{"id":136,"date":"2013-07-12T04:48:29","date_gmt":"2013-07-12T04:48:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/marklandbenson.org\/wp\/?p=136"},"modified":"2013-07-12T04:48:29","modified_gmt":"2013-07-12T04:48:29","slug":"long-road","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marklandbenson.org\/wp\/?p=136","title":{"rendered":"Long Road"},"content":{"rendered":"

Some selective editing from Deuteronomy 8…<\/p>\n

Be careful to follow every command I am giving you today…Remember how the LORD your God lead you all the way in the wilderness these forty years…He humbled you, causing you to hunger…the LORD your God disciplines you…When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the LORD your God…Be careful that you do not forget the LORD your God.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Anyone who has read a decent amount of the Old Testament will find numerous occasions where the people of Israel forgot God. It is not necessarily that they no longer knew God existed but they forgot his nature…who he is. Being the definition of truth and justice, God cannot–quite literally cannot–tolerate lies or injustice. Thankfully, God has a long view so that all mankind is now not a cinder.<\/p>\n

Trying to be brief, while there was a very direct way to go to the promised land (straight line below), God took Israel out of Egypt by quite a circuitous path (squiggle).<\/p>\n

\"longroad\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I’d like to say that the evidence is in favor of not a cruel and evil experiment of tormenting a bunch of idiots in the desert but a period of refining and needed discipline. I’ll stretch a little farther and say that God indeed wants a close relationship, time with us, unbroken by our own pride that draws us away from him.<\/p>\n

The parts I omitted in the verses above above, paraphrased: I want you to live and increase and have a nice place to live. I want you to have a humble and good heart. I want you to depend on me, who gives you life, instead of things that drag you down and wear you out. I love you better than the best parent loves his\/her child. I keep my promises and give you the ability to produce wealth.<\/p>\n

The message is to enjoy the long road with God. Work in the context that he gives you. It is promised to be well worth it. There may be twists and turns and hunger but the LORD says we will lack nothing. Does this mean a luxury car in every driveway? Perhaps not but the promise is and I have seen that your own needs will be met and there will be enough to meet the needs of others as well and in doing so the gift of drawing others Jesus Christ, a\u00a0 rich reward indeed as those so drawn will welcome you into eternal dwellings.<\/p>\n

Put on your hiking shoes. Get ready for a long road.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Some selective editing from Deuteronomy 8… Be careful to follow every command I am giving you today…Remember how the LORD your God lead you all the way in the wilderness these forty years…He humbled you, causing you to hunger…the LORD your God disciplines you…When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the LORD your God…Be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marklandbenson.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marklandbenson.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marklandbenson.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marklandbenson.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marklandbenson.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=136"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/marklandbenson.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":142,"href":"https:\/\/marklandbenson.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136\/revisions\/142"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marklandbenson.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marklandbenson.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marklandbenson.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}