“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one! 5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. 6 And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”

In the natural we live our lives purely out of self interest. Even the people we love we love selfishly. We love them conditionally. If they withhold something from us or don’t perform to our expectations then our love cools and we become distant and detached. Our main concern is getting our needs met and in all of that we profess to love our wives, our children and our families. God gave Moses these words for the people of Israel because He knew that they were exactly as I just described us. They were stiff-necked and rebellious and they needed constant supervision. I have always needed constant supervision which is why for most of my life I had a parole agent. But God wants to set us free from all of that self centeredness and stubborn rebelliousness. He says, “Love me with everything you’ve got and my Word will reign in your heart.” You see we can know the Word of God but unless we absolutely love God all it is is knowledge. When we love God with all of ourselves then that knowledge becomes revelation. That revelation leads to God’s Word infiltrating and directing every area of our lives. This is a beautiful thing and easily missed. It says if we love God with passion His Words will be in our hearts, we will teach them to our kids, we will talk about them everywhere we go. They will be ever before our eyes, and our home will be governed by them. It is an automatic result of loving God that His Word would be our constant thought. Just like the letter from his wife the soldier reads in the trenches, or the convict reads in his cell. He knows every word by heart but so often he gets it out and lovingly unfolds its worn and often handled pages. He smells it hoping for a lingering remnant of her scent. This is how God’s Word should be to the saint.

“Lord, today I am going to love you with every fiber of my being. I am going to abandon myself to You and then I am going to watch as You supernaturally begin to make me hunger for Your Word. I am going to gleefully watch my appetite grow and grow until I am so hungry that I must devour the Word You have implanted in my heart, amen.”

2 Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, 2 as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby, 3 if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious.

Look at how we do it in the world. “Revenge is a dish best served cold.” “Where’s mine?” “Better him than me.” “You gotta look out for yourself.” So many times I have had people call me just to talk about someone. Sometimes some pretty nasty stuff. I don’t want to hear it. Even before I was a Christian I didn’t want to hear it. I always think, “There’s three sides to every story, your side, their side and then the truth.” When my grandmother told me, “If you don’t have something nice to say then pipe down and keep it zipped.” When she told me that it resonated with me. But what does God want? He wants us to lay aside all of that destructive thinking, which by the way can only lead to destructive actions, He wants us to put that stuff down. He wants us to, as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word.

Think about that newborn baby for a minute. What is on that baby’s mind? It doesn’t yet know anything about malice, or deceit, or evil speaking. In fact all that baby knows is that it is hungry and it wants to be taken to its mother’s breast. It doesn’t even know or care about the results, that it will grow stronger from that milk, it just wants it. So we should be. I am so hungry for the Word of God that I am going to pitch a major fit if I don’t get it and right now. What does a baby do if it is deprived of that breast? It doesn’t care if mom is doing something else of importance and wants baby to wait five minutes. That baby is going to scream like a banshee until it is given what it wants. God wants our hunger for His Word to be like that. He wants it to be all consuming. He wants His Word to distract us from life not life distract us from His Word. The thing of it is that when the Word distracts us from life, life gets better. When life distracts us from the Word nothing gets better.

“Lord I have tasted that You are gracious! I am going to put aside all things that would distract me from Your Holy Word. I am going to desire it like a hungry newborn baby. Like David I will say, “I have restrained my feet from every evil way, That I may keep Your word. Amen”

“No one is holy like the Lord, For there is none besides You,

Nor is there any rock like our God.”

Finally to have arrived at this place! Finally to have come to the end of myself and my devices. Finally to have tasted and truly seen that God is good. Psalm 34:8 Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good, Blessed is the man who trusts in Him! To have exhausted every hustle, to have spent every resource, to have wandered in the deep desert of my own selfishness until I was sick of the sound of my own voice, and tired of the imaginations of my own mind. When it finally became crystal clear who I really was, just a punk in a tattoo suit, I had nothing left.

When I came to that stunning realization, the understanding that my life produced nothing of value and I hung my head in despair, my heart heavy with the weight of thousands of wasted days, then God came and He met me in that place. I fell on my face before His glory and I said,

“Oh God I am so sorry, will you please forgive me?”

He said to me,

“Come to Me, for you labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your soul. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30).

