Inspired Word September 17, 2008

INSPIRED WORD

September 17, 2008

SENSE / EXHORTATION

...when we were singing the opening song: “Better is One Day in Your Court”, I had this real strong sense that the Lord was saying to me, “Laura, if that is true for you, then you can't think of all the things that happened today, you can't think of the things that are happening this weekend, or next weekend. You have to put all of that busy activity aside because if it is ‘better one day in this house, than thousands elsewhere', than you have to live that way when you are in this house. Put your burdens down! Put your anxiety down! Put your worries down! Put your sorrows down while you are in here!” So lets praise the Lord in this house, be ministered to in this house, receive God's love in this house because better is one day here than thousands elsewhere.

SENSE / SCRIPTURE

Jesus showed me three healing Scriptures, but I will only pick one to read. I asked Jesus which one he wanted me to read and this is the one He placed on my heart. It is the one of Jesus healing the blind Bartimaeus. I feel that He wants me to say that Church is really a place for healing – during Mass in the celebration of the Eucharist; He is interceding for us with His hands up to the Father, for all of our needs, all of our healing needs. So now I will read Mark 10: 46: They came to Jericho , and as Jesus was leaving with His disciples and a large crowd, a blind beggar named Bartimaeus son of Timaeus was sitting by the road. When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout, “Jesus! Son of David! Have mercy on me!” Many of the people scolded him and told him to be quiet. But he shouted even more loudly, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.” So they called to the blind man, “Cheer up! Get up! He is calling you.” So he threw off his cloak, jumped up and came to Jesus. “What do you want Me to do for you?” Jesus asked him. “Teacher,” the blind man answered, “I want to see again.” “Go”, Jesus told him, “your faith has healed you.” At once he was able to see and followed Jesus on the road.

SCRIPTURE

Psalm 27: 6: At His tabernacle I will sacrifice with shouts of joy. I will sing and make music to the Lord.

SENSE / VISION

I sense that the Lord is saying to us that our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit. So we need to accept that and own that. Last week I had a vision, but I didn't say anything. But it is appropriate for tonight too. I was walking up a path into a high mountain valley and I got into this high mountain valley, the vegetation was rather withered and crumbled up. As these clouds were coming over the mountain, one of the white clouds came down over the mountain side. It covered this vegetation and as it covered this vegetation, the vegetation came to life. The Lord showed me that this vegetation was us, that He is renewing us, that He is touching us and that He is sending the Spirit upon us to come into us. We need to go and take that and accept it.

SENSE

...about the blind beggar, Bartimaeus. The good news of Jesus is the good news today, not just written in the Book, but here and now among us. As we hear that again, that is what God has been doing among us tonight. When the blind beggar heard that Jesus was coming, he began to shout and say, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” When we here ask, “Do you need prayer”, many people lifted up their hands. They were saying, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” Then we asked again for prayer, and more lifted up their hands, like Bartimaeus cried louder, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” Then the Scripture says that Jesus stood still and said, “Call him.” I believe that Jesus has walked among us and stood still and said, “Come, call him here.” And the people said to him, “Take heart, get up, He is calling you!” That is the word for us tonight, “Take heart, get up, Jesus is calling you!” What did the blind beggar do? He threw off his cloak, he jumped up and he came to Jesus. So many times when we are disheartened, we don't throw off our cloaks and jump up. But we want to be like that blind beggar and throw off our cloaks and jump up and come to Jesus Who is standing still. Then Jesus said to him, “What do you want Me to do for you?” And that very question Jesus asks each one of us tonight. “What do you want Me to do for you?'

SCRIPTURE

Isaiah 53: 4 – 6: Surely He took up His infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered Him stricken by God, smitten by Him, and afflicted. But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.

SCRIPTURE / SHARING

Psalm 104: 1- 3: I didn't know if I could get through it emotionally, but my Bible opened up to this. “Bless the Lord, O my soul. O Lord my God, You are very great. You are clothed with honor and majesty, wrapped in light as with a garment. You stretch out the heavens like a tent, You set the beams of Your chambers on the waters....” That doesn't necessarily relate to what I wanted to say, but that is where I felt that God was leading me. I wanted to praise God tonight because of the work that He is doing in my family. We have lost two amazing women this year in my family – my mother and my sister. As hard as that has been, it has been almost miraculous as to what the Lord is doing in next generation in my family. My sister died a couple of weeks ago. Her daughter Debra has been basically away from the Church for years and years and she has two children who have never been baptized, but through my sister's illness and death, she has come back to the Sacraments. My sister and my mother were both amazingly strong and faithful in how they lived. I can see that their examples have been bringing the younger generation back to Christ.

EXHORTATION

One of the things that has really struck me about the music and the Word tonight was how Jesus keeps saying, “Trust in Me!” Many people are confused as to whom they should believe in and what they should believe because of all the bad economic news that we are hearing. But we should be saying, “I trust in God, I trust in His will!” Another thing that came to me was how Bartimaeus was broken and abandoned his cloak. In Jewish tradition, that is your home. He abandoned his cloak, trusting in God before he was healed which is something we should all remember. Sometimes we have to walk in faith. We hear “Holy, holy, holy”, and in other songs we hear “holy” a lot tonight. I think that sometimes you have to be holy as in “holey” like Swiss Cheese. We have to open ourselves up and let ourselves be broken and emptied, so that God can make us whole by putting His Word and His Presence within us. So at that point, we become holy.

Top