September 10, 2020<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The message of Deuteronomy is one that the church desperately needs to hear today. These final words of Moses given to the children of Israel as they prepared to enter into the Promised Land serve as a warning, an encouragement, and a charge. Through them, God exposes the idolatry of our hearts and calls us to give all of our love, worship, and devotion to Him alone in every area of our lives! Moses warns the people that when they enter the land there will be things that compete with God for their attention, their affections and their worship. We, too, have hundreds of things that compete for our hearts each and every day. In this book, God teaches us how to properly respond to the amazing grace He has given us by giving Him our undivided allegiance, our whole hearts and our whole lives. Over the next 34 days, let\u2019s seek this ancient way together as a church!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This chapter is filled with beautiful promises from God! After laying out the blessings and curses of the covenant and renewing it in Moab, Moses begins telling the people what is going to happen: they are going to rebel and experience the curses. They will be exiled from the land God was giving them. This is bad news for the people of Israel, but this passage is so filled with hope!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On the other side of exile, God promises that when the people repent He will restore them! When the people would turn back to Him with all their heart and with all their soul, God would once again delight in prospering them and would make them even greater than their ancestors had been! The promise of forgiveness and restoration is a precious one that we cling to in Christ!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The problem is, the people need help turning to God with all their heart and with all their soul. Sin is so comprehensively destructive and evil that it leaves us unable to truly obey God from the heart. But there is another incredible promise that God gives us here: earlier in Deuteronomy Moses called the people to circumcise their hearts, but here God promises that He Himself will do this for His people! God promises to do what they could never do themselves so that they can love and obey Him and experience life in Him!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This promise has been fulfilled for us: we each have received a new, clean heart that loves God and obeys Him when we believed in Christ and were transformed and indwelt by the Holy Spirit! Praise God that, though we never could have and never would have turned to Him of our own volition, He has made a way for us by His grace!<\/p>\n\n\n\n