I came to understand that there is no one other than the Lord who can make that statement, there is no one other than the Lord who can take the burden I carried in my sin, lift it off of me and give me life and freedom. He can do this because He paid the price for my sin on the cross of Calvary. He suffered the beatings of the Roman centurions as they laid open His back with a cat of nine tails. Isaiah 53:5 says, But He was wounded for our transgressions,He was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. He is the only One, there is none other.

“Lord, only You are Holy, there is none besides You. No, there is no rock like You my God. Thank You for breathing life into my death. Thank you for taking the weight and filth of my sin on Yourself. I want only to do those things that please You, God. I want only to do those things that are pleasant in Your sight. Please continue this work in me and complete it in Your day, amen.”

Show me Your ways, O Lord, Teach me Your paths. 5 Lead me in Your truth and teach me,

For You are the God of my salvation, on You I wait all the day.

I must be dependent upon God for everything I know. Left to my own devices I will come to the wrong conclusions every time. Before I knew the Lord all I was equipped with was a hype kit, occasionally a pistol and always a very broken decision maker. If I try to invent an idea about God or what His plan for me might be then I am doomed to fail. I absolutely need to be taught. So how can I be taught by God? Well, prayer of course. God will definitely speak to us through our prayer time. But there is a caution! If my prayer time is not backed up by a knowledge of the scriptures then I am treading on dangerous ground. All manner of harebrained thoughts can pop into my mind that are definitely not from the Lord. I think because I am asking God something that whatever comes to mind is His answer. I walk away proclaiming, “Thus saith the Lord.” When in fact he has not spoken at all.

Hebrews 1:1-2 says, God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, 2 has in these last days spoken to us by His Son.

This makes it clear that God speaks to us primarily through the Bible. We have the accounts of the prophets in the Old Testament and we have the very words of our Savior in the New Testament. We also have the words inspired by the Holy Spirit as penned by the apostles who walked with Jesus, witnessed His death and resurrection and except for John were each and every one brutally murdered for their faithfulness to the Lord and to His gospel. These sources of God’s revelation to us are much more credible than what I imagine I heard God say. I f I think I hear God speak and it is not backed up by His Word then it is wrong. 2 Timothy 3:16-17 says, All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. The word Inspiration here is actually the Greek word theoneustos . That word means breath of God. God has breathed His word into the writers of scripture and subsequently into us, just as He breathed life into the first man. Genesis 2:7 And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.

“Lord, today I will lean not on my own understanding but by every word You have breathed into the scriptures. I will walk in Your Word and allow it to govern my thoughts and my actions, amen.”

I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, 2 with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, 3 endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

Walk worthy? I was the most debauched of sinners. I was a slave to my lusts, my addictions, my pride and my self-centeredness. Of what then am I worthy? I will tell you. I am worthy of condemnation. But let’s look a little closer. “Walk worthy of the calling with which you were called.” Oh! We begin to see, this walking worthy is not something we do in and of ourselves. It is not based on our qualifications, our abilities, or even our holiness. It is a worthiness generated by the truth that we were called. Our only part in it is that we respond to that call.

In Mark 8:34 it goes like this; When He had called the people to Himself, with His disciples also, He said to them, “Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.”

“When He had called the people to Himself.” First comes the calling, For each and every one of us who lives for Christ, we did not one day decide to become Christians. Jesus Christ through His Holy Spirit spoke into our lives. For some it was on one occasion and that was it, the deal was sealed. For others of us it was a more drawn out and often painful process as God called and we rebelled, ran from grace and plummeted headlong into the consequences of our sin.

After the calling comes the response, we desire to go after Him and so we deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow Him. It is in taking up the cross that the worthiness is imparted. There can be no worthiness without sacrifice. It is out of the cross that any goodness in us is born. But once this miracle has taken place, for our salvation is truly miraculous, once this has taken place we are capable of walking out God’s plan for our lives. We become lowly and gentle, we learn to bear one another with love and walk in peace. We have learned that, “He who has been forgiven much loves much.”

“Lord God, Mighty King, today I will walk worthy of the calling with which I was called. I will seek You out above all other things. I will not be distracted from the truth of who You are and who I am to be because of You, and for You. I will open my heart and my mind to the unction of Your Holy Spirit and close it to all else. My God, I am Yours, do with me what You will, amen.”

Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.

“Therefore submit!” Oh how those words rankle the career sinner. “I am a free man, the captain of my own ship, the master of my own destiny, I cannot, no, I will not submit to anyone!” And it is with this attitude that we proceed through life thinking we have these great freedoms in our sin which we simply call autonomy. We never realize that the very things we call freedoms are actually the same things that imprison us. We can’t see that the true freedom, the true fulfillment lies in living out what we were created to do, submit to God.

In 1 Corinthians 2:14 Paul says, But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

It is foreign to me, this idea of submitting to the authority of God because I am in an unregenerated state. I am a child of the world created by God but not yet infused with the Spirit of God. At some point the Holy Spirit must and will come along side me and whisper, “Listen now because you are about to hear the truth.” The Spirit of God will reveal to us our true condition and if our heart is ready we will see that we are sinners in need of a Savior and the things we once perceived as freedoms are the very things that are killing us. It is at that moment that we receive the truth and we call out to God for His for forgiveness and He is faithful to pour it out. He pours it all over us and suddenly we can see! We see the battle that rages around us that we never saw before. We see the hopeless plight of the lost and we mourn for them. We see the unspeakable joy in our salvation and we rejoice in that. It is then that we realize that there is a coaction we need to participate in. We see the devil; in all of our old playgrounds and playmates and playthings and we flee. We flee because now these things are repugnant to us. Jesus said, Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled. Where we were once hungered by our own appetites now we are made hungry for more of God, more of His Word, more of His truth, more of His touch. Suddenly, “Therefore submit to God!”, is the only think we can think of doing.

“Dear Lord, today I will submit to you. I will give to you all of me. My thoughts, my actions, my affections, my adorations, my sorrows and my joys. I will cast all my care upon you for I know You care for me, amen.”

Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love. 5 Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.

When we first get saved, when we first taste of the Lord and see that He is good we are filled with passion and excitement. Everything that happens, we see the Lord’s hand in it. Every person we run into we see as a Holy Spirit appointment. The worship in church moves us deeply and we raise our hands in adoration. The preaching always seems like it was meant particularly for us and we sit on the edge of our seat, snatching every word from the air and gobbling it up. Then for some of us as time passes we seem to begin to count these same things as common. We are not as eager to get to church early, we find ourselves distracted in church and in our private prayer time. When this happens the enemy dances a little jig and rubs his hands together gleefully. 1 Peter 5:8 says, Your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. He will never rest in his endeavor to tear you away from your salvation.

Christian you must stir yourself up! You must reexamine the truth of your condition apart from God! If you have left your first love Jesus says that He has this against you. What a horrible place to be after having been saved from the wrath of God to have the means of that salvation, the One who paid for that magnificent reconciliation with His own blood, what a terrible thing to have Him hold something against you! He says He will take our lampstand from its place which means that on that glorious day when Jesus comes for the church we will not be included. Is there anything more terrifying than being left behind as our family, the body of Christ is taken to forever be with the Lord? We cannot allow ourselves to fall into the complacency that the devil desires. We must reignite the fires of passion we once had for God, we must fan the flames of righteousness and flee from the ways of the world running headlong into the throne of grace.

“Oh, Jesus I repent! I am returning to my first love, this very instant! Like David says in Psalm 42, As the deer pants for the water brooks, So pants my soul for You, O God. 2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. Today I will stir myself up in You. I will look for Your hand in everything like I did when I was new. I will walk with You and talk with You as I did when first You saved me, amen.”

For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

We’ve all had some Jesus freak tell us, “God has a plan for your life brother!” Before I knew the Lord I greeted this kind of enthusiastic proclamation with more than a little cynicism. I remember one particular incident in which I was riding my Harley to pick up heroin and I blew a tire. I had just enough money to score and I was dope sick in a major way. Some Christian guy pulled over to help me. I was so sick I thought about robbing him and taking his truck, just leaving my bike there. We loaded my bike in his truck and he stayed with me until my tire was fixed and then he paid for it. I never read this verse without thinking of him.

Galatians 6:9-10 And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart. 10 Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith.

