A Heart For Jesus

“Your sandals shall be iron and bronze; As your days, so shall your strength be.”  Deuteronomy‬ ‭33‬:‭25‬ ‭NKJV‬‬ ‭‭  This verse from Deuteronomy was the blessing Moses bestowed upon Asher, the eighth of the twelve sons of Israel. But who was Asher?  In Genesis 30:12-13 we find: “Leah's servant Zilpah bore Jacob a second son. Then Leah said, 'How happy I am! The women will call me happy.' So she named him Asher". What a wonderful meaning to his name, I wonder if he was a happy child? When the land was divided among the twelve tribes, Asher inherited a coastal territory that was exceptionally fertile and prosperous. Furthermore, in Luke 2:36-38(ESV), we read about a prophetess named Anna who was from the tribe of Asher. Following the death of her husband she was daily in the temple, worshipping and praying to God. She was there the day that Mary and Joseph brought Jesus to the temple.  “And as she approached that very hour, she began to give thanks to God and to ...

  Paul writes in Philippians 2:16 that we are to have the same mindset as Christ Jesus. He repeats this in 1 Corinthians 2:16, saying, “We have the mind of Christ.” So, what does it mean to have the mind of Christ? Or to have a mindset like His? I don’t claim to know exactly how Jesus thought, but I can describe who He was. In Matthew 11:29, Jesus describes Himself as “gentle and lowly in heart” (ESV). Jesus was humble and not self-important. He knew who He was and didn’t feel the need to prove Himself. Consider the story in John chapter seven. Jesus’ brothers wanted Him to prove Himself by going to the Feast of Booths, but He refused. I don’t think Jesus was trying to show off or impress others. Similarly, in Matthew 4, the devil tempted Jesus in the desert. The devil tried to make Jesus doubt or question God, but Jesus didn’t fall for it. Instead, He quoted Scripture every time to counter the devil’s lies. Jesus made Himself of no reputation. He became a servant of all and chose ...

  Elisabeth Elliot ~  “Love is not merely a gentle touch or a pat on the head. It is a refiner’s fire. It burns to purify.” Reminds me of the verse in Mark 9:49 which says, “For everyone will be salted with fire.”  Neither of those sound like a lot of fun!  ‭ Fire can purify. It burns away what is useless to bring out something better.  But love “burns to purify?” The Bible teaches us that God is love. If God is love, then is it His love that does the purifying? ‭‭Hebrews‬ ‭12‬:‭29‬(ESV‬‬) says, “for our God is a consuming fire.” And in ‭‭ ‭‭Malachi‬ ‭3‬:‭2‬-‭3‬(ESV‬‬), “…For he is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap…” I found this definition for “fuller’s soap”. “Fuller's soap was a powerful, highly alkaline cleaning agent used in ancient times to scour, cleanse, and whiten raw wool or woven cloth before it was dyed”.  God’s love is like “fuller’s soap, scrubbing away what is unnecessary within us. Like deep cleaning for the soul and perhaps the h...