Listen to His Voice

This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the Lord is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
Deut. 30:19-20

i got on a deuteronomy kick the last few days. been quite the interesting journey. there are some pretty graphic things in the book. (see Deut. 23:10) but then you stumble across some verses like the ones above. these three 'commands' are rocking my world...
*Love the Lord your God
*Listen to His voice
*Hold fast to Him

if all thru one day i could be reminded of these big 3... i would be changed, or more like - i'm being changed. to love God intimately... to hear God's voice... to hold God steadfastly.... incredible. this reminds me how intimate my relationship with my Dad is. he chooses to satisfy my desires with good things. (psalm 103:5) it doesn't get much more intimate than that.

so some friends and i are on this kick of memorizing a chapter of scripture. anyone wanna join? i'm attempting to memorizing psalm 103. so far i've made it to verse 6. needed to stop for a day and deeply consider how God works righteousness and justice to all the oppressed. too often i'm caught up in the moment of need and desperation, and forget to see beyond the physical. my heart goes out for some oppressed - those sold into sex slavery... and zimbabweans. not sure how zimbabweans are oppressed, but my heart goes out to them. i guess since HIV/AIDS is claiming 30% of the citizens... that seems like oppression of the spiritual natural.

there's another verse in deuteronomy which caught my attention. it's deut. 23:14 'For the Lord your God moves about in your camp to protect you and to deliver your enemies to you. Your camp must be holy, so that He will not see among you anything indecent and turn away from you.' God protects me and delivers my enemies to me. (when i think of enemies - i often think of demons.) and then my camp - my home, my heart, my thought life, my fleshly desires, anything which i hold dear - must be holy. where am i outta step with Jesus? where have i messed up? where have i disobeyed, not fought the good fight? and the reason why i am to be holy is so that God can be near. He is too holy to be near evil. that is a big thought for me. i know that nothing can separate me from the love of Christ, but...

as i get older and hopefully more mature, i'm learning that obedience is more important than rules. that righteousness comes before rules. this is a tough understanding to me, cuz i'm pretty analytical, play-it-by-the-rules type of person. just as Jesus was healing on sabbath. Jesus must have thrown a huge wrench into the pharisees thinking. 'how could someone claiming to be 'God' disobey what we know is the way to righteousness?' i wonder that sometimes too.

hey Jesus,
thanks for opening my heart to know You more. thanks for allowing my questions to be answered. in james you promise to give wisdom to anyone who asks. well, i'm on my knees, humbled by Your greatness - begging for wisdom. i wanna know You and who You are. i desire to hear Your voice. i want to love You more. i want to be the one who holds fast to You. i desire those things. i want to be faithful, Jesus. thanks for hearing my pleas for help. thanks for giving me the strength to be obedient, even when it feels like everything within me is desiring to sin. Your grace is sufficient for me...keep that thought before me. Holy Spirit, i know You are in me - calling me out of darkness into Jesus's glorious light. You've rescued me from the chains of sin and death, and clothed me with righteousness, peace and love. thanks for giving of Yourself so that i can have life. You are my life. i'm only beginning to understand the depth of this statement. thanks for Your love lavished upon me.

*Sean *Stephen in Kenya *Philip @ YWAM