The Place N.T.

Posted on February 14, 2018 by Graeme Wilson in Freedom Fighters

Tags: #americaskeswick #freedomfighters #christiandevotional #thankfulness

“In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.” — John 14:2-3 (NKJV)

The last time I was with you, I was talking about meeting God at a place where He directs you. Abram starts off with being told to leave his country and eventually his story gets filled up with places where he met with Elohim and the worship of Him that took place at each of those locations. If we look further down the timeline, we see that the time between the nation of Israel settling in Egypt and it’s exodus from there makes no mention of how they worshiped the God of Abraham. However, the perceived space between the Old Testament and the New is filled up with worship gone awry. You can find Malachi rebuking the Kingdom of Judah for its abuse of worship in his prophetic book, and if you look up the Maccabean Revolt you’ll read about how “Zealots Gone Wild” fought for their right to worship.

But then, in the midst of all the chaos, there is Jesus Christ.

For about 3.5 years, Jesus goes from place to place, on foot, to meet with people. The Father’s only Son performs miracles for the many, and only the few can seem to notice that He dares do this on The Sabbath, the Jewish day to worship YHVH, the great I AM…and He is standing right front of them, where if the eyes of their hearts were only opened, they could worship freely in His presence. But like I’ve said before, worship has changed over the centuries and in this time period, Rome has got its statues all over the place. It’s a struggle to keep the Jewish worship in line and all the new rules from the Talmud aren’t helping any, so who else is there but EGO EIMI (I AM) to bring order back into His House.

Enter the Upper Room. God’s only Son is having the Passover Seder with a bunch of guys who have followed Him from place to place and now they are all gathered at this place to hear what The Savior has to say. “Simon Peter said to Him, ‘Lord, where are You going?'” Jesus answered him, “Where I am going you cannot follow Me now, but you shall follow Me afterward” (John 13:36). Now those guys must be thinking, “What? I don’t get it” but Jesus will say unto them, “Let not your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me.” Jesus then tells them that He is going to place that He will prepare for those guys when they there. Pretty cool promise, but what’s the take away?

Jehovah-Jireh (“the LORD will provide”)

Ya see, for Abraham and the Disciples, a call was going to have to be answered by them and that call was going to take them through some pretty tough extremes, but in both cases, comfort was going to be provided at the end of the task ahead. For Abraham, a ram was provided to take Isaac’s place as a burnt offering, for the Disciples, there will be a place for them in the LORD’s house and the constant in it all is an only son, the only Son. I think that if these men remained at the places they were in life; their worship of a God unseen would have been a going through the motions kinda worship. Having no intestinal fortitude, therefore bringing God no glory. Might as well go worship a statue…. hmmm….

So, to answer the question from my last Freedom Fighter as to why did I venture outta my comfort zone and go against the grain of going to my usual places to be to get with God? Well, to be honest about the whole thing, I needed comfort and I found that by with being with people I haven’t gotten to know yet brought a change of step in my walk with the LORD. As with Abraham and the Disciples, my faith needed a bit of stretching and tweaking because my worship of El Elyon became mechanical. I kinda feel that if I did what was familiar to me the end results would have brought me compliance. My walk on the beach at Harvey Cedars, NJ was one where the sand was deep, the wind was at my face and the distance for it to end was waaayyyy out there.

But the whole experience of worshiping with men I just met, at a place I have never been to, listening to sermons that stretched my knowledge of El Elyon and praying in a different setting brought me back to what I feel was the right heart to worship El Elyon with again. I don’t doubt that God can meet us right where we are and minister to us but every so often, when we’re called, ya just gotta leave the country you’re in, go to the mountain He’ll show, enter into The Upper Room and come back to heart of worship. Amen?

Written by Chris Hughes: Chris, a graduate of The Colony of Mercy (11-2003) is married (Kathy) with two adult children (Kevin and Karen) and has been a Freedom Fighter contributor since 2008.

The Daily Bible Reading: Leviticus 5-7| You can download our 2017 Daily Bible Reading Plan by clicking here

Daily Quote: “Did you ever stop to think that God is going to be as pleased to have you with Him in Heaven as you are to be there?” — A.W. Tozer

This Week’s Verse to Memorize:
Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear Him, On those who hope in His mercy, Psalm 33:18