Finding Familiarity in Sacred Space

We find ourselves halfway through A Summer of Sacred Space, but it’s not too late to join us on our journey. Each week we explore three free-standing devotionals chosen at random from the book Sacred Space: A Little Book of Encouragement. With two opportunities to gather with us, you might find one to fit your schedule.

Tuesday mornings at 9am
Wednesdays at noon

Our chapter numbers for next week — July 11 and 12 — are:

23, 34, 35

This week we found ourselves becoming increasingly familiar with Jesus through our Sacred Space chapters.

Chapter 65: Troubled Heart, Fearful Mind
John 14:1-7
In one of His final moments with His disciples, before His arrest and crucifixion, Jesus reassures those closest to Him: Do not let your hearts be troubled.
He encourages them to believe in Him — trust in Him — and keep on trusting. Yes, He is going away, but His going has purpose. It is part of the grand plan.

I’m going to prepare a place for you…

Jesus is returning to the Father, but He is going to make a place for them in His Father’s house. We hear Him encourage His disciples, instilling a sense of security and hope. The only thing His followers need to do is continue to trust. obey. wait. He promises to return and take us to the place He is preparing for us to DWELL with Him.
No need to fret over how we will get there. If we know Him, He will lead us there.

Chapter 21: Is My Heart Troubled?
John 14:1-6
In the randomness of our reading, we find ourselves in virtually the same passage twice. God wants us to be familiar with these verses!
Returning gives emphasis to: I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you…
How often do we forget to grab hold of His Word? Truly LISTEN to what He tells us and RECEIVE it as truth? Failing to “believe in” what He tells us causes our hearts to get troubled. stirred up. perplexed. anxious. Jesus says: Do not let your hearts be troubled. He’s telling us we are the ones who allow our emotions to run away with our hearts. Don’t let it happen!
He REMOVES our fear by reminding us to REMEMBER His promises. He is trustworthy. Be still and know He is God. The world may disappoint you but He will not.
Two questions to consider:

Why do you let your heart be troubled?
How can you quiet it once it is stirred?

Chapter 48: Jesus Calls Me Friend
John 15:15-17
More of Jesus’s words to His disciples in their last gathering with one another: No longer do I call you servants… I call you friends…
Jesus raises up His disciples from servants to friends. They are chosen and appointed to bear the fruit of loving one another. This is the mark of Jesus’s friends. Those who bear with one another offering support. yielding to the needs of others. giving freely as Jesus gave to them. All in the name of LOVE.
Being Jesus’s friend means we are a friend to all. Pouring out His kind of love — greater love. Love that lays down its life and desires for another.

Looking back at these passages, we see Jesus drawing us into familiarity with Him as we spend time in His presence, forging sacred space.

Familiarity in itself begins with the idea of close relationship.

FAMILY-ARITY

The prefix –family– is a close unbreakable relationship and the suffix means “of or pertaining to.” Familiarity or becoming familiar is like becoming family. The more we spend time with Jesus and His people connecting together, dwelling in His Word together, the more FAMILIAR we become.

The first two passages where Jesus tells His disciples He is going to His Father’s house to prepare a place for them can be connected to a Jewish marriage tradition.

This metaphor was familiar to the people of Jesus’ day because a bridegroom customarily left his fiancée to build a home for her, then returned to get her.

Likewise, Jesus will one day return to take His followers to His home in heaven, where we will experience joyous community with Him forever.

DTBM.org, I Go to Prepare a Place, Dec 5, 2018

His disciples are the Bride of Christ. We wait for His return to bring us HOME to His Father’s house.

There is another wedding connection to the word FRIEND. The original Greek — philos — means “an associate; he who associates familiarly with one, a companion.” It can also mean “one of the bridegroom’s friends who on his behalf asked the hand of the bride and rendered him various services in closing the marriage and celebrating the nuptials” (Enhanced Strong’s Lexicon).

While we are waiting for Jesus to return, we have a role to play in preparing the Bride for the wedding. Chosen as His friends we are appointed to bear witness to His love for her by loving one another. We are called up from servant to friend to secure the Bride for Jesus.

All this happens now — here in this world — as we DWELL in sacred space with Him.
We LISTEN to what He says.
We RECEIVE it with trust.
We REMOVE the fear and anxiety from our hearts.
We REMEMBER His promises.
We BEAR His fruit of love.
Which in turn, tunes our ear to LISTEN even more attentively.

Dwelling with Him in sacred space breeds familiarity with His Word. His Spirit. and His heart of love.

Praying you create space to dwell in His presence
and know the peace of being His beloved.

Carol & Stacy