DEUTERONOMY

Today is Sunday!  Boy oh boy, I love Sundays!  Today I get to go to church.  Not just any church, but a great church!  There will be excitement in the air as we come to the last week of our Fall Enlargement Sunday School Campaign and my what a wonderful time we have had and large crowds of people on the buses, the Korean Church, the Spanish Church, the Teen Church, The Children's Churches, and the main service!  Our Sunday Schools are averaging over 400 more than they were just three short months ago!  God has been so good to us! Today I read in Deuteronomy again.  I started in chapter eleven, and could not get out that chapter before I found several things to mention to you, so here goes: 1) YOU HAVE SEEN IT- God speaks to those who were younger than twenty in Egypt and here is what God says in Deut. 11:7 "But your eyes have seen all the great acts of the LORD which he did."  In the verses before God says that He is not speaking to those who have not seen what God did in Egypt but to those who saw it!  We have seen God work in our lives and the lives of others.  We have had our prayers answered and God is talking to us today, we need to follow Him. 2) THE PROMISED LAND- It was special, no doubt about it.  God said it was not like the land of Egypt that you had to sow the seed and water everything you planted, but that it was a land of hills and valleys and water from the rain of Heaven.  Then He goes on in verse 12 and says: "A land which the LORD thy God careth for: the eyes of the LORD they God are always upon it, from the beginning of he year even unto the end of the year."  God watched over the Promised land all year round!  And God watches over us, the people of promise all year round as well!  Take heart dear Christian, God is watching over us. 3) TEACH THE CHILDREN- In Deut. 11:18-20, God gives instruction about His commandments and is saying that they are to be taught to our children.  We are to teach when we speak in our homes, when we go to bed, when we rise up, and we are to have them written in our home.  In other words, our homes are to be a sanctuary of God's Word.  We are to magnify God's Word in our homes!  Oh Lord, help me today to exalt thy Word, and to take heed to the least of thy commandments!  Thank you Lord for your Word,  Amen. 4) THE CHOICE IS OURS- In verses 26-28 in Deut. 11, God gives us a choice.  He sets before us a blessing and a curse.  We are blessed if you obey his commandments, and we are cursed if we do not.  The choice is ours!  I think I'm going for the blessings today, how about you?  In Deut. 30:15 God says: "See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil;"  Again, the choice is ours! 5) DON'T FORSAKE GOD'S MAN- In Deut. 12:19, the Bible says: "Take heed to thyself that thou forsake not the Levite as long as thou livest upon the earth."  Today, I heard of a pastor who is retiring today after 32 years of ministry!  Even after the retirement, the church should do something to take care of God's man.  So many retire and have little to show for it, they have put everything they had into the ministry, and rightly so, but the Bible says to never forget God's man.  We are to value them and to support them financially even upon retirement.  Deut. 25:4 says: "Thous shalt not muzzle the ox when he treadeth out the corn."  And the New Testament tells us that this was not just to take care of oxen, but God's men.  A faithful pastor has treadeth out the corn for a long time and the results of it comes in the rest of his life.  Take care of your preacher!  Well, that's all I have for today!  Have a blessed day in the Lord and enjoy Sunday!! Dr. Mike Mutchler, pastor