Women in the Word

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4/28/2016 6:51 am  #21


Re: Deuteronomy

Deuteronomy 13

13:9 But you shall kill him. Your hand shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people.
 
This shows how serious it is to tolerate people or things that entice, encourage, or tempt us to put other things before God.
 
It is similar to what Jesus said about if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off, if your eye, gauge it out.
 
What do we need to cut out of our life that is drawing us away from God?

 

4/29/2016 7:08 pm  #22


Re: Deuteronomy

Deuteronomy 14
 
14:2  For you are a people holy to the LORD your God, and the LORD has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.
 
We get peace, hope, love, and a future. But, ultimately, our salvation, life, and purpose is not for us. God chose us not for us to get something, but for Him.
 
We are His special treasure. That is how much He values us; we have value in His eyes and to Him.
 
He wants us o be set part from worldly things, to be special, set apart and reserved (holy) for Him.
 
We see all these specifications about what Israel can and cannot do. But, ultimately, He does not want them acting like the world or engaging in impure lifestyles of the nations around them.
 
It goes on to list specific and highly detailed commands and then says how they should also faithfully tithe. And ends with verse 23: . . . . that you may learn to fear the LORD your God always.
 
So, that: Radical obedience teaches respect and reverence for God
Tithing, giving that what we feel is ours, the product or our work and effort, that which is valuable to us also teaches us to respect and revere God.
 
14:26 and spend the money for whatever you desire--oxen or sheep or wine or strong drink, whatever your appetite craves. And you shall eat there before the LORD your God and rejoice, you and your household.
 
The fellowship, pure, holy fellowship, is for our enjoyment as well, to bring us joy. Our fellowship with God is to worship Him – yes. But it will also bring us joy or should be joyful to us.
 
14:29 And the Levite, because he has no portion or inheritance with you, and the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, who are within your towns, shall come and eat and be filled, that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands that you do.
 
They were to be deliberate in setting aside a portion of their productivity to be used to provide for full-time religious leaders, widows, poor, and orphans.

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4/30/2016 11:01 am  #23


Re: Deuteronomy

Courtney has a powerful post summarizing this week over at Good Morning Girls: How to Destroy Strongholds In Your Life

Deuteronomy 15
 
Remember that this was a theocracy and everyone was bound to live as God specified, not complete individual liberty to do whatever you wanted to do. So, this is not a prescription for us, but a set of guidelines for Israel under that specific government. But as always, we can see principles in this as well as foreshadowing of other Biblical principles.
 
My Bible notes also point out how in these passages we see justice and righteousness balanced with compassion and mercy.
 
As I was reading Matthew Henry commentary on this he noted that this “typified the grace of the gospel  . . . by which we obtain the release of our debts, that is, the pardon of our sins, and we are taught to forgive injuries, as we are and hope to be forgiven of God.”
 
I thought that when reading this chapter, it can seem hard or unfair that they had to let the person go free before all their debt was paid off. But think about it, is that not what God has done for us? He let us off the hook without paying the penalty for our sins.
 
How should this change our heart attitude towards those who owe us or who have not treated us properly? In light of God’s great grace towards us, we should have hearts that forgive wrongs and that focus on the hope of God working in our hearts and lives.

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4/30/2016 11:18 am  #24


Re: Deuteronomy

Week of May 2
This Week’s Reading Assignment
 
S.O.A.K. any verse of your choosing.
 
Monday
Reading: Deuteronomy 16
Good Morning Girls: Introduction to Week
Verse of the Day: Deuteronomy 16:17
Optional GMG Discussion Question:
Everything we have is a blessing from God. We need to have a willing heart to give back to Him. How are you giving back to the Lord? How has this changed your life?
 
Tuesday
Reading: Deuteronomy 17
Verse of the Day: Deuteronomy 17:19
Optional GMG Discussion Question:
We must read God's word daily so that we learn to fear the Lord and keep His ways. How does having a daily Bible reading time, impact your life?
 
Wednesday
Reading: Deuteronomy 18
Verse of the Day: Deuteronomy 18:13
Optional GMG Discussion Question:
God's people were warned not to practice the customs of other nations. They were meant to be different. How do you ensure that worldly influences don't influence your life?
 
Thursday
Reading: Deuteronomy 19
Verse of the Day: Deuteronomy 19:13
Optional GMG Discussion Question:
God provided refuge to those who had accidentally committed a sinful act. How does this remind you of what He has done for you?
 
