See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse --" (Deuteronomy 11:26).

Let's get back to Deuteronomy. The Bible does not speak with politically correct language and so, without some reflection and context our text is easily misunderstood. Mind you, Christians should be considerate with their language and make every effort not to cause offense. So, what does God mean when he says to Israel, See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse --?

Chapter 11 opens with "Love the Lord your God. Do what he requires. Always obey his rules, laws and commands". This is immediately followed by a reminder to all the adults that their children were not the ones who saw everything God had done to take Israel out of Egypt and lead them through the desert. This younger generation did not see the majesty of God on Mount Sinai, nor his power in defeating the Egyptian military strength.

Since there is a memory and knowledge deficit among the young, those who can recall the things God did must tell the stories. Story telling in Israel was a vital component of religious life. Without the stories, the call to love God and obey his commands comes in a vacuum. While Israel's history is being told, the adults can communicate how precious their covenant with God is. They can talk about all that God has done and convey how grateful they are for the life God has given them.

Israel does not love God and obey his commandments just because. God never offers, "because I said so" as a reason for covenant faithfulness. Rather, God always points back to everything he has done. It would be the height of ingratitude for Israel to shrug her shoulders and say, "so what? What's the big deal?" Of course, this is what she often would do in generations to come.

Here, God reminds Israel that he brought her to the Promised Land not to enslave her but to set her free. In Egypt, she had nothing. Her new home was a land of flourishing, of plenty and God wanted her to enjoy it and prosper. An essential ingredient to that prosperity was Israel's response of love and obedience to God. If Israel loves and obeys God, he will bless her and see to it that she will flourish. If, on the other hand, she choses disobedience and disloyalty than she will be enslaved by other nations, that was the curse.

God always acts first and then calls for our thankful response.

Israel's story stands as a parallel for our own. Our Egypt is our enslavement to sin and judgement. Jesus is our Moses. But as the writer of Hebrews argues, Jesus is much greater than Moses, because he offered himself as the Passover lamb. In his death he forgives our sins, and, in his resurrection, he conquers the power of sin and death. Our love for God also has context.

If we want to continue the parallel with Israel, then we need to understand that we are still waiting to enter our promised land. Until Jesus returns to establish the new heavens and earth, we live in the wilderness between Egypt and Canaan. This is the time to respond to him in love and obedience for all he has done for us. It is the time to tell the stories of God's great works of redemption. But what stories are we telling? What is the context? Do we obey God out of fear of judgement or out of loving gratitude for his redemption? Our children can tell us the answer.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight. (Proverbs 3:5-6)

Entering into this Fall season with schools starting back up, an election on, and the Delta variant afoot—along with however many other things may be going on in your life—these words from Proverbs might seem quaint.

"Trust in the Lord." "Submit your ways to him." "Let him make your paths straight in this world." Yeah right, you might think: if only you knew the paths I have to take to make it through a day in this world! The arrangements I've had to work out for daycare, school, work at home, flipping back and forth between in person and at home, etc, etc. I can't just pray and hope it all works out: there are things that just won't wait, things that need doing!

And that's right. There are things that need doing. And in the midst of those things it's hard to live these verses out. Yet, I think there's something deeply foundational to placing our trust in the Lord. I'd like to sketch it out as a triangle with equal sides. So, picture a triangle, and let's walk around it.

Starting at the peak of the triangle, the point at the top, sits God as our Creator. Proverbs is constantly making reference to God's act of Creation. Read through all of chapter 3 if you have time and you'll find statements like "By wisdom the Lord laid the earth's foundations." So, God as our Creator sits at the top of the triangle.

Then at the triangle's lower right corner sits God's provision. This is the Creation itself which carries with it the possibility of food, of shelter, of security, of beauty, of fun and play, of power, of wealth, of technology, of culture, of children, of life. The line from God at the top of the triangle to this right hand corner reminds us that all these bits and pieces of the Creation that make up all of our provision is firstly, a good gift from God. We find this theme elsewhere in Proverbs 3 too in statements like: wisdom "is a tree of life to those who take hold of her," an illusion to the Garden of Eden in Genesis 2. Said differently: all of God's good and wise provision offers everything that's needed for life. That's the lower right hand corner.

