Not gone yet...

Hey everyone. I just wanted to let you know that im not ready to let this blog die just yet. I dont know when or what ill put in it but I do want to say that I thank God for you all. My friends, and family. God has always been faithful in my life and you all play a role in that. He is amazing beyond all words. And I wouldnt want my God any other way.

A gods Tables…

I was just listening to the Jars of Clay song “Jealous Kind“. I love that song, and for some reason it hits my heart and soul differently every time I listen to it. Well today these lyrics blew me away.

“You know I've been unfaithful
Lovers in lines
While you're turning over tables with the rage of a jealous kind”

I was heartbroken by these lyrics and all I could do was repent. All I could say was, I am sorry Lord. I felt like a fool. I felt broken. I felt embarrassed. I felt exposed.

Jesus’ frustration and rightful anger exposes us all and I was ashamed.

Jesus Cleanses the Temple

12. And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. 13. He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you make it a den of robbers.”

Let’s just say that when He turned over tables and chairs, they probably weren’t empty. Anyone could read this and easily pass over the particulars of the scripture. Lets think about the context in which Jesus came to the temple after literally weeping for Jerusalem the day before (Luke 19: 41). His heart was already broken for Jerusalem. And then to come into the Temple, to find the things he did was more than any man could bare. As a parent its not like you can compare this to leaving your teenage kid alone for the weekend, and upon coming home you find people partying in your house. No, I would compare it to going away for the weekend and coming home to find your spouse, The person you love the most in your life, in bed with the devil. That’s the slap in the face we’ve bestowed upon our Savior. We’ve reduced His sanctuary to a cheap assembly line of fast and easy offerings where we don’t even have to leave our comfort zone to repent.

The temple had turned into a one stop shop for sin and burnt offerings. How it got so bad as to sell the objects of offerings (pigeons) in the Temple isn’t so hard to understand with our history I suppose. They even sold one of the cheapest ways to offer repentance to Him. Generally two pigeons were acceptable if one could not afford a lamb or goat offering. Pigeons. To make it worse, the market in the temple created a breeding ground of thieves and decay. Interesting how the scribes were enraged by Jesus actions isn’t it? I’m sure their cut didn’t have anything to do with it. Or their anger through shame, which in reality is just a complex version of pride. Gods call to burnt and sin offerings had become hollow and false in the halls of the temple.

We have even found a cheap way to mainstream repentance. It has lost its meaning and became even less than an obligation. I suppose spitting on the Cross would be cheaper. Phlegm costs nothing.

Yet even through this, the incalculable glory and grace of Jesus bursts through, in the next versus. What He does is not only forgiving, but is proof of His everlasting loyalty and unbreakable covenant to us.

14. And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them.

Jesus holds His covenant to us like an unbreakable rod even though ours to Him is like a fragile broken twig, as He faithfully, mercifully and in grace, heals His wayward children. And even to this day through His death by our hands, He has offered us a forgiveness we will never deserve. Even though we ran from Him, turned our back to Him, beat Him to a bloody pulp and even worse, said we never knew Him. I wonder how that made Jesus feel. He has been faithful in cleansing us with his perfect blood. We are all in danger of doing the same. Cheapening the perfect atonement for our sins. Only this time its not a couple of pigeons. It’s the blood of Christ.

I am not strong enough to sacrifice my only child. I could not bare the thought. It sickens me, and because I am not my perfect God, I could never present a good enough argument to have to do so. But I thank my God that He was able to crush His only Son for my iniquities. I still find myself running from the very blood that covers me, I use dirty rags to try and wipe away that blood. I’m wondering if I will ever learn.

We still go to church on Sunday, then on Monday we find it impossible to forgive our coworkers, neighbors, strangers, government, friends and families. We like to hold on to their wrongs because it gives us power over them some how. Or so we believe. It comes down to specks and logs.

Above all, this song and the scriptures have convicted me and called me to repentance. I pray that it does for you also. Its gotten pretty easy to say I’m sorry hasn’t it? I’m finding that the easier it is to say “I’m sorry or thank you”, the less I am apt to mean it. And it crushes me to know that I am capable of this same kind of apology and thanks to my Savior. For more reasons that I can possibly put on paper, Lord I’m sorry that I cause you to turn over tables in you own Temple.

Coat Drive...

As some of you may know. I have been conducting a Coat Drive with my daughters local Elementary School as well as the City of Lathrup Village. I believe that God has worked absolute miracles and has truly glorified His wonderful and perfect name in every way during this wonderful outreach to those less fortunate. The Lord spoke to me after revealing to us that close friends were unable to provide some winter items for their family for the season. I put my money where His mouth is, stopped talking about serving and did what the Lord asks of all of us.

He has taught me that talk is so very cheap and that serving is a blessing He bestows to both the servant and the recipient. Glory be to our Lord and King!

COATS: 247
SCARVES: 44
HATS: 115
SNOW PANTS/ SUITS: 32
BOOTS: 33 PAIRS
GLOVES: 111 PAIRS
SWEATERS/ SHIRTS: 23
SOCKS: 12 PAIRS

617 TOTAL ITEMS distributed to Coalition On Temporary Shelter in Detroit and the Detroit Rescue Mission!!!

Thank you Jesus for your continuous blessings!

OOH ISAIAH...

Its amazing how things written come to pass. And the prophesy lives in us through the Spirit

ISAIAH 52:12-15, 53:1-12

12. For you shall not go out in haste,
and you shall not go in flight,
for the Lord will go before you,
and the God of Israel will be your rear guard.
13. Behold, my servant shall act wisely;
he shall be high and lifted up,
and shall be exalted.
14. As many were astonished at you—
his appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance,
and his form beyond that of the children of mankind—
15. so shall he sprinkle many nations;
kings shall shut their mouths because of him;
for that which has not been told them they see,
and that which they have not heard they understand.

53:1. Who has believed what he has heard from us?
And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
2. For he grew up before him like a young plant,
and like a root out of dry ground;
he had no form or majesty that we should look at him,
and no beauty that we should desire him.
3. He was despised and rejected by men;
a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief;
and as one from whom men hide their faces
he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

4. Surely he has borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
smitten by God, and afflicted.
5. But he was wounded for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with his stripes we are healed.
6. All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have turned—every one—to his own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.

7. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
yet he opened not his mouth;
like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,
so he opened not his mouth.
8. By oppression and judgment he was taken away;
and as for his generation, who considered
that he was cut off out of the land of the living,
stricken for the transgression of my people?
9. And they made his grave with the wicked
and with a rich man in his death,
although he had done no violence,
and there was no deceit in his mouth.

10. Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him;
he has put him to grief;
when his soul makes an offering for guilt,
he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days;
the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.
11. Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied;
by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant,
make many to be accounted righteous,
and he shall bear their iniquities.
12. Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many,
and he shall divide the spoil with the strong,
because he poured out his soul to death
and was numbered with the transgressors;
yet he bore the sin of many,
and makes intercession for the transgressors.

Let us never forget the One whos' sacrifice saves us from ourselves.