Garden of Gethsemane.....has come from the Gospels in its Greek form.......but it comes from a word in the language Jesus spoke on a daily basis...."Aramaic." It means.......(olive), "oil-press."
This tree was the oldest living tree located in the "Traditional," side of Gethsemane.......every crack and crevice of this gnarled trunk showed the marks of Jerusalem's history........................
The dome of the Rock........and the Golden Gate................framed by Olive trees at Dominus Flevit....a chapel marking the site where Jesus wept over Jerusalem......(Luke 19:41)What will Jesus weep over when He returns? A people that are luke warm? half hearted? in their walk.....what will He see when He returns? A people who are being ensnared by the Babylonian culture?
As Julian of Norwich stated; "the highest form of prayer is to the goodness of God......"
God's desire is to find us....clinging......clinging to His goodness...........
As I cried out to God during my prayer time telling him all about me.....me....me.....the one who begs for the easy.....telling him how I live in Babylon....how I am not secluded out the middle of the no-where, away from all the intoxicating things of this world............how I live right smack in the middle of Babylon.......a metropolitan city..........one who has it's claws wrapped around my children and me..........one who's grip is so strong and won't let go of my family...................with no escape or exit in site......the woman- children who are in massive public schools.....................there's no home schooling here............there is no reading of the bible before and after meals..................we can barely sit together once a week for a meal.....there is the husband whose time clock is so different......stays up way to late into the night.............me who hates to cook the dinner...........kids coming and going...........the front door more like a revolving door...............the friends who all have their license and can drive to the anywhere at anytime..........the different parenting styles.......................the instant gratification life-style......................and God so gently whispers deep into my soul;
But Daniel resolved...................and he CHOSE not to defile himself with the things of Babylon.............
Wow...........how true that is.............he didn't have a choice either, he had to live in Babylon........but he did have a choice to partake of things of this world.........truth ringing in the ears today..............
I have seen someone who has attracted the grace of the Lord.......only one.........now I want it.....................never know if I will see it.............but Daniel did..........he simply resolved........................he who protected himself from the being.............the ensnaring kind.........the temptations.....he who protected himself from the ensnaring temptations of the Babylonian culture........he CHOSE to use their diet as a way of retaining their identity as Jewish exiles and avoided complete saturation in a Babylonian culture.................(which was the king's goal)....just as it is Satan's goal for you and me today.....................what am I doing to RESOLVE? What are we doing to avoid keeping ourselves from becoming saturated in this Babylonian Culture we live in?
Trying to stop the blending................the blending in.......to a culture that will leave us empty.................
all of grace,
Robbie
