Live with Certainty
You're not in control anyway. How to live without fear of anything in this world and create peace in your life and those around you.
Live with Certainty
Episode 5 - Deuteronomy Reset (Portion 44)
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You can read the Bible for years and still feel stuck in the same loops, so I’m asking a sharper question: what if the “same problem” keeps showing up because God is trying to teach me something I refuse to face? As we move into Deuteronomy (Devarim), I unpack why it functions like Moses’s final summary and last will and testament, and how that framing turns Scripture into a mirror for real change, not just more information.
We talk about the repeating patterns that follow us from place to place and why the answer is rarely another fresh start. I share a teaching on three spiritual energies God gives us to keep growing: desire to do the work, excitement for the process, and perseverance to continue. Deuteronomy also feels like an edit button for your life script, a chance to rewrite old habits, listen to your gut about right and wrong, and step out of victim thinking into responsibility and purpose.
One of the most practical takeaways is a countercultural rule for conflict: waiting three days before responding so the message isn’t powered by anger. From there we connect humility, gratitude, and giving God the glory to a bigger theme of integrity, being the light without performing faith. I also dig into why Jesus speaks in parables and how understanding the Torah makes the New Testament clearer, then tie in Isaiah’s call to repent, confess, and change.
We even zoom out to mindset and reality creation through our words, using Dark Matter as a surprising illustration, and I end with a personal health tip on oral hygiene, plaque as bacteria, and what changed for me with homemade toothpaste and an occasional hydrogen peroxide rinse. Subscribe, share this with a friend who’s ready to break a cycle, and leave a review with the habit you’re rewriting right now.
Resources
https://soundcloud.com/immlutheran/sets
https://www.hebrew4christians.com/Scripture/Parashah/parashah.html#shalom
Deuteronomy As Moses’s Last Words
SPEAKER_00Hello, welcome back to Live with Certainty. This week is portion 44, which is Devereem. So last week we finished up Numbers, and this week starts Deuteronomy. And something that I didn't know is Deuteronomy is basically Moses's summary of the first four books. So it's the first four books were God speaking through Moses to the people, and Deuteronomy is Moses speaking to the people and back to God. It's basically his kind of last will and testament. He knows within 40 days that he will not be entering the promised land. And he's basically summarizing everything that the Israelites have learned and uh just going through and reminding them of their journey. So I thought that was interesting. I didn't know that that's what Deuteronomy was all about. So it's basically an uh Moses is giving them an opportunity to apply everything that they
Why Life Keeps Repeating Itself
SPEAKER_00have learned through all of their journeys. So he's he's kind of going into it with um, you know, there's a reason that you guys keep beating your head against the wall. And it's it's something that I take back into my life. I keep running into the same people and situations over and over and over. And going through this process, I'm learning it's me, it's not them. I'm creating these situations. I am not, I haven't resolved issues within myself that causes me, or that God keeps putting these same people in my path because He keeps telling me, you gotta figure this out, you gotta learn something about yourself, you're never gonna get past it if you don't deal with it. So even though you move, you change jobs, you change your situation, I'm sure it's happened to you guys. It keeps happening over and over and over. So this week is all about recognizing that and dealing with it. Don't keep moving around, don't keep trying to just avoid it. You gotta head it straight on.
Three Energies That Fuel Change
SPEAKER_00And one of the cool things in the teachings this week is that there's three basic energies that God gives us. So there's desire to do the work, there's excitement for the process, and there's perseverance to keep going. So God instills within us those three energies as we read the Torah, as we investigate, as we seek a relationship with Him. And it keeps the the they call it the Torah because that's the portions that we're going through with the Bible, the Torah, it keeps it fresh, it keeps it exciting. Every time you dig in and try to learn a little bit more, these energies come back at you for starting the process, process itself, and then persevering or keeping keeping up with the process. So the more you investigate, the more that you try to get to know him better, the more your more energy is going to come your way to keep going. I thought that was a pretty cool way to look at it. Because I do every week I get so excited. I start listening, and sometimes it's like, yeah, I've heard that before, yeah, I've already I already know that. And then something hits me and it's like, oh my gosh, I just never, never thought about it that way before. And it could be something that I already knew or had heard, but it hit me a different way, or they said it in a different way, and I realized something else about myself. So that that's what I'm hoping to convey to you all is just that excitement to dig in and this portions, how how it's split out, and every week is designated a different week to focus on some new aspect of yourself. That has really helped me a lot. And like we talked about before, I've tried to read the Bible in 52 weeks, but I didn't really get anything out of it. Yes, I read the words on the page, and I'm sure that it drew me closer to him for sure. But getting to know myself more through his eyes in this process, I've never seen anything like it. So I do hope that these little summaries get you excited to go investigate more for yourself and to really build on that relationship with him.
