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You are lovingly invited.
“And the Spirit and the bride
say, ‘Come.’ And let him that
heareth say, ‘come.’ And let him that is athrist come.
And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely”
(Revelation 22:17).
RSVP
As the Thanksgiving holiday
draws near, we begin to think
about the menu and start making
preparations to have our
family and friends with us during this reflective time of being
thankful. It can be a time of
renewing relationships that have
been neglected or maybe
stressful in the past. It is
also a
good time to check our pantry to
see if we have sufficient
provisions for a spiritual
Thanksgiving.
The Jews have always been a
celebrating people. God
established holidays to remind
them of His Covenant blessings
as they kept the feast days. All
the appointed days of
festivities pointed to the
Covenant He established with
them
and were for the purpose of
passing the traditional
“remembrance days” to generation
after generation. The
Covenant blessings which they
celebrated were fulfilled
by Jesus and include us--so
let’s celebrate!
Let us have a “remembrance
festival” this Thanksgiving with
elements taken from the Word
which will bring to our minds
what
God has prepared for His family
through His Son, Jesus Christ.
Our personal preparation begins
with bath time. “Having
therefore these promises, dearly
beloved, let us cleanse
ourselves from all filthiness of
the flesh [actions] and spirit
[will and emotions] perfecting holiness [maturity] in the fear
of God” (2 Corinthians 17:1).
“Now ye are clean through the
word which I have spoken unto
you” (John 15:3).
Now that we are clean, we look
into our closet and choose
what to wear. “I will greatly
rejoice in the Lord, my soul
shall
be joyful in my God; for he hath
clothed me with the garments of
salvation, he hath covered me
with the robe of righteousness,
as a bridegroom decketh himself
with ornaments, and as a bride
adorneth herself with her
jewels” (Isaiah 61:10).
I am properly attired because I
had a good light to select a
coordinated outfit. “For thou
wilt light my candle
[understanding];
the Lord my God will enlighten
my darkness” (Psalm 18:28).
“Thy word is a lamp unto my
feet, and light unto my path”
(Psalm 119:105).
I can find my way to the feast.
God has given me His address
and a map to find his house. He
has given me light to
understand the route He marked on His map (His Word).
Here it is, the house of
celebration. I found it with no
trouble
because I followed the instructions I had been given and the light
confirmed the location. Come
with me and let us join the
others
who have gathered. “Greet one
another with an holy kiss”
(2 Corinthians 13:12). “Greet ye
one another with a kiss
of charity. Peace be with you all that are in Christ Jesus”
(1 Peter 5:14).
The table is spread and a
blessing is pronounced as we
join
the celebrants. “Bless [thank]
the Lord, O my soul; and all
that
is within me, bless [exalt] his
holy name” (Psalm 103:5). “Who
satisfieth thy mouth with good
things; so that thy youth [first
love,
when I met Christ] is renewed
like the eagle’s” (Psalm
103:5)--
As the eagle waits upon the
Lord…and mounts up with wings
locked to soar above the storm.
With great anticipation, we look
upon the feast that has been
prepared for us. “My soul shall
be satisfied as with marrow
[renewed cells] and fatness
[increase]; and my mouth shall
praise thee with joyful lips”
(Psalm 63:5).
Take a quick survey of the
spread on the table.
What an awesome feast!
Meat: “…My [Jesus] meat is to do
the will of him that sent me
and to finish his work” (John
4:14). If Jesus’ meat was the
will of the Father, then it must be ours as well.
“Labour not for the meat which
perisheth [putrid works of the
flesh], but for that meat [will of the Father] which endureth
into everlasting life, which the son of man shall give unto you…
” (John 6:27).
A look around the table reveals
many “veterans” of the warfare,
and there is a special meat
prepared for them. “But strong
meat belongeth to them that are
of full age [mature], even those
who by
reason of [persistent] use have their senses exercised
[progressive growth] to discern
both good and evil”
(Hebrews 5:14).
Bread: “And Jesus said unto
them, I am the bread of life
[sustains it]; he that cometh to me shall never hunger
[always have a fresh
supply]…”(John 6:35).
“I am the living bread which
came down from heaven; if any
man
eat of this bread, he shall live forever; and the bread that I will give
is my flesh which I will give for the life of the world” (John 6:51).
“For we being many are one
bread, and one body; for we are
all partakers of that one bread
[Jesus]” (1 Corinthians 10:17).
“But he answered and said, It is
written, Man shall not live by
bread alone [for natural life],
but by every word that
proceedeth
out of the mouth of God [for
spiritual life]” (Matthew 4:4).
