Sabbath Sanctuary: The Sabbath Year

I have been contemplating sabbath rest. Resting has been something of which I write often and it has been at the forefront of my existence for the last couple of years.

Though we all are aware of the sabbath commandment to rest on the seventh day, my contemplation has been focused on the year of rest that the Lord commanded the Israelites:

“The Lord then spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai, saying, “Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘When you come into the land which I am going to give you, then the land shall have a Sabbath to the Lord. For six years you shall sow your field, and for six years you shall prune your vineyard and gather in its produce, but during the seventh year the land shall have a Sabbath rest, a Sabbath to the Lord; you shall not sow your field nor prune your vineyard. You shall not reap your harvest’s aftergrowth, and you shall not gather your grapes of untrimmed vines; the land shall have a sabbatical year” {Lev. 25:1-5 NASB}.

As I read this passage, I thought about how hard this must have been for them. It is important to remember that this community was an agricultural one, their livelihood was tied to the land. If they could not grow their crops, they had nothing. But the Lord is always merciful, and He foresees their trouble and before they can even raise their lips to complain He answers them:

^“You shall therefore follow My statutes and keep My judgments so as to carry them out, so that you may live securely on the land. Then the land will yield its produce, so that you can eat your fill and live securely on it. But if you say, ‘What are we going to eat in the seventh year if we do not sow nor gather in our produce?’ then I will so order My blessing for you in the sixth year that it will bring forth the produce for three years. When you are sowing the eighth year, you can still eat old things from the produce, eating the old until the ninth year when its produce comes in” {Lev. 25:18-22 NASB}.

The Lord is always faithful. If they will only but trust in Him, even during the sabbath, He will not leave them or forsake them.

I have been meditating on this for some time now because I seem to be in a sabbath of my own. Those of you who know me know that I garden every year as I am working toward being able to grow as much of my own food as possible. I also love flowers and grow them as well. I am one of those who sow her seeds early so that as soon as winter has made its last stand (and a very cold spring where I am) and the threat of frost has vanished, I plant them in the garden as soon as possible (also we have a short growing season).

Well, this year was the first year that I can remember that I have not planted any seeds and did not have a garden. While this may seem irrelevant to some it is a huge disappointment for me. Though I don’t rely on my little farm for my livelihood, Piper’s Farm brings me much joy. I love planting seeds and watching the miracle that it produces in the fruit for it is part of the creation that I love. It was not to be this year. In April, I had major foot surgery so I knew I would not be able to attend to the seeds or get them planted, and I did not want to burden the husband as he already had to pick up the slack for me in so many other areas, so I didn’t plant any. While it was something I needed to lay down, it was still very hard for me. I walk the yard often looking at the place where my garden is usually growing to see only weeds {which are screaming at me as well}.

This is where my sabbath has occupied my mind because it has spiritual implications as well. We are not the ancient Israelites, but there are some spiritual implications concerning the sabbath and the waiting periods that we often find ourselves in. This has certainly been a year of sabbath for me. In April, I found myself in the recovery room after foot surgery with very low oxygen levels. So, long story made a tad shorter, they found a nodule in my lung. The location of the nodule was very problematic and could not easily be reached. I endured two bronchoscopies in two weeks, and they were not able to retrieve a sample size of the tissue large enough to determine a diagnosis. Then a PET scan, then a diagnosis of adenocarcinoma. Then, three weeks ago, they removed the nodule by removing half of my right lung, and thankfully, it is not cancer—the goodness of God displayed. I am recovering, and will be fine, but I feel as though I have lived in a state of recovery for most of this year {also part of why I have been absent from this space}. Though I was still in school working on my Ph.D. in the spring, I have had to postpone school until later in October. This was very hard for me to do; I wrestled with the decision for weeks. I also had to step down from my editing work at my church where I was employed. It feels like everything I am and everything I do is gone. A sabbath rest, though mine is not in obedience, mine seems like I had no choice.

