Devotions Archive Archive: 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 Search Archive Print This Article The offer of life or death Thursday, February 14, 2002 Deuteronomy 30:15-20 Moses is talking to the Israelites at the end of their forty years in the desert, just before they enter Canaan... "See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. For I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in his ways, 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. But 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, I declare to you this day that you will certainly be destroyed... This 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 and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the Lord is your life. On Valentine's Day I sneaked into my girlfriend's mobile home, washed her dishes and swept the floor, straightened the living room and put flowers on the coffee table. Left a lovenote and some romantic music, and locked the door behind me. Margaret came home that night alone after work to the certainty that she was loved. Twenty-some years later our memories of that particular February 14 are unforgettable. In the process of choosing each other, we felt the taste and touch of loving and being loved. This gave us courage to trust our love to eventually become unconditional. For better or worse. In sickness and in health. So long as we both shall live. Gary Smalley's admonition that "it takes ten years to just define the problems, then ten more to work on them." How long is that? Usually it fits nicely into "as long as we both shall live." The wedding vow echoes the vows God asks me to take with him. His promise of life with him, tender and sweet, is unconditional. All I have to do is say, "Yes." It may take ten years to define the problems, and ten more years to work on them. And during all that Time he will stay with me. As long as we both shall live. Longer. Longest. Lord, with you a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years is like a day. In my life, Lord, in my day, in this moment, be glorified. "; Add      Edit    Delete