It was an amazing
adventure during my last missions trip for me as I joined my brother Lloyd, his wife, Lisa, my mom,
a young adult from CTF Kitchener, Ariel and a former youth of mine,
Travis. We ran an “Encuentro Da Vida”
Soccer Camp based on John 10:10 that Jesus came to give us life to the full!
On the last day of the
camp close to 100 children did just that!
It was awesome. The way my
brother Lloyd shared with those who attended is very inspirational and
empowering and it reminds me of our study through Deuteronomy that we recently
went through at Church at the Manor.
The book of
Deuteronomy is a speech, pep talk, inspirational call to a new generation of
God’s people. They had watched the
futility and lack of faith of their parents that caused them to miss out on the
very best promise that God had spoken over them. What causes us to miss out on experiencing
out on everything that our Father has for us?
It is the heart of unbelief.
Moses gives the famous
‘shema’ to this young generation and it is built on two words,
LISTEN and LOVE.
Deuteronomy 6:4 “Listen, O Israel! The Lord is
our God, the Lord alone. 5 And you must love the Lord your God with all your
heart, all your soul, and all your strength. 6 And you must commit yourselves
wholeheartedly to these commands that I am giving you today. 7 Repeat them
again and again to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when
you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up. 8
Tie them to your hands and wear them on your forehead as reminders. 9 Write
them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
It was a prayer that
they were called to express twice a day.
Listen in the Hebrew
is not just a call to hear, but to respond to what you are hearing, to respond
to God’s grace, to obey the words of the covenant.
Love is the motivation
for obeying the commands of the covenant.
It is out of devotion that the LORD (meaning the personal, covenanting
God) wants us to respond. If they are
going to live out and fulfill this Abrahamic covenant to be blessed and be a
blessing
It is the same
imperative that Jesus gave us when he said, He who ears, let him hear and James
who said, let’s be doers of the Word and not hearers only.
In the second section
of the book, he takes the to repeat, explain and clarify.
Here is the breakdown:
The path of obedience
leads to blessing, abundance and enjoying the land. So, choose life.
The path of
disobedience however leads to the curse and a time of famine, plagues and
finally exile from the land that God has graciously given. This is the path of
death.
The New Testament in
Galatians 6:7-10 essentially lays out the same cause and effect. We will reap what we sow.
However, there is a
huge gap, issue with all of this… Moses essentially predicts their failure to
live it out as well. He basically says
that they will be incapable of listening and loving much like Adam and Eve in the
garden.
The problem is a
universal human condition and Moses then goes on to focus on a time after exile
when they will be able to listen and love.
In Deuteronomy 30:6, “The LORD your God will circumcise your hearts”. Other prophets like Jeremiah also speak of
when God wlll write the law on hearts of flesh.
I will give you a new heart and put a new
spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart
of flesh. Ezekiel 36:26
For this is the covenant that I will make with
the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law
within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and
they shall be my people. Jeremiah 31:3
And it’s reiterated
again in Hebrews 8:10
So, bottom line for us
is this, there is no way to live out the Christian life without the power and
the fullness of the indwelling Holy Spirit.
It’s the Holy Spirit
that enables us to do the things that God has prepared in advance for us to
do. Ephesians 2:10.
We had so MANY divine
appointments where God set us up.
We had issues with the government about our camp and God literally
brings a believer to us who works for the government. Another time we were just visiting at the
pastor’s home and a man “randomly” shows up to ask for prayer for his
wife. It turns out he was in prison, but here they put them to work in construction.
During our time with him, the pastor leads him to Jesus. We ask him how often this sort of thing
happens, he says this is the first time!
Amazing!!
The Bible Project
video series does such an excellent job sharing this in the following video, it
is SO worth the watch!
