Gethsemane - The Oil Press

The Mount of Olives lies across the Yoshafat Valley and is about 260 feet higher elevation than the Temple Mount of Jerusalem. It was from this vantage point that David fled from Absalom and wept. It was from this place, Jesus wept over the city of Jerusalem.

Just below the Mount of Olives is the place we westerners call “The Garden of Gethsemane”. More accurately it was the place where the olives were processed from the harvest. The olives were picked and gathered for fruit, lighting, lubricating oil, health care and anointing. The oil press in ancient days was stone. This stone press was called a gethsemane.

The process of extracting oil from the olive fruit was fairly simple. You put the olives into the basin of the Olive crusher. The Olive crusher had a mill stone that would have a beam that rolled the stone over the olives to “crush” them. Once crushed, the pulp would be put in baskets. These baskets would be placed under the Gat (a place for pressing) shemanim (oil). This Gatsemanim stone would then press down on the crushed olives and extract the oil.

Jesus went to the place where olives were harvested to be “crushed”. The weight of the world was the mill stone. The weight of the sins of the world pressed down on him just like the rock slab pressed down on the baskets of olives.
The Gospel of Luke states that the sweat of Jesus was “like drops of blood falling on the ground”.

Jesus took on the full weight of our sin – yours and mine. He was pressed down.

Somehow, that image of the Gethsemane experience of Jesus makes my burdens seem lite and my yoke easy.

The Awe of God

Last weekend, our pastor made a comment in his sermon that has stuck with me all week. The text was in Luke 9:28 thru 56 but the part I have been pondering was verse 43 …

And they were all amazed at the greatness of God (NIV)
And they were all amazed at the mighty power of God. (KJV)
And they were all astonished at the majesty of God. (ASV)
Awe gripped the people as they saw this majestic display of God’s power. (NLT)
They all shook their heads in wonder, astonished at God's greatness, God's majestic greatness. (Message)
And all were astounded at the evidence of God's mighty power and His majesty and magnificence. (Amplified)

Greatness, Mighty power, majesty – how do you describe God as He works in your life?

One of the translations offered a specific word that intrigued me. AWE. I can’t count the number of times I’ve said “we have an awesome God”!

Consider this … we live between the AWE-SOME and the AWE-FUL of life. There are times when our lives seem to be FULL of bad things happening. There are other times when we have glimpses of SOME wonderful miracles or answers to prayers.

In either case, God is worthy of our AWE!

War? - What war?

Growing up in the 60’s on the west coast, there was so much talk about peace not war. There were so many slogans, like make love not war. There were so many people against everything rather than for anything.

Fast forward to today.

One of the least understood items we make is our WordCube – The Armor of God.
The whole idea of putting on armor. Even the concept of going to war. We want somebody to protect us. We want somebody to keep us safe. We want someone to make us more secure. We want something to make us feel like we won’t be in harm’s way.

So many lies and so little time.

A short time before Jesus set his eyes on Jerusalem and the cross and one of the last “trips”with his disciples was to Caesarea Philippi. A little history here …
West and North of the Sea of Galilee was Jewish territory. East and South of the Sea of Galilee was called the Decapolis region. This region was considered evil. It was considered pagan. This area was NOT where a good Jewish rabbi would want to go. Yet this is where Jesus took his disciples for another teaching. They went across the Abyss (the deep water) to a place of evil. Jesus took them to Caesarea Philippi, where “The Gates of Hades” was.

Pan worship was prevalent at this time. You know that four legged Grecian image … half man / half goat playing a flute instrument. The Temple of Pan was here in Caesarea Philippi where there was a deep crack in the rock where a huge spring of water gushed out. That crack or cave was considered to be the entrance to the underworld … the “gates of Hell” for the Pan worshipers there.

Along the short walk from the seashore to this “place”, Jesus asked his disciples, “who do people say that I am?”. Rightly, Peter said, "You are the Christ,[b] the Son of the living God." Here they were, going to an evil place where people worship a goat- god – and Peter declares that Jesus is the living son of God!

Jesus declares to his disciples, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. 18And I tell you that you are Peter,[c] and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades[d] will not overcome it.[e] 19I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be[f] bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be[g] loosed in heaven." 20Then he warned his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Christ.

The disciples were in this evil country, looking at an evil place and they were in the presence of the Son of God. They were looking at a rock with water coming out of it. There were idols. There was idolatry all around. There were probable many people who came to this place to receive water and refreshment and a spiritual event in their lives.

I think Jesus took the disciples to this unholy region, unholy city, unholy temple to make the statement …

Even here in the most unholy of unholy places – my church will stand and conquer. Even the “gates of hell” cannot prevail.

Jesus was preparing his disciples (including us) to know that no matter where were go, if we go, when we go in His name and His power and His authority, we will prevail.


The Armor of God

10Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.

11Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes.

12For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

13Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.

14Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place,

15and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.

16In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.

17Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. 18And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.

Seeds, roots and fruit.

When I was young, our family lived in a rural part of Southern California on several acres of land. We had over 20 different kinds of fruit trees growing on our property. At different times during the year, different trees would bear different fruit. There was almost always some kind of fruit growing and ripe for harvest. I would come home from school and go out into the yard and pick a fresh piece of fruit and eat it ... right off the tree.

