day no. 15,276: as long as it is called, "today!"

Deuteronomy 30:15-20
See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil. If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God that I command you today, by loving the Lord your God, by walking in his ways, and by keeping his commandments and his statutes and his rules, then you shall live and multiply, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to take possession of it. But if your heart turns away, and you will not hear, but are drawn away to worship other gods and serve them, I declare to you today, that you shall surely perish. You shall not live long in the land that you are going over the Jordan to enter and possess. I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying his voice and holding fast to him, for he is your life and length of days, that you may dwell in the land that the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.

This clearly a call to follow God "TODAY!" Our plans are almost always to follow God and worship Him tomorrow, but the only way you can do that is to worship Him and follow Him TODAY! 

Life is always TODAY.

We don't know about tomorrow, (DT 29:29) but we know about TODAY. If we want to love God tomorrow, we must love God TODAY.

Hebrews 3:13
Exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

The VISION is to worship God tomorrow and forever.

The COMMAND is to worship God TODAY. 

So as long as it is called TODAY, worship Jesus. Wherever you are, whatever you're doing, whatever you're mixed up in, whatever you fear about the future and where its' all going… worship God TODAY. 

You aren't called to have everything figured out, you are called to choose THIS DAY to worship Jesus. Moses wasn't banking on this being a one-time, come to Jesus, altar call moment followed by going back to "business as usual" tomorrow. 

For now, let tomorrow worry about itself (Mt 6:34). By this time tomorrow, the COMMAND will be, "Worship God TODAY!"

This fact of "choosing today" is also evident in the fact that Joshua, Moses' successor ends his ministry with a similar call...

Joshua 24:14-15 14
Now therefore fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness. Put away the gods that your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.

Whatever DAY it is, the call is ALWAYS to CHOOSE on THAT DAY to worship God.

day no. 14,956: every place on which the sole of your foot treads

Deuteronomy 11:22-25
For if you will be careful to do all this commandment that I command you to do, loving the Lord your God, walking in all his ways, and holding fast to him, 23 then the Lord will drive out all these nations before you, and you will dispossess nations greater and mightier than you. 24 Every place on which the sole of your foot treads shall be yours. Your territory shall be from the wilderness to the Lebanon and from the River, the river Euphrates, to the western sea. 25 No one shall be able to stand against you.

The Christian faith is one of world conquest. It is one of spreading the glory of God to every square inch in every crook and cranny of God's green earth. Every place under which the soles of our feet tread shall one day be ours.

Matthew 5:5
Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

It is not arrogant or proud to assert this. This is what God said would happen. It is not in our strength or because of our cunning that the world becomes ours. The deed to the planet has only ever had one name on it: Jesus. No one, earthly speaking, can possess any of it without God giving it to them. It's not up for the taking. 

But in Christ, God has provided marching orders for His people to spread His Name and the worship of His divinity to any and every where we can go. 

In this mission, no one can stand against us. It is indomitable. It will happen. The earth will be given over to those whose strength is under God's control (meekness).

day no. 14,955: picked, pricked and piqued

Deuteronomy 10:14-17
Behold, to the Lord your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth with all that is in it. 15 Yet the Lord set his heart in love on your fathers and chose their offspring after them, you above all peoples, as you are this day. 16 Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer stubborn. 17 For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who is not partial and takes no bribe.

God is not partial. He doesn't use one standard and measurement for some people and another for other people. He did not pick Israel because they were given an easier entrance exam. By that standard and measurement, no one passed the test. No one met the minimum qualifications for being chosen by God. God did not troubleshoot His own system by taking a bribe or impartially applying His standards and measures in order to justify His selection of Israel. No, on the basis of works and wages, no one would be chosen. So God, by grace and mercy, picked a people. No one can say they deserved it and no one can make a case that they too ought to be chosen or should have rather been chosen in the stead of Israel. 

