Perfectly Clean

From my prayer journal this morning:

 "Father, help me see Your holiness.  I have no concept of what that means, let alone how it is expressed.  Leviticus 11:44 says, "For I am the Lord your God: ye shall therefore sanctify yourselves, and ye shall be holy; for I am holy; neither shall ye defile yourselves...."   Strong's Hebrew Dictionary - HOLY - #6918 Defined as: sacred - to be clean"

So all day I have pondered holiness.  I have considered what makes God holy.  I have thought that it is His complete absence of defilement,  His "ultra-cleanliness".  I have meditated on the possibility of me being holy.  Not possible, I am "über-dirty".  I decided that in my own power I cannot be holy, God will have to do it.  But I can follow His prescription,  "neither shall ye defile yourselves...."

So at my meal I refrained from defiling my stomach with an overload of food.  I did the dishes as "unto God", carefully making sure all semblance of defilement was removed.  I spoke to my husband with words of grace, preventing defilement in my tone and content.  But then I checked facebook and opened an ad about upcoming legislation.  In what seemed like a twinkling of my eye, I was defiled.  I did not expect it, but there it was creating a stain on my soul.  Another spot in an already tainted fabric.

"Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool."  (Isaiah 1:18)  That promise brings relief and comfort.  God can clean this dirty soul.  "I had fainted unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living."  (Psalm 27:13)  I believe that in this land He will make me perfectly clean.

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Close as a toothbrush

"But the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart..."  Deuteronomy 30:14

Inevitably if you live with others it happens.  In that drowsy morning when you stumble into the bathroom and start your morning hygiene; your cloudy eyes don't distinguish between the colors and your thick fingers cant discriminate the differences in shape; so you proceed and apply generous amounts of the dentifrice and begin the process.  How long does it take to realize you have made a mistake?  It is almost immediate!  "Oh, that is not my toothbrush!"

Unless it is brand new, the relationship with our toothbrush is intimate.  We can tell it apart from every other brush on the planet.  But that intimacy is because multiple times a day it touches parts that are not touched by other things.  The fork just briefly slides over the tongue.  The food is manipulated and sent on its way, but the brush, it goes everywhere.  It lingers and scours and seeks to touch every nook and cranny.

Jesus said that the word is close, intimate; even in our mouth and our heart.  What would happen if I let the word be in my mouth multiple times a day.  If it lingered and scoured my heart, searching out everything that offended?  If that happened, I would know immediately if the word I heard was foreign.  I would only have to taste it and know if it was the Lord's or not.  I would be saved from confusion and indecision. I would be protected from the confusion of the times.  "For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect."  Matthew 24:24, 25

Lets do it.  Lets purpose to have the word be as intimate as our toothbrushes are.  Then at the first touch of foreign thoughts we will spit them out and wash our mouths out with hot water.  Then we can remember the true words, and let them be our guide.

Open Fields

He said, "Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like  crimson, they shall be as wool." (Isaiah 1:18)

As this snow fall covers the land I see hope for the future.

I see that my stoney heart can be covered by the beauty of Christ's life.

I see lawns...

and fields...

that had been fully exposed covered with millions of purifying flakes.

I see that the snow can stick to...

...vertical things.

And that it has the appearance of wool.

I also see that although the snow can shroud most things...

there are self protected places which are not touched.

I see that things ensconced from the elements...

or standing tall and erect

are not graced by the humble blanket.

I see there are structures built specifically to keep the snow out...

havens of safety, cradled against the weather.

From inside these shelters, the snow is beautiful

but does not cover....

Though the elements bite, I choose to be an open field; hidden under the cleansing weight of promise.

Baby's Breath

"...And the priest shall burn all on the altar, to be a burnt sacrifice, an offering made by fire, of a sweet savour unto the Lord." Leviticus 1:9

Pagan deities require food offerings.  Often, bowls of choice morsels, strategically placed before the fetish, rot. Or as in the epic myth of Gilgamesh the food gift is cooked and the gods eat it.  The Lord also asked for food offerings, but He does not eat them.  "If I were hungry, I would not tell thee: for the world is mine, and the fulness thereof.  Will I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats?"  (Psalm 50:12, 13)  

So what exactly is the relationship between the offering and the Lord?  Does He just watch the ritual from a distance.  Leviticus 1:9 says that the priest shall burn the offering to be a sweet savour unto the Lord.  The smoke of the burnt offering becomes a kind of incense; the fragrant residue of something burned; and that perfume is for God.  He receives the offering by smelling it.  He breathes deeply of the sweet scent and takes it into His own being.

Psalm 141:2 says, "Let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense; and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice." Hmm... my prayer like sacrificial incense?  My prayer ascending into the courts of glory and wafting to the throne to be received by God?  Prayer, the breath of my soul, (Gospel Workers 254.4)  in His nostrils and lungs? Isn't that slightly ironic;  me a creature who is dependent on His breath of life, giving breath back to Him?  But that is the thing about my Father, He wants to enjoy every intimacy with me.  Like a father nuzzles close to his baby and savors the sweet smell of her breath, God loves the breath of my soul and that is...       amazing!

Job 42:12

"So the Lord blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning." Job 42:12

That is my experience.  That is why I write this blog.  The post called Renovation explains it all, but some days it is harder to walk on that fact then others.  Today is one of those days.

Like many other Americans, my husband was unemployed for a year.  During that time we exhausted all our resources.  But by God's mercy Pat was able to get another job.  To take the job we had to leave our home, our friends and family.  But leaving home meant gaining work and work was essential.

Today, we signed the papers to give up our home in Massachusetts.  It was as hard to write our names this morning as it was to drive the moving truck up the hill and away from our home, on the morning of June 14, 2012. But still, there are things to hold on to and keep.  Here is one of them:

"One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life...For in the time of trouble He shall hide me in his pavilion: in the secret of His tabernacle shall He hide me...I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.  Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and He shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord."  Psalm 27: 4, 5, 13, 14

Although today, it is hard to see; I want to declare to the world that I believe I will see the goodness of the Lord, even here in the prairie away from the hills of New England.  I believe that He is our refuge and our sustenance.  I am convinced that He has our good in view and can achieve it.  I will reject my sorrow and set my jaw like flint to seek His face.  And although, over the last year and a half, life has broken our hearts more than once, we will take that deep, deep breath that signals the end of tears and sigh in the confidence of God's care.  Surely, the latter end will be more blessed than the beginning.

"I Am the Vine" Jesus

A southwest Michigan grapevine

The Vine

Christmas Eve

In our home, words are often many and sometimes too few, but music speaks most glorious.  As I listened to Christmas songs, I remembered some others.  I share them because they express themes God has planted in my heart.

Thought number one:  I am the greatest sinner and God loves me anyway.
Thought number two:  He is worthy to be praised, loved and worshiped.

Merry Christmas