Post by Mark on Apr 8, 2009 4:06:41 GMT -8
It's been a tough and exhausting week. Sometimes it seems like everything is going wrong. Sometimes it seems like everything is taking a lot longer than it should. Sometimes it seems like we're doing things for the wrong reasons- maybe they're not really worth doing at all!
The word of Isaiah comes to mind:
To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the LORD: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats. When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts? Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth: they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them. And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood.
(Isaiah 1:11-15 KJV)
How easily it would be, at this point, with so much left to do, to give up and say that this just isn't worth it. My life, the leading of my family, my role in the congregation is just a facad. My life is laden with iniquity. There is so much hypocrisy, I can't be a blessing to God.
In the struggle to prepare for Pesakh this year, I've recognized it as a struggle from Elohim, that He has placed barriers in my path to my agenda- a window breaking as we try to clean, children falling and getting injured, a goat dying and having to be buried (no, I'm not making this up- and it wasn't even my goat!). And yesterday, as the Ruakh Kodesh visited with my spirit, He shared with me from His Word:
Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honor me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men:
(Isaiah 29:13 KJV)
Rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing. In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. Quench not the Spirit. Despise not prophesyings. Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. Abstain from all appearance of evil.
(1 Thessalonians 5:16-22 KJV)
And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, Without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.
(Romans 1:28-32 KJV)
There's more to recognizing how God has delivered us from the bondage of sin than practicing the service o fthe Seder and cleaning the leaven from our homes. It is important for us to remember, not only Who has delivered us but what we have been delivered from. Today, I can feel the urging of the Spirit of God to take inventory of what I have stolen away from my personal Egypt and cherished for myself- what golden calves am I drawn to.
When I was burying the goat, my feeling was that of impatience- there's a lot I need to get done and this was an interruption. Yet, the image since then has had a powerful affect on my daily worship- there's a lot of things that I need to be burying or burning or forsaking or casting away... and they are not in the refrigerator.
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.
(Matthew 23:23 KJV)
There's still time. It is important to cleanse out the physical leaven from my home. It's important to set the tables and prepare for the Seder meal; but more importantly, business needs to be done with God. Worship needs to be done, confession and reconcilliation. We do not come to the table to practice our religion. We come to draw close in intimate fellowship with God and in worship among each other. Otherwise we are simply going through the motions and an offense to the Spirit of God.
The word of Isaiah comes to mind:
To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the LORD: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats. When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts? Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth: they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them. And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood.
(Isaiah 1:11-15 KJV)
How easily it would be, at this point, with so much left to do, to give up and say that this just isn't worth it. My life, the leading of my family, my role in the congregation is just a facad. My life is laden with iniquity. There is so much hypocrisy, I can't be a blessing to God.
In the struggle to prepare for Pesakh this year, I've recognized it as a struggle from Elohim, that He has placed barriers in my path to my agenda- a window breaking as we try to clean, children falling and getting injured, a goat dying and having to be buried (no, I'm not making this up- and it wasn't even my goat!). And yesterday, as the Ruakh Kodesh visited with my spirit, He shared with me from His Word:
Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honor me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men:
(Isaiah 29:13 KJV)
Rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing. In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. Quench not the Spirit. Despise not prophesyings. Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. Abstain from all appearance of evil.
(1 Thessalonians 5:16-22 KJV)
And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, Without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.
(Romans 1:28-32 KJV)
There's more to recognizing how God has delivered us from the bondage of sin than practicing the service o fthe Seder and cleaning the leaven from our homes. It is important for us to remember, not only Who has delivered us but what we have been delivered from. Today, I can feel the urging of the Spirit of God to take inventory of what I have stolen away from my personal Egypt and cherished for myself- what golden calves am I drawn to.
When I was burying the goat, my feeling was that of impatience- there's a lot I need to get done and this was an interruption. Yet, the image since then has had a powerful affect on my daily worship- there's a lot of things that I need to be burying or burning or forsaking or casting away... and they are not in the refrigerator.
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.
(Matthew 23:23 KJV)
There's still time. It is important to cleanse out the physical leaven from my home. It's important to set the tables and prepare for the Seder meal; but more importantly, business needs to be done with God. Worship needs to be done, confession and reconcilliation. We do not come to the table to practice our religion. We come to draw close in intimate fellowship with God and in worship among each other. Otherwise we are simply going through the motions and an offense to the Spirit of God.
