Priorities in Life

 Greetings to you all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ,

     Deuteronomy 6:4-6 says, “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD:  And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.  And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart:”

     How many rules do you have to obey?  Our  place of residence is under new management and when they took over as the owners of the place, the instigated a number of rules for the staff.  At first, everyone compiled with the rules whether they liked them or not.  Certain shirts were to be worn  and certain rules applying to the hair were stated along wit h the fact of no body piercing.  Well, things went along for a while but then slowly they began to be  ignored by many of the staff members as the “corporate” people are not here most of the time anyway.  Sometimes the following rules in our everyday lives reflect how we follow the rules that  God has set in place years ago.

     God often spoke to Israel and in many instances, it would be after some calamity or special need for the large group of people moving about in the wilderness.  The people would often quickly reply that they would do what God commanded them to do.  When you read the Old Testament, you see that they were continually disobeying  and then having to say again and again that they would do what God had commanded.  Does it sound familiar?  The New Testament reminds us that we are to learn from the Old Testament.  The events of the wilderness are often reflected in our own lives.  The above passage is repeated by Christ in the New Testament and in fact is a summation of the Ten Commandments.  I have used the passages many times if not for devotion material, but for my own life.  What are the things that you cannot live without?  One preacher recently stated that the thing you can't live without has become your idol. The things that have been accumulated over the past 80 plus years will all be gone someday, or at least, I won’t  have them.  Much of it is g one already  and not missed that  much.  They have been replaced with bandage supplies, creams, pills, Ben Gay, Tums and compression socks.  The items mentioned in the fifth verse of the passage above is what are important in all of our lives.  “ And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.”  The israelites would often say, “Yes we will do it.”  and then fail to do so after a few short days or weeks.  Remember that our  souls are going to live in one of two places for all eternity.  Praise God today that He has supplied all that  we need.  May we all desire to be with Him for all eternity.