Matthew 21:12 says, "Then Jesus went into the temple of God and drove out all those who bought and sold in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves" (NKJV).
It's interesting to me that this is also how Jesus fixes the issues within you. I was reading a lot of interrelated and not related stuff today that started to make sense to me after a minute. Hopefully you can follow me. I started with Matthew 9:25, which says, "But when the crowd was put outside, He went in and took her by the hand and the girl arose." I loved it! God will come in and take your hand and you'll come up from you death bed. Often when we're going through issues in life we think we're in that valley of the shadow of death (Psalm 23:4), but God will guide us through it. Even when the world says that you're as good as dead, Jesus knows better because He sees past this moment when you're in the valley. He pushes the world away from you, which is why when we are in a period of trial we are often isolated, so that He can work on us and lift us out and no one can say it was anyone but Him.
There are other times that Jesus took someone by the hand and lifted them out from their place that was like death. Matthew 8:3, Matthew 8:15, Mark 1:31, Matthew 9:29-30, and Matthew 14:31. However, when Christ comes into your life, you need to be ready for Him to shake some stuff up and break some stuff. He's going to heal your hurt, sickness, pain, etc. and bring you up, but just like after you have the flu, you need to clean house. When Christ cleans house in the temple that is you, some of that stuff is going to be broken. Most likely you've built walls here and there that you think will help keep your temple ceiling up, but in Matthew 24:1-2, Jesus said all of the stones making the walls will come down. No question about it, those walls are going to break. Well, when something breaks, a bunch of pieces are going to be left and they can't stay there. You've got to sweep them away or they'll just collect and turn into a big mess and probably hurt your feet, plus you can't be walking around like a big mess on the inside. If you're a big old mess, you won't be able to function in your purpose correctly or move forward because you'll just keep tripping on the pieces and getting hurt all over again. You've got to sweep those pieces out. How? You've got to praise them out. Praise the broken pieces of your past issues out of your life.
You've got some major construction and renovation going on in you all by the hand of Christ. He's got to do some heavy lifting because you're going to get tired of holding those bricks up and pushing them around so just let Him push them out of your life. You cannot do it, at least not alone. Christ doesn't have any heavy issues, I mean He's God. What issues would He have? Anyway, He's willing to trade His lack of issues with you for your mess (Matthew 8:2; 11:29-30) if you are. Sounds like a pretty great deal to me :) In order to take His burden--which is nothing--you have to give Him yours because fighting to hand it over will just cause you to topple. How do you give your issues to Him? Praise, worship, prayer, and fasting. You see the funny thing about trading burdens is that you get a whole lot of awesome things instead like peace, joy, comfort, rest, and hope among other things. Why not try trading?
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Saturday, June 14, 2008
A Broken Bible
Joshua 1:8 (NKJV) says, "This Book of the Law shall no depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success."
I have a friend who is just awesome to me. She is about 23-24 years old (her birthday is within the next week) and she has the most worn out Bible I have ever seen-even more so than two of mine. It can't even be called a book anymore. It's just a stack of papers. Every page has writing going every which way on the margins, between the lines, arrows to show which way she was writing, and pieces of paper stuffed between the pages with notes from sermons and messages over the years. That thing is used! She got a new Bible a while back (maybe four to six months ago) and now that thing is about to split out, too. She even got the nice European leather binding, but it's about to go. It is stuffed with notes, writing, reflections, etc. It's a study Bible so at print is was about 1 1/4 inches thick, now with her used it's about 2 1/2 inches thick. That's a lot of notes and use.
You know, she is one of the most blessed people I know. She has a great job, an enviable apartment, a nice car that's only one to two years old (that she got brand new), a good sized savings account, everything a young twenty-something would hope for just a year after graduating college. She has made a resolution to save herself for marriage and tries to avoid men because she doesn't want to be distracted from God; and, she teaches Sunday school to pre-kindergarten and kindergarten kids. Let me tell you, she's got her stuff together and is one of the sweetest people you will ever meet. Now she has tests and trials come her way like the rest of us, but she knows God's promises to her. I have yet to see her fail a test so repeats are not for her. God has shown her how to truly live in a way that can only come from following Him and His word.
I want my new Bible to be as broken as her old one. I got myself a new one in May for my college graduation present to myself. I sold back about four semesters worth of books that were nothing but of the world that caused me to question every aspect of my faith, which happens in college, for a new NKJV Updated MacArthur Study Bible. Although I don't agree with all of the notes in it, especially on the sections about Spiritual gifts, I like it a lot.