There are seasons where we will feel as though we have been emptied of everything and we have no choice but to trust the Lord in the season of sabbath. I cannot fully convey the frustration in my life right now as I struggle with everything being stripped away. I have to rest in order to recover, I have no choice. I don’t have the strength to do much.

I imagine this is how the Israelites may have felt in that sabbath year. But God is so faithful to us. Just as He was with them and blessed them in the sixth year so that the sabbath year would not be a strain for them, He is with us. He is with me. When we are faithful to be in His Word and walk with Him daily, we are strengthened to walk through these times. The Lord promised us that we will not be alone, He has sent the Comforter to keep us:

I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, so that He may be with you forever; the Helper is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him; but you know Him because He remains with you and will be in you {Jn. 14: 16-17 NASB}.

He will not leave us, and He is faithful to walk through them with us. The Apostle Paul was told that God’s grace was sufficient for him when he cried out to God during one of his struggles {2 Cor. 12:9}, His grace is sufficient to help us do what we cannot do for ourselves.

During this time, I have had to completely deconstruct who I am and what I am doing or should be doing for Him on this earth and have had to rebuild from the foundation up. Though this is a hard thing to walk through, He is faithful in the waiting—in this sabbath. He is working towards my good when I rest in Him. I have no choice but to wait on Him and then He works in me to form me into His image; to make me more Christlike, which is always for my good:

“And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters; and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified” {Rom. 8: 28-30 NASB}.

So, I will wait. I will take this sabbath rest and trust and wait on Him to bring forth His purpose in my life, because He has given me enough spiritual riches in abundance to endure this sabbath, as frustrating as it can be at times, and to live under His sovereign hand.

 

“If a man dies, will he live again? All the days of my struggle I will wait until my relief comes” {Job. 14:14 NASB}.

Rest in God this beautiful Sabbath weekend.....

God Was In Christ: An Advent Reading Of Luke 4

 Day 4 Luke Chapter 4

 The manuscript of the prophet Isaiah is one of my favorite Old Testament books. Much of it is dedicated to the coming Messiah, who will redeem God’s people. Chapter 61 begins with the Exaltation of the Afflicted. Jesus, the Word, appears in the synagogue at Nazareth to read this passage from Isaiah.   

This was not a coincidence for this particular passage to be the reading of the day. The synagogue tradition was to have seven readers each sabbath to read portions of the Scripture. The first orator was the priest, the second a Levite, and the following five were Israelites from the congregation. Though many times in Scripture we read of Jesus visiting synagogues, the one in Nazareth was the first to mention that He taught there; hence, this was the passage to be read that day, and the lot fell to Him.

He reads this Messianic passage from the sixty-first chapter of Isaiah the prophet:   

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed, to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord… today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing” (Lk. 4 18-19,20).

 

                                                           Jesus of Nazareth (1977)

Jesus came in the Spirit of the Lord. All the grace and giftings of the Holy Spirit were bestowed on Him in full (Matthew Henry, Concise Commentary). Prophets before Jesus had the Holy Spirit in measure and for appointed times and events. Jesus was commissioned by the Spirit of the Lord to preach this Word in what seems to be the chronos—the liturgy of the regular sabbath reading—but this was a kairos moment, the right time for Christ to appear. The New Testament Greek Lexicon defines Kairos as a fixed and definite time when the conditions are right for accomplishing a crucial action, the decisive epoch waited for.

 “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons” (Gal. 4: 4-5 ESV emphasis mine).

 Jesus came to set the captives free. He is our priest, prophet, king, deliverer, Savior, and healer. After proclaiming that He, the Messiah, had arrived to set free the captives, He immediately cast out demons and healed the sick, setting the captives free. Though the people of the synagogue attempted to stone Him, He went about doing what He proclaimed He was here for. 

He came to let the world know that the Holy God whom we have offended is willing to be reconciled to us. He came to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord; today, now—is the day of salvation.

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Sabbath Sanctuary: Sabbath Thoughts

“Unless the Lord builds the house, the builders labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the guards stand watch in vain. In vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for food to eat—for he grants sleep to those he loves” {Ps. 127: 1-2 NASB}.

