The Feast of Tabernacles is the final of three large holidays that occur during the annual Jewish calendar. Occuring during the fall each year, this feast was commanded by God as a time of joy and celebration. It took place after the final harvest and all the hard labor was over. Along with Passover and Pentecost, the Feast of Tabernacles was to take place in Jerusalem to celebrate not only God's provision, but His presence as well. During this feast, the participants were commanded to build booths or "tabernacles" if you will and live within their walls for the entirety of the holiday. This was to commemmorate Israel's time in the wilderness and to dwell on the fact that God was there during their time of need and provided. The picture of a tabernacle is used throughout the Scripture to illustrate the presence of God. In John 1:14 says that "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth." The literal interpretion of this says that Jesus literally "pitched His tent among us" relating to the picture of the temporary dwelling of God in the tabernacle during the years of exile in the wilderness of Sinai.
Think on this with me for a moment. 2 Corinthians 5:1-5 says the following:
"For we know that if the tent, which is our earthly home, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling, if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked. For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened--not that we would be unclothed, but aht we would be further clothed, so taht what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. He who prepared for us this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee."
This is mind blowing. Just as the Spirit of God dwelt in the very tabernacle of the exodus years, He dwells within our bodies (tents) as a guarantee for our permanent dwelling in heaven. Just as the Jews rejoiced over the fact of the provision and presence of God during the feast of tabernacles, how much more should we as followers of Christ rejoice in the fact that His very Spirit dwells within us. Where His presence dwells, there is great cause for celebration.
I know I take this fact for granted on a daily basis. Father, help me not to lose sight over the fact that Your very presence and Spirit dwells within me, just as it dwelt within the tabernacle of the Old Testament. You are still the same God that lead the nation of Israel in a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. Please guide me in that way! You provided for Israel during the exodus and I know that You have promised to provide our needs as well. I celebrate your provision and presence tonight! Amen.
1.29.2007
1.18.2007
chronicle (repost)
[I was looking through some of my older posts the other day and I came upon this one I entitled chronicle. It reminded me once again of how desperate and dependent I must be on my God and Savior Jesus Christ. This is my heart revealed...]
The Truth will set you free indeed! I no longer stand in condemnation before my God and Master! He has forgiven me of all my sin--past, present, and future! I am no longer in bondage to this force we call sin! I am a new creature! I am restored back to what I was originally created for--to glorify and reflect God's glory! He continues to chip away every area of my life that is not like Christ, until one day when I stand before Him, I will be like Him! I am a citizen of heaven! He chooses not to view me for what I am here on this earth (aka a sinful human being), rather He sees Christ in me and for who I will be some day when I stand before Him. I have a mission! I have been commissioned by Him to live my life in such a way that represents Him to the unbelieving world! "Go into all the world and preach the gospel". This is a high calling, but how many times do I misrepresent Him? How many times do I allow my pride get in the way of the opportunities presented to me each day to share my faith? How many people will I have to look in the face with tears in my eyes and with no excuse tell them I'm sorry for not telling them the answer to why they had a void in their life that nothing would fill? How many souls have I let slip away without taking the time to go out of my way to build a relationship with the outcasts? I am guilty, guilty, guilty! Every day I allow these opportunities to slip out of sight and I blatantly misrepresent Christ to these souls I encounter! Do I really believe that every knee will bow before God? What am I doing to really make a difference? Jesus loved me so much that He was willing to experience separation from His Father or Abba for the first and only time in His eternal essence and being. My sin was laid on Him and He paid the price for my soul with His blood. The least I can do is give my life to Him fully! Go wherever He wants me to go! Do whatever He wants me to do! Maybe it means I will go without the luxuries of a good paying job! Maybe I will have to suffer physically or be ridiculed publicly! But so be it! "Whoever desires to live godly will be persecuted!" That's a promise! I am a man who has lived for twenty-three years without fully giving every area of my life to Him! I worry about things that I shouldn't worry about! How many times do I pray without faith? How many times do I read the Bible not really believing that God is speaking to me? I have a personal relationship with the Creator of the universe! I can "come boldly before His throne" anytime I please! That's a privilege that many of the Old Testament prophets, priests, and patriarchs didn't have! Better yet, His Spirit lives within me! I am commanded to be filled with the Spirit! The very Spirit that raised Christ from the dead lives within me! Why do I doubt? Please, God, give me faith! Give me passion! But most of all, give me a desire to love! I cannot help but be drawn to you! The more I know you, the more I don't understand! But at the same time, I cannot help but stand in amazement that you love me! And I "know" that you present to me so many opportunities to represent this love to others! But I choose to spit in your faith and abuse the grace that you have given me so freely! God forbid! But