Time for spring cleaning!

     Have you done your spring cleaning yet?  Opened the windows, wash the walls, clean out the closets, get rid of unnecessary things that you no longer use... like that bridesmaids dress from ten years.  The concept of spring cleaning is nothing new, just take a look at at 

Exodus 12: 17-20

        “Celebrate the Festival of Unleavened Bread, because it was on this very day that I brought your divisions out of Egypt. Celebrate this day as a lasting ordinance for the generations to come. In the first month you are to eat bread made without yeast, from the evening of the fourteenth day until the evening of the twenty-first day.  For seven days no yeast is to be found in your houses. And anyone, whether foreigner or native-born, who eats anything with yeast in it must be cut off from the community of Israel.  Eat nothing made with yeast. Wherever you live, you must eat unleavened bread.  

        Every year around the world Jewish women would clean out all their cupboards of everything that had leaven in it, (yeast), all the breads, cakes, donuts, and Twinkies.  They would bag it up and give it to their Gentile neighbor.  Then they would scrub down everything.  They did this so that their homes would be ready for the Passover and the feast of unleavened bread. Why all this fuss about leaven?  Well according to the Bible leaven (or yeast) was quite often refereed to as sin. 

1 Corinthians 5:8
Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old bread leavened with malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

     In order for Lord to come and dwell within, we need to get rid of all the leaven (sin) within our hearts.

This can only come when we first accept Him as our Savior, but then step two is to continue to make sure we keep our house (our bodies) clean by confessing any sins that may enter in. 

 1 John 1:9
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

      Step three is to be in the Word of God.  With all the propaganda out their, we need to have God's truth wash our minds and scrub us clean.

Ephesians 5:26
... to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word.

         So this spring...clean out the closet of your soul and allow the Lord to wash you with His word.  You may find a few thing you need to get rid of through confession, but in the end you will feel squeaky clean! 

     

WHO WILL GO?

     “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;
      The whole earth is full of His glory!”

 And the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of him who cried out, and the house was filled with smoke.  So I said:

     “Woe is me, for I am undone!
       Because I am a man of unclean lips,
      And I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips;
      For my eyes have seen the King, The Lord of hosts.”

 Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a live coal which he had taken with the tongs from the altar. ⁷ And he touched my mouth with it, and said:

     “Behold, this has touched your lips;
      Your iniquity is taken away,
      And your sin purged.”

⁸ Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying:

     “Whom shall I send,
      And who will go for Us?”

Then I said, “Here am I! Send me.”

     ~Isaiah 6:3-8 NKJV 

Are you ready to say. "Here am I! Send me." ?  To go, do or say whatever the Lord directs you to do?  It may not be Africa that He wants to send you, it could be the neighbors next door.  There are people right here, in our own backyard that need to know that their is hope.   If you look further into the chapter, Isaiah did not have a very happy message for the people of Israel. God was tired of waiting for His people to turn away from worthless idols and turn back to Him, so he allowing another nation to carry them away. 

 Then I said, “Lord, how long?”

And He answered:

“Until the cities are laid waste and without inhabitant,
The houses are without a man,
The land is utterly desolate, The Lord has removed men far away,
And the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land.

However, there is a small hope:

  But yet a tenth will be in it,
And will return and be for consuming,
As a terebinth tree or as an oak,
Whose stump remains when it is cut down.
So the holy seed shall be its stump.”

A tenth of the people will be left, so that through them God's seed will remain, and not just any seed; the holy seed...

        And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David.  And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.”

      ~ Luke 1:31, 32  

     THIS is our Hope!

“And now, Lord, what do I wait for? My hope is in You!
     ~Psalm 39:7

     So who will go?  Who will share this hope with a dying world? Who will will say?  Here am I?  
      ~Oh Lord, stir up our hearts and let us be obedient to your calling in our lives.  Let us share the hope that we have in You with others. In Jesus' name. Amen.

