March 9th, Deuteronomy 30-31
A funny line I once heard as a proof for the existence of God...I've never seen a Hittite or a Philistine in New York City. There is something special about the way God has made a promise to this people called the Israelites/Jews. Chapter 30 starts off with a telling of the future based on the promises of blessing/cursing in yesterdays text. In a nutshell....
I want you to choose life, I know you'll choose death, when you return to me...I'll bring you life!
We look at the story of the Israelites, then we stop to think about their collective life and how it looks a lot like my life. Moments of clarity and worship, followed by stretches of faithless, selfish, fearful responses, followed by clarity and worship....Rinse, Wash, Repeat.
So 4000 years later there are Jewish people in New York City, but no Jebusites, Hittites, Perezites (maybe parasites, but that's a different devotional). Just like God has been looking out for his people all these years, he is looking out for his children as well. I highly recommend adoption into God's family through the purchase price of Jesus Christ.
For leaders: I can appreciate God's words to Moses. Sometimes in leadership you wonder if success is a result of your good leadership or the opposite, failure is a result of your bad leadership. The answer is found in Chapter 31:16-19 (and beyond) I won't say what God says, so you'll turn and look!!
When God makes a promise to love you, it's for the long haul. For those of us trying to lead(everyone is trying to lead someone, it's why the baby of the family learns to boss around the dog) how we lead is more important, the people we are when we lead is more important than the way people respond to the leader longterm. Love God, be God's voice in the world and leave the results to Him.
What an interesting topic. I've just had a fairly stressful week trying to figure out what do you do when a person you are leading fails? Obviously we are all human and because of that fact we are predisposed to failure at some level. However being the person in leadership I always think that maybe there was sonething I could have said or done that would have prevented that failure, which leads to worry that the persons failure will essentially become my failure too. One positive from this week has been to find out that from my supervisor up they all hold my thoughts and comments in high regard. Which I know comes from having a high level of integrity and honesty. I've gained these traits by being a follower of Jesus. To love Jesus is to love the Truth. I also think of is as a great compliment that others have noticed and am thankful to God for that.
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