Wilderness Wanderings

A Sunday Sermon edition of Wilderness Wanderings!  The text is Leviticus 23:23-25 from the New International Version of the Bible.

And [God] said: "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.   You shall have no other gods before me." (Deuteronomy 6-7)   Today we start in on the Ten Commandments.   What are the Ten Commandments?   Well, for starters, they are not exactly commandments .   In the Hebrew language, they are quite literally called the "Ten Words."   And these Ten Words are als...

Welcome to Wilderness Wanderings.   My name is Renita Reed-Thomson, and I have the privilege to serve as a partner missionary with you at Immanuel Christian Reformed Church. I want to talk with you today about what it means to do our work as worship.   It's a catchy phrase               but what does it really mean? Does its simply mean dedicating all we do to the glory of God, or is there more to...

Welcome to Wilderness Wanderings.   My name is Renita Reed-Thomson, and I have the privilege to serve as a partner missionary with you at Immanuel Christian Reformed Church. I want to talk to you today about a time in scripture when we observe a move from a garden to a graveyard, and then from a graveyard to a garden.   We will be looking at a few different texts during our time together. I don't...

Welcome to Wilderness Wanderings.   My name is Renita Reed-Thomson, and I have the privilege to serve as a partner missionary with you at Immanuel Christian Reformed Church.   Today I want to talk about living life as a peach, and not an orange. Our text today comes from Colossians 1:15-16: Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before anything was created and is supreme over...

Welcome to Wilderness Wanderings.   My name is Renita Reed-Thomson, and I have the privilege to serve as a partner missionary with you at Immanuel Christian Reformed Church. I work with many pastors across West, Central and East Africa, who are seeking to reclaim a redeemed marketplace for Christ.   One pastor in particular has inspired me as well as many of the members of his church.   His name i...

Welcome to Wilderness Wanderings.   My name is Renita Reed-Thomson, and I have the privilege to serve as a partner missionary with you at Immanuel Christian Reformed Church. Most Christians are aware of the Great Commission (Matt. 28:19, 20).   In it, Jesus calls us to a commitment to make disciples.   Most Christians are also aware of the Great Commandment (Matt: 22:37-40).   We are to commit our...

An extended Sunday Sermon edition of Wilderness Wanderings!  The text is Leviticus 23:9-14 from the New International Version of the Bible.   Dive In discussion questions are below for further reflection! To see this sermon in the context of the worship service it comes from, find it  here on YouTube .  Or, head to our website to connect with the worshiping community of Immanuel CRC:  immanuelmini...

A special note: n ext week, during the March Break week, we will have special guest Renita Reed-Thompson lead us in devotions Monday through Friday.   Pastor Michael and I will be back into the Ten Commandments the week after.   Hear, Israel, the decrees and laws I declare in your hearing today. Learn them and be sure to follow them.   The Lord our God made a covenant with us at Horeb. It was not...

This is the law Moses set before the Israelites. These are the stipulations, decrees and laws Moses gave them when they came out of Egypt   and were in the valley near Beth Peor east of the Jordan, in the land of Sihon king of the Amorites, who reigned in Heshbon and was defeated by Moses and the Israelites as they came out of Egypt. They took possession of his land and the land of Og king of Bash...

Then Moses set aside three cities east of the Jordan, to which anyone who had killed a person could flee if they had unintentionally killed a neighbor without malice aforethought. They could flee into one of these cities and save their life. The cities were these: Bezer in the wilderness plateau, for the Reubenites; Ramoth in Gilead, for the Gadites; and Golan in Bashan, for the Manassites (Deuter...

Ask now about the former days, long before your time, from the day God created human beings on the earth; ask from one end of the heavens to the other. Has anything so great as this ever happened, or has anything like it ever been heard of? Has any other people heard the voice of God speaking out of fire, as you have, and lived? Has any god ever tried to take for himself one nation out of another...