Finally, the lower left hand corner of the triangle. This corner is labeled "trust." Having already received from God all the provision we need for life—all the provision that we spend our days chasing to secure—we can perhaps begin to realize that all this provision actually comes from God and not from our striving to secure it. And that, may just lead us back to our verse from today.

Trust in the Lord. He knows what you need. He already provided it: in the Creation itself and the breath of life that fills our lungs. Look to him with your trust, and the Triangle is complete. God provides, and we receive it in trust that God will continue to provide, building our trust further. Round and round we go. Tasting and seeing that the Lord is good.

This path around the triangle isn't straight because it's linear. It's straight because it's centered around a right and trusting relationship with our Creator God. Which then puts all our other relationships straight—our relationship with our provision, with our daily tasks and activities—it all flows from the centre: a right and trusting relationship with our Creator God.

Always be joyful because you belong to the Lord. I will say it again. Be joyful! Let everyone know how gentle you are. The Lord is coming soon. Don't worry about anything. No matter what happens, tell God about everything. Ask and pray and give thanks to him. Then God's peace will watch over your hearts and your minds. He will do this because you belong to Christ Jesus. God's peace can never be completely understood" (Philippians 4:4-7).

We will get back to Deuteronomy later this week. As today is the first day of school, it seemed right to give some encouragement to all those who are setting out with apprehension or maybe ending the day in exhaustion. I acknowledge that since all our children have left the nest, this day does not hold the same gravitas for me which it once did.

I think that Paul's words in our text can help us stand above the fray which this day often holds. Joy may not be the primary emotion many of us feel today. But notice the reason given for joy: 'you belong to the Lord.' This simple phrase awakens memories of Israel moving through the wilderness with manna from the Lord each morning. It harkens back to the theme of Psalm 23, "The Lord is My Shepherd" and echoes Jesus words in Matthew 6, 'do not worry' and Psalm 46, "God is our place of safety. He gives us strength. He is always there to help us in times of trouble."

Belonging to the Lord leads to an inner wellbeing, but also to an assurance that God provides for our physical and spiritual needs. So, no matter what lies before you this day, no matter how difficult it has been, remember "you belong to the Lord." This is our joy; he is our place of safety. He has walked before his people since Abraham, he will not abandon us now.

Out of this place of safety and joy we can demonstrate our gentleness. We are not a grasping people desperately clutching for material possessions, power, or prestige. In the hear and now, the Lord keeps us safe providing for us and in the future our place is secure. The whole movement of scripture is towards the full redemption of the cosmos. All those who follow Jesus have a place in that redemption. No questions asked. Be gentle. Don't add stress to other people's lives. Remember who you are so that your gentleness can be a gift to many.

And rather than worry pray. Here is a spiritual discipline all of us ought to pursue. Worry is not something we choose. It happens to us. But we do not have to feed it. We can turn it into prayer. If prayer is conversation with God which most often begins with us talking to him, then when we set our hearts on prayer, we will remember who we are, to whom we belong and where we are going.

As we become aware of these things again, they begin to dispel the worry. When worry gets washed away, there is room in our hearts for thanksgiving. The fruits of thanksgiving are joy and peace. God's peace guarding our hearts and minds dispels worry and develops gentleness in us.

A special, extended Sunday Sermon edition of Wilderness Wanderings! The text is Romans 12:14-21 from the New International Version of the Bible. Dive In discussion questions are below for further reflection!

To see this sermon in the context of the worship service it comes from, find it here on YouTube. Or, head to our website to connect with the worshiping community of Immanuel CRC: immanuelministries.ca

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus… (Philippians 2:3-5)

In the unregulated wild west of the internet, mob and vigilante justice is an increasing reality. Sometimes aspects of this reality fly under the name cancel culture, sometimes trolling, sometimes value signaling, political correctness, polarization, etc. But, whatever one calls it, it has all grown in the new social arena enabled by our smartphone, social media, and internet age—brand new cultural capacities that have grown with lightning speed over the past few decades.