“The point the Psalmist is making is that we should not carry our cares and anxieties to bed with us. Beds were made for sleeping, not for worrying.”[1]

“Of all the thoughts of God that are

Borne inward unto souls afar

Along the Psalmist’s music deep

Now tell me if that any is,

For the gift of grace, surpassing this—
He giveth His beloved sleep.” Elizabeth Barrett Browning

“Those whose spirits are stirred by the breath of the Holy Spirit of God go forwards even in sleep.” Brother Lawrence

 “God is my portion and my joy,

His counsels are my light;

He gives me sweet advice by day

And gentle hints by night.” Issac Watts

“O Lord, we have a busy world around us. Eye, ear, and thought will be needed for all our work to be done in the world. Now ere we again enter into it, we would commit eye, ear, and thought to Thee. Do Thou bless them and keep their work Thine, that as through Thy natural laws our hearts beat and our blood flows without any thought of ours for them so our spiritual life may hold on its course at those times when our minds cannot consciously turn to Thee to commit each particular thought o Thy service, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.” Dr. Arnold 

“All experience goes to show that the quality of our night’s rest depends in large measure on the frame of mind in which we go to bed and compose ourselves to sleep. I shall conclude by saying this—and it is something of which I have continually to keep reminding myself: Every man who calls himself a Christian should go to sleep thinking about the love of God as it has visited us in the Person of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.” [2]
Rest well this Sabbath.





[1] John Baillie, Christian Devotion (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1962), 100.[2] Ibid., 107.
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Advent: Seeking Christ Day 4

Day 4 Luke Chapter 4

The manuscript of the prophet Isaiah is one of my favorite Old Testament books. Much of it is dedicated to the coming Messiah who will redeem God’s people. Chapter 61 begins with the Exaltation of the Afflicted. Jesus, The Word, appears in the synagogue at Nazareth to read this passage from Isaiah.  

This was not a coincidence for this particular passage to be the reading of the day. The tradition of the synagogue was to have seven readers each sabbath to read portions of the Scripture. The first orator was the priest, the second a Levite, and the following five were Israelites from the congregation. Though many times in Scripture we read of Jesus visiting synagogues, the one in Nazareth was the first one to mention that He taught there, hence, this was the passage to be read that day, and the lot fell to Him.

He reads this Messianic passage from the sixty-first chapter of Isaiah the prophet:   

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed, to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord… today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing” (Lk. 4 18-19,20).

Insert youtube video

Jesus came in the Spirit of the Lord. All the grace and giftings of the Holy Spirit were bestowed on Him in full. Prophets before Jesus had the Holy Spirit in measure and for appointed times and events. Jesus had Him the Spirit in full. Jesus was commissioned by the Spirit of the Lord to preach this Word in what seems to be the Chronos—the liturgy of the regular sabbath reading—but this was a Kairos moment; the right time for Christ to appear. The New Testament Greek Lexicon defines Kairos as a fixed and definite time; a time when the conditions are right for the accomplishment of a crucial action; the decisive epoch waited for.

“But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons” (Gal. 4: 4-5 ESV emphasis mine).

Jesus came to set the captives free. He is our priest, prophet, and king. He is our deliverer, Savior, healer. After proclaiming that He, the Messiah had arrived to set free the captives, He immediately casts out demons and healed the sick—setting the captives free. Though the people of the synagogue attempted to stone Him, He went about doing what He proclaimed He was here for.

 He came to let the world know that the Holy God whom we have offended is willing to be reconciled to us. He came to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord—that today, now—is the day of salvation.

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Sabbath Sanctuary: Jesus, Lover Of My Soul

See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him {1 John 3:1 NASB}.

See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him {1 John 3:1 NASB}.

Jesus, lover of my soul, let me to thy bosom fly, while the nearer waters roll, while the tempest still is high; hide me, O my Savior, hide, till the storm of life is past; safe into the haven guide, O receive my soul at last! 

Other refuge have I none; hangs my helpless soul on thee; leave, ah! leave me not alone, still support and comfort me. All my trust on thee is stayed, all my help from thee I bring; cover my defenseless head with the shadow of thy wing. 

