2017-08-18
Good Morning Dear Ones,
I’m led by the Holy Spirit to comment on various subjects that apply to the church and to individuals in it. The word of God is supernaturally written with qualities no other book has. The more one reads it, the more one wants to read the same Scriptures in various contexts. I’ve been doing this for over 55 years and never tire of it. God is bringing His readers ever closer to Himself this way. 2 TIM 3: 16-17, “All Scripture is God-breathed and useful for teaching the truth, rebuking error, correcting faults, and giving instruction for right living, so that the person who serves God may be fully qualified and equipped to do every kind of good deed.” God’s power here is like a huge vacuum, pulling us closer and closer to Him. We come this way, because of the joy He gives us in serving Him and the talents He imbued in us.
Let’s look more closely at the term “Jesus has the fullness of the Father.” COL 1: 19, “For it was by God’s own decision That the Son has in Himself the full nature of God.” I looked carefully at this notion and found that the only thing the Lord Jesus doesn’t know that the Father does is the exact day and hour when He will return to earth for His Second Advent [MT 24: 36]. However, in every other way, Jesus is the visible image of the invisible God [COL 1: 15a] but with all other attributes. In the book of John 14: 7-9, Phillip asks Jesus to, “’show us the Father; that is all we need.’ Jesus answers, ‘For a long time I have been with you all; yet you do not know Me. Whoever has seen Me has seen the Father. Why then do you say, ‘show us the Father?’” Later Jesus, in verse 11, says, “Believe Me when I say that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me.”
The question comes up: Is the Lord Jesus in the OT? Jesus never lies. When He said, “For a long time I have been with you all…” He is telling the truth and refers to “all” meaning all mankind for all human history. So why isn’t Christ’s name mentioned in the OT? Our Lord’s wisdom extends to advice given directly to people being trained to witness to their faith in Him to Jews. Never use language that is emotionally inflammatory. The name “Jesus” has that quality when speaking to traditionally Jewish people. If one reads the OT in the original Hebrew language, he finds that the word “Eloheim” is used in places like GN 2: 7 in the story of creation. “Then the Lord God took some soil from the ground and formed a man out of it; He breathed life-giving breath into his nostrils, and man began to live.” Eloheim is a plural word in Hebrew, expressing all the personalities of the Trinity! When Moses was told to “hide in the cleft of a Rock” in EX 33: 20-22, the Rock was God’s second personality ready to protect him. Other OT places where the notion of Christ’s protection come up are in PS 40: 1-3; S of S 2: 14; IS 2: 14; JER 49: 16; and OBED 3. Yes, our Lord and Savior created earth and everything on it at the Father’s behest. He is the “Firstborn of all creation” [COL 1: 15b-16]. Just as Jesus is all over the OT, so is the Holy Spirit.
It’s critical that we understand that Christ’s main ministry is the reconciliation of mankind to God, which is done by His suffering and death on the cross tied in with His resurrection. Christ made us “God’s friends” [RO 5: 9-11]. Prior to Christ’s First Advent, the law let people know what pleases God and what doesn’t. However, His death on the cross followed by His resurrection to heaven, brought believing mankind salvation [JN 3: 16], eternal forgiveness [1 JN 1: 9], and justification (being deemed acceptable to God) [RO 4: 3]. Spend some time this week considering what these truths mean to each of you personally.
PRAYER: When we prayerfully think about Your mystery, Dearest Father, and how it has impacted our lives, we are stunned by Your dazzling presence [Shekinah Glory], kindness, and goodness in our lives. We are no longer the people we were before Your Son entered them. Prior to Christ being in us, many of us (including myself) were angry, miserable, sinfully led, and full of chaos. Once our Lord Jesus came into our lives, all of that changed. We have become more patient, wiser, more self-controlled, less destructively angry, and more at peace. We learned to love as Our Lord Jesus does and took a real interest in changing our lives to expunge our sins. We have access to Your great wisdom through Your word and have fallen deeply in love with it. Our relationships with You and with other humans are far better than they ever were. These are only some of the blessings our faith in Your Son has given us. The Holy Spirit is with us 24/7, and our lives are much the better for it. We have so much to thank and praise You for; Your many blessings give us inner peace that we never had before. You are a great God, like no other in Your righteousness. We rehearse these truths in the holy/mighty name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
NEXT WEEK: Next week, I’m led to further discuss the mystery of God and how it has impacted my own life over the years. If you wonder why I share what I do about my own life, it is because my life is the one I know best—better than the lives of others. It’s not often that a person raised in traditional Conservative Judaism accepts Christ as his/her personal Savior, nor is it often for a person with my background becomes a full-time, voluntary minister. But these things reflect directly on the extent of Christ’s impact on my life. The contrast between before Jesus and after Jesus in my life is extreme. In present times, the kind of people in my life are completely different than the ones that inhabited my life before Jesus did. Moreover, I am a much happier person now than I was in my past. The fact that I have Christ in my home, my church-life, and my interpersonal relationships with other people is testament to God’s omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence. He is indeed supreme, loving, unselfish, and the Source of many kinds of blessings! Praise and thanks be to Him!
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn
JS 24: 15
© Lynn Johnson 2017. All Rights Reserved.
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