{"id":22721,"date":"2022-08-09T22:00:51","date_gmt":"2022-08-10T05:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/deuteronomy30_1-10-copy\/"},"modified":"2022-07-26T15:35:02","modified_gmt":"2022-07-26T22:35:02","slug":"deuteronomy30_11-20","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/deuteronomy30_11-20\/","title":{"rendered":"You Can Always Reach God Because of Jesus"},"content":{"rendered":"

Deuteronomy 30:11-20 \u00a0Click here for Bible Verses<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Hi GAMErs!<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is Deuteronomy 30:11-20.\u00a0 Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

Deuteronomy 30:11-14 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n11\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach.
\n12\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0It is not up in heaven, so that you have to ask, “Who will ascend into heaven to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?”
\n13\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Nor is it beyond the sea, so that you have to ask, “Who will cross the sea to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?”
\n14\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0No, the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 11-14:\u00a0 Moses recognized that in each of our hearts is both the ability to obey (v14) as well as the ability to turn away and go astray (v17).\u00a0 God knew this as well but He went one step further.\u00a0 Knowing our propensity to turn away and go astray, God sent His Son Jesus Christ to earth to perfectly obey His commandments on our behalf and then die on the cross for our sins.\u00a0 So whereas we could never reach God on our own, through Jesus, God is now within our reach.<\/p>\n

Because of Jesus, we can say \u201cAMEN\u201d to verse 11, since we now can do all things through Christ who strengthens us.<\/p>\n

Because of Jesus, we can say \u201cAMEN\u201d to verse 12. For\u00a0instead of demanding that we step up to His level and somehow ascend to heaven, God in the form of Jesus the Son descended to earth and proclaimed God\u2019s Word to us.<\/p>\n

Because of Jesus, we can say \u201cAMEN\u201d to verse 13.\u00a0 For when our sin was like an ocean separating us from God, God didn’t demand that we somehow cross over to where He is.\u00a0 Instead, Jesus Himself crossed over to where we are.<\/p>\n

Because of Jesus, we can say \u201cAMEN\u201d to verse 14.\u00a0 For Jesus, who is also called the Word of God, by faith now lives in our heart and His Word is on our lips.\u00a0 Once we were far away and separated from God.\u00a0 But now through Jesus we are always able to reach Him, with 24\/7 access and never a busy signal.<\/p>\n

Deuteronomy 30:15-20 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n15\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction.
\n16\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0For I command you today to love the\u00a0LORD\u00a0your God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the\u00a0LORD\u00a0your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess.
\n17\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0But 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,
\n18\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0I 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.
\n19\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0This 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
\n20\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0and that you may love the\u00a0LORD\u00a0your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the\u00a0LORD\u00a0is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verse 15-20: \u00a0Here Moses tells the Israelites that they have two choices: they can choose life and blessings if they obey God’s Word, or they can choose death and curses if they disobey God’s Word.\u00a0 Why does God give us the freedom to choose?\u00a0 If God loves us and wants us to be blessed, why doesn’t He make it so that we automatically obey Him?\u00a0 It’s because if God made us like robots or machines who had no choice but to obey Him, there would be no relationship.\u00a0 God wanted a world where loving relationships are possible.\u00a0 Without the freedom to choose between love and hate, good and evil, life and death, love would not be possible.\u00a0 So God created us so that we have the freedom and ability to make our own choices, hoping that we will choose to love Him in return.\u00a0 God of course knew there would always be a risk that we would not choose Him and turn away from Him, but because God valued love so much, He was willing to take the risk.<\/p>\n

Heavenly Father, thank You that because of Jesus I can always reach You, that You are always very near me.\u00a0 Thank You for making me with the freedom to choose whether to reach for You or not.\u00a0 Today I choose to reach for You, to love and obey You.\u00a0 I pray that I would make that right choice every day.\u00a0 I proclaim that Your blessing will follow me when I make that right choice.\u00a0 In Jesus’ name I pray, AMEN!<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi GAMErs!<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is Deuteronomy 30:11-20.\u00a0 Let\u2019s go!
\n\u00a0
\nDeuteronomy 30:11-14 (NIV)
\n11\u00a0\u00a0Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach.
\n12\u00a0\u00a0It is not up in heaven, so that you have to ask, “Who will ascend into heaven to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?”
\n13\u00a0\u00a0Nor is it beyond the sea, so that you have to ask, “Who will cross the sea to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?”
\n14\u00a0\u00a0No, the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it.
\n\u00a0
\nOn verses 11-14:\u00a0 Moses recognized that in each of our hearts is both the ability to obey (v14) as well as the ability to turn away and go astray (v17).\u00a0 God knew this as well but He went one step further.\u00a0 Knowing our propensity to turn away and go astray, God sent His Son Jesus Christ to earth to perfectly obey His commandments on our behalf and then die on the cross for our sins.\u00a0 So whereas we could never reach God on our own, through Jesus, God is now within our reach.
\n\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22723,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22721","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gametime-sharing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22721","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22721"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22721\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22724,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22721\/revisions\/22724"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}