But my point is not to decry these things. Sometimes the ideas and actions that have flowed under these labels have been positive: giving voice and power to folks long marginalized, for instance. At other times: slander, gossip, rage, bullying, stalking, and shaming have been closer to the reality marking these trends. All that simply to say that it's a whole complex set of issues that resists a label of either completely "good" or completely "bad." What it is, is completely new. The capacity to launch out a thought, an attack, a response, a defense, a revelation, a picture, a video, all in real time, but without always having real contact with the people or situations addressed.

And that's why what I actually want to talk about isn't this new smartphone driven capacity we posses, but rather, our character as the people who use it.

Our capacity has grown more quickly than our character as a society when it comes to determining the means to righteousness, justice, and peace through our new instant, global system of social media.

But continually we find again and again in scripture that it is our character God is interested in. That is, not what we can accomplish, but how we go about accomplishing it.

In Jesus taking on our humanity and coming to earth to live, teach, die, rise, and ascend: he not only accomplished what God intended, but he did it in God's way. The word took on flesh: the talk took on the walk. The means matched the ends.

And as we are conformed to Christ through the power of the Spirit, it is just this character of Christ that is being formed within us and that Paul continually implores us to put on. "Have the same mindset as Christ Jesus" he says again and again. And what he means when he says it, is that we are called to humble submission. Firstly to God, but also to one another. Not looking to our interests, but that of others. Not assuming that we have all the answers and the righteousness of justice on our side, but rather being humble enough to remember that we too have sinned, and that we might not have the whole picture. Indeed, that we might have a lot more to listen and learn than to tell.

How different might our social media interactions or real life interactions look with that posture? Seek today to join God in the work of forming the character of Christ within you as, in your relationships with one another, you take on the same, humble, loving mindset as Christ Jesus…"

After the Lord your God has driven them out before you, do not say to yourself, "The Lord has brought me here to take possession of this land because of my righteousness" (Deuteronomy 9:4).

Here is another chapter in which Moses worries about Israel's propensity to abandon God. Much of the chapter is taken up by his recapping the events surrounding the fiasco of the Golden Calf. Moses was up on the mountain for 40 days with God. Israel became impatient and decided that Moses was dead, and God had vanished. So, they insisted that Aaron make them a god they could see, which meant, control.

God, being very angry with them, wanted to destroy every last one of them. As Moses tells the story, he spent the next 40 days facedown on the rocky mountain without food or drink interceding for Israel. He appealed not to Israel's goodness or potential, but to God's reputation. If God gave up on Israel, the nations would laugh at him saying, "He couldn't do it! Israel's God was not strong enough to give his people Canaan, so they all had to die in the wilderness."

Moses goes to great trouble to remind Israel of their failure and rebellion. What he really wants is that they remember how quickly they fell into sinfulness. This, of course, is hardly politically correct to speak about today. Yet, I will. We too, do well to remember how easily we fall into sinful behaviour. Christians, of all people who dwell on this earth, ought to be comfortable talking about sin. Why? Because we are the people who live by the grace of God in Christ Jesus. We believe that all physical and spiritual things that we have are ours by God's grace alone.

That is what Moses wanted Israel to remember. The land of promise was God's gift to them. We do well to remember that too.

There was a time when Christian Reformed folks, that is the denomination Immanuel is part of, believed that we were basically the only ones who were getting into heaven. We may scoff at such an idea today, but our history books document that we once thought that way. There is a deep pride at work in such ideas. We do well to still acknowledge that today and wonder what other forms of spiritual pride have crept into our hearts.

One way to counteract this pride is to listen to others. Listening that includes the belief that we can learn something from someone else, even someone that we disagree with. Such humility is difficult to find today. It would be wonderful if Christians became known for it.