That being the case, how grateful and loyal should His chosen people be? The God who owns everything and everyone, in His mercy, set His grace on you. Do not kick back when He then commands you. Do not grow proud because of your new position. God set His heart upon you. Set your heart in reciprocity upon Him. He condescended to set His heart on you. He owed you nothing. You must now ascend and lift your heart to God because you owe Him everything.

day no. 14,954: because of your righteousness

Deuteronomy 9:4-7
Do not say in your heart, after the Lord your God has thrust them out before you, ‘It is because of my righteousness that the Lord has brought me in to possess this land,’ whereas it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is driving them out before you. 5 Not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart are you going in to possess their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations the Lord your God is driving them out from before you, and that he may confirm the word that the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.

6 “Know, therefore, that the Lord your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are a stubborn people. 7 Remember and do not forget how you provoked the Lord your God to wrath in the wilderness.


God doesn't give out A's to those who managed to avoid getting any of the answers wrong. He doesn't provide sight to those who are so good at seeing. He doesn't give new hearts to old ones which were working just fine.

It is NOT because of our righteousness that He saved us, but because of His goodness.

If it was earned as a result of our righteousness, we wouldn't need Him to provide us with anything... we would have earned it and could demand it as our wages.

Titus 3:3-5
For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. 4 But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, 5 he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to His own mercy

If our old hearts could believe and be saved, why would we need new ones? If our old eyes could see well enough, why would we need new vision? If our old lives were exemplary, why would they need saving?

day no. 14,708: grit and gratitude

Deuteronomy 8:17-18
Beware lest you say in your heart, "My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth." 18 You shall remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth.

It is sometimes difficult to remember how you got somewhere once you have arrived. I have pulled into my driveway on more than one occasion with the thought, "I know I got home, but I don't remember making any of the turns required to get here." Success and satisfaction always come pre-packaged with the temptation to forget how the success and satisfaction were acquired. It is easy to pray to God for help and even easier to forget to thank God after the prayers have been answered.

1 Corinthians 4:7
What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?

day no. 14,707: divine discipline

Deuteronomy 8:5
Know then in your heart that, as a man disciplines his son, the LORD your God disciplines you.

A father disciplines his son in order to teach him, train him and show him a better way. Discipline assumes that children don't know what's best because all men have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. This come pre-loaded, not in post-production. It also requires the father to be disciplined, organized and committed. Discipline administered intermittently is not discipline, but haphazard punishment masquerading as discipline.

God is disciplined and He disciplines those He loves by training, teaching and showing them a better way than they would choose for themselves. God is a better father than earthly fathers, but He is not less of a father than they are. Know this in your heart, remind yourself of this: God disciplines because He loves.

Only a deadbeat dad would fail to be there for his kids.

day no. 14,706: mundane miracles

Deuteronomy 8:4
Your clothing did not wear out on you and your foot did not swell these forty years.

The deliverance of Israel from Egypt may have been punctuated with extraordinary miracles like the Passover and the parting of the Red Sea, but it also included many ordinary, everyday miracles like clothes that did not wear out and feet that did not get too swollen to continue walking. This means that in those moments where the people of God were crying out for miraculous intervention in the form of fast food or water from rocks, they were, in those very moments, already being ministered to by the daily miracle of clothes that were holding out against the daily grind and feet that bearing up under the weight of walking mile after mile. Some miracles are more mundane than others without being any less miraculous.

day no. 14,705: feasting on forever

Deuteronomy 8:3
Man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.

Man most definitely needs bread – without it, he will die. But he needs more than bread if he is to live. If he only eats bread, he will only hold death off for so long, but everyone who eats bread still dies. But only those who feast on the Word of God will live forever. We become like what we worship and we are what we eat. Bread gets moldy and rots overtime – so does man. But the Word of God will live forever and so will the man who feeds on it.

1 Peter 1:24-25
All flesh is like grass
and all its glory like the flower of grass.
The grass withers,
and the flower falls, 
but the Word of the Lord remains forever.

day no. 14,704: and not a moment before

Deuteronomy 7:21-22
You shall not be in dread of them, for the LORD your God is in your midst, a great and awesome God. 22 The LORD your God will clear away these nations before you little by little. You may not make an end of them at once, lest the wild beasts grow too numerous for you.