The Edit Button For Your Story
SPEAKER_00So uh another thing they talked about is Deuteronomy is really giving us the freedom to edit our play. So if you think of your life as like a movie script, you get to edit it. This is the edit button. So you've lived a certain way, like the Israelites, they've done the 42 through the 40 years, the 42 journeys, and they're now at the point where they're entering the promised land. And so they get to kind of rewrite their life story. So that's what Deuteronomy is all about, taking in taking an intake of your life, learning from that, and rewriting your script. You don't have to be the same person that you were before. You can change at any time, and that's actually what's encouraged here, right? Is if you keep doing the same thing over and over and over, nothing's ever gonna change. So why not try something new? Why not try something different? And that's what that's what this portion is all about. So some people they get saved, um, but they believe in Jesus, and then they're stuck, they don't do anything else, they keep repeating the same mistakes or they keep sinning in ways that they know that they're sinning. I think our gut always tells us, we know right from wrong. You know, you know, if you really sit here and and and stew on it, you know when you're doing wrong. You can you can cheat other people, you can make them think a certain way, you can try to cheat yourself, but you know you're doing wrong. Your gut always tells you if you're doing right from wrong. So it's listening to that gut, bringing it to the forefront and changing your behavior. Stop doing the same thing over and over again just because you think Susie won't like you anymore, your husband's gonna think something's off. Like, be true to who you are, and it's always gonna end up for the better. It might be hard to get started, but you're always gonna land in a better place. So don't be the victim. Get out of your comfort zone and don't wallow in chaos. Get a sense of excitement for your purpose. So, so just because you've always done it doesn't mean you have to keep doing. That's all about. So, as you as you dig in, you get that excitement, it's gonna give you the courage to change your situation, to acknowledge who you are at your core, bring that up to the forefront and change your life. So it took Moses 40 years to have his say, and that's like I said, what Deuteronomy is all about. And
Wait Three Days Before Responding
SPEAKER_00so a concept that came out this week was waiting and not responding. So if somebody angers you, the um, I guess the Jewish way or the you know the ancient way is you wait three days before you respond. If you respond before the three days, it's from your negative side, it's gonna be from personal anger, and the person that you're trying to get across why you're angry isn't going to receive it because it's being told from your personal angry side, it's not gonna help them at all. They're not gonna get anything out of it. All they're gonna know is that you're mad. And I've always been taught address it right away. So somebody, if you if you feel somebody wronged you, you address it right then. That's a very Western thing to do. So the the Near East way is wait three days. Wow, I that's that's gonna be a struggle because I'm very much a person that I like to address it right now. I sometimes I'll make myself sleep on it overnight if it's a really big thing. As I get older, I force myself to wait till the next day. And sometimes I feel exactly the same, and I it just confirms for me that I was right, and so I need to attack. But three days that would be a whole different ball game, I think. So I throw that out there, kind of gave me pause in my own life to wait three days and see what happens, I guess. But the idea is after three days, you'll be able to approach that person in a respectful um manner that they actually get something out of the conversation. They're willing to hear you, they're gonna, they're going to learn from it as well as your you know participation in what whatever happened. So I thought that was interesting.
