I continually stand amazed at the living word of God. The Bible is living, it speaks in now time, even though it was written in another time. It never loses relevance; it never bends the truth; it applies to every generation; it liberates, celebrates, consecrates and demonstrates that to be a believer in Jesus Christ is to worship, serve and obey a living God. He has a voice and He speaks to us; He has eyes and He sees us; He has a heart and He loves us; He has power and He delivers and heals us. There is truly no one like our God and we are created in His image. It is all beyond my comprehension, but my heart, soul and spirit revel in the reality that He is God and He is alive.

This morning I was reading Luke 13:34 “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, just as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not have it!” What struck me is how often we reject what we don’t understand in order to protect ourselves, not realizing we are rejecting what has come to help us. Cities do it, churches do it, communities do it, nations do it, families do it, couples do it, individuals do it. From one to many, we tend to reject what we don’t understand and Jerusalem, the city that literally saw Jesus walk the earth did it. Why?

They did it for the same reasons we do it, because it takes humility to accept what you don’t understand and humility is vulnerability and it takes trust. Trust is hard when you have been hurt. Self-sufficiency, self-reliance, self-promotion, is all because we don’t trust God or others are for us and will help us, so we do it ourselves, thinking it won’t get done any other way. To ask for help or to recognize help when it arrives, takes humility especially if you don’t comprehend who shows up to help. So we resist what we are to receive and receive what we are to reject. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those sent to her! I wonder how many of us are Jerusalem?

Luke 13:35 says, “Behold, your house is left to you desolate.” Desolate means devoid of inhabitants; deserted. Barren; lifeless. Feeling, showing, causing, or expressing sadness or loneliness (Free Dictionary). Many people are living desolate lives, but the way to come out of desolation and into habitation is to receive not reject the help God is sending to you. We can’t do life alone; we can’t fix ourselves; we can’t look out for number one and live in community. It’s time to humble ourselves and allow the Lord to bring help to us in the form of people. There is life in community, but you must lay down your individuality to be apart of a community. We need you and you need us. Let the guard down, open your heart again, humble yourself and let some people love you. Love from community will remove the desolation of your house and you will live again, dance again, laugh again. It’s time, for the kingdom is at hand, but you must repent of rejecting people, resisting people and start receiving people and reaching out to people, for more are for you than are against you. Let’s do this, we need each other, you are welcome here in the kingdom of God!!!