Plenteous grace with thee is found, grace to cover all my sin; let the healing streams abound;
make and keep me pure within. Thou of life the fountain art; freely let me take of thee; spring thou up within my heart, rise to all eternity. 

Charles Wesley, 1707-1788

Charles Wesley, was the great hymn-writer of the Wesley family, perhaps, the greatest hymn-writer of all ages. Charles Wesley was the youngest son and 18th child of Samuel and Susanna Wesley, and was born at Epworth Rectory, Dec. 18, 1707. In 1716 he went to Westminster School, staying with his elder brother Samuel, then usher at the school, until 1721, when he was elected King's Scholar, and as such received his board and education free. In 1726 Charles Wesley was elected to a Westminster studentship at Christ Church, Oxford, where he took his degree in 1729, and became a college tutor. In the early part of the same year his religious impressions were much deepened, and he became one of the first band of “Oxford Methodists.” He wrote this hymn in 1740.

Sabbath Sanctuary: Winter Into Spring

Snow. Cold. They just keep hanging around. One day it’s warm, shining with the promise of spring, and the next day it’s winter putting up a fight till the end. Sometimes, trials and wilderness seasons feel that way.

Though it seems never-ending, seasons always run their course:

There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every event under heaven {Eccl. 3:1}. 

No winter lasts forever and no spring skips its turn. Hal Borland  

Rest in God this Sabbath whether you are in the spring of life or in the winter of a trial. Resting in God does not mean to be discouraged; it is a day to rejoice.

Sabbath ceasing means to cease not only from work itself, but also from the need to accomplish and be productive, from the worry and tension that accompany our modern criterion of efficiency, from our efforts to be in control of our lives as if we were God, from our possessiveness and our enculturation, and, finally, from the humdrum and meaninglessness that result when life is pursued without the Lord at the center of it all. {Marva J. Dawn}.

Sabbath Sanctuary: O For A Thousand Tongues To Sing

O For A Thousand Tongues To Sing (18 Original Stanzas)

This hymn was written by Charles Wesley in 1739 to commemorate his conversion on May 21, 1738. It was first published in the Wesleys' collection Hymns and Sacred Poems of 1740 under the title, For the Anniversary Day of One's Conversion.

As soon as He was approaching, near the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the miracles which they had seen {Lk. 19:37 NASB}.

Glory to God, and praise and love be ever, ever given, by saints below and saints above, the church in earth and heaven.

On this glad day the glorious Sun of Righteousness arose; on my benighted soul he shone and filled it with repose.

Sudden expired the legal strife, ‘twas then I ceased to grieve; my second, real, living life I then began to live.

Then with my heart I first believed, believed with faith divine, power with the Holy Ghost received to call the Savior mine.

I felt my Lord’s atoning blood close to my soul applied; me, me he loved, the Son of God, for me, for me He died!

I found and owned His promise true, ascertained of my part, my pardon passed in heaven I knew when written on my heart.

O for a thousand tongues to sing my dear Redeemer’s praise! The glories of my God and King,
the triumphs of His grace.

My gracious Master and my God assist me to proclaim, to spread through all the earth abroad
the honors of thy Name. 

Jesus! the Name that charms our fears, that bids our sorrows cease; ‘tis music in the sinner’s ears, ‘tis life, and health, and peace!

He breaks the power of canceled sin, He sets the prisoner free; His blood can make the foulest clean; His blood availed for me.

He speaks, and listening to His voice new life the dead receive; the mournful, broken hearts rejoice, the humble poor believe.

Hear Him, ye deaf, His praise, ye dumb, your loosened tongues employ; ye blind, behold your Savior come, and leap, ye lame, for joy.

Look unto Him, ye nations, own your God, ye fallen race! Look, and be saved through faith alone, be justified by grace!

See all your sins on Jesus laid; the Lamb of God was slain, His soul was once an offering made for every soul of man.

Harlots and publicans and thieves, in holy triumph join! Saved is the sinner that believes from crimes as great as mine.