for some reason, you continually draw me back to you! Everytime I give into the passions of men, you stand ready to receive me back into your arms with outstretched hands showing me the scars! Need I see more? You took upon yourself the punishment that I should have received! I should be damned to spend an eterninity in Hell! You chose to experience the separation from God for a temporary time so that I would not have to spend an eternity in separation paying for the debt that I rightfully owed! I don't understand! This blows my mind! What can I ever do to repay you! Even my "righteousness is as filthy rags"! I cannot possibly earn favor with you! It's futile! There's only one thing that I can do! Take what you have given me and live my life in such a way that other's can see You living in me! There's nothing in me that is worthy! But you are worthy! You chose to come to this earth so that I could catch but a glimpse of what it is to love my brothers and sisters, outcasts and sinners! You showed me what it meant to speak to a known whore at a well and have the courage to open your mouth and proclaim to her that only You can satisfy and to go and sin no more! You showed me what it meant to be accused of being a "wine-bibber" and a friend of sinners! You took the time to get to know these souls! You saw them not for who they were, but for who they would become complete in your love! You showed me what it means to surround yourself around a group of believers who were committed to Your cause--the Gospel! You showed me what it meant to weep and cry over souls that would not accept you, and a dear friend that had died! You showed me what it means to be beaten to a bloody pulp, stripped naked, spit on, humiliated, nailed to a tree, but ultimately proclaim--"Abba, forgive them, for they know not what they do!". Just as God made His appeal through Christ, You are making your appeal to man through me and the body of Christ! I cannot do this on my own, but You are continually taking me by the hand and showing me that I am not alone. You have given me parents and a family who have taught me to love You and Your Word! You have given me friends devoted to You and Your cause and like "iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another." I believe that You have given me a wife someday that will be devoted to You and Your cause and together we will be commited to growing closer to You and what You have! You have given me time! Precious time to take each second and make it sacred to take what is temporal and turn into the eternal! I am on this earth to impress no one! I am only here to be vessel in Your hands and accomplish what You have, so that one day or moment I can stand before you and here you say, "Well done, my good and faithful servant! Enter now into the joy of the Lord!" As I continue to live this paradox called life, may this forever be my prayer, Amen!
The Truth will set you free indeed! I no longer stand in condemnation before my God and Master! He has forgiven me of all my sin--past, present, and future! I am no longer in bondage to this force we call sin! I am a new creature! I am restored back to what I was originally created for--to glorify and reflect God's glory! He continues to chip away every area of my life that is not like Christ, until one day when I stand before Him, I will be like Him! I am a citizen of heaven! He chooses not to view me for what I am here on this earth (aka a sinful human being), rather He sees Christ in me and for who I will be some day when I stand before Him. I have a mission! I have been commissioned by Him to live my life in such a way that represents Him to the unbelieving world! "Go into all the world and preach the gospel". This is a high calling, but how many times do I misrepresent Him? How many times do I allow my pride get in the way of the opportunities presented to me each day to share my faith? How many people will I have to look in the face with tears in my eyes and with no excuse tell them I'm sorry for not telling them the answer to why they had a void in their life that nothing would fill? How many souls have I let slip away without taking the time to go out of my way to build a relationship with the outcasts? I am guilty, guilty, guilty! Every day I allow these opportunities to slip out of sight and I blatantly misrepresent Christ to these souls I encounter! Do I really believe that every knee will bow before God? What am I doing to really make a difference? Jesus loved me so much that He was willing to experience separation from His Father or Abba for the first and only time in His eternal essence and being. My sin was laid on Him and He paid the price for my soul with His blood. The least I can do is give my life to Him fully! Go wherever He wants me to go! Do whatever He wants me to do! Maybe it means I will go without the luxuries of a good paying job! Maybe I will have to suffer physically or be ridiculed publicly! But so be it! "Whoever desires to live godly will be persecuted!" That's a promise! I am a man who has lived for twenty-three years without fully giving every area of my life to Him! I worry about things that I shouldn't worry about! How many times do I pray without faith? How many times do I read the Bible not really believing that God is speaking to me? I have a personal relationship with the Creator of the universe! I can "come boldly before His throne" anytime I please! That's a privilege that many of the Old Testament prophets, priests, and patriarchs didn't have! Better yet, His Spirit lives within me! I am commanded to be filled with the Spirit! The very Spirit that raised Christ from the dead lives within me! Why do I doubt? Please, God, give me faith! Give me passion! But most of all, give me a desire to love! I cannot help but be drawn to you! The more I know you, the more I don't understand! But at the same time, I cannot help but stand in amazement that you love me! And I "know" that you present to me so many opportunities to represent this love to others! But I choose to spit in your faith and abuse the grace that you have given me so freely! God forbid! But for some reason, you