Deuteronomy 6:1-9  Now this is the commandment-- the statutes and the ordinances-- that the LORD your God charged me to teach you to observe in the land that you are about to cross into and occupy,  ² so that you and your children and your children's children may fear the LORD your God all the days of your life, and keep all his decrees and his commandments that I am commanding you, so that your days may be long.  ³ Hear therefore, O Israel, and observe them diligently, so that it may go well with you, and so that you may multiply greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, as the LORD, the God of your ancestors, has promised you.  ⁴ Hear, O Israel: The LORD is our God, the LORD alone.  ⁵ You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.  ⁶ Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart.  ⁷ Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise.  ⁸ Bind them as a sign on your hand, fix them as an emblem on your forehead,  ⁹ and write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

            Yesterday in my sermon I focused on the teaching and learning that can be done using the Lord’s Prayer.  That prayer is an integral part of our relationship with God the Father.  Prayer is something that can and should be done often.  Pray at home, at work, in the morning, at night, with your family, etc.  I suspect we all learned how to pray from our parents, and in turn, have taught our children how to pray.  Prayer though, is just one part of our relationship with God, because without knowing what God has done for us, there is not a sense of knowing what God is capable of doing!  In other words, without knowing WHO God is, we can’t know what He has accomplished. 

            Deuteronomy 6:1-9 is known as the Shema.  More specifically, it starts at Deut. 6:4 and goes through verse 9.  This is one of the more important teachings in all of the Judaic and Christian religions.  It spells out who God is and what he has done for his people.  God is our God!  He is 1, no other.  The first petition of the Lord’s prayer refers back to this verse from Deuteronomy.  Because the Lord is our God, we should therefore direct all our prayers to Him, so that as he had done before, he will continue to take care of us.

            For those of you that have sound on your computers, below is a link to the Shema being sung in Hebrew.  Make sure you turn on your speakers.  This is courtesy of the The Rosenkrantz Family Library at the Congregation Beth El–Keser Israel (BEKI.org).

http://www.beki.org/audio/shema1j.mp3

In our prayers this week:  Ann and Robert

God’s Peace,