'This is my Son in whom I am well pleased'
'The veil shall be a divider for you between the holy place and the Most Holy.' Exodus 26
The other morning, I woke up and was drinking my morning cup of tea, pondering life. I was thinking over a conversation I had with a good friend once about how at the end of our days, we wanted The Lord to say the same thing He said to David - 'well done my good and faithful servant'. But it hit me like the caffeine in my tea that God doesn't want to wait until we reach eternity to say such a thing, He says it NOW. BEFORE we even do anything! He wants to woo us, He wants to love us, and He wants us to know He loves us.
it is crazy. It fights everything I've been taught or think about myself. Somewhere along the line I thought that's what I was working towards and in many ways its probably hindered a lot of growth and a lot of what I was doing, because I thought I wasn't good enough or if I did something wrong I had to work it up to the standard required again. But the whole time God wants and is LONGING to say 'I love you, well done my good and faithful servant'. It is only from the place of knowing and living in this love that 1- we can express it, and express Jesus- extravagantly to others and 2- that God can bring change, conviction and repentance into our daily living. When we are in that place of love with God, we pour ourselves out before Him and therefore He can fill us. I've been realising there's such a fine line between despising our flesh and our bodies being a temple, between pride and humility, and that line only becomes clear in Jesus. We are to count all as loss and yet train our bodies. We are not to worry what happens yet take care of ourselves. It's not silly or mixed message teaching - the centre of it all is Jesus. He asks us to give OUR ALL and when we do so, HE USES US. He asks us to give our bodies even unto death (to be prepared to go as far as to think it doesn't matter, I will go for you even unto death) so that we are free in thinking, spirit and body to be used and filled with Him and HIs Spirit.
But to be able to count it all as loss, we need to know that Jesus is all. And to know that Jesus is all we need to believe He loves us. That He is proud of us. That He delights in us. It's not wrong to think The Lord would say that over us, in fact, it's wrong to think we have to wait for His love when Heaven is at hand!!!!
Andrew helped me by explaining it like this - he said imagine us dating and arriving at our wedding day without me ever telling you I loved you - without me ever telling you how wonderful I thought you were. Imagine living til the very end of your life to wait for me to say I love you. What kind of life and marriage would that have been?
Would I have trusted Him, would I have opened up to Him and let go of my past, my regrets, my hurts or would I I have enjoyed and delighted in His presence? Shared my joy and excitement? Something would have been missing. A question mark would have been over our relationship. A
limitation would have been in place, a hindrance to what was actually available.
Jesus started His public ministry with His baptism where God declared for all that 'This is my Son in whom I am well pleased'. It was from this that Jesus moved forward to declare God and His love and the coming of His kingdom. The veil is a divider, and when Jesus died the veil was torn. No more divider. No more seeing in part, now we can see in full. Jesus wants to love you, and He wants you to know that so you can go forth and operate from that place. We don't have to wait until we go to Heaven, because when Jesus died He declared Heaven was at hand and brought forth His Kingdom so you can know that TODAY, NOW, as the truth. And you can be set free from works aiming to please Him from fear of not being good enough and you can move forward into works from the power of the knowledge of a great love and a great King.
the veil is no longer a divider - enter in.
The other morning, I woke up and was drinking my morning cup of tea, pondering life. I was thinking over a conversation I had with a good friend once about how at the end of our days, we wanted The Lord to say the same thing He said to David - 'well done my good and faithful servant'. But it hit me like the caffeine in my tea that God doesn't want to wait until we reach eternity to say such a thing, He says it NOW. BEFORE we even do anything! He wants to woo us, He wants to love us, and He wants us to know He loves us.
it is crazy. It fights everything I've been taught or think about myself. Somewhere along the line I thought that's what I was working towards and in many ways its probably hindered a lot of growth and a lot of what I was doing, because I thought I wasn't good enough or if I did something wrong I had to work it up to the standard required again. But the whole time God wants and is LONGING to say 'I love you, well done my good and faithful servant'. It is only from the place of knowing and living in this love that 1- we can express it, and express Jesus- extravagantly to others and 2- that God can bring change, conviction and repentance into our daily living. When we are in that place of love with God, we pour ourselves out before Him and therefore He can fill us. I've been realising there's such a fine line between despising our flesh and our bodies being a temple, between pride and humility, and that line only becomes clear in Jesus. We are to count all as loss and yet train our bodies. We are not to worry what happens yet take care of ourselves. It's not silly or mixed message teaching - the centre of it all is Jesus. He asks us to give OUR ALL and when we do so, HE USES US. He asks us to give our bodies even unto death (to be prepared to go as far as to think it doesn't matter, I will go for you even unto death) so that we are free in thinking, spirit and body to be used and filled with Him and HIs Spirit.
But to be able to count it all as loss, we need to know that Jesus is all. And to know that Jesus is all we need to believe He loves us. That He is proud of us. That He delights in us. It's not wrong to think The Lord would say that over us, in fact, it's wrong to think we have to wait for His love when Heaven is at hand!!!!
Andrew helped me by explaining it like this - he said imagine us dating and arriving at our wedding day without me ever telling you I loved you - without me ever telling you how wonderful I thought you were. Imagine living til the very end of your life to wait for me to say I love you. What kind of life and marriage would that have been?
Would I have trusted Him, would I have opened up to Him and let go of my past, my regrets, my hurts or would I I have enjoyed and delighted in His presence? Shared my joy and excitement? Something would have been missing. A question mark would have been over our relationship. A
limitation would have been in place, a hindrance to what was actually available.
Jesus started His public ministry with His baptism where God declared for all that 'This is my Son in whom I am well pleased'. It was from this that Jesus moved forward to declare God and His love and the coming of His kingdom. The veil is a divider, and when Jesus died the veil was torn. No more divider. No more seeing in part, now we can see in full. Jesus wants to love you, and He wants you to know that so you can go forth and operate from that place. We don't have to wait until we go to Heaven, because when Jesus died He declared Heaven was at hand and brought forth His Kingdom so you can know that TODAY, NOW, as the truth. And you can be set free from works aiming to please Him from fear of not being good enough and you can move forward into works from the power of the knowledge of a great love and a great King.
the veil is no longer a divider - enter in.