…the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God. After you have had children and grandchildren and have lived in the land a long time—if you then become corrupt and make any kind of idol, doing evil in the eyes of the Lord your God and arousing his anger… you will quickly perish from the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess….The Lord will scatter you among the peoples, and only a...

An extended Sunday Sermon edition of Wilderness Wanderings!  The text is Leviticus 23:6-8 and 1 Corinthians 5:6-8 from the New International Version of the Bible.   Dive In discussion questions are below for further reflection! To see this sermon in the context of the worship service it comes from, find it  here on YouTube .  Or, head to our website to connect with the worshiping community of Imma...

You saw no form of any kind the day the Lord spoke to you at Horeb out of the fire. Therefore watch yourselves very carefully, so that you do not become corrupt and make for yourselves an idol, an image of any shape, whether formed like a man or a woman,   or like any animal on earth or any bird that flies in the air, or like any creature that moves along the ground or any fish in the waters below...

Only be careful and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them fade from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and to their children after them. Remember the day you stood before the Lord your God at Horeb (Deuteronomy 4:9,10). Today's text reminds us that we are in the season of Lent. Lent's purpose is to set aside time for...

See, I have taught you decrees and laws as the Lord my God commanded me, so that you may follow them in the land you are entering to take possession of it. Observe them carefully, for this will show your wisdom and understanding to the nations, who will hear about all these decrees and say, "Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people." What other nation is so great as to have thei...

Now, Israel, hear the decrees and laws I am about to teach you. Follow them so that you may live and may go in and take possession of the land the Lord, the God of your ancestors, is giving you (Deuteronomy 4:1). Moses continues talking. I hope there was some shade for his listeners. He has many words left before he will finish. His passion and purpose are becoming quite clear: he wants Israel to...

At that time I pleaded with the Lord: "Sovereign Lord, you have begun to show to your servant your greatness and your strong hand. For what god is there in heaven or on earth who can do the deeds and mighty works you do? Let me go over and see the good land beyond the Jordan—that fine hill country and Lebanon." But because of you the Lord was angry with me and would not listen to me. "That is enou...

A Sunday Sermon edition of Wilderness Wanderings!  The text is Deuteronomy 16:1-8 from the New International Version of the Bible.  Dive In discussion questions are below for further reflection! To see this sermon in the context of the worship service it comes from, find it  here on YouTube .  Or, head to our website to connect with the worshiping community of Immanuel CRC:  immanuelministries.ca...

When Sihon and all his army came out to meet us in battle at Jahaz, the Lord our God delivered him over to us and we struck him down, together with his sons and his whole army. At that time, we took all his towns and completely destroyed them—men, women and children. We left no survivors   (Deuteronomy 2:32-34). The Old Testament is often difficult to read. Many of us fret over the violence author...

  And the Lord said, "Now get up and cross the Zered Valley." So we crossed the valley. Thirty-eight years passed from the time we left Kadesh Barnea until we crossed the Zered Valley. By then, that entire generation of fighting men had perished from the camp, as the Lord had sworn to them. The Lord's hand was against them until he had completely eliminated them from the camp. Now when the last of...

[God said], You have made your way around this hill country long enough; now turn north. You are about to pass through the territory of your relatives the descendants of Esau, who live in Seir. They will be afraid of you, but be very careful. Do not provoke them to war, for I will not give you any of their land, not even enough to put your foot on. I have given Esau the hill country of Seir as his...

This is a return of sorts to an old devotion from February 23, 2021.  I had intended to write something new for today, but find myself sick instead.  This devotion remains a good one to be reminded of, and from a bit later on in the same run of history that we're covering now in Deuteronomy.  May you find hope in God as you read...    "…the Lord your God is God in heaven above and on the earth bel...

A Sunday Sermon edition of Wilderness Wanderings!  The text is 1 Samuel 11 from the New International Version of the Bible.  Dive In discussion questions are below for further reflection! To see this sermon in the context of the worship service it comes from, find it  here on YouTube .  Or, head to our website to connect with the worshiping community of Immanuel CRC:  immanuelministries.ca Dive-In...