Day 52

Dec 22: Deut 23-34
I got to finish Deuteronomy today thanks to some free time on the train back from the city. I need to get a blackberry or something soon so I can have a bible handy at all times...pretty convenient. Anyways, Deuteronomy was a lot easier to read than the last 2 books. It goes over the rest of Moses's life and ends with his death and has more storyline than directions on sacrifices and laws as Leviticus and Numbers did.
So lately, I feel like I've been reading and hearing more and more about how important obedience is. How obedience is a sign of strong faith, a sign of mature love for our God and it's starting to sink in more and more. Chapter 28 is titled, Blessings for Obedience, and the first 2 verses say:
"If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully follow all his commands I give you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations on earth. All these blessings will come upon you and accompany you if you obey the Lord your God."
The word carefully means a lot in this verse to me. It shows that we need to be attentive and conscientious of what God's commands are first so that we can follow them efficiently instead of blindly. Once we come to obey these commands, God pours out blessings to us. It reminds me of verses like Matthew 6:20, "But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven," and Psalm 84:10, "Better is one day in your courts, than a thousand elsewhere."
I've really been trying to understand these types of verses recently. It's so hard to ignore material things b/c we think about the present the most, and sometimes think about the future a few years down the line. But, if we truly believe that God has provided us with eternal life, these years we have on earth will be a microscopic portion of our existence. Nothing in this life will last, absolutely nothing, so why store up our worldly treasures when we should be storing up heavenly ones? God has helped me understand the importance of obedience more and more and has also been helping me understand how unimportant worldly things are.
I think one way I've seen this has been through Tiger Woods. I'm sure his story has been pretty much beat to death by now but whatever. A few weeks ago, myself and a countless number of people thought this guy was invincible. He makes double what anyone else does in the world of sports per year making over 100 million. He has his own video games, his own foundations, tons of endorsements and sponsorships, and is maybe the most clutch athlete ever. He is the last sports figure I would have expected to be in this kind of mess with the media but there he is. All this money and worldly gain has just gotten him into trouble and he is not exempt from these problems just b/c of how rich he is. Biggie was right, mo money mo problems.