09.10.2006

Hello everyone,
Guess what? For those of you that knew the situation concerning my bedroom ceiling, everything has FINALLY been completed, and I've been in the slow process of "moving back in" as it were. During this time, I thought about how our bodies are the house for God the Spirit and a story I heard once... While I know that I retold the story in a Weekly Thing long ago, I couldn't find the email. Briefly, the story was about a house that was suddenly being remodled by the architect. Walls were knocked out and things were changed and replaced. Didn't feel all that great, but in the end, the house became amaaaaazzing. Relate this to your own life: there are things the Architect does in our hearts that doesn't always feel that nice, but in the end it is a lot better.
While my room is not amaaaazzing... it is better. The ceiling is all in order, AND I now have a ceiling fan (which is nice because we don't have central AC.. my room has typically been the hottest during the summer). Took a while, and I didn't like waiting nearly two months to have my room back, but boy am I glad to have it back--especially with the ceiling fan. But this all comes to a bigger story in the Bible that I was brought back to read in the Old Testament book of Haggai. A scant two chapters, the small book by a lesser prophet can pack a punch. I suggest you read it and study the context. The premise: God needed his temple rebuilt and His people were too busy working on their own houses; the temple may as well have looked like a shack. And so He called them to action, and they rebuilt it.
I will now share with you another Weekly Thing from December 2004 that went where I want to go next:

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Isaiah 55:1, 2
Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare.

Haggai 1:7-9
This is what the LORD Almighty says: "Give careful thought to your ways. Go up into the mountains and bring down timber and build the house, so that I may take pleasure in it and be honored," says the LORD. "You expected much, but see, it turned out to be little. What you brought home, I blew away. Why?" declares the LORD Almighty. "Because of my house, which remains a ruin, while each of you is busy with his own house."

Matthew 6:24-27
“Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”

So, I'm flipping through my bible the other day to find a reference to Isaiah from Romans, and I came to Isaiah 55. It wasn't the reference I was looking for, and I've read Isaiah 55 several times before. But, because the Word is indeed the Living Word, something I hadn't thought on popped out to me. Normally, I look at this verse from the context of non believers being invited to drink from the spring of living water, invited to believe in Jesus, so that they might have life. What came out, however, was "Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy?" Specifically, 'labor on what does not satisfy' came through the speakers loud and clear.
As believers, why DO we labor on what doesn't satisfy us? I don't have an answer to that. In Ecclesiastes, Solomon talks about how he did EVERYthing he possibly could, and he was still left unsatisfied. I bring into this a connection that a good brazillian friend of mine brought up concerning a Finger11 song, quoting,
"If I traded it all, if I gave it all away for one thing, wouldn't that be something?"
If we really traded all that time we spend doing other things - like looking for a music group for hours on end, guilty as charged, here - for spending time enriching our relationship with God as well as others I wonder what that would look like. Our true satisfaction comes from our Abba Father in heaven, and seeking His will. Granted, we also have to learn to be content with what He does in our lives as His will whether we might like it or not. We cannot neglect the time we spend with our Lord, above all things. It's been a long time since I've read Haggai (LONG time), and I'm glad I have a study bible to find the verse above. If we neglect our time with God, then of course the spiritual part of our life is going to be damaged - God's house is going to get really dusty if we're not living in it, as it were. We're going to lose some of the things we had, whether that's knowledge or physical. We can't lose our salvation if we truly have it, mind you.. we are promised it, and the LORD Almighty does not break His promises or covenants. But He certainly gave His all for us. He gave all of it away so that we might live. Shouldn't we give it all back?
Again, wouldn't it be something if we traded it all?

I pray that each one of us learns how to give it all back to Christ, even though we will never be able to match the oustanding price He paid for us. I pray that we learn to labor in His word, in our communication with Him, in doing HIS will above our own - not so that we can earn our salvation, because we can't work for what we already have given to us, but so that we can be enriched in Him. I pray that our heart's desire will be to bring glory and honor to the LORD, our most precious Adonai that should be Sovereign in every aspect of our lives. I also ask that each of us will be changed and molded more and more into Jesus Christ's image with each passing day, and that we learn to rely on His Holy Spirit. I pray that we learn to love one another, and be united as brothers and sisters under one holy banner. Above everything, I pray that our Father will be glorified in all things.

In love and in Him,
your sister,
Yvonne