Sacred Land And Sacred Memory
SPEAKER_00What they talked about too is where Moses is speaking Deuteronomy is the same place where all these events happened. So it's where John baptized people in the river, it's where Elijah ascended and Elisha received his double portion. It's the it's the where uh Jesus was crucified, it's where Isaac was put up for, you know, he wasn't sacrificed, but where he was put up for sacrifice. So all of these aspects happened in the same place. That's what these portions are all about. The the land isn't just the land, it's sacred land where all of these things were destined to happen. So I thought that was really interesting this week, too, is that all of these things are taking place in the same location. One
Blessings Found In Defeat
SPEAKER_00thing that this week is trying to teach us is finding blessings in our defeats and our victories. So when you evaluate your life, taking time to look at both where you were successful and where you were defeated, and learning something about yourself and trying to apply that. Remember moments of despair and happiness, but have self-compassion. Don't keep beating yourself up over little things or big things. They've happened. What could we do differently? Where do we need to rely on God? Can you see now that God was with you, that He didn't abandon you? I always try to have that perspective when something bad is happening to me. I my prayer is that I will understand at some point why this happened and what good came of it. I do think good always comes of it. It may not be good for you, but maybe somebody that you know, or just having faith that God distracted Satan with something in your life so that he could bring good to somebody else. So just reflecting on that and not not taking it too hard and not being hopeless when these when these bad things are happening, because it it you'll always be confronted, even if you're fully in God, you believe, you're doing the work, you're excited about it, bad things are still going to happen, and you can't fall back to, well, you know, it wasn't good enough, or God abandoned me, or he's always going to be there. And so the self-reflection is is verifying for you that he is was always there and that you have these situations and circumstances from the past to realize that and know going forward you have something to fall back on. So if you if you don't fall back on the idea that God didn't abandon you, you're gonna really struggle going forward with a positive attitude when things happen. You can't despair, you can't let it all fall apart, you can't blame everybody else for what happened. Bad things are gonna happen. And so it's having that foundation to deal with. The other thing was to not build ourselves
Humility Without Performing Faith
SPEAKER_00up. So if you're successful, if you've got a lot of accomplishments, to not build your ego, to be graceful, to be grateful, to give the glory to God for those things that happen to you. I was at a um coffee shop locally that's owned by a man who's very devout Christian. You go in there and there's all kinds of things about God and Jesus. There's books, there's t-shirts, there's sayings. Um, very devout Christian man. And so I went in there one Saturday and he was there, the owner. Usually I see the the kids who work in there, but he was there. And I never said anything. I didn't um ask anything. And so we were just chatting about we just moved here and you know, different things. And all of a sudden, he just has to tell me about how wonderful his son is. He was in this piano recital, he got all these accolades, he's so smart, he's getting a it was so weird. Like I'm very happy for his son, I'm happy for him, it was very joyous. I it was so odd though. It was like he wanted me to know for some reason that his son was very successful and that you know reflected on him, which was great, but so odd. So I don't know why, and and he never talked about God, he never talked about Jesus being grateful, or you know, it was all his kid and how great he was, and uh you know, he's gonna do great things, which is obviously fantastic, but no glory to God, no never said anything about how wonderful God has worked through their lives, or or Jesus, or anything like that. So I thought that was really weird. It I think that's just an example of people who walk through this world and believe they're saved, but then kind of leave it there and don't really, you know, they want all these people to know that they they're God fearing and they believe in Jesus, and then they kind of get away with treating people not very well or not doing the right thing, or I don't know. And I I think that's what's intriguing about this week is changing ourselves so that we always give the glory to God, that we're always humbled, that we're always grateful, that we're always graceful. And I don't have to wear a big banner, I don't have to wear t-shirts, I don't have to, you know, have a cross in my car. Um, hopefully, when people meet me and they they talk to me, that they know I have God in my heart, and that's really the whole um, you know, as we journey that you are the light in the world, that you are the light in the chaos. As the world gets darker and darker, you have to speak the truth. And so I do hope that I reflect that in my life. I don't, I don't know that I do, but that's what I I hope that I do. And I don't have to wear a big banner and then treat people like you know, not the way God would want us to treat them. So um I thought that was, you know, just something to think about this week as well. One thing
Parables And The Torah Connection
SPEAKER_00that they talked about is why Jesus talks in parables. I thought this was really interesting. I always kind of wondered that, you know, when you read the New Testament, it's all about parables, and sometimes I can follow it, and sometimes I have a little hard time with the parables. I don't get it right away because I, you know, I obviously don't know my Bible. But what they say is that everything Jesus spoke about in the New Testament came from the Torah. So every parable, every word he ever spoke, everything he ever did was fulfillment of the Torah. You can find everything in the Torah, and I thought that was interesting to hear that. And um one of the parables that he talked about was John being the bridegroom. And so you you hear the bride and bridegroom all the time in the parables, and so he specifically talked about John the Baptist being the bridegroom. So when when a couple gets married back in this time, the friend of the bride, I'm sorry, that John was the friend of the bridegroom. I misspoke, I apologize. John was the friend of the bridegroom. So the friend of the bridegroom's job was basically making sure that the bride was safe, that she was taken care of, that she would make it to the wedding at some point when the wedding happens, that he was responsible for all of that. So basically paving the way for the wedding, for the bride, for the groom to arrive. And so that's one of the parables around John is that he was preparing the way for Jesus, for Jesus to arrive. And I thought that I thought that helped make sense of some of these parables that are that are happening. So if you don't know the Torah very well, it's going to be harder to understand the New Testament. And I know a lot of people that don't read the Old Testament at all. They kind of discount it that none of the it's for some people the Old Testament is just laws, and the laws were done away with when Jesus came on the scene. And the only way to really know Jesus is to understand what he knew at the time that he was on this earth, and he would have been taught the Torah. That's what they learned in school, that's everything that they spoke about, that's what they knew. He was a rabbi. So obviously, knowing the Torah, the Old Testament, is going to help us know Jesus. So that was another thing that came out uh this week.
