March 14 – Deuteronomy 8-10

Below are my thoughts from the daily Bible reading of the West Side Church of Christ. Today’s reading comes from Deuteronomy 8-10. Before reading I invite you to pray and asked God to speak to you as you read his word.

We have talked about fighting the sin battle and how it relates to God’s command of genocide of the people who were living in the Promised Land. We have discussed why God ordered that because he did not want their worship and their sin to infect his people. We have even examined our own lives to see what is present that we need to eradicate just like we would work to eradicate a virus from our bodies. Here is what I find awesome … God offers to lead the battle.

In our reading today we find an amazing promise from God …

“Hear, Israel: You are now about to cross the Jordan to go in and dispossess nations greater and stronger than you, with large cities that have walls up to the sky. The people are strong and tall—Anakites! You know about them and have heard it said: “Who can stand up against the Anakites?” But be assured today that the Lord your God is the one who goes across ahead of you like a devouring fire. He will destroy them; he will subdue them before you. And you will drive them out and annihilate them quickly, as the Lord has promised you.” Deuteronomy 9:1-3 NIV

God basically said, even though the people you are about to go up against are bigger and stronger I am going to fight your fight, I am going to devour them, and I am going to deliver them into your hands. We have seen him do that already with the Moabites. When the pages of Deuteronomy turn to Joshua we will experience that with Jericho and then city after city. God certainly delivered on his promise.

Here’s the hope that I hold on to … God made the promise of deliverance to the Israelites as they went into the Promised Land. He asked them to do something and he helped them do what he asked. In Christ we have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. God has asked us to purify our lives, to remove the things that keep us from him. But he does not ask us to do it alone. Like he did for the Israelites he will do for us. Because of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit we have a far greater power than ourselves alone and we can conquer whatever separates us from God.

At West Side we are beginning a new prayer partner campaign. We are asking people to join with us in praying daily for West Side. If you would like to join us please click here and subscribe to receive daily emails containing a short prayer request for West Side. We appreciate your partnership.

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!

At West Side we are beginning a new prayer partner campaign. We are asking people to join with us in praying daily for West Side. If you would like to join us please click here and subscribe to receive daily emails containing a short prayer request for West Side. We appreciate your partnership.

March 12 – Deuteronomy 3-4

Below are my thoughts from the daily Bible reading of the West Side Church of Christ. Today’s reading comes from Deuteronomy 3-4. Before reading I invite you to pray and asked God to speak to you as you read his word.

Is the life we live a representation of the God we serve? Moses believed that obeying the Law of God, in essence living as God instructed revealed God … “Observe them carefully, for this will show your wisdom and understanding to the nations, who will hear about all these decrees and say, “Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.” What other nation is so great as to have their gods near them the way the Lord our God is near us whenever we pray to him? And what other nation is so great as to have such righteous decrees and laws as this body of laws I am setting before you today?” Deuteronomy 4:6-8 NIV. Moses taught and believed that the way they followed God would represent God himself.

Let’s apply that thought to our lives … how does the way we live our life display God? Is your representation of God something you are proud of? Is your representation of God something that in all honesty you are ashamed of? If so, think about what steps you can take to display God in the awesome reality that he exists in.

At West Side we are beginning a new prayer partner campaign. We are asking people to join with us in praying daily for West Side. If you would like to join us please click here and subscribe to receive daily emails containing a short prayer request for West Side. We appreciate your partnership.

March 11 – Deuteronomy 1-2

Below are my thoughts from the daily Bible reading of the West Side Church of Christ. Today’s reading comes from Deuteronomy 1-2. Before reading I invite you to pray and asked God to speak to you as you read his word.

Today we begin the fifth book of the Bible … Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy takes place at the end of the forty years in the Wilderness. It also takes place at the end of Moses’s life. Throughout this book we will see Moses recounting the deliverance of God, the giving of the Law, and the covenant he has established with them. If you want to get a complete sense of what God has done in the wilderness and the laws he has given this is the perfect book to read.

