Yesterday, I was gone all day. All. Day. From 6 AM until 7:45PM I was either on the road, or at the Kiamichi Mountains Christian Mission Family Camp. I took 5 boys with me, who had expressed interest at seeing their friends from Church Camp, and my main mission, as a member of the board there, was a board meeting mid-day. Yet, even though I had a mission, I made time to connect with some people there, and I made sure to sit in on the Bible studies for that morning. Both were excellent, but I still am thinking about the first. The man leading, a fellow by the name of Dean Sharp, was talking about how Christians can effect Biblical change in the world around them, and how to get involved with the process of change, instead of throwing up one’s hands, pointing out the problem, and hoping someone does something.
The talk then turned to Deuteronomy 30, and how the choice wasn’t before the leaders or priests of Israel, but for each and every person in the nation to follow God and receive blessing, or to follow their own way and receive a curse. And that, he said, is where change begins: with the daily process of repentance, and seeking God’s way, before we do anything. Turning off the news, letting the Word of God inform us, instead of the world, and seeking God’s solutions in each and every way.
And this is what was on my mind this morning: if I want to see change, it has to begin with me. I have to drop to my knees, and repent of my sins. I have to seek God earnestly, and desirously in everything I do, and I have to clean my house before I begin to be a part of the solutions to the woes around me. This does not mean I sit idly by and wait for perfection. This means I drop to my knees, right now, and repent. This means, right now, I seek God’s will through God’s word, and I chase God’s solutions in everything. It means I begin right now. I surrender to Jesus now. I seek Jesus now. And I begin to let Jesus work His will through me right now, not to change those around me, but to stand up for God’s ways, for God’s purposes in God’s timing. Following Jesus does call us to wait on Him. But it also calls us to be filled with the Spirit, to be Bold, and to choose to seek Jesus out with all we are.
Deuteronomy 30
“And when all these things come upon you, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before you, and you call them to mind among all the nations where the LORD your God has driven you, and return to the LORD your God, you and your children, and obey his voice in all that I command you today, with all your heart and with all your soul, then the LORD your God will restore your fortunes and have mercy on you, and he will gather you again from all the peoples where the LORD your God has scattered you. 4If your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of heaven, from there the LORD your God will gather you, and from there he will take you.
And the LORD your God will bring you into the land that your fathers possessed, that you may possess it. And he will make you more prosperous and numerous than your fathers. And the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live. And the LORD your God will put all these curses on your foes and enemies who persecuted you. And you shall again obey the voice of the LORD and keep all his commandments that I command you today. The LORD your God will make you abundantly prosperous in all the work of your hand, in the fruit of your womb and in the fruit of your cattle and in the fruit of your ground. For the LORD will again take delight in prospering you, as he took delight in your fathers, when you obey the voice of the LORD your God, to keep his commandments and his statutes that are written in this Book of the Law, when you turn to the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.
“For this commandment that I command you today is not too hard for you, neither is it far off. It is not in heaven, that you should say, ‘Who will ascend to heaven for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, ‘Who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ But the word is very near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it.
“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.”
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