We Clean

Good morning,
The table tensions continue! This time, the sought-after table is the table next to the plug socket. The laptop table is all about getting your wants and needs met - there is no community, inclusion, or love at this table. It’s about my agenda, my battery getting charged, and not giving anyone else’s needs a second thought. On Matthew 22, God wants everyone to come to the table and share in the glorious experience of participation in the Kingdom and community of God. However, as the parable highlights, we all have a choice to either accept or reject His invitation. Our attendance is not inevitable! It must be a deliberate decision on our part to choose to take our seat at God's table. We can come and feast without fee at God’s banqueting table. Yet it is also a costly decision. God wants people around His table who (unlike at the laptop table), put Him and others first. God wants divine diners who are so blown away by His grace that they are moved to pull up a chair to help include others at His transformative table. It’s also important that we are dressed in our best ‘table togs’ - clothed in white robes representing the righteousness of Jesus. By rockin’ these righteous robes, we show that we are relying on God’s mercy and grace alone to qualify us to sit at the table. Have you accepted God’s banquet invite, and are you helping others to find their seat at the table.

“For many are invited, but few are chosen.”
Matthew 22:14 NIV

Good morning,
Breaking the Chains of Dependency:
Holding tightly to the belief that our bodies function independently from the thoughts, feelings, ideas, and images that roam the halls of our minds and the inner character formed in our hearts is simply naive and foolish. This is what the world wants us to believe, a message that tries to convince us that how we care for our bodies has no bearing on our spiritual life. The more we allow our minds and hearts to be formed by the world, the deeper the poison of sin takes root within our bodies. Sin, if allowed the time and space to become fully mature, leads to a life of dependency, where we feel weighed down by the chains of a life lived according to the patterns of this world. Thankfully, many verses provide us with God's truth that we can hold fast to in order to counteract the lies coming at us from our culture. Friend, please know that God cares deeply about our physical bodies. If you and I surrender our whole selves (mind, body, and spirit) to His Lordship daily, He will be faithful (in His way and timing) to renovate us more and more into the image of Christ. Fasting is one of the primary ways of Jesus that we can practice in order to posture our bodies in the presence of God. As you go, consider offering the following prayer to the Lord: "Jesus, I surrender my body to you. I acknowledge that I was bought with a price and that my body is not my own to do whatever I want with. I ask that You lead and guide me into a healthy rhythm of fasting so that You might renew my body for Your glory." Amen

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Romans 12:1 NIV

Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 NIV

Good afternoon,
Our earliest memories leave a profound imprint on our souls. Adam’s early memories range from rib surgery to roaming the garden. Then, of course, there was the awkwardness of nakedness after succumbing to the serpent’s temptation. And sure, subsequent nightmares of being naked in public! But none of those moments represents Adam’s earliest memory:
God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it. Reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the animals that scurry along the ground.”
Genesis 1:28, NLT

Before original sin, there was original blessing. And so life is! That first blessing sets the tone, sets the table. It establishes the emotional baseline and spiritual trend line of Adam’s life. But it’s not just Adam’s earliest memory. It also reveals God’s most ancient instinct. Blessing is God’s default setting—His first and foremost reflex. If you don’t believe that, you’ll doubt the goodness of God. And if you second-guess the goodness of God, you’ll forfeit His blessing. Because the truth is, God wants to bless you beyond your ability to ask or imagine. What is the blessing of God? It’s God—God with us, God for us, God in us. To reduce it to anything less dishonors God and devalues the blessing. God with us is joy unspeakable and the peace that surpasses understanding. God for us is His favor, the X factor between the best we can do and the best God can do. And God in us is power, resurrection power. What happened in Genesis has more to do with your future than you might imagine. But like Adam, you’ve got to position yourself for that blessing. Because the blessing of God is more than a mystery to solve. It’s a decision to make, a habit to form, and a mindset to establish. My prayer is that this is the beginning of a new season of blessing in your life.

What could you do right now to prepare for a new blessing from God? How could you position yourself to be watching for a greater sense of His presence and joy?

And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:7 NIV