Pastor's Note from March 9, 2014

I was again amazed this week as our OT reading and NT study lined up so perfectly.  One such parallel occurred on  Friday when we read Deuteronomy 6 and Luke 10, which contains a quote from Deuteronomy 6.

Deuteronomy 6 is a well-known passage.  For the Jews it contains the “Shema” (meaning “listen or do”) in 6:4, which says, “Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is One!”  Then it goes right into what I consider one of the key verses of the entire Bible, Deuteronomy 6:5 which says, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.”  That is a verse I’ve mentioned a couple times recently…like every week.  It is, as Jesus called it, the greatest commandment.  Jesus added “loving your neighbor as yourself” as the 2^nd greatest, and said that all the Law and Prophets hang upon those two commands (Matt 22:37-40). 

Then in Luke 10:27 this command comes up again, but this time it isn’t Jesus that brings it up.  There is much happening in Luke 10, Jesus had sent out the 70 disciples, two by two,  into all the cities He was about to visit and they were to proclaim, “The Kingdom of God has come near to you.”  They returned to Him and gave report.  Just after that, a lawyer comes to Jesus and asks, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?”  We seem to kind of forget the answer to this question.  Do you know what He said?  Jesus said, “What is written in the Law (the OT that is)?  The lawyer answers with Deuteronomy 6:5 and Jesus responded, “you have answered rightly; this do and you shall live.”  We also know that if you “believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, you will be saved (Acts 16:31).  What we need to understand is that these two commands, to love the Lord with all your heart, soul, and strength, and believing on the Lord Jesus Christ are embedded together and cannot be separated.  We must believe in Jesus and love Him.  That love for Him then impacts everything we say, think, and do.

Bible reading:

3/10	Monday	Deuteronomy 16-17	Luke 11
3/11	Tuesday	Deuteronomy 18	Luke 12
3/12	Wednesday	Deuteronomy 19-21	Luke 13
3/13	Thursday	Deuteronomy 22-24	Luke 14
3/14	Friday	Deuteronomy 25-27	Luke 15
3/15	Saturday	Deuteronomy 28-30	None
3/16	Sunday	Deuteronomy 31-34	None

Bible memory verse: Luke 12:8-9

Jesus said, “Also I say to you, whoever confesses Me before men, him the Son of Man also will confess before the angels of God, but he who denies Me before men will be denied before the angels of God.”