Observe and Remember…

Deuteronomy 6:4-9 Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one!… These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up, You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

Not just an hour a week (or less if the pastor has learned the art of fast talking)! This command by God is 24/7… it is so much more than words, it is the passionate desire to know God and be known by God. It is an all-consuming, unconditional love relationship that gives and sustains life, itself.

In my 35+ years of “being born again”(John 3:3), I haven’t always understood, followed or even cared to apply this command to my life… “One doesn’t want to GO TOO FAR with this spiritual thing”. When left up to me, my life becomes small and brittle and pretty much meaningless (with moments of  bling when the family is involved). But when God is honored as my Lord and given complete access to my life, as my Life Giver, I LIVE.

It has indeed taken me years to learn the path of righteousness… it has taken me years to truly observe and remember.

My daughter attends a Messianic Jewish Synagogue, so I get the blessing of the training she gets through this community. Is she a Jew? Am I a Jew wannabe? Technically, no. Spiritually, YES! Our Savior, Jesus… Yeshua… is (and will always be) a Jew. He came and offered Himself as the Passover Lamb that we might become one family and be saved from eternal death!

Every Shabbat (Sabbath meal) we light two candles that burn from sunset on Friday to sunset on Saturday. These two candles represent the command of God to observe and remember all that He IS… all that He HAS DONE… and all that He WILL DO for His beloved Israel.

Observe and Remember…

The Jewish side of our family has been trained to do this from day 1 when God spoke to Abraham. We’ve turned it into a one-dimensional, one sided conversation… but as one author put it… this was/is a full on “wrestling match”. Not, for purposes of domination, but for the purpose of complete intimacy… a Father/child intimacy. Since Abraham, every Jew, from a very early age learns how to and is encouraged to, wrestle with God. When I read this in the book, “The Gospel According to Moses” by Atol Dickson, I was forever changed! The picture in my head is of a Daddy, on the floor, playing with (and teaching… and hugging… and loving) His beloved child.

Forever changed… when I approach God’s word, when I enter into prayer with God, when I view what God is doing through the people and circumstances of my life… I see Daddy and me! When I intercede for others… I see Daddy… Abba and them!

Thank God He gave me many teachers to “Train me up in the way I should go”. I learned early on that I should study to know God so that I would recognize His voice and direction for my life. I was retrained to see through God’s eyes with Him at the center and in control, instead of seeing everything as revolving around me and believing that this present moment held everything of value in its grip. I did learn to observe and remember and through it, was given freedom from the enemy’s attacks.

Since “believing with my heart and confessing with my mouth that Jesus is (my) Lord”, I have been saved… Romans 10:9-11 that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes , resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. For Scriptures says, “Whoever believes in Him will not be disappointed.”

I have been saved for a lot of years… but it took 35+ years to grow up and into the REAL relationship. Father and child.

Observe and remember…

Do we just want/need to know the details and events? Or do we need to KNOW and WRESTLE WITH the perfect Parent? Do we do battle in this the world, infiltrated and effected by our enemy, Satan, without armor, weapons and training in war? Or do we learn daily, one on one with Jesus, how to defeat our enemy?

Do we observe and remember always that God… our Abba… is good ALL THE TIME.

Observe and remember… am I a Jewish wannabe?

Romans 10:12-13 For there is not distinction between Jew ad Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call on Him; for “Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

I am! Because of Jesus! I am abounding in the riches of wrestling with our Abba… our God!

Observe and remember… then sings my soul… “How Great Thou Art”!

**All Scripture quoted comes from the “Bible Gateway” app and is the NASB  version of the Bible