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 Storytellers Wednesday, March 30, 2011 Deuteronomy 4:7-9 (The Message) What other great nation has gods that are intimate with them the way God, our God, is with us, always ready to listen to us? And what other great nation has rules and regulations as good and fair as this revelation that I'm setting before you today? Just make sure you stay alert. Keep close watch over yourselves. Don't forget anything of what you've seen. Don't let your heart wander off. Stay vigilant as long as you live. Teach what you've seen and heard to your children and grandchildren. Intimacy and ethics are the business of our loving God. He shares much with us that helps us manage our motivations and relationships. At times the best I can do is manage my sin and try to minimize the consequences to others. But God has in mind much deeper change. I don't have to live like Cain. "Am I my brother's keeper?" God is as close as my next breath. When I take God's love as my example, life on earth becomes more like life in heaven. When I don't, I can recognize that and turn around. "Repent" is the word the Bible often uses. Threads of this lifestyle track all the way back to Deuteronomy, of course. So much there is to learn from mothers and grandmothers, and their great-grandmothers. So much there is to learn from fathers and grandfathers, and their great-grandfathers. And so on, all the way back to the stone tablets written on by the finger of God. The Jews lost their homeland and their status as a nation soon after the arrival and departure of Jesus. In 70 A.D. Jerusalem was completely destroyed by the Romans. 60 years later, the emperor Hadrian built a new town, Aelia Capitolina, in its place. No Jew was allowed even to set foot in this new town. Knowing this history makes God's plea all the more plaintive: Hold Me close, follow my words, remember how much I love you. Don't forget. Show my love every way you can to your children. Hold them close, like I hold you, and tell them the stories. Put your eloquence in the mouths of your children, Lord. Let every one of us share our stories of love and beauty and justice and mercy, which all comes from you and through you. "; Add      Edit    Delete