Deuteronomy 27:9 The Moses and the Levites who were priests spoke to all Israel and said, "Be quiet, Israel. Listen! Today you have become the people of the Lord your God. 10 Obey the Lord your God, and keep his commands and laws that I give you today."

i read this last night during our nightly reading. and i have not been able to get it out of my head. again, how like Israel are we? the day of our own salvation is just like the day Israel became the Lord's own people. on that very day we are new creations, dearly loved and honored by our God. and on that day, we should start obeying His Word, His commands. Moses said obey the Lord your God TODAY. we should show the world that we are children of God. but... we all know that in a new Christian there is not instant change (and actually, there is not instant change in an old Christian either). Israel never got it right, what makes us think we can do it any better? we are fallible, human. we are made in God's image, but we are not god, and so, we cannot be perfect and without sin. we can choose to be apart from Him or we can choose to draw near to Him. most of the time the choice is not easy, as was true for the Israelites. they had to follow all sorts of rules and make all kinds of crazy sacrifices. and the choice is still not easy today, in a society that does not value the Lord, ethical decisions, or even value people the way God does. His standards are so much higher and better and yet, we choose the world, from which we can never truly be satisfied. so the question is... what am i doing today to draw near to God, to know Him, to show the world that i am obeying His commands to me and that i LOVE Him with all my heart, mind, soul, and strength?