Greetings and welcome, Gail-Friends. So much has been happening here at Golden Cottage, and I hope to catch you up next week. But, today is preparation day and I've been meditating on the parshah for the week ahead: Deuteronomy 3:23 --7:11. The song for today is based on Deuteronomy 3:24:
24 ‘Adonai Elohim, you have begun to reveal your greatness to your servant, and your strong hand — for what other god is there in heaven or on earth that can do the works and mighty deeds that you do?
I hope you enjoy this beautiful song by Paul Wilbur -- Micha Mocha. The title is Hebrew for Who Is Like You? We sing this song every week in our Shabbat service.
This parshah also includes the Sh'ma:
4 “Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 Love Adonai your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6 These words, which I am commanding you today, are to be on your heart. 7 You are to teach them diligently to your children, and speak of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down and when you rise up. 8 Bind them as a sign on your hand, they are to be as frontlets between your eyes, 9 and write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
Chapter six includes the Ten Commandments. The fourth commandment commands us regarding His Sabbath:
12 “‘Observe the day of Shabbat, to set it apart as holy, as Adonai your God ordered you to do. 13 You have six days to labor and do all your work, 14 but the seventh day is a Shabbat for Adonai your God. On it you are not to do any kind of work — not you, your son or your daughter, not your male or female slave, not your ox, your donkey or any of your other livestock, and not the foreigner staying with you inside the gates to your property — so that your male and female servants can rest just as you do. 15 You are to remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and Adonai your God brought you out from there with a strong hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore Adonai your God has ordered you to keep the day of Shabbat.
A good meditation for this Shabbat is to journal about these three passages. This is how I do it:
- List the wonders of Adonai's creation that cause me to be filled with wonder. (For me, that would include all of the plants and flowers and birds He's made for us.)
- Do I love Adonai with all of my heart, soul, and strength? How does that play out in my life? Yeshua the Messiah said that we show Him our love by obedience -- keeping His commandments.
- Am I teaching His commandments to my children (grandchildren and adult children) diligently?
- Am I studying His Word and meditating on it throughout the day? (For me, writing Scripture verses on post-it-notes is a good way to do this.)
- Am I keeping the commandments listed in the Ten Commandments?"
- Am I honoring "His" Sabbath? How am I doing that?
I hope you have a wonder-full, worship-full Sabbath and a blessed week ahead.
