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Deut 4
- (v.1-2): God commands us to listen, then obey. We can only obey when we know what's God's will; what's on God's heart. We shouldn't "add/subtract" anything from His commands; learning to strip away the excuses, compromises. And coming to terms with the ugliness of our heart, and acknowledging that there are deeper heart issues lurking beneath the "excuses", and being willing to deal with them.

- (v.15): concerning making idols; God's form. Humans naturally gravitate towards believing in things we can see, smell, hear, feel, taste. Which is why having faith is so hard - Hebrews defines faith as "believing in things unseen". Our innate tendency of wanting to give a tangible shape/mold to God limits our understanding of God. This not only includes just making and worshipping physical idols, but also involves those idols in our lives (things in our lives which we place higher than God). That belittles God, and by placing our trust and dependency on something else other than God is an insult to the God of the universe. I need to repent - and ask God to increase my faith.

- There's a continuous contrast between god and God. Others worship gods that are dead, that people carve out of wood or stone. We worship the true living God, who is also the God of the universe.. who is also our Abba Father. Praise God that we have this personal relationship with God!

- Our decisions (of obeying God's commands) not only affect us personally, but also has an effect on our posterity. Obeying God, passing down testimonies of all that God has down - the heritage of faith.


Psalms 86
(v.1): the image of God bending down to hear my prayer is so comforting - He cares for us so deeply.
(v.5): declaration of God's goodness, love and mercy.
(v.8-10): similar theme as Deut 4; You alone are God. no pagan god is like our God!

Psalms 87
God's love for His people, His nation. "Jerusalem" - could it be possibly loosely interpreted to mean God's people??