Outer Court Worshippers...Dancing On Dangerous Ground Pt 2

Between the altar and the Holy Place was the basin. Before the priests could enter the Holy Place they had to wash so they would be clean and not die before the Lord.

There are those who do seek the presence of God but have yet to learn to stay before Him. They are continually going in and out of the Holy Place. I personally think that a lot of Christians who really do want to love God fall in this category, but they have not made the necessary adjustments that will allow them to dwell in His presence continually. So they enter in and minister to God. But then out they go again, picking up the dirt of this world and their own flesh. They know they ought to fully belong to God and fully hate the world but it's the little foxes that spoil the vine...the love of entertainment and comfort. Their passion to surrender is choked out by the cares of this world.

As God's priests we are to be made clean by the washing of the water of the Word. Only those who keep guard over His Word continually in their hearts can continually be clean and abide in His presence (John 15:3 & 10) But so many do not. Their prayer and Bible reading is erratic at best. They are not studying the scripture that they may be workers approved by God. They are not meditating on it that they may obey it. They are not calling on His Spirit for help. Against their own convictions they do not discipline their bodies to seek His face. So in and out they go.

At first this does not seem too bad. After all they are trying more than some others. but Revelations 11:1-2, 13 says this,

Then I was given a reed like a measuring rod. And the angel stood, saying, “Rise and measure the temple of God, the altar, and those who worship there. But leave out the court which is outside the temple, and do not measure it, for it has been given to the Gentiles....
...In the same hour there was a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city fell. In the earthquake seven thousand people were killed, and the rest were afraid and gave glory to the God of heaven. 

There is no time to discuss the full meaning of this now. I'll leave it to your study of the Bible such as it is. Let's just keep it simple. God measured off the temple and those who worshiped inside. The outer court was not only given over to the haters of God's people but after the resurrection of the two prophets there was an earthquake that killed thousands...all found outside the presence of God.

I don't fully grasp Revelations, but even I can see it wouldn't be good to be found in the Outer Court if that's where God's judgment was going to fall, kind of like being outside the ark the day it started to rain.

In Matthew 25 Jesus tells a parable of 10 virgins. All were destined to meet the bridegroom. All had full lamps. But only 5, who were wise, had vessels with extra oil. The 5 who were foolish presumptuously thought that the oil in their lamps was sufficient. Why go through the trouble of finding more oil and then carrying an extra vessel around with them? As they waited for His coming they used up all they had in their lamps. When the bridegroom arrived they began to scramble to find more oil, but it was too late. They were locked out of the marriage simply because they wouldn't go the extra mile in making preparation for the coming of the bridegroom.

These are the ones who one moment are worshiping in the Holy Place and dancing in the Outer Court the next. These are the ones who tempt their own fate by their continual coming and going. One foot in and the other out. Straddling the fence. Double minded with divided hearts.

There are those who stay in His presence continually. They know He is coming but they don't know the day or the hour. All they know is that they do not want to miss it, so they draw nearer to Him and watch....and wait.

These do not fear Hell. They fear eternal separation from the object of their deepest desire. They fear never to be able to look upon His face, never to gaze deeply into His eyes, and never to hear His voice speaking their name.

Let us enter in with them. The veil is rent in two. He is waiting. He will not wait forever.

Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth...Luke 18:8

God is speaking.  Let's all have an ear to hear family.

Outer Court Worshippers Or Dancing On Dangerous Ground

This morning the Outer Court has been weighing on my heart. I am no expert on the Temple and it's lay out. Nor am I an expert on the tabernacle erected by Moses. While I've read about it many times I don't fully understand all the sacrifices or ceremonies.Yet God has shown me some things about the Outer Court that pertain to the condition of the heart of believers.

In the Outer Court was the Altar of Sacrifice. It was placed some distance away from the tabernacle which housed the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies. People came with their sacrifice, the officiating priest offered it up, and the one who brought the sacrifice went their way without going near the Holy of Holies where the presence of God was.

So many people are just that way. They are Outer Court worshipers who are continually repenting over their sin but never coming close to God. These people fear hell more then they fear God. They fear hell because they know they are closer to it than heaven. They are closer to hell than heaven because they don't fear God. They want to go to heaven but they really don't want to know the King of heaven. At least not on His terms, not if it means they have to change.

Some of these are the people that seem so faithful in God's kingdom because they do so much. Yet God sees the motive. They do not obey God so they try to make up for their disobedience with sacrificial offerings. Yet God says obedience is better than sacrifice. (1 Sam 15:22)

Surrounding the tabernacle was a wall. This wall was not made of stone or brick but linen. It wasn't sturdy but yet it was a wall just the same. It was the line that separated the spiritual from the secular.

