9-16-2015

     Good Morning All!!

         Deuteronomy 6:3; “Hear therefore, O Israel, and be careful to do them, that it may go well with you, and that you may multiply greatly, as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has promised you, in a land flowing with milk and honey.”

    It was a simple plan.  You would have thought everyone would have been on board with the plan and followed it.  The children of Israel were rescued by God from Egypt.  Now, after witnessing the power of God, the benevolence of God towards them in protecting them from Pharaoh’s army and feeding them while they are in the wilderness; God offers them a wonderful gift.  God offers them a land, a place to live.  He would care for them and protect them.  They were to live as His people.  This meant they were to live for God.  They were to share with other people the kindness that God showed them.  They were to be merciful to all people as God was merciful to them.  They were to remember that at one time they were enslaved.  They were to remember they were abused, punished and mistreated.  They were to love as God had loved them.

    This was to be manifested to its fullness by respecting, obeying and loving God over everything else.  It became a central theme throughout the Old Testament.  God will bless Israel with prosperity. When this happens Israel is to remember Him, and to serve Him by doing “what is right and good” in His sight. In the future Israel is to rehearse the wonderful acts of deliverance by which God proved His love for His people—and which should awaken their love for Him.  That was the plan but man let it fall flat.

    Sin, in the form of selfishness and greed, led to destruction.  The people turned from God and looked to their own selfish desires at the expense of others, especially those who were least able to defend themselves.  So the first plan failed.  It failed because we are sinners and to show us that we are unable to save ourself; we cannot even assist.  Our only hope is Jesus.

    This is truly good news for us.  My failures are not weighed against my good points.  If they were, I would always lose.  While some see these as a message of total despair, I see it as the truth which always points me to Christ, the only solution.  The beauty of this is nothing changes in this equation; God grace beats out my failure every time. 

    So we get to live in the land of milk and honey not because I am good but because God is great.  We live there because God’s love for us.  There is nothing we have done that will exclude us.  God’s love for you triumphs over all there is.  Nothing can cause God to release you.  His loving hold on you conquers all.

Father of mercy, you never give up.  You keep calling us to be your children even when we fail to respond.  In your great mercy, we are living in the land of milk and honey.  Give me the wisdom to give thanks for your lovingkindness.  Lead me to share this mercy with all those around me.  In the precious name of Jesus we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret