The Lord Your God

Reading through the books of the Pentateuch as I start the year and I have noticed that there is a repetitive way of God referring to Himself in the law.  He often calls Himself, "The Lord Your God."  I find this nomenclature both informative and instructive.  Think of the fact that God is repeatedly reminding them that He is the only God.  And yet meeting them where they are and encouraging them to avoid the gods of the other nations (who are not really gods) He does not use the definite article to refer to His deity.  Instead He uses a personal pronoun - He tells them He is "Your God."  But the definite article rests on the idea of His Lordship.  God is THE Lord YOUR God.  There is only one of Him, and He is Personal to His people, but He in calling himself this He is continually reminding them that He alone is in charge.  He is THE LORD.  The One who is.  The One who was.  The One who is to come.  He is and therefore He is to be obeyed.  

Perhaps you need this reminder this morning.  God is the Lord and He is Lord alone.  Worship and Obey Him and be blessed or ignore Him to your own peril. 

How quickly we forget

 I find it interesting that one of the most repeated commands in the book of Deuteronomy is the command to remember.  Some variation of the word occurs over 1,200 times in the whole Bible.  It is interesting because we are so very prone to forget.  In Exodus 32, the people have just heard the voice of God speak the commands to them - one of those was to not fashion a graven image.  And after Moses had been gone up the mountain for a while they decided they needed an image to worship.  They forgot.

Then they crossed the red sea and escaped Egypt.  But they forgot the great signs God did and complained.  So God provided food (bread and meat) and water and yet they complained again.  God made promises like they could win battles if they trusted him and they lost because they forgot to remember.

I wonder what promises God has made in His Word that you have forgotten today.  Do you take the time to read the Bible or have your forgotten just how important it is.  How many characteristics of God could you list from the Bible, or have you forgotten about God too and who He really is.

We tend to forget - so let us be reminded together to remember.

A New Year

 A New Year is upon us.  2026.  I do not know if you are looking at the new year ahead with anticipation or fear.  But I got to thinking about the concept of the new year and the concept of time in general and I realized that the only new thing about this year is the way that we view it.  There is fundamentally no difference between the day December 31 at the "end" of one year and January 1 at the "beginning" of the next.  There is no special transfer of powers that occurs or anything that makes it different from the transition of say August 2 to August 3.  There is no magic (even though a ball might drop) that makes the transition from one year to the next any different from one month to the next, or one week to the next, or one day (any day really) to the next.  Maybe this is why so many fail to keep resolutions, because we are looking for newness and change when newness is not really present.  Ecclesiastes reminds us that there is not a single thing under this sun that is new.  

If you are really looking for change - if you are really looking to make a difference in your life that lasts and one that matters, perhaps we should start considering looking outside of time.  If we measure newness by time we will find that history repeats itself and that those who do not understand history are the ones who are destined to repeat it.  This is not new.  In order to look outside of time we must look to One who is outside of time.  We must look to One who created it.  We must look to the only one who is eternal.  Who was and is and is to come.  We must look to God and in Him and Him alone we find the capacity to truly change.  We can change into what He wants to make us.  We can become what He created us to be.  By His help and using His word we can be made new.  

So this year don't look to yourself and place your hope in the fact that you might do better.  Place your hope in the Timeless One. The One who entered into time as one of us so that He might draw us to Himself.  And in looking to Him we can be made new!