Blessing. Blessings.

"When the eighth day arrived, the day of circumcision, the child was named Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived.

Then when the days stipulated by Moses for purification were complete, they took him up to Jerusalem to offer him to God as commanded in God’s Law: “Every male who opens the womb shall be a holy offering to God,” and also to sacrifice the “pair of doves or two young pigeons” prescribed in God’s Law.

In Jerusalem at the time, there was a man, Simeon by name, a good man, a man who lived in the prayerful expectancy of help for Israel. And the Holy Spirit was on him. The Holy Spirit had shown him that he would see the Messiah of God before he died. Led by the Spirit, he entered the Temple. As the parents of the child Jesus brought him in to carry out the rituals of the Law, Simeon took him into his arms and blessed God:

"God, you can now release your servant;
release me in peace as you promised.
With my own eyes I’ve seen your salvation;
it’s now out in the open for everyone to see:
A God-revealing light to the non-Jewish nations,
and of glory for your people Israel."

Jesus’ father and mother were speechless with surprise at these words. Simeon went on to bless them, and said to Mary his mother,
'This child marks both the failure and
the recovery of many in Israel,
A figure misunderstood and contradicted—
the pain of a sword-thrust through you—
But the rejection will force honesty,
as God reveals who they really are.'"

Luke 2:21 - 37

Blessed was Simeon
to see the Blessing
for all mankind.

What did Mary think? Why was she surprised?
Did she not already know
how Wonderful was
this Son of hers?

He was, after all, to be called JESUS.
The Saviour.

Ponderings

I look at the blog posts I have written, and wonder about myself. I wonder how I can write about truth, write truth, when I am stumbling in the dark.

On days like this, I am not even sure that God loves me.

I know He says He loves me, but I know I am not worthy. Then I feel ashamed, embarrassed even, at denying what Jesus did with his terrible death. I know he died for me, and in some way, denying the application of his death to my life, I try to diminish it.

Oh miserable woman that I am, who can save me from myself?  "It happens so regularly that it’s predictable. The moment I decide to do good, sin is there to trip me up. I truly delight in God’s commands, but it’s pretty obvious that not all of me joins in that delight. Parts of me covertly rebel, and just when I least expect it, they take charge..."

Those parts of me are named Insecurity, Fear, Doubt, Shame, Embarrassment, Hate, Envy...

"I’ve tried everything and nothing helps. I’m at the end of my rope. Is there no one who can do anything for me? Isn’t that the real question?"

"The answer, thank God, is that Jesus Christ can and does. He acted to set things right in this life of contradictions where I want to serve God with all my heart and mind, but am pulled by the influence of sin to do something totally different." (Romans 7:25)

However, as the next verse says: "Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus...Those who enter into Christ’s being-here-for-us no longer have to live under a continuous, low-lying black cloud. A new power is in operation. The Spirit of life in Christ, like a strong wind, has magnificently cleared the air, freeing you from a fated lifetime of brutal tyranny at the hands of sin and death."

All that is left for me is to banish pride, accept humility and walk humbly with my God. To become like a little child again, starting off anew...

Advent. Success.

Straining ahead, ever looking forward
to achieve, we run, walk, stumble, crawl
life's race.

This season, even so much more.

And I wonder, on that journey so far
to Bethlehem, how did Mary think, dream, ponder
her aims?

That season, waiting for her child?

Surely she, beautiful with God's grace
and blessing, went heart-skipping, soul-dancing
forward.

That season, resting in his love.

So I take heart, on this God-given day,
with hope, and faith and love,
I laugh.

This season, I smile at the future.

I leave all behind, for that which truly matters
for success, can not be striven for
alone.

This season, God is my Saviour

and Heather Rasmussen says:
Scripture: "He will call on me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him."(Psalm 91:5)

"...we need expectation in our God. We wait on Him for life. We are going through the winter season, which visually teaches us something spiritual. When everything is dark and cold, it is the Christmas lights and the home stove fires that we draw near to--the comforting warmth. This teaches us that during spiritually dark times we need a light from God. A light of hope, deliverance from the darkness. The light that keeps our spiritual blood pumping. Our God is called creator, healer, protector, provider, and many others. ...our one God, has many names, all of which will assure that He will meet our needs, the aches within us, and our struggles. One of his names will provide for that need and be a balm for that wound.

The name of God I'm going to focus on is Yeshua. Yeshua in Hebrew is verbal derivative from "to rescue", "to deliver" (Brown, Driver,Briggs Hebrew and English lexicon). In Psalm 91 God says of us, His children, "He will call on me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him."

It is God's character to rescue us, HIS children. Since the moment before he created the world, your name was in his Spirit--to be his child, his possession, a part of him, a part of his blood veins. You are in his mind and heart, and he will rescue you. I want to propose to you, in addition to the obvious way of rescuing, delivering, which is also included- a couple different 'out of the box' ways that God wants to be Yeshua to you.

1) Sometimes he wants to be quiet in the moment with us, in trust, and his companionship rescues us.
2) Sometimes in a painful moment he wants us to acknowledge him, and welcome him to share it with us--and sharing rescues us.
3) Sometimes he wants to tangibly, physically deliver us and rescue us. And in this instance he is showing us his mighty, rescuing, championing God-self where his character and actions deliver us.
Yeshua is our deliverer. Yeshua is our friend. He's our Lord. He is walking this life with us.

And just to enhance, to seal, to assure our trust in him, our friend David who wrote the Psalms that so many of us bleed with, who always calls out to Yeshua over and over for rescuing, help, answers, with a bleeding heart—just like the spirit of so many of us. Well, we hear David, as an old man, when all his life has passed, when he is looking behind him at the path he has walked, stumbled, climbed and run with the Lord, we hear him say this on his DEATHBED, included in an oath he gave his wife: "the Lord, who has delivered me from EVERY trouble," (1 Kings 1:29) and he continues his oath to her. The Lord will always rescue us. His name is Yeshua.