Legacy

What kind of a legacy would you want to leave?  A plaque on a building?  A bridge named after you?  Maybe you could have a star named after you.

What was Moses' legacy?  In one word, the Word.  When we think of the law, we think of Moses.  When we begin at the beginning of our Bible we think of Moses.  However, Moses' legacy was more than just giving us the first five books of the Bible it was that the Word was to be an integral part of our lives.  It was to be our very life.  But Moses didn't stop there.  He wanted the Word to be an integral part of our community living.  It was to guide our relationships, our families, our business.  And we were to ensure that the Word was to be taught to generations following us.

What if Moses' only legacy was a statue, a great statue by Michael Angelo, but only a statue.  No, it was much more than that, it is the very Word of God.

What will be my legacy?  I will never write Scripture as Moses did but I can teach the Word.  May it be that my legacy will be that I loved the Word and I loved to teach the Word.

Should I go?

I have never been to Israel and I do hope that some day I will be able to go.  Often I heard it said that walking where Jesus walked helps us to understand the New Testament better.  Though it may help to visualize the places that we read about in the New Testament it does not make it easier to understand.  That goes against Scripture itself.  Moses told the people that they didn't need to go anywhere to understand but they needed to obey.  If going to Israel made people a better preacher or teacher then it should be a requirement but that also would make it hard for people to have that important aspect of their education.  No, Moses makes it clear in Deuteronomy 30:13, 'Nor is it beyond the sea, so that you have to ask, “Who will cross the sea to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?” '  He then adds, "No, the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it."  Deuteronomy 30:14.  The key issue is never place but always obedience.  "For I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws."  Deuteronomy 30:16

Someday I hope to travel to Israel and see the places where Jesus walked, talked and did miracles but until then I can still understand and obey.  Going to the place will be a great experience but our faith is based upon obedience and the Word of God.

It is not so hard.

I have heard people say that they don't read the Bible regularly because it is too hard for them to understand.  Is it really too hard.  "Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach.  It is not up in heaven, so that you have to ask, “Who will ascend into heaven to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?”  Nor is it beyond the sea, so that you have to ask, “Who will cross the sea to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?”  No, the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it."  Deuteronomy 30:11 - 14
Did you notice what Moses told the people?  It is not too hard.  You don't need a priest or a pope to explain it to you.  You can understand it yourself.  It is near you.  It is in your mouth, that is, you are to talk about the Word with one another.  It is in your heart.  That is you need to read, memorize and meditate on the Word.  The reason most people have difficult understanding the Word is that they don't want to be obedient to it. 
You don't need to go to a particular place.  The understanding of the Word is not based upon experience but upon obedience. 

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.