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Embrace the Within

Focusing inward to create the abundant life God wants.

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  • Aug 15, 2023
  • 2 min read

“My Father has handed over everything to me. Indeed, no one fully knows the Son except the Father, and no one fully knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son wishes to reveal him. Come to me, all of you who are struggling and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, because I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Mattityahu (Mat) 11:27-30). Some times there is an over emphasis on the difficulties and struggles of being a follower of Jesus, however, He says that His yoke is easy and His burden is light. So, how do I sometimes get confused into thinking it has to be difficult? Because I make it difficult.

Wait, I make it difficult? Of course I do. There is nothing difficult about following God’s commandments. I mean it’s basically love God and love your neighbor. That’s the whole of Torah right there. Sounds really easy and light BUT then there is the whole problem with me. I don’t want someone else to rule me. Now, whether that is sin or American independence, it’s there. I like to sit on the throne. Or sometimes I can put other things that have easier rules on the throne. It is a whole lot easier to put man-made things on the throne. They can’t judge me or convict me when I’m doing wrong. They also are not going to make me any better. And I have gone down many of those false paths like drinking, drugs, football, and politics . . . those creations of men did not convict me to make things right or be any better. They were just diversions from the reason for my creation.

Things got a whole lot easier when I set myself up for success rather than failure. And that was a whole process that I have been writing about for over three years now. God never forgot me when I was putting other things, including myself, on His throne. He never made things more difficult for me. He is always looking to unburden me and give me rest. And following Him and taking up His yoke is easy and His burden is light. And it’s easy to see that His Spirit is making things easier by the fruit I produce, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, humility, self control. Nothing in the Torah stands against such things” (Galatians (Gal) 5:22-23). When I am not seeing that fruit, when things are no longer easy, and I start to feel burdened, then I need to take a look at my journey because He promised “my yoke is easy, and my burden is light”.

Grace and Shalom to your home. The Kingdom of God is now!

I love you. I forgive you. Have a blessed and abundant day!

  • Aug 7, 2023
  • 2 min read

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only and unique Son, so that everyone who trusts in him may have eternal life, instead of being utterly destroyed. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but rather so that through him, the world might be saved. Those who trust in him are not judged; those who do not trust have been judged already, in that they have not trusted in the one who is God’s only and unique Son” (Yochanan (Jhn) 3:16-18). God did not send Jesus to judge the world but to save the world. How much less am I to judge the world?

The world is a mess BUT Jesus offers salvation. That is the Good News? Right? Remember the Good News? Jesus was walking around and spreading the Good News of the Kingdom of God. He wasn’t spreading bad news. He wasn’t telling folks they were already judged. He wasn’t professing condemnation. Jesus was offering a hand up by coming down to us. Am I coming down off my horse of religion to help offer a hand to the lost? Is my example a light upon a hill or a stumbling block?

I am not Jesus. You are not Jesus. He alone is Jesus. I may be trying to walk in His example, an example I will not attain because He is God. BUT a lot of folks like to compare their actions to His.

Jesus did this and Jesus did that. Are you walking on water? He did that too. Are you healing the sick? He did that too. Did you die and ascend to the right hand of the Father? He did that too. Looking to Jesus as an example is great until we start to put ourselves in His place. If you want to judge folks, go around and judge your fellow Christians and not the world. I constantly need reproving and redirection. I constantly miss the mark that He set. Or maybe turn that judgmental eye to the beam in your own eye as well? I definitely can use some reflection on where I fall short of His glory.

Remember that He is our King and we are not Him. He called us to spread the Good News of His Kingdom. “Yeshua went all over the Galil teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the Good News of the Kingdom, and healing people from every kind of disease and sickness” (Mattityahu (Mat) 4:23).

Grace and Shalom to your home. The Kingdom of God is now!

I love you. I forgive you. Have a blessed and abundant day!

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