Let's also talk about our physical possessions. Many of us have worked hard for them. We have laboured and toiled and sometimes schemed late into the night to get ahead. Now we are ahead. Looking back at all our hard work, we easily begin to think that we deserve all this. Why not, we worked for it?

When we hold our possessions, whether physically or virtually, do we hold them tightly with the words 'mine, all mine, my precious?" Or do we hold them lightly with the question, "What would God have me do with these things?"

When David confessed his sin before God, he included this, "The greatest sacrifice you want is a broken spirit. God, you will gladly accept a heart that is broken because of sadness over sin" (Psalm 51:17). We do well to regularly echo this prayer and remember the warnings of Moses.

But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. (Matthew 6:33)

Pastor Michael alluded to this text yesterday. Israel was reminded through their wilderness journey that God was the one who sustained them and that seeking God and living out his commands was the best path to flourishing. Together, these formed the essential quality of humility in the Israelites—a pursuit of and dependence on God that led to life, even in the desert.

Jesus echoes this desert lesson when he says: do not worry, but rather seek first God's kingdom, trusting that he will provide everything else.

This isn't quite the way our world works though. Many of us are engaged quite deeply in a pursuit of our own provision. It can look all sorts of ways. We seek to secure our career or financial future. We seek to keep up a certain lifestyle of the right house, clothes, friends, and activities. We seek to secure our own health through fitness, diet, and in pandemic times: keeping to or fighting against restrictions. Whatever way the pursuit of provision might look, it often betrays a striving on our part that's somewhat thin on trust in God.

Not that we don't trust God, but we tend to do it after we've secured the important stuff ourselves.

Maybe some of that's changing now, though. This past year or so, a new reality may have begun leeching into our psyche. Our sense of control has been thwarted many times over during this pandemic time. Unpredictability and disruptions have increasingly become normal, forcing our tight, controlling fists to loosen somewhat, whether we had intended it or not. The reality is, we just can't plan as definitively or control as absolutely as we once could… or at least thought we could.

And maybe that's a good thing. Perhaps it's closer, in fact, to the truth of our situation—as people who've long been marginalized understand too well. We can't control the future, in fact there's very little that we can control. And in any case, provision was never actually ours to secure ourselves. It was always a gift of God to be received humbly, in thanks.

When we seek our own provision first, we no longer have need to entrust ourselves to anyone or anything else. Our neighbours and the creation are reduced to commodities to be used or competitors to be subdued. We begin to believe that we can live without others, in fact. And without God too. Our loneliness is complete.

But when we seek first God's kingdom and his righteousness we are placed in a posture of trust and dependence, because to truly know what this pursuit means: we need to talk to God, listen to God, obey God, trust God. It's his kingdom, after all. But when we do this, healthy relationships with God, with one another, and with our daily provision is restored. And, embedded in this trusting, life-giving community of the Triune God, we discover that there is always enough for today. And not just for us, but for everyone else too.

Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the wilderness these forty years, to humble and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. (Deuteronomy 8:2).

Why do bad things happen to good people? Why do Christians suffer?

These are questions that keep coming around. Many good Christians have written extensive books in an effort to answer them. Sometimes these writers offer helpful things, but not enough for us to forget the questions.

Our text gives, not 'the' answer, but an answer to such questions. It pertains to the situation of Israel travelling through the wilderness, and thus, ought not to be applied to all situations. However, it is worth our time to consider what Moses says here. It gives us a perspective on responding to the pandemic we have been travelling through.

Recall, Deuteronomy is Moses' farewell speech to Israel before he dies, and the people enter the promised land. As one reads the book, one cannot help but recognize that Moses is deeply troubled about Israel's future. He is not convinced at all that the people will keep covenant with God. They will not do as he has commanded.

Of course, Moses' desire is that Israel flourish in the land. It is, after all, a good land with much to offer. But for Israel to prosper, there is one essential quality she needs: humility before her Lord God. This humility has two dimensions to it. The first is that Israel remembers everything that the Lord has done for her. God took her out of Egypt; led her through the waterless and scorpion infested wilderness; God provided food and water and clothing and health on her travels.

