Ready to get right back into this conversation with God.
First a quote from Oswald Chambers.
The missionary message is the limitless significance of Jesus Christ as the propitiation for our sins, and a missionary is one who is soaked in that revelation.
READ
Deuteronomy 10:12-21, reading aloud slowly.
Wow. This is a "heavy" passage. I'm going to quote just a bit of it from The Message.
Live in his presence in holy reverence, follow the road he sets out for you, love him, serve GOD, your God, with everything you have in you, obey the commandments and regulations of GOD that I'm commanding you today--live a good life.
You must treat foreigners with the same loving care--remember, you were once foreigners in Egypt. Reverently respect GOD, your God, serve him, hold tight to him, back up your promises with the authority of his name. He's your praise! He's your God!! He did all these tremendous, these staggering things that you saw with your own eyes.
THINK
What phrase is most memorable? Right now, for me, it begins where it says that God takes loving care of foreigners by seeing that they get food and clothing, then follows with one of the quotes above, admonishing us to "treat foreigners with the same loving care." This really hits home for me right now, in the midst of all of the uproar in our nation (especially in Texas) over illegal aliens.
What quality of God stands out to me? Why? I think it's the part where it says he is "immense and powerful and awesome," and he "did all these tremendous, these staggering things." Have you ever stopped to think about just how BIG God is?? If you ever get a chance, get hold of a set of DVDs by Louie Giglio, a talk that he gave in the middle of two worship concerts featuring Chris Tomlin and Matt Redman. Where he describes the largest stars that have been discovered so far. It's staggering. One of them, when compared to our Sun, if you made our Sun a golf ball, you could fit enough of our suns in that star to cover the entire state of Texas with golf balls to a depth of two feet. That's a lot of golf balls, and that's a really big star. And God holds it (and many others) in the palm of his hand! He is truly "immense and powerful and awesome!" But then he stoops to take "loving care of foreigners by seeing that they get food and clothing." Staggering.
What command stands out to me? Why? Same as the first question...the command to treat foreigners the same way God does. That's going to take some work. Some philosophical work, mostly. I've got to rearrange my thinking. (Actually, that process has been in the works for a while, now, so it's not just a sudden thing...God has already been working on it.)
PRAY
Some suggestions are given:
>Espress to God your thoughts about living in his presence. Has living in his presence been important to you or not?
Hm...I'd have to say not as important as it needs to be. That definitely needs to occupy a higher priority in my life.
>Express to God those areas in which you would guess he considers you "hardheaded." (Pause and let this come to you. Don't necessarily go with the first thing that comes to mind.)
What? Me?? "Hardheaded???" Pft.
^^^^sarcasm^^^^
>Express to God your feelings about the have-nots you know (widows, orphans, foreigners). Talk to God honestly about how willing or unwilling you've been to include such people in your life.
Yeah...like I said up there...really starting to work on that one.
LIVE
Experiment with living in God's presence while caring for the rest of the world.
Relax.
Quiet yourself.
Just...
be.