Steps for Getting All of God's Blessings

Deuteronomy 6:1-9
“These are the commands, decrees and laws the LORD your God directed me to teach you to observe in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess, so that you, your children and their children after them may fear the LORD your God as long as you live by keeping all his decrees and commands that I give you, and so that you may enjoy long life. Hear, Israel, and be careful to obey so that it may go well with you and that you may increase greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, just as the LORD, the God of your ancestors, promised you.

Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.”     (Deuteronomy 6:1-9 TNIV)

In the preceding section (Deut. 5) before this wonderful passage, Moses has just recounted the 10 Words (often called the 10 commandments or the Decalogue).  Moses has given God's law to a new generation to instruct them in how to please the Lord God.  Now we turn to Moses explanation of the greatest instruction in God's law.

vv. 1-3.  These verses in chap. 6 are a continuation of that instruction, which came in chap. 5.  The opening, vv. 1-3, describe motivational factors to obeying God's instruction.  There are two repeated words again and again throughout these verses - "so that"- it comes up 5 times.  Now, we shouldn't think of the commands given to the Israelites as ways for them to earn salvation.  Instead we should think of them as grace.  The "so that" passages are motivational in the sense that they are there to motivate the people of God to be obedient.  But the idea is not that they earn the blessing.  Remember, they were already the covenant people of God.  God made a covenant with them in the book of Exodus.  God has already bound himself to covenant faithfulness to his people and I believe that they were his children.  They are already promised blessing, not they are commanded to obey the LORD in order to enjoy that blessing to its fullest and to receive even more blessings.

This is the biblical pattern in both Old Testament and New Testament for the people of God.  If we obey the Lord, we receive rich and abundant blessings and rewards.  If we don't, then we miss out on what God has in store for us to some extent.  But no matter what we are his children and we remain in his family.

vv. 4-5.  This section starts out with the famous 'Shema' in v. 4.  It emphasizes God's oneness, his completeness, and that he is the only God worthy of being God and receiving worship.  This is the God who has made a covenant with you and the next verse (v. 5) calls those who are part of the covenant, those who have been redeemed, to be loyal to God and to the covenant - "Love the LORD your God."  The LORD, or in Hebrew YHWH, alone is worthy of covenant love.

But how are we to love God?  Well, v. 5 tells us to do it with all our "heart."  In Hebrew, the heart was considered to be similar to the mind - in fact, this verse could easily be translated "with all our mind."  We need to be careful to not think of heart with all the connotations that we bring to it in English.  In the Old Testament, the heart is not the center of the emotions, rather it is the center of a person's will, intentions, and intellect.  So, we are to love God with all our mind, our will, with full intention to adore him.

We are also to love God with all our soul.  The soul again, is thought of differently in Hebrew than in English, with all its connotations.  We should take this word to mean, our "life."  But it means more than that.  It also means our emotions and our desires - basically anything that makes us unique as humans.  So, putting the last two terms together, we are to love God with our whole self - our mental intellect, our desires, our  moral choices, our will - basically the deepest roots of our self.

Finally, we are to love God with all our "strength." We should understand this as instructing us to love God with everything we possibly have - everything we have left after our heart and our soul - all our substance, our possessions - everything!

vv. 6-9.  Verse 6 tells us to have the commandments of God upon our hearts, which emphasizes the idea that runs throughout the whole book of Deuteronomy that obedience is not something that you just perform, but it must be inward, it must be obedience of the heart, as we have already seen in part in the previous verses.

Verse 7 tells us that the commandments of God need to be passed on the next generation, just like a runner passes on a baton in the middle of a race.  We need to pass the baton of God's Word on those young and old who have not heard it.  But this verse is speaking of the older passing it on to the younger.  But how is this done, well I believe the deeper meaning of this passage leads us to say that passing on God's commandments is not done by simply enforcing them in our homes as we would enforce a code of law.  But rather, the idea is inward, it is done by making God's instructions the fabric of our life and conversation.  It's like we can't help but talk about God when we are home and when we are with other people.  It exudes from us - it's like it oozes from the inside out in powerfully impressive way.

Finally, vv. 8-9 speak of having the instruction of God always before us.  These verses were taken literally by Judaism and the Pharisees of Jesus' day wore things called "phylacteries," which were small leather boxes that contained the Hebrew Bible in them and were worn on the forehead like a visor.  But we don't have to resort to wearing leather boxes to take these verses literally, which I believe is the proper way to interpret them.  We simply need to keep the Word of God on our minds - this means we need to be getting in the Bible each day and we need to be trying to apply it throughout the day.

These verses in Deut. 6 are about covenant family loyalty.  Remember, that Jeremiah 31 is about the New Covenant, the same covenant that Jesus' ministry is based upon.  We are people with covenant between us and God.  God has been and will be faithful, now we must be faithful to that covenant in obedience - not for salvation, because God has taken care of that, but for us to be the people we were meant to be in relationship with God - for us to reach our potential in relationship with him and getting all of God's blessings.

Disciplines for Godliness

1. What is spiritual discipline and why is it important?

It's training myself to be a godly servant of Jesus. It is not legalism or a work performed solely in my own power, bit it is getting rid of what holds me back (Heb. 12:1) and training myself to be a godly servant of our Lord (1 Tim. 4:7-8).