In our time together he shared with me that God really did love me and really did have a plan for my life. In Ephesians 2:10 we have the scriptural truth of that statement. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Now many years later I have learned the absolute truth of this. You see we have lived and breathed each of us in a unique manner. It is in that uniqueness that the preparation for Christian service begins. Once we are regenerated and have the Spirit of God living in us, governing us, all of those experiences with which the devil had once meant to destroy us suddenly become tools for the glory of God. I was a junkie, a criminal, a gang member. Do you think there are any of those kinds of people who need to hear the truth? Who better than me to share it? You might be a school teacher, or a bus driver it doesn’t matter, you have experiences that uniquely qualify you to serve God and bring light to the life of a person who will only hear you! Jeremiah 1:5, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, Before you were born I sanctified you, I ordained you a prophet to the nations.”

“Lord God, thank you for bringing me to the truth that you have known me from before time. Thank you that every experience of my life you have allowed to prepare for such a time as today. Please God put someone in my path today that needs to hear what you have given me to say. I was created by you for good works, help me to not stand still but to walk in them, amen.”

“To whom then will you liken Me, Or to whom shall I be equal?” says the Holy One.”

Who is there like God? Absolutely no one. We saw a movie in which the main character, discouraged by the lack of fulfillment in her life went on a quest to find love, peace, and presumably spirituality. She ends up in an Ashram in India where she comes to the conclusion that, “God is in me, as me.” I thought, ‘What an amazingly stupid conclusion!” If I thought that God was in me as me I would be making God into a punk just like me! God isn’t proud or self centered. God isn’t insecure, doesn’t struggle with feelings of inadequacy. God doesn’t become offended when someone doesn’t live up to His expectations. God doesn’t become jealous, or covetous. God doesn’t worry that He is too fat or too old. I am and do all of these things.

There is only one God. 1 Corinthians 8:6 Yet for us there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we for Him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and through whom we live.

What an impoverished view of God and yet it is the view held my many of the religions of the world. It is a view that somehow through the practice of monk like physical discipline, or the chanting of a mantra, or ensconcing oneself away from the world in a cave, on a mountain or in an Ashram that we can somehow attain godliness.

Romans 1:21-23 Because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Professing to be wise, they became fools, 23 and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man — and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things.

Changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man, “God in me as me.”

“Lord today I will see you as exactly who You are. Unmatched in glory, the one and only Creator of the universe and the giver of breath to all living things. It is You who are the origin of the universe. You are the beginning and the end, the alpha and the omega. It is only by Your grace that I am saved. I will ever hold the banner of Your truth before me and the sovereignty of Your Holy Word I will secure deep inside my heart. You alone are God, amen.”

But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king’s delicacies, nor with the wine which he drank.

Daniel was not much more than a boy when he was snatched away from everything he knew and taken captive by a strange people who practiced strange customs. The Babylonian empire was a pagan empire and it must have been shocking to Daniel to learn that he was expected to adopt this culture as his own. He had every reason to doubt that God cared for him since he had done nothing to bring this fate upon himself. But the scripture says that, “Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself.” We live in a culture that is approaching the level of paganism that Daniel saw in Babylon but do we purpose in our hearts to not defile ourselves? Way too many Christians are comfortable in and around defiling elements. When we should be recoiling as if from a hot flame often we are simply shrugging our shoulders and turning a blind eye. Or even worse we are participating in the world and going to church on Sunday and raising our hands in praise. Do we imagine that God does not see our sin or that He is somehow relaxed in His attitude toward our sin? Is cheap grace the only kind of grace in which we exist? If we are going to raise our hands in praise then our hands should fit this description.2 Samuel 22:21-22 says,”The Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness; according to the cleanness of my hands He has recompensed me. 22 For I have kept the ways of the Lord, And have not wickedly departed from my God.” If we are raising our hands in the worship service and they have on them the blood of our sin then we belong at the altar of repentance, on our face before the Lord of glory, seeking His forgiveness and restoration. The king’s delicacies are not for the sanctified heart and neither is the wine he drinks.

“Lord, today I will purpose in my heart not to be defiled by the things of this world. I will keep the cross ever before my eyes and I shall not turn to the right or to the left from the sight of it. Today I will be living in a way that shows I know I was bought at a price and that I am not my own. That my body is the temple of the Holy Spirit of the eternal God, amen.”