“We may believe that Jesus never took particular notice of the exterior part of the temple. He examined what was going on within.”
-Johann Albrecht
I’m the guy responsible for posting quotes, upcoming events, etc; to our church marquee. I posted the quote seen in this shot about a week and a half ago.
A week later, while preparing to place a new quote on the marquee I noticed that perhaps the message was a bit out of order (literally). Whadda ya think?
Was I insinuating? “Yea!! Come on in get saved this Sunday… then die right after service!”
I think that maybe I freaked some folks out with this one, that Sunday’s service did seem a bit sparse come to think of it. 
NOTE TO SELF:
Pay attention to what you put up on the marquee, knucklehead.
Grace and peace be with you.
In yesterday’s post I made mention of how in Old Testament times the Israelites repeatedly turned away from God. I went on in comedic relief, giving a description of the Israelites conviction and turning away from their false gods. I start off again today recollecting with similar description of tears, runny noses, and a mournful heart concerning the early days of my renewed walk with Christ. I went through a tearful period of conviction by the Holy Spirit revealing sin in my life. I had acknowledge problem areas, adjusted and thought things were fine between God and I.
Peering back at those early months I think that the initial stumbling spells I had were a result of seeking Biblical knowledge, but not grasping the critical and essential difference between seeking knowledge of God versus seeking God through His Word.
Months later, after having adjusted how I approached The Father, I began having that feeling of a distance between myself and God. Fueled by the desire to now comprehend from God’s perspective, what “it” 
was that I was missing, I found that jealousy issues were rooted in my heart. Talk about being shocked. I was utterly repulsed upon discovering this character flaw, this SIN! This revelation wasn’t immediate though, it took some “soul searching” and submission to dig up this impediment. I believe that it only came to me because I finally reached a broken state. I finally had enough one evening, not of God, but of myself, of my flesh. Frustration had set in from not finding the answers on my terms. I was tired of warring with God. I was tired of straddling the fence. I gave up. I had enough of my flesh, I had enough of it’s vileness, it’s corrupt and deceitful ways. I knew in my spirit that until the sinful attitude of jealousy was addressed (James 5:16), it was still just another bump in the road affecting my walk with Christ, hindering it.
This is when I began to no longer view God as some grand school teacher, nor as the Creator with the constant scowl on His brow, just waiting to smote me once I screwed up. I now saw Him, Jesus as the only way to truly resolve my issues. I saw Christ not as a therapist that I paid to merely hear my problems, but as someone that desires to come along side of me during my troubles because He is a friend that truly cares for me.
Grace and peace be with you.
A continued train of thought from today’s previous post…
With a friend, there comes a certain amount of trust and faith,an expectation given that they’ll be there for you through the highs and the lows. Coincidentally or not and loosely connected, the devotional readings from the past two evenings have dealt specifically on the subject of faith. From last night’s devotional, The Shield of Faith coming from Ephesians 6:16 was read.
Ephesians 6:16
16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.
The devotional’s author Rick Renner, provides some imagery from Greek and Roman culture to represent the shield and our God given faith(Romans 12:3). Paraphrasing Renner: The word “shield” is derived from the Greek word THUREOS, which described an oblong door that was wide in width and long in length. The mental image of a shield that I normally have is something slightly wider than a forearm and long enough to cover most of the torso when held up at chest height. According to the description of THUREOS however, this “shield” that Paul Renner speaks of is massive; large enough to completely cover a soldier. This shield offers maximum protection!
Attributes of the Roman soldier’s shield:
Now, if the Roman soldier failed to go about his daily duty to maintain his shield, it would become hardened, liable to crack under pressure. This in turn would put the soldier’s life in danger, his life depended on his equipment functioning as designed. In a like manner Paul uses the shield as a metaphor of our faith to express the point that daily maintenance is required of our faith. Which segues nicely into the devotional from Tuesday.
As the Roman soldier’s shield required oil rubbed into it daily to stay conditioned, this thought of spiritual conditioning is expressed, again by Renner in his reflections of anointing in Psalm 92:10.
