This might start out somewhat of a confession ;-)  I had started the Bible in 90 Days challenge and well . . . .I think it is almost over  . . .and I’m in Deuteronomy . . . . yes I was very hard on myself and quite discouraged when I fell off the wagon around week 2.  We had company come in and other things going on and I just couldn’t keep up and then just gave up (not on spending quiet time with the Lord, just on the 90 day challenge ;-)  (To do the amount of reading to make it all the way through in 90 days was about 45 – 60 minutes a day) So I am somewhat starting it back up again, at least the reading through the Bible part.  I have never read all the way through the Bible and I feel it is important to be able to see it as a whole.  So many times, in pretty much all of life, we have dissected the Bible and discussed, taught on, preached on a small portion of Scripture.  Sometimes that small portion is related to the whole, and sometimes it is sorely misinterpreted because of taking it out of context.   (I can already tell this post is going to be longer than I had anticipated)  So right now my morning quiet time is consists of praying through the Psalms and writing in my prayer journal and now I will be adding reading as much as I can before the kids wake up! 

Since I woke up at the same time as the kids this morning, I had my quiet time after they went to bed.  So this evening I starting reading in Deuteronomy.  This book is one of those that I have  not spent a lot of time in during my short lifespan and now I feel so disappointed that I haven’t!  I am taken back by the richness of this book and the depiction of God’s great love and faithfulness to his people!  At the beginning of the book, the Israelites are ready to enter into the promise land (Finally!) and Moses is going to give them the Commands of the Lord.  Instead of saying, here are the laws, now abide by them, he goes back and gives them a summary of their journey.  And most importantly, a summary of God’s faithfulness even in the midst of their grumbling and disobedience.  In the first third of the book, Moses lays the groundwork for why they should obey the Lord’s commands.  There are several repeating themes:

• God’s promises to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
• God’s deliverance in the past and his faithfulness to deliver the promised land to them. 
• God himself would fight for Israel.
• The LORD is GOD!!
• God’s great love for his people! He called them to be his own, they are his treasured possession! (7:6)
• God’s desire for his people to come to Him, to know Him, to obey Him!
• That the commands of the Lord would be impressed upon their hearts! and that they would teach them to their children.  (At all times and at every opportunity! I  feel in my heart this is one reason why I feel the tug to homeschool our children!)
• God is bringing them into a good land.
• His law is for their good.

These is so much in these few chapters (right now I’m only up to Chapter 11)    But God is giving the law to his chosen ones because HE LOVES THEM!  He desires his best for them.  I love those words:  treasured possessions!    Even in the midst of the Israelites grumblings, complaining, mistrust and seriously turning their back on God, He still calls out to them and says:

“Oh, that their hearts would be inclined to fear me and keep all my commands always, so that it might go well with them and their children forever”. (Deut 5:29) 

The depths of God’s love is amazing.