breathing room for my soul

Friday, April 10, 2020

Good Friday - Ransom - Lent 2020

Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name. Hebrews 13:15 During this season of reflection and renewal (Lent February 26 - April 12), join me as we examine what "sacrifice of praise" means and how this should and can be our offering to God. What is your sacrifice of praise? – dho

Good Friday
Then the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. So when the centurion, who stood opposite Him, saw that He cried out like this and breathed His last, he said, "Truly the Man was the Son of God!"
Mark 15:38 NKJV

Today we must look to the cross of suffering that Jesus endured as a ransom for our sin. Until that day, the Jewish people, the Chosen of God, worshiped Jehovah with blood sacrifices and burnt offerings. At the time Jesus breathed His last breath and died, the High Priest sacrificed the unblemished lamb, preparing the sin offering of Passover. Only the High Priest could enter the Holy of Holies to place the blood offering on the Mercy seat for forgiveness of sins.

On this day, when Jesus died, the curtain of the Holy of Holies was torn from top to bottom. The Scriptures do not say what happened to the High Priest or the blood of the slain Passover lamb. We are not told the thoughts of the High Priest who witnessed the torn curtain that represented a veil between sinful man and the Holy God. Until this moment in history, the High Priest would have taken the blood sacrifice into the Holy of Holies as an offering for the forgiveness of sins for God's people every year at Passover, but now, the altar of the Lord was exposed.

These historic religious customs tell the God-story of Jesus, a Perfect Lamb slain for the forgiveness of sin. The once veiled Holy of Holies, the Presence of God, is now revealed. To all who seek a relationship with God, Grace is given through Jesus, the True High Priest. What remains? Our confession, "Truly the Man [is] the Son of God!"

Our sacrifice of praise ~
Who will you share the God-story of Jesus with today? ~dho

Thursday, April 09, 2020

Maundy Thursday - Betrayal - Lent 2020

Maundy Thursday services celebrate the giving of the Lord's Supper to the Disciples of Jesus, but the evening of fellowship and teaching and prayer ends in betrayal. As Jesus prays in the Garden of Gethsemane, Judas, one of the twelve disciples, leads the arresting soldiers to Him. He identifies Jesus with a kiss ~ a kiss of betrayal. Perhaps the ultimate betrayal always comes from someone close to our inner circle. Not much different from Judas, we too betray Jesus, with our pride, our apathy, our selfishness, our busyness.

And immediately, while He was still speaking, Judas came, one of the twelve, and with him a crowd with swords and clubs, from the chief priests and the scribes and the elders. Now the betrayer had given them a sign, saying, "The one I will kiss is the man. Seize Him and lead Him away under guard."

And when he came, he went up to Him at once and said, "Rabbi!" And he kissed Him. And they laid hands on him and seized Him.
Mark 14:43-46 ESV

Our sacrifice of praise ~
Let your tears of betrayal celebrate the Bread and the Wine ~ like Oswald Chambers wrote many, many times, "Be the broken bread and poured out wine." ~dho

Wednesday, April 01, 2020

Vision - Lent 2020

Then they came to Jericho. And as He was leaving Jericho with His disciples and a large crowd, a blind beggar named Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, was sitting by the road. When he heard that it was Jesus the Nazarene, he began to cry out and say, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!" Many were sternly telling him to be quiet, but he kept crying out all the more, "Son of David, have mercy on me!" And Jesus stopped and said, "Call him here." So they called the blind man, saying to him, "Take courage, stand up! He is calling for you." Throwing aside his cloak, he jumped up and came to Jesus. And answering him, Jesus said, "What do you want Me to do for you?" And the blind man said to Him, "Rabboni, I want to regain my sight!" And Jesus said to him, "Go; your faith has made you well." Immediately he regained his sight and began following Him on the road. Mark 10:46-52 NASB

Jesus is always calling to us; He desires that we have a relationship with Him. I wonder how many of us are really like this blind man? Do we desire the mercy that Jesus offers? Is our faith truly evident? And maybe most of all, I wonder, do we really KNOW what we want from Jesus? And, if we know, do we boldly ask? When Jesus answers us, do we respond like this man with new vision?

