Spring Has Sprung

I could not help but feel like I was walking in a movie set today while strolling with my puppy under the canopy of cherry blossoms that were falling like snow on the crimson tulip beds beneath the black-trunked trees. As I kept strolling, and as the sky was preparing itself for a short-lived thunder shower, I passed by the slow-moving stream that probably used to be an irrigation ditch for the farm that has become my beautiful neighborhood. Looking all around, my eyes absorbed the vibrant colors of new life poking its way into what was, only 3 weeks ago, a palette of grays and browns. 

My mind began to remember lessons of Spring and New Life and I remembered what I had learned about which season scholars believed Jesus really was born into. Although we celebrate Christmas, the birth of Christ, in the winter season, many scholars believe that there is evidence that Jesus' birth most probably occurred in spring. In Israel and elsewhere, spring brings the celebration of Passover. Passover is the feast that is a re-visiting for Jews; one that reminds them of the time right after the plagues, when God delivered His people out of slavery. The Hebrew nation left Egypt and slavery quickly and began their 40 year journey through the desert to find themselves totally dependent on God for their sustenance. He had promised them a land of their own, one filled with new life, milk and honey. 

Before they left, the last plague had been a curse of death by God on all the firstborn in Egypt. It had been this deadly persuasion of God that convinced the grieving Pharoah to release the enslaved people of God. God had given His believing people a way to be delivered from this curse of death. All they needed to do was to take the cleansing herb,"hyssop" and paint their doors with a sign. This sign was painted with the blood from a sacrificed lamb. This sign said without question, "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord."  It seemed to proclaim, "We belong to God."  So the angel of death "passed- over" the houses that bore the sign of blood and the people inside the door were saved.  

This lesson is a foreshadow for us to recognize what the cleansing blood of Jesus, our sacrificed Lamb, has done for us. Because of His love and His death, the doors to our hearts and lives are forever painted with the blood of the Lamb. Our lives will never end with Him and death has no power over us. 

So for thousands of years now, Passover has been a celebration of remembrance. The Jews remember that deliverance was given to them by a loving God who provided a way out of sin, slavery and, bondage. They remember that their deliverance was leading them to a new life.....a life that was abundantly more than they even knew to ask. 

So I was walking today thinking of new life....the new life offered me because of what Jesus, the Passover Lamb, finished at the cross. New life that came because now instead of God looking at my sin, He sees my sin hanging on Jesus. Jesus became my sin in His death.  "He who knew no sin would become sin for me that I might have everlasting life".  

In Israel, Spring is the time when all of the new little lambs are born on the craggy rocks of the hillsides and where spotless, perfect ones were at one time chosen by each faithful family to be a sacrifice to God. Their offerings, given back to God, bound them in covenant with God who was faithful over their deliverance. 

As they, then and now, partake in the Passover Feast, bitter herbs are eaten to be a picture of the bitterness of slavery. These bitter herbs are dipped in salty water to be symbolic of the tear-stained lives of slavery. A mixture of apples and walnuts,"charoset" is remembrance of the mortar used to construct the kingdom of Egypt built by Hebrew slaves........a kingdom that is somewhere none of them ever want to be again. An egg represents new and fertile life, with a promise from God for generations of people to live as covenant followers. Finally, a lamb shank on the feast platter is a symbol of the spotless Lamb of God; who takes away the sins of this gray and hurting world.

 In His perfect sacrifice, it was for me that He did this...that He spoke those final words, "It is finished." It is for me that He brought newness of life. It is for me that the Promised Land is real. 

My spring celebration this season will include thoughts of the perfection of a sacrifice that is the Blood of the Lamb. My spring this year brings an overwhelming gratefulness for new life in Him.....that I, everyday can pick up my cross and follow Him. My celebration of spring this year will be a reminder of a walk down a path that leads me to promise for new growth and death to the old; down paths that lead to everlasting water. My eyes will behold the true season.

As John the Baptist was quoted:

"Behold, the Lamb of God

Who takes away the sin of the world."

Is it true, "When the going gets tough, the tough get going?"

I am just wondering; finally, after so much of my life has been spent relying on my own strength, if this idea of "toughness" through difficulties isn't a belief that fosters idolatry and keeps me separate from my God? I have been a girl grown to a woman who learned to quietly suffer; keeping all my cards in my hand. I learned to bear it and grin; to be strong for others as they fell down all around me. After all, I thought, "if everyone is falling, who will be left to pick up the pieces when it is all said and done?" "Who can be there with the strength to carry on when all else fails?" How naive I am to put myself on the throne? I seem to have mastered the art of keeping others from seeing my deep fears and my true, weak self........ to protect my weaknesses so deeply that it keeps everyone at arm's length and prevents true friendships and intimate sharing to occur. I may have even started to believe in it myself; this power is so enticing.....to wonder if He is truly capable? "Doesn't He eventually need me to keep it together? For me and for everyone else?" Arrogance is definitely not a fruit of the Spirit, nor does it bring peace. I'm only beginning; even though I have reached what I have thought was the end of this thinking; to actually feel around with my toes to what I think could be the bottom of thinking ,"I am in control or I am probably in charge." Control has been a seductive idol in my life; luring me into passive resistance to God and His ways. I can talk the talk of "reliance" on my Saviour. I can speak with unwavering rhetoric about my "strength being made perfect in Him." I have actually taught, with some authority, lessons on these principles as if I had mastered a life of putting myself totally in God's Hands. Even as I type these words, I want to take back the feelings of helplessness that I am confessing. To be in control has been my safety, my putting off of fear, and my rescue. "After all, God needs me, right?..... to run my show, and the shows of others?" Somehow, I am seduced into thinking that this power and control will satisfy; this place of having everything under control! Although I call myself, a 'woman of the Word'...and I highly value what the Word teaches me for life; I find NOTHING in scripture that supports this notion of self-reliance and selfish strength. Quite the contrary and so I can see:

