A message from Matthew 19 February 2017

Matthew PhotoThis devotion from “With Love to the World” 7th of Feb, 2017 grabbed me when I first read it and I would like to share it here with the whole community.

Deuteronomy 30:15-20 (NIV)

15 See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. 16 For I
command you today to love the
Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess.

17 But if your heart turns away and you are not obedient, and if you are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them, 18 I declare to you this day that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess.

19 This day I call the heavens and the 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 20 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.

I was at a meal with a family the other day. We were talking about churches that would rather die than change. A 12-year-old said, “Who would choose to die?” A wise question that needed to be asked by a child; indeed, why would anyone choose death? Choosing life seems so obvious! But there are many ways in which we choose death. For the ancient Hebrews it was to break covenant with God,
extending their time in the Exodus and ultimately sending them into exile. For us as individuals, choosing death can be about holding onto addictions, habits and
dependencies. We know that such things will kill us, but we can’t break with them. The possibility of life and freedom can seem more painful than our familiar ailments and slavery. In the same way, many churches actually choose death through
preferring control and predictable decline to the risk of freedom and change.
Today’s passage sets the choice before us. God has sworn to be faithful to the promises made to our ancestors. God does not need to curse us; we do this
ourselves.

God of birth and resurrection, help me to choose life.

Please continue to choose life with me and everyone here at Burnside City Uniting Church as we follow Jesus together – Matthew.

 

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