Special Drink: “In the last day,
that great day of the feast
[natural], Jesus stood and cried, saying, ‘If any man thirst,
let him come unto me, and drink’
[spiritual]” (John 7:37).
Water: “He that believeth on me,
as the scripture hath said,
out of his belly shall flow
rivers [endless supply] of
living water.
(But this spake he of the
spirit, which they that believe
on
him should receive)…” (John
7:38-39).
“How excellent is thy
loving-kindness, O God;
therefore the
children of men put their trust
under the shadow of thy wings.
They shall be abundantly [more than enough] satisfied with
the fatness [increase] of thy
house; and thou shalt make them
drink of this river of thy
wings” (Psalm 36:7-8).
Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians
10: 4 that the Rock Israel drank
from was Christ, the same Rock fountain that we drink from.
To those who are slow coming to
the table, let us say; “…let him
that is athrist come…and…let him
take the water of life freely
[unconditionally]” (Revelation
22:17).
Water is essential to life, all
life. Everything that grows
needs
water. It even makes us ladies have more supple skin. If we
become dehydrated, our skin
suffers. To deprive ourselves of
the Water of Life is to put our
spiritual life in jeopardy. It
will
affect our appearance as well as
our actions. The Water of
Life will extinguish the fires
of lust and greed which would
lure
us back into the dry dessert of sin and destruction.
Milk: We have cradles and
strollers with “babes” in Christ
present, but they are not forgotten or neglected. “As newborn
babes, desire the sincere milk
of the word, that you may grow
thereby” (1 Peter 2:2). We all
began as “babes” and were fed
milk until we grew strong enough to have a full diet including
meat. It is not wise to give babies meat lest we choke them
before they have a chance to
reach meat-eating age. Milk
(of the Word) will give the
babies strength, making strong
bones with which to stand against the storms of life
and the wiles of the devil.
Fruit: What a lovely bowl of
luscious fruit—“Love, joy,
peace, longsuffering,
gentleness, goodness, faith,
meekness, temperance” (Galatians
5:22-23), “righteousness and
truth” (Ephesians 5:9).
When we eat this fruit, we
become artistic. “A word fitly
spoken [suitable for the
occasion] is like apples of gold
in pictures
of silver” (Proverbs 25:11). With our palette of colors,
we paint a beautiful picture for
each other.
The bees have been busy and
produced honey: “How sweet ar
e thy words unto my taste! Yea,
sweeter than honey to my mouth!”
“The fear of the Lord…the judgments of the Lord...are
sweeter also than honey and the
honeycomb” (Psalm 119:9).
His Word sweetens ours so that
we can speak as He speaks,
in love and compassion, painting
beautiful word pictures.
A honeybee works his whole
lifetime to produce only about a
teaspoon of honey, so it is “precious.” How precious is God’s
Word! What a price was paid for us to have it! We must not
overlook this delicacy but take
it and treat it with the
respect and love it deserves.
Seasoning “Ye are the salt of
the earth…” (Matthew 5:13).
“Salt is good [for seasoning}…” (Mark 9:50). When we
are seasoned with the love of Christ, our words and actions
will be translated as honey to
those who receive them. We
are the salt of the earth to
make the world thirsty for
Christ.
Salt not only seasons and makes
food palatable, it also
preserves. The Holy Spirit is
our salt that keeps us from
spoiling and becoming unfit for use. We can’t become “light”
until we have become “salt.” As salt we have humility
and perseverance, and that
allows us to be luminaries in
the darkness of the world.
Among the utensils on the table,
there is an instrument to cut
the meat, bread, etc. “For the
word of God is quick [alive],
and powerful [all-powerful], and sharper than any two-edged
sword, piercing even to the
dividing asunder of the soul and
spirit,
and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the
thoughts and intents of the
heart” (Hebrews 4:12).
The Word not only feeds us with
milk, bread, meat, fruit and
water, honey and seasoning and
contains all the nutrients we
need to grow to spiritual
maturity, it keeps and guards us
as
well. As long as we walk in the
light of the Word, we can’t
hide from ourselves as it
discerns our thoughts and
intentions.
The discernment of our thoughts
and intents is preventive
of wrong actions.
The Word prepares us to be set
before the world, spread with
all the lovelies we have observed at this feast so they will
joyfully accept the invitation
to the feast and become
a member of the family.
“Thou preparest a table before
me…” (Psalm 23:5).
The invitation is still valid.
Won’t you come?
Delores Adams
Copyrighted. All rights
reserved.
October 6, 2004
Alice's Legacy
Remembering Alice
The
"Handkerchief" has been anointed
and prayed over by several
believers who care about you and
want to help you realize your
full potential in Christ Jesus
Our Lord.
~The
Ten Commandments~
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