Begin

Take the first step. Draw the first line. Put in the application. Find out the steps and do the first one. Put a little in savings to get what you need. Get a garbage bag and just start cleaning up the mess one piece at a time.

Sometimes I want to draw but I don't know how to start so I just draw a line and then another line. Often, but not always, it turns into something. I might end up discarding that page but it gets me started.

"[Let your] conversation [be] without covetousness; [and be] content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. So that we may boldly say, The Lord [is] my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me." - Hebrews 13:5-6 KJV

Some look at this passage and think, 'I shouldn't want things.' but looking at it today I see, 'I need to stop talking about wanting things and take the first steps with God!'

This is the contentment that comes from practicing God's presence and not being paralyzed by the fear of losing the illusion of control over what we seem to have.  

The things we want are bought with a currency... it just isn't money. It is faith that with God all things are possible if we are willing to leave our comfort zone and go with Him into the next thing.

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Go Boldly

"Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need." - Hebrews 4:16 ESV

Where is this throne? Are we just speaking words into the air and mentally directing them at God or is it more than that?

"In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said: "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!" And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. And I said: "Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!" Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth and said: "Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for." And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" Then I said, "Here I am! Send me."" - Isaiah 6:1-8 ESV

"Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, "Sit here, while I go over there and pray." And taking with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to them, "My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me." And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, "My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will." And he came to the disciples and found them sleeping. And he said to Peter, "So, could you not watch with me one hour?" - Matthew 26:36-40 ESV

Will we sleep or will we go? I say this throne is just a few steps away but those steps are impossible for the natural self-oriented person to take. We must go or be taken past our self centeredness to get there. 

Boldness is a prerequisite and boldness means there are no barriers. No guilt. No shame. No sense of unworthiness. Only Jesus can produce that in us. When we are 'hidden' in Him we can come boldly and we have access.

Some say we must go like small children running into a room and sitting on their father's lap. It is a good picture but I think we must deal with this King like an adult and not a child. We are his children but we are adult children with real adult issues that need His influence to be resolved.

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Stay Sensitive To Pain And Loss

"You shall not boil a young goat in its mother's milk." - Exodus 23:19b ESV

The does not say, 'Don't eat young goats.'

It also doesn't say, 'Don't use milk for cooking.'

This is a nuanced commandment that became oversimplified in tradition. It is talking about sensitivity to suffering and having a hard heart that just uses things and people indiscriminately. 

Our life is going to cause suffering in others. That is an inescapable reality we must face but we still want to minimize that suffering and deal compassionately in life instead of just gobbling things up indiscriminately because we have 'a good recipe'. The context is this... which I think is striking.

"You shall keep the Feast of Harvest, of the firstfruits of your labor, of what you sow in the field. You shall keep the Feast of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you gather in from the field the fruit of your labor. Three times in the year shall all your males appear before the Lord GOD. You shall not offer the blood of my sacrifice with anything leavened, or let the fat of my feast remain until the morning. The best of the firstfruits of your ground you shall bring into the house of the LORD your God. You shall not boil a young goat in its mother's milk." - Exodus 23:16-19 ESV

Interesting. In a way I think God is saying, 'I know doing these things is going to be inconvenient for you but do it anyway and be sensitive about what you do and who you hurt.'

The goat doesn't know or care but what you know and care about is what God is interested in.

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