The Right Seasoning

     The Lord works in marvelous and interesting ways.  Today as I went out shopping I encountered a fellow brother in the Lord and somehow we got into a conversation about friend potatoes.

     In order to make delicious fried potatoes, it all starts with the right potato.  For me, it has to be the Red Potato. Then you need to add just the right seasoning to your potatoes; dried onions, rosemary, chives, and some salt.  Shake these up and bake them in the oven and your on your way to a mouth watering dinner.  

     In all this the Lord spoke to me and gave me this illustration for the kind of people the Lord is looking for. 

     First, He needs just the right person.  In order to be the right person, you need to be born again.  Repent, turn from your sin, ask forgiveness and believe on Jesus as your Lord.  Congrats; your passed the first test.  Now you need some seasoning, and that can only come by spending time with the Lord in prayer and in His word.

    Mathew 5: 13 says, "Let me tell you why you are here.  You're here to be salt-seasoning that brings out the God-flavors of this earth.  If you lose your saltiness, How will people taste godliness? You've lost your usefulness and will end up in the garbage."  (The Message)  God want us to be seasoning, so that the world will be able to taste the goodness of the Lord.  Psalm 34:8 says, "Oh taste and see that the Lord is good..." (NKJV)  But as you saw, the verse in Mathew, says we can loose our seasoning.  How is this possible?  We're not talking about our salvation here.  We are talking about our effectiveness.  If we are not spending time in God's word or in His presence in prayer, then we will not be as effective.  It would be like eating those same potatoes without all the seasoning. Oh sure it would be eatable, but it wouldn't have much flavor.  I don't know about you, but I would rather have some flavor to my food.  Not only that, but when you make that one dish that others talk about, why would you want to change it and leave out the secret ingredient?  When we include the Lord in our lives then people will talk about it!


     The Lord wants to season your life today, so get into His kitchen and let Him add just the right seasoning, so that others around you will taste the goodness and want to have your recipe!  Secret ingredient: JESUS!

What's in a name?

     I really like the little city that I live in, not too big or too small.  One of the things I like the most is it's name: La Porte.  La Porte is a french word which means "The Door" or opening in the trees, which later gave birth to this city. When I think of the meaning of "The Door", immediately I come to John 10:7 "Then Jesus said to them again, "Most assuredly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep."  Jesus is the door, the gate, the only way to get to the Father. The very name of Jesus Christ, which in Hebrew is Yeshua Ha'Mashhiach means God saves/ The Messiah. Unfortunately, when you translate YeShua Ha' Mashiach into English it looses it full meaning.  Since it should be Jesus the Messiah not Christ. In the new testament the Greeks did not have a word for Messiah, so as a result they rendered it to the closest thing: anointed one.  However, this rendering does not give the true meaning of who Jesus was, especially not for the Jewish people.  As far as they are concerned, Abraham, Moses, David and the patriarchs were anointed, but the Messiah? Now that's a different story!
     Now you may be saying, so... so what's in a name?  Everything!  The Jewish people have always put a lot of thought into the importance of names. Children were given names because of what it meant, not just because it sounded pretty.  Example: Hannah names her son Samuel because it means heard of God; God answered her prayers and gave her this son.  Names are important, so how much more then the name of Jesus.  Try talking about Jesus Christ to your Jewish friend, neighbor or co-worker.  They may raise their eyes at you, but they'll just say to themselves. "Oh, the gentile's god", but mention the name Yeshua Ha'Mashiach and you'll get their attention.... either they'll want to know more or they'll get anger and walk away.  Either way, you'll have their attention and they'll know whom it is you believe in.
     It is the Messiah that the world was waiting for, it the Messiah who came, and it is the Messiah who will come again. However, for many Jewish people they are still waiting for Him to come the 1st time.  This is why it's important to not only pray for them but talk to them about your relationship with YeShua Ha Mashiach.
The Jewish Messiah who came to save Jews and Gentiles alike, so that we could be one in HIM!