continually draw me back to you! Everytime I give into the passions of men, you stand ready to receive me back into your arms with outstretched hands showing me the scars! Need I see more? You took upon yourself the punishment that I should have received! I should be damned to spend an eterninity in Hell! You chose to experience the separation from God for a temporary time so that I would not have to spend an eternity in separation paying for the debt that I rightfully owed! I don't understand! This blows my mind! What can I ever do to repay you! Even my "righteousness is as filthy rags"! I cannot possibly earn favor with you! It's futile! There's only one thing that I can do! Take what you have given me and live my life in such a way that other's can see You living in me! There's nothing in me that is worthy! But you are worthy! You chose to come to this earth so that I could catch but a glimpse of what it is to love my brothers and sisters, outcasts and sinners! You showed me what it meant to speak to a known whore at a well and have the courage to open your mouth and proclaim to her that only You can satisfy and to go and sin no more! You showed me what it meant to be accused of being a "wine-bibber" and a friend of sinners! You took the time to get to know these souls! You saw them not for who they were, but for who they would become complete in your love! You showed me what it means to surround yourself around a group of believers who were committed to Your cause--the Gospel! You showed me what it meant to weep and cry over souls that would not accept you, and a dear friend that had died! You showed me what it means to be beaten to a bloody pulp, stripped naked, spit on, humiliated, nailed to a tree, but ultimately proclaim--"Abba, forgive them, for they know not what they do!". Just as God made His appeal through Christ, You are making your appeal to man through me and the body of Christ! I cannot do this on my own, but You are continually taking me by the hand and showing me that I am not alone. You have given me parents and a family who have taught me to love You and Your Word! You have given me friends devoted to You and Your cause and like "iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another." I believe that You have given me a wife someday that will be devoted to You and Your cause and together we will be commited to growing closer to You and what You have! You have given me time! Precious time to take each second and make it sacred to take what is temporal and turn into the eternal! I am on this earth to impress no one! I am only here to be vessel in Your hands and accomplish what You have, so that one day or moment I can stand before you and here you say, "Well done, my good and faithful servant! Enter now into the joy of the Lord!" As I continue to live this paradox called life, may this forever be my prayer, Amen!
vintage Gospel
This past summer I had the opportunity to serve in the San Juan mountains in southwest Colorado at a Christian camp. The experience had a huge impact on my spiritual outlook and perspective. Thanks to solid leadership, I was able to study the huge issue of what the Gospel is and what it means to every follower of the Way. Put simply, the Gospel is what Christianity is and should be about. Without, the Christian life is reduced to a mere works based religion and you may as well just put it on the shelf with Buddhism, Islam, Hinduism, Mormonism, take your pick. At the center of the Gospel lies the God-Man Jesus Christ. Based on His work that He completed on the cross we no longer have to strive to obtain a works based salvation. Put simply, Christ came to redeem us, or buy us back if you would, from a terrible position of certain damnation. He did something that we could never do in and of our own power. He layed His life down in our place so that we don't have to spend an eternity in total separation from our Father.
In todays realm of Christianity, I feel we have lost in a sense the beauty of the Gospel. In all reality, it should be lived out each and every day. Especially in Western life and culture we expect to have this "spoon fed" Christianity and feel as if we attend church once a week and decide to pray for our food twice a day, then we're alright with God. In a positional sense, sure go on with your apathy and keep sucking on that baby bottle. Things start to get a little tough and you remember, oh yeah, God. What can He do for me? We rarely take a serious look and ask ourselves, what can I do for Him? It seems as if we must lose all faith in ourselves before we can place all of our faith in Him.
With all this said, I would like to encourage all of you to take a look at the book of Galtians in relation to what we're facing today. This is the only letter that Paul penned in which there is no mention of commendation for the recipients. A lot of it had to do with the fact of how serious the matter was at hand that Paul was dealing with. Search it out, I feel you'll be truly blessed.
In todays realm of Christianity, I feel we have lost in a sense the beauty of the Gospel. In all reality, it should be lived out each and every day. Especially in Western life and culture we expect to have this "spoon fed" Christianity and feel as if we attend church once a week and decide to pray for our food twice a day, then we're alright with God. In a positional sense, sure go on with your apathy and keep sucking on that baby bottle. Things start to get a little tough and you remember, oh yeah, God. What can He do for me? We rarely take a serious look and ask ourselves, what can I do for Him? It seems as if we must lose all faith in ourselves before we can place all of our faith in Him.
With all this said, I would like to encourage all of you to take a look at the book of Galtians in relation to what we're facing today. This is the only letter that Paul penned in which there is no mention of commendation for the recipients. A lot of it had to do with the fact of how serious the matter was at hand that Paul was dealing with. Search it out, I feel you'll be truly blessed.
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