1150AFC121611 Mission Impossible? No!
Read it online here.
Luke 1:36-37 – [Gabriel continued …] “And behold, Elizabeth, your relative, has also conceived a son in her old age, and this is the sixth month for her who was called barren; for nothing will be impossible for God.”
Aloha pumehana. (Warmest Aloha) E pili mau na pomaika‘i ia ‘oe a me ke akua ho’omaika’i ‘oe! (May blessing always be with you and may God bless you!)
Just two, maybe three messages left for this year of 2011! And today I am thinking again about HOPE. First, Hope College in Holland, Michigan because that is where the MBN was first planted and germinated around 46 years ago. Secondly, hope for the billions of people suffering around the world who are hoping that soon their suffering will end. And hope for the return of Jesus expressed in Maran atha! Marana tha! Our Lord has come, O Lord, come. During Advent we find many other kinds of hope – kids for Santa’s gifts, retailers for higher profits, politicians for greater influence, church pastors for all of the Easter/Christmas members to start coming to church regularly, and (for this old man) hope that the intercessions made by MBN members over the last forty-six years have helped prepare hearts to receive our Lord Jesus not only at the manger in Bethlehem, but also in the tabernacles of many hearts.
Did you know you have a Holy of Holies inside you? It is that place in you where you and God speak to one another “in Spirit and in Truth.” It is the life-core of your existence, the part of you made in the image of God. For that reason it is the holiest part of your life. You have heard and read that our bodies are to be a temple for the Holy Spirit. In the most-perfect portion of that temple is your spirit, and we think of it as dwelling in your heart. It is hidden and protected by a veil called Life. When the veil is removed, the spirit is released from your Holy of Holies.
Surrounding that Holiest place is the manner in which we live in the World. If we are “in the world but not of it,” then the life we live is protected by morals that defend and protect all living souls. Our beliefs match our actions and our actions match our belief that all life is sacred; indeed, all Creation is sacred because it was made by and in God for his Glory. This is the Truth that is mentioned in these messages previously as described by Frank Perretti: “There’s no way for you to know whether what I’m telling you is true unless you know what the truth is. And there’s no way for you to know what the truth is unless there is a truth that you can know. (If you’re searching for the truth, and there is none, then what are you searching for?) You’ve got to have a truth that true whether you believe it or not. It is a truth that is true whether you like it or not. It’s true whether you even know about it or not. It’s just TRUE: OBJECTIVE EXTERNAL ETERNAL TRUTH THAT STANDS IN AND OF ITSELF.” Life is sacred because it comes from God, so it is The Truth that shelters that Sacred Place, and helps protect the innermost part of our being. Without that Sacredness, the Holiest place can be defiled with Worldly corruption leaving just a hollow shell without true Life at its core.
How, then, do we find that Truth? How do we get into that place in Creation where Truth and Life live? If you go all the way back to Adam and Eve and tally up the earthlings who have entered that place, literally billions of people have an answer: “I found a door, I opened it, and I went inside. That’s the Way in.” If there are billions of souls looking for that Door, there are also millions and millions of doors to try. Not all of them will open directly into Truth and Life. Most of the doors we come across go nowhere. Some don’t even allow entrance; the only allow something to come out, not go in; we turn loose evil into the world by opening the wrong doors. Sometimes we find in doors, but we take part of the World in there with us, and that imperils the Truth and Life living inside us. Some doors lead to corridors with other rooms that have other doors, or stairs (up to something or down to something?), or even elevators which whisk us away with little or no effort (again, up or down?). No matter how many wrong doors, in doors, out doors, hall doors, closet doors, or door doors we open, there is only one Right Door.
Well, I need to pause here and thank you for your patience. I’m sure you caught on to the direction of this as soon as you saw “Life” and “Truth” in close proximity. So let me open it up for a moment. The Tabernacle of Moses, there were three areas separated by three veils. The areas were The Outer Court or The Meeting Place, the Holy Place, and the Holy of Holies – the Holiest Place. In the Holiest Place was the Ark of the Covenant covered by the Mercy Seat and guarded by Cherubim (not the cute little pink one you see on greeting cards – real ones!). When God was visited in the Tabernacle annually by a solitary Priest on the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur), God rested upon the Mercy Seat.
There were three veils, curtains, separators in the Tabernacle. The first was the door, the way in, the entrance to the Outer Court. The second veil led to the Holy Place where the Table of Shewbread, the Golden Lamp-Stand, and the Altar of Incense were kept. The third veil was the heaviest, most colorful, and most decorated of the three veils. It led to the Holy of Holies. The first veil was the Way, the second was the Truth, and the third was the Life. I AM the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except by me.”
All of this about the Tabernacle matches up with the Word – Jesus, the Word of the Living God. For thousands of years the plan unfolded in the people of Israel. One day, when God saw all was ready, an Angel named Gabriel spoke to a young Jewish girl named Mary (from Gr. Form of Miriam; “rebellion”) and told her she would become the mother of God’s Son. Gabriel mentions the miraculous pregnancy of Elisabeth (Heb. “God is the Covenant Keeper”) thus illustrating God’s purpose and power to cause Mary to conceive. Mary said yes – a total, eternal, humble yes. And then the impossible began to be possible by preparing the final Sacrifice of the Lamb of God and the rending of the temple veil, and Life was restored by the conquering of Death.
Indeed nothing will be impossible with God.
Share-A-Prayer
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• For AM, MC, and other parents who have had their children removed from their care because of irregularities in their households: We pray for God’s guidance and blessing for parents and children to make reuniting the family possible.
• For TO, CN, PB, JT, and score of others whose lives are fogged over with drugs and whose families are beyond despair over losing them to this living death: We pray for God’s guidance and blessing for parents and children to believe in and pursue lasting sobriety and commitment to drug-free living.
• For FO, CW, SP, KG, GW, and many more diagnosed with cancer or pre-cancer and currently undergoing treatment or holding onto remission: We pray for God’s guidance and blessing for clergy, physicians, families, and patients to work together for the common good of a life spared through caring.
• For EC, KW, CO, CA, JE, KD, NA, and so many, many more who are chronically ill: We pray for God’s guidance and blessing for them and for their caregivers so that living has room for Joy greater than the pain.
• For our present leaders and for our future leaders: We pray for God’s guidance and blessing for them, for their families and supporters, and especially for the country they hope to serve. May their service be marked with morality, compassion, wisdom, and justice.
Whatever, whenever, wherever, whoever, however, if ever, forever — at your service, Beloved.
PS: Special thanks to Brendan Case whose lessons “Hearing the Voice of God” sparked the research into the three veils. A thank you also to my friend and colleague DK who got my computer back and running again so I could post this. And to RHX2 who made aloha-friday.org possible, mahalo nui loa and God bless you!
chick