God systematically removes obstacles before us, but not any sooner than we need them removed. No problem is so bad that it cannot be made worse. Whatever obstacles that lie before us, it would be worse for them to be removed before we need them gone. Some problems we see coming over the horizon are best left where they are until it is time for them to be uprooted and thrown into the ocean. Tomorrow's anxieties will be there waiting for us and trying to squeeze them into today's schedule does not make them any smaller. They will be there until God deals with them and many times He will deal with them tomorrow, right on time, right when you needed them addressed, but not before.

Matthew 6:34
Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

day no. 14,703: repay him to his face

Deuteronomy 7:9-10
Know therefore that the LORD your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations, 10 and repays to their face those who hate him, by destroying them. He will not be slack with one who hates him. He will repay him to his face.

There is only one God. And He is a covenant keeping God. He promises to love those who love Him. And He also promises to destroy those who hate Him. He will not do this in ways that could be misconstrued. He will love those who love Him face to face in intimate fellowship. Likewise, He opposes the proud to their face. He doesn't slander them behind their backs, He faces them and destroys them for their slandering of Him.

day no. 14,702: for us there is no other righteousness

Deuteronomy 6:25
And it will be righteousness for us, if we are careful to do all this commandment before the LORD our God, as he has commanded us.

For those who follow God there can be no other righteousness than that which comes from doing what He says and getting it from where He declares it is present. For us, no other righteousness can be counted, pursued, acknowledged or tolerated. This will require careful thought and practice since our default is to desire alternate sources of righteousness or justification. We are vulnerable to justifying ourselves or desiring righteousness that comes from buying the right kind of coffee, clothes or car, etc... We look to virtue signal and hope that those around us can read the signs. But for us, there can be no other righteousness than that which comes from God, has its source in Him and is provided to us by Him.

day no. 14,701: built, filled, founded and fruitful beforehand

Deuteronomy 6:10-12
And when the Lord your God brings you into the land that he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you—with great and good cities that you did not build, 11 and houses full of all good things that you did not fill, and cisterns that you did not dig, and vineyards and olive trees that you did not plant—and when you eat and are full, 12 then take care lest you forget the Lord

The Christian life is one of receiving a kingdom. One that you did not build, did not fill, did not lay the foundation for, and did not produce the fruit that is on the plant.

Luke 12:32
Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.

And all of this is gift: generous, joy-filled, good pleasure laden gift. The Father likes doing this sort of thing. He likes securing the land, the borders, the buildings, the trees, the fruit, the fullness and then handing it over to those who contributed nothing to it but their empty hands to place it into.

day no. 14,700: extraordinary news for ordinary days

Deuteronomy 6:4-9
“Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. 5 You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7 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. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

The extraordinary news of God should have its place in the ordinary dealings of daily life. This tells us that it takes all the power of God to do the most regular things and that nothing is so regular that it is beneath being used to point to God. And all of this begins, first and foremost, at home. Not just in scheduled shifts, but also in unplanned happenings. Quality time is a product of quantity time. So begin by spending lots of time with your children and then determine to talk about Jesus whatever you happen to be doing. This will include regular family devotionals as well as irregular one off situations. Either way, always be prepared to provide a defense for the hope that you have. Not just to strangers, but to those who know you best.

day no. 14,699: a heart such as this

Deuteronomy 5:29
Oh that they had such a heart as this always, to fear me and to keep all my commandments, that it might go well with them and with their descendants forever!

One of the greatest tragedies of the human heart is that it cannot stay put. It wanders everywhere and lives nowhere. This tendency highlights the need for a new heart. If the old heart could simply settle down and clean up its act, a new heart would not be necessary. But if our old heart cannot ever kick the bad habits and sober up, a new heart is a necessity. If we are going to dwell with God, He first has to give us a new heart that can dwell anywhere.

day no. 14,698: there was only a voice

Deuteronomy 4:12
You heard the sound of words, but saw no form; there was only a voice.

We, too, hear God's Words without seeing His face which can often leave us scrambling to fill in the gap. We desire to see the lips move instead of merely feeling the breath move us. So we resort to idolatry. We fashion something in order to account for the wind. Moses addresses this tendency here by putting up a caution sign: 

"Tread lightly and with attention to detail, it is slippery ground on which you are about to walk."

