Heading east through Arizona on I40 is really an incredible drive. Not far past where I stopped to stick my iPhone out the window and capture these hills is the Tee Pee Trading Post. It’s on the old Route 66 and while I didn’t ask when I stopped, it had to have been a stop over when traveling through back in the 1950s. But maybe not. There were a lot of places like that back then.
There’s a small rest area at the same stop now. Nice. Pleasant to sit and take in the landscape. No, Arizona isn’t all desert. And even if it were, it’s really gorgeous.
At Camp Roberts, CA, I worked with a fellow that was Jehovah’s Witness. We had some good discussions. He told me that during the Millennium—that would be the Thousand Year Reign of Messiah Y’shuaJesus on Earth after He returns—all the Earth would be a garden like Eden.
“I like deserts,” I said. Was that rude? I think back and I might have enjoyed the conversations, but I was a bit argumentative. I haven’t changed, yet, either.
It’s just that when I look out at what G-D has made on Earth, I marvel. He made the seas, the deserts, the mountains, the forests. All are witness to His greatness. They all stand as testimony of the supremacy of our L-RD, our Savior. G-D spoke the Earth into existence.
And God saw everything that he had made,
and behold, it was very good.
—Genesis 1:31
John the Baptist preached “in the wilderness of Judea, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (Matthew 3 1,2) The thing is he wasn’t preaching to Romans and Greeks. No. He preached to Israelis. He preached to a people that had heard the Torah read each week since they could understand spoken words. Yesterday, on Shabbat, the first part of Genesis was read worldwide. All Jews hear it spoken, chanted, and expounded upon. The Torah was part of their upbringing.
Today well-meaning street preachers are calling for repentance. They’re echoing the words of John the Baptist. But their audience is different. They are preaching to a people who doesn’t know G-D—Father, Y’shuaJesus, Spirit—as their own.
Recently a preacher said that when we pray, we need to come before G-D in repentance and thanksgiving. Yes. I agree. And I also think we need to first come to Him in acknowledgement of just Who He IS!
Psalm 95
Oh come, let us sing to the LORD;
let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!
Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving;
let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!
For the LORD is a great God,
and a great King above all gods.
In his hand are the depths of the earth;
the heights of the mountains are his also.
The sea is his, for he made it,
and his hands formed the dry land.
Oh come, let us worship and bow down;
let us kneel before the LORD, our Maker!
For he is our God,
and we are the people of his pasture,
and the sheep of his hand.
L-RD Bless, Keep, Shine. . .
JonahzSong 