Friday
Reading: Deuteronomy 20
Good Morning Girls: Devotional and Discussion
Verse of the Day: Deuteronomy 20:3-4
Optional GMG Discussion Question:
God's people were reminded not to be afraid in times of battle because He was with them. What battle have you faced and instantly you were scared until you remembered that God was with you?

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4/30/2016 9:07 pm  #25


Re: Deuteronomy

Deuteronomy 15

“Give generously to the poor, not grudgingly, for the LORD your God will bless you in everything you do. There will always be some in the land who are poor. That is why I am commanding you to share freely with the poor and with other Israelites in need.”
‭‭Deuteronomy‬ ‭15:10-11‬ ‭NLT‬‬
http://bible.com/116/deu.15.10-11.nlt

We must always have a compassionate and giving heart for the poor.  We must not forget them. There's such a growing number of homeless people in America. God blesses us with so much so we can give back to those in need. Love this reminder to give more freely.

 

5/01/2016 7:47 pm  #26


Re: Deuteronomy

Deuteronomy 16

I see in the feasts times of remembrance and worship.
 
16:3 You shall eat no leavened bread with it. Seven days you shall eat it with unleavened bread, the bread of affliction--for you came out of the land of Egypt in haste--that all the days of your life you may remember the day when you came out of the land of Egypt.
 
The Passover was  time of remembering God’s deliverance.
 
16:10-11 Then you shall keep the Feast of Weeks to the LORD your God with the tribute of a freewill offering from your hand, which you shall give as the LORD your God blesses you. And you shall rejoice before the LORD your God, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, the Levite who is within your towns, the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow who are among you, at the place that the LORD your God will choose, to make his name dwell there.

The Feast of Weeks was a time to


  • Give freewill offerings from the heart, motivated by love and joy
  • Time of rejoicing

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5/03/2016 6:44 am  #27


Re: Deuteronomy

Deuteronomy 17

17:1 You shall not sacrifice to the LORD your God an ox or a sheep in which is a blemish, any defect whatever, for that is an abomination to the LORD your God.
 
We need to give God our best.
 
Time
Do we give our best time to entertainment, work, or exercise? Do we give God the left over times or the worse times to optimize our focus and energy?
 
We should give God our optimal time, the time of our optimal focus and energy.
 
I am guilty of this. I want to do work first because I feel anxious about getting it done. Therefore my mind is tired when I go to study the Bible or I don’t have much time so I just study it, but don’t really meditate and soak in the word.
 
Money
We spend so much money on homes, fancy finishes, cars, clothes, beauty, entertainment, and consumer debt that we can’t “afford” to give to God’s work: evangelism, support church, missions, poor, oppressed, etc.
 
Or, we spend so many hours working because we are so driven to seek success, wealth, or bigger, fancier homes, or newer cars that we have no time to serve God, serve the church, help out others, step into the lives of those around us to be light and salt.
 
17:5 then you shall bring out to your gates that man or woman who has done this evil thing, and you shall stone that man or woman to death with stones.
 
These are hard words, but they were specifically for Israel. God needed to preserve a holy line for the Messiah. He did not want idolatry to take a foothold. He wanted to preserve His special people.
 
17:19 And it shall be with him, and he shall read in it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the LORD his God by keeping all the words of this law and these statutes, and doing them,
 
This can apply to us as well. It is a repeating theme throughout Deuteronomy.
 
We need to read and meditate on the word so that:
We learn: learn - process of increasing growth and comprehension, it is a process of changing habits and cultivating new behaviors
 
Learn:


  • The fear of God – reverence and awe
  • Careful observance of the word
  • Humble heart
  • Obedience and faithfulness

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5/04/2016 6:52 am  #28


Re: Deuteronomy

Deuteronomy 18

What I see in this is that it can tell us something about God.

1) Initially the fact that the Levites would not have land was a punishment pronounced in Genesis 49:5 when Jacob died and it was because Levi acted cruelly in Genesis 34:25-26.
2) God did do what He said, however, He also showed grace by redeeming the situation and allowing the Levites to serve before Him and have a special role.

We see this same pattern with David and Bathsheba. God allowed David's son to die because of David's murder and adultery. But once the penalty was paid and David repented, God forgave him and ended up allowing the Messiah to come through his relationship with Bathsheba.

So, we see consequences, punishment and penalty, but we also see grace and redemption.

18:10 There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering (to an idol)

In some ways it seems to me that we offer the lives of children as sacrifices to idols today. We idolize free sex and any and all things for our physical pleasure and desires and if a child is inconveniently conceived, we just kill it. Or if the child is born, it may be born into a sad situation with no family, no father, no stability, abuse, etc. But that is OK, we can sacrifice the child's life to what we want and what we worship, our lust and sexual desires.

