Early in my Christian commitment, while attending a Wednesday night Bible study, I had the privilege of singing praises to my Father before the nights lesson began.  One of the songs we sang that night, I had only heard a couple of times, but it burned at my very soul like never before.  Instead of fumbling along thru the song, trying to learn the lyrics, I kept silent so I could listen to the words.  The first complete phrase I heard clearly was, “Is He calling me?”  The words almost sent me to my chair to bury my face in shame and cry out to God for forgiveness.  Praise God the next words in the song were an answer to my plea.  “I will rise up, rise up, and THEN I will bow down, and lay my crown at His wounded feet.”  These words quickly transported me to the cross where I stood among those who were crucifying Jesus.  My hands felt as though they were layered over the hands of the Roman centurions as they nailed Him to the cross. God’s Word reveals Jesus died for ALL past, present, and future sins.  I am convicted under future sins, but I am also covered, cleansed, and redeemed by Jesus’ blood.  I can only imagine that with every sin I fall prey to, Jesus is reminded of the pain at the cross, but He still invites me back, with open arms and forgiveness. 

Again, I ask myself, is He calling me?  This question brings the stirring deep within me to the surface and demands an answer.  How many times have you asked yourself, “Why am I here at this place, why did I leave my former life, and why me?” 

2 Timothy 1:8-14 Paul writes we are called and it is a holy calling.  Not because of what we’ve done, but because of what we are going to do for His Kingdom and what He has done for us.  Paul writes in verse 13 to keep pure, and keep sound the words which you have heard.  Who’s Words?  God’s Words!!! 

Dear friends we need to hold dear, mightily guard, intensely protect, and robustly defend the messages we learn from HIS WORD, not man’s word.  THEN take this knowledge to the lost, because we were called for such a task.  Don’t stop studying, praying for knowledge, and asking for wisdom regarding His Word, until you have a clear concise method of relating salvation to the rest of the world.  Really, all you need is your story.  We are called, called according to His purpose, His plan, His glory, and our good.  Consider rising to the calling.  Have you lost touch with the magnificent power of God’s Word?  Search your soul, bring to the surface the joy set before you, and rediscover the treasure of His love waiting for you in His story. Is there a stirring deep within you? 

There’s a stirring deep within me

Could it be my time has come?

Where I’ll see my gracious Savior face to face when all is done

Is that His voice I am hearing?”

Come away, my precious one”

Is He calling me? Is He calling me? 

I will rise up, rise up

Then I’ll bow down

And lay my crown

At His wounded feet

After reading Psalm 137 a few thoughts were laid on my heart. 
The psalmist speaks of an emptiness and a void due to separation, isolation, and being captive to those who carried them away.

They were asked by the foreigners to sing one of their songs of home.  I love their reply. “How can we when we are in a foreign land?”
This sparked within me the fact that our sin should develop or cause  a sense of separation from God. A small nagging fear that creates the necessity to repent and seek God in prayer asking for forgiveness and restoration.  Sinning should seem foreign to us instead of familiar. It should be distasteful and burdensome. We should not feel at home.
Then the captive go on to describe how this separation is working in their hearts…how it has brought to the forefront of their minds the love they have for the home they lost. With urgency and determination they vow to never forget their homes.  If they did forget, the music would no longer be available to them to play or sing.
We should always keep at the forefront of our hearts and minds that we have a home from which we never want to be in jeopardy of losing. A home we can reach, only through and because of, The One Who counts us as righteous,  cleansed, and redeemed. 
We would do well to apply the fear of physical atrocities and spiritual devastations should we ever forget the home we possess.  We need to visualize a clear picture of this promised home we want to dwell in. 

I have no desire to live in a foreign land with foreign people and a foreign god.

You can’t sing there.

For some reason, the purpose of “doors” has taken on a broader meaning and spectrum lately. We all know doors are important.  Our homes, cars, offices, and even our tents or campers have doors.  Some have labels like Enter, Exit, Women, Men, and Private.  We use them everyday to enter familiar and unfamiliar places.  We also use them to keep people out, hide behind, ensure safety, and close chapters of our lives.

For those who have battled their way past the sins that separated them from Christ, find immense relief when closing a door that holds agonizing pain, strife, and consequences that are exhausting to live with. This one staggering triumph is exhilarating, humbling, and a freedom that is unexplainable.  That’s what Jesus does for those who are willing and brave enough to shut a few doors!!!! His forgiveness is a path that leads you away from shut doors. His mercy and grace give light to a darkened doorway.  His blood washes ALL the shame, guilt, and iniquities that live behind the shut doors. 

It can be a long hard fight to close doors that are harmful, dangerous, and full of pain.  These doors are harmful to the new life they have chosen with Christ Jesus, dangerous to their faith building, and reminders of the pain that Satan is and will continue to use to win them back.  People, who have closed doors, did it for a reason.  The behaviors, memories, and temptations behind the closed doors pose a threat to their new life in Jesus.

Here is my plea.  You may be aware of the past behind those doors, but that doesn’t give you the right or the authority to unlock what Jesus has locked up.  His blood covered all their sins the same way it covered and still covers yours today.  Jesus can and will transform the unlikeliest of all people, because He has the POWER and AUTHORITY to do so.  Peter was given the keys to the kingdom to lock up the old and unlock the new, no other. Matthew 16:19.  We too, need to lock up the old man and to put on the new every day. 

Let’s all be door openers!!  Luke 12:36, Gods Word says, “Be like men who are waiting for their master when he returns from the wedding feast, so that they may immediately open the door to him when he comes and knocks.”  Give others doors to knock on. Announce doors of opportunity and salvation, and invite others in!!  John 10:1-3 Be the doorkeeper who is able to open the door with love for the sheep.  Colossians 4:3 Be intentional for an open door to share the amazing news of Jesus Christ and His righteousness.  Acts 14:27 Be ready to report how God opened a door of faith to an unbeliever. A safe and welcoming open door is for some, a dream come true.

