Day 4 - Week 14 - Deuteronomy 6:7 - "Repeat them to your children. Talk about them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up."

Notice the first instruction of the verse..."Repeat them to your children." 

Repeat - meaning that you've already said these words enough to yourself that you can now repeat them to your children.  You have a familiarity with what you are saying...so familiar in fact, that you can repeat them at any given opportune moment.  When you're at home, when you're away.  When you first get up in the morning having breakfast, or late at night when you're tucking your babies in bed.  (And speaking from a mother's point of view, your children are always your babies!)  As I've said before, "these words" should always be on the tips of our tongues, ready to be spoken at just the right Spirit-led moment. 

Oh - and which words were given with these instructions?  The words from last week's verse...
"Listen, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is One.  Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength.  These words I give you today are to be in your heart."

These are the words we are to repeat to our children. Words of faith, words of conviction.  That we know who our God is, and we love Him completely.  I think what we need to take away, is that at every possible moment we are to convey to our children just how deep our love is for our God. It is a hard thing to explain to a child how you love someone that you cannot, and have not ever seen.  That is why the introduction of the concept should come early, and then repeated often, and in various ways. 

With the sighting of a rainbow, when observing the stars at night, when talking about the wonders of our bodies, as our children get older the conversations can get deeper.

Repeat, and then later repeat again...and again....and again.  Until one day, when your prayers are answered, you will hear your child teaching the love of God to their child.  At that moment, I believe God the Father is smiling just as warmly as the earthly mother or father who is watching and thinking, "This is life's best moment yet."

Day 3 - Week 14 - Deuteronomy 6:7 - "Repeat them to your children. Talk about them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up."

This verse is especially on my mind this week as we are spending a lot of time traveling with our 14 year old grandson.  Fourteen year old boys are very hard to understand...and it's not that they have speech impediments!  For the most part, they live in their own worlds and are not all the impressed with their grandparents' vast array of knowledge regarding...well, regarding just about anything.  Our grandson is currently most impressed with anything to do with iPhones and other hi-tech toys and specific types of sunglasses.  Pointing out anything to do with history or culture, even when you're in an area where it is all around you, almost seems pointless.

So then you come to this verse, where we are told to repeat God's words to our children.  I think I might have the best chance of making an impression if I texted them!  That might work!

And maybe that's an idea.  You know in the time this verse was written, families sat in their homes, walked along the road, laid down together on their mats at night and rose together --- for the most part in small homes, living closely together.  So how do we share God's words with our children and grandchildren in 2011?

Any way we can!  Whenever we can!  If that's via e-mail notes, texts, Facebook postings, or actual old-fashioned face-to-face conversation, our words should reflect our faith.  Words of godly encouragement, instruction, faith-building...said with Spirit-guided timing.  So important to say good words...but also so important to say those words at good times. 

And when you're dealing with 14 year-old boys, a good time to remember how patient God is with us waiting for us to mature to our next steps...and remembering that 14 year-old boys will soon be young men who once again think their grandparents may be just about the smartest people they know!

Day 1 - Week 14 - Tuesdays are for......

.....remembering...reinforcing...reviewing!  Don't give up...we're doing something that pleases God in embedding His words in our hearts.  Let's go back over our list another time and then get started on another week!

Four Corners of the Bible
Genesis 1:1 - In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
John 1:1 - In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
John 1:14 - And the Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us; we have seen His glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father full of grace and truth.
John 3:16 - For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life.

Romans Road:
Romans 3:23 - For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
Romans 6:23 - For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus, our Lord.
Romans 5:8 - But God proves His own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Romans 10:9 - If you confess with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord', and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
Romans 12:1 - Therefore, dear brothers, by the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God.  This is your spiritual worship

The Gift of Scripture:
2 Timothy 3:16 - All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness.
Joshua 1:8 - This book of instruction must not depart from your mouth, you are to recite it day and night, so that you may carefully observe everything written in it.  For then you will prosper and succeed in whatever you do.
Psalms 119:11 - I have treasured your word in my heart so that I may not sin against you.
Deuteronomy 6:4-6 - Listen Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is One.  Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength.  These words I give to you today are to be in your heart.

