Psalm 63:1:
1 O GOD, You are my God, earnestly will I seek You; my inner self thirsts for You, my flesh longs and is faint for You, in a dry and weary land where no water is.
There are two things that really ministered to me from Mark today! One is found in Mark 7:6-9:
6 But He said to them, Excellently and truly [so that there will be no room for blame] did Isaiah prophesy of you, the pretenders and hypocrites, as it stands written: These people [constantly] honor Me with their lips, but their hearts hold off and are far distant from Me.
7 In vain (fruitlessly and without profit) do they worship Me, ordering and teaching [to be obeyed] as doctrines the commandments and precepts of men. [Isa 29:13.]
8 You disregard and give up and ask to depart from you the commandment of God and cling to the tradition of men [keeping it carefully and faithfully].
9 And He said to them, You have a fine way of rejecting [thus thwarting and nullifying and doing away with] the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition (your own human regulations)!
I LOVE that the Word of God will sometimes throw people off! It shakes up our thinking! We need to have a present tense understanding of the Word of God so that we can be DOERS of that Word! God is NOT moved by our great "sacrifices" of works! He is only and ever moved by faith in His Word! Find out what it REALLY says, and then DO IT! AMEN!
The other thing that really ministers to me is the story of the Syrophoenician woman and her daughter! She, who was NOT a Jew, came to Jesus to ask Him to set her daughter free from demon possession. Jesus answered her, I believe, to allow her to give expression to her faith! Verses 27-30:
28 But she answered Him, Yes, Lord, yet even the small pups under the table eat the little children's scraps of food.
29 And He said to her, Because of this saying, you may go your way; the demon has gone out of your daughter [permanently].
30 And she went home and found the child thrown on the couch, and the demon departed.
Don't ever let an evil report or a challenge to YOUR faith get you to back down! If you KNOW that what you are asking is in line with the Word of God, then DON'T BACK DOWN! Stand strong on the Word and you WILL see the salvation (deliverance) of your God!
In Exodus 35-36 Moses is giving the instructions to the people that the LORD had given to him for the building of the Tabernacle. Of course MY favorite verses here are found in Exodus 35:5-9:
5 Take from among you an offering to the Lord. Whoever is of a willing and generous heart, let him bring the Lord's offering: gold, silver, and bronze;
6 Blue, purple, and scarlet [stuff], fine linen; goats' hair;
7 And rams' skins tanned red, and skins of dolphins or porpoises; and acacia wood;
8 And oil for the light; and spices for anointing oil and for fragrant incense;
9 And onyx stones and other stones to be set for the ephod and the breastplate.
And then verses 20-24:
20 Then all the congregation of the Israelites left Moses' presence.
21 And they came, each one whose heart stirred him up and whose spirit made him willing, and brought the Lord's offering to be used for the [new] Tent of Meeting, for all its service, and the holy garments.
22 They came, both men and women, all who were willinghearted, and brought brooches, earrings or nose rings, signet rings, and armlets or necklaces, all jewels of gold, everyone bringing an offering of gold to the Lord.
23 And everyone with whom was found blue or purple or scarlet [stuff], or fine linen, or goats' hair, or rams' skins made red [in tanning], or dolphin or porpoise skins brought them.
24 Everyone who could make an offering of silver or bronze brought it as the Lord's offering, and every man with whom was found any acacia wood for any work of the service brought it.
Remember all that the Egyptians had given to the Israelites when they left? THIS is what those things were for! Then my favorite of all can be found in Exodus 36:2-7:
2 And Moses called Bezalel and Aholiab and every able and wisehearted man in whose mind the Lord had put wisdom and ability, everyone whose heart stirred him up to come to do the work;
3 And they received from Moses all the freewill offerings which the Israelites had brought for doing the work of the sanctuary, to prepare it for service. And they continued to bring him freewill offerings every morning.
4 And all the wise and able men who were doing the work on the sanctuary came, every man from the work he was doing,
5 And they said to Moses, The people bring much more than enough for doing the work which the Lord commanded to do.
6 So Moses commanded and it was proclaimed in all the camp, Let no man or woman do anything more for the sanctuary offering. So the people were restrained from bringing,
7 For the stuff they had was sufficient to do all the work and more.
We have never YET had a time at The Spoken Word Church when we had to say STOP the giving! We've come close a time or two, but there has ALWAYS been more room to receive! A challenge to ALL believers in Jesus of Nazareth: Stir YOUR heart up to serve the LORD in whatever capacity He has blessed YOU! We can NEVER out-give God!
Shalom in Him!
