Wednsday, October
11, 2017
“The Lord your God will soon bring you into the
land he swore to give you when he made a vow to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob. It is a land with large,
prosperous cities that you did not build.
The houses will be richly stocked with goods you did not produce. You will draw water from cisterns you did not
dig, and you will eat from vineyards and olive trees you did not plant. When you have eaten your fill in this land, be
careful not to forget the Lord, who rescued you from slavery in the land
of Egypt. You must fear the Lord your
God and serve him. When you take an
oath, you must use only his name. “You
must not worship any of the gods of neighboring nations, for the Lord your
God, who lives among you, is a jealous God. His anger will flare up against you, and he
will wipe you from the face of the earth.
You must not test the Lord your God as you did when you
complained at Massah. You must
diligently obey the commands of the Lord your God—all the laws and
decrees he has given you. Do what is
right and good in the Lord’s sight, so all will go well with you. Then you will enter and occupy the good land
that the Lord swore to give your ancestors. You will drive out all the enemies living in
the land, just as the Lord said you would. “In the future your children will ask you,
‘What is the meaning of these laws, decrees, and regulations that the Lord our
God has commanded us to obey?’ “Then you
must tell them, ‘We were Pharaoh’s slaves in Egypt, but the Lord brought
us out of Egypt with his strong hand. The Lord did
miraculous signs and wonders before our eyes, dealing terrifying blows against
Egypt and Pharaoh and all his people. He
brought us out of Egypt so he could give us this land he had sworn to give our
ancestors. And the Lord our
God commanded us to obey all these decrees and to fear him so he can continue
to bless us and preserve our lives, as he has done to this day. For we will be counted as righteous when we
obey all the commands the Lord our God has given us.’
Deuteronomy 6:10-25(NLT)
It seems buffet faith is quite popular these days. People claim to be spiritual, but not religious. In a sense that’s good, not falling back into
ritual for the sake of getting religious duties out of the way, so you can get
on with what you really want to do.
However, a buffet
approach to faith isn’t much better, where you take a little bit of this or
that into your belief…whatever scratches the itch, so to speak…mix & match
different appealing combinations of faith until you have a plateful. That may work as a handy source of party chatter,
but it will fail you in the middle of the night when life begins to fall apart.
Now, don’t
misread this – I am quite comfortable with the idea of “tolerance” – meaning I
will not presume to push
my faith down anyone else’s throat; but tolerating can never be confused with validating
or agreement with another’s belief system.
In our
Scripture today you would notice God took great pains to make sure Israel
understood they were to keep their faith razor sharp, not letting other gods creep into their
worship. That wasn’t intolerance; that
was making certain their faith didn’t fall apart and leave them as spiritual orphans,
having a name of being Godly, and no real connection with the God who had saved
them from bondage down in Egypt.
Buffet-style
religion or faith systems don’t come near a vibrant relationship with God, made
possible by Jesus’ death on the cross.
Scripture declares that we cannot purchase that relationship – it is
offered without any fees, shipping or handling.
But, it IS conditional;
we come with the understanding that it is God, Creator, sustainer and sovereign
of the universe we serve, and Him only.
Over and
again Scripture tells us to keep every worldly and false influence at bay so
you worship God alone. As one example,
after years of leading Israel to conquer the Promised Land, Joshua was about to
turn in his retirement papers; he stood and addressed all the people one more
time about being clear in their worship of Almighty God:
But if you
refuse to serve the Lord, then choose today whom you will serve. Would you prefer the gods your ancestors
served beyond the Euphrates? Or will it
be the gods of the Amorites in whose land you now live? But as for me and my family, we will serve
the Lord.”
Joshua 24:15(NLT)
For You Today
You chew on
that as you hit the Rocky Road…have a blessed day!
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