Murderers and all ye hellish crew, ye sons of lust and pride, believe the Savior died for you; for me the Savior died.

Awake from guilty nature’s sleep, and Christ shall give you light; cast all your sins into the deep and wash the Ethiop white.

With me, your chief, you then shall know, shall feel your sins forgiven; anticipate your heaven below and own that love is heaven.

Charles Wesley {1739}

Sabbath Sanctuary: God Grant You Peace

The week has been long and filled with many trials. It has had its chaotic moments and its enjoyable moments. In the midst of the trials, I am so grateful to the Lord, for He proved Himself faithful yet again. He is a good God. He is a faithful God. He is a loving God. There are many things screaming at me—warning that I am going to fail or be taken by the waves of the storm.

The enemy of our soul makes these plans against you and I so that we will lose heart and faint in the way. He seeks to cause us to take our eyes of the Lord so that we will sink. Many trials and circumstances come to trample on our peace—he comes to steal our peace. But we need not succumb to his devices.  

Tucked away in the Old Testament, in the book of Numbers, is found a priestly blessing given to the priest from the Lord to speak over the people of Israel. It is included in the duties of the Levites in chapters 1-8.

“The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ‘Speak to Aaron and to his sons, saying, ‘Thus you shall bless the sons of Israel. You shall say to them: The Lord bless you, and keep you; The Lord make His face shine on you, And be gracious to you; The Lord lift up His countenance on you, And give you peace.’ So they shall invoke My name on the sons of Israel, and I then will bless them” {Num. 6:22-27 NASB}.

I love this blessing. In the midst of all the chaos and fighting to enter the promised land, the Lord bestows a blessing on the people. He commands Aaron to speak these words over the people to put His glorious, holy Name on them. How magnificent is He. When their enemies come against them, they shall fear God and know that they are messing with the Lord’s people:

“So shall they fear The name of the LORD from the west, And His glory from the rising of the sun; When the enemy comes in like a flood, The Spirit of the LORD will lift up a standard against him” {Isaiah 59:19 NKJV}.

When the enemy of our soul comes against us, the Lord is the standard over our lives to fight him off and give us the victory. The Lord is the only safe place to run. What astonishes me is that only the priest could recite this blessing over the people and they had to say exactly what the Lord commanded. It was not the words of men but of God. To fight the enemy, we must not rely on the words of men, but be equipped with the sword of the Spirit—the precious and powerful Word of God. The Word was the weapon Jesus used to battle Satan in the wilderness, and He has equipped us for battle with that same Word.

The priestly blessing includes three promises that we can rest in on this Sabbath; meditate on this promise: The Lord will bless and keep us; He will provide us with everything we need. He will go before us in battling the evil one and keep us from harm. The most kind and loving God will make His face shine on us and be gracious to us. Imagine the Great I AM’s very face will shine for our benefit and joy because of His everlasting love. The Lord will lift His countenance upon us and give us peace; God remembers His people—and He always will. In the last part of the blessing He promises peace—shalom. This doesn’t only mean that there will one day be an end to our warfare; it is also His promise that day by day we are being renewed and refreshed:

“Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day” {2 Cor. 4:16 NASB}.

He will take us from brokenness to wholeness. No matter where we have been, He is leading us where we need to go, and He will give us shalom so that we can rest. Rest in His blessing this Sabbath. God will provide everything you need; and bring you into His rest.

Sabbath Sanctuary: Reminder to Rest

Sabbath. It is the one theme that the Lord consistently speaks about to me—and on a regular basis. Some messages come hard to one like me who seems to be intent with doing things the hard way. I was looking for something else when I came upon it…two of my most treasured books. I read through the thoughts and nuggets that I underlined in times gone by. I must have read these jewels several times, and yet, each time I find something new, something that urges me into sabbatismos. I wanted to share with you a few of my favorites and hope that the words below will help you rest this sabbath weekend. Rest in Him. You will have no regrets.

Faith is finally this: resting so utterly in the character of God—in the ultimate goodness of God—that you trust Him even when He seems untrustworthy.

