The property is down in those trees.
Awaiting lunch
Some thoughts from yesterday's meetings:
* Mark 10:35-41. Observing a disagreement amongst the children of a family where we were going to have tea. They were arguing about which worker they wanted to sit beside at the table! I felt quite pleased that a child wanted to sit next to me! Sure Jesus felt the same when James and John expressed this desire. One on the right, one on the left -ie they would BOTH be beside him. These two "children" not wanting anyone between them and Jesus. They understood that the matter of eternity has to be settled now on the earth, not in eternity.
Hymn 358 "My heart has one desire today, to do my heavenly Father's will". My CHIEF desire is to do his will, but a lot of other desires get in the way. Winston Churchill said "Because I have only one desire - and that is the destruction of Naziism - my life is so much simpler." Life becomes much simpler when our one desire is to do God's will.
A "side benefit" (which is actually a real benefit) of being close to Jesus: coming together through the desire to be close to one object, automatically makes us closer to one another as well... That's fellowship.
How close am I right now to Jesus? The answer is, "as close as I want to be". I'm the ONLY one that can change that. When something is a priority, we'll always make sure we are where we need to be.
* Ruth Sinclair spoke about being faint and weary. The only time she ever came close to fainting was once when she was working in a hospital, assisting during a lengthy procedure, everything started to go black. She alerted the senior nurse, who grabbed her by the scruff of the neck and asked her "Did you have breakfast???". She had to sheepishly admit that no, she hadn't. Fainting when we don't take time to feed on God's word...
Heb 12:1 - "Lay aside every weight, and the sin that doth so easily beset us". Once out walking one evening she was going to admire the sunset. Spied a very pretty rock on the side of the road that would do just nicely in a little rock garden she'd made. Picked it up and carried it in one hand, became heavy so she swapped hands. Soon got too heavy so swapped again, and so it went. She was so determined to get it home ended up carrying it in both hands which made it very difficult to walk. Got back, but had missed the beautiful sunset and didn't enjoy her walk one but because the whole time was thinking of how heavy that rock was!
Taking unnecessary burdens that make us weary.
* Gen 29. The household of Jacob, Leah and Rachel. For a long time not very united. We can see in the naming of her first three sons hiw desperately she wanted Jacob's love. (Reuben means "see, a son"; Simeon "hearing"; Levi "joined"). Eventually, her fourth son Judah ("now I will praise God") shows that she changed. Correcting her attitude and thinking changed everything.
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