BEHOLD

So, I am reading through the book of Joshua because it is assigned summer reading for Charlotte United Christian Academy and I am on staff there.  What started as a duty has become an adventure, a treasure hunt as the Holy Spirit shows me all kinds of cool stuff.  I love how He does that!

For example the other day I was in Joshua 6 and I read, "See, I have delivered Jericho into your hands..."  I got stuck on the word "see" rendered in KJV as "behold".  It is a word used often in the Scriptures and one which I used to think of as sort of just a precursor, an interjection of sorts; designed to get our attention but not really significant other than that.

Now, I believe that single word was key for Joshua and for us.  It is a spiritual imperative!  God invites us to see into the spiritual realm.  He gives Joshua the outcome of the battle before He gives him the battle plan.

"See" is an invitation and an exhortation to step out of fear and into faith; to step out of old mindsets and opinions and embrace God's vision.  If we don't see what God sees we will never be who He wants us to be.

As a young woman I wrote a song that says, "One thing I would Lord that is that you would make me the woman you've envisioned me to be."  That is still my prayer!  Open our eyes Lord so that we can walk into our destiny.  After all seeing is believing!

A Passion for His Presence

I had a truly fabulous day yesterday due mostly to the amount of time I spent in the word.  I got on my ipad (Thank you to the friends who purchased it for me!) and looked up one of my teachers from my DTS in Scotland.  I was dismayed to learn that Ken McGreavy recently went on to be with Jesus but so grateful for his archived teachings available through the wonders of modern technology.

I listened to a teaching on Mark 2, the story of the friends who dig the hole in the roof.  You know the one?  Ken was talking about the magnetism of the presence of Jesus.  The crowds that inevitably surround Him testify to that.  He also spoke of the disruption of the presence of Jesus;  the hole in the roof, the offended people certainly testify of that.

I got to thinking how much I love the magnetism of Jesus.  I love the touchy feely sense of His presence during worship.  I am not so much in love with the disruption of His presence.  Yet both are necessary if we are to be made whole.  He did not come so things could remain the same and I think there is a whole lot of shaking going on just now.

Ken closed by saying while he loves all the talk of having  a passion for the presence of Jesus, he wants to remind us that God has a passion for our presence; THE CROSS testifies to that.

Stir up within us your passion and presence. Disrupt us Lord!

KIM