Monday, July 30, 2018

30 July 2018 - branching up




For, as close as the loincloth clings to a man's loins,
so had I made the whole house of Israel
and the whole house of Judah cling to me, says the LORD;
to be my people, my renown, my praise, my beauty.

The LORD made us to be intimately united with himself. We fulfill our purpose when we allow him to have his way with us. This is when we feel the most fully human, the most on fire with purpose, and the most loved. But we often forget our purpose. We bury ourselves in other things unrelated to our purpose in God.

Take the loincloth which you bought and are wearing,
and go now to the Parath;
there hide it in a cleft of the rock.

When we are apart from God we can't fulfill our purpose. We tend to become filthy. And we can't be immediately reunited to him in that way that he wants until he first cleans us. We, like the prodigal, constantly wander away from full commitment to the LORD.

What a fickle race they are,
sons with no loyalty in them!

God, like the prodigal's father, waits to welcome us back. Our pride may cause us to rot but he is the one who can make us as white as snow once again. Like the prodigal's father he gives us new robes and makes us fit to dwell in his house once again. This experience is one we must treasure. We are meant to live for our Father who loves us. All other ambition will ultimately leave us empty.

We are called to intimate union with God. To the degree that we embrace it even very small things begin to have very large and transformative ripple effects.

It is the smallest of all the seeds,
yet when full-grown it is the largest of plants.

To fulfill our purpose in the Kingdom we must first know the King. The purpose he has for each of us is not burdensome. It is not onerous. We do tend to prefer other things to him. This is because we believe lies about what will make us happy. It is not because there is anything besides him that will satisfy. There is nothing better. There is no other tree big enough for all the birds of the sky. Without this yeast the dough will not be leavened and the hungry will not be fed.






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