Year 4, Day 76: Expdus 27

Theological Commentary: Click Here 

Discipleship Focus: In

• In: This is the word we use to express our relationships with our spiritual family.  These are often the people who hold us spiritually accountable.  They are the ones to whom we typically go for discussion and discernment.  These are the ones with whom we learn to share leadership.  They are the ones with whom we become family on mission.

In Exodus 27 we seem to have a fairly harmless passage about the tabernacle and its division of space.  However, what we can see within that tabernacle set-up is that there are three distinct divisions in the space.  There is the common courtyard.  Then there are the two inner sanctums: the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies.  Anyone could access the common area.  Only a select few get access to the holy spaces.

I can’t help but think about this same division in relationships.  Anyone can see me – flaws and all.  But how many people really get a chance to look within me and see the holy space within me?  How many people really get a chance to see my character, sense my spirit, and feel how God is alive and active in my life?  How many people really truly get an opportunity to go deeper than what lies upon my surface?

For that matter, how many people truly get an opportunity to show me there spiritual being within?  How often do I get to experience someone else’s part in God at work in this world?

This is what being In means.  Being In with others means that we are vulnerable with them.  We let them see past the flawed façade that we create for others to see.  We let them into our spiritual being where we are growing and in need of care.  These are the ones that move past that outer courtyard and into the inner depths in our lives where God is truly at work.

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