Eighty-five...

Tuesday the 27th

Worked in the PACU... I don't remember much but I do remember I had a good day and I got a few smiles. :)

What I read... Exodus 35..

There is so much great love in this passage. I love how Moses told the people what was required of them and what the Lord expected and in v.20-21, we learn their response.

Then the whole Israelite community withdrew from Moses' presence, and

everyone who was willing and whose heart moved

then came and brought an offering to the LORD for the work on the tent of meeting, for all its service, and for the sacred garments.

That is just so awesome. The Lord knew before he even gave the directions to the people who was going to raise up from the crowd and follow after him. He knew who would be skilled to make the tabernacle and the garments. He knows, and yet still he asks. The fact that he still allows us such free will is such a blessing. In v.29 it shows his love to us in such....

All the Israelite men and women who were willing brought to the LORD freewill offerings for all their work the LORD through Moses had commanded them to do.

The Lord gives us freewill for a reason. He wants us to come to him and to worship him, not because he requires it of us, which he does. But because we want to. It's funny because so often I see this reflected in relationships and even in some of my own. To explain it simply a wife wants her husband to bring her flowers every once in while, not because it is required, not because she wants him to but, because he wants to do it. I know it sounds all jumbled but if you think of it in the simplest terms. Yes, we want the flowers, but we don't want you to buy us the flowers because we want them, we want you to buy the flowers, because you want to buy them because you know it will make us happy. In the same way the Lord gives us freewill. He wants us to pick him. He wants us to love him and follow him and worship him, but he wants us to do it, because we want to do it. The Lord loves a giving spirit, he is the ultimate gentleman, for he loves us and he desires for us to come to him, but no matter how much he wants us, he never forces himself upon us. It is always an active decision to take up our cross and follow him. I just love that about the Lord we serve and I love how the hearts of the Israelites responded to him. In going to work for him, not because he required it, but of their own freewill and love to serve the Lord.

Good Night and God Bless