In our chapters today we read about the time in the wilderness roaming. A constant theme through the reading is God’s provisions. Throughout it all God provides the necessities. I think this is a great lesson for us. If God wants us to do something, he will provide what is needed. If God is asking you to step out on faith … do it, he will supply what you need. If you need more skills he will give you the opportunity to hone them. If you need more resources he will supply what you need when you need it. If you need more hands he will send just who he wants to get the job done. God did this time and time again with the Israelites and he will do it for you.

At West Side we are beginning a new prayer partner campaign. We are asking people to join with us in praying daily for West Side. If you would like to join us please click here and subscribe to receive daily emails containing a short prayer request for West Side. We appreciate your partnership.

March 9 – Numbers 33-34

Below are my thoughts from the daily Bible reading of the West Side Church of Christ. Today’s reading comes from Numbers 33-34. Before reading I invite you to pray and asked God to speak to you as you read his word.

I want to return to a thought I had yesterday in our reading. Today is a rather hard passage to read. Not because something so horrible or odd takes place, but simply because we are given a list of places camps were made and the geographical boundaries of the Promise Land were given. It simply is not fun to read.

However, at the end of chapter thirty-three there is a nugget that we can all hold on to. God again gives his reason for wanting all the people of the land eradicated from it … “But if you fail to drive out the people who live in the land, those who remain will be like splinters in your eyes and thrones in your sides. They will harass you in the land where you live. And I will do to you what I had planned to do to them.” Numbers 33:55-56 NLT. God wanted no temptation, no false worship, not even a hint of Satan’s influence in their land and able to come into their lives.

God wants the same for us. What in your life do you need to completely eradicate? Maybe a sin issues you struggle with on the computer … even though you use it to read my blog, unplug it. Maybe it is a person in your life … maybe you need to separate yourself from them. Maybe it is vocabulary picked up by shows you watch on TV, stop watching them and cancel your cable. I don’t know what it is that drags you further away from God, but do what is necessary to eradicate it from your life. Let me word a little differently … God ordered genocide, maybe you need to do so too with the things that drag you away from him.

At West Side we are beginning a new prayer partner campaign. We are asking people to join with us in praying daily for West Side. If you would like to join us please click here and subscribe to receive daily emails containing a short prayer request for West Side. We appreciate your partnership.

March 8 – Numbers 31-32

Below are my thoughts from the daily Bible reading of the West Side Church of Christ. Today’s reading comes from Numbers 31-32. Before reading I invite you to pray and asked God to speak to you as you read his word.

Our reading today is a little hard to wrap our head around in our modern politically correct world. We look back on what the Nazi’s of Germany did to people, especially Jews, and consider that horrible. We think of the genocide of Rwanda and we get angry at the taking of innocent lives. And then we read passages such as today’s we struggle to understand why God would order something so devastating.

God ordered vengeance to be taken on the Midianites. James E. Smith Old Testament scholar writes in his commentary on the Pentateuch … “”Vengeance” here does not mean revenge; it is the legitimate expression of divine authority when that authority is challenged, Israel here was to be the tool of God’s justice.”[1] God was seeking a holy war against this people. They had tempted and lured away his people. God knew that these Israelites were not strong enough to stand against sin, so he had to eradicate it from their lives. He could not just punish them; he had to wipe them out! I realize this is a hard pill for us to swallow … reading about death and destruction ordered by God. It’s not easy, but God knew it was the only way.

While it is hard to read, I think it is an important lesson for us to learn. Whatever may take us away from complete devotion to God must be eradicated from our lives. Jesus taught this principle as well … “And if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut if off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.” Matthew 5:30 NIV. Whatever keeps you from God must be removed from your life, not merely ignored, but completely removed.

At West Side we are beginning a new prayer partner campaign. We are asking people to join with us in praying daily for West Side. If you would like to join us please click here and subscribe to receive daily emails containing a short prayer request for West Side. We appreciate your partnership.

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[1] (Smith, James E. Old Testament Survey Series, The Pentateuch. Joplin: College Press Publishing Company, 1992. 466. Print.)