BLESSED OR CURSED? (Deuteronomy 28)

I confess, I struggle with today's verses. What they seem to say don't connect with my experience.

The first verse says, All these blessings will come down on you and spread beyond you because you have responded to the Voice of God. (from Deuteronomy 28:1-6, MSG)

The second one says, God will send The Curse, The Confusion, The Contrariness down on everything you've tried to do until you've been destroyed and there's nothing left of you--all because of your evil pursuits that led you to abandon me. (Deuteronomy 28:20, MSG)

Black and white. Either/or. The chapter is written in a way that suggests that God blesses people who listen to his voice with material prosperity, and rains down disaster on people who disobey until until there is nothing left. 

I must say, I love the descriptions. Blessings that spread beyond me? Kind of like answers to prayer that are pressed down and running over, so much blessing that I leak and spill it and other around me are blessed too. I want to be that kind of person.

But I'm afraid I identify more with the feeling of confusion and contrariness, when life doesn't turn out the way I expected it to and fights what I want to do. I have a friend right now who probably would shout a loud "amen." She's stuck in a dangerous and discouraging job. She wants to write full time; she's close to getting a contract that would make that possible. At just this time--when her dream is within sight--her husband's salary was cut in half. Confused? Yes. Contrary? Definitely. But she's not involved with any evil pursuits.

I'm going to get all writerly on you and look at the words used.

People are blessed when they respond to the voice of God. In short, respond means to reply or react. Respond stops short of "obey."  It suggests that God and I are in a relationship, a conversation. He talks, and I not only listen, but I talk back. 

Relationship, not perfection. 

Abandon, not surprisingly, implies the opposite. A person who abandons God has given up control of her life to someone else. He not only has stopped listening, he no longer intends to obey. 

Disowns. Divorces. Abandons. Alienates. Choose your word.

I have no easy answer here, except to offer this hope: God longs for our response. If we feel that life is confusing and contrary, we can talk with him about it.

And a testimony: In the times I have felt the most confused and contrary, blessing has spilled from me to others. God has blessed others through me. 

SHARP WRITING (Deuteronomy 27)

Today I found more words for writers: Write all the words of this Revelation on the stones. Incise them sharply. (Deuteronomy 27:8, MSG)

"Incise them" throws me for a bit of a loop. Imagine a pair of gigantic teeth chomping down on the stone and carving letters, something like the Rock Biter in Never Ending Story.

I know the verse refers to God's revelation, and the memorial stones of the covenant. But I still think writers can find some lessons here.

Let's think about it. Write all the words. That doesn't necessarily mean to write long books. It means--as I tell aspiring writers all the time--a writer must write. Do you want to improve? Write, write, and write some more. I have improved in large part because I have written almost every day for over two decades.  And I've written plenty of words.

Incise them. Carve out words from my heart. One of the most humorous quips about writing goes about like this: "Writing is easy. You just open a vein and bleed." Writing that comes from my head is less effective than writing from my heart.

Incise them sharply. Find the right tools to make those words sharp, clear, unmistakeable. Choose the right genre. Mine, for reasons only God understands, is primarily historical romance. Choose the right words. Use grammar properly.

Sharpen your tools. Choose the right colored pencil, the right word. Take classes, read books, accept criticism. Get better.

One final note: Set up the stones. As my friend Reggie McDaniel said, "God didn't give you that story to keep it in a drawer." In these electronic days, I suppose that would be in a computer folder. Share your words. In blogs, letters, articles, books, among friends. Publication is a scary process, but risk it anyways.

Remember I wrote for fourteen years before I got my first book contract!


Okay, writers. Get ready . . . set . . . write.

RUNAWAY TRAIN (Deuteronomy 23)

Don't return a runaway slave to his master; he has come to you for refuge. Let him live wherever he wishes within the protective confines of your city. Don't take advantage of him. (Deuteronomy 23:15-16, MSG)

In the context of laws permitting slavery while protecting the well-being of the slave, this verse caught me by surprise.

Don't return a runaway to his master. 

The slave is not required to prove mistreatment. The wording suggests they need refuge for one reason or another. Perhaps they ran down one of the roads we talked about yesterday, to the nearest town. Once there, the former slave needed to stay put. His safety wasn't guaranteed if he left. But as long stayed within the town, he could live freely, make his own way, free from harrassment or fear.

I wonder if this principle should be expanded. What about political refugees, who flee seeking asylum? Should they be accepted, protected, without questioning? In ancient Israel, foreigners weren't accepted unilaterally. The inhabitants of the land were destined for death. Because of the deceit at Baal Peor, Moabites and Ammonites were banned from the congregation of God. Edomites and Egyptians could become part of the congregation in the third generation.

So it's not necessarily a call for open borders.

How about children who runaway? Should they be returned to parents, to potentially abusive situations?

That's a tougher one. The key, I think, is protection. Children must be in a situation where they are protected--from both abusive families, a faulty welfare system, the mean streets.

I don't know what the answer is.

Today, let's take a moment to pray for those people--slaves, children, refugees--who need to flee from trouble. Pray that they will find a safe place to live, for institutions of slavery and prostitution and oppression to end.

Pray for the peacemakers.

EASY WAY OUT (Deuteronomy 19)

 About 1,400 years before Christ, God commanded Israel to build a national highway system.

Seriously, Moses told them, "build roads to the towns."