Faithfulness is, by definition, the predictable, the habitual, the sturdy, the routine. It is the evidence of things seen, but seen so often we’ve grown blind to them. It is the substance of things expected, expected so unthinkingly that we now take them for granted.

God’s faithfulness is one divine characteristic that we rest in so completely that our rest has become apathy. “In him we live and move and have our being.” We just hustle in, heads down, duty-bound, and clear the table.

Mark Buchanan, The Holy Wild

Thankfulness is a secret passageway into a room you can’t find any other way. It is the wardrobe in Narnia. It allows us to discover the rest of God—those dimensions of God’s world, God’s presence, God’s character that are hidden, always. From the thankless. Ingratitude is an eye disease every bit as much as a heart disease., It sees only flaws, scars, scarcity. Likewise, the god of the thankless is wary, stingy, grudging, bumbling, nitpicky. He’s by turns meddlesome and apathetic, suspicious then indifferent, grubbing about in our domestic trifles one moment, oblivious to our personal catastrophes the next…But to give thanks, to render it as Scripture tells us we ought—in all circumstances, for all things, to the glory of God—such thanksgiving becomes a declaration of God’s sovereign goodness…You cannot practice thankfulness on a biblical scale without its altering the way you see. The more you do it, the more you find cause for doing it.

The devil distracts. God interrupts. And for some reason, we fall prey to the one and grow oblivious to the other. Brother Lawrence found the most simple device for reversing this. In his small, wise book, The Practice of the Presence of God, he speaks about a companionship with Jesus that is without boundary—not in time, or place, or circumstance. Anywhere, everywhere, in anything, you can be with God. God wishes it and invites it and is present and available right now for it.  

My pursuit of God had an end-of-the-world kind of desperation. Like Racheal crying to Jacob, “Give me children or I die,” I cried to God, “Give me your Spirit or I die.” I was spiritually lean, wily, stealthy, alert, and yet also vulnerable, wide open. A child and warrior both. Somewhere I got dull. The child got old, the warrior timid.

It is the times that we feel drained and tired, that we refresh ourselves—encourage ourselves in the Lord.

The king and all the people with him arrived at their destination exhausted. And there he refreshed himself {2 Sam. 16:13-14 NIV}. They arrived exhausted. But David refreshes himself—the word in Hebrew is nephesh. It is a word related to both breath and soul. Literally, David breathes his soul back to wholeness. He restores the inmost places.

This sabbath, stop and listen for God’s voice. He has much to say when we listen.

I want it. I want God’s voice to be to me as it was with John, a thing so real and solid and inescapable I can virtually see it. I want to live by faith, not by sight. And faith come by hearing. I want to have ears so tuned to the Voice that when God speaks there is not ignoring it. Speak Lord for your servant is listening.

Mark Buchanan, The Rest of God

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Sabbath Sanctuary: He Holds Our Breath

God is wise and all-powerful. Who has opposed Him and come out unharmed?  He removes mountains without their knowledge, overturning them in His anger. He shakes the earth from its place so that its pillars tremble {Job 9: 4-6 HCB}.

He commands the sun not to shine and seals off the stars. He alone stretches out the heavens and 

treads on the waves of the sea. He makes the stars: the Bear, Orion, the Pleiades, and the constellations of the southern sky. He does great and unsearchable things, wonders without number {Job 9: 4-10 HCB}.

The life of every living thing is in His hand, as well as the breath of all mankind {Job 12:10}.

Don’t you know that ever since antiquity, from the time man was placed on earth, the joy of the wicked has been brief and the happiness of the godless has lasted only a moment? {Job 20: 4-5}

Take it from a man {Job} who was enduring terrible grief and suffering, that though the wicked seem to be wreaking havoc, and the universe appears to be a spinning ball of chaos⸺a place where mercy and justice are fleeting⸺The Almighty is in control. 

Rest in God this Sabbath weekend. Sit in His presence; admire His creation and offer Him worship for the mighty works of His hand. He has done great things for you.

