There is a short window of time between the Day of Atonement and the Feast of Tabernacles when we have a moment to take stock of where we have been and where we are going in this next year. It is important that we count the cost and prepare ourselves for what is ahead.

Our salvation in Christ is expressed in all of the feasts, from the lamb slain at Passover to our coming to abide with the Father in the fullness of reconciliation and redemption at Tabernacles. And just before Tabernacles, the feast of abiding with the Father, there is this moment of cleansing, the Day of Atonement when God’s people are made clean. When all that hold us back from experiencing His fullness is removed from us.

We know that this picture is eternal. Within our lives we will experience time and again the sanctifying work of the Lord. We will ever be drawn closer to His fullness. In these few days between cleansing and abiding, I want to come before Him in humility. I want to ask myself, “What can I do to be more fruitful this year? How can I participate with the Lord in what He is doing?”

In Luke 14 Christ leads His disciples to ask themselves a similar question. He said, “If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple” (Luke 14:25). Though hate may be a strong word, the translator’s note explains, “by comparison of his love for Me.”  We can’t be His followers if something rivals our relationship with Him. Jesus is saying, “I have to be first. You must love me more than all these things.”

He continues, “If anyone does not carry his own cross and come after me he cannot be my disciple.” Not only must He be first in our affections, we must be the ones who follow in obedience and keep Him there. Only in our own hearts can we honestly say if He is first. This is not from our strength, but by His Spirit. We ask for His Spirit daily to give us both the desire and the enabling to walk in obedience to this commandment. We cry like the psalmist,  “Make me walk in the path of Your commandments” (Psalm 119:35).

We are anticipating a year of growth and tremendous fruitfulness. We are going to learn to abide in His presence and He will keep showing and removing from us everything that takes away from Him being the center of our lives (John 15:1-5).

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9/27/2015 Sunday AM, Shiloh, IA