Nearly every year, we would "plant" a couple of new trees. My dad and I would drive 40 miles to the nearest Nursery Store and pick out a twig in a sack. There was no fruit on the tree. We had to trust that the sign or tag on the twig was correct and that WAS the type of fruit that would eventually be harvested.

During the spring, I would get to pick out some seeds at the Nursery Store to take home and plant for the summer garden. I would always pick out watermelon, cucumber, tomatoes, corn, pumpkin. Then I would try different seeds. One year I planted strawberries and another year it was squash and another year peppers. Then it was different kinds of watermelon or tomatoes or corn to try. I picked the seed, to grow the root to get the fruit. It was a great lesson to learn as a child. I had to water, cultivate, pull weeds, prune, keep the “varmints” out and care for the plants as they were growing in order to see the fruit and enjoy the harvest.

Is there a spiritual lesson in all of this?

Consider …

Without the seed, there is no harvest. The seed determines what type of root will grow. The seed is very small. The seed doesn’t give any indication of what the fruit will be. The seed needs to be planted in the ground. The seed needs to be watered to produce a root. The seed, once planted, is never seen again.

The root grows out of the seed. Good seed produces a strong root. Healthy seed produces faster than a weak seed. The root goes down before the stem comes up. The root provides the foundation. The root provides all of the necessities for growth. The root can be choked off by lack of water or weeds taking the nutrients away. It’s hard to “see” the work of the root for awhile. It takes faith and time to grow the garden. You have to trust that the seed was good and the root is strong.

When the stem comes up, there is so much excitement. Finally, we can see something happening. Still no fruit. Still no harvest.

There is more cultivation, more watering, more fertilization, more weeding, more care, more waiting. Still no fruit. Still no harvest.

Finally, the first fruit appears. Now it needs EVEN MORE CARE. We see the fruit but it needs to stay attached to the vine. It needs to stay connected to the root. It needs to mature. It needs to ripen until the right time.

At the appointed time, the fruit is harvested. When we bite into that piece of watermelon or tomato or orange, we finally can see and fully experience the “fruit” of our labor.

The Father made the seed and the ground and all of the nutrients needed to plant.

The Spirit plants the seed.

The Son is the root and the vine.

We are the branches.

"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.”.

Galatians 5:22

Is the Word of God seeded in your life?

Are you rooted in Christ?

Are you growing and being cultivated?

What fruit do you bear?

Wealth, Health, Integrity

I heard this quote today.

It came from Billy Graham.

"When wealth is lost,
nothing is lost.

When health is lost,
something is lost.

When integrity is lost,
all is lost".

Bailouts, deals, blame, fault.
Our world today seems focused on the wrong things.

Grace, mercy, hope, love.
Things that endure.

Why Wood??

There are so many variables to using wood as the basis for the work and ministry we do. The world has en-cultured us to expect everything to be uniform and to be consistent. Plastics and resins and “man made” materials abound.

We’ve chosen a different point of view.

Jesus, our Savior, died on an imperfect cross made of wood. The” Perfection of the Ages” hung on an old rugged cross. The nails were rusted. The wood was warped. The blood was precious. The price was beyond cost.

We make HoldingCrosses and our WordCubes and PrayerCubes out of wood. The wood is imperfect. So are we. Not every imperfection in our work is covered over. In fact, we generally will struggle to decide about letting a piece go through our “quality control” process because we are led by the spirit to believe that someone will be blessed knowing that this piece is imperfect just like they are.

Jesus died on the cross to make that which was imperfect (you and me), acceptable to The Father. The work we do isn’t perfect. His was!

We work with natural wood as a reminder that He was a carpenter. He worked with wood. He cut, shaped, sanded and made pieces of work that would bless others.
Why wood?

Because Jesus did his best work with wood.

How is your tent?

In Numbers 9:15, Moses built two tents. One was called the Tent of Meeting. The other was called the Tabernacle.

As they were going through the wilderness, on their way to the Promised Land, they were guided by The Pillar of Fire by night and The Cloud by day.

When the Pillar or Cloud stopped, it was time to pitch the tent. Sometimes it was for weeks or maybe days or even hours. God was teaching His people to keep their eyes on Him and to trust in Him always.

Moses was instructed to pitch the Tent of Meeting on the outside of the encampment. It was to be away from the daily grind. It was to be set apart. It was to be special. Everyone in the camp could see when Moses was called to go to the Tent of Meeting as the Pillar or Cloud would descend upon it. God was present. Everyone stood outside their own tent and watched and waited and worshiped.
Moses went in and listened to God. God spoke. Moses listened. Isn’t it interesting that the Bible mentions how God conversed with Moses … but not much about Moses conversing with God. In the presence of the Almighty God, Moses listened much more than he spoke.

Today, we have been given a Tent of Meeting ... a place to go where we meet God. It is separated from the daily life. It is set apart. It is Holy ground. It is in the mind of each believer in Jesus, the Christ. Scripture tells us to "put on the mind of Christ".

And the Tabernacle? It is our heart. When we are born again, we receive the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. He lives in us! He abides in us!

How is your Tent? Are you coming to Him in the midst of this wilderness we call life? Are you focused on Him day and night. Moving when He moves. Stopping when He stops. Walking in the Spirit.