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Deuteronomy 30:1-19; Romans 10
There are some people you enjoy being around. The people you like might be fun or funny or smart or extremely knowledgeable. Just like you enjoy certain people, God enjoys you. You are his favorite. However, he only wants to be with you if you want to be with him. God wants each of us to choose to have a personal relationship with him and he tells us how to come close to him and he has been doing this since the beginning of time.
There is a catch.
For you to freely choose God means you can freely not choose God.
You can embrace God's way or reject it. God gave his instructions to Moses for how to live a life that will keep you close to God and as a result, you will have happy and safe life. You can read these 10 commandments in Exodus 20:2-17 and in Deuteronomy 5:6-21. These 10 clear instructions proved too difficult for most people. Again in Deuteronomy 30:15-16 it says, " See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. For I command you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in obedience to him, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess."
God is nearly screaming to us, just do a few things I tell you to do and you will be blessed! God does not say go to a certain church, or wear a certain type of clothing, or give your money to a certain cause. Soon after God gave the 10 commandments, the Jewish leaders came up with 613 more laws you can read in the Torah. Leave it to people to take the simple and make it complicated.
To get ready for Easter and to understand the cross we have to understand God's love. Even after each of us sins all day every day, God keeps loving us and giving us ways to come back to him. Deuteronomy 30:11 God says that he has written his words on our hearts. We don't have to make some big trip somewhere to meet God, see God, experience God. We must look into our own hearts, be still and ask God to reveal himself to new everyday.
Hundreds of years pass and people keep missing the mark so God reaches out in a new way to save us from ourselves. God sends Jesus to show us how to live. In Romans 10:1-13 we read the same message God delivered in the Deuteronomy passage. The new part is that God sends Jesus to be the final law, to be the final chance for this human race that can't seem to get things right. Romans 10:4 says, "For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes."
God keeps loving us; he keeps reaching down to us. His free gift of a life with him now and forever is made possible by the cross. Jesus was the perfect sacrifice and he was crucified, died, went to hell then rose back to life to clear the path to heaven for us.
Amen.
