Getting Dressed - Exchanging the Yoke for a Garland

"WISDOM IS SUPREME; THEREFORE GET WISDOM.  THOUGH IT COSTS YOU ALL YOU HAVE, GET UNDERSTANDING.  ESTEEM HER AND SHE WILL EXALT YOU; EMBRACE HER AND SHE WILL HONOR YOU.  SHE WILL SET A GARLAND OF GRACE ON YOUR HEAD AND PRESENT YOU WITH A CROWN OF SPLENDOR." Proverbs 1:8-10

The Garland - a wreath of flowers, leaves, feathers or sometimes precious stones, worn for ornament or as an honor; the crown of a king.  Quite a different picture than the heavy burden of a yoke around your neck!  Let's compare:  Yoke - heavy, burden, slavery or Garland - light, beautiful, victory and freedom.

Jesus said, "Come to me all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."  (Matthew 11:28-30)  Clearly, Jesus' own words provide the pathway of exchanging the yoke of slavery for a garland of victory.  It's not as mysterious or difficult as we have made it.  It's a choice.  Most of life is a choice.  We are confronted daily by choices and for the most part it's our choices that yoke us.  Thoughts, words and actions become choices.  The factors that shape these choices are really the central issue of the Christian life.  Who do you serve?  If we serve Christ then our lives must reflect His victory against sin, death, and the devil.  If we do the things that Christ did and have the mind of Christ then we are overcomers.  This, of course, is the struggle of the flesh.  The things I want to do I don't do and the things I don't want to do I do!  How do we get off this merry-go-round and wear the garland of grace?

Let's break the exchange down from the words of Jesus:  Come.  Take.  Learn.  We begin by surrender.  We come to Jesus when we come to the end of ourselves.  We empty our lives by confession and repentence.  Then we are able to take His yoke.  A yoke becomes a good thing when it's Jesus to whom we are yoked.  He leads and we follow and He says that His yoke is easy and light because He is the one who bears the burden.  Knowing who Jesus is, is vastly different than being yoked to Him!  When we are yoked to Him then we learn from Him.  This then is the wisdom spoken of in Proverbs that a garland of grace, peace and rest for our souls is placed upon us. 

Simply stated but not so simple in the real world.   Once again we go back to the choices that confront us.  Without the knowledge of God's word we will always fail to make right choices.  His word is the lamp.  His word is the light. His word is God himself revealed to us.  Obedience is the pathway to His presence. 

I cited an article that appeared in the Sunday Daily News on October 3, 2010 entitled The Unbelievable Truth: Why America Has Become a Nation of Religious No-nothings. The survey was unsettling and completely believable when you look at the condition of the world and decisions over the last 40 years that have contributed to our condition.  God's Word has been left out of our society, as it has been left out of many Christian denominations.  Without the knowledge of His Word and obedience through faith, we cannot please Him.  Creation, Heaven, Hell, Sin, Redemption through Christ's blood, Deliverance, Healing - all these things are lost to us without God's Word. 

The process of exchanging the yoke for a garland is daily trusting in God through consumption of His word.  Choosing to obey the words that you consume is the power behind that exchange.  Worship is much more than the songs we sing or services we go to.  It is the decision of the heart to pursue God.  It is the decision of the mind to obey Him.   Where do we find Him?  In His Word!

We closed with this verse:  "Do not conform [yoke yourself] any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.  Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is --His good, pleasing and perfect will."  (Romans 12:2)

NEXT MEETING:  Thursday, November 11 at 7:30 p.m.  Email me for more information:  nancy@gatewaycitychurch.net

Getting Dressed - Are You Wearing a Yoke or a Garland?

A month goes by quickly and there we were, meeting in my first floor living room on Thursday, October 7 once again.   I greeted everyone at the door wearing an artificial Hawaiian lei which became part of the lesson.  (I tried to rig up a yoke using a plank and paint cans to greet people with but that got too complicated, so I stuck with the lei.  It was prettier and lighter, which is really the point of the lesson, anyway!) 

I believe in knowing the definitions of the words we may read in the Bible.  Rather than reading for the sake of saying, "I read my Bible today,"  as if that is the essence of our relationship with the Lord, knowing what you read is more important, even if it's one sentence.  Reading is only part of the journey; Understanding what you read is essential to life application!  So I looked up the meanings of "yoke" and "garland."

A yoke is a device for joining together a pair of draft animals, especially oxen (just saw some crossing the street here in Brooklyn!!!), usually consisting of a crosspiece with two bow-shaped pieces, each enclosing the head of an animal (very important point).  It's also defined as an agency of oppression, subjection of servitude or slavery; to bring into subjection or servitude.  Another picture comes to mind of the stocks that criminals were kept in the colonial days in the public square. 

So far these definitions don't really hit us in a personal place, especially that we are not in colonial times nor are we in a rural setting but this word "yoke" is found many times in the Bible (over 60 in the NIV) and requires understanding as it applies to each of our lives.  Clearly, a yoke is bondage to something or someone.  The Bible speaks of a "yoke of slavery" that was on the children of Israel to the Eygptians (Exodus 6:6; Leviticus  26:13).  That seems easy enough to understand but what about when the yoke is not about servitude of one people  group over another?  The Lord also calls it a yoke of oppression when we point fingers and speak maliciously (Isaiah 58:8-10).  Now, that changes the way we must see ourselves.  We are not always the victim of circumstances but the very cause of the yoke we may be wearing!!

