I found myself having been accepted to a Christian college... (having first made the phone call that I was Jewish would I even be allowed to come... oh so much I didn't realize back then... ) Upon acceptance I had signed up for this trip into the wilderness for ten days...
Before the trip began I would be sitting on a black top parking lot doing my first ever bible study... and then upon getting into the mountains I would sing my first worship songs to the Lord...
"Lord prepare me to be a sanctuary pure and holy, tried and true, with thanksgiving I'll be a living sanctuary for you." Those words were so sweet... the song so radiant within my heart... I would be given my first scripture verse ever from another person... He had begun a good work and the promise was that He would complete it... HE... He would complete it..... that piece of wood bark with that scripture still hangs on my wall almost twenty years later...
Today as I pondered this other work I'm writing.. the word Sanctuary kept coming to mind... and it led my heart and my mind down this path of wonderment... and remembrance...
In the midst of it it was as if I was hearing Jesus singing the song to Father... that He was and is the sanctuary.. pure and holy... tried and true... with thanksgiving (for us.. .for those He loves) He promised forever to be a living sanctuary for Father and for us....
It was a beautiful and precious moment....
Then He brought me back to the day when a good friend sat across the room from me and spoke those words... "you will know where to go".... I will know where to go? In those moments I didn't comprehend what it was that he was saying... but within the next few days of personal ministry I would learn that where it was that he was showing me where to go was the connection to Father... to Father's heart... to a sanctuary that knows no bounds.. knows no limits....
It is in that place that I dwell... it is that place that I search for daily... it is that place that I wait for in moments of earth bound trial or tribulation... that safe place... that shadow.. that refuge.. that sanctuary...
To look up sanctuary.. you find words like "safety," "haven," "refuge," "holy"
I think what it truly means to me to have a sanctuary in Him... to have a safe place... to have a place and a refuge that I can abide in.... that no matter what happens or is happening in the world or my life or my family I can dwell in the shadow of the Most High God... that despite that which the world would bring into my path He has overcome it all and in so doing provided me the most perfect shelter from the storm... so that I too can rest .. He brings peace to my soul and restores me....
A sanctuary.. a fortress....
He draws me to trust in the unseen realm more fully than anything I could touch with my finger tips... and within those places I receive a grace that is stronger than anything I have ever stood on before...
Those words, " you will know where to go." Six little words were to change my life.... and link me to a place that would forever alter my heart...
"For you have made the Lord, my refuge... Even the Most High your dwelling place." Psalm 91:7
That truth surrounds me as a song and blankets me with its strength.... I am never outside of His reach ... While tempest and toil might surround me it doesn't get to overpower me... I am never outside of the palm of His hand... and when I can lay a hold and dwell in that place then it is always so very well with my soul....
We have the dog whisperer.. and this whisperer and that whisperer... But He and He alone whispers the strongest of comfort into my soul and when all that would desire to possess my emotions or will tries its hardest He always stands firm and perfectly strong.. bidding me to come into the arena of His sanctuary and dwell at His table forever more....
2 Corinthians 4:7-12
Amplified
Bible (AMP)
However,
we possess this precious treasure [the divine Light of the Gospel] in
[frail, human] vessels of earth, that the grandeur and exceeding
greatness of the power may be shown to be from God and not from
ourselves.We are hedged in (pressed) on every side [troubled and oppressed in every way], but not cramped or crushed; we suffer embarrassments and are perplexed and unable to find a way out, but not driven to despair;
We are pursued (persecuted and hard driven), but not deserted [to stand alone]; we are struck down to the ground, but never struck out and destroyed;
Always carrying about in the body the liability and exposure to the same putting to death that the Lord Jesus suffered, so that the [resurrection] life of Jesus also may be shown forth by and in our bodies.
For we who live are constantly [experiencing] being handed over to death for Jesus' sake, that the [resurrection] life of Jesus also may be evidenced through our flesh which is liable to death.
Thus death is actively at work in us, but [it is in order thatour] life [may be actively at work] in you.
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