The Veil Removed

scrip·ture
2 Corinthians 3:14 & 16 | 14But their minds were hardened. For to this day, when they read the old covenant, that same veil remains unlifted, because only through Christ is it taken away. & 16But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed.

de·vo·tion·al
When I was a kid I was introduced to the Jack in the Box. Jack in the Box is a toy where a child turns a handle on the side of a colorful box. While the child is turning the handle, the "Pop Goes the Weasel" melody is playing. The first time I played with the Jack in the Box, I was at my aunt and uncle house, and I can remember I was unsure of what the outcome of all this handle turning and music playing would be. Eventually, in a startling moment, the melody came to a conclusion and, POP, outcome a character which was a big element of surprise.

For the longest time, God's house and availability were limited to that of a confined space, either the Tabernacle or the Temple. God then sent to us His one and only son, our Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ. Jesus came and started singing the true melody of God's love. He would play it for us through His words and more importantly, through His deeds. As He inched closer to fulfilling God's promise of salvation through sacrificing Himself, the melody inches closer to a conclusion, which to many leads to a startling moment. Once Jesus lifts up His Spirit to God, and He takes His last breath, POP, the curtain in the temple is torn in half, and the literal and figurative veil is removed and God is released out of the temple (box) and He is free for all to see.

The sad thing is, for some, they did not and do not hear the melody being played, and they are still waiting for the notes of a messiah, which has already come. Matthew 7:7-8 7”Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.  8For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.  Until those individuals open their hearts from the old covenant or non-believers ask, seek, or knock and recognize the melody of the new covenant and the gift of salvation, they will continue to turn the handle of their belief, and the veil will never be lifted from their hearts.

prayer
Heavenly Father, I pray that in Your infinite and steadfast grace, You can equip me with the ability to recognize the truth surrounding the melody that was provided through the words and deeds of Your son.  Allow those that are in my prayers that have not yet heard that melody to be given an opportunity through your means to hear the melody of salvation.  Grant me strength as people challenge my hearing and give me the truth needed to defend the reason for the hope I have for you.
Amen

Retreating for the Purpose of Pursuit Part 3

The Difficult Times

re·treat /rəˈtrēt/ | The act of withdrawing, as into safety or privacy; retirement; seclusion.

pur·suit /pərˈso͞ot/ | The action of following or pursuing someone or something.

re·treat | Luke 22:39,41 39And he came out and went, as was his custom, to the Mount of Olives, and the disciples followed him. ; 41And he withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, and knelt down and prayed.

pur·suit | To commune with His Father; to plead with His Father and request for strength to bear the cup of the world's sins

Spring is here, time to get out and start reducing my waist line so I can stop lieing to my wife when I say, “No, my shorts fit perfectly fine, it is just a new fashion trend to keep my shorts unbuttoned.  You’ll see, everyone will be doing it, I am fashion forward!”  I was well on my way to digging myself out of that lie and running on the trails near my home ever day.

One rainy morning, I had 100 yards left of my run, and I was going to sprint it.  I was huffing like a grizzly bear exercising after being aroused from hibernation, and then it happened.  I stepped on a root and my ankle twisted underneath my body, breaking and displacing my fibula bone.  Although painful, I was proud of myself for only howling like an injured animal, an injured baby animal, instead of breaking into what my wife calls “Wheels Off Joshua”.  “Wheels Off Joshua” comes out when trying to put up a 4 x 12 piece of sheetrock on my basement ceiling all by myself, and not so pleasant words come out of my mouth (most of you know what I am talking about).  After breaking my ankle, I’ve found myself adding up all the painful things that were in front of me, surgery, doctors poking and prodding me, physical therapy and crawling up the stairs to take a one legged shower (which is both painful and humiliating).  Now, it is not the sins of the world, but it is an example of where I will need to find strength and perseverance that is enriched by the Spirit of the LORD.  It is hard to retreat with a broken ankle, but it is and will be necessary for me to do so in pursuit of the LORD.

In the end, it is the LORD’s Will that will be done.  However, even the creator retreated to pursue His Father to prepare Himself to live through the painful events that He knew would be coming up to fulfill the Messianic prophecy and God’s Will to fulfill His covenant with all of His creation.

Do you find yourself needing to retreat, because you have a stressful or painful road ahead?  Spend some time today emulating the character of Jesus the Christ.  Retreat for the purpose of pursuing the LORD today in the activities that you partake in. Let Him enable your strength and humble yourself to allow the LORD to carry you in this hard time.

