This week the Lord has told me to renew the journaling I used to do during my quiet moments with Him. I thougth to buy a new journal to begin with the new year, but then I felt God leading my to do my journaling here, so that I could share His lessons to me directly with you. I felt this was His leading for two reasons. One, so that I was making better use of both my time and my resources - not buying another journal to be written in that would be tossed in a shelf at the end of the year and most likly lost shortly thereafter. And Two, so that those of you who read this blog would be able to see what He is doing in my as it happens - and not have to read it some months or years down the road, when it is no longer pertinent to my daily walk. So today I start thie new daily walk with Jesus and with all of you! I am reading from the NIV One Year Bible
If you want to read through the Bible with me in the new year I will list the Pasages here each day. Today's Reading is from Malachi 1:1-2:17, Revelation 21:1-27, Psalm 149:1-9 and Proverbs 31:10-24
In Malachi's passage God is repremanding Israel for her lack of obedience and her total disregard of His law. In 2:1 He tells Israel; "And now, you priests, this warning is for you. If you do not listen, and if you do not resolve to honor my name,” says the LORD Almighty, “I will send a curse on you, and I will curse your blessings. Yes, I have already cursed them, because you have not resolved to honor me."
As New Testament Believers, We don't need a priest to talk to God for us, so I feel this rebuke is for us. We fall far short of the calling He has placed on our lives in the same ways Israel did here. But when Jesus took our punishment on Calvary, He paid our debt - He took our curse on Himself. It proclaimed it completed on the cross as well as in our passage in Revelation 21:6-7; He said to me: "It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life. Those who are victorious will inherit all this, and I will be their God and they will be my children ..."
But we still need to grow as children into the Beautiful Bride He has chosen. He sees us as the wife of noble character He describes in Proberbs 31:10-24. His Bride should be all of this and so much more. Look at what He says we are worth to Him in verses 10-11; A wife of noble character who can find? She is worth far more than rubies. Her husband has full confidence in her and lacks nothing of value.
But we are not quite there yet. In the new year we will be preparing to take our place as the Bride, so that when Christ returns we will look just like He descirbed us in Proverbs and also in Revelation 21: 9-14; One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and said to me, “Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.” And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. It shone with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. It had a great, high wall with twelve gates, and with twelve angels at the gates. On the gates were written the names of the twelve tribes of Israel. There were three gates on the east, three on the north, three on the south and three on the west. The wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.
The Gates of Christ's Church are the teachings of the Prophets of the Old Covenant. They come from historic beginnings of God's Chosen People and the lessons He taught them through those who honored Him down through the ages. We enter into relationship with Christ in the same manner that they did - through the very Gates they used; through the leading and drawing of the Holy Spirit.
Likewise the Foundations of Christ's Church are the Apostles of the New Covenant. A covenant that was sealed with the Blood of God's perfect Lamb - Jesus Christ. These men were taught by Jesus in the flesh - walking side by side with them - as they walked through their not os ordinary lives. Not ordinary by men's views, not God's. By learning their lessons directly from Jesus, they had first hand knowledge of how He expected them to handle all of life's situations - th good, the bad AND the ugly! Who better to stand our relationship with Christ on? But their teachings were just the foundations - the milk of a new babe in Christ, as it were. God expects us to look to them for examples and guidelines as we spread our wings in this new life of holiness in His Spirit; but as we grow into the men and women Christ is calling us to be we need to take our focus of the men of the Bible and focus on the One who they were focused on - the giver of the very words these men wrote for us - Jesus.
Yes, Jesus! You can find Him in the writings of the Old Testament Prophets and in those of the New Testament Apostles; and you can hear Him speak directly into your hearts, minds and lives. Both through these written words from History and directly into your very ears / hearts and minds. Listen. Listen very closley, hear Him calling your name? Then follow His commands for you - He can never lead you astray. Never Will!
I rend to hear Him best in the music - not necessarilly the words of the songs, but the chords that He strumbs on my heart as I listen to the notes He plays in my heart and mind. Yes, when I am following close after Jesus, I hear music that is not clearly audible to those around me. It keeps me focused on My Lord and King and the pathway He has chosen for me to walk.
Maybe He has songs he is trying to share with you, listen...listen very closely and carefully. It will swell in you heart and lift your soul rigt up into the heavenly places to sit at the feet of Jesus - as Mary did when He walked among men - to learn all that He has for you and that special place He has reserved for you quiet moments alone with Him!
Let us work hard in our time of preparation so that we may be this beautiful Bride for Jesus!
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