Take to heart all the words I have solemnly declared to you this day, so that you may command your children to obey carefully all the words of this law. They are not just idle words for you—they are your life.

‭‭Deuteronomy‬ ‭32‬:‭46‬-‭47‬ ‭NIV‬‬

They.

Are.

Your.

Life.

The search for truth and meaning in today’s world begins and ends in the same place.

So critical to our existence is the word of God it eclipses all philosophies, politics and personal preferences, providing divine purpose and momentum to direct our days.

“What is the meaning of life?” is singularly answered by the word of God revealed as we study scripture.

So if that still remains a salient question for you in 2024, open your Bible in 2025. Get the app, dust off your hard copy, or ask me how to access what has been forever the best selling non-fiction book about your own forever.

They are not just idle words, they are your life.

What began as a promise…

For I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess.”

‭‭Deuteronomy‬ ‭30‬:‭16‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Quickly takes an ugly turn…

“When I have brought them into the land flowing with milk and honey, the land I promised on oath to their ancestors, and when they eat their fill and thrive, they will turn to other gods and worship them, rejecting me and breaking my covenant.”

‭‭Deuteronomy‬ ‭31‬:‭20‬ ‭NIV‬‬

The enemy of worship is fat and sassy complacency.

Comforts and satisfactions provided solely through the goodness of God birth in us perversions and abandonments of the very God who provides our sustenance.

“You deserted the Rock, who fathered you; you forgot the God who gave you birth.”

‭‭Deuteronomy‬ ‭32‬:‭18‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Becoming a little too satisfied and a little too comfortable, like an addiction, causes us to lose sight of life balance and thankfulness for the healthy dependencies and relationships we need and enjoy.

The Christian life is designed to be sufficient, not comfortable.

As you prepare to enter a new year, pray for God to provide what you need, not necessarily your list of wants.

Christmas is over. You’re no longer children. Time to grow up and into thankful men and women with higher and holier aspirations and a humble return to God.

This day I call the heavens and the 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 and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him.

‭‭Deuteronomy‬ ‭30‬:‭19‬-‭20‬ ‭NIV‬‬

On average, you make around 35,000 choices each day or 13 million choices annually.

With the new year approaching with its 13 million new opportunities, how many of your decisions will choose life?

The most important choice you can make is who will accompany you on this journey we call life.

Who is most capable of leading you on a pathway you can be proud of for the remainder of your days?

Who can you trust for the best advice, the purest morals, the greatest faith in you?

It’s a new year and a good opportunity to make the choice of your lifetime.

Choose Jesus.

Choose life.

He will never leave you nor forsake you. —Deuteronomy 31:6

“and when you and your children return to the Lord your God and obey him with all your heart and with all your soul according to everything I command you today, then the Lord your God will restore your fortunes and have compassion on you and gather you again from all the nations where he scattered you.”

‭‭Deuteronomy‬ ‭30‬:‭2‬-‭3‬ ‭NIV‬‬

It’s never the end.

We can look at the mess of our lives and all it’s cost us, but even taking the long way home still brings us home.

For God, restoring lost fortunes and positions is the incidental afterthought. His greatest desire is that we return in both heart and soul in obedience to his word.

Jeremiah 29:11–For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

It’s never the end until we abandon the process altogether. He never gives up on us, we give up on him.

And when he restores us, he redeems us for a hope and a future with unmistakable compassion.

It’s never the end with God. He never gives up on us.

When such a person hears the words of this oath and they invoke a blessing on themselves, thinking, “I will be safe, even though I persist in going my own way,” they will bring disaster on the watered land as well as the dry.

‭‭Deuteronomy‬ ‭29‬:‭19‬ ‭NIV‬‬

No sooner does God make an oath for his people to follow, they don’t.

“I will be safe even though I persist in going my own way.”

It sounds a lot like the response of an adventurous toddler despite a parent’s instructions and prohibitions for his safety.

Disaster ensues.

Lead us not into temptation, for we can find it all by ourselves.

The Holy Spirit was given to us to guide us in paths of righteousness, always speaking in a language we fully understand but too often disregard to “persist in going our own way.”

Pride in ourselves resists obedience to God.

If this doesn’t strike a chord for you, I suggest you brace for disaster.

Do not deprive the foreigner or the fatherless of justice, or take the cloak of the widow as a pledge. Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and the Lord your God redeemed you from there. That is why I command you to do this.

‭‭Deuteronomy‬ ‭24‬:‭17‬-‭18‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Not just at Christmastime but at all times.

The poor and less fortunate among us will always be.

The holidays seem to provide an extra measure of charity toward those in hardships—but without support of a seasonal spiritual citation.

Charity is an all day, every day, every season command.

Deuteronomy 24 instructs about leaving some unharvested crops in your fields for charitable gleaning year ‘round.

Not just at Christmas.

Christmastime charity should—if anything—be over and above a regular practice of giving the other eleven months a year.

A nation blessed with such abundance is also blessed with a capacity of generosity even at the least celebrated days.

To give of ourselves at all times good and bad is an exercise of our faith in God as provider both for us as well as for those who cannot yet adequately provide for themselves.

Charity is all-year.

This time of year is particularly special to me.

The first time I heard of him, I was just 3 or 4 years old.

But by the time I was five, I understood about the gifts he brings and boy, was I excited.

I believed in him for years until some kids my same age said it wasn’t true.

He didn’t exist and he doesn’t give us gifts.

So, of course, I asked my parents.

They weren’t very good at corroborating the story, life moved on, I got older, and I didn’t think much of him for a very long time.

I hit some hard times in my life when I desperately longed for the simple truths of childhood.

What could it hurt?

Since then, I’ve embraced the true meaning of this time of year.

And like when I was a little kid,

I once again have a faith and belief in him, Christ Jesus, and the gifts he gives.

One witness is not enough to convict anyone accused of any crime or offense they may have committed.

A matter must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.

If a malicious witness takes the stand to accuse someone of a crime, the two people involved in the dispute must stand in the presence of the Lord before the priests and the judges who are in office at the time.

The judges must make a thorough investigation, and if the witness proves to be a liar, giving false testimony then do to the false witness as that witness intended to do to the other party. You must purge the evil from among you.

‭‭Deuteronomy‬ ‭19‬:‭15‬-‭19‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Advanced AI technology will soon demonstrate the immense power and proliferation of false accusations. Deep fake videos and voices created by bad actors will suffice to persecute the innocent and arouse the ignorant to prosecute and condemn.

That is the truth of our future despite the best efforts of those who may discover otherwise.

Injustices like this are already trending.

The proper procedure provided by God will be cruelly violated without regard.

While this 60 second Bible study may be an unconventional one to post, it’s a grave concern for God’s people to be aware of in these times.

Persecution of good, innocent people has met its technological accomplice.

Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates

‭‭Deuteronomy‬ ‭11‬:‭18‬-‭21‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Pervasive. Engrossing. Enveloping.

God expects the exercise of our faith to reach into every facet of our lives.

Not only to demonstrate whose we are but protective against the forces of evil that insidiously rally against us to lead us into the ways of the dark side and the evil one.

For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. Out of all the peoples on the face of the earth, the Lord has chosen you to be his treasured possession.

‭‭Deuteronomy‬ ‭14‬:‭2‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Just as he chose the nation of Israel he chooses us also who proclaim the salvation of Jesus.

Fixing, tying, binding, writing, teaching, and talking about the word of God daily is the key to life in him.

So easily distracted and misled like sheep, we live only when we are immersed in the voice of our shepherd.

Wherever you go I shall follow, willingly fixed, tied, and bound.