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“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.” (Deuteronomy 6:4-9 ESV) 

Is it not implied by this passage that everything we do should be motivated by this: Love the Lord your God with your heart, mind, soul, and strength. 

This was a command from Moses to the Israelites. In fact he tells them to diligently teach them to their children and their children would diligently teach them to their children, and on and on. He also says that this command should be written on their hearts, bound on their hands, and on the frontlets of their eyes. Everything they did was an act of showing the love they had for the Lord their God. 

Is there any limit to this command? 

What are your thoughts? 

Do we commit to this daily covenant everyday? 

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“Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause.” (Isaiah 1:16-17)

Ever since I have had my iPhone, which would be since they came out with the iPhone 3G I have loved using the YouVersion Bible App. By the way it is also available on every smartphone and this is the major source that Jason Weaver, Trevor Kennedy, and I use for our 90 Day Reading Challenge. Recently the app was pretty impressively upgraded and a part of this upgrade was putting “Today’s Verse” when you first open the app.

So I wanted to share todays verse, because today’s verse struck me.

Let’s look at it again.

“Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause.” (Isaiah 1:16-17)

First we must wash ourselves because God has commanded us to be holy because HE IS HOLY and for us to approach God we must be Holy because He is Holy. This is what made it so frustrating in the Old Testament. They had adhere to certain laws and sacrifices in order for them to be acceptable in God’s sight, they would have to sacrifice something, but the priest would have to represent the community, just like Christ was and is our High Priest and atones for our sins and representing the community of faith. God wanted us to be in relationship with Him so much that he sent his son. Being holy and in relationship is so important because its when we do that that we truly experience the life that God has created us to have and the life that His son died for!

Whats interesting to me is what the passage says after the plead to wash ourselves.

“cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause.”

It also reminds me of a story that Jesus once told about whenever we do for the least of these we are doing for him. Jesus has a high concern for ALL people. That is why it is so important to always seek justice, correct oppression, bring justice and healing to the least and lost. We are called to be Jesus’ Disciples and so because of that we are commanded to be passionate about what Christ is passionate about. Showing His love and grace to the world!

May Gods people be blessed and encouraged by the reading and reflection of His holy word!

 

“I thank my God in all my remembrance, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. It is right for me to feel this way about you all, because I hold you in my heart, for you are all partakers with me of grace, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. For God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with affection of Christ Jesus. And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.” (Philippians 1:3-11)

Today is Easter Sunday, a day where we celebrate the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. Today we always have a joyous time singing praises to God for the miracle that he showed us through the life and death of his begotten son, but what happens now?

Easter Sunday is one of my favorite times because it is such a joyous occasion. There are Easter Lilies, smiles on all faces, seeing new faces at our churches and there is a feeling of great joy in the air, but it doesn’t stop here. In fact this event was the acceleration point! This propels us to living our lives for the cause of Christ. From this point every sunday is meant to be a “Little Easter,” but for some reasons its really not. I think the Apostle Paul says what happens next in our lives the best in 2 Corinthians 13-20:

“If we are crazy, it’s for God’s sake. If we are rational, it’s for your sake. The love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: one died for the sake of all; therefore, all died. He died for the sake of all so that all those who are alive should live not for themselves but for the one who died for them and was raised.

So then, from this point on we won’t recognize people by human standards. Even though we used to know Christ by human standards, that isn’t how we know him now. So then, if anyone is in Christ, that person is part of the new creation. The old things have gone away, and look, new things have arrived!

All of these new things are from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and who gave us the ministry of reconciliation. In other words, God was reconciling the world to himself through Christ, by not counting people’s sins against them. He has trusted us with this message of reconciliation. So we are ambassadors who represent Christ. God is negotiating with you through us. We beg you as Christ’s representatives, “Be reconciled to God!” God caused the one who didn’t know sin to be sin for our sake so that through him we could become the righteousness of God.” 

There is a lot of good stuff in there, but to break it down it means that when Christ died on that cross and three days later rose from the dead that we ceased to be who we were before. Everything has changed now! You are no longer defined by your sins, but by the faithfulness of God through his son Jesus Christ. What’s more is that you can’t just sit there and believe that! You have to be Christ’s representative in the world! This event is about giving the world HOPE, and HOPE demands to be shared! You can’t keep this good news to yourself, its impossible!

So now what we do is we share the message of Easter!