I am humbled when God reaches into my world in the small moments and touches the very place in my heart that is only for him. Sometimes I forget how intimate a place that is until his words of "I love you" touch it. Then it is as if his very presence is in my space. In that moment quiet, peace, love, joy, exhilaration, wholeness, humility, comfort, reverence, wonder, and surrender all coincide. Time seems to pause as he teaches my heart of his truths.
Today was one of those days. During my very nonchalant act of my usual Saturday coffee and quiet time, in stepped Jesus. Now when I say coffee and quiet time please do not be mislead to think that I have this daily routine which leads to earth shattering spiritual revelations and amazing God time (all while wearing an angelic halo before my children are up and out of bed). On most Saturdays.... my coffee and quiet time consists of 1) coffee and 2) at minimum a steady hour of Facebook, downloading/uploading pics, catching up with Yahoo! news, and checking emails. This week however, I made a slight change to that routine in that I did not get on the computer. Instead I read my bible. I had been trying to read my bible everyday this week for about 5-10 minutes in the morning. I am reading a daily chronological version so this early in the year, the passages I am reading are in the Old Testament. All week I have been reading about the rules God gave the Israelites, about what is clean and unclean, what to do when you've been defiled, and how to make sacrifices.
Needless to say, all week long I have been skimming and was not that excited about cracking open the book this morning. Mainly because I have a hard time meshing the Yahweh of "rules" to the God of "grace". So I'm reading all this and thinking "I wish I knew more about where to find things in the Bible so I could read where the old testament covenant with God and his people is defined as different from the new covenant." Then viola! I get to the end of today's daily reading and the prayer and meditation commentary in my bible says "Lord God, I've read these chapters and they seem so odd. Help me not to lose the thrust of what I've read, that forgiven people maintain fellowship with You by living the precepts You establish. Thank You that according to Galatians 4:24-25 and Hebrews 8:13 the old rules are obsolete because of what Christ has done for us. Amen." So of course I turn and read the chapters and verses referenced. Then I read Hebrews 9 and Hebrews 10 and I am loving how it is really explaining to me how Jesus is the mediator of the new covenant. Feeling rather pleased with the convenience of all of this, I circle and highlight some things I've learned, pour another cup of coffee, put my Bible to the side, and get out this devotional I bought months ago that is supposed to be done daily but only has about six pages done in it (can anyone else relate to that?).
The devotional topic is on trusting the Lord. It references Psalm 40:1-5. I read verses 1-5 and then I keep reading, because the Psalm is really beautiful, and when I get to verse 6 into my living room stepped Jesus. You see verse 6 says
" You do not delight in sacrifice and offering; You open my ears to listen. You do not ask for a whole burnt offering or a sin offering. Then I said 'See, I have come; it is written about me in the volume of the scroll. I delight to do Your will, my God; Your instruction lives within me."
At that moment I looked up from my bible and thought, "That's odd, that is EXACTLY the scripture referenced in Hebrews 10 that I just read." And then it hit me that what was happening was not odd, but was Jesus. He stepped into my quiet time today. He sat down on my ottoman and proceeded to clear my confusion, answer my question, connect the dots between Old and New, teach me more about him, and ultimately to say to my heart "I love you". He stepped into my world between the words on a page. Not in grandeur, just in the quiet. I love the way he works!
Hebrews 10:21-23
"Since we have a great high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed in pure water. Let us hold on to the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful."
