'I have been crucified with Christ

and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.

The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God,

who loved me and gave himself for me.’

Galatians 2.20

What a relief this is! All my mistakes, all my sin, he carries! Hallelujah!

What a challenge this is! All my pride, all my sense of my own significance is dead and buried.

We follow up with week 2 in Galatians considering the true message of Jesus and that humans trying to modify the gospel is not the true gospel.

…let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus… Hebrews 12:1-2

we come to the end of Deuteronomy! And the end of Moses! The great leader, the great prophet, the great preacher that we’ve met over the last chapters won’t make it into the Promised Land. It seems like a somewhat depressing finale. So where does that leave us? Looking forward to talking about it! Next Sunday, we’re doing a special one-off week based on Hebrews 12, that will bridge us from Deuteronomy to launching the following week into our next project - Galatians! Having studied ‘the second law’ (Deuteronomy), it’ll be excellent to study Paul’s teaching on how the law affects Christians today.

It’s sometimes easy to get lost in all the laws about war, cities of refuge, tithing, disputes, skin diseases and so on in Deuteronomy chapters 12-26.

But here’s a verse from the end of this section to put things in perspective:

And the Lord has declared this day that you are his people, his treasured possession as he promised, and that you are to keep all his commands.

(Deut 26:18)

God gives his people these commands because of who they are - loved, even treasured by him.

Thinking about God’s kindness and justice.

Oh! And we are looking at just the most wonderful set of commands from our God about generosity, in Deuteronomy 14.22 - 15.18. It is a call to shape the contours of our life as God’s people around the contours of our God’s heart - abounding generosity!

Deuteronomy 8 is going to help us see the simple power of remembering the LORD and the significant problem of forgetting.

We’ll see the dangerous patterns of a heart that forgets.

We’ll see the fruitful patterns of a heart that remembers.

We’ll see what we need to remember and how to help each other remember.

want to share with you something that has been on my heart and in my prayers for some time for our church. As we continue to explore Deuteronomy together, I want us to pause to consider together the 4th commandment - the sabbath. I think it is a command filled with both opportunity and challenge for us. And I am convinced it is a word in season for us right now.

True life is about knowing God deeply! It’s such a simple truth, but one I found so helpful to be reminded of again as I think about what I value and prioritise in life.

Looking forward to getting into life more deeply as we know God more deeply in Deuteronomy.