Become the people of God

 Jeremiah 29:11 written on stone - Salt Spring Island Pentecostal Church

Photo © 2012 by V. Nesdoly

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Deuteronomy 24-27; Psalm 61

TO CHEW ON: "Then Moses and the priests, the Levites, spoke to all Israel, saying, 'Take heed and listen, O Israel: This day you have become the people of the Lord your God…' "- Deuteronomy 27:9.

The book of Deuteronomy is a collection of Moses' final instructions to Israel, the nation he has led for 40 years. At last they are about to enter Canaan.

We discover today that this anticipated move is not only a natural migration but very much a spiritual event. In the segment we read today he reminds the people:

- They are God's "special people" and "holy" i.e. set apart - Deuteronomy 26:18,19.

- They are to have a heart-mind-spirit connection to God. Notice the verbs used to describe how they are to seek God and His laws: observe, walk in His ways, keep, obey, write, take heed, listen.

What interests me especially in this passage is the variety of modalities God uses to help them grasp and pass on the reality of their connection to Him:

- Obey from the core of their beings: "observe with heart and soul" - Deuteronomy 26:16.

- Speak of their beliefs - "proclaimed" - Deuteronomy 26:17.

- Listen to God's affirmation of them, delivered by Moses - Deuteronomy 26:18,19.

- "Keep" these commandments, as in habitually, not just once - Deuteronomy 27:1.

- Choose and prepare physical stones, then write God's laws on them to remind them and their children of their spiritual connection to God and the spiritual basis of their land ownership - Deuteronomy 27:3,8.

I believe there are lessons for our lives from this reading;

• The things that occur in our lives have more of a spiritual component to them than we realize. A move to another home, a change in jobs etc. are spiritually significant things. Let's be sensitive to the spiritual aspects of our apparently natural circumstances.

• We can use many modalities to help us know God and live in ways that please Him: listen, speak, obey, write, display these writings where they remind us and our families of whose we are and how He wants us to live. Let's be creative in how we nourish our faith and pass it on to others.

PRAYER: Dear God, please help me to acknowledge and honor You through the many inputs and outputs of my being. Amen.

PSALM TO PRAY: Psalm 61

The Bible Project VIDEO: Deuteronomy (Torah Series)



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Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

What kind of a plant are you?

Photo © 2015 by V. Nesdoly

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Hebrews 5:11-6:12

TO CHEW ON: "For the earth which drinks in the rain that often comes upon it and bears herbs useful for those by whom it is cultivated, receives blessing from God; but if it is bears thorns and briers it is rejected and near to being cursed, whose end is to be burned." - Hebrews 6:7,8


The Bible has many references to the life of a plant as a metaphor for the spiritual life of a person or nation.

• Isaiah pictures God caring for His nation Israel as a gardener cares for his vineyard. He expects a healthy batch of wine, but the vines disappoint with their wild grapes. So He withdraws his protective care - Isaiah 5:2,6,7.

• John the Baptist picks up this warning about the judgment on unfruitfulness in his sermon on the banks of the Jordan, where he warns that unfruitful trees will be chopped off at the root - Matthew 5:10-12.

• Jesus talks about the unfruitful life in his Parable of the Sower. He blames the thorns of worldliness—"the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches"—for a lack of spiritual fruit - Matthew 13:22.

• In another parable, we see that fruitfulness is expected in trees that are part of God's orchard - Luke 13:6-9.

• Jesus describes His relationship with the plants in His garden in His True Vine talk (John 15). He shows God the gardener removing the branches that don't grow fruit and pruning the ones that do so they'll produce an even bigger crop (John 15:2). The secret of fruit-bearing, He says, is to stay attached to the vine. That attachment results in answered prayers and God being glorified - John 15:5-8.

• What a contrast this is to our passage from Hebrews which talks about the backslider—the once-fruitful person who has turned his or her back on the things of God. The writer says if this one who has "tasted the good word of God and the power of the age to come" falls away, it is almost impossible for them to return. He warns of a fate that is likely to be the same as a patch of thorns and briers "whose end is to be burned" - Hebrews 6:8.

We can apply these pictures to our lives as plants in God's garden.

* We realize that life's circumstances—both good and bad (His walls around us, His pruning of us)—are His way of ensuring and increasing our fruitfulness.

*We are aware of the part that our focus and priorities play on our fruitfulness (and guard against worldliness).

* We know that to stay fruitful we need to stay connected to Him.

* We are also aware of the fate of the once-fruitful person who has turned away from following Him and…  well, we don't want to go there!

PRAYER: Dear God, please help me to be a healthy, fruit-producing plant in Your garden. Amen.

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Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

The litmus test of true spirituality

"Jesus and the Woman at the Well" - John 4:5-26

Illustration from Treasures of the Bible - Jesus' Ministry

TODAY'S SPECIAL: 1 John 4:1-21

TO CHEW ON: "Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world."

In our time when it's fashionable to be "spiritual," it's more important than ever to "test the spirits" as John here tells us to do. The writer of my Bible's study notes on this passage elaborates:

"Believers are not to be so gullible that they indiscriminately accept pronouncements of all prophets who claim to be of God… A spirit is indeed behind every prophet…" - Peter E. Prosser, study notes on 1 John, New Spirit-Filled Life Bible, p. 1787.

John names the two types of spirits. The prophetic spirit that speaks from the Spirit of God he calls the "spirit of truth" (1 John 4:6), while a false spirit he calls the "spirit of Antichrist" and the "spirit of error" (1 John 4:3,6).

How can we tell which is which? John here also gives us a simple test. He says that spiritual truth is all tied up in Jesus and our reaction to Him. The true spirit, whose message source is the Spirit of God "… confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh…" - 1 John 4:2.

This is more than mere mental assent to the fact that a person named Jesus of Nazareth once lived and was a remarkable person.  More from the study notes:

"The crux of a test is a spirit's acknowledgement or rejection of Jesus Christ as the incarnate Son of God. A confession of Jesus involves more than an admission of His identity (see Matthew 8:28,29; Mark 1:24; 3:11). It is a profession of faith in Him and submission to His sovereignty. … a confession proclaiming the truth that Jesus is the incarnate Christ is of God and testifies to both His full humanity as our Saviour-Redeemer and HIs full deity as Lord and Sovereign King - Ibid (emphasis added).

And so when missionaries come to our door, or when our friends talk to us of the usefulness of their spiritual practices, or we watch documentaries or read books on modern spirituality, we should be on the lookout for the answer to that test question: What do they say and believe about Jesus?


PRAYER: Dear God, thank You for this test of spirituality and whether or not particular belief systems and practices are from You. Please sharpen my discernment. Amen.

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Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.