Hearing from God is life-giving. Inventing a face to account for the voice almost always leads to a distortion of the Speaker. This ought to instruct us - the best representation of God is His Word.  Any attempt to round out the rest of the picture robs from His image or adds to it accouterments not fitting His Person.

day no. 14,697: heirloom seeds

Deuteronomy 4:9, 10, 25-26, 40
Make them known to your children and your children's children… the Lord said to me, "Gather the people to me, that I may let them hear my words, so that they may learn to fear me all the days that they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children so…." When you father children and children's children, I call heaven and earth to witness against you... Therefore you shall keep his statutes and his commandments, which I command you today, that it may go well with you and with your children after you.

One of the most neglected areas of discipleship is also one of the most obvious: the home. God places a high value on making disciples from scratch. The commission to be fruitful and multiply assumes a lot of seeds followed by a lot of saplings.

One of the best and most helpful things any person can do for the advancement of the glory of God, is to love those closest to home. If more parents took seriously the charge to disciple (i.e. discipline and instruct) their children, the church would be less burdened by urgent cases of need. There would be less broken individuals and the ones that did break would already have a built in system to turn to for wisdom, help, grace, faith and instruction – leaving cases of actual need: those without anyone else to disciple them, to the church.

day no. 14,696: take care, keep and watch carefully

Deuteronomy 4:9, 15
Only take care, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things that your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life… 15 Therefore watch yourselves very carefully.

The default of the human heart is drift

Hebrews 2:1
Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.

If we don't pay attention, we go broke.
If we don't take care, we deteriorate.
If we don't keep our soul diligently, we fall into disrepair invariably.
If we don't work hard to remember, we find it easy to forget.
If we don't watch, we miss the most important things every time.

Forgetfulness and thoughtlessness are not excusable personality quirks or characteristics, they are spiritual states of unbelief for which we are held accountable. Unbelief is the default disposition of the natural human soul and those who do not take proactive measures to keep belief aflame will find themselves tending to a bunch of smoldering sticks that used to give heat and light.

The only thing you have to do in order to drift away from God is nothing.

day no. 14,695: wise by whose standard?

Deuteronomy 4:5-8
See, I have taught you statutes and rules, as the Lord my God commanded me, that you should do them in the land that you are entering to take possession of it. 6 Keep them and do them, for that will be your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples, who, when they hear all these statutes, will say, "Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people." 7 For what great nation is there that has a god so near to it as the Lord our God is to us, whenever we call upon him? 8 And what great nation is there, that has statutes and rules so righteous as all this law that I set before you today?

We tend to provide a less glowing review of the Old Testament law. If someone lobs an accusation against the old-timey, backwards ways of early Israel, we tend to grant the ground readily. We immediately take the position of apologizing for it and assuring the detractor that objects in the rearview mirror may appear closer than they are, but that they actually aren't. We love putting distance between us and God's revealed Words, especially when the verdict of those onlooking is guilty.

But Moses assumed that a people committed to God's Word would attract onlookers and create a buzz that elevated God's reputation among those they lived - no caveat required. Seems like perhaps the Apostle Paul would have agreed with Moses (fancy that).

1 Thessalonians 4:11-12 Aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we instructed you, 12 so that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one.

day no. 14,694: more or less?

Deuteronomy 4:2

You shall not add to the word that I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God that I command you.

When dealing with the Word of God, there are always two temptations close at hand:

1) to say more than He has said

2) to say less than He has said

It is one thing to elaborate or explain what has been said, it is another thing to expand on what has been said. There is a difference between describing the path in more detail and paving new lanes to make the road wider.

It is another matter to excuse or expunge what has been said. It is not permissible to be silent where God has spoken. Again, the end result is often a path that is wider than it would be if certain road signs were present and enforced.

day no. 14,682: an obligation to engage the danger

Deuteronomy 3:18-20
Men must fight. They must engage the danger, but women and children may remain in peace and security. When there is war, men must go. God does not insist everyone be inconvenienced by going to war, but men must be. It is not disobedience or cowardice for women and children to stay home, it is for men.