#threadmyoneword
My One Word isn’t being updated as often as I’d originally planned, but good enough that it gets done as often as I can find something, or come across something that fits. “Done” usually means a Facebook status update, sometimes with a photo. Now that there are “memories”, you know you’ll always come across them again.
However, one wants to be careful about those updates-I’m always stopped with the thought: “Do I really want to read this again next year? Or in ten years?”
My hashtag for the One Word is kind of weird, but that’s to make it only show up the things I’ve tagged, since other versions are things other people have used as well (#oneword, #myoneword, etc.).
The “thread” I’m noticing this morning, is something that’s running through my morning readings, the Sunday sermon series, and what I’ve been teaching these days to the three-year-olds: “obedience”.
- The kids’ stories are examples of obedience from various Old Testament characters;
- the sermon series is based on Malachi, where God is “fed up” with ritual obedience, but wants worship that comes from the heart;
- of course the Old Testament is full of obedience stories, and I’m using some summary-videos that are excellent in helping one understand the Torah, as well as following along with a ministry of one of my students, who is a Jewish Christian (also chaplain to the Ottawa Champions) and writes a short narrative about the week’s Torah readings (“Torahbytes”). The one I read this morning (I’m way behind on these), talked specifically about obedience.
You really should check out those videos!
EDIT Later: I watched the last video that they have, Deuteronomy, “the epic conclusion to the Torah”, and just need to add some notes here! This is where the “shemah” (sp?) is, “Listen oh Israel… love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, strength” (“shemah” means “listen”). It’s all about obedience, starting with listening, which is exactly what I’ve been trying to teach the kids lately.
The key words are “listen” and “love”; the Hebrew for “listen” including the idea of responding-obeying. And of course, “love” should always be the true motive for obeying, which is exactly what we’ve been talking about in Small Group. “Israel won’t obey without love, and they don’t truly love if they don’t obey.” Of course, they don’t seem able to obey, which speaks of the human condition, and the need for a Saviour to transform our hearts.