My last Bible that I just loved was a NKJV Spirit Filled Life Student Study Bible. That one I used for a good year and praise the Lord I got the leather binding because otherwise it would have been long gone after six months. I don't stuff a lot of notes in my Bibles because then I can't flip through it as fast (and I like to have a pretty journal, lol), but I get on some sticky notes. It is colored to the max (I like to use a few colored pencils to mark my favorite sections--meaning just about everything so it looks like a rainbow inside), but the binding is still intact. I want my new Bible to be just as broken as hers because I want to have success on the level that can only be God that I see in her life. I'm not saying I want her life, but I do want to be as much of a testimony as she is to others like she is to me.
God has been really pressing on my heart about pursuit. I keep praying and asking God for a man to pursue me like none other and the response I keep getting is, "Pursue Me like you want to be pursued." I once heard that one of the New Testament martyrs was on his knees before God so much that his knees had callouses. While I don't want callous on my knees because that's not very attractive in a skirt, I want to have that type of devotion. I want the type of devotion that my friend has in her word. I want all I have to be worn out and broken before God for His glory. I don't want to have the spiritual temperature of even one degree below fire. I want to be so on fire for God and so devoted to His purpose and plan for my life that I have no relation to lukewarm at all. I don't even want that word to be in my vocabulary of description for myself so much so that others won't have that word in theirs either.
I want a broken Bible and, secretly, I want to glow not just in the spirit, but in the flesh. A guy I know is so annointed and so devoted to God that whenever I see him, even just pictures of him, he glows and he's only about 21-22 years old. I want to glow and fall apart in worship at the mention of the name of Jesus :)
First step, break my Bible in...
I have a friend who is just awesome to me. She is about 23-24 years old (her birthday is within the next week) and she has the most worn out Bible I have ever seen-even more so than two of mine. It can't even be called a book anymore. It's just a stack of papers. Every page has writing going every which way on the margins, between the lines, arrows to show which way she was writing, and pieces of paper stuffed between the pages with notes from sermons and messages over the years. That thing is used! She got a new Bible a while back (maybe four to six months ago) and now that thing is about to split out, too. She even got the nice European leather binding, but it's about to go. It is stuffed with notes, writing, reflections, etc. It's a study Bible so at print is was about 1 1/4 inches thick, now with her used it's about 2 1/2 inches thick. That's a lot of notes and use.
You know, she is one of the most blessed people I know. She has a great job, an enviable apartment, a nice car that's only one to two years old (that she got brand new), a good sized savings account, everything a young twenty-something would hope for just a year after graduating college. She has made a resolution to save herself for marriage and tries to avoid men because she doesn't want to be distracted from God; and, she teaches Sunday school to pre-kindergarten and kindergarten kids. Let me tell you, she's got her stuff together and is one of the sweetest people you will ever meet. Now she has tests and trials come her way like the rest of us, but she knows God's promises to her. I have yet to see her fail a test so repeats are not for her. God has shown her how to truly live in a way that can only come from following Him and His word.
I want my new Bible to be as broken as her old one. I got myself a new one in May for my college graduation present to myself. I sold back about four semesters worth of books that were nothing but of the world that caused me to question every aspect of my faith, which happens in college, for a new NKJV Updated MacArthur Study Bible. Although I don't agree with all of the notes in it, especially on the sections about Spiritual gifts, I like it a lot.
My last Bible that I just loved was a NKJV Spirit Filled Life Student Study Bible. That one I used for a good year and praise the Lord I got the leather binding because otherwise it would have been long gone after six months. I don't stuff a lot of notes in my Bibles because then I can't flip through it as fast (and I like to have a pretty journal, lol), but I get on some sticky notes. It is colored to the max (I like to use a few colored pencils to mark my favorite sections--meaning just about everything so it looks like a rainbow inside), but the binding is still intact. I want my new Bible to be just as broken as hers because I want to have success on the level that can only be God that I see in her life. I'm not saying I want her life, but I do want to be as much of a testimony as she is to others like she is to me.
God has been really pressing on my heart about pursuit. I keep praying and asking God for a man to pursue me like none other and the response I keep getting is, "Pursue Me like you want to be pursued." I once heard that one of the New Testament martyrs was on his knees before God so much that his knees had callouses. While I don't want callous on my knees because that's not very attractive in a skirt, I want to have that type of devotion. I want the type of devotion that my friend has in her word. I want all I have to be worn out and broken before God for His glory. I don't want to have the spiritual temperature of even one degree below fire. I want to be so on fire for God and so devoted to His purpose and plan for my life that I have no relation to lukewarm at all. I don't even want that word to be in my vocabulary of description for myself so much so that others won't have that word in theirs either.
I want a broken Bible and, secretly, I want to glow not just in the spirit, but in the flesh. A guy I know is so annointed and so devoted to God that whenever I see him, even just pictures of him, he glows and he's only about 21-22 years old. I want to glow and fall apart in worship at the mention of the name of Jesus :)
First step, break my Bible in...
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