Today I didn’t choose a chapter to comment on.
I picked a verse.
If you want to read the whole chapter to get the context, you’re welcome to do that.
But I chose just a verse because out of all the verses I read, this one verse jumped off the pages more than any other during my reading.
I especially love the second half of the verse that says, “Keep his commands and obey him; serve him and hold fast to him.”
I can’t help but think how different my life would be if I would just do these simple things everyday.
I so want to keep his commands and obey him. There is nothing I would rather do with my life than serve him. And I am so thankful I have a God I can cling to, that I can hold fast to.
Now, if I will just center my life around these three things.
#1 by Tommy Sadler - January 15th, 2010 at 07:05
so simple and yet we make it so hard! Powerful verse.
#2 by Dennis - January 15th, 2010 at 07:26
My thoughts, as I read this verse focused on what “holding fast” involves. Matt, I think you hit the nail on the head in your last sentence. If I center my life on Him (listening, honoring, obeying and serving), I will hold fast to Him.
#3 by Daniel Wheeler - January 15th, 2010 at 15:20
The Children of Isreal were free from bondage in Egypt, looking for a land to call their own.
Kind of like moving out of the house as a teenager, with no more restrictions, no one to answer to but you.
And all around them were the pagans with their temples and gods and hedonistic rituals, all in the name of worshipping a god.
The pull of the fleshly desires hit them in the face every time they encountered a new people or land, or tribe ( Nomads).
There was the curiosity of “why do we have to worship only the God who put us out here in the desert to die?”
or
“why do we have to follow all these rules we did not used to have to follow?”
So, just like all of us who struggle with the pull and attraction of sin, we need a reminder to “Keep his commands and obey him; serve him and hold fast to him.”
I remember the first time I was holding fast. I was rock climbing, freestyle (without ropes) up a pinnacle in Linville Gorge in NC. It was the highest skill level rating I had climbed to that point. When I reached the top I saw that the other side of the pinnacle dropped about a hundred or more feet further down to the river.
The time came to climb down, and even though I was climbing back down on the short side (the pinnacle came up out of a cliff) I was swinging my legs over the side and I remembered the other side.
I gripped the handholds in the top of the pinnacle and HELD FAST.
I clung on for dear life, my heart was pounding out of my chest and it took about thirty minutes to get my brain back together and focus on the short side and the way I had gotten up.
When we HOLD FAST to GOD we realize that if we let go, DEATH is imminant.
The wages of SIN is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord!!!
#4 by Daniel Wheeler - January 15th, 2010 at 15:21
The Children of Israel were free from bondage in Egypt, looking for a land to call their own.
Kind of like moving out of the house as a teenager, with no more restrictions, no one to answer to but you.
And all around them were the pagans with their temples and gods and hedonistic rituals, all in the name of worshipping a god.
The pull of the fleshly desires hit them in the face every time they encountered a new people or land, or tribe ( Nomads).
There was the curiosity of “why do we have to worship only the God who put us out here in the desert to die?”
or
“why do we have to follow all these rules we did not used to have to follow?”
So, just like all of us who struggle with the pull and attraction of sin, we need a reminder to “Keep his commands and obey him; serve him and hold fast to him.”
I remember the first time I was holding fast. I was rock climbing, freestyle (without ropes) up a pinnacle in Linville Gorge in NC. It was the highest skill level rating I had climbed to that point. When I reached the top I saw that the other side of the pinnacle dropped about a hundred or more feet further down to the river.
The time came to climb down, and even though I was climbing back down on the short side (the pinnacle came up out of a cliff) I was swinging my legs over the side and I remembered the other side.
I gripped the handholds in the top of the pinnacle and HELD FAST.
I clung on for dear life, my heart was pounding out of my chest and it took about thirty minutes to get my brain back together and focus on the short side and the way I had gotten up.
When we HOLD FAST to GOD we realize that if we let go, DEATH is imminant.
The wages of SIN is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord!!!