Go To Where There Is No Lasting City

[S] Hebrews 13:13-14 --
 ¹³So, let us go out to Him outside the camp, bearing His reproach. ¹⁴For here we do not have a lasting city, but we are seeking the city which is to come.

[O] Just like the Mosaic times of giving sacrifices to God (vv. 11-12) the animals used as offering for sin are burned outside the city gate, Jesus suffered outside the gate as well symbolizing that He was our sin offering.  Denying myself to follow Christ is to go outside the gate myself to a place of outcast where Jesus was crushed selflessly.  It is not a place of establishment of a lasting city but a place where God will establish His city in the future for eternity on that foundation.  If you ever looked at the construction site preparing to build a large building, it's a mess with all kinds of equipments and foundational materials digging away into the dirt.  But once that process is over and then the actual construction of the structure takes place, before we know it an awesome building will take place on top of that messy place of nothing but dirt.  That's what I envision here because in the desolate and "messy" scene of the crucified Christ outside the gate is only a temporary and yet necessary foundation for the lasting city to come.

[A] How am I going to join the crucified Christ outside the gate rather than staying inside the comfortable city?  For me, it's about dying to myself more by smoothing out the rough edges of "pride" that sticks out, at times even without my awareness, through interactions with people close to me.  This time it was feeling self-righteous or self-justifiable caused me to pride over others.

[P] Dear Father, why is that I keep failing to follow the footsteps of Jesus' humility outside the gate?  More I reflect, more I am so awed by Christ's complete humility (when He didn't have to at all).  Please grant me just a fraction of that humility to rule my life.  Lead me to that desolate place where there isn't anything so that I will witness Your everlasting city establish itself there to live in there forever.  In Jesus' name.  Amen.

When I Feel All Alone Taking All the Beating

[S] Romans 11:4-5 --
 ⁴But what is the divine response to him? "I HAVE KEPT for Myself SEVEN THOUSAND MEN WHO HAVE NOT BOWED THE KNEE TO BAAL."  ⁵In the same way then, there has also come to be at the present time a remnant according to God's gracious choice.

[O] God responded to Isaiah's question (almost a complaint out of fear) of why he is left all alone as a fugitive.  Isaiah just didn't realize the bigger plan God had of preserving His people according to His grace.  Even though he could not see himself, Isaiah was reminded that there are 7k other men who have sustained their obedience to God despite the oppositions prevalent in that society.  God not only knows where he was but also did not leave him alone to carry on the bigger task of God by also preserving more men.  This begs the question of how will they network and find each other without having facebook.com but even there, God is bigger than facebook.com!

[A] I am going to lift up my pastor because at times being in the frontline receiving all the beating may make him feel like Isaiah.  I want to lift him up so he will be uplifted from God's provision of fulfilling His purpose by sending more men with the same heart and spirit.

[P] Dear Father, please let my pastor be soaked up by Your uplifting message of strength through other men sharing the same vision and purpose.  Please allow him to be protected from all the spiritual attacks and may his heart be filled with the hope that comes from You.  In Jesus' name.  Amen.