Make a comfy place

This morning the Lord asked me if I would like to dwell in cramped quarters. Odd I thought "what does He mean?" I answered "uh no Lord why?"

Then He explained with a picture of a Lazy Boy!!

It was as if He was telling me to set aside more room in my heart for the Holy Spirit to really get comfy. He lead me to examine how much of my heart I really offer to Him. He showed me there's more room in there and that I struggle to give it all over.

He gave me this picture imprinted in my mind of the Holy Spirit lounging, arms stretched out wide and feet propped. No ordinary folding chair will do. If I want all He has, I need to give Him enough room in me to reside in comfort. OK maybe it's a really natural way of looking at it but hey it works for me!

Besides every good host knows if you want to keep company then you need to make them feel comfortable and welcome. I'm aiming for not only a big chair but that He kick off His shoes and stick around in jammies and slippers too!

I challenge you to see if you have a folding chair, a Lazy Boy or anything in between. Is there more room?

I bet there is He's pretty big you know!

I am praying for a whole lot of Lazy Boys at Echo!

Smells like HOLY Spirit...

"...an offering by fire of a soothing aroma to the LORD"
Lev 1:9, 13, 17; 2:2, 9, 12; 3:5, 16; 4:31... etc

Sometimes when we approach a passage for study and teaching, a certain word or phrase shines so brightly for us that we can't help but key in on it. This week's portion, Lev 1:1-6:7, contained such a phrase for me, as you can see above. Tomorrow morning, Echo's kids will explore what it means to offer God a "soothing aroma" sacrifice today, particularly in light of Christ's fulfillment of the blood atonement for sin. I'm really looking forward to teaching that lesson!

Right now, however, I'm pondering the phrase itself... "soothing aroma." For you Hebrew fans, it's reyach nichoach... the first time we see it in Scripture is in Genesis 8:21, when Noah offers a sacrifice from among the animals on the ark after the flood.

Did you pick up on that? God had just saved these animals from the flood. What was Noah thinking? It ocurred to me that this sacrifice was no ordinary "hey thanks for saving me, God" sacrifice.

First, of course, let's note that there were 7 pairs of each clean animal, compared with the 2 pairs of each unclean animal. It seems God had provided extra animals for a purpose. Did He tell Noah to offer them? I don't know. But I wonder... when we're given extra of anything... money, time, etc... what do we do with it? I know what I typically do... I cry "BONUS!" and delight myself in the treat. I'm being challenged right now by Noah's sacrifice... to examine the "extras" in my life for perhaps a purpose other than my own pleasure.

Huh. That's a fresh revelation, folks... I wasn't planning to type that at all.

Sweet! Talk about bonuses...

Okay, here's where I was heading before that Holy Spirit sidetrack. Noah's sacrifice was made in faith... and I daresay, in hope and love as well. Faith, that God would multiply the remaining animals... hope, that the sacrifice would please Him... and love, that highest love, laying down your life for our Best Friend.

Eh, there it is again... laying down my own life, my own pleasure... Okay, Lord, I give up, I'm not going to try to make the point I was going to make when I started this post! Here You go, it's all Yours...

When we lay our own pleasure down for His, He is delighted, and it's a pleasing aroma for Him. The joy we experience is richer, deeper. It's different to be sure... it never will be that delight that we tend to pursue here in the natural... it's an acquired taste.

Look again at the Hebrew for a moment... reyach nichoach...

Reyach: scent, fragrance, from RUACH ... breath, spirit.

Ah... BREATH. This aroma is something He breathes in. God inhales? Apparently so. He inhales the scent of our burning flesh, our lives pressed (but not crushed), our bodies as living sacrifices. And what does this do for Him? It's a reyach nichoach...

Nichoach: soothing, restfulness, from the same as Noah's name. It delights Him, it is soothing, evoking restfulness for Him.

Dare I go here? Eh, sure, let's go, permission or no from any human readers, if there are any...

He rests in US, in our sacrifice, the sacrifice that follows Christ's example. He rests on the seventh Day, after Man's day is set aside. HIS rest, the rest we long to enter, is found in our laying down our lives, wrapping up OUR day, our "me" time.

"Take my yoke upon you... and you will find rest for your souls..."

Rest... ah, we know another Hebrew word for that don't we? Sure...

SHABBAT.... SHABBAT SHALOM, dear Echo. Cling to His hand, pursue His terribly beautiful face, and may you find yourself surrounded by His fire as He finds you an acceptible, yet living, sacrifice...

Inhale. Exhale. Breathe, Papa... breathe us in, breathe in us...

Echo's Tabernacle

We've been studying the instructions for the tabernacle of the Lord, and this week the kid's church added the "glory".. the pillar of fire over the tent! Wow!!

Our building... and our fleshly "tents"... are temporary, just as this model of the tabernacle will some day be put aside. In the meantime, though, the Lord is pleased to let His glory to rest on us, and to let His treasure fill these earthen vessels...

We love You Lord, oh, teach us how to love...

Beyond the Veil

Daphne and I are doing something "wrong" here at the Wall in Jerusalem... we have turned our backs to the sacred place. The women behind us, when they were done praying, would back away from the wall until they got to a point (never figured out what that point was) where they felt they weren't disrespecting the place by showing it their backside.

It took me a while to pick a picture for this entry... I wanted something that depicted the veil and the glory that fades vs the glory that doesn't fade. Paul says the servants of the gospel have unveiled faces (1 Cor 3:13) and that the glory on these faces doesn't fade like that of Moses. So, why this picture?

Well, the glory that faded is pictured behind us... the temple, the physical place of worship that was destroyed, not by human hands, ultimately, but by God's hand. The glory of the Law is tremendous indeed, worthy of awe and fear, because that glory, the glory of God as a consuming fire... has the power to kill.

But this new glory Paul speaks of... ah, well, that glory brings LIFE... does it still consume? You betcha. But because of our High Priest who entered the Holy of Holies "once for all" the veil has been torn, and we can walk unashamed, unafraid... certain of His resurrection power, and secure that His glory rests on us for all eternity. Moses exemplified insecurity, and ultimately, a faith based on sight. We walk with a greater glory, thanks be to God, and this treasure in earthen vessels is meant to SHINE!

So SHINE, Echo... He is in your midst, and He adores you. Shine, like a child whose Daddy loves her and delights in her little dance. Shine, like a young woman who for the first time realizes the one she has a secret crush on... likes her too. Shine, like a Bride on that Glorious Day... and someday, may you also shine with His Seed in you, as a woman with child, and then, as a new mother...

Ah, beautiful, beautiful...

Shabbat Shalom