Now, we just said that God forgives and redeems, and He does. For those that made a mistake, we are not perfect. King David, the man after God's heart did this! He committed adultery and murder, yet God calls Him special, He calls him a man after the heart of God and blessed him through all eternity!

However, in this world there is a culture of this and an attitude. People are not repentant. They don't care, they intentionally embrace and bow down to worship the gods of lust and indulgence; they are ruled by their appetites and will allow nothing to curb them.

Optional GMG Discussion Question:
God's people were warned not to practice the customs of other nations. They were meant to be different. How do you ensure that worldly influences don't influence your life?

I watch what media I consume. Some say that it does not effect them if they know it is wrong, but it feeds attitudes, desires and thoughts that ultimately lead us astray.

For example, if you keep watching all this "fake" romance and staged "romantic" encounters, do we not start craving this fantasy? Do we not start looking at our husbands with dissatisfaction, thinking there is something better, so more exciting, romantic connection? And that new connection is only exciting and romantic at the beginning because of the newness and illicitness. Then the excitement fades to reality. Or in looking for a marriage, women pass up so many amazing godly men because they were not smooth enough, or did not sweep them off their feet. Or on a first date when everyone is nervous and you don't really even know someone yet, they already reject them because there was no "spark." Now I think you should have a spark with the man you marry, you should be crazy about them, but to reject someone because it was not there within the first 2 hours of meeting them is different. That goes back to the media showing this love at first sight, which is really lust at first sight.

So, I do think what we watch can influence us, and I try not to watch things that will lead my mind to think on what is against God and displeasing to Him.


 

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5/05/2016 7:15 am  #29


Re: Deuteronomy

Deuteronomy 19
  
What I see in this passage is justice, a deep concern for justice. God insist on holiness and obedience, yet in the previous chapter He showed grace and redemption. Here, He is showing us how perfect He is in His orderliness, planning, and passion to protect the innocent and preserve true justice.
 
This also underscores again how it is heart attitudes that concern God. The outer act of the person being killed is the same – the difference is the intent of the heart.
 
I think this is an analogy we can take for our lives also as new believer Christians. We see this when Christ speaks extensively about if we hate in our hearts, we have murdered, if we lust in our hearts, we have committed adultery, etc. Jesus also speaks about how it is what comes out of our hearts that defile us, not what goes into our bodies.
 
So, I see this passage as one more analogy to remind us of the converse, it is not external religious activities, such as Bible study, church, moral living, that save us and bring us intimacy with God in growing our relationship with Him and in growing in godliness. It is our heart attitudes and desires. Our hearts are what matters.
 
Do we have a heart for God? Are we submitted to and surrendered to His authority? Do we believe and trust in His truth and His dictates? Do we have obedient hearts?
 
This should also encourage us when we fail as well. Some sin is a result of an overall heart problem that we need to get to the root of, a lack of Christian maturity, a lack of obedience, selfishness, pride, or outright rebellion. But sometimes we do have right hearts, but in a second of weakness we fail.

We can beat ourselves up so much about that sometimes. But, it is not what we do with our bodies; God has forgiven us. It is what we do with our hearts. And when our hearts are repentant, surrendered, and willing to obey, we should give ourselves grace in proportion to the mercy God has already shown us.

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5/08/2016 3:44 pm  #30


Re: Deuteronomy

Deuteronomy 20

20:1 you shall not be afraid of them, for the LORD your God is with you, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.
 
They were not to have confidence in themselves; but in God. They could have confidence in the God who delivered them.
 
Likewise our confidence should not be in ourselves; our confidence should be in God. We can confidently go forth in obedience to God, our deliverer.
 
20:3b-4 let not your heart faint. Do not fear or panic or be in dread of them, for the LORD your God is he who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies, to give you the victory.
 
Do we know who goes with us? It is the God of the last chapters of Job, it is the God who has created, delivered, who is holy and faithful. He has all power, all wisdom, all authority. There is none who stand before Him and all bow to His will and live, move and exist at His will. It is He who goes before us. How can we fear if we are following His will in obedience in all things.
 
The later part of the chapter again highlights the importance of completely and utterly destroying sin and strongholds in our life. There is an excellent post on this at Good Morning Girls.
 
We must not tolerate the presence of sin in our lives. We must not accept or turn an apathetic eye to things that are dishonoring God in our lives or hearts. It is easy to excuse and tolerate “small” impurities.

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