Resting in the Passion of Rabbi Jesus

The disciple that Jesus loved was reclining next to Jesus…He leaned back on Jesus’ breast {John 13:23, 25}

I heard a minister on television this past week speak about passion. He suggested that many Christians are not succeeding in life because they do not know what their passion is. Find your passion and your life will change. There is much wisdom is this and it struck a chord in my heart. 

What is my passion? What sets me on fire? I love to read, I love to write, but are they my passion? Do I live and breathe reading and writing? Some who know me would argue that they do, but I am not so sure. I love Jesus with all my heart; but is He my passion? How do we find our passion?

Just after hearing the minister speak on passion, the next day in my devotional from Brennan Manning’s The Rabbi’s Heartbeat, I was awed at the grace and mercy of God. The chapter is entitled Recovering Passion and he speaks about his challenge in finding his passion.

If you have lost your passion, or are trying to discover it—read the account of John reclining on the table with his head on the Master’s breast in John 13.

“We must not hurry past this scene in search of deeper revelation, or we will miss a magnificent insight. John lays his head on the heart of God, on the breast of the Man whom the council of Nicea defined as ‘being coequal and consubstantial to the Father…God from God, Light from Light, True God from True God.” (Manning, p. 96)

Sometimes it hard to imagine that you or I could lie on the breast of Jesus—but He is beckoning us to do the same.

“Fearing that I would miss the divinity, I distanced myself from His humanity, like an ancient worshiper shielding his eyes from the Holy of Holies. But as John leans back on the breast of Jesus and listens to the heartbeat of the Great Rabbi, he comes to know Him in a way that surpasses mere cognitive knowledge. What a world of difference lies between knowing about someone and knowing Him!” (p. 96).

John discovered in this encounter with Jesus, by experiencing Him, listening to His heartbeat, that he is loved. As Manning so poignantly affirms, God allowed a young Jew in the rags of his twenty-odd years, to listen to his heartbeat. It was in this experience that John discovered who he was and that Jesus the Great Rabbi loved him.

How do we then recover our passion?

“The recovery of passion begins with the recovery of my true self as the beloved. If I find Christ I will find myself and if I find my true self I will find Him. This is the goal and purpose of our lives. John did not believe that Jesus was the most important thing; he believed that Jesus was the only thing” (p. 97).

In order to have a passion for Jesus, we must be hungry for it.

There have been times when I preferred slivers of glass to the pearl of great price. B. Manning

The world offers many allurements, but we must not fall in their trap. Jesus is calling us. Only Jesus can give the peace we need—it is freely ours if we will rest in Him.

The paltriness of our lives is largely due to our fascination with the trinkets and trophies of the unreal world that is passing away…our capacity to be affected by Christ is numbed. B. Manning

Manning began this chapter with a story of a young Jewish boy who had been dedicated to the Lord by his parents. This boy was ensnared by the world, much like the prodigal son parable we know so well. The parents attempted, to no avail, to convince the boy to give up his ways. Their wisdom fell on deaf ears.

“But one great day the Great Rabbi visited the village and asked to be left alone with the boy. To leave their son alone with this lion of man terrified the parents, but they left him. He then picked up the boy and held him silently against his heart” (p. 95).

The next day, the boy began going to synagogue and allowing the Word of God to penetrate his heart. He grew up and helped many people. The end of the story and what the boy answered to the change in his life; touches my heart deeply:

Mordecai grew up to become a great man who helped many people. And when they came to him he said, “I first learned the Word of God when the Great Rabbi held me silently against his heart” (p. 95).

By this, we know we are the passion of Jesus, His heart beats for us. What then should our passion be? Maybe our passion is not what we do; maybe our passion is a person—Jesus Christ. Once we know deep down in our spirit that we are Jesus’ heartbeat and He is ours, and we rest a while longer on His breast, He will instruct us what to do. His passion will beat in our heart. If Jesus loves people—if they are His passion—they should be ours too. We will each have a different calling and assignment, but our passion should be the same.

Rest. Recline on the breast of Jesus and hear His heartbeat. It beats for you. You are loved.