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Showing posts with the label Yoke

Who is actually carrying that now?

Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. (Matthew 11:28-29) How many times do we carry burdens way too heavy and beyond our means of ever 'unloading' on our own? Examine what Jesus said - come, take, learn, and find rest. There is an 'unloading' that occurs when we come to Jesus with those things we are carrying, but first we have to come! To take we must lay down. If we are to put more 'in', we must let 'out' what is nothing more than a 'burden' we carry. A burden is anything that is borne with difficulty - there is a sense of obligation to hold onto it, nurse it along, and keep it 'well situated' in a position where it can be 'managed'. What are we 'bearing' with difficulty today? Is it really our 'burden' to carry? Should we con...

I am not "yoking" around!

Weary?  Burdened?  Then you are likely in a place where you have stepped outside of Jesus' care over your lives and are trying to do things in your own strength.  Weary and burdened existence is usually because we find it so doggone hard to let anyone else be in control of our lives - demanding to hold on for dear life despite the obstacles in our path. Most work animals, such as the oxen or horses, will not look upon a yoke as a great piece of "jewelry" or even an "adornment". In fact, when they see the yoke there are some animals who might just say, "Nope, not gonna happen!"  Honesty is the best medicine here, so I must admit, there are times when I have said those words!  Yet, when I finally submit to the yoke, I find I am taken in a totally different direction than I had planned.  What the yoke does is bind me together with others traveling in the same direction I am now bound, and it allows someone who knows the directions to my destination to dr...

Principle 19: Don't Get Caught Up

There are times in life when it just seems like bad people seem to being doing so much better than the good people in this world.  It seems like evil just runs rampant and we cannot seem to regain the ground we have lost.  In those moments when we begin to ponder how easily things seem to be going for those bent on doing wrong, we almost wonder why things can't be that easy for us, getting ourselves all worked up into this frenzy we call envy.  It is amazing what we can get worked up over - stuff we probably don't want to be involved in anyway, but because we see some advantage to the other guy, we get ourselves all in a twitter about the issue.  Evil people cannot help us stay on the right path - in fact, they can even get us off it without even trying very hard simply because our tendency is to follow what moves our feelings rather than what keeps our spirit on the up and up.  To get caught up in the talk and the ruckus of their madness is to end up in a trul...

Equally yoked

20  Walk with the wise and become wise,    for a companion of fools suffers harm. (Proverbs 13:20) There is much to be said about the wisdom we exhibit in the company we keep.  Companions are often the first line of defense against stumbling when we are not paying attention to our journey - they can also be the first line of affording the opportunity to stumble!  Mom always used to tell me to choose my friends wisely.  At the time, I really never knew the purpose of that statement - but looking back at some of the choices I've made, I see the wisdom in her words.   Our passage today reveals two truths: Those we associate with influence us - good or bad, they influence us.  There is much that brings influence into our lives, but there are times when we turn to the influence of a trusted friend, a faithful companion, quicker than we turn to anything or anyone else.  Therefore, choosing who we allow into our lives determines the influenc...