Retreating for the Purpose of Pursuit Part 2

The Next Great Adventure

re·treat /rəˈtrēt/ | The act of withdrawing, as into safety or privacy; retirement; seclusion.

pur·suit /pərˈso͞ot/ | The action of following or pursuing someone or something.

re·treat | Mark 1:35 35And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed. (ESV)

pur·suit | To commune with His Father and prepare  for his ministry in Galilee

Life was going great.  The kids were manageable, family trips were fun, date nights were easy to come by, communication was easy, and then it happened.  My wife broached the subject one evening, and the conversation kind of went like this.

Laura | “You know, I was thinking, I am not done yet.”

Joshua | [I looked up at her] “Not done with what?”

Laura | [She twirled her fork in the spaghetti noodles] “I want another one.”

Joshua | [I picked up another piece of garlic bread, hoping that would solve her want, but just to clarify I asked] “Want another what?”

Laura | [Verbal Explosion] “I want another baby.”

Joshua | [I was wrong, the garlic toast did not appease her] “Ooooookay!?!?”

So it started, the next adventure in our lives as we prepared to extend our family with one more member and start over with diapers, sleepless nights, baby sitters that wouldn’t cut it (no more date nights), and communicating in baby talk. I knew, in this new adventure I needed to pursue God as He was pursuing me.  The hardest part was finding the time to retreat for the purpose of pursuit, but man was it important to find that time.

Jesus had many adventures in His ministry, but we see an example here of Jesus retreating from the house early in the morning, and pursing His Father in prayer.

Do you find yourself needing to retreat knowing that a great adventure is waiting for you?  Spend some time today emulating the character of Jesus.  Retreat for the purpose of pursuing the LORD today in the activities that you partake in. Let Him be your Strong Tower as you continue on your next great adventure.

Retreating for the Purpose of Pursuit Part 1

Part 1 | The Busy Life

re·treat /rəˈtrēt/ | The act of withdrawing, as into safety or privacy; retirement; seclusion.

pur·suit /pərˈso͞ot/ | The action of following or pursuing someone or something.

re·treat | Luke 5:16 16But he would withdraw to desolate places and pray & Mark 6:46 46And after he had taken leave of them, he went up on the mountain to pray

pur·suit | To commune with His Father and escape the fame and pressure that was starting to surround Him

I hate the Minnesota State Fair!  Wait, that was not really a Minnesota Nice way of stating my opinion about “The Great Minnesota Get Together”.  Ok, let me try this again. I do not enjoy excessive heat, I do not enjoy excessive amounts of people, and I do not enjoy walking all day long in the aforementioned things.  We also spend all our time herding three kids that want to actually lose themselves and apologizing to every person that we bump into with our stroller, which seems to include everything from our house besides the kitchen sink.  So, nope, I was right, I hate the Minnesota State Fair. I spend all day there only to find by the time I get home, I am tired, irritable, and bloated from all the food.

I imagine as Jesus Christ became more “famous” and the crowds that followed became larger, and the daily grind of walking everywhere in the heat, he experienced a mini-Minnesota State Fair episode, which at times probably left him tired, irritable, and...bloated?  Well, probably not bloated, but the daily grind of his ministry, all the people pressing to see the main attraction, and not to mention His disciples continuously saying, “I don’t understand, can you explain that story to me again?”, and Jesus saying, “O faithless generation, how long am I to be with you?  How long am I to bear with you…?”

Although frustrated, tired, and irritable, Jesus knew to retreat from the circumstance and pursue His Father in prayer, because that is where He found peace, comfort and purpose in His crazy daily life.

Do you find yourself needing to retreat from the Minnesota State Fair-esk daily grind?  Spend some time today emulating the character of our Savior.  Retreat for the purpose of pursuing the LORD today in the activities that you partake in, and in your daily grind, find peace, comfort and renewed purpose in Him.

Inspiration from a Lamb

1 Peter 2:2 – 3, ESV ² Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— ³ if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.

As a kid, I grew up on a little farm in Minnesota.  I cannot tell you that I loved it.  This last statement will be at the disappointment of my step father, but I am just being honest.  I just didn’t look forward to picking rock in the summer, plowing the fields in the fall, or planting in the spring.  But there is one memory I have about that little farm that I can never forget.  In the early years on the farm, we had sheep. 

