The Devout

Psalm 53 God looks down from heaven on the children of man to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. They have all fallen away, together they have become corrupt, there is none who does good, not even one.

Last week I was in Jerusalem. Again. Today I am back at home in Tennessee. It really is a small world. Its seems kind of large when you get stuck in the airport for two days and nearly get arrested and cannot get a flight out but really, it is quite small :)

He came unto His own and His own received Him not.....

Is there a more devout group of men and women in all the world than the orthodox Jews? They are easy to spot anywhere in the world. Severe in dress. Strict in diet. Adherent to the Law of Moses. Bearing in their bodies the weight of the Old Testament. They spend their entire lives reading the Torah. Devoting themselves to prayer. Longing for their Messiah. And quite possibly the most tragic people of all time. Many of them never coming to the knowledge of the fact that the thing they desire above all else to witness...has already happened. And they have missed it.

II Corinthians 3 Since we have such a hope, we are very bold, not like Moses who would put a veil over his face so that the Israelites might not gaze at the outcome of what was being brought to an end. But 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. Yes to this day when Moses is read a veil lies over their hearts. But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.

How great a tragedy that we would miss the only thing that really matters.

My mother tells of a recurrent dream of living in a house of poverty. Always hungry and cold. Never having sufficiency of excess. Only surviving. In her dream she lived this way for all of her life. One day, as an elderly lady, she notices a door previously unopened. Upon turning the handle, she finds luxurious paradise. Abundance. Extravagance. But the joy of this discovery is overshadowed completely by the knowledge that everything she had ever dreamed of wanting, was within her reach for the entirety of her life.

So may I say to you, If you have it all or if you have nothing, if you get one thing out of this life or from this author....get Christ. Seek Him while He may be found. Follow hard after Him until He reveals Himself to you and then become His. Heart. Soul. Body. Life. There is nothing so important as this. Do not miss the most important, the eternal significant, of being found in Him. Count everything else as secondary to discovering who He is and what He has planned for you.

It is almost Passover and some in Jerusalem say that an attempt will be made again this year to begin offering animal sacrifices on the Temple Mount. For those who bear the name of Christ this surely must cause pain. The blood of animals was never sufficient to remove the sins of the people. The adequate sacrifice has already been given. The debt is atoned. The sin is covered. It is a gift worth having. Do not miss it.