this time next week... will bring the joy of celebration...
Are you ready...?!
The gift experienced yesterday... Behold, the Lamb of God...
helped prepare a heart...
grateful for the time and gift...
grateful for the one with whom I went...
Grateful for these twenty-five days...
and the call to focus on Him...
Christmas... a time of thanks...
for a promise answered...
a gift received...
Jesus... the fulfillment of the promise...
a forever King...
a Promised Land...
a Life Eternal...
A gift received... only by recognizing... our need...
The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me,
because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor;
he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives,
and the opening of the prisons to those who are bound;
to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor,
and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn;
to grant to those who mourn in Zion --- to give them
a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness
instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead
of a faint spirit; that they may be called oaks of righteousness,
the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified.
Isaiah 61:1-3 ESV
to the brokenhearted... with healing...
to the captive... with liberty...
to a stump of a world... with hope of life...
Poor and needy...
These words echo through my mind...
recognizing... this is who we are...
this is how He came...
His humble dependence...
from cradle to cross...
no crib... no bed...
no place to call home...
even in death... a borrowed tomb...
showed us who we really are...
He came to live like us...
reveal our poverty...
Poor and needy...
Unless we know the reality of our need...
we will not receive the promise... the gift...
we'll miss it altogether...
The Pharisees in their pride missed it...
actually dismissed it...
disposing of it on a cross... (or so they thought...)
Poor and needy...
He knocks on the door...
but only those who recognize their need...
their blindness...
their dis-ease...
answer it...
"... For you say, I am rich, I have prospered,
and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched,
pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. I counsel you to buy
from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich,
and white garments so that you may clothe yourself
and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen,
and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see. ..."
Revelation 3:17-18 ESV
Those who think they are "blessed"...
let Him knock... and knock... and knock...
"...Behold, I stand at the door and knock.
If anyone hears my voice and opens the door,
I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me. ..."
Revelation 3:20 ESV
To receive the gift...
to open the door...
you have to hear the message...
receive the truth...
You are poor and needy...
let Me in... so I can heal...
provide... make new...
Are you poor and needy...? or do you have it all together...?
Me... I pray with the psalmist...
As for me, I am poor and needy,
but the Lord takes thought for me.
You are my help and my deliverer;
do not delay, O my God!
Psalm 40:16 ESV
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