“A tree . . . The cross is a tree.”
“There’s a reason for that,” he said. “The cross is the second tree. Through the first tree, sin begins. Through the second tree, sin ends. Through the first tree man fell.”
“And through the second tree,” I said, “man rises.”
“Through a living tree came death.”
“And through a dead tree,” I said, “comes life.”
“In the partaking of the first tree, we die.”
“And in the partaking of the second tree, we come alive.”
“And as God placed the first tree in the center of the garden, so He has placed the second tree in the center of history, the center of this world, so that all can partake of it and find life. And the more you partake of this tree . . . the more alive you will become.”
The Mission: The second tree must be the center. Make it the center of your life and center everything else around it. Partake and live of its fruit.
Genesis 2:16–17; Galatians 3:13
The Tree
DAY 73
THE TWO WATERS
THE PROMISED LAND has two seas,” said the teacher. “One is called the Kin-neret, or the Sea of Galilee. The Sea of Galilee receives its water on its northern end from the inflow of the Jordan River. On its other end is its outflow. There it becomes again the Jordan River flowing southward.”
“And the other sea?”
“The other is called the Sea of Salt, or the Sea of Death.”
“The Dead Sea.”
“Yes,” he said. “It’s called the Dead Sea because virtually nothing can live there. There’s no fish and no vegetation. Its salt and minerals prevent life from growing.”
“And where does the Dead Sea get its water from?” I asked.
“From the Jordan River and the Sea of Galilee.”
“So it’s the same water.”
“Yes,” he said.
“Then why is it dead?” I asked.
“The difference is that the Dead Sea only has one opening to the north where it receives water from Jordan. But it has no outlet. The water only pours in . . . and becomes dead. But the water of the Galilee is alive, freshwater filled with fish. And yet the very same water flows between the two. So how can the same water produce life in one place and death in the other?”
“Because of the outlets,” I answered.
“That’s right,” said the teacher. “But why?”
“I don’t know. I was only guessing.”
“The Sea of Galilee is always giving what it receives. It’s always flowing. But the Dead Sea only receives and never gives. So the life that gives of what it receives, the life that always blesses others, that life is the Sea of Galilee. Its waters are always fresh. It’s always filled with life. But the life that only takes and doesn’t give, that life becomes dead and barren . . . and all with the same waters. You see,” said the teacher, “it’s not what you have in this life, how much or how little, that, in the end, will matter. It’s what you do with what you have. If you only take, the waters become dead and your life becomes the Dead Sea. But if you give, then the waters become alive and your life becomes . . . the Sea of Galilee.”
The Mission: Live this day after the pattern of the Sea of Galilee, always receiving and always giving. Live to be a blessing in the flowing of His love.
Proverbs 11:24; Matthew 10:8; Luke 6:38; 2 Corinthians 9:6–11
The Waters of Zion
DAY 74
THE POEM OF GOD
THE TEACHER WAS sitting on a rock by the campfire. I was sitting on another to his right. He was reciting the words of a poem in a language I didn’t recognize. The words didn’t rhyme, but I could tell it was a poem by its structure, its rhythm and flow, and by the way he was reciting it.
“You know it’s a poem,” he said.
“Yes.”
“What is a poem?” he asked. “How would you define it?”
“I would say it’s a piece of writing that has a rhythm to it, that flows like a song without music.”
“Have you ever heard of the Poem of God?”
“No,” I replied. “I’ve never heard of it. I didn’t know He wrote poetry.”
“Not exactly,” he said, “but there is a Poem of God.”
“What is it?”
“It is written in the Scriptures, ‘We are His workmanship . . . ’”
“I don’t see it.”
“You wouldn’t in English,” he said. “But in the original Greek it says we are His poiema, which means that which is made, something fashioned, crafted together, someone’s workmanship, as in a masterpiece.”
“And the connection to poetry?”
“From poiema comes the word poem.”
“Then the Poem of God is . . . ”
“You.”
“Me?”
“If you become His work. You see, you can either live trying to make your life your own work, or you can let your life become His workmanship. A poem can’t write itself or lead itself. It must be written and led by its author. It must flow from its author’s heart. So to become the Poem of God, you let your life emanate from the Author of your life. You let it flow out of the heart of God. You follow His will above your own, and His plan above your own. You let His Spirit move you and His love become the impulse of all you do. Then your life will flow as it was meant to flow, with rhyme and beauty, and you’ll become His masterwork . . . the Poem of God.”
The Mission: Let your life this day be led and written by God. Move at the impulse of the Author and in His flow. Live as the Poem of God.
Isaiah 43:1; Jeremiah 29:11; Ephesians 2:10
The Poem of God
DAY 75
EEM-ANU-EL
I’M GOING TO teach you how to speak Hebrew,” said the teacher, “or at least one sentence.”
“I’m ready.”
“The Hebrew word for with is eem. And the word for us is anu.”
“Eem . . . anu,” I said.
“And the word for God is El.”
“El.”
“So how would you say ‘With us is God’?” he asked.
“Eem . . . anu . . . El.”
“Say it again.”
