Good morning,

            I woke up from a dream the other day in which I saw a marketplace in which there were people who had their idols. A child was with me in the marketplace, and he picked up an idol and was moving around. The merchant became aware of what the child was doing and took exception to it. At which time I carefully picked up the idol and put it back in its place with my profound apologies. I learned from that dream the importance of how I treat the holy things of the peoples before me. When I Israel was capturing Canaan, the Lord instructed Joshua and Moses to destroy the altars and idols completely and give the precious resources to the Priests for the wilderness temple. God’s first commandment is, “You shall have no other gods before me”. The reason for this is that having two gods always creates a hybrid system with parts of the one added and a 3^rd god created which is generally us. The world has no problem with m=having multiple gods, symbols, etc. which removes the uniqueness that God has in mind for us.

            When we were created, God built us for a purpose (Proverbs 16:4). In his book, “The Purpose Driven Life”, Rick Warren said, “When we were born, God knew what He had in store you. His hope for us is to discover the life He created just for us – both here on earth and eternity” (Rick Warren, 2012). When we fall short of God’s glory, everything we did prior to that day or time, is in the past but what we do with our future will depend on the compassion, forgiveness, and grace we lend to our past (Colossians 3:12-13). Sadly, many go their entire lives with a jaded existence because of a rocky past not knowing that a loving God cares so deeply for them. This is where we, the children of God’s Kingdom come into play. To reach lives for Jesus, we must remember that they are children of God as we are and we must treat them and their lives as holy instruments which includes their past (Ezekiel 44:23). My encouragement for you is, “Treat holy the things of God” because you may never know what is in their garden.

Yours in Faith

MK