Isaiah’s Call To Repent And Confess
SPEAKER_00He I think I spoke about it about it earlier, is the haftarah, which is the prophet portion that goes along with the regular portion. And so this week was Isaiah, and Isaiah was chastising the people for their cities being in ruins, their people being destitute, there's no food, all these bad things are happening. Yet they keep going through the motions, they keep offering their sacrifices, they keep saying their prayers, but they don't change their heart, they don't change their attitude, they don't actually love people where they're at. They keep sinning and sinning and sinning and sinning and not turning their hearts to God, and their cities are in absolute ruin. So Isaiah is kind of like, what's it gonna take? You know, God wants your heart. What is it gonna take for you to repent and turn to him with your whole heart? So he gives us a formula for turning, and it's repent and confess. God sees all anyway, so you're not hiding anything from him, he sees everything. It's really all about admitting it to yourself, and that's one of the things for me that has changed in going through these portions is when I prayed, I was always, I thought I had to pray for other people all the time. So you'd be in the prayer circles and you know, pray for Josie, pray for Susie, pray for Max, pray for Mike, pray for our prayer chain, pay, pray for all these people. And so you, you know, pray for pray for them, pray for their sickness, pray for their illness, pray for whatever. And we, I don't think we spend a lot of time on ourselves. And this is really, you have to pray for your change, you have to pray for where you are doing wrong, where you are being hard-hearted, where you're where the log is in your eye. So my prayers are totally different now. I do pray for people that I I personally know and that I believe God can change their heart or their situation or use me to help lead them somewhere where they're struggling. But I don't do a million prayers for all these people. It it's really about changing us and our hearts and the way that we present ourselves to the world, because through that we will help other people, and that's the only reason I'm really doing this podcast. It's not because I woke up one day and said, you know, I should do a podcast. I was I was kind of led here. I through all of this, this is where you know I'm getting out of my comfort zone and trying to do something that is useful and that hopefully. Reaches people to help them see where they can change their lives, which then impacts, you know, it's that ripple effect. If if you change your life, maybe you change somebody else's life, and God kingdom, God's kingdom just keeps growing and expanding. And I I pray that I am useful in that way. But believe me, a year ago, this is not what I was praying for. I was, I felt like I was always doing the right thing, that I just pray, pray, pray, pray, pray for all these people. But didn't I didn't feel any different. I would get off my knees and you know, I was humbled and I felt better, but you know, my life was kind of, excuse me, my life was kind of the same. I didn't, I didn't have this true feeling of change within my heart. You know, now I almost feel like electric, like my skin's always kind of tingly. I don't know. I I think it does manifest itself physically, along with internally and spiritually, and all those things. When I sleep, I get these kind of like electric pulses. So I just think I'm more in tune with the environment and with things that are going on around me. I can sense when something's not right or not, you know, my gut really talks to me nowadays. So I do think the more you work on yourself, the more that you'll be in tune with the world and the environment, and that you will enact change in yourself and in others. But it goes back to praying these things into your heart and changing your way. So repent, confess, and change. And you will know what needs to be changed. You will feel it, you will know it. Um, it's pretty incredible.
Your Words Create Your Reality
SPEAKER_00Just watch this show called Dark Matter. I'm gonna try to not change um blow the plot up if you haven't watched it. But I I really got out of it, and I'm sure that the writers of the show probably didn't have this in mind. Maybe they did. I think that would be wonderful. But Dark Matter is about this guy that um is a scientist, and he thinks that he can you know get on to he thinks there's a multiverse, and so there's many, many, many different hymns out there, and he wants to find the hymn that um didn't get married to the the girl that he was dating and have a child. So the only way for him to achieve getting into this world is speaking and writing and having a true understanding in himself of what this world looks like and is like. So he he ends up opening all these doors and it's just chaos, it's dark, there's it, you know, it takes him a long time to land where he wants to be. And if you if you go back to this whole God and and in the beginning was the word, the word speaks worlds, you know, God spoke this world into being. Your words speak worlds, your thoughts create reality, and so I thought it was a great show. If you if you're watching it with kind of that mind frame or frame of mind, I'm sorry, then it it's really interesting because he just he has to try so hard and he keeps focusing on what she looked like and what she wore and how they met. And it wasn't until he got really deep inside how he felt and what he knew about himself and their relationship that he was actually able to achieve getting into the world that he wanted to get into. So I thought that was, you know, if you watch that show, it's just it creates this mindfulness about you create the reality that you want to be in, that you want to live in. You speak your reality into existence. So if you're always speaking negatively and um putting up with the same people and doing the same thing over and over, you're creating that reality. It wasn't created for you, nobody else put you in that situation. You can get out of all situations, but you have to believe it, you have to live it, you have to know it, you have to feel it. So that show was really good uh if you look at it from kind of that that frame of mind. So um I highly recommend that one if you if you can uh if you're into that kind of thing, it's kind of a sci-fi thing, I guess. But I just thought it was really interesting on the screen to see uh how we can have that relationship with God, but you have to you have to live it, you can't just fake it, which is what most of us try to do.
