Who invited him?

I know a pastor who told me that the speaker at their general assembly was a person who I know to be emergent.  I have read two of his books and so when I was told who this speaker was I shuttered.  "What is the problem?" I was asked.  So I said that this was a well known emergent leader.
So what is the problem.  This pastor did not know who this man was and I am sure that he gave a very excellent address to the assembly.  However, I wondered how many of the pastors at that assembly knew who this man is and what he represents.  I am not faulting the pastors if they buy his books and use them to shape their theology, after all, the denominational leaders recommended him by inviting him to the assembly.  Denominational leaders have a great responsibility that the truth of the gospel is upheld.  They need to make sure that those they invite to speak to the pastors also hold to a biblical view of the gospel.  They will be held accountable.

Love with Truth

We often hear about truth with love after all the Bible tells us to speak the truth in love but I think it is equally important that we love with truth.  So what does that mean?
First of all the love for the sinner will not mean whitewashing the message of the Gospel but with love proclaim the truth that Jesus is the only way to God and without Him the sinner is condemned to eternal death.
Second, we need to remind people the importance of fellowship with other believers.  You cannot love and not be part of a body of believers.  The local church is where this happens.  Love with truth reminds Christians that they are not to forsake the coming together of the body.
Third, we need to encourage others to walk in the truth.  That means that they must know the truth and that truth is found through the reading, memorizing, meditating and hearing the Word of God. 
When we love our children we want them to obey and respect us.  We know that they show that they love us when they show respect and obedience.  If they say that they love us and then always are disrespectful then we will question that love.  It is the same with the body of Christ.
"It has given me great joy to find some of your children walking in the truth, just as the Father commanded us."  2 John 4

Save me from your followers

Recently I saw a bumper sticker that read:

There are people today who say that they love Christ but they don't like Christians.  Others say that Christ saves but the church enslaves. 
The Apostle John loved the church.  He believed in the church.  Now some may say that is the church universal but not the local church.  The problem is that the church universal is made up of local bodies of believers.  If you say that you love the church universal but not the local body you are not being accountable to anyone.
The church is where the truth is proclaimed, where the truth is guarded.  When people ignore the local church they have no one to answer to but themselves.  They may argue that they follow the Bible but do they?
The local church is not perfect but to be a Christian means to belong to one another.  How can you do that without the church.  When you read the New Testament take time to notice all the "one another" references.  You cannot obey the "one another's" of Scripture without belonging to one another.

Home

Where is home?  What is home?  Home is a refuge.  Home is where your parents are.  Home is where you are loved for no other reason than because you are part of the family.  You are loved unconditionally.  You are loved because you are loved. 
Two of our sons came home for awhile when they were not feeling secure.  They had never lived in the house that we now live in but they came "home".  It was not the place but it was where mom and dad were and it was where they could have a sense of security, where they could be loved, where they belonged.

Moses tells us that God is our dwelling place.  God is where we have refuge, God is where we have security, God is where we are loved, God is where we can be satisfied.  He is our home.  Our home is where our Father is.

That was the lesson of the first two verses of Psalm 90.  What a powerful lesson.  We don't come to God to escape judgment primarily but to find satisfaction for our souls. 

Return

In Psalm 90:3 we are called to return to our God.  We often think that we are immortal and we have plenty of time before we need to answer to God but Moses reminds us that we have only a few days and his plea to the people is to return to God while there is time.  We are prone to wonder and we need to be drawn back to God.
In Psalm 90:13 the pray is that God will return His mercy and favour to us.  We need His grace and mercy so that we can find significance in this world.

25568

A few years ago Keith Price came to our church in Thunder Bay and he spoke to the youth.  He was about seventy years old at the time and he told us that he had never preached in a t-shirt.  As you can see in the picture he is wearing a t-shirt with the number 25568.   He asked what that meant. 
In Psalm 90 Moses tells us to number our days.  We count our years but we fail to number our days.  The reason we are to count our days is to understand that we are finite but God is eternal.  By numbering our days we get a heart of wisdom.  When we know that our time here on earth is small then we turn our hearts toward eternity.  Moses tells us that our days are seventy years and if we have the strength then maybe eighty.  Seventy years is 25568 days.  On my next birthday I will be seventy years old.

Some final thoughts

Last Sunday was the last lesson on Deuteronomy.  Someone asked me if it was what I expected.  I had to say that it wasn't.  Deuteronomy spoke to me in a powerful way.  It gave me a new appreciation for Moses and his ministry but more that that it gave me a new appreciation for our God.  Moses loved God and he wanted his people, and us his readers, to love God the same way.  I will never look at Deuteronomy the same way.  It is a powerful book.  It led to two known revivals in the Old Testament, it was often quoted by our Lord and by the Apostle Paul. 
Most of all I have a deeper love for our God because of Deuteronomy.