March 13 – Deuteronomy 5-7

Below are my thoughts from the daily Bible reading of the West Side Church of Christ. Today’s reading comes from Deuteronomy 5-7. Before reading I invite you to pray and asked God to speak to you as you read his word.

We have spoken of this point several times but I think it was so vital to the promise that I want to address it again. God commanded his people to have nothing to do with the people of the Promised Land. In fact he truly wanted them removed from the land so that no hint of sin, no pagan worship, no detestable influence would be present. Moses again reconfirms this during his reminder speech of Deuteronomy …

“When the Lord your God has delivered them over to you and you have defeated them, then you must destroy them totally. Make no treaty with them, and show them no mercy. Do not intermarry with them. Do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons, for they will turn your children away from following me to serve other gods, and the Lord’s anger will burn against you and will quickly destroy you. This is what you are to do to them: Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones, cut down their Asherah poles and burn their idols in the fire. For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession.” Deuteronomy 7:2-6 NIV

… So let me ask you, what in your life do you need to act this way around? Do you need to get rid of cable so you do not watch the shows that degrade God, maybe even the shows that degrade God’s people? Do you need to honor sex in your marriage by not reading romance novels, or watching pornography, or shows where the main theme seems non-God honoring sex? Do you need to cut up your credit cards so that your spending honors God, your savings grow, and your blessings back to God’s kingdom multiply? What in your life do you need to completely destroy and remove?

Remember you have bought at price … the death and blood of Jesus Christ. You are God’s chosen people, his treasured possession. “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light” 1 Peter 2:9 NIV. Friends lets live that way!

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