At first Outer Court worshipers know not to cross certain boundaries. They know some things belong to God and ought to be reverenced. But it isn't long before their senses are too numb to discern between what is holy and what is flesh (1 Tim 4:2). Like bulls they plow through that seemingly flimsy boundary into the world. Then who they are at home is no longer who they are at church. The secular world holds an allure while the things of God pale in comparison. They begin to bring the world into their homes. More and more their conversation is laced with flesh and they delight to call the holy legalistic. Speaking those things that they ought not, they believe God is altogether like them. Walking in their pride they begin to touch the anointed things of God without fear. (1 Chron 16:22 & Jude 8-10) They become careless and familiar with the holy.

Another thing about the Outer Court is it was in the open air. No covering. Outer Court worshipers hate authority. This is the one that talks the Christian language, shows up at church, and may even faithfully hold ministry. They have a form of godliness, that is until someone tries to bring correction. It is at this point that the Outer Court worshiper has a tantrum. Some are like Korah and will blatantly oppose God's chosen leadership. Others will sweetly and quietly listen to the correction yet still insist on their way of doing things.

Sadly these people do not understand what the word covering means. It means to hide, to clothe, and to provide for. It also is a military term that means to protect from enemy action, as in "Cover me while I throw my grenade". It means to protect financially. It's a term that expresses the intimacy of a husband with His wife. It's also a term that is best expressed by our free will. God will not force anyone to stay under His covering. Whether it be a wife, a child, a disciple, or an employee, only those who love and trust Him will submit to the covering He has provided for them....

Part 2 Next Week

A God-LESS Church (My Response To The Gay Marriage Law)

Last Friday our nation was delivered the news that same sex marriage has now become law.  I, along with other Christians, was shocked, disappointed, and dumbfounded.  But as I thought further this thought occurred to me...

why am I surprised?

Before I gave my life to Jesus I was a sinner and I was good at it.  I remember my life, my views, my political and spiritual stance and none of these things were in line with God's Word.   If this law had been passed then I would have not only agreed with the Supreme Court I would have celebrated their decision.

Sinners, unbelievers, heathens (Or whatever you want to call those without the fear of God and understanding of His holiness.) do what sinners do.

 Christians ought to do what Christians do.

Unfortunately many in the church are not a far cry from being like those we call unbelievers though we think we are. 

When those who profess to know Christ do not read and study the scriptures, do not seek God in prayer, do not attend church, see no need to repent of our thoughts or things we do to please our flesh, LOVE the world and the things of it (alcohol, tobacco, riches, fame,  sensuality, entertainment, food/gluttony, fashion, violence... and the list goes on and on),  and seek our own ways more than the ways of God and yet call ourselves the people of God then I would say at best we are highly confused but at worst we are not even saved.

We have become a God LESS church.

What do I mean?

I mean less conviction, less Godly fear, less obedience, less love, less selflessness, less servant hood/work, less prayer, less church, less giving, less witnessing, less HOLINESS.  And yes, less God Himself. 

A wise woman I know says something like this,

Make up your mind!  If you want to sin then drop the pretense and just go be the best sinner you can be.  But if you're going to serve God then give Him EVERYTHING!

When the church stops asking what can we get away with doing and still go to heaven and starts asking how much more can we give to JESUS who suffered and died to prove His love to us and pay the price for our sin then we will indeed be the church.

But at this moment in time the church really just needs to get saved!  I mean FOR REAL saved.

  And YES I am preaching to myself.

I know all the things you do, and that you have a reputation for being alive—but you are dead. Wake up! Strengthen what little remains, for even what is left is almost dead. I find that your actions do not meet the requirements of my God.  Go back to what you heard and believed at first; hold to it firmly. Repent and turn to me again. If you don’t wake up, I will come to you suddenly, as unexpected as a thief. Rev 3:1-3


I know all the things you do, that you are neither hot nor cold. I wish that you were one or the other! But since you are like lukewarm water, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth! Rev 3:15-16

Counting The Cost Of Discipleship

I thought this was worth saying again.




So you want to disciple others for Christ...

...WHY?

Why?  Isn't it obvious?  Jesus commands us to go and make disciples.  It says it right in Matthew 28:19!

He also told us to count the cost.  (Luke 14:28-33)  Have you done that?  Have you counted the cost of discipling another?

People have babies all the time and never once consider the late night feedings, hours of constant screaming, tons of poopy diapers, the financial cost, and the utter lack of FREEDOM.  This my friend is just the beginning of the cost of discipleship.