A Homemade Toothpaste Health Tip
SPEAKER_00So I kind of want to end with a health tip. I spent a lot of my time, even before I started the portions, with health and things that maybe you don't know. And so I I think maybe every week I'm going to speak about something that I've learned. I'm obviously not a doctor. I I didn't go to school to be a doctor, I don't know anything about being a doctor. All I know is what's worked for me, and so it's something for you to research and investigate on your own, and maybe it sounds interesting to you, and maybe it doesn't, and you know, you can take it or leave it. But one thing that I researched a lot was toothpaste, and I always wondered why some people are more susceptible to um cavities and and receding gums, and you know, if you really look at your teeth, it's kind of the gateway to your body. So if you have a healthy mouth and healthy teeth, typically your health is pretty good. You don't have a lot of problems. If you do have bad teeth, bad gums, bad breath, bad all that, you tend to have less, you know, your health maybe not as good. So I don't know if you've ever thought about that, but something to investigate. If you had a lot of health problems, does your mouth have a lot of issues? So, one thing that I started doing, and I was religious, I would go to the dentist every six months, I would have my teeth cleaned, it was covered in my insurance, never thought twice about it, but I could tell that my mouth wasn't getting better, it was just kind of always the same. And um, I started investigating toothpaste. So if you look at plaque, plaque is bacteria, and um, if plaque sits for too long, then it causes tartar. And I was always, I never made sense to me. I brush my teeth religiously, I don't floss probably as much as I should, but I do floss. So, and I always had tartar, you know, they're always digging, digging, digging, scraping, scraping, scraping. And I'm like, how come, you know, I brush, how come I still end up with this tartar and this plaque? So if you if you go back and look, plaque is bacteria. So our toothpaste is not killing the bacteria, and our toothbrushes are not removing this bacteria. So I started researching making my own toothpaste, and I kind of got into the whole homesteading thing. I got into sourdough bread, I have chickens now. I was way down the path. So I started making all kinds of, I started making soaps, I started making toothpaste. And I will tell you, my mouth has changed 180 degrees from when I was just using regular toothpaste with fluoride, without fluoride, didn't matter. But I I have a uh a um uh recipe that I use for making my own toothpaste, super easy. It's stuff you can get at the store, and it's basically coconut oil based with some other things included, and I never get plaque. I have not been to the dentist in probably five years. I just went not that long ago because I have an old filling I was thinking about getting removed, and she had no idea I hadn't been to the dentist in years. She said, My teeth look great. Where was I getting my um dental checkups done? I'm like, well, I haven't been in years, and she was flabbergasted, she had no idea. Um, she did the little where you uh measure your gums, and mine were all ones, and before I was always three to five. So I mean, this homemade toothpaste has really done wonders for me. I know um some of my gums and some of the areas were receding, and those are all coming back in. The other thing I did was started rinsing with hydrogen peroxide. So you don't have to do it every day, but you gargle and rinse your mouth out with just hydrogen peroxide, you can buy it at the store. I think it's 1% or 3%, something like that. It's not super strong, but it gets super foamy and you gargle with it. But that obviously kills bacteria, right? So I think between those two things, um, it has really changed for me. So I just want to throw that out there for you that something maybe to investigate, maybe to see if that would work for you. I've never found a toothpaste that I could buy that's similar to the one that I make uh for traveling. I I do have like a um, I don't know what it's called, but like an organic toothpaste. It's not like the one that I, but it's easier to travel with because I put mine in like a little glass jar. It doesn't squeeze from a toothpaste very well, um, like a tube very well, but it's worth it for me. I don't travel a lot. So if you travel a lot, you know, there's other ways you can take the toothpaste with you. There's little or containers. So um no excuses, right? No excuses. So if it works for you, though there's a you know, find a way to make it work. But if you want the recipe, I've got my email in the description and I I'm happy to send it to you. But um it's it's something that I has really worked for me, and I encourage you to look into for yourself.
Closing And Recipe Offer
SPEAKER_00So I hope you enjoyed this episode. Uh God bless you all, and I hope you join me next week.