Matthew 11:28 Come unto Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.
Vs 29 Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart; and you shall find rest for your souls.
Vs 30 For My yoke is easy, and My load is light.
Here's another place Jesus calls us to come to Him. Here is another place that He reveals His nature. In Exodus God refers to Himself as gracious, compassionate, etc. Here, Jesus shows us that he is gentle and humble in heart. And He has the gift of 'rest' for us. Just being near Him and learning from Him in His presence will give us rest.
He knows that this world makes us tired and loads us up with burdens too heavy to bear. He knows this. He sees it. He wants to make things better for us. He calls us to Himself with promises of rest. With promises that His yoke is easy and His load is light.
Some professing to be leaders in Christianity tie up heavy burdens onto people. But they are a false leadership. They do not reflect the nature of Jesus. This is why we must press past those who 'shut off the kingdom of heaven from (in front of) men' (Mt 23:13) and find Him for ourselves. He has so much to give to our weary souls.
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4 comments:
Have something for you, found it while looking for quotes, its a awesome blog by awesome woman,
she has mini-blogs to the side as well [short reads], I gather that she was working in ministry and was fired because of being a woman. Anyway, her blogs are very inspiring, this one is Egalitarian Eve,
http://egalitarianeve.blogspot.com/
You have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
Love,
Jane
"Some professing to be leaders in Christianity tie up heavy burdens onto people. But they are a false leadership. They do not reflect the nature of Jesus."
Thanks, Mara, I needed this today. Even though I have already shed the heavy burden the collective church tied onto me, the effects still show up in the behavior of church folk. The subtle, (and sometimes not so subtle) behavior of church folk toward women who escaped their abusers, continually punishes them. In far too many churches divorced women are held at arms length, or even driven out. Yet, Jesus offered nothing but compassion for the woman caught in adultery, for the Samaritan woman who'd had multiple marriages, for the woman who washed His feet with her tears.
Andrew Greeley in his book, "Jesus" points out how odd it was that Mary walked in on a private dinner and made a specticle of herself by washing Jesus' feet with her tears and drying them with her hair. He points out that she wouldn't have done it to any other person. She did it to Jesus because she knew of His compassion, and because she knew He was safe.
He is still "Safe" for us today. We don't have to be concerned about what others will say or think. Jesus does not condemn us, we can be ourselves with Him.
Indeed, why bother trying to gain the approval of the scribes and pharisees of our day? They will only twist everything we do or say into something evil anyway.
It is so comforting to know that Jesus gives us rest. We do not need to be the slaves of men--not even of our husbands. Jesus' yoke is easy and His burden is light, and He is my husband.
~Waneta Dawn
Thanks for the encouragement. (Thank you, Jane, and Gem!)
Focusing on the upward call of God to the Beloved in SOS 2 has made me remember the verses to that effect that I used to meditate on BEFORE I started the SOS journey.
And I have a lot more scriptures to share that have been an encouragement to me. I'm glad I'm not the only one getting anything out of this.
It's a wonder that some focus soooo much on the verses to put women down and give them turmoil when there are many, many, many more that call all the children of God, including His daughters, upward and give us freedom and peace.
(And Hannah!!! Thanks!)
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