Sunday, December 14, 2008, early morning – The Lord began with this song:
Run To You / Twila Paris
Faster now than ever, I run to You
Now I know You better, I run to You
I am a little older now, You know it's true
Maybe a little wiser, too, I run to You
And I can see deeper than I did before
I do believe, never have I been so sure
That I need You every minute, every day
That I need You more than I could ever say
Ooh, I run to You
Ooh, what else would I do?
I run to You, ooh, I run to You
Ooh
Even on the sad days, I run to You
Even on the good days, too, I run to You
Even before all else fails, You know it's true
You are the wind in my sails, I run to You
And I can see deeper than I did before
I do believe, never have I been so sure
That I need You every footstep, all the way
That I need You so much more than I can say
The Lord led me to this passage of scripture from Deuteronomy 6:4-9:
Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. 5 Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6 These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.
[My comments throughout the following will be found in blue or in blue brackets.]
The Bible Knowledge Commentary on Deuteronomy 6:4-9: “6:4. …The verse means that the Lord (Yahweh) is totally unique. He alone is God. The Israelites could therefore have a sense of security that was totally impossible for their polytheistic neighbors. The ”gods“ of the ancient Near East rarely were thought of as acting in harmony. Each god was unpredictable and morally capricious. So a pagan worshiper could never be sure that his loyalty to one god would serve to protect him from the capricious wrath of another. The monotheistic doctrine of the Israelites lifted them out of this insecurity since they had to deal with only one God, who dealt with them by a revealed consistent righteous standard. This confession of monotheism does not preclude the biblical doctrine of the Trinity. ”God“ is plural (’ělōhîm), possibly implying the Trinity, and one (’eḥāḏ) may suggest a unity of the Persons in the Godhead (cf. Gen. 2:24, where the same word for ”one“ is used of Adam and Eve).” [This is really important to understand about God, I believe.]
“6:5. To love the Lord means to choose Him for an intimate relationship and to obey His commands. This command, to love Him, is given often in Deuteronomy (v. 5; 7:9; 10:12; 11:1, 13, 22; 13:3; 19:9; 30:6, 16, 20). Loving Him was to be wholehearted (with all your heart) and was to pervade every aspect of an Israelite’s being and life (soul and strength).” [Obviously, this applies to the church, as well.]
“6:6-9. God’s people were responsible to meditate on these commandments, to keep them in their hearts. This enabled them to understand the Law and to apply it correctly. Then the parents were in a position to impress them on their children’s hearts also. The moral and biblical education of the children was accomplished best not in a formal teaching period each day but when the parents, out of concern for their own lives as well as their children’s, made God and His Word the natural topic of a conversation which might occur anywhere and anytime during the day (v. 7).” [My experience has been that few professing Christians truly practice this in their daily lives, but it is so essential to our relationship to Jesus Christ and to our witness for him to our families, our church family and to the world.]
“The commands to tie them and write them were taken literally by some later Jewish readers. However, the commands are probably emphasizing symbolically the need for the continual teaching of the Law (cf. Ex. 13:9, 16).”
I’ve been up for awhile with knee cramps talking with the Lord, prayer walking throughout the house, reading the word, calling on God for mercy and healing, praising the Lord in song and in my pain, and moaning over my pain, as well. Then, the Lord spoke to me through this passage of scripture in 2 Corinthians 6:3-10:
We put no stumbling block in anyone's path, so that our ministry will not be discredited. 4Rather, as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: in great endurance; in troubles, hardships and distresses; 5in beatings, imprisonments and riots; in hard work, sleepless nights and hunger; 6in purity, understanding, patience and kindness; in the Holy Spirit and in sincere love; 7in truthful speech and in the power of God; with weapons of righteousness in the right hand and in the left; 8through glory and dishonor, bad report and good report; genuine, yet regarded as impostors; 9known, yet regarded as unknown; dying, and yet we live on; beaten, and yet not killed; 10sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing everything.
Reprise: Ooh, I run to You
Ooh, what else would I do?
I run to You, ooh, I run to You
Ooh
Thank you, Jesus, for all that you are teaching me in my pain. I also thank you for the healing that I know is mine in Christ Jesus, my Lord. I praise you in the sanctuary. I praise you in song dear Jesus. I love you, Lord.
In the afternoon – The Lord led me to pursue this passage in 2 Corinthians further, so I looked it up in the Zondervan NIV Commentary. This is a summary of what I learned – most are direct quotes from the commentary.
Paul’s hardships in 3 categories:
- General trials: “troubles” – oppressive experiences; “hardships” – unrelieved adverse circumstances; “distresses” – frustrating tight corners
- Sufferings directly inflicted by others: “beatings, imprisonments & riots”
- Self-inflicted hardships: “hard work” – the ardous task of incessant preaching and the toil of manual labor; “sleepless nights” – voluntary abstention from sleep; “hunger” – fasting.
“Next Paul moves to inward qualities he sought to display.” [I believe that these qualities are/were the natural result of the Holy Spirit’s working in God’s gift of salvation in Paul’s heart in conjunction with his right responses to God in his trials. God gives us trials to work these things into our lives, such as “suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope” – see Rom.5:3-5]
- Purity – moral uprightness and singleness of purpose
- Understanding – insight; knowledge; sensitivity to God’s will
- Patience – the endurance of insult or injury without anger or retaliation
- Kindness – generous and sympathetic disposition in acts of love
- Truth “in the power of God”
- “Weapons of righteousness” – weapons supplied by God; weapons of personal integrity [The armor of God in Ephesians 6 beginning with v.10 fits here.]
- Weapons in right and left hand – may allude to the “sword of the Spirit” and to the “shield of faith” (See Ephesians 6:16-17)
Accusations against Paul – he was thought to be:
- A “nobody” who relied on deceit to become a “somebody”
- An irresponsible person who, needlessly courting danger and death, suffered for his trouble
- A morose individual lacking the power that wealth affords
“’Glory and dishonor, bad report and good report’ may epitomize the two types of response to Paul’s preaching, or they may contrast the opinion of others with the reward of God.” Paul was “living as a persecuted ambassador for Christ (5:20).”
The Lord is teaching me to run to him on good days and bad days and to trust him with every part of my life (still learning this), including my physical pain. He is teaching me to trust him and to not trust in pills to alleviate my pain, and God has been absolutely faithful. It doesn’t mean he doesn’t let me feel pain – he does. But, it means he is teaching me to depend upon him to relieve the pain in his timing and to trust him with what he is bringing into my life and to learn what he wants me to learn through it instead of trying to escape it. That also does not mean I don’t call on him for deliverance and healing – I do! And, he is there for what I need when I need it. And, he is accomplishing much good through it, as well. Thank you, Jesus!
