Scripture
“Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.”
~Matthew 11:28, NLT
Quote
The Savior always welcomes you into His presence, regardless of how you’re feeling or what mistakes you have made.
~Charles Stanley
Can you imagine getting an invitation to the White House? It would be a downer these days but this time last month I would have jumped at such an invitation. The good news is we have an open invitation to meet with our Savior daily. Wow, that is almost more than I can wrap my little tiny faith around. I get to meet with Jesus daily and I can tell you, it is the best part of my day.
I was reading Deuteronomy 1 this morning. One of the devotions I read made reference to the Children of Israel and their failure to take the land. I noticed some things this morning that I had not seen before. Of course, the critical thing was their lack of faith. This generation of Israelites had seen more miracles than any generation in history. They saw the miracle at the Red Sea, they were lead through the wilderness by the Shekinah glory cloud which glowed in the dark. They witnessed the water from the rock, rain in a dessert and manna from heaven. Yet they doubted God’s love. Moses told them in Deuteronomy 1, “You muttered treason in your tents, you said, ‘It was because the LORD hated us that He brought us out of Egypt.'”
The devil hasn’t changed: he did the same thing with Adam and Eve and he does the same with us–he undermines our confidence in God’s love. I must give him credit, he is subtle and he is consistent. He uses sin, failure, guilt, shame and inadequacy to keep us from accepting Jesus invitation. Note Jesus invitation: “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.” Will there ever be a day, while I reside in the flesh and walk this earth that I can come before HIM on merit? Will there ever be a day that I don’t have guilt or shame about something? I can answer both questions for you and the answer is no; I am always guilty of something.
The key is to be honest and open. All we have to do is tell Him the truth–which He already knows. Instead of listening to Moses and the WORD of God, the Israelites listened to each other and they became discouraged and afraid {Deut.1:21}. They allowed the devil to undermine their confidence in God and His word. I have one child that is living is absolute rebellion against me. She has an open invitation to return home; all she has to do is repent. Our invitation to meet with Jesus is there everyday, all we have to do is come repentant.
We are observing communion at Grace Point and Joe David will be back in the pulpit at DBC so I have a light schedule. You would think that would make me happy but it doesn’t. Hey, LORD willing, we will get back on track next Sunday. When we have communion, we make that the service which means I don’t preach but I have to admit, God has been especially good to us in these memorial services.
I hope you have a great day and I hope you are planning on attending worship. They changed the weather forecast TG but it is still a little chilly. We will be outside at GP until March 14. So far, we’ve only had a couple of cold Sundays. The LORD is good!