During the declining daylight in the autumn, the sheep would start the process of increasing their population on this earth.  If you do not understand what I mean by that, you can call me and we can have a chat.  When the newly born lamb was brought into this world, it was cold outside.  The conditions were so cold for the new lambs that we would lay a bunch of hay on the ground, and turn heat lamps on to ensure the new lamb would be warm.  For a kid that didn't like working on the farm, these conditions were not conducive to me enjoying it any further, yet, I LOVED this experience.

One of the chores we had was to give the new born lamb milk from a bottle.  We would fill the glass bottle with milk and put on the artificial nipple.  When we touched the lips of the lamb with the bottle, they would hungrily suck milk as fast as they could.  They would suck so fast and so hard, it seemed that just as much milk was falling on their face as was going down their throat.  Every morning was like this.  I would put on my jacket with excitement, go prepare the milk bottles, sit under the heating lamp with a lamb, and feed that greedy little lamb.  That lamb would drink until it was gone, and to be honest, never looked satisfied, it looked as if it already anticipated my coming the next morning to drink greedily from the food source provided to it every morning.

I asked myself this morning, and hopefully inspire you to contemplate, have I experienced this type of thirst?  Do I wake up in the mornings, just like the lamb, and anticipate God’s Word?  When I wake, are my thoughts captured in a prayer to God to sustain me throughout the day?  Do I put trust in God that He will come and feed me throughout the day?  When I read the Word of God, does my thirst cause me to read so much that I consume just as much as I don’t understand, only not to care, because I will wake up the next morning and read it again?  1 Peter 2:2 – 3 says ² Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— ³ if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.

I have indeed tasted the Words of God.  I have indeed been inspired to begin my days not in anticipation of what I will do today, but in anticipation of what God will tell me today.  I do indeed wake up in prayer and talk with God throughout the day.  I indeed have tasted the Lord and I can honestly say the Word of God, trust in God, praise with God, and prayers with God are good.  One only needs to make the habit of not picking up their cell phone in the morning and looking at their emails or checking the numerous notifications, but meditating on the Verse of the Day.  Subscribe to YouVersion on your mobile phone or Bible.com on your desktop.  Wake up and read the verse of the day and have a conversation with God.  Start your morning in prayer and thoughtful consideration with God.  Like the lamb, once you have tasted, you will notice your anticipation increase.

Dear Yahweh,

My god and my Father.  You are a wondrous and great god.  You are the beginning and the end.  Help me to wake up every morning and continue to thirst after you like the lamb of my childhood.  Help me to see what you have planned for me, and to walk the path of your will.  I ask you LORD to be with anyone who has read this message and are praying with me today, to hear their prayers and direct them to Your Word.  We know our food has been prepared for us, and all we need to do is eat it…AMEN!

God’s Peace and Blessings – Joshua

Colossians 3:17 Whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.

Minnesota Nice or Spiritual Purity

(Matthew 18:9, ESV) ⁹ And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into the hell of fire.

Minnesota nice, can it really be defined?  Many people who are not from Minnesota that eventually make their way to the frozen Midwest talk about how friendly we are.  When walking on the street, you’ll hear a “good morning” and a polite smile from a total stranger.  When on an elevator, you’ll find yourself having a conversation with someone about how cold it is outside and how much we can relate.  We are just a friendly people, right?

After leaving the Purity conference, one analogy stuck in my head.  Men are visually stimulated.  Throughout the day, living out my Minnesota Nice character, I smiled at people, had conversations with strangers, an outgoingness that was probably spent on getting everyone to like me.  Because I am a man, I figured that all out on my own, I, too, am visually stimulated by those things with which I surround myself.  I am visually stimulated through commentary on the radio, because of experiences I have had in the past.  I am visually stimulated through the smile of the stranger, the billboards that are on the side of the road, the TV shows, and movies that I watch.  A specific takeaway for me after the Purity conference was to work at starving my senses.