Just as babies grow up into teenagers and rebel so do disciples.  Children love you one moment and want nothing to do with you the next, so do disciples.  Children listen to their friends and trample all over your words of wisdom.  Children arrive at a time in life when they think they know it all.  Children are self-centered, hate work, love junk food, and test your patience.

So do disciples.

But just as children eventually arrive at a place in life where they have endured the trials of life, have their own children, and become wise enough to see how much their parents have truly invested emotionally, again financially, and spiritually, so do disciples.

So, my friend, if you have considered all this and you're ready to lay down your life go for it.

In the end it will all be
worth it and you will receive your reward!!

Your Excuse Has Just Become Your Bondage-A Soap Box Sermon

As one who must OFTEN ask people to volunteer I OFTEN get to hear their excuses when what they are really saying is...

I don't want to.

Every blue moon I get someone who has decided they don't care and are just flat out rebellious enough to tell the truth...

I don't want to.

But for the most part I must stand there with a smile and listen to excuses from those who prefer to have a form of godliness.

I actually understand excuses having had to repent of having a pocket book full of my own from time to time over the years.  I mean c'mon.  Who really wants to go out of their way to do anything when they are tired, overworked already, or have had no time to just sit and....

breathe.

So it's not like I don't understand human nature..

BUT there must come a time when we get past our excuses

lies

and become a people of sacrificial and obedient lives.  But that's for another blog.

What I'd like to jump on my soap box about is how Christians will use certain things in their lives to keep from having to serve God.

For example a wife who feels her husband is too controlling and never does a thing he tells her until she is asked to serve then suddenly she becomes this "submissive" wife who needs to ask her husband before she is able to commit.  Of course said husband always says "no" and the wife is sweetly able to save face as she lays all the blame on her overbearing spouse.

Then we have those who use their illness as their excuse.  They can do anything they want to do (fun) but ask them to serve in a area that is distasteful to them and suddenly they are all but but bedridden.  "Pray for me" is their common refrain.

Next we have those who are always broke.  They own the latest in dvd's, they regularly eat out, and hair and nails are faithfully done but ask them to serve and suddenly they lack gas money.

And finally there are the "I would do that but my kids..." folks.  My kids are sick. My kids have homework. My kids need to get to bed.  My kids have games.  My kids may get offended.  I know I'm an adult but really my kids are in charge and I just keep house for them, pay their bills, and buy whatever they tell me to buy for them.  They are so busy bowing down to their children that there is no room in their lives to worship God.  Oh and did I neglect to tell you that most of these parents complain continually that their children have behavioral issues?

Again I understand the temptation to use excuses but there are some who will continually tell you how much they need God to move in their lives but will actually use the very thing in which they are asking God to help to keep from serving HIM!

Do they actually believe God is blind and deaf to this fact?

God please heal me, deliver me, rescue me!  Oh wait don't deliver me right now I need to use my (fill in the blank) to get out of serving You!

They need God to move.  I say that as long as their need is their convenient excuse they will never see God move because they have made that thing their god that delivers them from the task master the rest of us know as God in Heaven.  God in fact might just turn them over to that god and allow them to remain in bondage to it.  He did it to Israel when they continually worshipped other gods.  He actually arranged it so they would be force marched to Babylon where they could be slaves to the
very gods they worshipped when they were free.

Let us no longer be a people of excuses.  Let us no longer love our bondage because it allows us to get out of serving.  But let us love God and show Him our fidelity through our grateful service to Him.

God will not be mocked.  We shall indeed reap as we have sown.

Another Christian Four Letter Word...OBEY

I am not sure why so many Christians think they can pick and choose what they will and will not do in their walk with God.

We come to church when we please.  We join and quit ministries depending on how we feel at the moment.  One day we are paying our tithes and giving offerings, then suddenly we just think we'll take a break from that and handle business.  

One of the new phrases I hear thrown around a lot is, "He or she is in their emotions."

That bugs me.

It's the new catch phrase for anyone who is acting inappropriately because they are upset for one reason or another.

In the flesh.

God expects us to obey Him no matter how we feel.  No matter the cost.  

Is it always easy?

NO!

Will we sometimes fail?  

YES!

But, the heart that wants to obey God pushes towards that obedience through prayer, repentance, and yes, fasting.

The disciple of Christ who wills to do the Father's will does not make excuses or just throw up their hands and say...

Well, when God chooses to deliver me from this I can obey Him.

No!  They are storming the heavens, asking, seeking, knocking, until they are walking in God's will.

Seeking to obey God is no light or passive thing it's a desperation knowing one day we will stand before Him and have to give an account.

Do you and I really want to stand before Him and say...

 well God I would have obeyed you but...

I think not.

The mark of being Christlike is obedience.