Our sacrifice of praise ~

Ask Jesus for new vision ~ and follow Him on the road! ~dho

Wednesday, March 25, 2020

Relationship - Lent 2020

In Oswald Chamber's My Utmost for His Highest, these words describe our failure to truly worship and offer prayers to God: Worship and intercession must go together, the one is impossible without the other. Intercession means that we rouse ourselves up to get the mind of Christ about the one for whom we pray. Too often . . . . we [pray] in dispute with God - "I don't see how You are going to do it." This is a sure sign we are not worshiping. . . We hurl our own petitions at God's throne and dictate to Him as to what we wish Him to do. We do not worship God, nor do we seek to form the mind of Christ.

It is true that we often "tell" God what we want. Praying with an open and humble heart that desires God's purposes is not easy. When we "tell" God what we expect Him to do, we do not demonstrate a relationship with Him that is built on faith and love. We must seek to know the mind of Christ. And they sang responsively, praising and giving thanks to the LORD. Ezra 3:11 ESV

Our sacrifice of praise ~
Spend time building a true relationship with God. This is His delight. ~dho

Wednesday, March 18, 2020

Rescued - Lent 2020

He will redeem my soul in peace from the battle which is against me...
Psalm 55:18 NASB
As long as we live in this world, Satan will battle for our souls, battle for our attention. He seeks to destroy and distract; he desires to interrupt our focus on God. Satan interferes as often as possible. There is comfort and security in knowing that God will always offer peace to our seeking souls.
God rescues us in the battles that surround our daily life, sending angels to defend and protect. In the heavenly realms, constant battles between darkness and light, between God's angels and Satan's angel-followers rage. And us - as Believers and disciples of Christ, we stand redeemed and find peace even in the middle of the chaos.
The Message uses these words: My life is well and whole, secure in the middle of danger. (Ps.55:18)
Our sacrifice of praise ~
God-of-the-Angel-Armies sends peace ~ it comes on
angel-wings. LISTEN! ~dho

All rights reserved, copyright Donna Oswalt 2020 BreathingRoomForMySoul.com

Wednesday, March 11, 2020

Be Still and Wait - Lent 2020

Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for Him.
Psalm 37:7 NIV

The world is full of noise; it delights in its fullness of distractions. Time for stillness eludes us; it escapes our attempts at quiet. In fact, we have become so programmed to noise and multi-tasking several technologies at the same time, we rarely recognize these as distractions. Rather, we question the moments of quiet and stillness, "What, no WiFi? Is the Internet down? How long will the cable be off? Why is this download so slow? Wonder why no one is texting me? Did my cell phone die? Where is my Ipad?"

Nothing in all creation is so like God as stillness. Meister Eckhart

We value busyness; we do not respect stillness! We are afraid of the stillness; we are missing God in the hurry. We have grown accustomed to fast; we are drowning in distractions. Often patience or waiting feels like the enemy. This endless loop of busy and hurry interferes with our intimate relationship with Jesus we should be growing. Be still and wait!

Our sacrifice of praise ~
As our sacrifice of praise, we should slow down and seek stillness. We would discover we are not alone; rather, God is patiently waiting for us. ~dho

A New Beginning

"This is my [new] life work: helping people understand and respond to this Message. It came as a sheer gift to me, a real surprise, God handling all the details . . . God saw to it that I was equipped, but you can be sure that it had nothing to do with my natural abilities.

And so here I am . . . writing about things that are way over my head, the inexhaustible riches and generosity of Christ. My task is to bring out in the open and make plain what God, who created all this in the first place, has been doing in secret and behind the scenes all along."
Ephesians 3:7-10, The Message

Pages