Ps 96:4-6

"For the Lord is great and greatly to be praised

He is to be feared above all gods

For all the gods of the peoples are idols

But the Lord made the heavens

Honor and majesty are before Him;

Strength and beauty are in His sanctuary."

Ps 18:1-2

"I will love You, O Lord, my strength. 

The Lord is my Rock and my fortress and my deliverer.

My God, my strength, in Whom I will trust."

Finally, Jesus writes to His faithful church:

Rev 3:7-8

"These things says He who is holy, He who is true, He who has the key of David, He who opens and no one shuts and shuts and no one opens; I know your works.

See, I have set before you an open door; and no one can shut it;

for you have little strength, 

have kept My Word, and have not denied My Name."

Today, I took some steps to share with three friends. I opened my heart; cried with deep dependence about some real fears I am suffering through. I asked for help; and I asked for prayer. I am learning, although slowly; to trust God with my fears....to be weak enough to share my needs with others. This has been the stumbling block for me...to share with others. I was so afraid that my weakness would be used against me. So proud of my own self-reliance. I now want to live in freedom and reliance on God alone. I want to put off the old and welcome the new. I want to look like the creature He made me to be....His....not of my own making....but, His......like a baby who trusts for his next meal. I thank Him for those whom He has given to me. My mask will slowly come off. I also know that as soon as I think it is, I will be tempted to put it back on. I do not have to keep pretending that I can control my life and endure it all. After all, I have only a little strength, and He has set the stars in the heavens! I know that God is faithful to complete that work which He has begun in me. May I be found faithful, too!

I love this song from Ginny Owen: Download it and hear her sweet repose:

"Own Me"

"Own me, take all that I am and

Heal me  with the blood of the Lamb

Mold me with your gracious Hand

Break me 'til I'm only yours

Own me.........Lord, I am willing to be changed."

Guarding God's Glory

Isaiah 59:14,15:

Justice is turned back

And righteousness stands afar off

For truth is fallen in the street

And equity cannot enter

So truth fails

And he who departs from evil makes himself prey

What can I notice about the condition of Israel in this passage? There is no justice; no righteousness;the righteousness stands but it stands far away as if the gate to the city is closed; or as if the wall surrounding the city is built to keep it away; there is no truth, for it has fallen and is failing...I picture truth slain and ailing; and equity or justice cannot enter....again as if the gate to the nation is closed.

Jeremiah 2:11

Has a nation changed its gods which are not gods

But My people have changed their Glory for what does not profit

It appears to me that in this passage the nation of Israel has made an exchange: they have exchanged God for what does not profit. In Ps 114 it speaks of Israel exchanging God's glory for idols of silver and gold. If a nation, as God's people exchange for God's glory that which does not profit, that nation will in turn not profit. Since Glory is capitalized in this passage, it seems as if they exchanged God for the idols that did not profit. We read in Is 59 that justice,truth,righteousness and equity were held afar off. The truth revealed to me is this: in a nation where righteousness, truth, justice and glory are exchanged for idols of silver and gold; although I might think of silver and gold as a profit; the Lord says they did not profit. God's ideas about what is gain and what my ideas of what is gain are very different. I tend to hold on so tightly to things in this world that are tangible and real; things that in the rest of the world's perception seem to profit me everything. At least here, God has a different lesson for me about what profits me. We read that those that tried to walk righteously with God and turn from evil in turn became prey themselves.  From this, I realize that walking with God will not be easy and may not be looked at favorably in this world.

2Corinthians3:18

But we all with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of God, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.

I am being transformed as I gaze only at His glory. 

1Samuel 2:2,3

No one is holy like the Lord

For there is none besides You

Nor is any rock like our God.

Talk no more so very proudly

Let no arrogance come from your mouth

For the Lord is the God of knowledge

And by Him actions are weighed.

God's holiness is connected to Him...His person.....in Him alone. Not by how smart, or wise, or rich, or powerful I think I am. For I don't have power within myself that profits me any and I do not gain power or truth by things I try to exchange for God; but power and truth and righteousness come only from Him. His justice then is weighed and met out as it is weighed against His holiness. As I gaze into His glory, His glory in turn is reflected.

For: "What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his own soul?"