 John 4:9 This is how God’s love was revealed among us: God sent His one and only Son into the world, so that we might live through Him.

Are you living through Him?

Blessings 

Deuteronomy 30:11-14 Word

 11For this commandment I give you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach. 12It is not in heaven, that you should need to ask, ‘Who will ascend into heaven to get it for us and proclaim it, that we may obey it?’ 13And it is not beyond the sea, that you should need to ask, ‘Who will cross the sea to get it for us and proclaim it, that we may obey it?’ 14But the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you may obey it.

“Yet the Old Covenant, as a whole, including the aspects of law, sacrifice, and choice could be kept. It wasn’t beyond Israel’s capability to keep.” (Guzik)

Is Gods word near you too? 

It should be in your mouth and in your heart ❤️.

We should studying the Word everyday, chewing on the meat of it as guided by the Holy Spirit.

B.I.B.L.E.

Bible, basic instructions before leaving earth.

Study the Word so you understand the Lord God’s purpose for your life and what awaits your soul in the after life.

Which gate will you choose?

Matthew 7:13 “You can enter God’s Kingdom only through the narrow gate. The highway to hell is broad, and its gate is wide for the many who choose that way.

Blessings 

Deuteronomy 30:7-10 With all your heart and with all your soul!

 7“Also the Lord your God will put all these curses on your enemies and on those who hate you, who persecuted you. 8And you will again obey the voice of the Lord and do all His commandments which I command you today. 9The Lord your God will make you abound in all the work of your hand, in the [b]fruit of your body, in the increase of your livestock, and in the produce of your land for good. For the Lord will again rejoice over you for good as He rejoiced over your fathers, 10if you obey the voice of the Lord your God, to keep His commandments and His statutes which are written in this Book of the Law, and if you turn to the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.

“In part, these prophecies are fulfilled now in the modern restoration of Israel. But perhaps their ultimate fulfillment will happen in the millennium, when Israel has restored as a people truly turned to the LORD and His Messiah, Jesus.” (Guzik)

Why did Jesus come? The million dollar question!

Matthew 5:17 Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets. I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them.

James 2: 8If you really fulfill the royal law stated in Scripture, “Love your neighbor as yourself,”c you are doing well. 9But if you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors.

10Whoever keeps the whole law but stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.

No one can keep the law! Which is why Jesus came! 

To provide a way for sinners to be reconciled with God!

John 3:16 16For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that everyone who believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. 

Turn to the Lord Jesus with all your heart ❤️ and with all your soul and you shall be saved!

Blessings 

Deuteronomy 30:6 Circumcise Your Heart ❤️

 6And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.

There’s a lot to unpack in this verse and David Guzik does just that with Enduring Word! 

i. Today Israel is a largely secular nation. There is respect for the Bible as a book of history and national identity, but there is not, and has not been, a true turning to the LORD God, particularly as a nation.

ii. We can say that in a sense, not even the religious or Orthodox Jews have completely turned to the LORD. Though they have had an important and precious part in God’s plan for Israel in helping a spiritual consciousness for the Jewish people to survive through the centuries of the Diaspora, they have not truly turned to the LORD. We can say this because the character and nature of the LORD is perfectly expressed in His Messiah, Jesus. Jesus said, He who believes in Me, believes not in Me but in Him who sent Me. And he who sees Me sees Him who sent Me. (John 12:44-45) Since the Jewish people, except for a precious remnant, reject Jesus, they are rejecting the LORD God.

iii. But God’s promise still stands. As the final aspect of the promise to restore Israel, God will restore them spiritually. He promises to circumcise your heart. This is an idea repeated in the promises of the New Covenant, in passages like Ezekiel 36:26-27: I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them. Indeed, Paul promised that all Israel will be saved (Romans 11:26). Jesus said that He would not return until Israel embraced Him as Messiah: For I say to you, you shall see Me no more till you say, “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!” (Matthew 23:39)

iv. Some have thought that because the modern restoration of Israel has not yet demonstrated this spiritual dynamic that it has nothing to do with these prophesies. But the spiritual dynamic is properly listed in Deuteronomy 30:2-6 as the last of the blessings of restoration. Also, the picture of restoration in Ezekiel 37 - the vision of the dry bones - shows Israel restored, and strong, before the LORD breathed the breath of His Spirit on the restored Israel. We regard the modern restoration of Israel as a remarkable sign, and an extremely significant - but thus far only partial - fulfillment of these prophesies.

Blessings 

Deuteronomy 30:2-5 Return

 2and when you and your children return to the LORD your God and obey His voice with all your heart and all your soul according to everything I am giving you today, 3then He will restore you from captivity and have compassion on you and gather you from all the nations to which the LORD your God has scattered you. 4Even if you have been banished to the farthest horizon, He will gather you and return you from there. 5And the LORD your God will bring you into the land your fathers possessed, and you will take possession of it. He will cause you to prosper and multiply more than your fathers.

“As this promise refers to a return from captivity in which they had been scattered among all nations, consequently it is not the Babylonish captivity which is intended; and the repossession of their land must be different from that which was consequent on their return from Chaldea.” (Adam Clarke 1811)

“This promise is fulfilled only in the modern restoration of Israel, not in the return from the Babylonian exile. In the days of the return from the Babylonian exile, the Jewish community was small, weak, and poor. But today, under the modern restoration of Israel, the state of Israel does indeed prosper and the promise to multiply you more than your fathers is fulfilled. Israel, as a nation, is larger, stronger, and richer than at any time in Biblical history.” (Guzik)

Notice Clarke’s commentary, he knew repossession of their land as promised in these verses MUST be different because as of 1811 the promise to “prosper and multiply more than your fathers.” Hadn’t been fulfilled yet!

Have you or your children sinned and strayed from the LORD?

1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Don’t wait in these perilous times, return to the LORD! HE’s waiting for you!

Blessings 

LETTERS

 2 Corinthians 3: 1Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, like some people, letters of recommendation to you or from you?

4Such confidence before God is ours through Christ.

“Such letters were common and necessary in the early church. A false prophet or apostle could travel from city to city and easily say, “Paul sent me, so you should support me.” To help guard against problems like this, letters of recommendation were often sent with Christians as they traveled.” (Guzik)

“The best analogy in today’s world might be a certificate of ordination. Many people think that a certificate of ordination means that you have the credentials of ministry. While there is an important purpose in a public ordination to ministry, a piece of paper in itself never is a proper credential. The true credentials of the ministry are changed lives, living epistles. We might almost say, keep your paper to yourself and show us the changed lives from your ministry.” (Guzik)

I remember making my rounds as a volunteer chaplain at the Arizona State Veterans Home and running into another chaplain in the hallway. We introduced ourselves and the first thing he says is, I received my certificate of ordination at such and such seminary and asks where did I get mine? I commented, I received mine at the School of Moses.

2You yourselves are our letter, inscribed on our hearts, known and read by everyone. 3It is clear that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.

There’s nothing wrong with a letter or certificate of ordination, it’s how we use it that matters. Is it inscribed on our heart ❤️ with the Spirit of the living God or on our lips?

If the Spirit of the Living God is in your heart ❤️ others will see it by the changed lives, you will be a living epistle!

Blessings