Many churches throughout the world use a Bible reading schedule called a "lectionary." It's just a fancy word meaning "selected readings." Posts like this reflect on the readings for an upcoming Sunday or other Church holiday, as found in the three-year lectionary.
Words of life (and death). That’s what God gives His people in Deuteronomy 30:15-20. In fact, that’s the essence of the Bible’s overall message. God gives words of life. His primary message to us is that of life and hope.
God gives His words of life mostly in the form of promises. Yet here, the promise is a conditional one. It references both obeying God’s commands and loving God, which we suppose to be some sort of activity. The Bible does call Christians to a life characterized by obedience to God. He makes demands. Yet when we look at the larger content of Scripture, the normal way we keep the commands of God is by believing God’s promises, trying to live for Him, and confessing our failure to God, asking His forgiveness. This is summed up in Abraham, who believed God. That was considered righteousness.
What’s the point of our obedience? It reflects God’s character. It helps us and our neighbors in life together. It’s normally meaningful and fulfilling. Good works are good!
We also see that God has laid out a way of death, which is found when we follow our hearts, which regularly lead us to some sort of false gods. These may be the gods of our making or of some world religion. They are not the one true God. What happens then? Simply by our failure to pursue life before the God of the Bible, by serving and obeying anyone else, we are headed for trouble. Our world is much more likely to fall apart. God promises it will result in final destruction.
Two ways - life and death. Will we hope in God, receiving life, or will we hope in ourselves, receiving death? The decision shouldn’t be very difficult.
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