We, then, discussed some of the "yokes" in which we may be dealing right now in our lives.  At first, we talked about the pressures of family, relationships, finances and how we deal with them.  The worries and cares of this world have become yokes.  We are consumed with the very things that Jesus said to release into His trust (Matthew 6:25-34), food, clothing and the general daily provisions of life.  We have "yoked" ourselves to worry, fear and anxiety if these are our responses to our circumstances.  Relationally, we "yoke" ourselves to the wrong friends and "significant others," so that we defile marriage and it's original intent or go places and do things we know are not right but just can't seem to take a stand.  We "yoke" ourselves to greed and envy when we must have more things or that which someone else has.  We "yoke" ourselves to offense when we refuse to forgive someone who has hurt us. We "yoke" ourselves to unbelief when we do the opposite of what God's Word says we can and should do.  This discussion was very sobering when we turned the laser beam of the Word of God on ourselves!!! 

In continuing to understand how the literal yoke operates, I asked the group, "Who decides the direction when a yoke is in use?"  The obvious answer was the master driving the team, but not the ones wearing the yoke.  The yoke holds the head in a locked position and prevents an independent movement from the team.  Again, us city folk may not get the analogy but here it is:  Someone else is driving us when we are yoked to the things mentioned above, and it isn't the Lord!

We give up our freedom of choice when we are yoked in any circumstance.  And yet, wasn't it a choice that put the yoke upon us in the first place?  Mmmm.  Something to think about...

Next installment:  How do I take off this Yoke and put on the Garland?

Getting Dressed - How Do I Look?

All agreed that how a person dresses, whether good or badly, brings certain judgments to mind.  If we see a well-dressed person, we immediately think that he's got his life in order and is successful and doesn't need anything.  Likewise, the opposite is true if the person is poorly dressed or appears homeless and dirty.   The well dressed person may be in as much need as the poorest person.  The poor person is usually ignored and shunned.  We all form some kind of opinion about a person by their appearance, whether good or bad. 

So it is a fair assumption that the externals matter to some degree because it is the first thing that the world sees.  You may get or lose a job opportunity because of the way you dress.  Your clothing tell others whether you are approachable or not.  And yet we also agreed that the inner person may not be properly portrayed by the outer garments.

So the next question was posed, "How as Christians are we to be clothed?"  The scriptures tell us to "clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience." This is now the importance of living and being a Christian.  The externals must reflect the internal experience of having received Christ as Savior and Lord and all that it means to have had this experience.  That inner work of the Holy Spirit must now be put on display to allow the beauty of Christ to shine.  The attractiveness of the attributes that conforms us to the image of Christ becomes the magnet for the world to desire to know Him. 

We make decisions daily about how we will dress and look.  As Christians we spend too little time making the same decision of how each day we will let the inner work become the outer garments.  Somehow we think that it is supposed to happen without any effort on our part.  The effort is in the decision.  I decide that I WILL PUT ON CHRIST.  In other words, "What are you wearing today that let's people know you belong to the Lord?"  That was the next questions posed to the group and some very candid answers were shared.  Some spoke of always wearing the garments of anger, offense and frustration in dealing with the circumstances of life.  Some seem always seem to wear the garments of sorrow.  Fear was also a popular garment.  All agreed that none of these reflect the victory and joy that we are supposed to live in because of the cross and the resurrection.  It's as if we are back in the Garden of Eden hiding from the Lord in naked shame, trying to cover ourselves with useless leaves.  Yet, God in His mercy fashioned the suitable covering for the shame of sin as a picture and a sign of the redemption He prepared in Christ.  We cover ourselves with excuses for our behavior but today, I challenged the young women to make a different choice.   Knowing that we've chosen incorrectly in many and most areas of our lives, what must be done to change this?

The first step to getting dressed in brand new clothes is "getting washed up."  Who would put new clothing on themselves with a dirty body.  As we prepare our physical bodies to look their best in the new clothes we wear, so we must also prepare ourselves to wear spiritual garments by first washing ourselves as Jesus explained to His disciples at that last Passover supper. He said that they were not in need of a complete bath but just a foot washing.  Our feet walk in a world filled with compromise, immorality and political correctness that offends the Truth.  We are affected by the world in which we live and the key to recognize, this affect and cleanse our hearts daily in His Word.  It is is His Word that washes our feet from the unclean places in which we must walk daily.  Jesus said to do this for one another and He meant not merely to do the symbolic foot washing ceremony that many churches do, but that we become responsible for one another, to help each to walk rightly before the Lord.  This is only possible with the knowledge of  His Word digested into our lives or else how would we know what pleases or displeases the Lord?  (I gave a hand out of scripture references for personal study and reflection, some of which are listed on this blog.)

I posed a challenge to all to deliberately take note of the responses we would normally give in difficult situations, whether on the job or anywhere in dealing with people.  Start the day with a personal declaration of victory that might sound something like, "Today, it is my choice and decision to dress in peace and love toward all my co-workers, no matter who irritates me.  I choose that which pleases the Lord."  The more we make these deliberate decisions, the more natural they become because what we are actually doing is renewing the mind and conforming the flesh to the Word of God.  We die to self so He lives in us and through us.  He increases and we decrease.  These are not cliche's but realities of the Christian walk. 

In conclusion, our "homework" was to ask ourselves each day, maybe each moment of the day, "What am I wearing?" and decide to put on the clothing that reflects what Christ has done in each of our lives.  We may discover that we mentally assent to Christ as Savior but not as the Lord over us and this, too, is part of the journey...letting Christ be Lord!

NEXT GET TOGETHER:  Thursday, October 7, 7:30 p.m. TOPIC:  Are You Wearing a Yoke or a Garland?  E-mail me if you need my address.