Discipleship
January 26, 2021
Scripture Reading: Deuteronomy 18:15-20
The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own people; you shall heed such a prophet. This is what you requested of the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly when you said: ‘If I hear the voice of the Lord my God any more, or ever again see this great fire, I will die.’ Then the Lord replied to me: ‘They are right in what they have said. I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their own people; I will put my words in the mouth of the prophet, who shall speak to them everything that I command. Anyone who does not heed the words that the prophet shall speak in my name, I myself will hold accountable. But any prophet who speaks in the name of other gods, or who presumes to speak in my name a word that I have not commanded the prophet to speak—that prophet shall die.’
What does it mean to you to be accountable to God? Most of our modern faith perspectives do not deal in the forces of hell-fire and damnation that were prevalent in the founding of our country and widespread through the 19th and early 20th century. My mother told me once that she ran as fast as she could to the outhouse at night as a child because she was afraid the devil would reach up, grab her leg, and pull her into hell. I have wondered what kinds of sermons to which she was subjected that bought on that fear. She did not want her children to share that same fear, although she did teach us to be accountable to God. We were taught to confess our wrongdoings and ask for forgiveness not only from God but from anyone we might have harmed in any way. That included a good dose of learning the difference between what is right and what is wrong in the eyes of God because that is what should be right or wrong in our eyes. I have become a strong supporter of righting wrongs in real-time.
Prayer: Lord, forgive us when we bend to the pressures of the world to adapt our living to the world’s ethics rather than yours. Amen.
All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.