So as I said, I would be back late in the night to finish the second part of Chapter 18 of Deuteronomy. As I said at the end of the last post, verses 15-68 of this chapter are not the most encouraging words in the Bible if you are looking for comfort. The warning could not be more clear and the reality of what will come upon those who disobey is rather harsh. Now this was written to the next generation of Israel as they prepared to enter the promise land and God wanted to make it very clear to them how important obeying is. Sure we hear about respecting elders and honoring our father and mother but what about honoring God, our heavenly father? It takes a lot of work to be obedient every second of every day because we like to go out and do things on our own or one could say it is in our human nature to be defiant. From the time we are infants, we do stuff we are told not to do because we are curious as to where it will lead us. The idea though is that we learn as infants what leads us into trouble and we stay away from those things as we grow up. This is why the Bible says we need to stop taking the milk at some point and eat solid food. Spiritually we must grow and we must move towards the throne with every passing day otherwise we will go on making the same mistakes and never moving forward. I know that it can be tough to accept that we need to grow up but it is apart of life and it needs to be a part of the Christian walk. If we choose not to grow or to continue being disobedient, then God wants us to know that we will not be welcome into his kingdom and that we will live a life of sorrow, regret, and complete unhappiness.
What kind of stuff is waiting for those who disobey? Well, the rest of the chapter is rather long so I will just point out a key paragraph that I believe is applicable today and illustrates God's point rather well. Verses 45-48 state, "All these curses will come upon you. They will pursue you and overtake you until you are destroyed, because you did not obey the Lord your God and observe the commands and decrees he gave you. They will be a sign and a wonder to you and your descendants forever. Because you did not serve the Lord your God joyfully and gladly in the time of prosperity, therefore in hunger and thirst, in nakedness and dire poverty, you will serve the enemies the Lord sends against you. He will put an iron yoke on your neck until he has destroyed you." If this is not enough of a warning and does not show the wrath of God, I do not know what would convince a person to make a lifestyle change in order to follow God. Just to understand the difference between receiving blessings or curses is great wisdom. Being able to discern what is best and to live a lifestyle that not only makes you happy but also brings joy and honor to the Creator is a great way to go about life. Why do we not always live an obedient life? Well as I stated before, human nature. We are just so caught up in what we want and what our body and mind tell us, that we tend to forget about the spirit or we just ignore the spirit for awhile. Hiding from God or the spirit can make getting back on track tough because just as Satan tears you down, he does not want you to get back up and will try to convince you that you cannot get back to the point you were at before so you should just stay down. The truth is that if you want to get up, God is still there with open arms and will allow your spirit to be renewed so that you can fight the devil and his evil schemes. I will be honest that not a day goes by where I do not face some sort of decision that could lead to sin, whether it is old decisions that have hurt me in the past or new decisions that could lead to a whole new world of trouble, I go up against temptation everyday and I cannot stand up against it without the help of God. Until I am willing to let God take control and guide me, I will never be able to get by and be obedient to him.
Read Mark 14:38. If you do not have a bible, search online for the verse, if you would like a bible, let me know.
God is at work and we need to acknowledge him, keep pressing on and do not ever give up. Please continue to pray for me and I will pray for the blog and those that read it. Hope you all had a great day and leave comments if you would like.
God Bless,
Joseph Robinson
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