Deuteronomy 5-7

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Deuteronomy%205-7&version=NIV


Deuteronomy 6:4-9

4 “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. 5 Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6 These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. 7 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. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.”

If you attended the worship services at Second over the last month you would have heard the Broken America sermon series. Dr. Young preached each week and explained what was broke with America and how to fix it. He went through the government, family, education, Wall Street, and other topics.

Over and over in the series Dr. Young said we need to get back to a biblical worldview. We need to look at everything and analyze everything through the lens of the Scriptures.

Moses wrote of this to the Israelites just as they were fixing to enter the promised land. He said the people of Israel should love the Lord with all their heart, soul, and strength. In essence to love the Lord with their whole being, or whole self.

How do we do that? Well, one way is by doing what you have been doing this year as we are reading God’s Word together. But Moses says we need to take this to the next level. We need to read the Scriptures, we need to meditate on the Scriptures, we need to memorize the Scriptures, and we need to be able to discuss the Scriptures with our friends, families, co-workers and strangers. The Scriptures need to be so pervasive in our lives that people should look at us as talking Bibles.

We should not only know the Scriptures but we should know the context of them, the meaning of them, and how they apply to our lives and to the lives of others.

I know that sounds like a daunting task. But with the power of the Holy Spirit and with the fellowship of your friends in the Bridge we all can grow in the Scriptures. And this growth is not to know more things just for knowledge’s sake, but to know more of God so that we can live a life that is honoring and pleasing to Him.

Over the last seven or eight years the Lord has really impressed it upon me to study His Word. I have tried to make it a goal to read the Bible through each year for the rest of my life. I haven’t made it every year, I will be honest with you. But I have made it most. Continuous reading of God’s Word each year has really been a blessing to me. There have been so many times that friends or family have come to me and asked a question about the Bible and I have been able, by God’s grace, to point them to a verse or section of Scripture to study, or use it as a time to encourage them, or give them comfort in a time of trouble or distress.

When I first started out it those years ago it was so intimidating to me. But as the years have passed the Bible has become more and more dear to me. When I read it, I pick up on things I did not in the years past. I can discuss the Bible with my mother, friends in my small group, and with my friends in the Bridge.

So, as you read through the Bible this year, think about how these passages apply to your life today. And try to take a longer view than just this year of reading the Bible.

For many of you this is a challenge I know. To try to read through the Bible in a year does seem daunting. But as you continue to read it day by day I hope and pray that it becomes less and less of a chore or duty and more and more of a joy and a way in which you can worship the Lord.

Remember what Peter wrote:

1 Peter 2:2-3

“2 Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, 3 now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.”

Soli Deo Gloria

Today’s post was submitted by Russ Shellhamer.