Deuteronomy 10-14; Acts 26

I nearly highlighted all of Deuteronomy’s readings today, they are so good. They tell of the Lord’s love and provision. It’s a guideline for good–to love the Lord. A holy stewardship to pass along. Love the Lord and serve him. Write it down. Everywhere. On my heart. On my hands. On my doorpost. Teach and talk. Day and night.

²⁰ You shall fear the Lord your God. You shall serve him and hold fast to him, and by his name you shall swear. ²¹ He is your praise. He is your God, who has done for you these great and terrifying things that your eyes have seen. ²² Your fathers went down to Egypt seventy persons, and now the Lord your God has made you as numerous as the stars of heaven.

11 “You shall therefore love the Lord your God and keep his charge, his statutes, his rules, and his commandments always. ² And consider today (since I am not speaking to your children who have not known or seen it), consider the discipline of the Lord your God, his greatness, his mighty hand and his outstretched arm, ³ his signs and his deeds that he did in Egypt to Pharaoh the king of Egypt and to all his land, ⁴ and what he did to the army of Egypt, to their horses and to their chariots, how he made the water of the Red Sea flow over them as they pursued after you, and how the Lord has destroyed them to this day, ⁵ and what he did to you in the wilderness, until you came to this place, ⁶ and what he did to Dathan and Abiram the sons of Eliab, son of Reuben, how the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, with their households, their tents, and every living thing that followed them, in the midst of all Israel. ⁷ For your eyes have seen all the great work of the Lord that he did.

⁸ “You shall therefore keep the whole commandment that I command you today, that you may be strong, and go in and take possession of the land that you are going over to possess, ⁹ and that you may live long in the land that the Lord swore to your fathers to give to them and to their offspring, a land flowing with milk and honey. ¹⁰ For the land that you are entering to take possession of it is not like the land of Egypt, from which you have come, where you sowed your seed and irrigated it, like a garden of vegetables. ¹¹ But the land that you are going over to possess is a land of hills and valleys, which drinks water by the rain from heaven, ¹² a land that the Lord your God cares for. The eyes of the Lord your God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year to the end of the year.

¹³ “And if you will indeed obey my commandments that I command you today, to love the Lord your God, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul, ¹⁴ he will give the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the later rain, that you may gather in your grain and your wine and your oil. ¹⁵ And he will give grass in your fields for your livestock, and you shall eat and be full. ¹⁶ Take care lest your heart be deceived, and you turn aside and serve other gods and worship them; ¹⁷ then the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you, and he will shut up the heavens, so that there will be no rain, and the land will yield no fruit, and you will perish quickly off the good land that the Lord is giving you.

¹⁸ “You shall therefore lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. ¹⁹ You shall teach them to your children, talking of them when you are sitting in your house, and when you are walking by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. ²⁰ You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, ²¹ that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land that the Lord swore to your fathers to give them, as long as the heavens are above the earth. ²² For if you will be careful to do all this commandment that I command you to do, loving the Lord your God, walking in all his ways, and holding fast to him, ²³ then the Lord will drive out all these nations before you, and you will dispossess nations greater and mightier than you.

Deuteronomy 10:20-22, 11:1-23, ESV

Lord, you know man’s heart. This is why you remind us (me!) to keep your word close, to speak of you daily, to love you. Paul took your charge to heart–to go and make the most of every opportunity to share the gospel–and the sharing of the gospel prompted more and more occasions to share the message far and wide. Help me to be vigilant and aware to share your love, Lord, and to make the most of the opportunities you give me.

Courtney (66books365)

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Numbers 23; Psalm 64, 65; Isaiah 13; 1 Peter 1

God is not a human being, and he will not lie.

He is not a human, and he does not change his mind.

What he says he will do, he does.

What he promises, he makes come true. Numbers 23:19 (NCV)

I try to find opportune moments throughout the day to share with my children about God. Sometimes, those moments are served up on a silver platter, easy to find and easy to talk about. Sometimes they are scattered about like breadcrumbs, tiny morsels of His goodness, for us to find together.

On Sunday, my oldest daughter found a rainbow-shaped eraser at the restaurant where we ate dinner for Mother’s Day and I recognized an opportunity to remind her of another facet of God.

We all love rainbows for some reason or another. Some love them simply because of their beautiful colors. Some love the mystery and the science of how they emerge in the sky, through a prism of glass, or in a puddle of oily water. Some love the idea of legends of leprechauns and pots of gold.

I love rainbows because they represent the promises of the Creator.

When the first rainbow appeared in the sky after the flood waters had receded in the days of Noah, God explained that it was a sign of His promise, a promise that would never be forgotten and would never be broken.

I think about the promises that I have made in my lifetime and I can’t even count how many I have broken. My imperfect humanness left those promises in the past never to be remembered again. I never set out to break them, but they were broken just the same.

I think about the promises that God has whispered into my heart and I am encouraged to believe, to trust that those promises will never be forgotten. Those promises will always bear fruit because God’s ‘Yes’ is always ‘Yes’.

After my second daughter was born, I spent a few days in the hospital as most new mothers do. I had recently woken up and the nurse had taken my little bundle for her daily checkup. I wasn’t expecting any visitors until the next day. My postpartum hormones were out of control and I was feeling gloomy. The quiet in the room made me lonely.

And that is when God showed up…

I looked out of the window at the view of the river and for just a few moments a rainbow appeared over the water. Almost as soon as I saw it, it was gone.

In that twinkling, I was encouraged by God’s presence, a reminder that He will never leave me or forsake me, I will never be alone. It was a memento of the promises He has for me, as well as, the promises He has for my children.

Yesappa, thank you for never lying, for never changing your mind, and for always keeping your promises. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Blessings – Julie, Vadipatti, India (written in the U.S.A.)

Scripture taken from the New Century Version®. Copyright © 2005 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.