The road would probably run through the center of Israel. God told them to divide the land into thirds, and choose one town from each third. They were to be "easily accessible"--no tall mountains or difficult rivers should stand in the way. The road would (probably) span Israel north to south, the way that Interstate 35 runs from Duluth to Laredo and runs a few miles away from the nursing home where I live, hitting a lot of major towns in between.

Here's the kicker: the reason for the road system: "so that anyone who accidentally kills another can flee there."

I read that and envisioned "the fugitive" (an Egyptian-era fugitive, that is), running down the road for his life, seeking sanctuary before the avenger caught up with him.

I love the simple justice dealt for untimely death:

• If it was accidental - the one who caused the death is innocent, and he has the right to seek sanctuary in the Cities of Refuge.
• If the man who killed someone else by accident is himself killed in revenge, that's murder.
• If there is known to be bad blood between two men, and one kills the other, it's considered murder, and the murderer is executed.
• If a dead body is discovered and no one witnessed the death, the elders of the town offer a heifer and proclaim their innocence. The matter is dropped.  (that would be a neat way to get rid of a lot of cold cases!)

But. . .the road system . . .built to protect the rights of the innocent.

Two witnesses to any crime were required before a sentence could be handed out.

Rather than being the harsh "eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth," culture as I've often pictured it, God actually created a justice system where guilt had to be proved twice over and the government was supposed to protect the innocent by building them a road. 

When Jesus said He was the way, He put me on the road--the way--to protection. Only in Him do I find refuge for my soul. 

THE WIDOW'S MITE, TAKE TWO (Deuteronomy 16)

We all know the story of the Widow's Mite. Jesus and the disciples watched people putting money into the offering box, or however the money was collected. They must have also brought an offering when they arrived. Some people made a big show of how much they gave.

One poor widow arrived and gave two pennies, the smallest coins of the realm. Jesus said, "She gave more than everyone else, because she gave everything she had."

Her story sprang to mind when I read this verse from Deuteronomy 16:17: No one is to show up in the presence of God empty-handed; each man must bring as much as he can manage, giving generously in response to the blessings of God, your God.

The widow gave more than she could manage; she gave everything. It was more than generous; some would call it foolish.

But I bet she hardly felt the loss of the money. She felt so blessed by God, she was compelled to give everything she had. She knew the meaning of blessing and rejoicing in the Lord far beyond her daily circumstances.

Oh, Lord, make me like her--in my attitude and in my giving.

TRIGGERS

During the 2012 election, I learned something about myself: politics triggers a deep emotional reaction in me, far out of proportion to the parties or candidates involved.

When someone engages in a debate to convince me why my political views are wrong, I fly back to a place in childhood where abuse taught me You don't know what you know. You don't feel what you feel. You don't think what you think. 

After that, it doesn't matter how well reasoned or polite my opponent is. I am angry at being made to feel stupid and helpless. That's when I decided I should steer clear of political discussions.

Today in Deuteronomy Moses told us one of God's trigger points. (Yup, apparently He has them too.) The Message paraphrase actually uses the word "trigger": The way you handle things like this triggers God. your God's, blessing in everything you do. (Deuteronomy 15:10)

There's something we can do that will create an automatic response from God, blessing on everything we do? Wow. Let me in on the secret.

Here it is: Give freely and spontaneously. Don't have a stingy heart. 

A few verses earlier, God said, "When you happen on someone who's in trouble or needs help. . .don't look the other way."

We know who needs our gifts.

A few practical thoughts:

Give time.  When someone at the nursing home needs a nurse's attention--get it for them.

Give talents. When someone asks me to play the piano--I should play.

Give money. Even to the person sitting at the side of the road. Don't look the other way. 

Don't wait until someone asks for help. Give proactively when you see a need.

Trouble and need don't always mean financial help. It's often the more difficult job of giving of ourselves.

And as we do that . . . as we should do . . . give freely as we have been given much . . .we'll see what response that triggers from God.

Something unexpected. Something amazing. Something wonderful.

WHAT DOES GOD WANT FROM ME? (Deuteronomy 10)

I didn't plan it this way. God did.

Yesterday I looked at what God promised to us, as His part of keeping the covenant.  Today, I ran across the words What do you think God expects from you? The other half of the equation. I stopped right there.

No new, astounding revelations here. Just a simple summary of what God wants, set in a parenthesis of how we are to live:

LIVE in His presence in holy reverence.

• Follow the road He sets out for you.
• Love Him.
• Serve God with everything in you.
• Obey the commandments.

LIVE a good life.

So, to start with - as I live. As I go about my daily business, keep God on my mind. The first thing God wants is my attention. He wants that relationship with me. 

There is a Christian classic called Practicing the Presence of God by a monk named Brother Lawrence. He worked in the kitchen, but his heart's desire was to live in God's presence.

Oh, yes. Serve God with everything in you. Shades of the greatest commandment. If we love God, that will come naturally.

As I live, I should follow the road He sets out for me. My own, personalized, yellow brick road, that will lead me to the answer to all of my problems and the greatest future I could imagine. 

Obey the commandments - we've heard that one before.

Live a good life. I love the double play on "good."  A good life may mean one that is virtuous, right, or commendable. It may also mean one that is pleasant or agreeable. Most likely it means both. If we live in a way that is virtuous, we will experience pleasant and agreeable circumstances. (Notice: not necessarily easy.)

What does God want from me?  To live with Him. 

Lord, walk with me this day.