When you turn to the Lord with all
your heart, in this world you will have enemies. An enemy is someone who is not
of the same spirit that you are of and therefore they oppose you in some way.
But do not fear. God knows this, and He promises to do something about your
enemies. God promises to take care of them. He knows what they need. The Bible
says in Deuteronomy 30:7, And the LORD thy God will put all these curses
upon thine enemies, and on them that hate thee, which persecuted thee.
We do not hate the people of the world. We pray for the people of the world:
that they will get saved before it is too late. But Jesus warned us that they
would hate us because they hate Him. It is that simple. So what do we do about
the hatred? We can always stand for our rights based upon the laws in the
country where we live, but we must not return hatred with hatred. God is Judge.
He will decide what needs to be done with them and when. Vengeance is mine,
saith the Lord. I will repay.
The Bible says in Deuteronomy 30:8, And thou
shalt return and obey the voice of the LORD, and do all his commandments which
I command thee this day. Other people are going to do what they are going to do
with the freedom of decision that God has given to them. But the people of God
turn to Jesus to follow Him and to obey His commandments. Notice the word
return at the beginning of verse 8. Those who have drifted away from the Lord
always have the invitation to return to Him. God does not hold grudges. Jesus
will always forgive, and He will always allow someone who once followed Him to
return to Him. Remember that forgiveness of sins is how you started following
Jesus in the first place, and if you understand how serving Jesus works, then
you know that the only way that anyone walks in fellowship with Jesus every day
is through the forgiveness of sins each day. For example, it says in First John
1:9, If we confess our sins, He is faithful
and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. The Apostle John included himself in that statement
because he said, If we
There are two kinds of forgiveness of sins for
Christians. The first forgiveness of sins happens once and only once the day
when a person first comes to know Jesus as Savior. Jesus called this being born
again, or having the spiritual birth. When you meet Jesus in this way, you
become forgiven of all your sins: past, present, and future as far as the
judgment is concerned and as far as your eternal destiny is concerned. Once you
have this first type of forgiveness, you will go to heaven. The second type of
forgiveness can happen daily as we live in these bodies in this world. The
second type of forgiveness involves the fact that no one is perfect. We still
fail, and we still sin. When you think of the greatest commandment that Jesus
said was to love God with all the heart, and all the mind, and all the soul,
and all the strength; it is easy to see how often and how easily we sin. It is
easy to see how much we rely upon His forgiveness in order to walk in
fellowship with Jesus, and we could never rely upon our goodness even for that.
But when we do serve the Lord Jesus
the best we know how, there will be good consequences. It says in Deuteronomy
30:9-10, And the LORD thy God will make thee plenteous in every work
of thine hand, in the fruit of thy body, and in the fruit of thy cattle, and in
the fruit of thy land, for good: for the LORD will again rejoice over thee for
good, as he rejoiced over thy fathers:[10] If thou shalt hearken
unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to keep his commandments and his statutes
which are written in this book of the law, and if thou turn unto the LORD
thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul.
The idea expressed by the words, plenteous
in every work of thine hand, in the
fruit of thy body, etc., refers to the need
of every human being to accomplish their purpose in life. How will you reach
your potential? How will you become everything that you can be? How can you
find the most success possible for you in what you are endeavoring? Here are
some of the important spiritual principles to make sure that you become
self-fulfilled: follow the Lord Jesus, serve the Lord, dedicate what you do to
the Lord and His glory, and rely upon the Lord as you make your best effort.
Jesus put it this way, I am come that you might have life, and that you might
have it more abundantly. The Apostle Paul said, I can do all things through
Christ who strengtheneth me.
The Bible says in Deuteronomy
30:11-14, For this commandment which I command thee this day, it is not
hidden from thee, neither is it far off.[12] It is not in heaven, that
thou shouldest say, Who shall go up for us to heaven, and bring it unto us,
that we may hear it, and do it?[13] Neither is it beyond the sea, that
thou shouldest say, Who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it unto us,
that we may hear it, and do it?[14] But the word is very nigh unto thee,
in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it.
When God says that the commandment is not
hidden from thee, neither is it far off, the
Lord is talking about how accessible He has made the truth for all human
beings. There is no such thing as some people being so isolated and so remote
that nothing has ever been revealed to them. The Spirit is everywhere, and
Gods truth is everywhere. God speaks somehow and in some way to everyone on
this earth no matter where they are. The
heavens declare the glory of God and the earth showeth
forth His handiwork. It says about Jesus in
John 1:9, That was the true light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. Everyone has received some Light. The question for
everyone at the judgment will be: how did they respond to the Light that was
given to them? Jesus is the Light of the world.