The mark of being carnal and not Christs' is lawlessness or disobedience.

You choose.

And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.  Phil 2:8

On This Martin Luther King's Birthday...I Am A SLAVE

Good Morning Family.

On this day, Martin Luther King's birthday, I am at a bit of a loss in what to say so I will just write from my heart.

I am a Christian.  My skin is dark.  My gender is woman.  I am a wife, a mother, a daughter.

I am a SLAVE.

I am not a slave in the sense that we would consider slavery.  Due to the providence of God, through mighty men and women, my generation in America was spared that atrocity.

I am a SLAVE to Jesus Christ.

A willing SLAVE.

Even though I am a free man with no master, I have become a slave to all people to bring many to Christ. 1 Cor 9:19
From Paul, a slave of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God.  Rom 1:1


There was a time when I was a slave to sins and bondages of all kinds...fornication, adultery, drugs, alcohol, depression, suicidal thoughts, selfish desires, stubbornness, people pleasing, the ways and "wisdom" of the world...

I was a SLAVE to the devil.

Do you not know that if you present yourselves as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or obedience resulting in righteousness? Rom 6:16

I remember a day when I was living in my father's home.  I was a single mom and while my daughter was in school I was folding socks.  Then in the midst of folding the thought suddenly came upon me...

I am going to HELL and there is nothing I can do about it.

I was frozen like a deer in headlights.

I wanted to run for my life but there was nowhere to turn.  One day I would die and have to go before God and because of my sin I was destined for hell.

I can't tell you how long I stood there petrified but eventually the thought dissipated and I went on with my day.  But it was only a few months later when salvation was explained to me and I gave my life to Jesus.  Yes, I was a sinner, but no amount of going to confession, lighting candles, praying to "saints", taking communion, or being a "nice" person would save me.  I needed to renounce and turn from my sin once and for all, ask Jesus to come into my life, and be born again.  Only JESUS could set me free from my sin nature.

It was years later that I realized I exchanged one master for THE MASTER.

The master I had served before had come to steal, kill, and destroy.  Jesus gave me abundant life, love, and provision.

The devil hated me with a rage that will only be swallowed up in the lake of fire.  Jesus called me His beloved and He wanted only to protect, heal, deliver, and then empower me through His Spirit to build His kingdom that He wants to give to ME!

As a black woman I do not deny my heritage nor the injustice committed in the earth against people of color.  But as an ambassador of Jesus Christ my concern is not JUST for the injustice committed against people who share my skin color.  Looking through the eyes of Jesus I see with sorrow injustice rampant against everyone made in the image of God.

I see those who claim to be Christians bickering over who is more oppressed.  I hear those who before, seemed so God fearing revealing the prejudice in their hearts.

I see racism in the church.

May I say this...there is no room in heaven for those who will not do all they can to make peace, to rid their hearts of hatred, bitterness, unforgiveness.  To bring Christ and His word into every situation.

The Ferguson case, and others like it, are true revealers of the hearts.  I pray Christians everywhere are shocked about their response to this case and are repenting and praying the mind that is in Christ will be in them.

Am I suggesting that we all deny what is happening in this country?  Not at all.  I am exhorting us all to return to the commandments of God and trust in Him.  Every injustice, if we are His, ought to drive us to our knees in prayer.  And If we are to act, to act in such a way that points others to Jesus.

May I say this?  Most people who made comments or commentaries, on Face Book, twitter, through emails, or on You Tube did NOT make time to pray and dig in the Word of God for wisdom or comfort.

And they surely did not FAST.

They spoke out of their own insecurity, hurt, and anger...out of their own resources instead of going to Jesus.

One last thing.  As a Christian I do not vote based on a man's skin color, I do not overlook crimes of famous people who share my skin color, and I do not give favoritism because someone is a "Sista".

Because I am a Christian my sister, my brother, my people are those who are believers in Jesus Christ.

For whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is my brother, and my sister, and mother. (Jesus) Mk 3:35

I am a SLAVE to my Lord.  If that offends you then you either need to mature in your walk or you need to, as I did, exchange your master for THE MASTER.

I...Am...A...Christian.

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.  Martin Luther King

I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. That is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant. Martin Luther King

Somewhere somebody must have some sense. Men must see that force begets force, hate begets hate, toughness begets toughness. And it is all a descending spiral, ultimately ending in destruction for all and everybody. Somebody must have sense enough and morality enough to cut off the chain of hate and the chain of evil in the universe. And you do that by love.  Marin Luther King

The reason I can't follow the old eye-for-an-eye philosophy is that it ends up leaving everyone blind.  Martin Luther King

Love in our Lord,
Lauren