May the mumbling commence!
Merry Christmas! Happy Birthday, Jesus! You are the greatest gift of all. Let us give thanks.
Let us embrace our part in the Kingdom of God. Help us, O Lord, to discover Your Kingdom among us and within us. Help us to take an active part. Guide us. Read from Joshua chapter eighteen:
Then Joshua asked them, "How long are you going to wait before taking possession of the remaining land the Lord, the God of your ancestors, has given to you? Select three men from each tribe, and I will send them out to survey the unconquered territory. They will return to me with a written report of their proposed divisions of the inheritance. The scouts will map the land into seven sections, excluding Judah's territory in the south and Joseph's territory in the north. Then I will cast sacred lots in the presence of the Lord our God to decide which section will be assigned to each tribe. However, the Levites will not receive any land. Their role as priests of the Lord is their inheritance. And the tribes of Gad, Reuben, and the half-tribe of Manasseh won't receive any more land, for they have already received their inheritance, which Moses, the servant of the Lord, gave them on the east side of the Jordan River." (Verses 3-7)
How long will we wait on the Lord? We just completed Advent, the season of waiting. Christmas has dawned. Angels have sung.
Do we still wait? Yes, we wait for Christ to come again. BUT we wait actively. We seek out the Kingdom of God. Survey it. It’s the only place where we will feel totally at home, because we will continually know that we are in the presence of the Lord.
Help us perceive the activity of Your Holy Spirit so that we might have the audacity to get up and walk in new ways. Do we really want to walk in a new way… the Way of Christ? Read from John chapter five:
Afterward Jesus returned to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish holy days. Inside the city, near the Sheep Gate, was the pool of Bethesda, with five covered porches. Crowds of sick people – blind, lame, or paralyzed – lay on the porches. One of the men lying there had been sick for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him and knew how long he had been ill, he asked him, "Would you like to get well?"
"I can't, sir," the sick man said, "for I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred up. While I am trying to get there, someone else always gets in ahead of me."
Jesus told him, "Stand up, pick up your sleeping mat, and walk!"
Instantly, the man was healed! He rolled up the mat and began walking! (Verses 1-9a)
Thirty-eight years – that’s a long wait indeed. Long enough to get used to life as an invalid. To be healed would to have a vastly different life – a life that included standing, working, and walking. Did he want to be healed and live in a new way?
Are we willing to be healed? Are we willing to live in a new way? Are we quick to say that we can’t, just like the man in this story?
What we can and cannot do will never prohibit the Way of Jesus. It is about what the Lord can or cannot do. And everything is possible for the Lord. EVERYTHING! Work in our lives in a new way… Your way.
Enough mumbling for now…
Peace Out
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