The Bible says in Deuteronomy 30:15, See, I have
set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil. God says
there is life and death, and there is good and evil. These are some of the
great facts of life. Some people try to live life trying to forget about death.
It is understandable a little bit from a human standpoint because death is so
final and can be so sorrowful. One of the advantages of believing in Jesus is
He gives life after death. For the Christian, death is simply the door that we
go through in order to enter eternity with the Lord in
heaven. Jesus said in John 11:25, I am the resurrection and the life:
he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. Physical
death is symbolic of spiritual death. That is really what God is talking about
here in Deuteronomy 30:15, spiritual life and spiritual death. God has given to
every person freedom of choice. You will either choose spiritual life or you
will choose spiritual death. Therefore, be careful what choice you make. By the way, what this means is that in a certain sense God
does not put people in hell. They put themselves there by the final and eternal
choice that they make concerning life and death and concerning faith in Jesus.
God told the Israelites that not only
is there life and death, there is also good and evil. Actually, those who make
the choice for spiritual life by turning to Jesus, are also choosing good and
turning away from evil. Someone who really wants good will turn to Jesus. This
is the psychology of salvation. It says in John 3:19-21, And this is
the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness
rather than light, because their deeds were evil.[20] For every one that
doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the
light, lest his deeds should be reproved.[21] But he that doeth truth
cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought
in God. From a practical standpoint it is important to understand
that both good and evil exist in the world. There is no such thing as the
foolish philosophy: everyone has a good heart and therefore I can trust
everyone. Some people are evil because they used the free will that God gave
to them and they chose evil. That is one of the reasons from a practical
standpoint that our police officers are so important to us. They are battling
against evil every day in order to keep our communities safe for us and for our
families. As a matter of fact one of the greatest responsibilities of
government is to punish evil doers. It says in Romans 13:1-4, Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For
there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.[2]
Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall
receive to themselves damnation.[3] For rulers are not a terror to
good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do
that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same:[4] For he is
the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be
afraid; for he beareth not
the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute
wrath upon him that doeth evil.
The Bible says in Deuteronomy
30:16-20, In that I command thee this day to love the LORD thy God, to
walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his
judgments, that thou mayest live and multiply: and the LORD thy God shall bless
thee in the land whither thou goest to possess it.[17]
But if thine heart turn away, so that thou wilt not hear, but shalt be drawn
away, and worship other gods, and serve them;[18] I denounce unto you
this day, that ye shall surely perish, and that ye shall not prolong your days
upon the land, whither thou passest over Jordan to go
to possess it.[19] I call heaven and earth to record this day against
you, that I have set before you life and death,
blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may
live:[20] That thou mayest love the LORD thy God, and that thou mayest
obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto him: for he is thy life, and
the length of thy days: that thou mayest dwell in the land which the LORD sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob,
to give them. There is a difference between law and grace, and thus
there is a difference between the Old Testament and the New Testament. But
there are also many similarities, especially in regards to the spiritual
principles involved. I think God wants us to learn to love Him. We are told in
verse 16, love the Lord thy God. We are also told in verse 20, That thou mayest love the LORD thy God. One way to learn to love the Lord is to learn how much He
loves us. Jesus said in John 3:16, For God
so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth
in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. It says in First John 4:19, We love him because he first loved us.
If you do learn to love the Lord, it
will be evidenced by how much you obey Him. That is why verse 16 also says, to walk in
his ways, and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his judgments. And verse 20
also says, and that thou mayest obey his voice. Jesus also
said, If you love me, keep my commandments. One of the
values of the Bible is that the only way that you are going to know what are
Gods ways, commandments, statutes, and judgments is to recognize the Bible as
the greatest and most important book in the world and to keep reading it and
studying it throughout your life.
Notice that Deuteronomy 30:20 says, that thou
mayest cleave unto him. Perhaps when you accepted Christ as your Savior, you viewed
yourself as bowing at the feet of Jesus. If you did not, then you certainly can
view yourself in that way now. And whatever you do, do not let go. Even after
we are saved, we still need the Lord at every moment of every day in our lives.
You want to make sure that you have the type of Christianity that is a
life-long commitment no matter what happens. It is true what it says in
Deuteronomy 30:20 that the Lord is thy life. Jesus said
about Himself in John chapter 14, I am the way, the truth, and the
life. He is the Creator. He gives life. And He takes away our life
when He chooses, if we are talking about physical life. But lets talk about
spiritual life. Jesus gives life everlasting. That is the real life. You can
have eternal life if you turn to Jesus and trust in Him to be your Savior. Then
He will really be your life forever.
___________________________________________________
Copyright; 2016 by Charles
F. (Rick) Creech
All Rights Reserved