Keep the Faith and Live

Our Love for God

God Commands Our Love, Respect, and Obedience:
Choose to Love and Serve God

Joshua 23:2-8 The Message

Joshua’s Charge

23 1-2 A long time later, after God had given Israel rest from all their surrounding enemies, and Joshua was a venerable old man, Joshua called all Israel together—elders, chiefs, judges, and officers. Then he spoke to them:
2-3 “I’m an old man. I’ve lived a long time. You have seen everything that God has done to these nations because of you. He did it because he’s God, your God. He fought for you.
4-5 “Stay alert: I have assigned to you by lot these nations that remain as an inheritance to your tribes—these in addition to the nations I have already cut down—from the Jordan to the Great Sea in the west. God, your God, will drive them out of your path until there’s nothing left of them and you’ll take over their land just as God, your God, promised you.
6-8 “Now, stay strong and steady. Obediently do everything written in the Book of The Revelation of Moses—don’t miss a detail. Don’t get mixed up with the nations that are still around. Don’t so much as speak the names of their gods or swear by them. And by all means don’t worship or pray to them. Hold tight to God, your God, just as you’ve done up to now.

For Reflection

We are all surrounded by a climate of seduction.  All of us are vulnerable.  Social media, friends, and associates are influential in how we think, believe and act.  Moreover, we live in a time where telling the truth is optional making the perception of what is righteous more and more difficult.

So we, like the tribes, must measure our behavior and thoughts by the rule of love and the promise of God.


Pray
Pray so that you will be more able to bolster your faith in spite of the difficulties presented by the rhetoric of our times.

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