Friday of Commemoration Week <3

Special note! I got a sweet note asking about the Isaiah reference yesterday pointing out there are not 23 verses in Isaiah 61. (I have since corrected thanks to my friend!) First off…can I say I love she actually looked up the verse??? Thank you! It was supposed to be 2-3. My messy handwriting and hurry in posting caused the confusion. God bless you for opening your Bible!!! yay!!!!

We are embracing summer and plan to right up until Labor Day weekend. We are traditionalists to the bitter end here at the Reimer house.

I saw the neighborhood kids and moms at the bus stops this morning, all in shorts and seeking shade at 8 am and I wonder why we need to go back to school when we have a whole lot of summer left. I am sure there is some good reason that I would most likely not think was good…but oh well. That’s what we have. 

This week on the blog, I have been sharing another old tradition that somehow I have sadly lost along the way.

In 2005 I read in Exodus 12-14 and how the Israelites were supposed to set aside a week every year to remember the great deliverance from Pharoah and slavery in Egypt. I know we celebrate Easter as the final Passover, but it seemed to me that it would be good to personally set aside a week each year to commemorate and remember without all the things we have added culturally.

Since I read this on August 13 of 2005, I marked my 2006 calendar for the week around it and made a note to go back to my journal. 

I did this from 2006 until for some unknown reason I stopped in 2018. I had begun sharing the week with readers in 2014 and maybe it lost its meaning. But this year I was convicted to celebrate and renew this commemoration week theme even though I was a week late in doing so. 

It has been a spiritually refreshing week and somehow everything has seemed extra special.

Our meals have been more fun than usual, our flowers seem to blooming with extra vigor and I have found myself singing and feeling filled with joy as I have pondered God and HIs goodness to us throughout each day. 

As I was doing my annual read through, I happened to be in Isaiah and I found this passage yesterday:

The Spirit of God, the Master, is on me (Jesus) because God anointed me. 

He sent me to preach good news to the poor, heal the heartbroken, announce freedom to all captives, pardon all prisoners. 

God sent me to announce the year of his grace – a celebration of God’s destruction of our enemies – 

And to comfort all who mourn. 

To care for the needs of all who mourn in Zion, give them bouquets of roses instead of ashes, 

Messages of joy instead of news of doom,

A praising heart instead of a languid spirit.

Isaiah 61: 1-5 The MSG 

It occurred to me as I read this that I have had a “languid spirit.”

I have a fair grasp of what languid means and how to use it in a sentence, but for fun I looked it up and dang…

From Webster:

Languid: slack; drooping or flagging from or as if from exhaustion. Sluggish in character or disposition. Lacking force, quickness or movement; slow. 

See more at “slack”

Slack: not using due diligence, care or dispatch, negligent. Slow, sluggish, lack of energy and….

(THIS WAS THE KICKER!!!!) …. moderately warm.

Guilty as charged on all counts. 

Does anyone else feel like maybe the last year plus was the straw that broke your weary back?

And the moderately warm? Ring a bell with anyone?

In John’s Revelation, he tells us what Jesus has to say to the churches that are in various stages of serving, persevering or falling away and in 3:16, Jesus is not too pleased with “moderately warm” faith. He calls it “lukewarm” and says He will spit those out of His mouth..yuk.

This is not middle of the road, indecisive lukewarm. This is doing nothing, ineffective, languishing Christianity. 

Not passionate, not compassionate. Just … blah…going through the motions. 

In Hebrews 12: 11-13, we read about the need to strengthen our tired hands and weakened knees, to make straight paths to walk on and thus what has been lame will not become dislocated but will be healed.

And all of this under the admonition that we need to be disciplined from time to time and to receive it and learn from it so that we can be healed and whole and effective again. 

I’m not saying the pandemic and all the unrest and turbulence and conflict and huge shifts around the world and wild weather patterns and fires and floods are to blame for wearing me out.

But they have added to the process. 

It was time for a reset. 

It was time to declare the praises of God. 

It was time to remember that He is King of Kings and Lord of lords and He rules and His power is not diminished. 

He is involved 100% in the world He created and came to save. 

He is and forever will be Sovereign over all and if you need to set aside some time to remember this, I highly recommend you marking your calendar for a week and making a determined effort to confess a languid spirt.

Return to the Lord your God and rejoice in the Joy of His salvation <3 

Blessings on you my friends and may His Name be blessed in all the earth. <3