Deut 13:1-5

[~candice~]

Exodus 20

3 "You shall have no other gods before [a] me.

4 "You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below.

5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing love to a thousand {generations} of those who love me and keep my commandments.

Deuteronomy 13

1"(A)If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder,

2and the sign or the wonder comes true, concerning which he spoke to you, saying, '(B)Let us go after other gods (whom you have not known) and let us serve them,'

3you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams; for the LORD your God is ©testing you to find out if (D)you love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.

4"(E)You shall follow the LORD your God and fear Him; and you shall keep His commandments, listen to His voice, serve Him, and (F)cling to Him.

5"But that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be (G)put to death, because he has counseled rebellion against the LORD your God who brought you from the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of slavery, (H)to seduce you from the way in which the LORD your God commanded you to walk (I)So you shall purge the evil from among you.

Matthew 22

34Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together.

35One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question:

36"Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?"

37Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.'

38This is the first and greatest commandment.

39And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'[c]

40All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."

Both the Old and the New testaments demonstrate to us that the greatest commandment is to love the Lord God with all of our heart and soul and mind. When we do this, we have no room for other gods in our life.

Deut 13:1-5 seems to indicate that God tests our love for Him. Is this right? James 1:13 says 'Let no one say when he is tempted, "(A)I am being tempted by God"; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone. '

How are we to practically 'love God with all of our heart and soul and mind'? Deut 13:1-5 indicates that when other gods (money, popularity, lust etc) are presented to us, we should turn to God and follow Him, fear Him, keep His commandments, listen to Him, serve Him and cling to Him. We are to put to death the vessel that brought these gods to us.

Any other ideas / expansion of thoughts here???

[Dog House Bill]

Andy,

Pretty good! I would have also added to tthis that we shall seek God, not the soothsayers, Mystics, Fortunetellers, Horrorscopes, Sorcerers, or witches, o r even these so called Psycics.

We are to seek after God and His Glory, His Heart. and it will be well with us.

God Bless You,

Bill C.11

[ayin jade]

Test all prophets and teachers against scripture. Verse 3 stood out. There is someone today whom many are following, who has signs and wonders, yet proclaims we must believe in his angels as part of salvation. Now that fits this passage. Many should take notice of this.

Deuteronomy 13

1 If a prophet rises among you, or a dreamer of dreams, and gives you a sign or a wonder,

2 and the sign or the wonder which he foretold to you occurs, saying, Let us go after other gods which you have not known, and let us serve them,

3 you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams. For the LORD your God is testing you to know whether you love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.

4 You shall walk after the LORD your God and fear Him, and keep His commandments, and obey His voice, and you shall serve Him and hold fast to Him.

5 And that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death, because he has spoken to turn you away from the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you out of the house of slaves, to thrust you out of the way in which the LORD your God commanded you to walk. So you shall put the evil away from the midst of you.

[wingnut-]

I enjoyed that very much andy, good job.

You are such a blessing to us all.

[Hunterpoet]

I don't think G-d tests us in the sense that He places things before us purposefully. Temptations come before us and we are tested.

Even if G-d did actively test us it would be right to do so IMO.

[ayin jade]

1 Corinthians 11: 19 For there must also be heresies among you, that the approved ones may be revealed among you.

I went off on a tangent Andy. Thanks for giving me something to think about.

[EricH]

The testing is not for God to find out. He already knows. The testing is for us to find out

[Guest Ezekiel47]

Re: How are we to Love God?

Let me share some thoughts with you on this topic of the "Love" of God. Firstly, John 3:16 says God so Loved the World so much that he sent his only begotten Son, ie Jesus to come and die for us that when we believe, we shall have eternal Life. The Bible even says that while we were in Sin God demonstrated his Love toward us by sending his Son for our Sin so we can become the righteousness of God through Faith. I recommend you read 1 Corintians 13 and 1 John 4 because this chapters talk about the Love of God. So hoe does it mean to Love God? This should be the first question as when we learn to Love God, we can love others. Yeah, you can also read Ephesians 3 as well. One scipture I want to point out that will be clear is found in Romans 5:5 says God's Love has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. So this means that all Christians have the Love of God in them. This is made clear when Jesus made this remarkable statement to "Love our Enemies and to pray for those who spitefully use us". The capacity to Love is in us but we have to choose on Purpose to Love.\

We must love the Lord with all our Body, Soul and Spirit. Body refers to Glorifying God with (2 Corintians 3:16). Soul speaks of the mind, i.e renew you mind with the Word of God (Romans 12:1 - 2) and the Spirit speaks of our communication as spirit beings with God (1 Corinthians 2 talks about this). So Loving God really means all the 3 explained above with their Scripture references.

Love should be the ULTIMATE FOUNDATION of all Christians.

If I have time we can chat about this topic in the Chat Room.

Peace

Ezekiel47

Let the River of God flow through this Generation

[eric]

The testing is not for God to find out. He already knows. The testing is for us to find out

Exactly.Eccl 12 : 14 For God will bring everything into judgement with every secret thing, whether it be good or wether it be evil. Why should He wnan't test our love for Him if He already knows if you love Him or not.