difficult passages...

I love the Fall so much that even when it is still humid and warm...my spirit says there is a "touch of Fall" in the air!  What a beautiful morning to sit with You Lord and talk to you on my front porch.  He will always send ME a personal WORD...or "Rhema" that means "to speak or utter or command", and yet when it's spoken to me in the inner man, as I read the word, it is PERSONAL from the very Spirit of Christ. 
Yesterday I spoke of how decidedly or even undecidedly worn out and BUSY the women were at the Ladies retreat. 
We spoke about depression, anxiety, comparative thinking amongst ourselves, and how to begin to  "abide and rest".  I thought the ladies might walk out at the idea of truly letting it all go and get with God....but they didn't.  NO...I saw hunger and longing in their eyes and tears fell on Sunday.  The truth is not always a pleasant thing to hear, but for the follower...it still brings joy and peace to the heart. We spoke of Christ's suffering is what brought Him JOY!  Christianity is filled with paradoxical experiences!  I must die to self in order to live, I must be willing to be last but that will result in my being first, I must be humble in order to become filled with Godly confidence...So, let's see...the things we might find unpleasant will be the very things that bring us blessing, joy, and hope.  Got it.  But even that is another paradox...what is simple is not always easy!

In Luke 9: 57-62 we find Jesus delivering this same "unpleasant" truth about following Him to a man who said, "Lord, I will follow You wherever you go"..but Jesus knew the condition of this man's heart and used it to speak the hard truth to him.  By the way, that's always His way.  He doesn't spare my feelings, He doesn't sugar coat it, He tells it like it is.  I need that.  He knows it.  I will make hundreds of rationalizations and excuses if He doesn't.  And that is what we find here in the rest of the passage..Jesus says, "Ok, but there's a cost to following me..I have nowhere to lay my head".  And we really like our little "nests" don't we!  We get VERY ATTACHED to our nests...and Jesus ALWAYS goes to the places we need Him to go.  "But Lord,...my nest is for You!  You know that Lord!"...and He still calls..."Leave your father, your mother, your brother, your children...follow hard after ME"...and THEN all of these things will be added unto you!  Dang..I keep putting the cart before the horse!  And I believe that has been the most EFFECTIVE tool of the enemy..because it is wrapped in the decorative package called "doing good"...but we have lost our Savior!

How attached are you to your "nest"?  I know that soccer practice, baseball, dance, doctor appointments, exercising...and the list multiplies as I type...and my heart screams all the louder dear friend, He says, "Come away with Me! and I will give you rest!" 

Matthew 11:29-30

New American Standard Bible (NASB)

²⁹ Take My yoke upon you and ^(A)learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and ^(B)YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS. ³⁰ For ^(C)My yoke is ^[a]easy and My burden is light.”

Ah the cost is GREAT...but the REWARD is bountiful.  Ask Him how to make this fit into your truly complicated and busy world that society has placed upon you.  He knew that..he said it long ago...He chose His words carefully..."burden, rest for your weary souls, easy and light"...He is a gentle man, a kind and loving man.  God wants to be your Father.  And He wants to be your teacher..and calls you friend.  Till tomorrow...It's been great to be with you and the Lord today!