Starving your senses would include making sacrifices in your life to help drive yourself toward becoming what God has asked us to be, and that is spiritually pure disciples.  As I walked around the “Land of Beautiful People”, Target, an individual is surrounded by a culture that fills your eyes, and I found myself incorporating the starving your eyes technique, which looks like a data scientist that works for the government.  My head is focused on the floor in front of me, I am hugging the wall looking socially disinterested, where I recite Bible verses and use this time to meditate on what God is asking me to focus.  My Minnesota Nice mentality was struggling with this:  “People think I am being a jerk. … They must think I am unfriendly,” I thought. These were things constantly going through my mind.  Dang it, this struggle between wanting to be Minnesota Nice versus working on my Spiritual Purity is driving me crazy!  But then God hit me with a verse that highlighted the weightiness of making this decision much easier.  (Matthew 18:9, ESV) ⁹ And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into the hell of fire.

“Joshua, are you telling me that I should gouge out my eyes?”  YES! ... no, wait … no.  Put it this way, 1 Corinthians 6:12, NIV says: “¹² I have the right to do anything,” you say—but not everything is beneficial.  “I have the right to do anything”—but not everything is constructive.   When it comes to our life, we do have the right to do anything, we have freedoms like no other country.  We have choices we make on a daily basis that will affect what God thinks of us spiritually.  My choices to cut things like Facebook, Clash of Clans, TV shows, the radio in my car, are all rights that I have in my life to do, yet, they were not beneficial to my spiritual purity.  “Man, this guy sounds like a prude!” is the non-verbal message I am receiving in my head from you right now.  Well, I would rather give up my “Minnesota Nice” mentality and develop spiritually pure disciplines than gouge my eyes out.  I may be a prude, but I am being a prude for purity sake.

Dear Heavenly Father,

As I continue this journey towards spiritual purity, I ask that you guide my heart, mind, body, and soul to make decisions in my life that are beneficial for Your purpose in me, and not my selfish ambitions that I cannot take with me.  Help me to live out your love, truth, honesty, and spiritual character in other ways in my life, than just the “Minnesota Nice” mentality.  Help me to be a guide for my children, a honoring husband, and a pure spirit for You.  You have my attention, and hopefully others will find it too. … Amen

God’s Peace - Joshua

And remember, “Everything you do, in word or deed, do these things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.” (Colossians 3:17)

Marinating | Savory or Repulsive

Nothing enhances the flavor of meat, or tofu if you are vegetarian, better than a good marinade.  Marinating is the process of adding a bunch of seasoning and liquid together and letting the meat soak in the created brine.  The primary reasons for marinating is to further the flavor and tenderize the meat you are going to eat.  The meat will literally take on the flavors of the brine and creates a product that is the outcome of the imagination of the individual that is adding the flavors.  Depending on what is added to this marinade, you either end up with a savory specimen or a repulsive dinner.

As we live this life of ours, everyday, we find ourselves marinating in the worldly flavors that are around us.  We find so many different spices and liquids in this life that we add to our living brine.  We literally have a palette full of flavors to choose from.  The choices we make in this life ends up making up the marinade we soak ourselves in. 

We can choose to surround ourselves with what Galatians 5:19 – 21, ESV calls the works of the flesh, “¹⁹ Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, ²⁰ idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, ²¹ envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these…”, or we can choose to surround ourselves with what Galatians 5: 22 – 23, ESV calls the fruits of the Spirit, “²² But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³ gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.”

Let’s make it a little more real.  Think of the people you surround yourself with.  Think of the movies or TV shows you watch.  Think of the wandering eyes.  Think of the magazines or other media you drink in.  Think of the anger inside of you.  I personally just went through a Purity conference with a band of brothers, and can’t believe the standards that have been set before us in purity.  How much the standards that God put in front of us are so much higher than what we have set for ourselves.  After walking through what it takes to be pure, I realized the spices I was adding to my marinade was slowing turning me into a repulsive piece of meat.

Be cognizant my friends of what you are putting into your marinade.  If you choose to marinade yourself in the works of the flesh, you are setting yourself up to be thrown out when it comes to meal time.  If you choose to surround yourself with the Fruits of the Spirit; His Word, prayer, praise with fellow Christians, purity in the movies and TV shows we watch, and songs we listen to; we are making a marinade that brings us closer to the savory specimen God intends us to be.

1 Corinthians 6:12, NIV says ¹²“I have the right to do anything,” you say —but not everything is beneficial. “I have the right to do anything”—but I will not be mastered by anything.  God has given us the freedom to choose our marinade, but be careful, just because everything is available, it doesn't mean we benefit in its existence.

God’s peace – Joshua

Colossians 3:17, ESV ¹⁷ And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.