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!  
       

Promises, promises, promises

 New Years resolutions are being made, promises to loose weight, give up smoking or spend more time with your family.  All these are good, but I wonder how many people will actually keep these promises?  People make promises, but people also break promises. Not God, He always keeps His promises. One of the best promises can be found in 1 John 2:25 "And This is the promise that He has promised us - eternal life."  Eternal: infinite time; future life.  It boggles the mind to think of "forever", at least it boggles my mind, but I am comforted to know that my Lord and Savior will be there, and that's all I need to know.  Revelation 21:23 "The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb is its light."  There will no darkness there... which means no hunger, no senseless killing of innocent lives (abortion), no pornography, no lies, no promises being broken, NO SIN.  A perfect city, with a perfect Savior, A prefect home, perfect temperature, perfect gardens that don't need to be watered, promise kept by God, absolutely perfect.
(See Revelation 22:1-5)  Who can make a better promise then that?! A promise that will be kept, a promise that gives us hope for a better tomorrow... Hebrews 11:1"These all died in faith, not having received the promises, (of the Messiah) but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.....v16 But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He prepared a city for them"
(Also see John 14:1-4)  This is our resolution made by God to us through His son, Jesus.  So whether or not you make a personally New Years resolution or not, you can have hope in the New Year and all the years till Jesus comes back again, that where He is you will be too!

The best Christmas gift ever

Yesterday was Christmas and as we read the familiar story of the birth of our Savior. We need to stop and think and ponder as Mary did, about how the story of the greatest gift to all mankind didn't start at a stable in Bethelhem.  It started much sooner then that, even before  mankind started.  John 1:1-3 says, " that In the beginning was the word and the word was with God, and the word was God, He was in the beginning with God.  all things were made through him, and without him nothing was made that was made."  Who was the word? Jesus, but I would like to call him by his Hebrew name: Yeshua!  Yeshua was with Yahweh (God the Father), in the very beginning, before time existed, when He said, "Let there be light"  He saw the beauty and holiness of His Father and His master piece He had made, but then sin enter into the world and polluted God's beauty.  Now that sin had came causing a rift between Him and His master piece (mankind) how would that rift ever be pulled back together?  In Genesis 3 God had the plan in motion when He said that the seed of women would crush Satan head, and Satan would bruise His heal.  God would leave His holiness and come to earth in human flesh through His Son to save His master piece and bridge the gap between them.  And come He did.  Not as a prince, although He was of David's blood line, he didn't just pop on down here, like in Star trek, (Beam me down Scotty).  He was born to a virgin and to a carpenter in a cave along side the barn animals.  These were the same animals that were used in giving sacrifices, for Bethlehem was known as the keeper of the sacrificial animals that were allowed to be given as an atonement for sin.  Coincidence? I think not! The Lamb of God was born in the same place as the lambs for sacrifice, but unlike them. He came to die once for all. Came as a baby, THAT, is what marvel's me. Imagine nursing the Messiah?  Changing his swaddling clothes and watching him take his first step, and playing with his toy tool set that his earthly father made him.  Away in a manger, Joy to the world, O Little Town of Bethlehem... THIS is what Christmas is really about.  Praising God for giving us His only begotten Son, so that whosoever believes, shall not perish but have everlasting life."  The best Christmas gift ever!!!

Take the water and thirst no more

     Remember the old Calgon commercials where the lady is having a bad day and she says, "take me away Calgon."  Next we see her in this nice bubble bath relaxing.  As a mother of 5, there have been many days I wish I had a big tub so I could say, "Calgon take me away." Instead I watch a movie or go shopping at the resale store.  I think it important as a mother, wife and friend to take a few minutes each day to do something for yourself, but its even more essential to take time out for God.  He can refresh like no other can.
Take a look and see how the Lord brought refreshment to the women at the well...

    JN 4:10 Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water."
    JN 4:13 Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."
    JN 4:15 The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water so that I won't get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water."
                   The Samaritian women was really shocked to have this Jewish man speak to her, not only was she a hated Samaritan but she was adulterious women, who could only come at noon, (the hottest part of the day), just to avoid the other women in the village and their nasty glares.  Jesus didn't just speak to her, but He offered her the one thing she needed most in her life...Himself.  When she finally relaized who He was, she ran to tell everyone else in the village.  Something she could not, nor would she do if it hadn't been for Jesus refreshing her soul with His truth.  Not only can we be refreshed by Jesus, but we also can refresh others when we come to Him.      
    John 7: 38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him."   We can tell others, like the women at the well, about our Messiah and how He gives water that never runs dry.  He is our refreshment, He is our Calgon!