Marching Orders for the People of God

As part of my morning reading today, I was meditating on Deuteronomy 10:12-22 in Eugene Peterson's paraphrase The Message. I needed to hear these words afresh. And what I found and pulled out, mostly using the exact words of the paraphrase, but pushing them together a bit, is what I am thinking of as "marching orders for the people of God."

They needed them then.

We still need them today.

And here they are....

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Live in God’s presence in holy reverence

Follow the road he sets out for you

Love Him

Serve Him

Serve Him, your God, with everything you have in you

Obey the commandments

Live a good life

Look around you – everything you see is God’s – the heavens and beyond, the earth and everything on it

Remember that God fell in love with you and chose you

Cut away the thick calluses from around your heart

Stop being willfully hardhearted

Remember who God is – powerful, awesome, immense

Remember where you’ve been and what he’s brought you through

You’ve seen this with your own eyes! Praise him!

Treat others with the same lovingkindness that God treats you

Remember, again, who you were and yet who you have become. He did this. All of it.