I want to want what He wants

How many of us have started a Bible reading program determined to read the Bible through only to have found that we have failed again.  I have read the Bible through over sixty times but before I completed it once I had started many times only to fail.  Now I don't have any difficulty reading God's Word.  What changed?  Like many things that we want to do we have to keep at them until we more than want to want to do it, we want to do it.  At first I wanted to want to read the Bible through but now I want to so I do it. 
Part of the problem is that we try to do things in our own strength.  We try harder and fail more miserably.  We need to quit praying, "Lord help me" and start praying "Lord enable me."
In Deuteronomy 30:6 we read, "The Lord your God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants, so that you may love him with all your heart and with all your soul, and live."  Moses tells the people it is the Lord that puts it into our hearts to love Him and to do what He desires of us.

The 3 R's of Renewal

The three R's of renewal are remember, repent and return.
We need to remember who we once were, what God did for us and who we became in Him.
We need to repent of those things that have crept into our lives that have cause us to drift from what we were when we first came to know Him.
We need to return and do again the things that we did at first.
John says it well in Revelation 2:5 "Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first."
We all need renewal.  Moses recognized in the people their tendency to forget, to become complacent and to stop doing the things that they should do as children of God.  We are no different than the Israelites in Moses' day.  Maybe it is time that we renewed our covenant and we should be prepared to renew it regularly.

God remembers; Man forgets

Deuteronomy could be called the book of remembrance.  Moses reviews the history of the Israelites to remind them that though they might forget what God has done God will not forget His people.  He reminds them that they need to renew the covenant that was made by their parents at Sinai and they must do it early after they have arrived in the land.  He instructs them how to do this and where it is to be done. 
We don't put much stock in renewing our covenant today but maybe it is something we should.  We need to remember what we were, what God did for us, how He gave us victory.  We need to repent of the areas where we have allowed the world to influence our thinking and how we have compromised our convictions.  We need to return to what we once did and we need to do it again. 
It is not common, in fact it is very rare, in evangelical churches to have a covenant renewal service but maybe it is something we need to return to.  Just wondering.

It's a Wonderful Life

In the Frank Capra movie It's a Wonderful Life, George Bailey (played by Jimmy Stewart) and his family run a savings and loan company in the small town of Bedford Falls, New York.  Over the years they had helped innumerable families get mortgages at a fair and reasonable rates, and had been patient and caring when the loans couldn't be repaid.  As the CEO of his company, George's "bottom line" was not maximum profits, but the flourishing of his community and customers.  George, of course, did not get rich with this kind of approach.  But at one point in the movie, when he is suicidal, he is given a vision of what Bedford Falls would have looked like if, as he wished at the moment, he "had never been born".  What he sees is a community consisting of some wealthy families surrounded by an impoverished, dysfunctional town.  Instead of kindly neighbours, there are brutal and self-interested parties in constant conflict with one another.  This is what it means to pursue justice. 

Family consequences

After the 2011 hockey riots in Vancouver one family found themselves in trouble because their son was part of the riot.  They were ostracised by their neighbours because of what he had done.  According to Deuteronomy 24:16 a father is not responsible for what is adult son does.  The son is responsible for his own actions.  The sad thing is that families are considered responsible for the actions of their children even if they are adults.  Children need to learn that their actions have consequences and though the Bible tells us that parents should not be punished for the sins of their children they often are punished by society.

Wait one year

When our son graduated from Bible College he knew he was called to be a pastor.  Shortly after graduation he got married and he promised his wife that he would not accept a pastorate for one year.  During that year he lived in his wife's home town and worked at a local lumber yard.  His heart was for ministry and almost exactly one year later (actually one day less than a year) he became a pastor of a small struggling northern Ontario church.  He understood the principle given in Deuteronomy 24 that if a man was to marry he was exempt from military service for one  year.  Being a pastor is not the same as being a soldier but the principle still applies.  More marriages could have a better start if this principle was practiced.  Ministry has its own set of concerns that a newly married couple maybe should avoid until their marriage is well grounded.  I know that it was the right thing for my son.

Is Justice Blind?

The normal picture we have of justice is a blindfolded woman holding a pair of scales.  However, is this the Biblical picture of justice?  Biblical justice is not blind but rather it is closely associated with grace.  We need to remember that Biblical justice reflects God's holy and loving nature.  Biblical justice is righteous, that is it is right relationships.  The problem we have with the normal view of justice is that it is usually rectifying justice which is correcting wrong rather than living in right relationships.