Happy Valentines Day

         Are we a safe place for a soul to trust or do they have to be on guard? Do you bless or hurt another fellow Christian?.  These things should not be.  Love does no wrong to another always builds up never tears down.  Are you a blessing or a curse to others.  Love never seeks the harm of others.                                   

Under His Shadow

How precious is Your loving kindness, O God! 

Therefore the children of men

put their trust under the shadow

of Your wings.  Ps.36:7

     All of us need to know that we are loved.  Love from others can turn our darkest moments into ones of joy.  To know we are loved by our Creator, however, brings a joy that will last forever.

     One definition of the word " shadow" is an inseparable companion.  To think that God is our inseparable companion, protecting us beneath the "shadow of His wings," enables us to soar above all the heartaches, the pain, the everyday stress that confronts us  We are not alone.  We are loved.

       God is the presence, warm, all enfolding,

       touching the drab world into brilliance,

       lifting the sad heart into               song,                                               

       indescribable, beyond understanding,

       yet by a bird's note, a chord of music,

        a light at sunset, a sudden movement of rapt insight,

        a touch of love, making the whole universe

        a safe home for the soul.

              an early Christian

Two rooms- Tabernacle

     The holy place was the larger of the two rooms.  It housed three pieces of furniture; the table of shewbread .  The bread of His presence, or the dining table on the north side.  The lamp or golden lamp stand on the south side.  A little further back was the altar of incense.  In the smaller room called the holy o holies was the ark of the covenant and the mercy seat.

     There were seven pieces of furniture throughout the Tabernacle which speaks of the perfection of Christ.  Every part of the building, each piece of furniture speaks of the perfection and ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ.  It was a meeting place with God, who was our Tabernacle.  Now Christ lives in us and we commune with Him at any time or any place for He is in us.  Through the person and work of the Holy Spirit.  He came to live inside the believer at Penecost.  The furniture laid out a perfect picture of the cross.  We need to go to the cross for forgiveness for our sins.  Ask for forgiveness for our sins and let the water of His Word, the laver, wash away our sins.  The blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sins.  Jesus was picturing for us Calvary in the Old Testament.  Jesus the Messiah would come to die on the cross for our sins.  The furniture was all of the finest gold.  The curtains and hangings for the Tabernacle was made of the most exquisite needle work made of white linen with purple, blue, and scarlet colors in it.   The purple spoke of His royalty.  He was King Of Kings and Lord of Lords.  Blue represents Heaven, He was Heaven's gift to men.  Scarlet was for the blood that would be shed on Calvary. He came to die.

     Have we been to the Holy of Holies to find grace to help in time of need?  Did we drop our burdens at the feet of Jesus and leave them there or did we pick them back up on the way out.  Take your burdens to the cross and leave them there.

The Brazen Altar had four sides to it.  One side offered  the sins we committed were passed away.  The next side was the sins of our old nature was made new.  If any man be in Christ the past is washed away and he becomes a new creation in Christ.  All things become new.

  II Cor.5:17 Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation old things are passed away; behold, all things become new.  Our wills are to exchanged for not my will but yours, when we come to Christ. 

Rom. 6:6  Knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin.

The third side of the altar is a picture of the hold of sin being broken off of us.  All things are to become new.  We have victory over the sins of the flesh.  Sin should not reign over us, but we should reign over sin.  Sin is to be put to death.  Our will's given over to His.

Fourth horn of the altar is a picture of us giving our lives to God.  We are not to live after the flesh that brings forth death, but to be transformed or made anew by the power of God inside of us.  Romans 6:10-12.  

   

  We come to the cross and He puts our sins away by His own blood.  When, we ask Him to come into our heart and be our Savior.  We die to sin and walk in a new way.  Every day we go back to the cross not to get forgiveness, but to lay our will on the cross and do His will. 

  

   The four corners or horns on the altar represents the world.  We are to do our part in winning a lost world to Jesus.  We start where we are with telling our neighbors, friends, classmates, or family about the blood of Jesus that takes away the sins of the world.  We must all come to the cross to be saved from God's wrath poured out on sin.

     

    Have we died to sin and come alive in Christ.  The flesh in us will drive people away from Christ.

God's presence in His people

     The purpose for the Tabernacle was for God's presence to dwell among them.  Our body is God's tabernacle today and He wants to dwell supreme in us.  "Let my people construct a sanctuary for Me, that I may dwell among them"  Ex. 25:8.  God wants us to yearn to know Him like David did.  For our hearts to pant after our wonderful Lord.  Where the deep in us calls to know the deep in God. 

    This life lived in harmony with God is a peaceful, powerful, and overcoming life that God intended for us to know.  We are to make an impact in the world in which we live.  The harassed, busy, stressful lives, we live reveals little of God to a lost world that is dying for lack of knowing Him.  I will open my mouth in parables, I will utter hidden things, things from of old.  When we open our mouths does it reveal God to them to whom we speak.

     God has made us with a desire to know Him and to worship.  Restlessness, tension,and fear takes the place of knowing Him.  So we are paying a high price for not knowing Him.

     Let's make it our priority to know Him.  The peace we often forfeit and the pain we bear, for not knowing Him and the resurrection power.  Only He can give us, when all is placed on the altar.  When Queen Esther was willing to lose her life if necessary to fit into God's plan for her.  She went to the King and the King said, I will give your request even to half of the kingdom.  Mordecai and Esther stood up for God and changed the course of History.  They sent out letters with the King's seal on them that Purim should be kept every year among the Jews.   They changed the word Pur, a day of mourning, the Jews would be killed.  To the word Purim a day of gladness, and great joy,  The Jews had light, and gladness, and joy, and honor.  God can do the same for us and our nation, if we will humble ourselves and pray.