I don't know about you, but I love having these thirteen verses living within my heart.  Sometimes when I'm at a stoplight, or pausing through the day, I mentally go through our list in its three sections.  It's also a wonderful way to fall to sleep at night.  Starting at the beginning with our four foundational verses, going on to the road to salvation, and then....if I haven't yet fallen asleep...dwelling on the blessing of Scripture.  If you do fall asleep, what better way to enter into a night of rest, with God's words on your lips and guiding you into  subconsciousness. 

Week #14 brings an add on to last week's verse...we'll add Deuteronomy 6:7 which takes the importance of knowing God's word for ourselves to another level of responsibility, that of imparting it to others...especially those who have been put in our direct realm of influence. --- whether those be biological children, grandchildren, or other young people that we have been blessed to share life with in some other capacity...

Deuteronomy 6:7 - "Repeat them to your children.  Talk about them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up."

Sleep well - hear His words in your heart....

Day 7 - Week 13 - Deuteronomy 6:6 - "These words that I give to you today are to be in your heart."

Listen, Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is One. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.  These words that I give to you today are to be in your heart.

Has this verse become your new favorite?  There is a lot in it, isn't there?  And the imperative style that it is written in makes it feel so solid, so foundational...and it is.

It is one of those verse that we need to fall back on time and time again. 

The Lord our God, the Lord is One.  --- God is One.  We worship one God, bound in trinity, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit --- three in One.  We worship the God of Israel, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  He is God, and He alone.  His story is woven throughout the Bible from start to finish, and we claim no other god as our God.

Love God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength -  God wants relationship with us, in every aspect of our being --- our emotional love, our spiritual commitment and our physical actions.  We love Him for what He has done for us.  We surrender our lives, both temporal and eternal to Him.  We present our bodies as a living sacrifice to do His will on this earth.

His words are to be in our hearts -  back again to our goal with this exercise...hiding His words in our hearts.  They are to be our standard for every choice we make in life.  Weighing His words against our intuitions shows us when we are heading in the right direction, and keeps us from plummeting into traps of deception.

God's Word is amazing....so much in every verse.  Volumes in a sentence or two.  He is very efficient with His use of words, isn't He?

Pack this treasure away --- we'll add to it in the coming week!

Added note tonight:  Please, please pray for all the people whose earthly lives have been devastated by the tornadoes, especially in Joplin where they have such widespread destruction and so many lives have been lost.  Prayers for Godly people to be there to help those who are trying to put the pieces of their lives back together, that they can see God's love through the people that are coming along beside them.  So much to be done and it has to seem so discouraging.  Prayers for supernatural faith of believers so that they may be tremendous witnesses to those who don't have the hope of Christ living in their hearts.  Prayers for strength and health for all, and for better weather, so that the initial work can be accomplished as quickly as possible, and that the rescue efforts are not hindered in any way.

Day 6 - Week 13 - Deuteronomy 6:6 - "These words that I am giving you today are to be in your heart."

"Listen, Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is One. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. These words that I am giving you today are to be in your heart."

Think about all the words we are presented with in a day's time...television blasts words at us, newspapers are full of words, the Internet has more words available to us than we could read in a lifetime!  Add to that radio, movies, magazines, books, e-mails, junk mail, letters...wait, does anyone still write letters?  Point is, we have so many words that come into our heads and which ones do we give top priority?

Which words do your children see you pouring over on a daily basis?  Which words have the most influence in your decision making?  What would happen in our lives if it were God's words that were predominant in our heads at all times.  If we allowed them to drowned out the words that were in opposition to His ways for our lives, to block out the words that may make us think less of ourselves than God designed us to be, to override the words that elevate worldliness over godliness.

We are told to keep God's words in our heart.  Let's not put His words at the bottom of our list of reading and squeeze them into our hearts, let's fill our hearts with His words.  Let's take every opportunity to open our hearts to His word, though reading the Bible, listening to good preaching, taking advantage of the Internet for its great ability to provide us with wonderful study tools, listening to great hymns and praise music.  Let our hearts overflow with His words....there should be nothing sweeter to our ears.