Psalm 92:10
10 But my horn shalt thou exalt like the horn of an unicorn: I shall be anointed with fresh oil.
CHRIO the Greek word for “anoint”,is a a word often used to describe the smearing or rubbing of oil or perfume on a person. The visual here would be of a physician in ancient times deeply rubbing oil into the sore muscles of someone. Since oil was very expensive in those times, it was common for the physician to have someone pour oil into his hands for application versus liberally pouring it directly onto the patient’s body. Renner’s point here is not the oil itself but rather the one applying the oil, the act as he describes is a hand’s on procedure. Renner’s illustration is to make the point that it is the hands of The Father (The Great Anointer) that are laid upon us when we seek a fresh anointing of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
Shields up!
Grace and peace be with you.
Coming off of a busy weekend, and with an even busier one ahead; I was thinking this evening of how quickly life can jump on and distract a person from maintaining their focus on God. Even when it’s a matter of doing Kingdom work it’s possible to become distracted from actually spending time with the Lord, by the preparation for the task at hand.
Reflecting on the past 8-9 months since getting this little ‘ole blog up and running I can recall several times where other things that were also going on began to take precedence, be it preparation for an inspection at work, making it to physical therapy, Christmas shopping, making up lost hours or just letting life’s potholes in the road distract. Inevitably there would be those stints where actual time spent with the Lord in prayer and in His Word took a back seat to my temporal concerns. Then came the lack of "feeling" God in my life.
To put it in a slightly different perspective, consider your own flesh and blood relationship(s). Have you ever been in a relationship (not necessarily of the romantic variety) where you felt as though you were the party putting forth what felt like all of the effort or at least most of the effort to make it work? Maybe it seemed as though you were the one constantly fighting to get the other person’s attention or input, yet they were too busy with other things in life to to appreciate not just the effort on your part but the reason for the effort? To you, you were fighting tooth and nail to maintain and strengthen the relationship, to solidify the bond.
Perhaps after some time of fighting what felt like an uphill battle, you finally give up. After doing so, after the relationship dissolves into something resembling more of a casual acquaintance rather than a tight bond, the other party then takes notice and also realizes that things have changed, the relationship doesn’t feel like it has that particular level of comfort and familiarity to it anymore. The relationship is now two people who are acquainted with each other, but don’t know each other, they’ve allowed something(s) to come between them which causes feelings of alienation.
For the past month I suppose, I’ve been reading quite a bit from the Old Testament. Specifically Deuteronomy, Joshua and Judges. I have to confess that a lot of what I read wasn’t absorbed quickly, the light bulb just wasn’t coming on right away. Back to the point… I was reading various passages throughout, every other chapter seeming as though the Israelites were getting into a skirmish with another nation. When they walked with God (specifically when they were obedient to Him) they as a nation prospered, they were successful in their military campaigns against the wicked nations. However,when the Israelites turned their backs on God, and began worshiping idols of neighboring nations and or prostituting themselves; God in turn turned a deaf ear to them, He let them into their enemies hands. Until that is, Israel repented from it’s wicked ways and humbled itself to the Lord. I’m talking about weeping buckets O tears! The mascara smudging,salty tears in the corner of their contorted mouths with snot dripping from their noses; the grave realization of their trespass, their unfaithfulness to the Lord preceding a wailing of "Oh my God, what have I done!" kind of humbled.
I think that sometimes when I’ve had my moments of what I perceived as walking it alone, the reality of the situation was somewhere between God trying to get my attention and Him waiting for me either to trust in Him or to just remember Him as the top priority. I look back at some of those moments of "silence" as God allowing me to endure just enough pain, or experience the feeling of having a void to earnestly seek and take notice of Him. To notice and know that He is still there and in control. Funny sometimes how you don’t miss someone until you think that they’re gone. Through the growing pains,the bumps, bruises and battle scars, God will however, like clock work be there waiting for you.
Deuteronomy 31:6
6 Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the LORD your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you."
Grace and peace be with you.