Mar 6:11 MKJV
(11) And whoever shall not receive you, nor hear you, when you depart from there, shake off the dust under your feet for a testimony against them.
What a confusing custom! I've read this verse many times, but today, I 'landed' on it. Does that happen to you? For some reason, all of a sudden I'm suspicious of a verse. It screams of mysterious significance. My first inclination was to start Googling the verse in attempt to find some rabbinic explanation. I really found nothing. The closest I got was 'some rabbis suggest...', or 'apparently this meant...'.
First of all, the Jews used to shake the dust off of their sandals when leaving gentile lands. From that, the custom morphed. Jesus told His followers to do it when they (and their message) were not received by a city.
Praying should always be our first resource. I am still learning that.
Dust is humanity. Man was made of dust. More exactly, dust represents a nation of children of faith (Gen 13:16).
Old Testament prophets were warned that to neglect delivering God's word to a people would result in having the blood of that people upon the prophet's head. But if the word was delivered - whether it was received or not - there would be no guilt on the head of the prophet (Ezekiel 33:6). To shake the dust off one's sandals means that the message has been delivered, and that the messenger does not 'carry' the burden of the people. If the dust of a city resides upon the shoes of the messenger, there is still work to do for that messenger because he still carries the burden of that city.
Shaking the dust off today is very much a stewardship issue. We are given so much time and resource for use in Kingdom work. The Holy Spirit guides us in how much time to spend on a certain person or group before we move on to someone who is receptive. The problem arises when we - in our impatient or judgmental humanity - decide to shake the dust off our sandals when God has not given up yet. We cannot be like Jonah, ministering with a very short (or non-existent) fuse.
Showing posts with label guilt. Show all posts
Showing posts with label guilt. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Tuesday, March 08, 2011
Less Than a Day to Live
2Pe 3:8 MKJV
(8) But, beloved, let not this one thing be hidden from you, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
It's easy to get bogged down with time. Our mistakes seem to cost us time more than anything else. Set-backs... at least in our minds. The enemy magnifies our mistakes, too, making them seem insurmountable. But examining the verse above might lead to an interesting discovery:
God gives us less than a day to live in the physical. He gives us less than a few hours to make decisions that are eternal in scope. What have you done in your life that you have never forgiven yourself for? Why let guilt ruin the only day you have? This is not of God! I do not keep a running total of all the times I must yell "NO" to my children during the course of a day. Nor do I remember them.
Php 3:13-14 MKJV
(13) My brothers, I do not count myself to have taken possession, but one thing I do, forgetting the things behind and reaching forward to the things before,
(14) I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
How perfect was the gentleman who wrote this?
(8) But, beloved, let not this one thing be hidden from you, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
It's easy to get bogged down with time. Our mistakes seem to cost us time more than anything else. Set-backs... at least in our minds. The enemy magnifies our mistakes, too, making them seem insurmountable. But examining the verse above might lead to an interesting discovery:
God gives us less than a day to live in the physical. He gives us less than a few hours to make decisions that are eternal in scope. What have you done in your life that you have never forgiven yourself for? Why let guilt ruin the only day you have? This is not of God! I do not keep a running total of all the times I must yell "NO" to my children during the course of a day. Nor do I remember them.
Php 3:13-14 MKJV
(13) My brothers, I do not count myself to have taken possession, but one thing I do, forgetting the things behind and reaching forward to the things before,
(14) I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
How perfect was the gentleman who wrote this?
Monday, September 21, 2009
If The Frog Croaks
Leviticus 11:29-36 LITV
(29) And these shall be unclean to you among the swarming things which swarm on the earth: the weasel, and the mouse, and the great lizard according to its kind,
(30) and the gecko, and the monitor, and the lizard, and the sand lizard, and the barn owl.
(31) These are unclean to you among all which swarm; anyone who touches them in their death is unclean until the evening.
(32) And anything on which any one of them falls in their death is unclean, whether of any vessel of wood, or garment, or skin, or sack; any vessel in which work is done shall be caused to go into water, and shall be unclean until the evening; then it shall be cleaned.
(33) And any earthen vessel into the midst of which any one of them falls, whatever is in it shall be unclean, and you shall break it.
(34) And of all the food which may be eaten, that on which such water falls shall be unclean, and all drink that may be drunk in any such vessel shall be unclean.
(35) And anything on which any part of their dead body falls shall be unclean; an oven or hearth shall be broken down; they are unclean; yes, they are unclean to you.
(36) But a fountain or a well, a collection of water, shall be clean; only that touching the dead body is unclean.
Our pastor commonly tells us that we are to be rivers, not lakes. Water has to keep moving in order to keep the dead flushed out of it. The scripture above describes just that. If something dies in a clay pot, you must destroy the pot. If it dies in a fountain, the fountain is still clean.
This also describes our spiritual condition. There is a difference between stumbling and being lame (always stumbling). If we are spiritually dead, we are headed for destruction. Our earthen vessel bodies cannot - on their own accord - make themselves clean again. But with the Living Water of Jesus within us, even sin cannot make us unclean. Yes, we may stumble, but we get back up without pulling up 'lame'.
The devil uses guilt as a great weapon against the Christian trying to walk in Christ. He would have every Christian believe they are simply lame. Remember, guilt is always from the devil if you are in Christ. By the way, the last thing he wants to do to a lost person is make them feel guilty. If guilt has plagued your walk, realize that you've been a target. Move on in victory!
(29) And these shall be unclean to you among the swarming things which swarm on the earth: the weasel, and the mouse, and the great lizard according to its kind,
(30) and the gecko, and the monitor, and the lizard, and the sand lizard, and the barn owl.
(31) These are unclean to you among all which swarm; anyone who touches them in their death is unclean until the evening.
(32) And anything on which any one of them falls in their death is unclean, whether of any vessel of wood, or garment, or skin, or sack; any vessel in which work is done shall be caused to go into water, and shall be unclean until the evening; then it shall be cleaned.
(33) And any earthen vessel into the midst of which any one of them falls, whatever is in it shall be unclean, and you shall break it.
(34) And of all the food which may be eaten, that on which such water falls shall be unclean, and all drink that may be drunk in any such vessel shall be unclean.
(35) And anything on which any part of their dead body falls shall be unclean; an oven or hearth shall be broken down; they are unclean; yes, they are unclean to you.
(36) But a fountain or a well, a collection of water, shall be clean; only that touching the dead body is unclean.
Our pastor commonly tells us that we are to be rivers, not lakes. Water has to keep moving in order to keep the dead flushed out of it. The scripture above describes just that. If something dies in a clay pot, you must destroy the pot. If it dies in a fountain, the fountain is still clean.
This also describes our spiritual condition. There is a difference between stumbling and being lame (always stumbling). If we are spiritually dead, we are headed for destruction. Our earthen vessel bodies cannot - on their own accord - make themselves clean again. But with the Living Water of Jesus within us, even sin cannot make us unclean. Yes, we may stumble, but we get back up without pulling up 'lame'.
The devil uses guilt as a great weapon against the Christian trying to walk in Christ. He would have every Christian believe they are simply lame. Remember, guilt is always from the devil if you are in Christ. By the way, the last thing he wants to do to a lost person is make them feel guilty. If guilt has plagued your walk, realize that you've been a target. Move on in victory!
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