It is important because I will never become what I was meant to be if I do not put in the discipline to become the person God desires of me.  When He created me, He desired for me to be a godly person.  He wanted to have a vibrant relationship with me, and without this relationship and without me striving to be that person I was meant to be I will never be truly satisfied in life. I will never achieve the level of satisfaction that God intended me for, and I will not be fulfilled.  Because a truly fulfilling life is one that pleases Him for made me for relationship with Him and for good works.

2. What usually gets in the way of spiritual discipline?

Sin, in a nutshell, gets in the way of spiritual discipline.  We all have a natural bent toward sinning and this is what keep us distant from God and from seeking Him.

3. What can a lack of spiritual discipline do to your life?

It would cause and does cause me to not grow in my faith as I should, and it may even cause me to decline in my faith.  Which in turn means that those who look up to me do not grow as they should and could decline.  Also, God is grieved, saddened, and very disappointed because I am lazy and do not care about the life He has made and intended for me.

4. Reflect upon 1 Tim. 4:7-8.  What is the literal meaning of "train" here?

"Train" in this context means to put off anything that would hinder myself.  Then I am to put forth extreme effort to achieve a goal.  To put in some "spiritual sweat" is the basic idea.

5. Practically, step by step, what does this mean I should do?

Anything in my life that distracts or makes me lose my determination for godliness, should be gotten rid of or avoided if at all possible.  I should put the majority of my effort each day into this training and not into some other less fruitful endeavor.

6. What does Heb. 12:1 say about this?  What things are holding me back in my walk with God?  Why am I hanging on to them?

Some of my choices in entertainment are the things which may be holding me back.  The types of movies that I watch, the TV shows, the choice of music, and even books are all things that have held be back at some point from pursuing godliness.  The content has not been glorifying to God and has lead me to other pursuits that, while are not sinful in themselves, they do take up far too much of my time  and keep me from being devoted to God in all areas of my life.  Is the music that you listen to up-lifting?  Or does it convey a message that makes you drift further away from the God who loves you?  Do the books that you read have dominant themes that cater to self-gratification, which tends to focus our thoughts on ourself instead of others or our God? Do the movies that your watch glorify violence or destruction of human beings?  This is surely not something that glorifies God.  Do the TV shows that you watch have sexual themes that are substitutes for God's grand and wonderful design for sex?  These are all things that we need to be aware could be holding us back from being spiritually disciplined and glorifying to God.  Each thing that we choose to entertain ourselves has to be evaluated by what type of effect it will have on us.  Does it interfere with our pursuit of godliness?  Often the main reason why we hold on to these things is because we are selfish.  We want to have entertainment that is exhilarating, entertainment that moves us and touch all the areas that makes us human.  We need to put off our selfish desires.  We can still have entertainment that moves us and touches our facets of humanity, but we still need to be discriminating in which ones we choose.  It comes down to our level of maturity.  By this, I do not mean that we can see, read, or listen to anything we want if we are mature enough.  But rather, if we are mature, we will choose wisely what we see, read, and listen to.

7. Is there a cost to spiritual discipline?  Check out 1 Cor. 9:25-27.  What could greater discipline cost you?  Are you prepared to pay the price?  Why or why not?

The main cost is giving up time and comforts.  This is my greatest cost.  It might be different for someone else.  And each person has to take account of what they need to give up.  But for me, time and comforts are what I see myself giving up.  Still, what I gain far outweighs the cost.  Paul says in this passage in 1 Corinthians that I will gains a crown that will last for eternity.  Greater energy will cost more time, energy, and comfort.  But the pay off in the end is far, far greater than the cost.  I am prepared to pay the price! Are you?!  The reward is a life that is fulfilling in every way because God designed you and made you for this, and you get to enjoy this life for all eternity with Him.  It's hard to describe this life any more than this because the true joy is in experiencing it!

8.  Here is a great quote for you: "No manliness, no maturity!  No discipline, no discipleship!  No sweat, no sainthood!"

9.  How is spiritual discipline different from legalism?

Legalism is self-focused (although those involved in legalism have often blinded themselves to their selfish motives) because the aim of it is to see what I can do to gain merit with God.  Spiritual discipline has a very different focus.  It is motivated by a love for God and a desire to please Him.  Often the key to keeping a distance between these two is to have someone to keep us accountable and evaluate our lives to see our true motives.

10.  Here is a question for you; one that only you can answer.  Is a change needed to pursue godliness?  If so, what can you do?

(these questions come from the first chapter of the book, Disciplines of a Godly Man, by R. Kent Hughes, 2001)

"you complete me"

Well, I realize that I haven't update this blog in quite a while. Married life is so great and so is living in Storm Lake, IA. Who would have thought I would be saying that after spending 2 months in the middle of nowhere. This last weekend, I spent it by myself because I sent Kristine to Chicago to surprise Ilene on her birthday. But during that weekend, I realized something. It has to do with something I was working on for a devotional for church. I was working on Gen. 2:18, which is where God says that he will provide a "helper suitable" for Adam. Eventually, we find out that this suitable helper is Eve. But I looked into what that phrase means. It may be something that people treat as a cliche´in our culture. But the idea behind that phrase is a "counterpart," a "partner", or putting it together - a "counter-partner." It has the idea of completion, of being the other side to the coin, that completes it. I realized what Kristine truly is to me when she was gone for a few days. Sometimes you don't realize what you have until it's gone, and this was the case for me this last weekend. I love her with all I am, and she is the most wonderful thing that has happened to me, this side of heaven. Even though it might be cheesy line from the movie, Jerry Maguire, but it's true. She completes me, and this truth is as old as Genesis.