It's Your Life!

Moses came and recited all the words of this song in the hearing of the people, he and Joshua son of Nun. When Moses had finished saying all these words to all Israel, he said, "Take to heart all these words to which I give witness today and urgently command your children to put them into practice, every single word of this Revelation. Yes. This is no small matter for you; it's your life. In keeping this word you'll have a good and long life in this land that you're crossing the Jordan to possess." (Deuteronomy 32:44-47 The Message)

I had the opportunity to preach again yesterday morning at Genesis. Actually I decided to preach the same message I preached a few weeks ago at the International Church about our perspective on God's Word as compared to King David's, seen through an analysis of a passage in Psalm 19. I think it's a good message (not mine in particular but definitely God's through David) as we all need a reality check from time to time...or maybe more often than that.

I've been reading through Deuteronomy over the past week or so and finished up this morning. It's a dramatic book chronicling a lot of the journey of the Hebrews as they moved toward ultimately crossing the Jordan to claim the land God had promised their people for generations. The writing is beautiful. I wish I could hear it read (and understand it) in the language that God inspired it to be written in. How much more beautiful...sweeter...might it be?

I wanted to draw my own (and maybe our) attention to the few words that I highlighted above: "it is your life". No matter which translation you look at they are all together on this one...no other way to say this. God's Word is your life. The original Hebrew, while it this statement is seemingly all one word (chay), is equally clear. It's as if our very lives hang in the balance...all dependent on the Word of God. Talk about perspective!

How is it that it has become so easy to appropriate God's Word to use only in the church building (ie Sunday School or Worship Services)? Why is it so easy to neglect? Worse, why is it so easy to ignore and live in complete contradiction to Scripture?

Reality check: if you find that your life is dependent on any single other thing than God and God alone you are a dead man walking. There cannot be life in you. To spin that to the positive side...there is life to be had in God, in His Word. There is real life to be discovered as when we submit ourselves *fully* to His reign.

Incidentally this message is for everyone...Christ followers and otherwise. Even Christians can lose sight of God's reality in their lives (the passage in Revelation 3 about Jesus standing at the door and knocking is directed to the Church at Laodicea not to unbelievers).