Eternity

Barefoot on Holy Ground

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Then he said, “Do not come near; take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” Exodus 3:5 ESV

I know that I have written twice on foot washing lately but the Lord gave me one more small truth to share.

Did you know that when God spoke to Moses, the first thing He asked him to do was to take off his sandals.? Holy ground is strange for us to think of but it is a place we should not walk in our own power. We could no more walk with muddy shoes into an operating room during surgery than to tromp into heaven with our shoes on.

But for us to walk barefoot before the Lord we must have our feet washed. And the soil from where we have walked can only be washed away by Jesus. Only He can prepare us to walk from this earth into His holy heaven. Simon Peter was horrified at the thought that Jesus wanted to wash his feet.

Peter said to him, “You shall never wash my feet.” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no share with me.” John 13:8 ESV

Did you ever stop to think how amazingly humble our Savior is that He could choose to do such a thing? Has He washed your feet today? Would you humbly bow for a minute to pray and ask Him? Only He can make us ready to walk barefoot on His streets of gold!

Honoring our Parents

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What is honor and what does it mean to honor our parents? One way I have come to understand it is that honor is a combination in equal parts of love and respect. Honoring our parents means we can not love without respect and we should never respect without loving.

Every week as I visit nursing homes I see the results of a culture that has often forgotten how to honor its mothers and fathers. and has abandoned it’s parents.

Yes they are professionally cared for. Yes they are clean and well fed, but they mostly spend their days alone. Though we may be honoring our own parents, God is also calling on us to hear the cry of the forgotten ones. On January 18th hundreds of thousands reminded our nation about the value of the unborn. Today we need many more among God’s people to also remember those left alone in institutions. God doesn’t forget a single sparrow. If we forget these mothers and fathers we have forgotten the heart of God.

The Everything of Christ

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During the last week of my Dad’s life I learned more from him than all the years before. That is not to say Dad’s teaching improved so much as that my listening increased. God’s love reflected in his concern for me getting meals while he only received his through a tube. He worried I was missing sleep while he spent the night in a busy ICU unit. But most of all Dad loved having me and his nurse reading the Bible to him. That week he often quoted his favorite verse

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Philippians 4:13

Today when the cold winds of reality slap me in the face and little irritations that feel like hurricanes I remember his verse. Though I wish I could pick up the phone to ask Dad what he thinks I come back to this promise. Every day I am finding more and more that success is not determined by the many things I cannot do but by the everything He can!