Are you a Pharisee?
Mark 2 begins with the story of the paralytic being healed by Jesus. The pharisees then proceed to question Jesus and criticize Him. They accuse Him of blasphemy. The Pharisees were in the presence of God! They were in the same room as Jesus himself and they witnessed Him perform a miracle! They somehow found a way to overlook all of this and chose to criticize. I feel like so many of us do that at church Sunday mornings. We go to church and we sing and follow along with the message but we fail to realize we are in the presence of God. We choose to criticize the music or preacher. We have the opportunity to rejoice in the presence of God but we waste it. We need to stop being so critical and we need to focus on what is important! We are called to test everything and make sure it is Biblical and truthful but He did not call us to be critical of every little detail and miss out on the main purpose of church. Don’t be a critical Pharisee and miss out but instead take advantage of the opportunity we have to be in the presence of our Creator!
-Emily
In the end, that Face which is the delight or terror of the universe must be turned upon each of us, either with one expression or the other
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| — | C.S Lewis |
The Voice of God
I want the Lord to draw near to me. I want to rest in His presence this year. I want to listen to the voice of God as well as discern what He is saying. It is so easy for me to get wrapped up in the things of this world and to focus on telling God things instead of listening to Him. I want to hear God, I mean really hear Him. I know that He has things to tell me and I know He wants to guide me but I am not even giving him a chance to speak. Starting now I am going to take time daily not only to talk to God and read His word but to listen. I want to feel Him near and I want to communicate. I want to hear Him and I want Him to hear me. I truly believe that by resting in His presence daily He will show me things I would never have seen otherwise. This is me embarking on a journey of audacious faith believing that God has something to say to me. Lord reveal yourself to me I surrender to your voice today.
-Emily
