Day 159: Hiding Behind The Bushes Or Beyond The Veil?
Read: Hebrews 9:1 - 14
Let me ask you this question, what is the one object of your affection these days? Is it your husband, wife, your children, home, automobile, increased income,
yourself? In the management of your time these days who was the one that
has gotten squeezed out? Who has suffered most from that hurried
schedule, that overworked week, that jumbled calendar, that taxed life
or that depleted bank account? Is it your husband, is it your wife, your
children, home, automobile, increased income, something or maybe someone else - say perhaps - yourself? Let me get to where I really want
to go with this right now. This is what I really want you to know and you to realize - How close to God did
you draw this past week?
How intimate did you become with the
one who opened the door to intimacy? What have you wrestled with and the
thing you wrestled with successfully pinned you down from an act of
worship to God? Did you hear his quiet voice bidding you to quietly and
or subtly come spend some time or were you avoiding Him the way Adam did
in the garden after the bite from the forbidden fruit lead to his eyes
being open, discovering his nakedness, and thus going to great pains to
cover himself up and hide himself in the densest bushes he could find?
What stuff have you been trying to hide behind to avoid the penetrating
look of God, the sound of Jesus name, the Holy Spirits all too convicting wisdom?
Let me take this one step further. What stuff have you been hiding from the Saints of of God? Remember it is about being honest with yourself, about being
open minded with the need to be unburdened of our guilt, shame,
deliberately working more hours at work, giving offense toward the
objects of your affection, anger, lies, gossip, or the one too many
"I just didn’t feel like it" moments you give to Father, Son, Holy
Spirit. It is about the willingness to come out from behind the bushes,
expose vulnerabilities, discovering experiencing for yourself the truest meaning, source of freedom from sin. Take a serious moment to consider where your true affections lie - with man or with God!
We want a God on the “loop” of our lives close enough that we can call
on Him when we need Him, but far enough away that He can’t invade the
center of our lives. But to marginalize God in this way is to invite
disaster upon ourselves in ways we cannot understand. Affections shift
from finding our greatest blessings amongst the things of man and
the things of God being pushed aside, hidden amongst the bushes on the
other side of the road, site unseen. Consider what the author of Hebrews is telling us or is asking of us: 14
'how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal
Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify your conscience
from dead works to serve the living God.(?)'
Let Us Pray:
Guide us, O God, by your Word and Spirit, that in your light we may see
light, in your truth find freedom, and in your will discover your peace.
Holy God, Word made flesh, let us come to this word open to being surprised. Silence our agendas; banish our assumptions; cast out our casual detachment. Confound our expectations; clear the cobwebs from our ears; penetrate the corners of our hearts with this word. We know that you can, we pray that you will, and we will wait here with great anticipation.
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Read: Hebrews 9:1 - 14
Let me ask you this question, what is the one object of your affection these days? Is it your husband, wife, your children, home, automobile, increased income, yourself? In the management of your time these days who was the one that has gotten squeezed out? Who has suffered most from that hurried schedule, that overworked week, that jumbled calendar, that taxed life or that depleted bank account? Is it your husband, is it your wife, your children, home, automobile, increased income, something or maybe someone else - say perhaps - yourself? Let me get to where I really want to go with this right now. This is what I really want you to know and you to realize - How close to God did you draw this past week?
How intimate did you become with the one who opened the door to intimacy? What have you wrestled with and the thing you wrestled with successfully pinned you down from an act of worship to God? Did you hear his quiet voice bidding you to quietly and or subtly come spend some time or were you avoiding Him the way Adam did in the garden after the bite from the forbidden fruit lead to his eyes being open, discovering his nakedness, and thus going to great pains to cover himself up and hide himself in the densest bushes he could find? What stuff have you been trying to hide behind to avoid the penetrating look of God, the sound of Jesus name, the Holy Spirits all too convicting wisdom?
Let me take this one step further. What stuff have you been hiding from the Saints of of God? Remember it is about being honest with yourself, about being open minded with the need to be unburdened of our guilt, shame, deliberately working more hours at work, giving offense toward the objects of your affection, anger, lies, gossip, or the one too many "I just didn’t feel like it" moments you give to Father, Son, Holy Spirit. It is about the willingness to come out from behind the bushes, expose vulnerabilities, discovering experiencing for yourself the truest meaning, source of freedom from sin. Take a serious moment to consider where your true affections lie - with man or with God!
We want a God on the “loop” of our lives close enough that we can call on Him when we need Him, but far enough away that He can’t invade the center of our lives. But to marginalize God in this way is to invite disaster upon ourselves in ways we cannot understand. Affections shift from finding our greatest blessings amongst the things of man and the things of God being pushed aside, hidden amongst the bushes on the other side of the road, site unseen. Consider what the author of Hebrews is telling us or is asking of us: 14 'how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify your conscience from dead works to serve the living God.(?)'
Let Us Pray: Guide us, O God, by your Word and Spirit, that in your light we may see light, in your truth find freedom, and in your will discover your peace. Holy God, Word made flesh, let us come to this word open to being surprised. Silence our agendas; banish our assumptions; cast out our casual detachment. Confound our expectations; clear the cobwebs from our ears; penetrate the corners of our hearts with this word. We know that you can, we pray that you will, and we will wait here with great anticipation.
http://www.youtube.com/
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