The wilderness represents a place where the natural props and supports that people depend on are taken away, so they will turn to God. To some extent, the pandemic has been that kind of wilderness for us. Moses wants Israel to keep remembering this aspect of wilderness life. But also, that in their need, God provided.

This remembering will lead to a second aspect of humility: Israel will worship the Lord and be obedient to him. She will be careful to keep his commandments because she recognizes that these commandments are not punitive but rather life giving. Keeping them will cause her to flourish in the land. Following God's commands as a means to flourishing is contrasted with self-dependence.

Looking back on the troubles she experienced on the journey, Israel needs to recognize in them the testing of God. This is not a test like in school so that God knows how much Israel has learned. Rather, it is for Israel's benefit, for her to know how well she trusts this God who has covenanted with her.

This is a way that we can look back at the trials experienced during this pandemic. Jesus tells us not to worry about tomorrow because our heavenly father will take care of us (Matthew 6). That all sounds fine when the sun is shining, but what about when the storm winds are blowing? As we journeyed through these many months has our eagerness to worship God and obey his words increased? If so, then we have benefitted from this time and we can truly say, "it is well with my soul."

And if not, if we find ourselves rebelling against him, there is still time. As the Bible says, today is the day of salvation. As long as it is 'today', God calls us back to himself. He invites us to let go of our methods of self-dependency and to trust in him.

Jesus summed up this whole chapter when he said, "Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth" (Matthew 5:5).

"My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified." (John 17:15-19)

Last Friday, Pastor Michael reminded us that we are already God's holy people. And that by no work of our own, even though we often think of holiness as a thing to be sought after and achieved by our own law-abiding efforts.

These words of prayer from Jesus on the night he was betrayed declare the moment and intention of our sanctification, that is: of our chosen-ness as God's holy people.

The intent is not that we separate ourselves from the world around us, but that we live within the world as those "set apart," that is, "made holy" by God in Christ. Jesus knows that's a tall order. So he asks the Father to protect us from the evil one, that ruler of this world who seeks to work us woe.

We become this "set apart" people by the truth of the Word. Particularly, by the Word of God made flesh in Jesus. For us he sanctified (that is, set apart) Himself for the work of death and resurrection. And because of that completed work of Jesus, our lives are now defined and set apart (that is: "truly sanctified") from the rest of the world. We now bear a different citizenship, a different name (Christian), a different identity.

Even so, the world is where we are sent. We man outposts within this world that we call our homes, workplaces, schoolplaces, and digital places. We are sent into those worldly places as ambassadors of Christ, set apart to bear the truth of a different story, a different kingdom, a different way of life and living within those places: a way defined not by what we do, but by what God has done.

Do you think of your home, or office, or social media presence as an embassy or consular presence of the Kingdom of God? As a place set-apart. And you, as a set-apart person within it who has the protection of the Father to enter into diplomatic conversations with the surrounding world into which you have been sent?

Perhaps you should start. You are a chosen people, a holy nation, a royal priesthood. Ambassadors of Christ. People whose citizenship is of a heavenly country. Resident aliens in a land not your own. And yet, you have been sent into the world, even though you are not of it. How might this fact of your God-given set-apartness change the way you interact with the people you meet online and in person today?

A special, extended Sunday Sermon edition of Wilderness Wanderings! The text is Romans 13:8-14 from the New International Version of the Bible. Dive In discussion questions are below for further reflection!

To see this sermon in the context of the worship service it comes from, find it here on YouTube. Or, head to our website to connect with the worshiping community of Immanuel CRC: immanuelministries.ca

1. What time is it?

1. What does this mean for a Christian's behaviour?

1. What does the word 'flesh' mean in this context? What are we not supposed to do with it? What are we supposed to get dressed in instead?

1. The commandments mentioned are in the negative. How does their summary redirect their focus?

1. What is the one debt that remains? How will you make payments towards it this week?