Sunday, February 25, 2007

Of laziness, unmotivated and impatience :(

I am getting more lazy, unmotivated and impatience. I do not want that but help, Lord, tell me what is the next phase in my life. Maybe I am infected with certain virus that only You can remove. I know no matter what, you will get me through this phase into the better life you want me to be. If I am weak, strengthen me.

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Sunday, February 11, 2007

Truth in Deuteronomy

I've never tried to be controversial. The truth is controversial enough. - Keith Green


The eventual silence of God and the use of prophets (human) as God's instrument to speak to us [Here Moses relating to the Israel people what God had told him]:
14 The nations you will dispossess listen to those who practice sorcery or divination. But as for you, the LORD your God has not permitted you to do so. 15 The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own brothers. You must listen to him. 16 For this is what you asked of the LORD your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly when you said, "Let us not hear the voice of the LORD our God nor see this great fire anymore, or we will die."

17 The LORD said to me: "What they say is good. 18 I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers; I will put my words in his mouth, and he will tell them everything I command him. 19 If anyone does not listen to my words that the prophet speaks in my name, I myself will call him to account. 20 But a prophet who presumes to speak in my name anything I have not commanded him to say, or a prophet who speaks in the name of other gods, must be put to death."

21 You may say to yourselves, "How can we know when a message has not been spoken by the LORD ?" 22 If what a prophet proclaims in the name of the LORD does not take place or come true, that is a message the LORD has not spoken. That prophet has spoken presumptuously. Do not be afraid of him.
(Deuteronomy 18: 14-22)


Yes, fortune telling, palm reading, other divination ways can be real and exist. Things (not from God) associate with the spiritual world do exist:
1 If a prophet, or one who foretells by dreams, appears among you and announces to you a miraculous sign or wonder, 2 and if the sign or wonder of which he has spoken takes place, and he says, "Let us follow other gods" (gods you have not known) "and let us worship them," 3 you must not listen to the words of that prophet or dreamer. The LORD your God is testing you to find out whether you love him with all your heart and with all your soul. 4 It is the LORD your God you must follow, and him you must revere. Keep his commands and obey him; serve him and hold fast to him.
(Deuteronomy 13:1-4)


God spoken to Moses, reaffirming in these verses that the whole earth belongs to Him. Who else have the guts to say such a things?
5 Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, 6 you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.' These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites."
(Exodus 19:5-6)



Moses spoken to the Israel community
14 To the LORD your God belong the heavens, even the highest heavens, the earth and everything in it.
(Deuteronomy 10:14)


Hmmm.... Why isn't China His chosen nation? There are many scholars there leh... China so big, so many people leh... hmmm... :) ) [Israel started as a very small group of people, raised by God, into now a powerful nation. He always use the foolish things - small and depised by us - for His big plan. Although plan I - to use Israel to attract all the other nations to Israel as His kingdom - fails because of Israel "hardness", we are now under plan II. Israel to be dealt with later.]
6 For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession.
(Deuteronomy 7:6)


From the very ancient to the very present, the nature is very much worshipped. In these verses, God was speaking to the Israel community.
15
You saw no form of any kind the day the LORD spoke to you at Horeb out of the fire. Therefore watch yourselves very carefully, 16 so that you do not become corrupt and make for yourselves an idol, an image of any shape, whether formed like a man or a woman, 17 or like any animal on earth or any bird that flies in the air, 18 or like any creature that moves along the ground or any fish in the waters below. 19 And when you look up to the sky and see the sun, the moon and the stars—all the heavenly array—do not be enticed into bowing down to them and worshiping things the LORD your God has apportioned to all the nations under heaven. 20 But as for you, the LORD took you and brought you out of the iron-smelting furnace, out of Egypt, to be the people of his inheritance, as you now are.
(Deuteronomy 4: 15-20)

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Still reading the Old Testament

I have been reading the old testament part and have not touched the new testament part for quite a long time except during sermon. My goodness, my mind is tuned to the old testament time frame. Now only manage half way through deuteronomy. Still a long way before I complete the old testament. Haiz... May God guide me through finishing reading the whole bible. Amen.

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