“Eem . . . anu . . . El. Eem anu El . . . Immanuel!”
“Yes, Immanuel. So Isaiah prophesied of Messiah, ‘A virgin shall conceive and give birth to a child and shall call Him Immanuel.’”
“The Name of Messiah.”
“And more than a name. In Hebrew, it’s a sentence. It’s a declaration, a reality. It’s the reality of Messiah. His very life on earth was this Hebrew sentence, a declaration in Hebrew—eem anu El.”
“How was His life a sentence?” I asked.
“When He was sorrowful. Who was it who was sorrowful?”
“Immanuel.”
“It was Immanuel in sorrow,” said the teacher, “Eem anu El in sorrow. It forms a sentence: ‘God is with us in sorrow.’ And when He was in the boat on the Sea of Galilee in the midst of the storm, it was Immanuel in the storm. Eem anu El in the storm. It forms another sentence: ‘God is with us in the storm.’ And when He was despised and rejected of men, it was eem anu El in rejection.”
“God is with us in rejection,” I replied.
“When He hung on the cross in judgment, it was eem anu El in judgment.”
“God is with us in judgment.”
“And when He ascended to heaven, where He is, it is eem anu El forever.”
“God is with us forever.”
“Immanuel came into the world and to every circumstance of life, so that we could say, ‘At all times, in all places, in every circumstance . . . eem anu El, God is with us . . . always.’”
The Mission: Today, practice the Hebrew of His name. In every circumstance speak and fathom the reality of eem anu El—God is with you, always.
Isaiah 7:14; Matthew 1:21–25; Luke 8:22–25
Immanuel I-II
DAY 76
BEYOND THE SPEED OF LIGHT
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br /> IT WAS NIGHT. The moon was full. The teacher had led me to the edge of a great desert canyon, in the middle of which was a dried-up riverbed. One could see what was in the canyon by the light of the moon.
“Shout,” he said. “Shout into the canyon. Shout anything you want.”
So I turned to the canyon and at the top of my lungs shouted, “I’m shouting into a canyon!”
The words echoed against the distant rocks.
“Notice the delay,” said the teacher. “Why is there a delay?”
“Because it’s echoing against the walls of the canyon.”
“Because,” he said, “it takes time. It takes time for the sound of your voice to travel to the walls of the canyon. And not just what you hear with your ears, but what you see with your eyes.”
“What do you mean?”
“Look up into the sky. Can you see the stars?”
“Of course.”
“Not really,” he replied. “It takes years and years for the light to reach your eyes. You’re not seeing what is, but what was. You’re seeing what was years ago. You’re seeing the past.”
“But when I look at things on earth, I see the present.”
“No,” he said, “you don’t. Look at the canyon. What you’re seeing is its light. The light takes time to reach your eyes. Even if an instant, it takes time. So you never see what is, only what was. The moment you see it, it’s already past. You only see the past, what was, never what is.”
“But then you can never see the Truth?”
“Not with your eyes,” he said. “It’s beyond sound and light.”
“Then how?”
“The only way to see the Truth, then, is to see without sight . . . to see by faith . . . to perceive that which is beyond perception, to know beyond sensing. For that which is seen is passing away, but that which is unseen is forever . . . Live by faith and, by faith alone, you will see the Real.”
The Mission: Live today not by what you see, but beyond your seeing, beyond your hearing, and beyond your sensing. Live by the unseen—by faith.
Habakkuk 2:2–4; 2 Corinthians 4:18; 5:7
The Celebration of Light
DAY 77
THE PRIESTS OF THE OFFERING
TEACHER,” I SAID, “I have a question. If the death of Messiah was ordained by God, an event of the highest holiness, why did it happen through such unholy means?”
“How do you know that the means weren’t holy?” he asked.
“It happened through evil men, through bribery, treachery, brutality, and murder . . . evil.”
“In ancient Israel, who were the ones ordained by God to offer up the sacrifices?” he asked.
“The priesthood,” I said, “the sons of Aaron.”
“And who were the key people involved in delivering Messiah to his death?”
“The Sanhedrin.”
“Led by the high priest and including chief priests of the Temple, the sons of Aaron, the same ones ordained by God to offer up the sacrifices. Why were they so obsessed with Messiah? They were the priests and He was the Lamb, the sacrifice. So they were the ones to initiate His death. That was their ministry and calling. Only they could deliver the Lamb of God to His death. That’s why they conspired and arrested Him and handed Him over to the Romans to be crucified. It was their ministry to offer up the sacrifice.”
“So they killed him because they were the priests and He was the sacrifice?”
“Not because they knew it, but nevertheless, because they were the ones ordained to do so. And beyond the Sanhedrin, it was the high priest who, alone, was ordained to offer up the most holy sacrifice, the atonement by which the nation’s sins were forgiven. And who was it that presided over the Sanhedrin and was more than anyone else responsible for delivering Messiah to his death? The high priest. His intention was murder. Yet he was the one appointed in the Law to offer up the sacrifice. Messiah was the sacrifice. So it was the high priest who had to offer Him up.”
“But they were evil,” I said, “and their motives and actions were corrupt.”
