Front Porch Confessional

This is such an amazing passage..a crossroads moment for the Israelites and for us.  Who will you serve?  It can't be both.  You have to make a decision.  Life is the culmination of the decisions we make. Choose God!

Deuteronomy 11:26-28 “See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse: 27 the blessing, if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you today, 28 and the curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn aside from the way that I am commanding you today, to go after other gods that you have not known.

The focus of our thanksgiving tends to be circumstance oriented.  When it's good, we're thankful, when it's bad we're ticked.  Pastor Paul is showing us a different "Jesus Way" to live.

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 Rejoice always,  pray without ceasing,  give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

Your burdens are a gift to one another.  I know that feels weird in a myopic society, but it's what Paul through the life of Jesus is inviting us into.  Give others your burdens, and bear others burdens.

Galatians 6:2 “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.”

Why do we lob off parts when Pastor Paul says we are ONE body? 

1 Corinthians 12:20-21 As it is, there are many parts,[a] yet one body.21 The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.”

We tend to go after those we sinned against secondary as opposed to dealing with the primary person we've sin against: God.  David realigns our thinking!

Psalms 51:4 Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment.

We tend to lose perspective when we're in the midst of life's storms.  God through his prophet is trying to refocus us...HE's WITH us!

Isaiah 43:2 When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you.

Have you ever wondered why sometimes plans don't work out?  What do we do?  Do we try to push through or do we submit to the fact that God made be frustrating those plans for a purpose.

Psalms 33:10 The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing; he frustrates the plans of the peoples.

We tend to look at the exterior in most situations and in the process avoid what's really most important, what's inside.

1 Samuel 16:7 But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”

So many of us have been hurt and abandoned.  We spend so much of our time living out of that hurt.  But the Lord will take us in, not just when we're hurt but every day.

Psalms 27:10 For my father and my mother have forsaken me, but the Lord will take me in.

So many of us are in the middle.  We feel stuck.  We're frustrated.  God where are you? Go what are you doing?  What if the way we're dealing with middle is pointing to what be believe about God?  God through Moses is teaching us about what to do.

Exodus 14:13 And Moses said to the people, “Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will work for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again.