Purging

This morning I'm still in the beginning part of the story of Moses. Moses is still in the midsts of God getting his instructions and balking at what God is asking him to do. At one point God asks Moses to throw his staff down and it becomes a snake. He instructs Moses to pick it up and it becomes a staff again. Then He instructs Moses to put his hand into his cloak. When it comes out it is diseased like leprosy. He tells Moses to put his diseased hand back into his cloak and when he pulls it out it's clean and normal. My notes say, "The sign of leprosy. Inside his cloak, Moses' hand covered his heart. The heart stands for what we are, the hand for what we do. What we are, that ultimately we do. It is a sign of Luke 6:43-45. The two sings, staff and hand, speak of preparations for service: 1) consecration - our capacity taken up for God; 2) the hand that holds the staff of God's power must be a cleansed hand swayed by a new heart. "Depart, depart, go out from there! Touch no unclean thing! Come out from it and be pure, you who carry the vessels of the Lord." Isaiah 52:11"

This year has taught me many things and what I've learned is that I need to purge myself of the unclean things in my life. Those things have been causing me to be who I'm not. It started out with being unwilling to forgive. How easy it is to fall when you allow yourself to be taken over by that one thing. One thing led to another which led to many. Allowing those things to reign in my life has major eternal consequences that I wasn't thinking about when I first chose to not forgive in my anger. And rendered me unfit to serve God.

Matthew 6:13 says "And lead us not into temptation . . . . " I knew in my heart what I was doing was wrong and yet, I wouldn't give it up.

When tempted:

Forget the slander you have heard,
Forget the hasty, unkind word;
Forget the quarrel and the cause,
Forget the whole affair, because,
Forgetting is the only way.
Forget the storm of yesterday.
Forget the chap whose sour face
Forgets to smile in any place.
forgets that you're not a millionaire,
Forget the gray streaks in your hair.
Forget the coffee when it's cold.
Forget to kick, forget to scold,
Forget the plumber's awful charge,
Forget the doctor's bill is large;
Forget the repair man and his ways,
Forget the winter's blustery days.
Forget the neighbor's wagging tongue.

BUT DON'T

Forget God when day is done.

- Author Unknown

I pray that my heart may be cleaned in order to serve the Lord as He has planned. May I dwell in His temple and live for Him! "One thing I ask of the Lord, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life." (Psalm 27:4) because it's "the place where your (God's) glory dwells." (Psalm 26:8b).

Krista Jones
1.29.08