When my oldest daughter was about 6 years old, she wanted to play soccer. When we arrived to her first game, the soccer fields they were soaked and had a prominent amount of mud all over them.  The referee determined the field was playable.  While waiting for the decision, the team was playing in the wonderful mud. Out came the wet wipes and the moms started clean up duty with all the team players including my precious daughter who had entirely covered her hands in mud.

After the game begins, it couldn’t have been 7 to 10 minutes and my daughter was knocked down into the mud!!  She stood up, looked at her mud covered hands, let out a wail, which turned into sobbing, ran off the field to the sideline in the middle of the play and was mortified because of the mud on her hands.  I was bewildered. Now, mud is a bad thing.  I cleaned her up and tried to send her back out, but she was not in favor of returning.  Being the mom I was, I wouldn’t let her quit.  She played the rest of the game, periodically looking over at me with the “unfair face” and avoided all the muddy areas on the field.

After speaking to a dear friend of mine recently, I was reminded that life can and will get muddy.  I’ve had some recent mud encounters.  I found myself wordless before God.  I asked Him to listen to my heart, because I was blinded by the mud.  I struggled to know if He could see me through the mud.  Did He still recognize me?  He did.  My Father picked me up, washed me off ever so gently, allowed me to run to the sideline and momentarily sit on the bench, and then lovingly reminded me of whom I am to Him and gently put me back in the game.  This led me back to Isaiah 43.

God’s people struggled with mud repeatedly.  In chapter 42 Isaiah reminds Israel they are in the mud.  They are living in it, breathing it, eating it, and blinded by it.  Then God washes them off and brings them back to His side in chapter 43.  Verse 1 “But now, thus says Jehovah Who created you, O Jacob, and who formed you, O Israel: Do not fear, because I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; you are Mine!!”

If that is not enough, read the rest of the chapter, it is just as invigorating and inspiring. Jehovah won’t let us drown in the mud. He won’t let the flames or fire of the devil burn or even scorch us.  We are precious in His eyes and He loves us.  He will bring us back from any direction we have been dragged to.  He is our only Savior; there is no other besides the Almighty God.  He wipes away our mud for His own sake and chooses not to remember the dirty mess He cleaned up.  What an AWESOME God!!!

Like my daughter, most people have experienced being muddy and wear the “not fair face”.  No matter the reason for the mud experience, the remedy was and is the same.  It gets washed off.  God is our Precious Father Who is willing and waiting to clean off all our mud, redeeming us for His own.  You can’t get cleaner than that.

In Matthew, chapter 11, in verses 28-30 Jesus is speaking and He says, “Come to Me all who toil and are burdened, and I will give you rest.  Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

Yokes are designed to bring two together to act as one.  When a farmer places a yoke on his oxen in order to prepare his field for planting, he brings two individual beasts together to act as one mind.  The oxen do not naturally, or by nature, come to the master and asked to be yoked.  They are led to the yoke.

After researching the concept of the early yoke and oxen process, it was very interesting to note the farmer usually had at least one seasoned ox who would be the trainer for the younger ox.  The yokes were uniquely designed and created for the ox that was to be yoked.  No two oxen ever wore the same yoke.  The yoke had to be designed with a particular ox in mind or the coupling would never work and the yoke would cause huge sores on the ox wearing them.  When the young ox won’t allow themselves to be yoked, these same horrendous sores develop on the area where the yoke should fit.  The sores can grow to the size of a dinner plate.   The young ox would be half in and half out of the yoke, but never completely under allowing the seasoned ox to guide  them.  If the young ox goes on long enough without allowing the yoke to fit, then the ox is of no use to the farmer and sent off for slaughter.

We too are called to come along side of Jesus and be yoked with Him.  His yoke is perfect for us. We learn from Him when we humble ourselves to the yoke He willingly allows us to wear with Him.  This yoke of His is our strength and guidance. Jesus’ yoke teaches you to stay by His side.  His yoke teaches you to mimic His steps. Jesus’ yoke allows you to learn all about Him and be transformed into His image. His rest does not come outside the yoke. Only within His yoke can you find the rest He promises. 

Even more interesting are the Greek words Jesus chose in Matthew to describe His yoke.  In the Greek, yoke is translated, the beam of the balance.  We are only balanced when we are completely yoked to Jesus, not half in or half out, but completely humble to His yoke.  The toil and burden Jesus speaks of is a feeling of fatigue.  The heavy laden Jesus stated is a spiritual anxiety.  When Jesus says He is meek it is a humbling of oneself to the yoke.  Jesus humbles Himself to the yoke He yearns to share with you. The lowly is a humiliation in the heart.  It takes a measure of humility to allow yourself to be vulnerable and obedient in the yoke. When Jesus uses the word rest, in this passage, it is an intermission.  We all need to pause in between the burdens we are called to bear while in the flesh. Jesus says this will happen in our souls.  In the Greek, this use of soul is our breath or our spirit. Jesus allows us to catch our breath, refresh and go forward. Finally, Jesus states His beam of balance is useful to us and easy for Him. The yoke is not for Jesus, but for us.

We all have experienced the sores on our back from resisting the yoke designed by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Our yokes are uniquely designed for each one of us, so we can mimic Jesus, so we can walk His way, follow His guidance, and find HIs rest, strength, and joy as we serve Him His way.  Jesus said, “Take MY yoke…”  We need to remember who the yoke belongs to and submit all that we are, to His yoke, so we can know the rest He promises.