“And yet through their actions came salvation,” he said. “The world is filled with evil, with the imperfect, and the wrong. But God causes all of these things, the wrong, the imperfect, and the evil, to work together for the good, the holy, and the perfect . . . in this world and in your life. The tears, the crises, the heartbreaks, the evil, and all the wrong will, in the end, become the priests of the offering, to fulfill the sacred purposes and blessings God has ordained for your life.”
The Mission: What or who in this world is against you or working for evil? Commit it to God. And give thanks beforehand that He will turn it for good.
Leviticus 16; Matthew 20:18; Romans 8:28
The Good Friday Sacrifice Mysteries
DAY 78
SHEPHERDLESSNESS
WE WERE SITTING on a hill, watching a shepherd tend his flock.
“The shepherd is their provider,” said the teacher, “their leader and their protection from predators. But what if the shepherd was struck down? Or what if the sheep departed from the shepherd? What would happen?”
“The flock would be scattered. They would wander the wilderness with no protection. They would be attacked, devoured.”
“What people’s history, more than any other, is the manifestation of that phenomenon, that very picture—a flock that was once together, then scattered throughout the world as sheep without their shepherd, wandering the earth with no one to protect them, attacked by their predators, wounded, and ravaged? What people more than any other have dwelt on this planet as a shepherdless flock?”
“The children of Israel . . . the Jewish people . . . more than any other.”
“And do you know which people of all peoples are called in Scripture the flock of God? The Jewish people. And yet for two thousand years they’ve borne all the signs of a scattered flock, separated from its shepherd. So if they are the shepherdless, then who is the missing shepherd of whom their wanderings and shepherdlessness bear witness?”
“The Messiah, the protector of Israel, Yeshua . . . Jesus.”
“And who is it that said to them, ‘I am the Good Shepherd’? And who is it that happens to be the same One who was struck down in their midst, and from whom they have been separated? And how long have they been separated from Him? Two thousand years. And how long has it been that they’ve wandered the earth and borne the signs of shepherdlessness? The same two thousand years. And so it is written in the Hebrew Prophets: ‘Strike the shepherd and the sheep will be scattered.’ It is because He is the true Shepherd, their protection, their defense, their provider, and their keeper, the Messiah. And so it is for all of us; if we live without Him we end up wandering this life, lost, unprotected, and without hope, and bear the signs of shepherdlessness. But it is foretold that in the end the people of Israel will return to their Shepherd, and He will bind up their brokenness, heal their wounds, and keep them as a shepherd keeps his flock. And so it will be for each of us, for each wandering sheep that returns. It will be gathered in the Shepherd’s arms.”
The Mission: Cease from all straying. Draw near to your Shepherd. Be fed from His hands. Rest in the protection and the tender love of His arms.
Isaiah 40:11; Ezekiel 34:5–16; Zechariah 13:7; John 10:11–16
Strike the Shepherd
DAY 79
THE AKEDAH MYSTERY
HAVE YOU EVER heard of the akedah?” asked the teacher. “It’s the offering up of Isaac by his father, Abraham.”
“I’ve heard of it,” I said, “but I never understood why it happened.”
“It was a test,” he said, “but also a mystery. At the end of the test God sealed His covenant with Abraham. In such a covenant, each party had to be willing to do what the other was willing to do. Now let’s open up the mystery. Abraham was willing to offer up his son as a sacrifice. Therefore . . . ”
“Therefore, God,” I replied, “would have to be willing to offer up His Son . . . as a sa
crifice.”
“The father brings his son on a donkey,” said the teacher, “to the land of the sacrifice.”
“So then God would bring His Son on a donkey to the land of the sacrifice . . . Palm Sunday . . . Messiah is brought on a donkey to the place of the sacrifice.”
“The father places the wood of the sacrifice on his son’s shoulder . . . ”
“God would place the wood of the sacrifice, the cross, on Messiah’s shoulders.”
“The son carries the wood up the mountain to the place of the sacrifice . . . ”
“Messiah carries the wood to the place of the sacrifice.”
“The father lays his son upon the wood and binds him to it.”
“The Messiah is laid on the wood of the cross and bound to it.”
“The father lifts up the knife of sacrifice but is stopped . . . ”
“And so the knife, the judgment of God is lifted up . . . but is not stopped. Messiah is killed on the wood of the sacrifice.”
“Do you know what appears in this account for the first time in all of Scripture?”
“No.”
“The word love. The first love in the Bible is from this account, the love of the father for the son . . . just as the first love in existence was that of the Father for the Son. And yet the Father was willing to offer up the Son of His love, to save us. And what does that reveal? If God offered up the Son of His love to save you, then He must love you with the same love with which He loved the Son. As it is written, ‘God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.’ So you don’t ever have to wonder how much God loves you. The sign is already there on the wood of the sacrifice . . . As much as He loves His only begotten Son . . . the greatest love in all existence . . . that’s how much He loves you.”
The Mission: Today, ponder the price of love that was paid for you, and live your life likewise as a sacrifice of love to Him.
The Book of Mysteries Page 12
