Israel, what does the Lord your God want you to do? He wants you to fear Him, follow all His directions, love Him, and worship Him with all your heart and with all your soul. The Lord wants you to obey His commands and laws that I’m giving you today for your own good. Deauteronomy 10:12-13 (GW)
Have you ever wondered, what does God want from me? He doesn’t need anything. What does He want?
The LORD will fulfill his purpose for me; your love, O LORD, endures forever— Psalm 138:8
The Life Application Bible Notes for Deuteronomy 10:12-13 read as follows:
Often we ask, “What does God expect of me?”
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Grace…
is the unexplainable hope
that washes away
the accusing whispers that dance in the darkness
and hide behind the mirror
and say, “You need to be thinner
and thinner
and thinner.”
Grace…
is the light that calls you
toward something so good that you’re scared to trust it.
You might even ignore it at first,
thinking it’s not for you.
Instead,
you try to get better
and fix things on your own.
You try to be strong.
Confident.
Perfect.
But hours of 3:00 a.m. sit-ups,
calorie counting,
dieting,
scrutinizing,
and hiding,
will make a person fall.
Yet Grace…
is the mighty hand that will catch you
and promise you
that you don’t have to be
perfect.
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The only gift I asked for this Christmas was Wii Fit. One of my goals for 2010 is to incorporate more activity and exercise into my daily schedule. I asked for Wii Fit hoping that I could make exercise fun, knowing that if I think it’s fun, I am more likely to stick with it.
I took some time this past weekend to get it set up and give it a try. Two of the aerobics activities I liked were stepping and “running.” (I used quotes because it is much better described as jogging in place.) I thought it was fun!
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I was reading through Exodus recently, reading the account of Moses and the burning bush. Here is Moses, once an Egyptian Prince, now an outcast shepherd. He’s taking care of the sheep on an ordinary day when something very extraordinary happens. He sees a bush burning, but it never burns up. A voice- it is God speaking to him out of the bush! Not only does God speak, He gives signs: a rod that turns into a snake, a hand with leprosy restored. And then Moses receives a call, an instruction, to go to Pharaoh. God promises that He is going to deliver Moses’s people who have been in slavery all these years!
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This morning I shared the waiting room with a chatty elderly couple. I politely pretended not to hear their conversation, but soon it became more than time-passing rambling.
“Everything would be different if he hadn’t fallen,” she said. Her husband nodded in silent agreement.
“And Eleanor. If only she hadn’t tried to put on her pants standing on one leg.” The conversation continued, listing the various people she could name who would still be in good health (or still be around at all) if they hadn’t fallen.
“Even just a little fall. That’s the key to everything. Just don’t fall.”
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Last year, my son went through a phase of independence. At just seven years old, he no longer wanted me hugging him around his friends, calling him buddy, or kissing him when I dropped him off places.
But during that phase, one day as I was writing at the kitchen table, he did something that surprised me.
Out of the blue, he walked over and climbed onto my lap.
At first, I thought maybe he was hurt or upset about something.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“Nothing.” He smiled.
Then he wrapped his arms around my neck, rested his head on my shoulder, and hugged me.
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A while ago, my husband got a new phone system in our house that made working from home easier for him. One of the features of the system was that the phones intercomed each other–a convenient thing when you needed to ask a quick question from upstairs or downstairs and didn’t want to yell.
My daughter thought it was a great feature too and had fun calling from room to room.
Especially at bed-time.
One night, literally a minute after we’d put the kids to bed, we heard the intercom…
Beep. Beep. Beep.
I picked up the phone.
“Mommy?” My daughter said.
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Some tasks are daunting, and for me that would be writing a devotion for Christmas Eve. There are so many things that could be said about the day. The many ways we celebrate: exchanging gifts, enjoying time with family and friends, and worshipping with brothers and sisters in Christ. We share stories of Christmas past and continue traditions from generation to generation. With all of that being said, there is only one message on my heart today. I want to join the angels in singing, “Glory to God in the highest.” So please sit back, read, and reread the following words from Scripture; words of promise, of hope, of forgiveness and love.
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