So I woke up at 9:30am (which is 3 hours later than I usually wake up!) and spent the whole morning and early afternoon spending time with Him. It was absolutely refreshing and something I am so thankful I can do.
Whenever I have a crazy schedule or week and I miss Jesus, I like to sit down and read an entire Gospel (Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John). Today I chose Mark.
As I got to Chapter 7, the Lord really highlighted the beauty of the New Covenant, the beauty of the Blood, the beauty of His Son. Let me set the scene for you. Some Pharisees (religious Jews) came to Jesus and saw that His disciples were breaking bread with unwashed hands; which is breaking tradition and which the Jews were not ok with. All the Pharisees always eat with washed hands. But not just any washed hands... they wash their hands in a special, traditional way. They won't eat unless they have washed. Them washing their hands literally depends on whether they eat or not.
Then the Pharisees ask Jesus why His disciples don't follow tradition and follow the rules. Then Jesus calls them hypocrites and answers with a scripture from Isaiah, " 'This people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me. And in vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men. For laying aside the commandment of God, you hold the tradition of men' - the washing of pitchers and cups, and many other things you do. He said to them, All too well you reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your tradition." (Matthew 7:6-9)
The Lord revealed to me while reading this how amazing it is to be a child of God, to be a child who operates according to the promise and not to the law. What a blessing that we don't have to do all of these things to eat the Bread of Life. We don't have to clean up and fix ourselves in order to enjoy Him and partake of His life, He did that once and for all by His blood. He washed us once and for all so that we may freely eat of the Bread of Life (Jesus!) and not have to worry about what we are doing right and wrong physically and outwardly. He cares more about our heart than our outward appearance (1 Samuel 16:7). God cares more about us upholding His commandment to love the Him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength and love our neighbors as ourselves than what religious practices we are performing. I am so thankful I have a God who is outward focused, who cares about us loving Himself and loving others. May I be the same! May my eyes be fixed on loving God and loving people with everything I have rather than how good I am at Christianity and going through the motions of religion.
Yes, there are spiritual disciplines that are good to practice. Abiding is HUGE, and completely vital. Staying connected with God is the only way we will be able to produce fruit - apart from Him we can literally do NOTHING (John 15). But we must not lose sight of why we abide, why we read the Word, why we pray, why we are alive... it is so that we may be in relationship with God, so that we may love Him and it is so OTHERS may see, experience, and know that God loves them with all His heart and wants to be in a relationship with them. We, as Christians, are called to be 100% outward focused. I am a firm believer in this. You receive the blood, the washing and you can eat freely the bread of Life - but freely you receive, freely you give. We are saved so others may be saved. We have the Gospel message in us so that others may have the Gospel message. We are in a love relationship with our Creator so that out of the overflow, others may enter in to a love relationship with God their Father. Our whole purpose is this. To invite others to the wedding feast, to dine with the King who spread His table for thee.
How thankful I am to eat with uncleaned hands that are forever made clean by the Blood of Jesus. Hallelujah, what a King... that He would come to earth and die for thee.
In Him,
Lindsay
Third World Girl
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